Law & Justice

For nearly half a century following the emergency [jurisprudence](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jurisprudence) of 1978, Indian constitutional courts treated the presumption of innocence not as a procedural courtesy, but as an existential shield against executive caprice [1]. Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer’s canonical doctrine in Babu Singh v. State of UP—that 'bail is the rule, jail is the exception'—operated as the baseline compass of criminal procedure [2]. Yet over the past decade, a quiet, tectonic realignment has dismantled this doctrine from within....