Justice Deepak Gupta: The Humane Judge

Justice Deepak Gupta has always believed that judges must, first and foremost, be humane, and in that endeavour, he has led by example. In his little more than three years at the Supreme Court, the country has seen him always put the society before self and the institution before the individual. Today, on his last day at the Court (as we live in times when the understanding of 'Court' we've held up till now might be changing forever), it is important to acknowledge the impact that this...

Caste And The Statue Of 'Manu' In Rajasthan High Court

Recently, the Rajasthan High Court has issued an standing order that the caste of any person, including accused, should not be incorporated in any judicial or administrative matter. The direction has been issued against the practice of the officers of the Registry of the High Court as well as by the presiding officers of lower courts and tribunals, who used to mention a person caste's in the court documents (For example: ABC, by Caste 'XYZ' v. State of Rajasthan). The order notes that...

Draft Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Rules 2020: Critical Appraisal

Yet again the Legislature has swiftly and quite smartly undertaken another step in ensuring bucket list being checked, pacification of sentiments and a law seemingly to be brought in place for protection of the community that deserves a much more attention than the present state and frame of mind with which they are dealt. This is in regard to the newly drafted and published Draft Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Rules 2020. As a sequel to the Act that was passed last year in...

Invoking Force Majeure In Times of Covid-19' And Its Impact On Contracts

Introduction This article seeks to focus on the impact of the present pandemic, 'COVID-19' on disruption of supply chain and its consequential adverse effect on contracts. The article would further discuss the defence of 'Force Majeure' available to contracting parties and the extent to which they can be absolved of their contractual obligations by invoking the said clause or the principle in general. The pandemic of the novel corona virus (commonly known as "COVID-19" [CO- Corona...

A Barrister,An Official Receiver And The Chief Justice-The Curious Tale Of Khwaja Nazir Ahmad

On 17th October 1944, the Privy Council tendered its advice to the King on an appeal filed by the then Punjab Government against an order of the High Court of Lahore interdicting a police investigation in exercise of its inherent power under Section 561-A of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898. Allowing the appeal, the Board, in an oft quoted passage, reasoned that it is "of the utmost importance that the judiciary should not interfere with the police in matters which are within their...

The Distinction Between "Cognizable Offence" And "The Curial Act Of Taking Cognizance Of An Offence"

INTRODUCTION 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 metamorphosed into a confirmed criminal judge, 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 ...

NAFED Case On Unenforceable Foreign Award: The Unanswered Questions

On April 22, 2020, the Supreme Court of India in its ruling in National Agriculture CooperativeMarketing Federation of India v. Alimenta S.A, in a rarest of rare circumstance, rejected the enforcement of a 30 year old foreign award. The foreign arbitral award arose out of a dispute pertaining to an agreement between the parties for the export of 5,000 tonnes of Indian HPS groundnut for the season 1979-80. However, due to the damage caused to the crop by a cyclone in the Saurashtra...

Federal Structure A Casuality In times Of Pandemic?

Has the pandemic also caged and confined Federalism which is a basic feature of the Constitution? It will not be an overstatement to say that currently, the length and breadth of the country is being governed by notifications issued under Section 10(2) (l) of the Disaster Management Act, 2005. Are the notifications issued under Section 10 (2)(l) of the Disaster Management tinkering with the federal integrity of the States? The Constitutional source of power if any which makes the...

IBC Amendment,2020: Constitutional Vires Of The Minimum Threshold On The Allottees

The Legislature of India enacted the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 ("the Code") for the speedy revival of companies and consolidation of laws relating to liquidation. The Code provided Financial Creditors and Operation Creditors a right to initiate the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process ("the CIRP") against a Corporate Debtor, before the National Company Law Tribunal ("the Tribunal"). The evolution of the allottee(s) of a real estate project as Financial Creditors under the ...

IBC: Retrospective Application of Revised Threshold- An Alternate Perspective

INTRODUCTION 1.1In an apparent bid to avoid large-scale insolvencies, especially against the MSMEs, as a result of the financial stress caused by Covid-19 pandemic, the Central Government had, vide notification bearing no. SO 1205(E) dated March 24, 2020 ("Notification"), increased the threshold of the minimum amount of default for the purpose of maintainability of an application for initiation of corporate insolvency resolution process ("CIRP") under Insolvency and Bankruptcy...

The Law On RERA From The Perspective On An Allottee

Historically, real estate industry in India was unorganized and lacked transparency and accountability. However, owing to the increasing overhead costs and massive delay in completion of projects, there was a need for a governing authority to be established to mitigate the loopholes that are prevalent in the industry. The Real Estate Regulation and Development Act (hereinafter referred to as 'RERA') came into full force on 1st May, 2017 after being passed by the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha...

Winding Up Of Franklin Templeton Schemes: Regulatory Frame Work

INTRODUCTION As the disclosure states "Mutual fund investments are subjected to market risk" is not just a mere caveat but a decisive factor which the investors and their advisors should consider prior to the investments. Assets Under Management (AUM) of Indian Mutual Fund Industry as on March 31, 2020 stood at Rs. 22,26,203 crore. The AUM of the Indian MF Industry has grown from 6.14 trillion as on 31st March, 2010 to 22.23 trillion as on 31st March, 2020 more than 3½ fold...