Articles
ISPs Must Play Pro-Active Role In Preventing Child Pornography
Citing data from 'Pornhub' (purportedly world's largest pornographic site), the India Child Protection Fund (ICPF) said that the 'traffic to child pornographic websites from India increased by 95% between March 24 and 26, as compared to average traffic before the lockdown'. ICPF is a recently set up NGO with an aim to support with funding resources curbing exploitation of children, managed by Nobel Laureate Kailash Satyarthi's son, Bhuvan Ribhu. This disturbing trend showed up when the ...
How To Reduce The Pendency?
Pendency refers to the long-pending backlog of the cases in all the Judiciary levels, i.e., The Supreme Court, the High Court, and the District or Subordinate courts. According to Black Law's Dictionary, Pendency can be defined as "Suspense; the state of being pendent or undecided; the state of an action, etc., after it has been begun, and before the final disposition of it." In law, there is a leading saying that[i]"Justice Delayed is Justice Denied". In the present time, numerous...
Why It is Disastrous To Conduct Any Exam Right Now
In March, 2020, when our country hardly had 1000 COVID-19 cases, our Government decided to close the entire country and cancel all the exams. Today, when we have more than 31 Lakh COVID-19 cases and situation is worsening by every passing day, with an alarming addition of about 70,000 cases per day, the adamant decision of Government to compulsorily conduct all Exams/ Tests across India, is utterly shocking, extremely unfair and may lead to a Disaster, apart from being patently illegal...
The Kabuki Theatrics Of Virtual Hearings
'Kindly ensure that your microphone and camera is switched off as you join the meeting.' Language and lifestyle is still evolving to accommodate the rapid changes that the COVID19 pandemic has brought to public life. In the legal fraternity, a structural change of shifting to 'virtual proceedings' has redefined the anthropology of the 'courtroom', how the relationships were defined and understood. One such change is the invisibility of the various agents that make a...
The Law Of Electronic Evidence,The Error Continues
Sir, James Stephen, the propounder of the Indian Evidence Act 1872, has used three words with respect to the law of evidence: - RelevancyAdmissibilityAppreciation Whereas Relevancy pertains to quality/ character of the facts, Admissibility pertains to how the evidence is to be put forth and Appreciation is application of judicial mind to reaching conclusions. The Indian Evidence Act, 1872 deals with only the first of two, whereas the relevancy deals with,...
Section 6, Again- But For A Different Reason
Section 6 of the Hindu Succession Act, 1956, continues to flummox this author, notwithstanding the catena of judgments and numerous Articles. The amendment of Section 6 of the Hindu Succession Act, 1956 (hereinafter referred to as 'the Act') by virtue of Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act, 2005 (39 of 2005) (hereinafter referred to as 'the Amendment Act') and its interpretation, remains a constant topic for discussion, amongst the legal fraternity. Of course, there are many facets of the...
'Health Over Exams': Why NEET-JEE Exams Should Be Postponed?
We have been receiving complaints from across India from parents and students for conducting JEE AND NEET University Exams in September during this pandemic situation when the cases are rising daily and due to lack of medical facility citizens are not getting proper treatment and even beds in Hospital. WHO has also acknowledged emerging evidence on airborne spread of COVID -19 which is a very serious concern and will spread very fast in a public place. Parents are very...
Government Accountability & Transparency: SC Cares?
The recent Supreme Court's judgment in Centre for PIL (CPIL) vs Union of India on the legality of the PM Cares fund is legally flawed and disheartening. It epitomizes the hands-off approach of the Court in recent years in public interest cases, where it trusts the executive more and questions it less. The current decade of 2011-2020 has clearly been the most turbulent period in the history of the Supreme Court. This decade can be neatly divided into two starkly different 5-year...
Speaker Versus Court: The Tussle For Jurisdiction Under The Tenth Schedule
The political uncertainty in the State of Rajasthan may have been diffused with the incumbent Congress government managing to get its flock together and winning the floor test. The facts, briefly stated, are that disqualification petitions against 19 MLAs were filed before the Speaker who issued notices to them under the Tenth Schedule. This was challenged by the MLAs before the High Court in a writ petition also challenging the constitutional validity of Para 2(1)(a) of the Tenth...
Privacy And Puttaswamy For The People's Palate: Part 3 of 3
The previous part broke down the opinions of Bobde J. and Kaul J. wherein the former elucidated upon the nature of the right undertaking a study which was based on the hypothesis that privacy plays an integral role in the enjoyment of Part III rights and the latter studied the growth of technology as a formidable foe to the inherent right to privacy. In the third and final part of this series, I will attempt to simplify the opinion of Nariman J. Preliminary contentions and arguments ...
Right Of Appeal Under Section 372 CrPC, 1973 Vis-Ã -Vis Period Of Limitation: A Conundrum
Seminal Issue: What should be the period of limitation for filing an appeal under Section 372 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (in short 'Cr P C') is a contentious issue on which there is apparently a judicial split of opinion amongst various High Courts in India as there is no pronouncement by the Hon'ble Supreme Court of India as yet. Section 372 Proviso: Vide the Code of Criminal Procedure (Amendment Act), 2008 (in short 'the Amendment Act) a new proviso...