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...

Police Brutality: A Case For Urgent Intervention By The Constitutional Courts

Police brutality manifests itself both on and off the street – in the form of lathi charges, provocative firing on citizens, public shaming and beating, fake encounters, custodial torture happening in police station and other penitentiaries. The Third Report of the National Police Commission noted that nearly 60 % of arrests in India were either unnecessary or unjustified. This report was referred to by the Supreme Court in its decision in the case of Joginder Singh[1]. In the same...

Draft EIA Notification 2020 : Areas Of Concern

In our modern world of individualized aspirations and scientific expertise, there are seldom any points of affiliation, except, perhaps our collective drive to swell development. We often tend to forget that the environment is one inevitable commonality that we all share. And in altering our perceptions towards the environment, we are probably compelling irretrievable consequences. Although there is some truth to the argument that the environment has similar effects on one and all and ...

[Column] 'Article 19(1) (a) Is Antithetical to Intolerance' by Navroz Seervai

"And what if she had seen those glories fade;Those titles vanish, and that strength decay;Yet shall some tribute of regret be paidWhen her long life hath reached its final day;Men are we, and must grieve when even the ShadeOf that which once was great has passed away."– On The Extinction of the Venetian Republic–William Wordsworth. It would be useful to start a consideration of this subject by clarifying some basic meanings and concepts. To know the meaning of Freedom, as understood in Article...

Insolvency Resolution Process And Exclusion Of Lockdown Period: Uncertainties And Challenges

Time is the essence of the corporate insolvency resolution process (CIRP) and with that intent alone, the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (Code), prescribes an outer limit of 180 days for completion of a CIRP, which may be extended by a period of 150 days, as per the relevant provisions of the Code and while, there is no explicit provision under the Code, which entitles the stakeholders to seek further extension, over the period of time, the NCLT and NCLAT by way of its judgments,...

Custodial Deaths : Revisiting Debate On Anti-Torture Law

India's anti-torture bill has been in coma for almost 10 years now.

Stifling Democracy Sans Emergency

The strength of a democracy lies in the robustness of its regulatory institutions and their ability to safeguard the fundamental rights of citizens. We frequently say that the Emergency of 1975-1977 was the worst period for India's democracy. Why do we say this? It is firstly because, fundamental rights had been suspended, and about 1 lakh people, primarily those seen as opposed to the then ruling regime, were put behind bars, under a draconian preventive detention law called...

Rebooting Tribunals And Recalibrating Delivery Of Justice

One of the lesser realised aftershocks of the Emergency was tribunalisation as it exists today. A blow so hard that despite multiple efforts by our High Courts and the Supreme Court, including Constitution Benches, to wipe out the deleterious consequences, the ruinous scars remain. Tribunals in the present form were introduced through the 42nd Constitutional Amendment when the concept was employed as a tool by the executive of the day to blunt-out judicial functioning and it was...

"Does The Ghost Of Gopalan Still Haunt Our Jurisprudence?" : A Search For The Contemporary Relevance Of A.K.Gopalan Vs State Of Madras

For a landmark case that was decided in the first year of working our Constitution, I believe Gopalan does not get its due credit. I consider this rather unfortunate because a reading of the several opinions in Gopalan reveals the sheer erudition, judicial discipline and clarity of thought that guided the judges in the rendering of their respective verdicts, not to mention the fascinating, persuasive and riveting arguments advanced by the lawyers who appeared in the case. The opinions...

Examining Locust Invasion In India From A Legal Perspective

INTRODUCTION Time and again, India which is still largely an agrarian economy has been marred by the invasion of the crop devouring swarms of locusts. Such an invasion on a wider scale is termed as a 'locust plague'. A plague (Level-3) is usually preceded by an outbreak (Level-1) and an upsurge (Level-2). It refers to a situation when the attack on crops by these trans-boundary insects belonging to the family of grasshoppers wrecks the economy. The UN Food and Agriculture...

Growing Opaqueness Of Virtual Hearings And The 'Open Court' Ideal

If it has never been said more often, so it shall be repeated - 'Not only must justice be done, it must also be seen to be done.' From the philosophical connotation of this term, as Kant or Lord Hewart would have seen it, the ongoing COVID19 pandemic has brought the literal meaning of this phrase into consideration. What is access to justice in the age of virtual courts, where remotely held video conferencing hearing is a norm? Justice, then, is only what the courts want...

Reflections On S. 47 Of The Code Of Criminal Procedure, 1973

On several occasions, while referring to the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973(hereinafter referred to as the Cr.P.C or the Code), one comes across provisions which may seem simple enough on the surface, but which leave a lot of scope for interpretation, that too, in diametrically opposite ways, when it comes to their implementation. The proviso to Section 47 of the Cr.P.C is one such provision. Section 47 makes it lawful for policemen to break and enter into the residence of any...