In 1950, the newly-formed Supreme Court had to decide on its first case concerning civil liberties. Should the government be allowed to preventively detain citizens, mostly political dissidents? In AK Gopalan vs State of Madras four out of five judges sided with the government. Only one judge differed. His name was Justice Saiyid Fazl Ali and he wrote the court’s first, and one of its most important dissents.

What is the historic and legal value of a dissenting judgement, and how did this one come about? In this episode we delve into the life and work of Justice Fazl Ali and the afterlife of his AK Gopalan judgement.

Guests: Abhinav Sekhri, Alok Prasanna Kumar and Seher Ali

Credits:

Host: Supriya Nair

(Supriya Nair is Head, Research and Media at Godrej DEI Lab)

Executive Producer: Ramya Boddupalli

Producer: Gaurav Vaz

Scriptwriting and research: Bhavya Dore and Ramya Boddupalli

Fact checking: Mallika Dandekar

Audio and sound design: Saachi Rajadhyaksha

Mastering: Ayan De

Recording Studio: Stitch Audio, Mumbai

Special thanks to Justice Gautam Patel, Arun Thiruvengadam and Reetika Subramanian 

Thank you to Sukhada Tatke for editing support

Advisors: Gouri Divan, Lawrence Liang, Ranvir Singh, Shyam Divan and Vivek Divan advised the show.