When A Prime Minister Was Put On Trial : Excerpt From Prashant Bhushan's Book 'The Case That Shook India'

The judge arrived two minutes before 10 a.m. Everybody in the courtroom rose when the judge came in. After taking his seat, he announced that the court conventions dictate that no one should rise when a witness comes in. This however did not prevent some people from rising when Mrs Gandhi came in. Mrs Gandhi took a seat which was specially provided for her. The normal practice is that a witness stands in the witness box. The deviation from convention was made by Justice Sinha after ...

Limited Accessibility For IIT-JEE & NEET Aspirants

In Indian households, the majority of children live up with a dream of becoming an engineer or a doctor. Every year, lakhs of students appear for entrance exams to achieve the same. The competition in these entrance examinations is soaring. They are known to be one of the toughest exams in the world and most importantly these exams are pathways to certain prestigious universities in India who have provided the best CEOs and doctors like Sundar Pichai and Dr. Panangipalli Venugopal Padma...

Sushant Singh-Rhea Chakraborty Case : Did Single Bench Exceed Its Limited Jurisdiction U/s 406 CrPC By Ordering CBI Investigation?

"The single judge, in this case, after finding that he has no jurisdiction to transfer investigation under Section 406 from the Court in Patna to the Court in Mumbai, proceeded to hear and decide as to who should conduct the investigation".

Hate Speech In News– Inefficacies Of The Regulatory Framework

A recent judgment of the Bombay High Court (Aurangabad Bench), while quashing First Information Reports (FIR) filed against members of the Tablighi Jamaat for alleged violation of tourist visa conditions, severely criticised the Indian media by noting that, "There was big propaganda in print media and electronic media against the foreigners who had come to Markaz Delhi and an attempt was made to create a picture that these foreigners were responsible for spreading COVID-19 virus in India....

Jurisprudence Of Apology … A Lesson To Be Learnt

See the irony of our Indian Legal Profession and Judiciary: In a case of Senior Advocate Prashant Bhushan: the Supreme Court was asking: "What is bad in apology? If you are hurting someone, then what is wrong in apologizing? You should apply balm if you have caused hurt…" Whereas in a case of Yatin Oza, the Gujarat High Court has held in Suo Motu v. Yatin Narendra Oza: '… The school of thought of "Give slap, say sorry and forget" was not endorsed to by the Supreme Court in...

Private Equity, The Sunlit Uplands In Distressed Economy

Private equity ("PE") Investment being amongst the most significant options for raising liquid capital lately, is surely and inevitably an industry to be affected by the unfortunate pandemic crisis of COVID 19. This untimely and uncertain health crisis is a thorn on one's side and has caused the word to stop. The present situation has not only brought down people to believe into surviving first and planning later but has also caused a ripple effect on economy, making the overall move...

Menstruation Is Normal, So Why Are Our Reactions Abnormal?

In a country where both men and women refrain from talking openly about menstruation, it is hardly surprising that there are some communities who even to this day practice 'Chhaupadi', which prohibits women from performing their household chores, isolating them from their family during their menstruation. Despite living in the 21st century, we have failed to create an environment where this natural biological process is acceptable. Instead, the stigma attached to it labels it as a state...

Bonafide Purchaser And White Collar Crimes

The scourge of financial crimes has seen a rapid growth where an act/omission leads to illegal gains and ends with laundering of the illegal money to be portrayed as untainted. Money laundering involves a thick web of transactions with the objective of introducing the money in the financial system without the same being identified as illegal. Once in the financial system, they would lose the character of being illegal and can be used in ordinary business. Many a times innocent buyers...

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...