APSC Mains Answer Writing Practice on distinguished jurists in the Supreme Court and technology-led agricultural diversification in Assam with examples and PYQs. |
Distinguished Jurists and Legal Academics in the Supreme Court | APSC Mains Answer Writing
GS-II | Constitution, Judiciary & Governance
Question:
How can the inclusion of distinguished jurists and legal academics strengthen the functioning of the Supreme Court? Discuss.
Approach
Begin with the constitutional basis under Article 124(3)(c).
The answer should then explain what a distinguished jurist or legal scholar could add to the Court rather than merely arguing that academics should become judges.
A balanced structure would be:
Constitutional Provision → Potential Contribution → Concerns → Safeguards
The phrase “distinguished jurist” is wider than “legal academic”. Therefore, the two terms should not be treated as automatically synonymous.
Introduction
Article 124(3)(c) of the Constitution makes a person eligible for appointment as a Supreme Court judge if, in the President’s opinion, he or she is a distinguished jurist. Yet more than seven decades after the Constitution came into force, this route has never been used.
Justice Ujjal Bhuyan recently described this as an unrealised constitutional possibility and observed that a distinguished jurist could add considerable value to the Bench through scholarship.
Main Body
Constitutional scholarship: Supreme Court adjudication increasingly involves difficult questions relating to constitutional interpretation, institutional limits and competing fundamental rights. Scholars who have spent years researching these questions can bring depth to constitutional reasoning.
Doctrinal clarity: Legal academics closely examine how judgments interact with earlier precedents. Such expertise can help in identifying inconsistencies and developing more coherent legal principles.
Comparative jurisprudence: Contemporary constitutional issues—privacy, artificial intelligence, digital speech, biotechnology or environmental rights—often arise across jurisdictions. Jurists familiar with comparative constitutional law can broaden the Court’s intellectual resources without mechanically importing foreign law.
Interdisciplinary expertise: Modern litigation frequently intersects with economics, technology, public policy, environmental science and regulation. Scholars working at these intersections may help the Court understand the wider implications of complex disputes.
Greater intellectual diversity: Almost all Supreme Court judges emerge from judicial service or legal practice. Opening the constitutionally permitted jurist route could introduce another form of professional experience and intellectual perspective to the Bench.
Concerns
Limited courtroom experience: Academic distinction is different from the practical experience of handling evidence, procedure, litigants and the institutional realities of courts.
Defining “distinguished”: The Constitution does not prescribe a detailed measurable test for identifying a distinguished jurist. Without credible criteria, the provision could become vulnerable to subjective or politically convenient choices.
Judicial temperament: Scholarship alone cannot establish qualities such as decisional discipline, impartiality, patience and the ability to manage a demanding judicial docket.
Institutional independence: Any new appointment route must preserve the independence of the judiciary and avoid creating an alternative avenue for patronage.
Value Addition
A useful distinction can be shown in the answer:
Traditional Judicial Strengths
Courtcraft + Procedure + Judicial Experience
Jurist/Academic Strengths
Scholarship + Theory + Comparative Law + Interdisciplinary Knowledge
↓
A More Intellectually Diverse Supreme Court
Justice Bhuyan’s August 2026 observation gives the issue contemporary relevance: although the Constitution permits it, India has never appointed a distinguished jurist to the Supreme Court through this category.
Way Forward
Clear standards: Any consideration of this route should identify demonstrable excellence in scholarship, constitutional contribution, professional integrity and public-law understanding.
Transparent evaluation: The reasons for considering a candidate should be capable of demonstrating why the person qualifies as “distinguished”.
Broad professional assessment: Contributions through scholarship, law reform, teaching, public institutions and significant legal work can be considered together rather than relying on academic titles alone.
Maintain balance: Such appointments should enrich the Court’s existing strength in judicial and advocacy experience rather than create an academic-versus-practitioner divide.
Model Answer
Article 124(3)(c) of the Constitution permits appointment to the Supreme Court of a person who, in the President’s opinion, is a “distinguished jurist.” However, this constitutional route has never been utilised.
Its careful use can widen the Supreme Court’s intellectual base. Distinguished jurists may contribute deep constitutional scholarship, improve doctrinal consistency and bring comparative perspectives to emerging questions involving privacy, technology, environment and human rights. Legal academics working across economics, technology and public policy can also enrich adjudication of increasingly interdisciplinary disputes. Their inclusion would diversify a Bench traditionally drawn from judges and practising advocates.
However, scholarship cannot fully substitute for courtroom experience. The ambiguity surrounding the term “distinguished jurist” may also create risks of subjective selection and politicisation.
Hence, transparent criteria based on scholarship, integrity, constitutional contribution and professional standing are essential. Such appointments should complement rather than replace experienced judges and practitioners.
Used carefully, Article 124(3)(c) can add scholarship, interdisciplinary expertise and intellectual diversity to the Supreme Court while preserving its independence and practical judicial strengths.
Conclusion
The significance of Article 124(3)(c) lies in recognising that excellence in law can emerge through more than one professional pathway.
A carefully chosen distinguished jurist could therefore add a different form of expertise to the Supreme Court—not as a substitute for judicial experience, but as a complement to it.
Similar UPSC & APSC Mains Questions
UPSC CSE Mains 2023 – GS-II:
UPSC asked candidates to examine the constitutionalisation of environmental problems by the Supreme Court, requiring an understanding of the Court’s evolving interpretative role.
UPSC CSE Mains 2022 – GS-II:
“Critically examine the procedures through which the Presidents of India and France are elected.” While not about judicial appointments, such questions demonstrate UPSC’s continuing emphasis on constitutional design and institutional mechanisms.
Technological Innovation and Diversification in Assam’s Agriculture | APSC Mains Answer Writing
GS-III / GS-V | Agriculture & Assam Economy
Question:
How can technological innovation and diversification make Assam’s agriculture more productive, resilient and remunerative?
Approach
The three words in the question should guide the answer:
Productive → Resilient → Remunerative
Technology can improve productivity and reduce input waste. Diversification can reduce climate and market risk. But neither necessarily raises farmers’ incomes unless farming is also connected with processing, storage and markets.
A useful structure is:
Technology + Diversification + Value Addition = Higher & More Stable Farm Income
Introduction
Assam’s agriculture faces a familiar combination of challenges—small holdings, recurrent floods, climatic uncertainty and limited value addition.
The solution is not simply to produce more paddy. Technology must help farmers use land and inputs more efficiently, while diversification into horticulture, oilseeds, livestock, fisheries and other activities can spread both climatic and income risks.
Main Body
Precision agriculture: Remote sensing, drones, sensors and digital tools can help farmers make better decisions about soil, crop health, pest attacks and input use.
ICAR’s Network Programme on Precision Agriculture was created with 16 partner institutes to develop applications involving advanced agricultural and digital technologies. The wider significance for Assam is the possibility of adapting such tools to local crops, flood conditions and small holdings.
Mechanisation suited to small farmers: Farm machinery can reduce labour bottlenecks and improve timeliness, but individual ownership of expensive equipment is often uneconomic for smallholders.
That is why Custom Hiring Centres and Village-Level Farm Machinery Banks are particularly relevant to Assam. They allow farmers to access equipment without bearing the full cost of ownership.
Digital advisories: Weather forecasts, satellite information and mobile-based crop advisories can help farmers decide when to sow, irrigate, apply inputs or protect crops.
For a State exposed to floods and highly variable weather, timeliness of information can itself become an agricultural input.
Climate-resilient varieties: Technology should also include improved seeds and varieties suited to flood, moisture and local soil conditions rather than only sophisticated digital tools.
Diversification Beyond Paddy
Horticulture: Assam’s agro-climatic conditions support fruits, vegetables and spices, providing farmers with opportunities to move towards higher-value cultivation. State sources report substantial horticultural output, indicating that diversification is already an important part of Assam’s agricultural economy.
Rice-fallow cultivation: Large areas remain unused after the rice harvest. Bringing these lands under mustard, toria, pulses or other suitable crops can increase cropping intensity without requiring additional land.
In January 2026, ICAR specifically reviewed strategies for promoting rapeseed-mustard in Assam’s rice fallows, highlighting better seed availability, mechanisation, moisture management and community-level post-harvest facilities.
Integrated farming: Combining crops with fisheries, livestock, poultry or agroforestry can provide several income streams. A crop loss caused by flood or price fluctuation then does not necessarily destroy the household’s entire annual income.
Localised diversification: The right mix will differ between floodplains, hill areas and relatively stable agricultural zones. Diversification should therefore be agro-climatic rather than scheme-driven.
Assam-Centric Value Addition
A particularly useful Assam example is the current effort to make better use of rice-fallow land.
ICAR has identified toria, mustard, maize, potato and lentil as possible options in suitable fallow areas, while stressing coordination among ICAR institutes, Assam Agricultural University, KVKs, State departments and FPOs.
Recent ICAR initiatives have also demonstrated mustard and lentil cultivation in rice-fallow areas of Dhemaji.
This is a good example of diversification because it seeks to obtain more value from existing farmland, rather than merely expanding cultivated area.
Making Agriculture Remunerative
Higher production does not automatically mean higher farmer income.
FPOs: Aggregation can lower the cost of inputs and improve farmers’ bargaining power.
Storage and processing: Cold chains, grading, processing and packaging can reduce post-harvest losses and allow farmers to sell products in more valuable forms.
Better market links: Digital and physical market connections can reduce dependence on distress sales immediately after harvest.
Shared technology: Drones, machinery and precision tools should increasingly be available through FPOs, cooperatives or custom-hiring arrangements so that technological modernisation does not exclude small farmers.
Value Addition
A simple triangular framework can be used:
TECHNOLOGY
Better seeds + Machinery + Digital tools
DIVERSIFICATION
Horticulture + Oilseeds + Fisheries + Livestock
MARKETS
FPOs + Processing + Storage + Value addition
↓
Productive + Resilient + Remunerative Agriculture
Or remember:
Produce Better → Diversify Risk → Add Value → Earn More
Model Answer
Assam’s agriculture faces recurrent floods, small holdings, climatic uncertainty and limited value addition. Technological innovation combined with diversification can improve both farm productivity and income stability.
Technology can raise efficiency through climate-resilient seeds, digital weather and crop advisories, precision tools, drones and mechanisation. Since individual ownership is often uneconomic for small farmers, Custom Hiring Centres can provide shared access to machinery.
Diversification can reduce dependence on paddy. Assam has considerable potential in horticulture, fisheries, livestock, spices and oilseeds. Particularly important is the productive use of rice-fallow land. ICAR is promoting rapeseed-mustard and other crops in such areas through improved seeds, mechanisation and better moisture management.
Integrated farming combining crops, livestock and fisheries can further spread climate and market risks.
However, productivity gains become remunerative only when farmers capture greater value. Stronger FPOs, local processing, storage, grading and market linkages are therefore essential.
Research institutions such as Assam Agricultural University and KVKs should work closely with farmers and FPOs to accelerate adoption of locally suitable technology.
Thus, Assam must move from paddy-centric production towards diversified, technology-enabled and market-connected agriculture.
Conclusion
The future of agriculture in Assam is not about replacing traditional farming with technology.
It is about using appropriate technology to make farming less risky and more productive, while diversification and value addition ensure that higher productivity translates into better farmer incomes.
The desired transition is:
More Production → More Resilience → More Value → Better Income
Similar UPSC & APSC Mains Questions
UPSC CSE Mains 2021 – GS III:
“What are the present challenges before crop diversification? How do emerging technologies provide an opportunity for crop diversification?”
This is the strongest thematic connection because it directly links technology with agricultural diversification.
UPSC CSE Mains 2020 – GS III:
Questions on agricultural marketing and irrigation have similarly emphasised that farm reform requires looking beyond production towards resource efficiency and farmer income.
Answer-Writing Takeaways from Today’s Questions
There is a useful connection between both questions.
The Supreme Court already possesses constitutional authority, but diversifying the expertise available to it may improve how it responds to increasingly complex legal questions.
Assam already possesses agricultural land and farming traditions, but diversifying crops and technological capabilities can make those resources more productive.
In both cases:
Existing Institution/Resource + New Expertise = Greater Capacity
For the judiciary:
Judicial Experience + Scholarship → Better-Informed Adjudication
For agriculture:
Traditional Knowledge + Technology + Diversification → Resilient Farm Economy
About Lucent IAS
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Publications from Lucent IAS
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For SEO, I would give the first question slightly greater prominence in the opening paragraph and social copy because Justice Ujjal Bhuyan’s observation was made only a day before this DAW post, giving searches around “distinguished jurist Supreme Court,” “Article 124(3)(c)” and “Justice Ujjal Bhuyan distinguished jurist” unusually strong current-affairs relevance today.