India, June 9 -- Democracy without dissent is a contradiction and that silence in the face of injustice is not neutrality, but complicity, Supreme Court judge justice Surya Kant has asserted as he invoked India's constitutional ethos and the top court's role in defending civil liberties.

Justice Kant, who is in line to take over as the Chief Justice of India (CJI) in November this year, was speaking at the Washington Supreme Court as part of an international judicial exchange.

In his address earlier this week that underscored the shared constitutional commitments of India and the United States, the judge said: "Democracy without dissent is a contradiction, and that silence in the face of injustice is not neutrality, but complicity.These...