Weed Out Evergreen Patents

A recently published report "Pharmaceutical Patent Grants in India: How our safeguards against evergreening have failed and why the system must be reformed", by Dr. Feroz Ali, Dr. Sudarsan Rajagopal, Dr. Venkata S. Raman and Roshan John, identifies pharmaceutical drug patents granted in likely contravention of anti-evergreening provisions under Section 3 of the Indian Patents Act, from a cohort of 2,293 patents granted between 2009 and 2016. An estimate of the rate at which the Indian Patent...

Bad Is Turning Good- From SICA To IBC-The Journey Of Bad Loans In India

India's bad account market is turning good. Investors are upbeat and banks are also looking for alliances to start funds. Huge amount of money from global and domestic capital market is being pumped-in in stressed assets market in India. Big assets undergoing Corporate Insolvency Restructuring Process (CIRP) under Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (IBC) are hot targets. Funds are hoping for big in next round of big tickets cases which might end up before National Company Law Tribunal...

Holding Foreign Corporations Liable In US Courts Might Impact American Corporate Investments In Developing Economies: SCOTUS [Read Judgment]

The recent decision by the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) in the case of Jesner et al. v. Arab Bank, PLC has further restricted the scope of holding foreign corporations liable in the Federal Courts of the United States under the Alien Torts Statute (ATS). The ATS is part of the Judiciary Act of 1789 which provides that “The district courts shall have original jurisdiction of any civil action by an alien for a tort only, committed in violation of the law of nations or a treaty of...

Why Can’t CM And PM Be Elected

The Karnataka crisis has reinvented the question - why can’t the Chief Minister of a State or Prime Minister of India be elected by the legislature (Assembly in respect of a State and Parliament in case of Prime Minister).The system in India is based on the principles of parliamentary democracy in the United Kingdom. Under this system, the Governor appoints the Chief Minister and President appoints the Prime Minister and then the appointees prove majority by moving the confidence motion in the...

Technology & Innovation: Trends Transforming The Legal Industry

The Changing Face of Legal IndustryGlobally, the legal industry is experiencing an era of transformation. The changes are unmistakable and diverse. Paperwork and data management- long practiced by lawyers- is being replaced by software solutions; trans-national boundaries are legally shrinking; economic forces are re-defining law practices; innovative in-house law departments are driving significant value creation; consumer trends have begun to dominate the legal landscape; clients are playing a...

The Agni Pareeksha, 2018 Redux: The Trial Of Justice K.M. Joseph

“[There is] no other method of making the adjustment necessary to a society like ours for maintaining the equilibrium between the state and the federal power, for settling the eternal conflicts between liberty and authority – than through a court of great traditions free from the tensions and temptations of party strife, detached from the fleeting interests of the movement.”Felix Frankfurter (cited by Justice K.K.Mathew in the First Sir TejBahdurSapru lecture titled ‘Democracy, Equality and...

The Curious Case Of Irregular Application Of Professional Income As Criterion For Considering Elevation By Collegium

The collegium has singularly rejected a candidate, who otherwise could have been meritorious and deserving, only because he did not qualify the income criterion, whereas exactly similarly situated candidates have been recommended by the very same collegium. The criteria for one shall be the criteria for everyone is the rule of law. Any departure from this shall be treated as arbitrary.The efforts of Justice Chelameshwar towards transparency have borne fruits and there is a dedicated tab on the...

Getting A 360 Degree View Of Citizens And Unique ID

At paragraph 118 of his Budget Speech, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley recently said, “Aadhaar has provided an identity to every Indian. Aadhaar has eased delivery of so many public services to our people. Every enterprise, major or small, also needs a unique ID. The government will evolve a scheme to assign every individual enterprise in India a unique ID.” There are three claims made in these four sentences. They do not present a factual picture. The claims about Aadhaar are factually incorrect...

Judicial Emergency

Judicial Emergency Lord Denning once asked, “May not the judges themselves sometimes abuse or misuse their power… who is to guard the guards themselves.”And then he said, “The Judges of England… will be vigilant in guarding our freedom. Someone must be trusted. Let it be the judges.”A Harvard teaching fellow, Tommy Tobin, in his opinion published in The News and Observer, May 5, 2016, reflected upon the impact on the functioning of the US Supreme Court upon the passing away of Justice Antonin...

Justice Rajindar Sachar: The Jurist and Crusader for Human Rights

Justice Rajindar Sachar was a stalwart and legend of his generation. He commanded respect, both as a Judge as well as a Jurist. Above all, he was known and will be remembered as a fine and wonderful human being. His laurels speak for themselves. A man always at the forefront in the fight to protect human rights, he had the natural ability to connect with the marginalized and thus become treasured by the young people. His innate compassion for the poor and the deprived was something that...

PIL Profile Check: Curious Case Of Asok Pande,The Man Who Sought Regulation Of Powers Of CJI As ‘Master Of Roster’

“In public interest litigation (PIL), the previous record of public service of litigant can be examined by the Court”- Kalyaneswari v. Union of India (2011) 3 SCC 287Asok Pande, the petitioner who filed the Public Interest Litigation seeking regulation of powers of CJI as ‘Master of Roster’, would not have been permitted to set foot in the SC, if the above test of the previous record of public service was rigorously applied to him. Because, he has a record of filing frivolous and scandalous...

Lump It Not, Sir, Kindly Speak Up!

The nation has been eagerly observing the developments in the Supreme Court of India ever since the Judges’ press conference. It is in this light that the renowned Jurist Fali S. Nariman exhorted, “Lump it! Wait till CJI retires.” (The Indian Express, April 17)Nariman does not – and probably would not – contest the apprehensions raised by the four judges. In his memoir Before Memory Fades ((pg.169) he acknowledges the possibility of judges being “hand-picked” and he happily recollects how,...