Overview

• CJI B. R. Gavai said the Supreme Court’s 2024 demolition verdict sent a clear message that India follows the rule of law, not ‘bulldozer justice,’ and barred the executive from acting as judge, jury and executioner.
• The ruling he cited affirmed due process and the fundamental right to shelter under Article 21 and laid down guidelines to prevent punitive house demolitions without lawful procedure.
• Arguing that legality does not equal justice, he invoked slavery, the Criminal Tribes Act and sedition laws as examples of legal frameworks that entrenched injustice.
• He traced a substantive understanding of the rule of law through landmark judgments, including on instant triple talaq, decriminalising adultery, nullifying remission in the Bilkis Bano case, striking down electoral bonds and affirming the right to privacy.
• He described Article 32 as the Constitution’s ‘heart and soul’ and, addressing an audience that included Mauritius’s president, prime minister and chief justice, cautioned against a one-size-fits-all, market-centric view of the rule of law and highlighted growing India–Mauritius judicial ties.