Articles
De-Constitution Of India Through Citizenship (Amendment) Act
The Citizenship Amendment Act became law. It will turn India into Hindutwa Republic, in utter disregard to secular character of our Constitution. On this count alone the Bill deserves to be declared as unconstitutional because the secularism is our basic character. The CAB simply means that if a Hindu person comes into India from Pakistan and Bangladesh to settle with his relations or friends from whom he separated 1947 or after, he will be welcomed with conferment of citizenship of India; but...
The Constitution : A Living Character
Constitution Day was celebrated on Nov.26 throughout the country. The Constitution of India was adopted on Nov. 26, 1949. It has completed 70 years of its journey. My romance with the Indian Constitution started in 1964. The Constitution was still in its teens (14 years). I was twenty. We have grown together. We are maturing together. What a wonderful journey. The Constitution has undergone different changes. It is not the same what it was in 1949. During this period, 103 corrective ...
Lily Thomas- India's First 'Public Interest Lawyer'
The passing of Lily Thomas brings to the close a wonderful legal career of a most interesting advocate. The last time we met was earlier this year when she wanted to intervene in the Babri case to bring peace to the issue. I did not know that when we spoke in the corridor it would be the last time I would see her in this life time. Born in Kottayam in l927, she lived in Trivandrum, and after graduating in law joined the Madras Bar in l955 and finished her LLM in Madras University and gave...
Open Data For Justice
Over the last few years, the judiciary has come under increasing criticism for its lack of transparency. In the courtroom, sealed covers are being used to shield crucial evidence from public scrutiny, while on the administrative side a range of tactics are used to escape probing questions posed by citizens under the RTI Act. Much of this judicial resistance to transparency goes against the long judicial tradition of open courts as well as the judicial pronouncements on the right to...
The Supreme Court's IBC Judgment And The Continuing Problems With "Manifest Arbitrariness"
Last month, the Supreme Court delivered a much-awaited opinion in Committee of Creditors of Essar Steel v Satish Kumar Gupta ("Essar"). While clarifying the law on several aspects of the Insolvency & Bankruptcy Code, 2016 ("Code"), the Supreme Court held that a mandatory time-period of 330 days as fixed under the Code for completion of the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process ("CIRP") was manifestly arbitrary. While the decision on this point may be welcomed by several practitioners...
In Memory Of A Firebrand : ASG Pinky Anand's Tribute To Adv.Lily Thomas
Lily Thomas was a rainbow of pioneering. We mourn her loss as one of the tallest pillars of the legal institution. Born in Kottayam, Kerala, she obtained her degree of law from Madras University where she was the first woman to complete LLM course. She was deeply committed to improving the rule of law by her crusade through petitions and considered this the responsibility of every lawyer. Even at her age she continued to appear in court and worked for 8-10 hours every day. She stood out as a...
CAB: A Bill That Robs India's Conscience And Secularity
To our amazement and disbelief, the lower house of the Indian Parliament has passed the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2019 with a provision to exclude Muslim refugees (persecuted or otherwise) from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan in granting citizenship of India. If the Bill is passed by the Rajya Sabha, the upper house, we will be set to witness as how religious affiliation of an individual is not only deciding his/her civic identity in a secular State but also all the rights that...
Encounter: Can Hyderabad Police Prove Their Claim?
Whether Hyderabad Police ready to prove they killed four accused in self-defence? Will any police register murder case against the 'accused' police? Only if the encounter killing is proved to be essential for killing, the police officers involved has to be considered as not accused, if not there should be a case registered and investigated, as per the guidelines and the rule of law today. If the claim of Hyderabad police is based on untruthful statements, it is difficult to believe...
SC Order In Dileep Case: Some Pertinent Questions
Seminal question which arose for consideration by the apex court in the appeal preferred with special leave against the Order of a single judge of the High Court of Kerala in P.Gopalakrishnan @Dileep Vs. State of Kerala and another was whether the contents of a memory card/ pen- drive would qualify as a document covered by Sec.3 of the Evidence Act and defined under Sec. 29 of the Penal Code; and, if so, whether furnishing a cloned copy of such memory card/ pen-drive produced with...
Law On Reels- 'Aakrosh' : On Women's Honour In Men's World
Inspired from a positivist understanding of law, 5 year based law courses teach law in an isolated manner focusing heavily on legislations and case laws. But that is rather an incomplete picture of law and its working. Critical Legal studies movement in America has shown us that law is not neutral; it works within societal structures with its own biases.[1] For example- let us take feminist critique of law. Feminist legal scholars for long have argued that law is patriarchal while some...
