Articles
Equality For One Or For All?
'All animals are born equal but some are more equal than others.' George Orwell's observation about the animal farm rings true for the current state of Indian society too. It aptly summates the deep socio-economic and political disparities prevailing among the citizenry. The democratic value and constitutional principle of equality is time and again being binned...
Need For More Kannabirans Felt Now With Ever Increasing Human Rights Violations : Justice K Chandru
[This lecture was delivered on 7 December 2020 as part of the KG Kannabiran Lectures on Law, Justice and Human Rights – organised by the family of KG Kannabiran (1929-2010) to celebrate his life, his work and its futures]. [Abstract: Justice K. Chandru, recalling his association with KG Kannabiran, speaks on the importance of trial courts, advocates' strikes, violence...
A Marketplace Of Wobbly ideas: How The Supreme Court Came To Use A Cold War-Era Invention
"We have been cocksure of many things that were not so." - Oliver W. Holmes Thanks to wide reportage across social media and here, it is well known that the Supreme Court is currently hearing a petition against Sudarshan TV's controversial show. To wit, the channel alleges that a religious cabal funds, deceives, and achieves way beyond its means and measures in the...
One Year Of CAA : Supreme Court Passive, High Courts Pro-Active In Upholding Right To Protest
Exactly a year ago, on December 11, 2019, the Parliament passed the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act 2019(CAA). The constitutionality of the Act - passed with the ostensible object of granting protection to refugees fleeing religious persecution from neighboring nations - was seriously debated on account of its exclusion of Muslim migrants and non-Muslim majority neighboring...
Human Rights- Judiciary Strikes Against 'Third Degree' Through Transparency
On this day of International Human Rights Day, can we hope that the third-degree treatment by police will become a thing of past? Whether the recent Supreme Court order put an end Rakshak Bhakshak syndrome in India. Perhaps. Hopes are raised by the apex court's order of 2nd December and Madras High Court's order of 3rd December 2020. 'Who will police the police' is a big question...
"Grant Of Pardon" Or "Sale Of Indulgences"
The lid is off exposing a can of worms. This time it's about presidential pardon power. In the dying days of Trump's presidency the spectre of corruption has come to haunt. The latest controversy involves allegations of a "bribery-for-pardon" plan as described in documents released by a federal judge. Political commentators, the world over, feel that the American Nation is witnessing...
A Case Of Not An International Commercial Arbitration Rendering A Foreign Award
The Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 of India is divided into three parts; Part I deals generally with arbitration and is applicable where the place of arbitration is in India, Part II provides for enforcement of foreign awards under the New York Convention and Part III governs the law on conciliation. Recognizing the distinction between domestic and international arbitration, the...
Gender And The Supreme Court Of India
A few days ago, the Learned Attorney General for India ('AG') Shri. K.K. Venugopal, made some important observations about the representation of women in the Supreme Court of India. Speaking on the occasion to recommend ways to gender sensitize the Judges, the AG remarked that more women judges in Constitutional Courts (i.e. Supreme Court and the High Courts) would...
Versus
While Lawyers are no strangers to taking sides and arraying themselves as 'versus' – a Latin term that means taking opposing stands in a lawsuit, the new fault-lines in the legal community are not just between those who are 'activist' and 'conformist' lawyers but it's giving rise to a new third category – those who seem to have entered into a Faustian Bargain – seemingly determined...