Articles
Literality Degenerates Legality
Constitutional morality is often juxtaposed with social and popular morality, to emphasize that in case of conflict between the two, the latter must yield in favour of the former. This also reflects the heightened place accorded to constitutional or legal morality. The constitutional imperative of legislations which are inconsistent with fundamental rights and constitutional amendments which are inconsistent with the basic features of the Indian Constitution, being unconstitutional and...
Property Rights & Cultural References in Muslim Personal Law
For many, the workings of the Central Wakf Council and the various State Wakf Boards are a bit of a riddle wrapped in an enigma. Many people are bemused when they encounter seemingly barren pieces of land with a board proclaiming it as a Wakf property or hear wildly exaggerated stories of the Wakf being among the largest 'land owner' in many cities. It might be prudent, therefore, to first understand precisely what a wakf is, what purpose the wakfs were meant to serve and whether they live...
Direct Tax Vivad Se Vishwas Act, 2020; Striking Down The Answer To Question No 71 Of Circular 21/2020
The Supreme Court recently in its Order dated 15.07.2022 in Union of India and Ors. v. Chandrakant Narayan Patkar Charitable Trust (SLP (C) No. 11399/2022) provided a much-needed clarification on Question No. 71 (of the FAQs) of Circular No. 21 of 2020 dated 04.12.2020 ("Circular") which was issued by the Income Tax Department in relation to the Direct Tax Vivad Se Vishwas Act, 2020 ("DTVSV Act") to resolve certain queries on the Act. The Supreme Court was dealing with a Special Leave...
To Be Medically Or Legally Insane: Confusion Over The Meaning Of Section 84 Of The IPC
In 1843, an individual by the name of Daniel McNaughton (Also referred to as M'Naghten) took a loaded pistol, at the parish of Saint Martin, and pulled the trigger on Edward Drummond, under the mistake of fact that he was the then-British Prime Minister Robert Pell. Subsequently, Drummond died five days later and McNaughten was tried for murder. However, he pleaded not guilty and took up the defense of 'Insanity'. Moreover, witnesses were also summoned and their testimonies...
Analyzing Impact Of Recent GST Guidelines On Section 159 CGST
Recently, the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customshas issued the guidelines on the procedures that have to be followed for the purpose of prosecution under the Section 132 of the Central Goods and Services Act, 2017. The guidelines has been introduced with the aim to provide clarity to the tax officials as to what procedure is to be followed for initiating prosecution under the act and as well as to save the innocent taxpayers from being harassed by the GST officers by reducing the ...
Four Years Of Navtej Singh Johar Judgment : The Road Ahead After De-criminalization Of Consensual Homosexuality
Four years back, on this day a five-judge Bench of the Supreme Court unanimously struck down Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, to the extent that it criminalised same-sex relations between consenting adults. The judgment in Navtej Johar v. Union of India & Ors, was a landmark constitutional reform with regard to rights of sexual minorities. Justice DY Chandrachud, who was one of the authors in Navtej Johar Case (Supra) began his opinion by the following lines: "A hundred and...
A Distinct Bail Legislation In India: A Desideratum
Understanding the concept of Bail in India The Black's Law Dictionary defines Bail as a form of security that is required by a court for ensuring the release of a prisoner based on the rule that he/she must appear before the court in the future.The concept of Bail is neither punitive nor preventive in nature, rather has an underlying object of ensuring the attendance of an accused, by imposing a 'reasonable amount', at the time of the Trial (Sanjay Chandra v. CBI, 2012). In the...
NFTs And Intellectual Property
Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) have been around since 2014, but in 2021 they gained new hype owing to very high-profile technological stories covered in the media. Quentin Tarantino, a renowned Hollywood filmmaker, was sued by Miramax LLC, a production company, to block an auction of NFTs related to the screenplay of the movie 'Pulp Fiction'. Twitter's former CEO, Jack Dorsey, sold an NFT of his first tweet for approximately USD 2.5 million. A digital artist, known by the handle Beplee, sold NFT of...
Pharmaceutical Patents: Moderna Vs. Pfizer and BioNTech
In a recent turn of events, Moderna Inc. sued the US-based pharmaceutical company Pfizer Inc. and the German-based pharmaceutical company BioNTech SE for infringing its patent while developing the first COVID-19 vaccine. Moderna filed two suits in the US District Court based in Massachusetts and the Regional Court of Dusseldorf based in Germany, alleging that the other two companies copied its patented messenger ā RNA ("mRNA") technology and, thus, are seeking monetary damages. During the...
To Bail or Not to Bail?
There are 4,88,511 prisoners lodged in a total of 1,306 prisons in India, as per a 2020 report by the National Crimes Bureau. The occupancy rate of prisons in the year 2020 was 118%. The Law Commission in its 268th Report noted that nearly 67% of the prison population is undertrials. Notably, the global median for undertrials is only 27%.[1] This makes the need for restructuring the law on bails very pressing. Any practising advocate on the criminal side will tell you that whether bail...
A Lean Compromise Is Always Better Than A Fat Law Suit
A Critical analysis of the Mediation Bill 2021 Conflict is inevitable, but combat is optional. To quote the Dalai Lama: "The planet does not need more successful people. The planet desperately needs more peacemakers, healers, restorers, storytellers and lovers of all kinds." Mediators can be the best peacemakers and restorers of fractured relationships as mediation is a process which provides peace with satisfaction and peace with honor. With over 4.70 crore cases pending in various...