Do The New Labour Codes Make Working Hours More Arduous?

India's labour law reforms have generated extensive debate, particularly on the issue of working hours. A recurring concern is whether the new Labour Codes make working conditions more demanding for employees. While public discourse often highlights the flexibility introduced by the Codes, a closer legal examination reveals a more nuanced shift—one that recalibrates both work-hour norms and wage obligations.Under the erstwhile Factories Act, 1948, working hours were governed by a structured...

Shared Liability- Missing Link In New Shanti Bill, 2025

As of India's transition to clean energy ambitions, the Parliament passed the SHANTI Bill- Sustainable Harnessing and Advancement of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India Bill, 2025. The country plans to use nuclear energy, which has low carbon emissions, to reach its target of 100 GW of energy by 2047. Although the development of nuclear energy will be boosted by the private companies' participation as introduced by the bill yet, by eliminating the right of action against the suppliers, it is...

Acceptance Of Olfactory Marks In India: Challenges And Way Forward

The administration of trademarks in India is vested in the Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks (CGPDTM), functioning under the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Ministry of Commerce and Industry. Jurisprudence on trademark has traditionally centered on visually perceptible marks; recent developments indicate a gradual openness towards the non-conventional trademarks, including olfactory (smell) marks.When markets get more crowded and traditional...

The Charter's Silence

International Law, the West Asia War, and the Burden of Principled MultilateralismOn February 28, 2026, a United States-Israeli airstrike killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei — the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran — along with senior members of his advisory council. The strike came in a war that had already claimed an estimated 1,255 lives. His son and successor, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, addressed the world on March 12, pledging to maintain the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and...

Halting The Pendulum: Imperative Of Finality In Judicial Eligibility

The seat of a Civil Judge (Junior Division) is not merely a bureaucratic rung on the administrative ladder; it is the foundational bedrock of the Indian adjudicatory machinery. It is within the austere, often overburdened walls of the mofussil courts that the common citizen first encounters the formidable apparatus of the State. Consequently, the criteria for occupying such a profound constitutional office must be rooted in unshakeable clarity. Yet, for over three decades, the...

When Biography Ends But Biology Remains: Constitutional Right To Let Go

The cold, clinical hum of the ventilator and the rhythmic drip of the feeding tube have become the modern world's most ambivalent totems. In our age of advanced medicalization, technology has achieved the miraculous—the preservation of biological function long after the light of consciousness has been extinguished. Yet, this triumph carries a dark corollary: the "technological trap," where the machinery of healing becomes an apparatus of incarceration. On March 11, 2026, the Supreme Court of...

Logged In, Left Out: How Code On Social Security, 2020 Only Mentions About India's Gig Workers

Every morning, lakhs of delivery riders log onto Swiggy and Zomato. Many of them, simultaneously, are running Magicpin or have Urban Company bookings lined up for the afternoon. They are not employees. They are not contractors in any traditional sense. They are, in the words of the Code on Social Security, 2020, 'gig workers' viz. a category India's Parliament finally saw fit to acknowledge. But acknowledgment, as it turns out, is not protection.This piece argues that the Code on Social...

The Jurisprudence Of Command And The Constitutional Impasse

The Indian constitutional project currently faces a defining moment of friction, a precipice where the destiny of thirteen thousand Group-A cadre officers and the institutional integrity of the Supreme Court of India stand in the balance. At the heart of this storm lies the decision in Sanjay Prakash & Ors. v. Union of India & Ors. (2025 INSC 779), a judgment that did not merely settle a service dispute but sought to restore a foundational compact between the State and those...

Hostilities At Sea: Violations Of International Naval Warfare Norms

On 4 March 2026, the US submarine torpedoed and sank the Iranian ship (IRIS Dena) when it was returning home after participating in the Milan multilateral naval exercise hosted by India. The incident occurred about 40 nautical miles off the coast of Sri Lanka, killing around 87 Iranian sailors.Classification of Maritime Zones:The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) governs control of the seas. The UNCLOS divides the maritime spaces into distinct zones with varying...

India's Foreign Policy Falters When It Abandons Its Own Goalposts

From Non-Alignment to Selective Silence - India's 'wishy-washy' stance is neither a 'careful restraint' nor a 'responsible silence' in the US - Israel intervention in Iran.A strategy adopted by a nation-state on any international issue must have a practical aspect, one that seeks to maximize benefits, while sustaining the gains of long-standing trade relationships and international agreements. These very strategies form a precedential pattern when it comes to assessing a sovereign State, in...

Remembering Professor M.P. Singh: When I Visited His Village

Professor M.P. Singh passed away on 7 March 2026. For many of us who studied constitutional law, his presence was felt long before we ever encountered him in person. Most often, it was through his work on VN Shukla's Constitution of India. For a student, his name carried a certain authority.I consider myself fortunate that I was able to meet him.My first interaction with him was in 2019, when he visited Dr. Ram Manohar Lohiya National Law University (RMLNLU), Lucknow, to deliver a lecture on...

The New Transgender Bill Pushes India Back In Its Fight For Transgender Rights

Last week a bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha to amend the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019 [the 2019 Act]. From a bare reading of the Statement of Objects and Reasons of the Amendment Bill it appears that there are two primary reasons for introducing the amendment. Firstly, to tighten the definition of “transgender persons” under the Act. And secondly, to scrap the scheme of penalising offences against transgender persons under the 2019 Act, and introduce in its place...