Gyanvapi Mosque Case : Should Not Allow The Spark To Spread

"Egregious violation of the rule of law"... "should not have been employed in a secular nation committed to the rule of law" - this is how the Supreme Court described the demolition of Babri Masjid in the Ayodhya verdict. The Court said that "during the pendency of the suits, the entire structure of the mosque was brought down in a calculated act of destroying a place of public worship".If one traces the genesis of Babri demolition, it can be seen that the spark for this provided by a court...

Women On The Bench : Madras HC Leads With 13 Women Judges, Followed By Delhi & Telangana; 5 HCs Have No Women Representation

With the Supreme Court Collegium making its recommendations for judicial appointments in several High Courts recently, the skewed gender ratio in the Indian judiciary has once again come under scrutiny. A couple of years ago, the India Justice Report had uncovered a rather dismal picture of the same, calling out the 'highly inadequate' representation of women, particularly in the higher judiciary than in subordinate ones.Since the Collegium notified certain proposals for judicial...

Judge-Wise Statistics Of Reportable Judgments Of Supreme Court In April 2022

In April 2022, the Supreme Court delivered 88 Reportable Judgements. This month brought various concurring decisions rendered by Judges on different issues, for instance, on the issue of availability of the benefit of reservation after re-organization of States, Justice Uday Umesh Lalit authored the majority view (for himself and for Justice Pamidighantam Sri Narasimha), whereas Justice S.Ravindra Bhat authored a separate concurring judgment. On the issue of the entitlement of Anganwadi...

Presumptions And Proof In Insider Trading Cases- Recent Judicial Pronouncements

Insider Trading is generally termed as trading by an insider or connected person(s) based on such information as obtained by them during the performance of the insider's duties. Insider Trading provides unfair advantage to persons privy to unpublished price sensitive information over the common public at large who may become aware of such price sensitive information much later when the information comes in public domain. Where a person conducts a trade manipulatively, or misuses inside...

Victim Compensation Scheme – A Glimmer Of Hope

The Victim Compensation Scheme (VCS) under Section 375A of the CrPC obligates the state to prepare a scheme to compensate victims of crime, by collaborating with the Central Government. However, recent shocking data revealed before the Supreme Court in Re Alarming Rise in Number of Reported Child Incident case (2020 7 SCC 87) highlights how the scheme has more or less remained ornamental to the CrPC and is rarely fulfilled with no interim or final compensation being awarded in 99 percent...

Sedition, Marital Rape & Section 377 : When Centre Refused To Take A Clear Stand On Constitutionality

In a major twist in the case relating to the constitutionality of sedition law, the Central Government has requested the Supreme Court to defer the hearing, saying that it has decided to "reconsider and re-examine" Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code.The affidavit filed on behalf of the Ministry of Home Affairs states that the "Court may not invest time in examining the validity of Section 124A and be pleased to await the exercise of reconsideration to be undertaken by the Government of India...

Law on Reels - Guilty Minds Intersection of Law and Justice: Dilemmas and Difficult choices

The latest offering of Amazon Prime India is Guilty Minds, an Indian courtroom drama that revolves around contemporary yet controversial legal cases that one ought to encounter in this age of technology. The series is directed by Shefali Bhushan, renowned for her pervious works like Jugni and The song of the scorpions. The show also has a split-second cameo by her father, Shri Shanti Bhushan, former law minister and senior advocate. Unlike its dramatic precursors, the star of this show...

Abortion Laws In The US And Other Countries

Early this week, an initial draft majority opinion by conservative justice Samuel Alito of the US Supreme Court was published by Politico. The leaked document stated, Roe v Wade "must be overruled". The leaked document, drafted by Justice Alito touches various topics concerning the constitutionally protected right of abortion granted by Roe v Wade and the subsequent 1992 Planned Parenthood v. Casey decision. While rejecting Roe's logic and legal protections, Justice Alito stated...

Is Enforcement Directorate Empowered Under Prevention Of Money Laundering Act, 2002 To Seek Remand?

Before the pronouncement of the much-awaited judgment by the Supreme Court on whether Chapter XII of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 ("CrPC") applies to the Prevention of Money Laundering Act 2002 ("PMLA"), a pertinent question arises which requires examination, one which was perhaps not comprehensively deliberated in the marathon hearing - whether the officers of Enforcement Directorate ("ED") have the power to seek custody of the accused under the PMLA?. Concept of Remand...

When Trial Judges Stood Up Against The State's Might

It is often said that trial courts are the first line of defence of fundamental rights. In order to protect personal liberty from arbitrary and illegal arrests, the Constitution mandates in Article 22(2) that an arrested person should be produced before the nearest Judicial Magistrate within 24 hours of the arrest. Thus, it is the Magistrate who is called upon to protect the most sacrosanct fundamental right by reviewing the police action at the first instance. The remand of an accused is...

The New Act To Collect Measurements Raises Concern For Juveniles In India

In the first week of April 2022, the Criminal Procedure (Identification) Bill, 2022 was passed by both Houses of Parliament amid much resistance and calls for sending the Bill to a Standing or Select Committee of Parliament for thorough review and study. The Bill provides for the collection, storage, processing and dissemination of measurements of any person convicted, arrested or detained under any law. The measurements could include fingerprints, footprints, photographs, retina, iris ...

A Personhood To The Rivers For Self-Protection

Rivers are the gift of nature. The protection of environment, starting with United Nations Conference on Human Environment at Stockholm in 1972, has intensely engaged the international community. Several legal artifacts, such as, the polluter pays, precautionary principle, public trust doctrine, sustainable development, etc., have been developed to meet the exigencies. The newest is – why can't the environment be conferred with the status of personhood to stand on its own legs? The...