Uphaar Cinema Case – Is Review Of Review Permissible?

Gopal Ansal, who has been convicted of “criminal negligence” under Section 304-A, IPC by the Supreme Court and ordered to surrender in the 1997 Uphaar Cinema fire tragedy vide judgment and order dated 09.02.2017, recently moved an application seeking modification of the order on medical grounds claiming parity with his brother Sushil Ansal who was let off with the sentence already served because of his old age and ailments. At the very threshold, it is very important to know that there are...

Indians In America Should Take All Measures For Their Self-Protection. Americans Have A Protected Right To Possess Handguns

Whenever we hear about an Indian or an American or an outsider to America has become a victim to the gun shots of those Americans, our first reaction is, how come in a nation, which is considered to be the most civilized nation has the elements who resort to unmindful gun violence? As an immediate reaction to this, we tend to dwell on various aspects and finally come to a conclusion that stricter handgun control laws and permitting are important to spare lives. But, this is not a solution at all...

Maternity, And Maternity Leave For Lawyers In Litigation!

I am faced with this today. Many women lawyers that I have grown up admiring, those who have or are adorning the bar and the bench, must have survived the inequality, and must have been through this at some point in their lives. The ‘this’ that I refer to is “maternity”.Like any other job, legal profession comes with its own set of challenges, and while I am the first one to say that gender based discrimination has seen massive decline, we as women lawyers, still feel the pinch of being ‘women’....

Why the Process of Remitting Sentences of Prisoners Needs Reform

On December 2, 2015, the constitution bench of the Supreme Court  revisited the powers of the state Government to grant remission, in Sriharan @Murugan Judgement. After invoking Section 432(2) of Cr.P.C. the Supreme Court added another layer to the already complex process of granting remission.The process now requires the government to seek opinion of the sentencing court before granting remission. Due to this a considerable amount of delay occurs as the Remission board continues to adjourn its...

India Gearing Up For A Healthy And Conducive Arbitration Environment

Supreme Court Upholds "Neutrality Of Arbitrator" In Public Sector Contracts In the recent judgment of M/s. Voestalpine Schienen Gmbh vs. Delhi Metro Rail Corporation Ltd., (delivered on 10-02-2017) the Supreme Court of India while upholding the concept of 'neutrality of arbitrators' envisaged under the amended Section 12 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act 1996 (the Act), has given some directions on the constitution of an arbitration panel to Delhi Metro Rail Corporation Ltd., (DMRC). The...

NCLT’s Contrary Actions: What Does It Signal?

Recent orders issued by various benches of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) in relations to meetings of shareholders with respect to compromises, arrangements and amalgamations, have left the legal fraternity confounded. Where, the Delhi and Mumbai benches, in a manner that is contrary to the conventional practice, have specifically ordered for a meeting of equity shareholders though dispensation had been prayed for, the Chennai Bench has dispensed with the meeting of shareholders under...

Nahalchand Laloochand V. Panchali, The Most Misused Precedent By Litigants

In a 2010 judgment, in the case of Nahalchand Laloochand Pvt. Ltd. v. Panchali Co-operative Housing Society Ltd. [AIR 2010 SC 3607], a real estate company presented the argument that it is correct to sell stilt parking areas or garages as separate individual entities just like a flat, to those who do not own flats in the building and wish to use such entities as parking places. The Hon’ble Supreme Court judges- Justice A.K. Patnaik and Justice R. M. Lodha however,rejected this argument while...

Pulsar Suni's Arrest Not Illegal: Justice KT Thomas

[Pulsar Suni, prime accused in Kerala actor's molestation case was arrested on Thursday from ACJM Court, Ernakulam. At the time of Arrest the Court was not in Session] Arrest from courtroom is permissible if the court has not considered his application for surrendering. The reason is that police arresting an accused before surrendering is a great advantage to them. Custodial interrogation is a sure thing after the arrest. However, if the accused surrenders, the court need not give him to the...

The Catch-22 of ‘No Investigation without Sanction’ and ‘No Sanction without Investigation’: A Critical Analysis of Anil Kumar v. M.K.Aiyappa (2013)

The Conundrum There shall be no Investigation without Sanction. Sanction will be granted on the basis of material collected during Investigation.A Catch-22 situation appears to have arose on account of the decision of the Supreme Court in M.K.Aiyappa where the question that arose was: whether ‘Sanction’ is a necessary precondition for an order for investigation passed u/s 156(3) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (CrPC) with respect to an offence under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988...

Institutionalising Merit, Independence, Aspiration And Diversity: The Transformation Of The British System

“The judicial appointments system can and will appoint only the very best candidates. It cannot afford to do less. Our society is not perfect: we face threats from those who would claim that it is incorrigibly divided, or inherently discriminatory. The composition of the judiciary sends an important signal. When it comes to reassuring communities there can be few stronger messages than the knowledge that our judges are the best people for the job, drawn from throughout our diverse nation and...

Arbitration: A Missing Link

If the taxonomy(a hierarchical system used for classifying organisms into species)is applied in the legal field, we can classify different departments of law into family. There are eight ranks in taxonomy; family is one of such ranks which is classified between order and genus. In that situation, we may classify ‘Dispute Resolution Process’or‘Justice Delivery System’into a family If judicial process is a family, then adversarial system qualifies to be genus of the ‘Justice Delivery System’. Then...

A Tribute To MN Krishnamani

Mr. M.N. Krishnamani, Senior Advocate, Padmashree awardee left for his heavenly abode this morning at Bangalore. Mr. Krishnamani was a very eminent senior advocate practicing in the Supreme Court. He was elected as President of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) on four occasions. In fact, I was President of SCBA for six occasions but on none of these occasions Mr. Krishnamani contested. In fact, he supported me and whenever he contested I did not contest for the post of President of...