AT A CONVERSATION organised by The Leaflet in December 2024, Justice Gautam Patel asked Professor Upendra Baxi what three things a citizen wants from a judge in the Indian judiciary. Baxi’s answer was simple, “Spine, Spine, Spine!” It is this quality that Professor Amita Dhanda sets out to trace in her biography of Justice M.N. Rao, a man who over the course of his career assumed the varied roles of a Judge, Law Secretary, Senior Advocate, and the Chairperson of the Backward Class Commission.