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| Taking the State to Court | Public Interest Litigation and the Public Sphere in Metropolitan India
By Hans Dembowski
Zur deutschen Version dieser Seite
Direct link to the download area of the book or single chapters.
This is the online-documentation of a book first published in 2001. It is not meant in any way to upset or scandalize the Calcutta High Court or other judicial institutions in India. Rather, we believe that a sociological study, which was initially published by a leading academic publisher, should be available for public debate.
Unfortunately, distribution of the original book was discontinued after the Calcutta High Court started contempt proceedings against the author, the publisher and several other parties. Five years on, however, the author has still not been officially notified by the court. The case is still pending, without having been heard in a long time. This, in turn, raises some poignantly recurring issues concerning the global potential of judicial censorship as well as the freedom of speech and expression.
Therefore, Asia House has decided to republish the book on the internet. After all, the relevance of the book was recognized in a review published in the Cambridge Law Journal (2001, volume 60, issue 03, p. 636): “This book provides interesting insights to the realities of PIL and its dynamics in India and complements the body of legal literature on this subject. The author ... has produced a readable and enlightening book. Its interest lies in the fact that many of his observations are probably applicable in varying degrees to many other countries of the region faced with similar issues of democratic governance and lack of ‘public sphere’. This book should prove useful to those working on these issues including public interest activists, legal practitioners and researchers.”
According to the fundamental principles of academic freedom, freedom of expression and freedom of the press, we believe that this book should be available to any interested public. Public discourse, after all, is essential for democracy as it serves to challenge and complement officially constituted publics. For this and no other reason do we present the study in this online edition.
On these web-pages you will find the entire book (pdf0 to pdf9). It has been re-set. Some typos have been corrected, others will probably have been committed. In terms of content, however, this version is identical to the original publication of 2001. The pictures included are the same as in the original book. As copyright for important maps was not yet granted, the online edition so far only includes a rough sketch.
The author thanks everyone who has helped to republish the book in this manner – and particularly Heinrich Böll Foundation. He assumes full responsibility for all mistakes that may still be included and asserts his willingness to correct all errors made.
Please download the single chapters below or the complete book right here: Taking the State to Court (1,7 MB)
Contents / Acknowledgements / Glossary
Chapter 1: Introductive Overview (page 1)
Chapter 2: Democracy, Development and Functional Differentiation (page 8)
2.1 Why Democratic Governance Depends on the ‘Public Sphere’
2.2 Historical Connotations of ‘Civil Society’
2.3 Neoliberal ‘Good Governance’ and Leftist ‘Democratization’
2.4 Governance Problems after Colonial Rule
2.5 Governance in India
Chapter 3: The Changing Role of the Indian Judiciary (page 48)
3.1 Problematic Rule of Law in a Historical Perspective
3.2 The Courts and the Political System
3.3 Public Interest Litigation
Chapter 4: Environment and Politics in India (page 63)
4.1 The Emergence of Environmental Policy
4.2 Implementation Deficits
4.3 Opposition to Government Deficiencies
4.4 The Situation of the Calcutta Agglomeration
Chapter 5: The Conflict over the East Calcutta Wetlands (page 83)
5.1 Land Use in East Calcutta and Patterns of Urban Sprawl
5.2 The Pre-Litigation Pro-Wetlands Campaign
5.3 PUBLIC v The State of West Bengal
5.4 M.C. Mehta v The Union of India
5.5 PUBLIC’s Pending Contempt Accusations
5.6 Surojit Srimani v the State of West Bengal
5.7 Conservation Initiatives of the State Government
5.8 The Wetlands Six Years after the First Judgement
Chapter 6:The Howrah Matter (page 142)
6.1 The Civic Situation in the Howrah Corporation
6.2 The Howrah Ganatantrik Nagarik Samiti
6.3 Moving the Judiciary
6.4 Individual Issues
6.5 An assessment: The Court’s Role in Changing the Polity
Chapter 7: Enthnographic Observations: An Overarching Lack of Trust (page 181)
7.1 The Approach of ‘Thick Description’
7.2 The Judiciary
7.3 The Environmentalist Network
Chapter 8: Conclusion: Rudimentary Public Sphere and an Unresponsive State (page 206)
Annexures and References (page 220)
Timetable of events concerning the East Calcutta wetlands /
Timetable of events concerning the Howrah Matter /
Rough Sketch of wetlands map /
References: Books, Journals and Reports /
References: Newspapers, websites, legal documents
Contact to the author via our online form. |
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