‘Constitutional morality finally comes down to justice without fear or favour’, Kapil Sibal at Justice Unplugged 2026
The question of constitutional morality ultimately comes down to justice without fear or favour, senior advocate Kapil Sibal said on Saturday (February 28, 2026). “The problem with our court today is that there is a breakdown of our constitutional machinery, complete breakdown,” Mr. Sibal said in a free-wheeling conversation with N. Ram, Director of The Hindu Group, at The Hindu Justice Unplugged 2026, as they discussed the erosion of constitutional morality and if public faith in the court is eroding. Edited excerpts: Constitutional morality is a powerful but apparently elusive and shape-shifting concept. It has absorbed a variety of meanings over different historical and socio-political settings and circumstances across time. In the 19th Century, George Grote used the term to convey the simple but potent idea that a Constitution survives by habits, not merely by text. Speaking in the Constituent Assembly on November 4, 1948, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, Chairman of the Drafting Committee, invoked Grote’s idea and term, which might have carried a strange ring to several members of our Constituent Assembly. Over the next 78 years, …
