At an October 21 event hosted by the New York City Bar Association, leading legal experts from India and the United States warned of escalating threats to judicial independence in both countries. The panel—featuring Justice S. Muralidhar, UN Special Rapporteur Margaret Satterthwaite, retired U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin, and civil rights attorney Samah Sisay—highlighted growing political interference, weakening accountability mechanisms, and rising risks faced by lawyers who challenge state power.
Justice Muralidhar described the erosion of judicial autonomy in India, citing executive pressure, a lack of institutional safeguards, and silence from the legal bar. He pointed to the Bar Council’s failure to address sexual harassment allegations involving former Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi as emblematic of deeper accountability problems. He also noted India’s decline in the World Justice Project’s Rule of Law Index.
Satterthwaite emphasized that these challenges mirror patterns seen in other countries, such as Poland, where judges have mobilized publicly against political encroachment. She urged legal communities to build global solidarity networks capable of resisting executive efforts to divide and weaken bar associations.
Judge Scheindlin focused on the United States, warning of intensified political attacks on judges and increasingly partisan appointment processes. She noted that, for the first time, sitting judges are speaking anonymously about threats to their independence—an alarming sign of institutional strain.
Sisay described the heightened risks confronting lawyers working on civil and political rights cases, including security threats, retaliation, and growing restrictions on funding for human rights organizations. She shared an incident in which an Indian lawyer declined to provide an affidavit in a U.S. case out of fear of government backlash.
Across the panel, speakers called for stronger transnational cooperation among legal professionals, bar associations, and academic institutions to safeguard judicial independence amid rising polarization and executive overreach.
The event was organized by the International Human Rights Committee of the New York City Bar Association.