2020 was a good year for the Allahabad High Court, when it showed how a constitutional court could stand up for civil liberties even against a strong and powerful government – and even correct course when it got things wrong.
It ordered Uttar Pradesh authorities to take down their 'name and shame' banners being used to target anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Act protesters, declared the detention of Kafeel Khan under the National Security Act illegal, and even ordered the state to compensate students who had been beaten by the police during the anti-CAA protests.
After a single judge passed a shocking order refusing to offer police protection to an inter-faith couple and saying that conversion for marriage was unacceptable, a division bench overturned the decision and explained how it was bad in law (not that the UP government cared, it continued to use the original order to justify its shameful Love Jihad legislation).
In 2022, however, the same high court has found itself making the news for all the wrong reasons. First there was the decision to grant bail to Lakhimpur Kheri violence accused Ashish Mishra despite every reason not to – thankfully overturned by the Supreme Court.