Punjab Excise Amendment On Liquor Policy: Can Legislative Act Nullify Judicial Order?

The Supreme Court order prohibiting sale of liquor within 500 metres from national and state highways has come as a shocker to many states.When the order was clarified during last March to state that the prohibition was not restricted to mere retail vending of liquor but applied also to bars and pubs, the shock was compounded; quite understandably.Liquor sale being the priced cash cow for revenue generation of most states, the prohibition was not taken that well, notwithstanding the welfare...

Dear Legislators! Please Cast Valid Votes for President

Whether our MPs and MLAs know how to vote for President? Legislators and Parliamentarians have to elect the President according to their individual conscience and our Constitution. They have to hear the call of conscience, understand the constitutional responsibilities of President and find out how to cast valid vote avoiding shame of invalidation of his vote. The people directly elect their representatives. The directly elected are electors to directly elect the head of the nation. Very...

Natural Justice vis-a-vis The Insolvency & Bankruptcy Code, 2016- Audi alteram partem : An Unravelled Mystery!

IntroductionThe Insolvency & Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (“the Code”) has been one of the most path-breaking laws promulgated in the country in recent times. There has been a paradigm shift in the debt recovery scenario in the country, consequent to the implementation of the Code. It is undoubtedly a welcome overhaul of the framework that had been in existence in the past, thereby consolidating all the laws pertaining to insolvency and debt recovery that had been scattered into a number of...

Food Adulteration: A Menace to The Society

Food plays a pretty vital role in human existence. Food is one such thing which is a basic necessity as well as a luxury depending upon the circumstances and its availability. Food is considered to be a source of energy and sustenance and is also looked upon with utmost respect because of the reasons stated above. Because of the gradual sweep of commercialization into the world of competition, this particular basic need has also been converted in to a source of economy.  Consequently, food has...

Why Not an Academician to the ICJ This Time

On 19 June, India has re-nominated former CJI, Justice Dalveer Bhandari as a candidate from Asia-Pacific region, for the proposed elections in respect of the seat of member in the International Court of Justice (ICJ). Notably, Justice Bhandari was elected as a member of the Court in April 2012 to fill the vacancy occurred due to the resignation of Awn Shawkat Al-Khasawneh, a sitting member from Jordan. According to Article 13 of the Statute of the ICJ, a member of the Court is elected for a term...

KK Venugopal : A Great Human Being And A Jurist Par Excellence

Today the President of India has cleared the name of  Shri K. K. Venugopal as the new Attorney-General for India. Mr. Venugopal is practicing as Senior Advocate in the Supreme Court of India for a long time (about five decades) and is an internationally known jurist who has appeared in many landmark cases in the Supreme Court as well as the different High Courts in the country. He holds the legacy of his great father Mr. M. K. Nambiar who had played a great role in the A. K. Gopalan case and...

“Space Is The Limit”- Where Does India Stand?

A secure spacefaring nation, an emerging “key player” in Avant-garde space research & technology, but an absent domestic space lawISRO’s Meteoric RiseFrom the launch of small sounding (research) rockets in 1963 by the Indian National Committee for Space Research (INCOSPAR) with the support of United Nations till today, India’s tryst with space research has materialized into many successful missions in wide-ranging areas including communication, broadcasting, meteorology, oceanography,...

‘Can We Not Do Better?’ [Part-III] By R.Basant, Senior Advocate, Supreme Court]

Like a school boy I am waiting for my court to reopen. I took the first available flight after the courts closed on the 9th of May to Calicut  and am waiting for the flight on the 1st of July to take me back to Delhi to be there to welcome the new judicial year at the Supreme Court.Let me confess. This Senior citizen has not done much of updation, research or work during the vacation. The weather in Kerala has been fine and it was great to be with family and friends. But such lazy times  compel...

Hohfeldian and judicial analysis of the punitive action against press by Karnataka Speaker

Last week the Karnataka Assembly speaker KB Koliwad found two journalists, Ravi Belagere and Anil Raju, guilty of publishing defamatory articles about the Speaker and other MLAs and sentenced each to one year’s imprisonment and INR 10,000/- Fine after a privileges committee for inquiry, headed by Yelahanka MLA SR Vishwanath, recommended punitive action against them. Raju of Yalahanka Voice had published an article on BJP MLA Vishwanath, while Belagere of Kannada weekly Hi Bangalore had published...

All You Need To Know About Prosecution Sanction [Part-III]

I. NO SANCTION REQUIRED WHERE PUBLIC SERVANT IS HOLDING AN OFFICE OTHER THAN THE PARTICULAR OFFICE HE HAD ABUSED No sanction is required in case of abuse of a particular office and the accused public servant is not continuing in that office or is holding an altogether different office (R.S. Naik v. Antulay (1984) 2 SCC 183 = AIR 1984 SC 684 - 5 Judges; Habibulla Khan v. State of Orissa - (1995) 2 SCC 437 = AIR 1995 SC 1124; Parkash Singh Badal v. State of Punjab (2007) 1 SCC 1; K. Karunakaran v....

Should Banks Be Held Responsible For Loss Of Valuables Kept In Lockers?

The RBI and 19 public sector banks recently revealed under the Right to Information Act, 2005, that they have no liability for the things/ goods kept in their lockers by customers. The banks contended that their relationship with the customers with regard to lockers is that of lessee and lessor. In common parlance, the lessee is the bank and lessor is the customer. They further made the customer responsible for the valuables he/ she keeps in the locker.In general, the locker hiring agreements of...

The Emergency - What Happened 40 Odd Years Ago And Why Is That Important Today

In 1975, Justice Jagmohan Sinha of the Allahabad High Court delivered a judgment that would alter the course of Indian democracy forever. The judgment was in the case of Raj Narain v Indira Gandhi, in which the sitting Prime Minister of India, Shrimati Gandhi was held guilty of electoral practices in her 1971 general election victory and was disqualified to continue as the PM. She was even barred from contesting polls for 6 years - which meant that her political career effectively ended. But...