A successful candidate – even one occupying one of the highest constitutional offices – must be subjected to the scrutiny of the law. Constitutional courts and the ECI are meant to play a vital role in protecting the integrity of the electoral process, and election petitions are an important test of their commitment to the rule of law.

It is time to disabuse the Indian judicial system of its delusions as to its sacred foundations. Such truth telling does not portend the end of our democracy, but in fact reaffirms it.

If ever there was a time to question the moral and intellectual authority of those who we recognise as our leaders at the bar and on the bench, it is now.