From Finality To Flexibility: Post-Gayatri Balasamy Jurisprudence In Indian Arbitration (2025)

The Hon'ble Justice M.N. Venkatachaliah in his speech “Keeping the Spirit of the Common Law Alive”, once said that “Flexibility is the prime virtue of common law. The genius of common law lies in its capacity for evolution and adaptability, as well as its resilience to cope with the demands of the times.”[1] This statement fits well within Indian arbitration jurisprudence. Last year,...

Dignity, Health And Article 21: Locating Menstrual Rights Within The Right To Life

Recently, the Hon'ble Supreme Court of India ("SC"), in Dr. Jaya Thakur v. Union of India ("Jaya Thakur"), observed that the right to life under Article 21 of the Constitution encompasses the right to menstrual health. The Court emphasized that the absence of effective menstrual hygiene measures in educational institutions not only impairs access to education under Article 21-A but also infringes the rights to equality, dignity, and personal liberty. By recognizing menstrual health as...

Custodial Violence And The CCTV Mirage: Why Rule Of Law Is Faltering In Uttar Pradesh

The Supreme Court's landmark ruling in Paramvir Singh Saini v. Baljit Singh was supposed to be a watershed moment for human rights in India. It mandated that every police station be equipped with night-vision CCTV cameras, recording both audio and video, with a non-negotiable requirement to preserve footage for a minimum of one year, and ideally eighteen months. These weren't mere administrative suggestions; they were constitutional imperatives issued under Article 21 to ensure that transparency...

Designed To Exclude: Legal Architecture Of Informality In India

India's labour market is often characterised as 'informal', with over 93% of workers located outside the organised sector in what is known as the 'informal economy'. Notably though, the divide between formal and informal workers emerges as a product of legal architecture rather than a category based on the degree of vulnerability of the workers or their nature of work. Formal or 'organized sector' labour, legally, refers to work performed in registered establishments, where workers draw regular...

Substitution Of Arbitrators, Unaddressed Statutory Imperative In Jagdeep Chowgule

The evolution of arbitration law in India reflects a persistent legislative endeavour to create an efficient alternative to traditional litigation. The Arbitration Act, 1940, despite its historical significance, was marked by excessive judicial oversight and procedural complexity that often defeated the very purpose of arbitration. The arbitral process under the 1940 regime became mired...

CCI v. Swapan Dey: Who Decides Exclusivity Or Exclusion?

When does the exercise of patent rights become an antitrust violation? The apex court is now poised to answer a question that remains at the intersection of “innovation in a healthy competitive market” and “market regulation.” Recently, in Competition Commission of India v. Swapan Dey & Another,[1] the Supreme Court (SC) has stepped into a core jurisdictional conflict to determine whether the Competition Commission of India (CCI), the chief national antitrust regulator in India, can...

Mandatory Minimum Sentencing Under BNS And Changing Sentencing Discretion

The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 (hereinafter as “BNS”) increases reliance on mandatory minimum punishments to additional categories of offences by narrowing the space for judicial discretion in sentencing. Mandatory minimum punishment prescribes the lowest sentence that a court must impose for an offence. Where such a minimum applies, judicial discretion operates only within the range set by the legislature.The Expanding Reach of Mandatory Minimum PunishmentMandatory minimum punishment was not...

Litigation, Success And Money

The New York Times recently published an article on Republican nominee Justice Patrick J. Schiltz, the Chief Judge of the District of Minnesota. Judge Schiltz, appointed by former President George W. Bush, recently passed orders against the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for detaining people in an arbitrary manner. The Trump led Executive labelled the Judge an “activist” Judge. A common global trend, where populist Governments seek to delegitimize authorities not aligned with the...

Law Without Remedy: Unpaid Salaries In India's Online Work Economy

Salary theft in India's IT and online operational sector is no longer an exception. It has become a business model quiet, procedural, and legally sanitised.In India's fast-growing IT and online services ecosystem, non-payment of salary has become a disturbingly common experience. Employees are not just terminated; they are financially strangled. Performance bonuses are withheld without explanation, salaries for the last three to six months are stopped, and the employee is pushed into silence...

Public Exhibition Of Accused And Presumption Of Innocence

This is in the context of the public exhibition of accused persons, drawing from the Rajasthan High Court's recent order in Islam Khan & Ors. v. State of Rajasthan & Ors., S.B. Criminal Writ Petition No. 224/2026, decided on 20.01.2026 (Raj HC). It underscores the continued relevance of the presumption of innocence beyond the courtroom.An accused and a convict do not stand on the same footing. This distinction lies at the heart of criminal jurisprudence and underpins the necessity of the...

The Silent Capture Of Generic Terms

Indian trademark law insists that generic and descriptive terms must remain in the public domain, yet in practice, resource‑rich proprietors often succeed in fencing off such words through private litigation. In the absence of an institutional guardian of public interest, courts may, case by case, end up reinforcing monopolies over everyday language that the statute itself never intended to privatise. It is necessary that India now needs a dedicated public‑interest authority or structured...

Obituary-Au Revoir, Francis Chettan

A Tribute to Advocate C.V. Francis, 1st August 1935- 10th February 2026It was April 1989. Hardly, one year into the profession, I was chamber less, without a senior and in a city which I had never ever lived, but for the last one year. I was with a direction but without a boat to embark on this journey. It is here that my good friend and law classmate, Mathew Vellapally came to my rescue. He assured me that he will persuade advocate C.V. Francis with whom he recently got acquainted to take me...