Podcast Episode
Milan Vaishnav sits down with Shruti Rajagopalan of the Mercatus Center at George Mason University for a wide-ranging webinar on delimitation, representation, and the reshaping of Indian democracy.
Milan Vaishnav, Shruti Rajagopalan
Podcast Episode
The Court and the Republic: A Conversation with Justice D.Y. Chandrachud
Former Chief Justice of India's Supreme Court Dhananjaya Yeshwant Chandrachud joins Milan on this week's episode to assess the role of the court in India's political environment today.
Published on Oct 14, 2025
Justice Dhananjaya Yeshwant Chandrachud was the fiftieth chief justice of India. An alumnus of Harvard Law School, he served as additional solicitor general of India. He was appointed as a judge of the Bombay High Court in 2000 and became the chief justice of the Allahabad High Court in 2013. In 2016, he was elevated to the Supreme Court of India, where he served as chief justice from November 2022 to November 2024.
Justice Chandrachud is the author of a new compilation of speeches titled, Why the Constitution Matters. In it, the author reflects on his quarter-century of experience as a judge, illustrating how the Constitution impacts everyday life and why it remains a cornerstone of democracy.
Justice Chandrachud joins Milan this week to about his new book and the state of the Court in India today. The two discuss the place of the Court in India’s current political environment, the relationship between the judicial and executive branches, the weaknesses in the rule of law supply chain, and the role of the Court in “cleansing politics.” Plus, the two discuss the Court’s verdict in the controversial electoral bonds case, the judicial branch’s need for administrative reforms, and public trust in the Supreme Court.
Episode notes:
1. “A Blueprint for India’s State Capacity Revolution (with Karthik Muralidharan),” Grand Tamasha, May 23, 2024.
2. “The Indian Supreme Court in the Modi Era (with Gautam Bhatia),” Grand Tamasha, December 13, 2023.
3. “Demystifying the Indian Supreme Court (with Aparna Chandra),” Grand Tamasha, November 15, 2023.
4. Pratik Datta and Suyash Rai, “How to Start Resolving the Indian Judiciary’s Long-Running Case Backlog,” Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, September 9, 2021.
5. Devesh Kapur and Milan Vaishnav, “Strengthening Rule of Law,” in Bibek Debroy, Ashley J. Tellis, and Reece Trevor, eds. Getting India Back on Track: An Action Agenda for Reform (New Delhi: Random House India, 2014): 247-263
Carnegie does not take institutional positions on public policy issues; the views represented herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Carnegie, its staff, or its trustees.
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