Reminiscing the Court Room genius on his Birth Anniversary: Nani Palkhivala

In the words of C Rajagopalachari, “N. A. Palkhivala was God’s Gift to India”. Born to Parsi Parents on January 16th, 1920 in Mumbai, Palkhivala joined the Bar in 1944 in the Chambers of Sir Jamshedji Behramji Kanga. Within ten years he was presenting cases before the Supreme Court. He authored one of his great works ‘The Law and Practice of Income Tax’ with Jamshedji. The book was in print before he turned 30!The man who propounded the significance of the ‘basic structure doctrine’ and who gave...

Derogation by Omission; Disclosure by Default? A Brief Exploration of the Law on Biometric Information Disclosure in India

IntroductionRules on disclosure of biometric information of citizens by private entities holding such information upon requests or orders from law enforcement and other agencies/ third parties, were first formulated in India in the form of Information Technology (Reasonable Security Practices and Procedures and Sensitive Personal Information) Rules of 2011(hereafter referred to as “the IT Rules”). Interestingly, these Rules were framed to implement a recent legislative intent (under new...

Bifurcation of Police Investigation Wing and Law & Order Wing

In every developed country, crime investigation department is a separate wing. In the United States of America, the Federal Bureau of investigation is an independent organization for investigation of serious crimes and it has come into existence much earlier. The Bureau of investigation was created on July 26, 1908, to work for a new investigative agency. In 1932, it was renamed as the United States Bureau of Investigation and then as the Division of Investigation. It became an independent...

Respect All, Suspect All; Chances of having been deceived are commensurate with- the level of ignorance

Even through our latest buy we can be as ever undecided with an incomprehensible askance whether we have been cheated. But it is more of our ignorance than anything else that might have turned out to be the bliss, not for us but, for our wily shopkeeper. The man sitting across the counter, of course, may not look alike the master of sorts but might have got enough of wits and guts to distract us from bare essentials of any deal-discourse. Though the buyers with their little knowledge  are always...

8 years of Right To Information Act in India : An Appraisal

IntroductionRight to Information (RTI) Act is landmark legislation which was enacted in India in the year 2005 which has completed eight years recently. It has brought radical change in the country’s administration and society. With the help of RTI Act one can come to know about the working of the public authority. Earlier citizen were not aware about the affairs of public authority, thus it resulted in wide spread corruption in the system. RTI has completed 8 years recently and it carries many...

Amartya Sen and the Idea of Justice: Some Random Reflections from an Indian Perspective

Amartya Sen has a prominent place among the most respected contemporary economists. Winner of Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences in1998 he is a known philosopher  too. His academic position at Harvard is 'Professor of Economics and Philosophy'. He was the President of the American Philosophical Association for a term.                An Indian ProfessorSen was born in 1933 on the Campus of Santiniketan, founded by Tagore in West Bengal. His name Amartya was given to him by the poet Tagore himself....

Imperial morality of the Apex Court over shines the Constitutional wisdom

By upholding the colonial laws of the Victorian era in Suresh Kumar Koushal and Another vs. NAZ Foundation and Others, the Indian judiciary, in Justice Holmes language, has  fallen into the ‘pitfalls of antiquarianism’ by failing to look beyond the imperial period. The living monuments of Indian civilization at Jagadambi Temple at Khajuraho and ancient texts such as Patanjali’s grammer, the Kamasutra and the Strinirvanaprakarana don’t seem to extend degraded treatment to sexual minorities....

Retirement Age Raise: Panacea for Pendency ? (Part – II)

Although, “The average rate of disposal per Judge per year fixed at one of the Chief Justice’ Conference was 650” as per S.P. Gupta’s case (supra), Mr. RaghulSudheesh in the Bar and Bench news letterdated 10th July 2013 published a detailed list of the number of judgments delivered by each of the Judges (both retired and in service) for a period of three and half years of time. The said two tables are reproduced below for easy reference with the permission of the author.Table IVRetired Judges...

Three Unfortunate Women; Three Landmark Legislations

In hearing a victim’s testimony, each of us feels and understands the intensity of tragedy. Because we understand, we care. After Nirbhaya incident, more victims than ever before are actively engaged in advocacy by blogging and speaking to the media about the abuse they have endured. The mind-set, “Shhh, sexual assault is a private matter, she should keep that story to herself” has changed. The outlook of Indian women is varying and they understand that secrecy is where the perpetrators of...

Confessions of our times

Here comes yet another disclosure with a heavy heart. Former CBI S P Thyagarajan who had been assigned to record the statement of Perarivalan- the 18th accused in the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi-reveals that he had miserably failed in accomplishing his job. He says that the whole thing had gone wrong. He lets on that he had not fully recorded Perarivalan’s statement. He unveils that the cops hardly had any evidence to prove the alleged complicity of Perarivalan. He confesses from the heart of...

Understanding The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act 2013

INTRODUCTIONSexual harassment in workplace is a serious irritating factor that renders women’s involvement in works unsafe and affects right to work with dignity (Alok Bhasin, Sexual Harassment at Work, EBC, 2007). It is unwelcome verbal, visual or physical conduct of a sexual nature that is severe or pervasive and affects working conditions or creates a hostile work environment. Generally sexual harassment is a sexually oriented conduct that may endanger the victim’s job, negatively affect the...

Rajiv Gandhi Assassination Case - Prosecute CBI SP

The media on 24th Nov 2013 reported under the caption ‘Former CBI official says he did not record Perarivalan’s confession verbatim’.Mr. V. Thiagarajan, IPS(retired), who was the then CBI Superintendent of Police of the Kerala Branch said that he was assigned the task of recording the statement of accused persons in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case in 1991. The Hindu reported, “A documentary released by the People’s Movement Against Death Penalty (PMADP) claimed that the CBI had failed to...