Munsiff-Magistrate Selection : On Filling Up All Existing Vacancies From A Rank List

After five year long strenuous efforts by the Full Court and the Registry of the High Court of Kerala, comprehensive amendments were brought about in the Kerala Judicial Service Rules,1991. The amended Act 2018 was implemented with a view to bring in quality in the subordinate judiciary by ensuring timely filling up of vacancies with qualified candidates. The poor quality and performance issues of the umpteen number of "Temporary Munsiff-Magistrates" appointed all these years from among...

Centre Splitting Up Collegium Resolutions : Exception Becoming A Norm?

Unilateral and arbitrary segregation of names impinge on judicial supremacy in judges appointments and demoralize judgeship aspirants.

Drug Policy Reform: Shifting Focus From Criminalisation To Harm Reduction

In 1971, when the United States of America called for a war on drugs, most of the countries were quick to jump on the bandwagon. By putting their faith in the concept of retribution and deterrence, the policy adopted by all and sundry was to enact stringent laws to combat drugs. Later, Government officials confirmed that President Richard Nixon's warcry was a racist and antiquated political tool against the 'antiwar left' and the African Americans.[1] A campaign strategy turned global...

Recent Important Judgments On Arbitration

The Supreme Court of India and various High Courts of the Country have pronounced numerous judgments in the matters related to the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996, recently. In this write-up, the important pronouncements are briefly discussed. Garg Builders v. Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited, Civil Appeal No. 6216 of 2021 (Decided on 04/10/2021). A Bench of Justices S. Abdul Nazeer and Krishna Murari held that if the contract contains a specific clause that expressly bars...

Community Service Not A Valid Bail Condition

It has now become a trend in the court of justice to impose the community service as a bail condition upon the accused. Recently, a local court in Bihar directed a person accused of outraging the modesty of woman and attempt to rape to wash and iron the clothes of all women of the village free of cost for six months. Even during the first wave of Covid-19 when everyone was under the threat of contracting this highly transmissible disease, one of the High Courts imposed a necessary bail...

Corrective Rape: Inside India's Obsession With Heterosexuality

Imagine your parents getting you raped to cure you! Done under the meticulous façade of love and family. It would be so painful to feel invisible and drowning, only to realize in hindsight that people knew and talked about it, just not with you. Abuse is often considered a private issue to be gossiped about; not something to acknowledge in the light of day. Around the world, LGBTQ people face discrimination in almost all aspects of their lives. Family enacted violence and lack of acceptance,...

Insolvency Law In Review- August 2021

A round-up of significant rulings on the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 in the month of August.

Regulatory Impacts And Policy Issues Of Electric Vehicles On Indian Power Sector

The power is one of the most important infrastructure of any nation and our country has one of the most diversified power sectors in the world and its sources includes coal, natural gas, nuclear power, oil, wind, solar and domestic waste as well. Laws Governing The Power Sector In India In the year 1910, the first central act came on electricity which was replaced by the Electricity act 2003 and introduced a legislation that addressed the needs of the changing times. Following that,...

Aryan Khan And Others Denied Bail - Can A Magistrate Grant Bail For Offences Under The NDPS Act?

A Metropolitan Magistrate's Court on Friday rejected the bail application of Bollywood actor Shahrukh Khan's son Aryan Khan and others in the cruise ship drug case, on the ground that the plea was not maintainable. The issue regarding the maintainability of the bail application was raised by the Additional Solicitor General appearing on behalf of the Narcotics Control Bureau who contended that the offences alleged against the accused were exclusively triable by the special court of...

Rescuing A Democracy In Retreat

This is a moment of reckoning for a nation scarred. The unspeakable tragedy in Lakhimpur Kheri has wounded the nation's sensitivity to its core. The 30-second video vividly depicting the gruesome murder of innocent citizens by a bunch of goons sheltered by 'netas' drunk on power has once again exposed the fault-lines of our politics and constitutional democracy in decline. The absolute imperative of resisting the perversion of democracy and prostitution of power must begin with an...

Plugging InvITs Into IBC - Risking National Assets

The Central Government in August this year announced a 4-year National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP) of existing revenue generating assets to bring an estimated ₹6 lakh crore into the national coffers. NMP envisages long lease of revenue-earning operating concessions in several state and sovereign brownfield projects to private players in exchange for upfront payments or investments. One of the key mechanisms contemplated is the Infrastructure and Investment Trust (InvIT). NITI Aayog,...

Carbon Comes At A Cost

Post the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement[1], there is a growing pressure on states to shift to a low-carbon economy. Climate change is being recognized as the greatest global threat, and with China, the world's largest carbon dioxide emitter, taking the world by surprise by pledging to stop releasing carbon emissions by 2060, onus lies on the USA and India, countries that rank[2] second and third in their annual carbon emission respectively, to take immediate action. One of the...