Articles
A Critique Of The Draft Code On Wages (Central) Rules, 2020
The Code on Wages which was notified on 8th August 2019 consolidates the provisions of the Minimum Wages Act, 1948; the Payment of Wages Act, 1936; the Payment of Bonus Act, 1965 and the Equal Remuneration Act, 1976. Section 6 of the Code empowers the central as well as state governments to fix minimum wages for all employees covered by the Code unlike the Minimum Wages Act, 1948 that provided for the fixation of minimum wages only in respect of workers in the employments and occupations...
Establishing A Fair E-Commerce Marketplace: The Goal May Still Beyond Reach
The new Consumer Protection Act, 2019 ["CP Act"] is being praised for introducing Rules to regulate the e-commerce entities in India. Although such e-commerce entities were impliedly governed by the previous Consumer Protection Act, 1986, what is truly remarkable about the CP Act is the introduction of provisions concerning product liability, trade malpractices, consumer grievance redressal and jurisdiction in relation to e-commerce entities. Making discriminatory pricing by...
The Thiruvananthapuram Gold Smuggling Case & Diplomatic Protection
For centuries, governments and their envoys across the world have used the protection of diplomatic baggage, which forms an integral part of diplomatic immunity. This immunity has come into limelight recently with the gold smuggling incident at Thiruvananthapuram. On the 9th of July, 2020, 30 kilograms of gold was seized by The Customs Department in Kerala, India. While gold smuggling is not new to the State, what has stirred controversy is that this package of gold was sent via...
Amazon v. Amway: Managing Conflicts and a Case for Balancing Safeguards (Part 3)
In Part 1 of this essay, we offered a background to the January 2020 Delhi High Court ruling in the Amway cases and discussed the issue of consent of direct selling entities to subsequent third party sales of their products. In Part 2, we evaluated whether and under what conditions direct selling entities can oppose commercial dealing of their products by third party sellers under the Trade Marks Act. In Part 3, we consider the third principal finding from Amway: on whether and to what...
Guilty Until Proven Innocent: A Fable Of Indian News Media
Introductory The death of Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput has given rise to a controversy which refuses to die; from the initial allegations of nepotism directed against Bollywood veterans to the declaration of the deceased actor's girlfriend Rhea Charaborty as the culprit, the case is now being used as a tool to consolidate votes for the upcoming Bihar Assembly Elections. Quite unethically though, a large section of mainstream news media outlets have virtually declared Chakraborty...
Amazon v. Amway: Managing Conflicts and a Case for Balancing Safeguards (Part 2)
Eashan Ghosh & Afzal B. Khan In Part 1 of this essay, we offered a background to the Amway claims and assessed the issue of consent of direct selling entities to subsequent third party sales of their products. In Part 2, we explore a second issue: whether and under what conditions direct selling entities can oppose commercial dealing of their products by third party sellers under the considerably trickier statutory demands of the Trade Marks Act. We square off these competing...
Free Speech And Expression At NIFT: The NIFT Social Media Policy, 2020
In July 2020, The National Institute of Fashion Technology, popularly known as "NIFT", imposed its NIFT Social Media Policy, 2020 on its students. The Policy comes right after the institution has hiked its fee and it therefore, prevents students from commenting upon on the institute's action in any manner, thereby censoring the students. However, the examination of the said Policy remains absent from the eye of the fundamental rights of the students awarded through the right to freedom of...
Special Immunity To Prime Minister Violating Basic Structure - Remembering 39th Constitution Amendment On Its 45th Anniversary
10 August 2020, marks the 45th anniversary of the Constitution (Thirty-Ninth Amendment) Act, 1975. The Constitutional Amendment was passed during the infamous Emergency in India, with the aim of nullifying the Allahabad High Court's judgment which had quashed Mrs. Indira Gandhi's election on grounds of electoral malpractice. The Amendment took away the power of the Supreme Court to try electoral disputes concerning the President and Vice-President and vested this power in a separate...
The Distinction Between "Cognizable Offence" And "The Curial Act Of Taking Cognizance Of An Offence" [Read Attachment]
I retired from the High Court of Kerala in the year 2012. During my tenure as a Judge in the High Court all the Chief Justices while fixing the roster, were giving me mostly criminal jurisdictions and I have now metamorphosed into a confirmed criminal, although as a lawyer, I was practicing exclusively on the civil side. While I was convalescing after an influenza during the COVID-19 lockdown period, Advocate Mr. Shyam Padman from Calicut sent me a message inviting me to render a lecture ...
The Supreme Court Judge Who Was Jailed By Government Of India
The States Reorganisation Act, 1956 saw major reform of the internal boundaries of India, with States being drawn up on linguistic lines. The state of Kerala, as we know it today, came into existence on November 1, 1956, and with it, in 1957, came the first democratically elected Communist Government in India (and probably only the second in the world), with E.M.S. Namboodiripad (popularly known as EMS) at the helm – a fact with which I became acquainted only recently. Out of curiosity, I...