Burdening Legal Speech: Vishal Dadlani And The P&H High Court

Two decisions, delivered over the last few days, exemplify how the terrain of free speech remains a contested field in Indian constitutional law.Burdening Legal Speech: Vishal Dadlani and the P&H High CourtVishal Dadlani v State of Haryana came to the Punjab & Haryana High Court as a quashing petition. FIRs had been registered against Vishal Dadlani and Tehseen Poonawala under Sections 153A (promoting enmity between classes), 295A (hurting religious sentiments), and 509 (insulting the...

The Missing Jurisprudence Of A Sound Data Protection Law

It has almost been two years now that Supreme Court of India had delivered K.S Puttuswamy judgment – I (2017), by which it had recognized 'privacy' as a fundamental right in India. However, this epic declaration did not foster any substantive kinetic changes in the Indian Parliament, especially in the area of data protection law, which by the way, was regarded as one of the essential elements of privacy. This facet of privacy was emphasized in the judgments of Justice DY Chandrachud as...

Mixing Of Personalities

The allegations against the CJI were real shocker for all of us in the Supreme Court, but what followed in the Supreme Court was even more shocking. Forming of a bench of three judges, then the scene performed by the CJI in the Court, resulted in mockery of justice. He initiated the proceedings of the court by elaborating his defence of "conspiracy", to the charge, and laced it with an emotional appeal based on his austerity and meagre savings. All of this paled into insignificance when the...

Pakistan SC Decision: Another Wake Up Call For New Delhi

The 2019 decision of seven Judges of the Pakistan Supreme Court in Civil Aviation Authority v Supreme Appellate Court Gilgit-Baltistan purportedly on the "historical and constitutional issue involving the status, authority and powers of Gilgit-Baltistan" is yet another instance of how Pakistan chooses to distort the Kashmir narrative for political expediency. The judgment penned by the Chief Justice of Pakistan quotes from my book, Unravelling the Kashmir Knot, and yet fails to counter the legal...

Rejuvenating Our Rivers: Creation Of Autonomous Inter-State River Basin Authorities

The Draft River Basin Management Bill, 2018 proposes the establishment of multiple River Basin Authorities for different inter-state river basins. The manner in which such authorities are envisaged to be set up under the Bill makes them highly dependent upon approvals from the Central Government and the concerned State Governments. This will eventually render them as puppets because of the strings attached to the governments. The current policy proposal advocates the setting up of Inter-State...

Has Section 360 Cr.P.C. Any Application In A State Where The Probation Of Offenders Act, 1958 Has Been Brought Into Force?

According to a recent verdict of the Supreme Court of India in Lakhanlal @ Lakhan Singh v. State ofMadhya Pradesh (Criminal Appeal No. 1306 of 2013) rendered on 04-04-2019, the provisions of the Cr.P.C. are not excluded by the provisions of the Probation of Offenders Act, 1958 (the "P.O. Act" for short) and Section 360 Cr.P.C. is in addition to the provisions of the P.O. Act. The appellant in the case before the Supreme Court was one of the eight accused persons who were convicted by the...

40 Important Judgments On Insolvency And Bankruptcy Code, 2016 [Part-1]

To borrow the golden words of Justice Rohinton F. Nariman in Swiss Ribbons Pvt. Ltd. & Anr. vs. Union Of India WP(Civil) No. 99 of 2018 whereby upholding the Constitutional validity of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 ("IBC") it was held as under: "85. The Insolvency Code is legislation which deals with economic matters and, in the larger sense, deals with the economy of the country as a whole. Earlier experiments, as we have seen, in terms of legislations having failed,...

Sedition And Transgender Identity: Two Important Civil Rights Judgments From High Courts

This month has seen two important civil rights judgments come out of the High Courts. The Kerala High Court reaffirmed the narrow scope of sedition, while the Madras High Court reaffirmed the right of self-determining one's gender identity. Neither judgment broke new ground; but affirming – and entrenching – existing jurisprudence is often equally important, especially in circumstances where the possibility of erosion is ever-present.The Kerala High Court, Sedition, and the UAPAIn Union of India...

The EVM Conundrum - Has The Supreme Court Intervention Helped Mitigate The Issue?

"To make democracy work, we must be a nation of participants, not simply observers. One who does not vote has no right to complain." - Louis L'Amour Elections are the fulcrum of a functional democracy. The EVM conundrum raises a perplexing yet pertinent question - If a citizen is not allowed to cast a vote, thanks to his/her name missing from the electoral list or if the vote cast is manipulated with, isn't it synonymous to he/she being deprived of a chance to participate in an inclusive...

Dealing With Allegations Of Sexual Harassment Against The CJI

Judiciary comprises of judges, advocates and ancillary staff. All of them play important unique roles. The institution is run by advocates and handled by the judges. Staff supports them. Sitting judges are the strongest pillars of the judiciary. People of this country have immense trust on judiciary due to the failure of successive governments. This trust has to be maintained at any cost. Judges, being special members of the judiciary, therefore, must not only be honest but should also be...

Lacunae In Law On Who Will Judge The Judges

"Kanche chenu mesthe" (is a Telugu proverb that means 'when the fence eats the crop'). When that happens how do we protect the crop from the fence? Among the three estates of the Constitution, the judiciary is the only saviour where wrongdoings of the executive and the legislatures need to be corrected. If the guardians of the Constitution, the judges themselves, are pulled into the accused's box, who will judge them.There was an RTI request to know where to file the complaint, if any, against...

Important To Follow Established Principles Governing Sexual Harassment Inquiries, Say Women Lawyers

Since the events of 20th April, where the Chief Justice of India responded to sexual harassment allegations against himself by speaking from the Bench after instituting a suo moto writ petition, several developments have occurred at the Supreme Court, including the setting up of a three-member committee by Justice Bobde (the second senior-most judge) comprising of himself, Justice N. V. Ramana (the third senior-most judge) and Justice Indira Banerjee, to conduct an inquiry into the complaint....