Reading Our Rights: Essays on Law, Justice and the Constitution feels like encountering a jurist’s perspective on the Constitution in action. While most people first engage with Fundamental Rights and the Preamble in school civics classes, or encounter the Constitution through political flashpoints such as Article 370, often turning courts into public arenas of debate rather than impartial forums of adjudication, justice Rebello’s essays reflect a lived experience of constitutional law. In Dr BR Ambedkar’s final speech to the Constituent Assembly, he cautioned that, “However good a Constitution may be, it is sure to turn out bad because those who are called to work it, happen to be a bad lot. However bad a Constitution may be, it may turn out to be good if those who are called to work it, happen to be a good lot.” This book is reminiscent of how constitutional law is shaped by powerful forces.
Rather than offering a doctrinal review of judgements or a systematic exposition of constitutional principles, the book captures how the Constitution operates in practice, shaped by social upheaval, institutional memory and judicial responsibility. In that sense, Our Rights is neither a constitutional law textbook nor an imaginative projection of India’s constitutional future, but a narration of experiences that reshaped India’s engagement with the Constitution in the aftermath of the Emergency.
While the book is not a commentary on the Constitution itself, or an examination of any specific Articles (which would be highly exhaustive), it is a collection of essays and speeches that justice Rebello has delivered on several occasions. For example, chapter 20, on “Human Rights Literacy” starts with, “I feel greatly honoured to be invited to deliver the Presidential Speech on Human Rights Literacy, arranged by the U.P Human Rights, Commission”; This chapter not only elaborates the role of lawyers and activists, but provides recommendations to protect human rights of Indian citizens today (By today, I mean 2010). But this chapter does not go into any depth on the current status of human rights literacy in India.
However, other chapters go into further depth, such as chapter 16 (justice Gavai notes this chapter in his foreword, as justice Rebello’s observations on the former judge’s engagement with jurisprudence on the creamy layer principles laid down by the Hon’ble Supreme Court), which goes into a deeper analysis of the consequences of the 'creamy layer' classification vis-à-vis the right to education for OBC (other backward castes), SCs (scheduled castes) and STs( scheduled tribes); The book creates an intelligible differentia between other castes ineligible for affirmative action and SCs and STs, who should be entitled to reservations. Without commenting on justice Rebello’s opinion, this chapter reveals something that is usually hidden behind the veil of the bench – What does a judge consider when they draft, or pass an order regarding a litigant? Each chapter reveals an ever-so-slight portion of his reasoning, with chapter 16 uncovering justice Rebello’s process of analysis on a question of law.
What emerges across these essays, when read together, is an understanding of rights not as static constitutional guarantees but as historically situated claims shaped by institutional experience and social transformation. Justice Rebello’s reflections repeatedly return to the idea that adjudication is never mechanical; it is informed by memory, context and an awareness of the Constitution’s moral project of an equal India. The reader is, therefore, invited to see judicial reasoning not only in the polished language of reported judgements, but in the quieter intellectual processes that precede them. In this sense, Our Rights performs an important archival function: preserving fragments of constitutional thought that would otherwise remain inaccessible within the formal boundaries of precedent.
At the same time, the collection’s strengths also reveal certain limitations. Because many of the essays originate in speeches delivered on specific occasions, their engagement with contemporary constitutional developments is uneven and often requires revision. Some chapters remain anchored in the legal and social realities of the period in which they were written, without sustained reflection on how subsequent jurisprudence or political change may have altered the law. This does not diminish their historical value, but it does mean that the reader must approach the text less as a current commentary and more as a record of evolving constitutional consciousness in independent India. The absence of a synthesising final essay drawing these reflections into a unified contemporary framework is particularly felt, as such a conclusion might have clarified the book’s place within present constitutional discourse.
Yet, it is precisely this quality of incompleteness that gives the work a certain authenticity. Rather than presenting a definitive theory of rights, justice Rebello offers something more modest and, perhaps, more enduring: a window into how a constitutional court judge thinks about justice over time. The essays reveal attentiveness to social inequality, caution toward unrestrained judicial power and a persistent concern for the dignity of individuals who encounter the legal system. These themes resonate beyond the specific doctrinal contexts discussed, reminding the reader that constitutional governance ultimately depends on habits of reasoning as much as on written provisions.
For contemporary readers, the relevance of Our Rights lies in its resistance to the polarisation that often characterises public conversations about the Constitution. Instead of framing Law as a battleground of competing certainties, the book models a reflective engagement grounded in responsibility and restraint. This is particularly significant at a time when courts are frequently drawn into intensely political questions and when the legitimacy of judicial intervention is itself the subject of debate. By foregrounding deliberation over declaration, the essays encourage a slower, more careful reading of constitutional practice.
Therefore, the book offers value to several people. Law students may find in it an accessible entry into the ethical dimensions of adjudication that are seldom captured in textbooks. Practitioners will recognise the institutional sensibilities that shape judicial outcomes beyond the written record. General readers interested in India’s constitutional journey will encounter a perspective that is neither celebratory nor cynical, but attentive to the Constitution as a lived project with the perspective of an activist, an advocate, a parliamentarian and most importantly, a judge.
Ultimately, Our Rights: Essays on Law, Justice and the Constitution does not seek to resolve the tensions inherent in constitutional democracy. Instead, it documents the ongoing effort to think through them with integrity. In doing so, justice Rebello leaves the reader with a reminder both simple and demanding: that the endurance of rights depends not only on constitutional text, but on the seriousness with which each generation fights for the rights assured by the Constitution.
(Aditya Joby is an advocate practising in Mumbai with a focus on securities regulation and constitutional law.)
OUR RIGHTS: Essays on Law, Justice and the Constitution
Author: Dr. Justice Ferdino I. Rebello
Publisher: All India Reporter Pvt Ltd
Price: Rs895
