Articles
Our Very Own Indu Ma'am
As their Lordships enter the Courtroom, they are preceded by the softened bustle of Court staff and lawyers abruptly halting conversation, and rising in their seats – all as a mark of their reverence for the institution and Judges. The grandeur which surrounds the lives of Judges and what appears to be a life of privileges often overshadows the immense hard work put in by those sitting...
A Law On 'Spent Conviction'; An Effective Solution To Reduce Pendency Of Criminal Cases
Some years ago, during a conversation, the General Counsel of one of the largest Fortune 500 Companies, observed that the difference between China and India, when it came to the Legal Process was, that in China you could never expect to get an order against a Chinese Party and in India, you could rarely expect to get a final order. The General Counsel was merely voicing an...
Competition Jurisprudence In India
'Antitrust laws … are the Magna Carta of free enterprise. They are as important to the preservation of economic freedom and our free-enterprise system as the Bill of Rights is to the protection of our fundamental personal freedoms[1].' According to the World Bank and Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) report "Competition is a situation in a market in...
Women's Day Special: Remembering-The lady of the Law- Mithan Tata Lam
There are few life stories as invigorating as that of Mithan Tata. Mithan Tata has the distinction of smashing the thickest of all professional ceiling- she has the distinction of being the first women, allowed to practice law before the Bombay High Court. In a sense, she was fortunate that The Legal Practitioners (Women) Act 1923 was passed in April, 1923 which allowed woman to...
U.S. Supreme Court On Absolute Immunity Of The American President (The Case Of Trump V. Vance)
One of the most baffling legal questions confronting the judiciary in most constitutional democracies, the world over, is how to balance the increasing demands of the political Executive for Absolute Immunity from all prosecutions and the protection and preservation of basic individual rights guaranteed under the Constitution and the laws. Can any modern democracy countenance a...
Is India Always At War? All About Preventative Detention & National Security Act
Basic human rights and liberties are the most significantly identifiable set of legal guarantees that exists in any civilized society and national constitutions. Liberty is the most precious of all the human rights. But in recent times in India, the differentiation between the set normative and the reality is ever so more evident with a steep increase in the number of instances where...
Women's day: Of Courts And Women
On 1st March, 2021, the Chief Justice of India SA Bobde asked a man accused of raping a minor in 2014 whether he would marry her. The shocking question uttered in the highest Court of the land led to a rightly ignited furore, with many even asking the Chief Justice to retract his words, issue an apology and step down from his position. What was even more deplorable is the scathing...
The Question Isn't Who Is Going To Let Me; It's Who Is Going To Stop Me
The position of my women in the backdrop of the Indian social, political, economic and cultural framework has been fluctuating more or less towards progressive yet challenging developments. With the recent dazzling victory of Priya Ramani against being prosecuted for defamation by a man who exploited his position of power to dominate a naïve entrant, we may get the feeling that...
Forced Marriage As An Instrument To Escape Liability Of A Sexual Offence
The recent judgment, the Nagpur Bench of Bombay High court in Satish v. State of Maharashtra dated 19.01.2021, on Section 7 of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012, held that sexual assault without disrobing and or skin to skin contact does not attract section 7 of POCSO Act. Instead, it falls under section 354 of IPC. This judgementhas invited scathing criticism and...
Reading 'The Path of the Law' on Justice Holmes' Birthday
Legal systems go through massive upheavals, with organic interpretation in both constitutional and non-constitutional branches getting shaped on the whims and fancies of the Parliament. What has been said a century back will thus lose its relevance with time. In light of this premise, when one starts reading the scholarship of late Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. (March 8, 1841- March...
Exemplary Role Of District Courts In Dispensing Justice And Protecting Human Rights
A recent editorial on the bail granted to a 22-year old, much maligned, alleged conspirator and foreign agent, 'toolkit' climate activist Disha Ravi in the Indian Express ( 27 February, 2021 ) says it all. Titled 'Thank you', it begins with a positive summing up: "(Additional sessions) Judge Dharmender Rana's verdict granting bail to Disha Ravi underscores what judiciary can - and...
Challenging The Validity Of The IT Rules, 2021 - Can Rules Relating To Digital Media Be Made Under The IT Act?
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) notified the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 ("IT Rules 2021"). The said rules inter alia cover guidelines in relation to intermediary liability and code of ethics to be followed by intermediaries and publishers that process content on digital media. 'Digital media'...