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Sarthak Chaturvedi

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Sarthak Chaturvedi

Lawyer at Supreme Court of India www.sarthakchaturvedi.com

08/05/2026

People think Supreme Court lawyers walk into court with a briefcase and start arguing... Here's what my night actually looks like before a significant hearing:

09:00 PM - Still at my desk. Re-reading the counter-affidavit one more time. Looking for the one paragraph opposing counsel will exploit.

09:30 PM - Going through research from earlier. Checking if there's a recent judgement I missed.

10:30 PM - Quick call with my junior. Assigning who tracks which document in court tomorrow.

11:00 PM - Finally closing the files. Not because I'm done. Because the hearing starts in a few hours.

12:00 Midnight - Looking at the office report or some late night Circular's.

9:00 AM - Reached court. Running into three colleagues in the corridor. All of us pretending we're calm.

10:30 AM - Matter is called. 20 years of preparation. 5 - 7 minutes to argue and present your case.

That's the reality of this profession.

The preparation is invisible. The argument is what people see.
Junior lawyers - respect the preparation. That's where cases are actually won. 🙏

04/05/2026

PIL was designed to give a voice to those who couldn't afford one.

That was its purpose. That was its power.
What I see today is different.

PILs filed to settle political scores. PILs filed for media attention. PILs filed by people with no connection to the issue and no idea of the consequences if the court actually rules on it.

The Supreme Court has flagged this repeatedly. And yet it continues.

Here's my concern as someone who has spent over two decades in constitutional litigation:

When courts are flooded with frivolous PILs, genuine public interest matters get delayed.

Real victims wait longer. The instrument created to help the vulnerable ends up serving the vocal.

The solution is not ofcourse to restrict PIL. It's to enforce costs seriously and consistently when PILs are filed with no bona fide interest.

1 lakh rupee penalty does not deter someone using a PIL as a PR tool.

Consequences need to match the misuse. Until then, this problem won't go away.

28/04/2026

After 20+ years at the Supreme Court, I'll say this plainly:

We have a bail crisis in India.

And it is not because the law is unclear.

The law is clear. "Bail is the rule, jail is the exception" has been said by this Court more times than I can count. And yet- 3 quarters of India's prison population has not been convicted of anything.

Why? Well, the answer of this question lies in th incentives..

A magistrate who grants bail gets scrutinised. Gets transferred. Gets whispered about.

A magistrate who denies bail- even when the law clearly requires otherwise - faces nothing. No review. No questions. No consequences.

So the safe choice is obvious: deny bail. Let the High Court deal with it. Let the Supreme Court deal with it. And they do- 70,000 bail applications reach the Supreme Court every year. Matters that should have been resolved by the magistrate on day one.

Remember the vacation judge in Delhi who actually applied the law and granted bail in a high-profile matter? The High Court stayed it within 24 hours. Before the other side had even received a full copy of the order.

Every trial court judge in India got that message. Loud and clear.

This is not a new problem either. In 1979 -46 years ago- the Supreme Court in Hussainara Khatoon found prisons full of undertrials who had already served longer than their maximum sentence. It ordered their release. We called it a landmark judgment. And then we rebuilt the same system.

Father Stan Swamy was 84, suffering from Parkinson's, and waited 9 months for bail he never received. Siddique Kappan spent 846 days in custody.

We have created a system where following the Constitution is dangerous and violating it is safe.

That is not opinion. That is a 46-year-old systemic failure we keep renaming but never fix.

26/04/2026

I've reviewed hundreds of case files as Senior Panel Counsel for the Government of India.

Here's what makes me trust a junior immediately- and what makes me nervous:

Trust: → A brief that gets to the point in the first paragraph → Citations that are actually relevant, not just voluminous → Honest assessment of the weaknesses in our case → Clear distinction between facts not in dispute and facts that are

Nervous: → 40-page synopsis where 30 pages are copy-paste from judgements → No mention of the other side's strongest argument → Overconfidence in cases that deserve caution → Factual errors that could have been caught by reading the file once more

The lawyers who grow fastest are not the most brilliant ones in the room. They are the ones who are thorough, honest, and never too proud to say "I need to check this."

That's what 20 years of watching lawyers at the Supreme Court has taught me. 🙏

07/04/2026

मेरे जन्मदिन पर आपके द्वारा दी गई शुभकामनाओं के लिए मैं आपका हृदय से आभार व्यक्त करता हूँ। आपका प्यार और स्नेह इसी तरह मिलता रहे, ईश्वर से यही कामना है। 🙏

02/04/2026

Can you claim to be part of a system that your own religion says doesn't exist?

The Supreme Court just answered this with a resounding "No," and it’s a decision that brings some much-needed logic to our legal system. 🙏

Recently, the Court ruled that if someone converts to Christianity, they can no longer claim Scheduled Caste (SC) status or use the SC/ST Act for legal protection.

To put it simply: the law is not a buffet where you can pick the beliefs of one faith and the legal benefits of another.

When a person chooses to become a Christian-a faith that teaches everyone is equal and that "caste" is non-existent-they are making a public choice.

You cannot, in one breath, join a religion that rejects the idea of caste and, in the next, ask for a legal shield that was built specifically to protect people within the caste system.

As the Court pointed out, these two positions just don't go together.

The SC/ST Act was created to protect people facing very specific, historical hardships.

If we let those protections become "fluid," we end up weakening the safety net for the people who actually remain in those communities and face those challenges every day.

The Supreme Court has sent a clear message: the Constitution gives you the freedom to choose your faith, but those choices have real legal consequences. We can’t expect the government to ignore our chosen identity just because a certain legal benefit is on the line.

True equality is about standing by the choices we make and respecting the integrity of the law.

25/03/2026

The Karnataka High Court recently quashed bigamy proceedings against a 73-year-old husband. The allegation? He was living with another woman.

The wife called it a second marriage. The law called it a living-in relationship.

Section 494 of the IPC is clear: Bigamy requires a marriage. Not a 'stay.' Not a 'relationship.' An actual, proven, second wedding ceremony.

In our courts, we see a growing trend of 'Package Complaints.' If the marriage breaks down, the kitchen sink is thrown in. 498A. Bigamy. Abetment.

And the goal is not always justice. Sometimes, the goal is leverage.

The Court’s message here was sharp: You cannot invoke the criminal machinery of the State based on a suspicion of 'cohabitation.' You cannot turn a septuagenarian into a convict just because the relationship has shifted.

The law does not criminalize incompatibility. It does not punish imperfect lives.
And it certainly shouldn't be used as a tool for a 'post-retirement' vendetta.

A 'living-in' arrangement might be a moral debate for some. Under the Indian Penal Code, it is a legal non-event.
It sounds obvious. In the heat of a matrimonial battle, it is a truth we often choose to ignore. 🙏

22/03/2026

After 20 years at the Supreme Court, I have watched lawyers lose matters they should have dismissed in minutes.

They are lost because the advocate wouldn't stop talking... wouldn't stop arguing!

The skill they never teach at Law School-and the one that separates the Seniors from the juniors- is the art of the pause.

Legal training in India is an assault of output. How to mention. How to argue. How to cite. How to dominate the podium.

What it fails to teach is how to hear a Bench that is actually trying to help you.

In the high-pressure minutes of a Final Disposal, most advocates hear a Judge’s question as an interruption.

A hurdle to be cleared so they can get back to their prepared notes. They are already five citations deep into a brief the Judge has already read.

The most effective Seniors I know do the opposite. They stop. They truly listen to the doubt behind the question.

They understand that when a Judge intervenes, they are not attacking your case-they are showing you exactly where the bridge is broken. They are inviting you to fix it.

The advocate who hears the doubt, pivots, and speaks to the Judge’s mind-not their own notes-commands the courtroom in a way that no amount of loud oratory can touch.

You cannot persuade a mind you are not willing to meet.

It sounds like common sense. In the heat of the 'Miscellaneous' day, it is the rarest skill of all.

"

19/03/2026

आप सभी को हिन्दू नव वर्ष, नव संवत्सर विक्रम संवत 2083 की हार्दिक बधाई और शुभकामनाएं 💐
ईश्वर से प्रार्थना है कि यह नव वर्ष आप सबके जीवन में सुख, समृद्धि, संपन्नता और आरोग्यता का संचार करे। #हिन्दू
#नवरात्र #नववर्ष

08/03/2026

History repeats itself.
India achieves greatness once again💙

04/03/2026

रंगो के त्यौहार होली की हार्दिक बधाई एवं शुभकामनायें !! होली का यह पर्व हम सबके जीवन में सुख सम्मृद्धि एवं उमंग लेकर आये ऐसी मेरी कामना है !!

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Monday	9am - 5pm
Tuesday	9am - 5pm
Wednesday	9am - 5pm
Thursday	9am - 5pm
Friday	9am - 5pm
Saturday	9am - 5pm

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919810263001

Website

https://www.sarthakchaturvedi.com/

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