Articles
Rajasthan HC's Judgment On Supremacy Of Woman's Autonomy In Matters Of Abortion
Article 21 of the Constitution of India guarantees to every person the Right to Life and Liberty. The Courts have interpreted the Article to include the Right to Reproductive Choices. In particular, the Article allows a woman to decide whether she wants to procreate or not. This Right is not absolute and is limited once a woman conceives, as there is a competing interest of the prospective child. Due to the above backdrop, the Indian laws do not grant women an absolute right to...
Court & Contempt: Dissent From The Bar
On 9th June, 2020, a Division Bench of the Gujarat High Court led by Justice Sonia Gokani took suo motu cognizance of the statements made by Mr. Yatin Oza, President of the Gujarat High Court Advocates Association and proceeded to initiate criminal contempt proceedings against him. This is not the first time in recent years when Mr. Oza has found himself to be in hot water. As recently as 2016, the Supreme Court was seized of a matter involving contempt alleged to have been committed by...
The Transforming Landscape Of Dispute Resolution: Online Mediation And COVID-19
Introduction COVID - 19 has been posing challenges to every imaginable aspect of our life. Businesses have either shut operations or are forced to embrace digital transformation by working from home. This does not mean that the scope of disputes arising in the society has diminished. On the contrary, the pandemic has brought with itself a unique set of disputes. Most businesses/people might find themselves unable to fulfil their obligations which were consented to without the...
PIL : A Misunderstood Jurisprudence
None can escape the anguish and sinking feeling that sets in on witnessing the dehumanizing and painful sufferings of the lakhs of migrants (including toddlers and children) on account of the lockdown in the wake of the Covid 19 pandemic – a haunting spectacle that drew parallels with the horrors of the Partition. The media is abound with heart breaking reports and articles graphically describing the hunger, disease and death amongst this vulnerable section of society which continues to...
Information On Misinformation: Where We Are To Where We Could Be
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director general of the World Health Organization, aptly warned us right at the start of the pandemic that "We're not just fighting an epidemic; we're fighting an infodemic. Fake news spreads faster and more easily than this virus, and is just as dangerous..if the problem is not solved, then we are headed down a dark path that leads nowhere but division and disharmony." From a socio-cultural perspective, today digital technology is largely synonymous with...
Sexual Violence Against Children And Gender Disparity In The Law
The protection of children from sexual violence is a fundamental responsibility of every state. Such protection must not only be effective, but must also be comprehensive enough to ensure that no child is left more vulnerable than any other, regardlessof economic standing, gender or otherwise. In India, however, the law as it stands does not provide parity in the protection it affords children of both sexes. There exists a disparity in law that is in effect based on the gender of the...
Lengthy Judgments: Do They Appeal To General Public?
"However, the learned counsel...cannot derive the fullest succour from the aforesaid acqueisence... given its sinew suffering partial dissipation from an imminent display occurring in the impunged pronouncement here at where within unravelments are held qua the rendition recorded by the learned Rent Controller..." This excerpt from a judgement of Himachal Pradesh High Court in 2016 is not relevant to this article except to invite the attention of readers towards the language used....
Countering Fake News- A Critical Appraisal Of Social Media Regulatory Laws
Fake news is essentially information created from nothing with the aim to push a particular agenda; a practice which in today's world is at the dearth of most social issues. Not only does an unverified news piece create misinformed opinions about an issue, it can and has had devastating effects on important social events; often even impacting the dynamics of decisive real-world situations like elections. Social media, in an attempt to democratize the information generation and transmission...
The Conundrum Of Forwarding E-Paper: Issues In Copyright
The outbreak of this pandemic accompanied a lot of problems in day to day life. This pandemic has brought us into a new normal. This 'new normal' has its majority existence working through online platforms. One such area deeply affected by the present situation and hotly debated in recent times is the issues of e-newspaper. At various places, the disruption regarding the physical disruption of newspaper has seen an increase in the use of e-newspaper, mostly available on the official...
The Conundrum Of Concurring Judgements: More Questions Than Answers
Introduction: Article 141 of the Constitution of India emphatically states that the law declared by the Supreme Court shall be binding on all Courts across India. It is settled law that the "ratio decidendi" literally translated as "reason for deciding" is to have binding effect. Given the tendency of the Judges to write lengthy judgements which consider all relevant and irrelevant issues and given the fact that there are, on most occasions, concurring opinions, this task of culling...
Domestic Violence: A Shadow Pandemic
INTRODUCTION Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Executive Director of UN Women has termed the gender-based violence running parallel to the COVID-19 crisis as a shadow pandemic . The deep rooted clutches of COVID-19 is causing far grave consequences than estimated which engulfs not only the medicinal aspect, but also on the domestic front. Domestic violence inflicted upon women within their households unfolds many repercussions in its victims such as long term mental trauma, serious physical...