Articles
Experimenting With The Limited Physical Hearing Of Supreme Court
For the past 3 months, the Supreme Court has stopped the physical hearing in the Courts. The Court has been functioning through Video Conferencing instead. The earnest desire of the Court to be available for the dispensation of justice is clearly reflected through the arrangements for video conferencing. However, by and large the feedback that is available from the Advocates is that most of them, in fact almost all, are not satisfied with the hearing through video conferencing. The ...
Democracies Can Die – In Broad Daylight Too!
Democracy is not a mere once-in-5-years exercise of getting inked on the finger. It is about an alert citizenry staying well-informed, engaging with one another to understand the problems and continuously participating in building opinions and engaging with policy making.
Courtroom Hearings – Part Of The 'Basic Structure' ?
A moniker most precious to our hearts, is the coveted 'Basic Structure', which was coined during the hearings of India's most celebrated decisions of Kesavananda Bharti; it was done so, not on 13 laptops but on a single bench with 13 seats in a single courtroom, and arguments not advanced from Ipads but by doyens of the profession over 2 podiums, spread few feet apart and from the bench, thundering down the law by the wit of their minds and the sweat of their brow. If only we could turn...
Marital Rape- Has The Law In India Made Sufficient Progress?
The issue of marital rape has perplexed the law makers and the society alike, since time immemorial, across the world. Marital rape was eventually criminalized in most of the countries as they realized that sexual intercourse within a marriage cannot be regarded as a right of a spouse. As per a Report published by India Today Web Desk on 12.03.2016, India is one of the 36 countries where marital rape is not criminalized as on date. We are in the company of nations like Pakistan, ...
POSH Act 2013 : Are There Legislative Gaps Which Need To Be Bridged?
This write up is written in response to the article published here namely Sexual Harassment At The Workplace – Bridging The Legislative Gap For A Better Tomorrow by Riddhika Girimala Shetty and Pranshu Bhutra on 16 Jun 2020, 1) Currently, the Act is only restricted to complaints of sexual harassment of an aggrieved woman. There is no dedicated legislative mechanism available for sexual harassment faced by men and most importantly transgenders, who continue to be unfortunate objects of...
"Undecided Claims" And The Fresh Slate Doctrine Under The Insolvency & Bankruptcy Code, 2016
As ArcelorMittal's payments trickle into the bank accounts of the Creditors of Essar Steel India Limited, a proof of concept emerges for the wonders of the Insolvency Bankruptcy Code for the financial health of the economy at large.[1] As one of the first 12 companies put through the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process[2] ("CIRP"), Essar Steel represents an arduous success story; but like every other story where the sun sets at the end of the road, this too has a class of individuals...
Joint Ventures Flow Into Unchartered Waters Amidst Covid-19
IntroductionAlthough economies across the world are endeavouring to resurrect, businesses especially those operating as joint ventures (JVs) across the spectrum stand at a crucial juncture. With an unprecedented disruption of supply chains, liquidity challenges, employment and commercial contract issues, JVs are now required to swiftly adapt, comprehend and manage unanticipated risks in order to maintain and honour the contractual arrangements agreed between the contracting parties to a...
Can We Really Police Our Police?
The global protests against death of George Floyd in America has not taken many people by surprise. It only validated a worldwide phenomenon of 'police brutality' especially states with a history of colonial conquest. Instances similar to George Floyd are also very familiar to us in India. Yet the reactions are vastly different here; malicious police violence is not enough to get us out on the streets. The custodial deaths of father and son in Tamil Nadu has shaken the conscience of many...
An Issue Of Jurisdiction Of The Family Court Under Muslim Women (Protection Of Rights On Divorce) Act,1986 : In Reference To The Decision In Rana Nahid v. Sahisul Haq Chisti
The Supreme Court of India has recently announced its split verdict on the issue of jurisdiction of the family courts in matters of maintenance filed under Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act, 1986 (hereinafter referred to as "MW Act").[1] The split verdict may be considered a classic example of the opposing theories of interpretations, textualism and purposivism, beautifully coming into play in the respective decisions pronounced by the two leading women judges of the ...
Software Patenting In India
Section 3(k) of the Patents Act, 1970 states that a mathematical or business method or a computer program per se or algorithms are not patentable subject-matters in India. On a basic perusal of the provision, one can observe that the provision is broadly worded, evoking ambiguities as to what actually constitutes the part of non-patentable subject-matters under its ambit. This vagueness has largely discouraged innovations in the field of development of computer programs. The decision ...
An Unconstitutional Demand For President's Rule In The Name Of Covid 19
As India's Covid 19 cases continue to see exponential rise in certain States, opinions have been expressed by the members of the ruling dispensation at the Centre that President's Rule should be imposed in States which have not been able to contain the pandemic. These votaries of imposition of President's Rule argue that the Centre cannot be a mute spectator when there is a failure of State administration to effectively contain the spurt in Covid cases. The legal questions which...