Senior Advocate Dr. S. Muralidhar Calls for Stronger Judicial Accountability; Says Robust Courts Are Nation’s Best Defence Against Unaccountable Power
(By Syed Ali Taher Abedi)
BENGALURU —3, June, 2026- Dr. S. Muralidhar, Senior Advocate and former Chief Justice of the Orissa High Court, declared that the stronger the judiciary’s commitment to enforcing accountability, the better it would be for India, emphasising that constitutional courts play a vital role in ensuring those in power answer questions raised by citizens.
Speaking at a book launch event in Bengaluru on June 2, Dr. Muralidhar stressed that democratic accountability is deeply dependent on the institutional accountability of the judiciary, noting that courts and the Right to Information (RTI) mechanism often serve as avenues through which citizens can obtain answers that the State may otherwise be unwilling to provide
In remarks that drew considerable attention from the legal fraternity, the senior advocate declared
“The only way you can enforce accountability is to ensure there is a strong judiciary that will lend its hand to people wanting answers. The more and more the judges realize this fundamental duty of a constitutional court, the better our country will be.”
On the practical limitations of executive responsiveness, Dr. Muralidhar observed that the state machinery tends to respond only when compelled to do so through judicial proceedings, noting that governments are effectively forced by courts to address petitions and furnish answers they would not otherwise provide.
Citing the origins of the RTI movement as a landmark example of citizen-led legal accountability, Dr. Muralidhar invoked the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS) movement in Rajasthan where ordinary citizens demanded accountability over public funds allocated to local panchayat projects as one of the most powerful illustrations of how questioning authority gave rise to the RTI Act itself.
The former judge was speaking at the launch of Ready for the Law Challenge, a law quiz book authored by Raghav Chakravarthy and published by Juggernaut, followed by a panel discussion on ‘curiosity, democracy, and the law’, which also featured Ms. Uma Mahadevan Dasgupta, Additional Chief Secretary, Government of Karnataka, and Mr. M.N. Anucheth, IPS, DIGP Recruitment, Karnataka.
Dr. Muralidhar also drew from his personal experience with the Safai Karmachari Andolan, recounting how litigation before the courts succeeded in compelling state governments to acknowledge the prevalence of manual scavenging evidence that had been systematically denied by producing videos and personal testimonies before the bench.
On the intersection of legal education and quizzing, Dr. Muralidhar, who pioneered legal quizzing at the Delhi High Court some fifteen years ago, reasoned that the law is far too vast for litigation practice alone to encompass, and that quiz formats offer a valuable, pressure-free avenue for practitioners across all levels of seniority to explore diverse branches of law and keep pace with its rapid developments.
