FIFTEEN JUDGEMENTS by Saurabh Kirpal is an endeavor to examine fifteen judgments that have shaped the financial landscape of India and offer an insight into judicial thinking in matters concerning the economy since independence.

With significant macroeconomic dimensions, these judgments, when explored, show a long-term impact on the economy. In doing so, judgments from different times of history have been examined to give the reader a flavor of the jurisprudential philosophies at different times in the country since Independence.

The 15 judgments also trace the long path of the economic history of the country. From the almost laissez-faire conception of the economy in the fifties to the socialism of the seventies and eighties; from the recognition of the effects of liberalization in the 90s to the attempt to reign in the perceived excesses of liberalization, the judgments reflect the sentiment of the era that they were delivered in.

This book is an endeavor to educate the common man and woman about some of the legal issues in the world of finance. After all, the ultimate control of arbitrary power is an informed electorate. The book is not a legal text aimed solely at lawyers but is an attempt to demystify the process of judicial adjudication. The law as well as the historic and socio-economic context of the issues at stake are discussed in a language accessible to the lay reader.

About The Author

Saurabh Kirpal, after studying physics at St Stephen’s College in Delhi, read law at the University of Oxford and did his master’s in law at the University of Cambridge. He did a brief stint with the United Nations in Geneva before returning to Delhi where he has been practicing at the Supreme Court for well over two decades. He has appeared in a range of matters covering diverse subjects from commercial to constitutional law. This is reflected in the variety of clients he has appeared for-from Anil Ambani in his legal battle with his brother to being counsel for Navtej Johar, Ritu Dalmia, and others in the case that led to the reading down of Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code. A self-described ‘accidental activist’, he is also a trustee of the Naz Foundation Trust, the NGO that first fought for the decriminalization of homosexuality in India. He is the editor of the recently released book Sex and the Supreme Court, an anthology about issues relating to law, gender and sexuality.