“Friend Of The Court” Wins Best Produced Show Award At The India Audio Summit And Awards

Three other nominees recognised in the Podcast/Audio Streaming – Society and Culture category were Leah Verghese for the Daksh podcast, Satyajeet Mazumdar for Care of the State by Catalysts for Social Action and Hemenndraa Dharr for Food Trails.

Friend of the Court was made in partnership with Ambedkar University Delhi and produced by Maed in India. The series launched on October 31, 2022 and looked at three major cases: Jain Hawala, the Cauvery dispute and the National Judicial Appointments Commission. The ninth and final episode came out on December 26, 2022. For the first time, these courtroom sagas were pieced together in a narrative podcast, drawing on documents, news clips and fresh interviews with those who were involved in these battles. Between them, they told important stories of government accountability, federalism and judicial independence. Multiple lawyers, constitutional experts, journalists and others were interviewed, and featured on the podcast including Dushyant Dave, Prashant Bhushan, Kapil Sibal, Kamini Jaiswal and Retd Justice Mukul Mudgal.

“The series aimed to shed light on landmark cases that my father Senior Advocate Anil Divan had been involved in across the span of his illustrious career. As one of the trustees of the Foundation set up in his name, our aim has been to ensure that the legal processes that take place in the highest court of our country be made accessible to the listener.” said Gauri Divan.

The series was narrated by Raghu Karnad, written and researched by Ramya Boddupalli and Vipinn Mittal and edited by Bhavya Dore. The show continues to be available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Jio Saavn, Gaana and all other major platforms.

Anil Divan (1930-2017) was a senior advocate, constitutional expert and founder-member of the Centre for Public Interest Litigation. A widely-respected member of the bar, he took on several social and public-interest causes.

The Anil Divan Foundation was established in 2018 to support legal education and research in India. Its trustees include Smita Divan, Shyam Divan, Gauri Divan, Vivek Divan and Ranvir Singh. The podcast is its flagship research project through which it aims to narrate major constitutional stories in an engaging manner for a lay listener.