Controlling Thoughts by the Empire : Importance of Shyam Balakrishnan v. State of Kerala

"Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high: where knowledge is free ... Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit: Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever widening thought and action let my country awake….".    It was with the above immortal words of Rabindranath Tagore, Justice O. Chinnappa Reddy concluded his Locus Classicus ‘State Of Madhya Pradesh Vs. Ramashankar Raghuvanshi’ [AIR 1983 SC 374]. It was a case wherein...

Syam Balakrishnan Case - A New Bill of Rights on Personal Liberty

A coming back of heydays for Constitutional Law!!!!!  Inertia on Interpretational exercise appears waning.  Vibrant connotations on Constitution are in the horizon!  ‘Personal liberty’, a concept slowly fading, is again back on its track to the core of constitutional jurisprudence.  This is the feel of euphoria now hovers in the legal circle with Justice Muhammed Mustaque’s judgment in ‘Syam Balakrishnan’ case. ‘Being Maoist is not a crime’ – a captivating caption is given to the judgment by...

A Black Bill on Black Money

The popularly termed Black Money Bill came to Rajya Sabha for discussion on May 13. I could only watch with great irritation and some amusement the magnanimity of the Presiding Chairperson of allowing all supporters of the Bill to consume almost the entire two hours allotted for discussion and disposal of the Bill. I must say I was a little surprised that the Congress Party also supported the Bill. Was it brilliant 'floor management', or depth of strategic partnership?My conscientious objection...

Why you should oppose the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Bill 2014

Since the Nirbhaya rape in Dec. 2012, media has been repeatedly demonizing children found involved in commission of serious offences, leading to a public outcry against the protective approach of the Juvenile Justice Act 2000. Children have become the target of media attack and very severe scrutiny if they commit an offence. Even though the child involved in Nirbhaya was found not be the most brutal, he continues to be referred like that just because one police officer said so without any...

Holiday cravings in India

Two occurrences in the month of March 2015 were eye openers as far as our holiday cravings were concerned. When the Chief Justice of India convened a conference of high court chief justice’s to be held on April 3rd, 4th and 5th, one of the days (3rd April) happened to be Good Friday. This evoked murmurs of protest and there were demands that the conference be cancelled. The protest was raised mainly by the Bishops Conference of India, which was later followed by a motion before the Supreme Court...

"Free speech, Obscenity and 'Respected Historical Personalities': A Troubling New Doctrine

When the Supreme Court struck down S. 66A of the IT Act in Shreya Singhal vs Union of India two months ago, the verdict was hailed as a landmark milestone in Indian free speech jurisprudence, for two reasons. First, for once, the Supreme Court followed up its platitudes about the value of free speech in a democracy not with a sentence beginning with “but...”, but rather with actual concrete action – striking down a speech-restricting provision. And secondly, it was a judgement in which the...

Conversion of Law Professors into Justice: Is it a Dream or Possiblity?

1. PrefatoryThe law professors constitute a big constituency of academics in India who are engaged in law teaching and research in different universities and colleges, producing thousands of lawyers and judges over the years. They are highly qualified, in fact more qualified than their other counter parts, judges and lawyers, but their stake in legal profession is less recognized. In fact, they are highly ignored by their other counterparts, as well as the Government. They have very few...

Direction for Third Gender not an acceptable legal proposition

Supreme Court of India has declared that Hijras, eunuchs,  apart from binary genders, be treated as “third gender” for the purpose of safeguarding their rights under Part III of the Indian Constitution and other laws. The Central and State Governments are directed to grant legal recognition of their gender identity such as male, female or third gender. Other directions to protect them is also issued by the judgment of the Supreme Court of India in the case filed by the National Legal Services...

A Damocles Sword that never falls

The  Supreme Court directions  in Priyanka Srivastava 2015 (2) KHC SN 30 SC raise many curious issues.  The Apex court said that, for sending a matter for investigation under section 156 (3) Cr.P.C, the complaint should be supported by an affidavit.   The reason behind it is sound. But it will in a way curtail the power of the magistrate !When a complaint is before the magistrate, he can either take cognizance by himself and proceed with the matter or send it to police for investigation.  There...

An indefensible decision

Chief Justice H.L Dattu has refused to participate in the National Judicial Appointment Commission (NJAC) which practically “stalled any immediate chances of constituting the new judicial appointments body” (Krishnadas Rajagopal,The Hindu, 28.4.2015).  Thus, even without   a judicial interdiction against NJAC, an impediment has been created by the Chief Justice by his personal decision to stay away from the Commission.The vacuum due to non-constitution of the NJAC also is a serious matter....

Collegium in Collation with Executive’s Frailty

Essential attributes of State are Government, Territory, Sovereign and Population.  Sovereign power, with the evolutions of State, got distributed in Executive, Judiciary and Legislature.  Each component acted as countervailing forces against the other to prevent accumulation of Sovereign power in one entity.  ‘Separation of Power’ of Montesquieu lends credence to this system with a political philosophy contained in his ‘Spirit of Laws’.  We, with rich heritage of this philosophy from the...

Is RTI Act taking away the sanctity of Hippocrates oath ?

The Chief Information Commissioner, while rendering his decision of 10-4-2015 in Case No:CIC/KY/A/2014/001348SA (Ms Jyoti Jeena v. PIO, Institute of Human Behavior & Allied Science ) has held that a wife who is applicant therein is entitled to get copies medical records of her estranged husband. The correctness of the decision is doubted by many including activists of medical ethics. The reason is that it makes inroads into the principles of confidentiality of patient related information...