Lawyer turns saviour to five through his death -A tribute to Adv S.Neelakanta Sarma

“Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself” said George Bernard Shaw.Adv S.Neelakanta Sarma, a young but high profile civil lawyer at Thiruvananthapuram created history in his death. Sarma succumbed to cerebral hemorrhage at Sri Chithra Thirunal Institute of Medical Sciences, Thiruvananthapuram on 24th July 2015. A bold decision, at a time of severe grief, by...

CCTV cameras should be installed in all prisons across the country within one year, rules SC in DK Basu Version 2.0 [Read the Judgment]

Allowing a PIL filed by one Dilip K Basu seeking prison reforms and filling of the vacancies of the state human rights commission, the Supreme Court on Friday directed the Union government and all the states to install CCTV cameras in all the prisons across the country and take a call on installing them in police lock-ups, if there are incidents.A bench of the Apex Court comprising...

“The process is the punishment” : Rajeev Dhavan on the need to decriminalize defamation [Read his written submissions]

Senior Advocate Mr. Rajeev Dhavan who is appearing for Mr. Kejriwal in the writ petition filed by him in the Apex Court challenging the constitutionality of criminal defamation provisions in the Indian Penal Code has filed his written submissions in the case.In his written submissions, a copy of which has been accessed by Live Law, Mr. Dhavan, referring to a host of decided cases, has...

Breaking; Making a Mockery of Justice Delhi HC let off Rapist without Trial, holding that Victim aged 15 was married to the Accused [Read Jt]

Delhi High Court in State v. Umesh [Crl.Rev.P 266/2014] upheld an order of discharge passed by a Sessions Judge in a Case where the Accused was charge sheeted for Section 363/376 of  IPC and Section 4 of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act 2012Justice Indermeet Kaur had set the accused free of all the offences alleged, holding that the victim was married to the Accused...

Constitution Bench started hearing Union of India vs. Sriharan , referred by Three Judge Bench; Read the summary of Arguments by SG [Day-1]

(The Centre on the Death Penalty at National Law University, Delhi will be posting daily reports of the arguments in the Constitution Bench matter in Union of India v. Sriharan)[We would like to thank Dr.Anup Surendranath and Centre on the Death Penalty at National Law University, Delhi for this initiative. We also would like to thank the Law and Other Things Blog where it is...

“Criminalization of Defamation acts as a Handcuff on the Freedom of Speech and expression”; Aravind Datar [Read the Written Submission]

Mr. Arvind Datar, appearing for Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal before the Supreme Court in his petition challenging the constitutionality of the defamation provisions in the Indian Penal Code, has contended in his written submissions filed in Court- a copy of which has been seen by “Live Law”- that Sections 499 and 500 IPC and the procedure for prosecution under Section 199 Code...

Right to establish Educational Institutions is not a Fundamental Right, Hence it cannot be agitated under Article 32; SC [Read the Judgment]

The Supreme Court of India in a ruling [DM Wayanad Institute of medical sciences vs. Union of India and Another - Writ Petition (C) No. 441 Of 2015] rendered today has reaffirmed the settled legal position as established through a catena of decisions that under Article 32 it will not interfere with an administrative order where the constitutionality of the statute or the order made there...

Yakub Memon challenges the Death Warrant in SC pleading violation of Procedure

Yakub Memon, convicted in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts, has now approached the Supreme Court challenging the death warrant for his execution which is scheduled on July 30. According to his new plea the Death warrant is illegal because it didn't follow proper procedure prescribed by the Supreme Court in Shatrughan Chauhan & Anr. v. Union of India & Ors..  In this Judgment Supreme...

NGO Common Cause files PIL in SC challenging the appointment of CVC and VC as being in violation of SC guidelines

A PIL has been filed in the Supreme Court challenging the appointment of Mr. K.V. Chaudhary as the Central Vigilance Commissioner and Mr. T.M. Bhasin as the Vigilance Commissioner as being “illegal and arbitrary”.The PIL has been filed by the NGO, Common Cause; Admiral L. Ramdas- former Chief of Naval Staff; Dr. E.A.S. Sarma- former Secretary of Government of India; Mr. Ramaswamy R....

Madras High Court wants defamation to be decriminalized [Read the Judgment]

The Madras High Court opined on Tuesday that mere filing of a private complaint of defamation against a person for writing articles in a magazine could not make him a person with criminal background. The Madras HC said that the trend the world over is in favour of decriminalizing defamation. The Court also added that defamation laws should "avoid excessively punitive measures and penalties.”...

SC refers the Question of Citizenship of Illegal Migrants’ Children to a Constitution Bench

The Division Bench of the Supreme Court comprising Justices Ranjan Gogoi and Rohinton F Nariman referred the question whether the children of illegal migrants born India can obtain Indian citizenship, to a Constitution Bench.The court stated that, "We are referring to the Constitution bench the question as to whether the children of illegal migrants would get the benefit of Section 3 of...

No mercy for Rajiv Gandhi’s killers; Centre tells SC

The Centre today contended before the Supreme Court Constitution Bench that the assassinators of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi did not deserve any mercy as the assassination was the result of a conspiracy involving foreign nationals.Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar argued, "Our former Prime Minister was killed by these people. There was a conspiracy to kill him in which foreign nationals...