From the Emergency to Ayodhya to Kashmir, the political and human dramas behind India’s most consequential courtroom decisions
October 2026: Penguin India announces the acquisition of Broken Scales by Insiyah Vahnavaty, independent journalist, commentator and scholar. The book is the account of extraordinary judges who stared down governments, the ones who blinked under pressure, and the secret conversations, unexpected alliances and lonely dissents that shaped independent India. The book will be published under Viking and will be released in April 2028.
The book takes readers into the Emergency, when the streets fell silent and thousands were jailed, and through the political upheavals around the Bangladesh war and the crises that brought Indira Gandhi’s government to the brink, including the one judge who stood entirely alone. It goes inside the Supreme Court during Ayodhya, follows Mathura, Bhanwari Devi and Nirbhaya, the women whose tragedies changed the law, and returns to Kashmir, from Partition to the events of August 2019, when the Court once again had to ask whether it would hold its ground or yield to the moment.
The Supreme Court has often been a powerful defender of liberty, and moments of retreat have again and again been followed by recovery. Judges and their judgments, as the book shows, are products of their time, shaped by political pressure, public sentiment, ideology, and the personal convictions of the judges themselves.
Speaking on the book, author Insiyah Vahnavaty said, ‘Broken Scales began as a fascination for the men and women behind the black robes, the minds that have shaped the history of our country. We like to imagine that judges stand above politics, history, and human weakness. They don’t. They too are creatures of their times with their own beliefs, fears and biases. But unlike the rest of us, what they bring into the courtroom can acquire the force of law.’
Karthik Venkatesh, Executive Editor, Penguin Random House India, said, ‘Broken Scales takes the road less travelled. It is not laudatory, choosing instead to focus on the more difficult situations when the highest court in the land was seen to have retreated almost. That is always a more difficult story to tell. And that is the promise of this book.’
Milee Ashwarya, Publisher & Group SVP, Adult Publishing Group, Penguin Random House India, said, ‘A gripping account of the Supreme Court at its most tested, Broken Scales by Insiyah Vahnavaty brings alive the judges, the pressures and the moments of courage and retreat that shaped independent India.’
Broken Scales will be published in April 2028 and will be available online and in all leading bookstores.
