Right that such ideal functioning is made difficult by the party in office expecting judicial endorsement of every governmental action and opposition parties likewise expecting support for their causes. But judging by the parameters of constancy and transparency, it is perhaps equally indisputable that painful gaps remain in courts answerability to the Constitution that are entirely of their own doing. For example, despite Article safeguarding against double jeopardy, and also an SC judgment that subjecting an individual to numerous proceedings on the basis of the same cause is violative of fundamental rights, the clubbing of multiple FIRs into one jurisdiction is yet to become a procedural commonplace. Nupur Sharma is just the latest to experience this. In a much more widespread malaise, the elemental concept of bail not jail has yet to be internalised by the judicial labyrinth. On the transparency front, judicial appointments themselves present the most glaring gaps. In a strongly worded minority opinion when SC struck down the NJAC Act, Justice Chelameswar had written that transparency is an aspect of rationality and the need for transparency is more in the case of appointment process. The judgment too had underlined the need to enhance the collegiums transparency. And yet, great opacity still persists in appointments, as also in case listing. Constitutional matters like challenges to the nullification of sit delayed before multi judge benches, with poor explanation. These are challenges that are very much within the judiciarys domain to address. It can do a far better job of keeping faith with the Constitution, plus the citizens and their civil liberties. Last weeks Bricks summit was bookended by some excitement over the possibility of the group expanding by accepting new members and reports that Argentina and Iran had applied for membership. What this obscures, however, is the fact that amid the evolving geopolitical situation, the Bricks mechanism appears to be undergoing an identity crisis. There is a deepening contradiction at the heart of