Judicial activism from India's Supreme Court

In the past year, the Court has put itself into policy making and governance roles, issuing orders to agencies on issues from malnutrition to caste violence to education. Last week, for example, after hearing a case on malnutrition the Court ordered the government to distribute five million tons of food grains to the poorest districts of the country. The court also told the government to review the official poverty line—$10 a month in rural areas and $13 a month in cities—saying it grossly underestimates the number of poor. Reports suggest that the power of the Court’s 29 justices is growing due in part to public outrage over corruption and a view that the country is poorly governed.

Judicial activism from India's Supreme Court blogs.wsj.com Fri, May 20, 2011