Saurabh Kirpal is a senior advocate and LGBTQ+ activist. He is also the author of the book Fifteen Judgments: Cases that Shaped India's Financial Landscape.

In this interview with Abhinandan Sekhri, Saurabh talks about his journey as an advocate and how the Supreme Court collegium recommended his elevation as Delhi High Court judge.

The collegium “wrote to the government on four different occasions”, he says, until he was finally recommended last November. “And the government has been sitting tight on my file ever since,” he adds. After this interview took place, the central government asked that his recommendation be “reconsidered”.

He also details his thoughts on corporate governance, cryptocurrency and media trials. “To expect that a judge is some kind of superhuman creature and will be unconcerned and unaffected by what he or she is reading in newspapers…is stretching credibility,” he says.

On the death penalty, Saurabh says, “As long as you believe in human fallacy, as long as you can see that you are not divine, you may call a judge ‘my lord’ but that doesn’t make him god, right? As long as there is a possibility that a judge has gotten it wrong, I am completely against the death penalty.”

Watch.

Text by Tanay Dhumal.

Note: This interview took place before the central government asked that Saurabh Kirpal's elevation as high court judge be “reconsidered”.