People can regulate Parties through RTI

It is difficult to hope that the present political parties agree on any law providing for effective regulation of their parties. What is the way out? Considering the all-round deterioration of moral standards, blaming only the representatives is not proper. Though every voter is not corrupt, surely, most of them are not honest. 90 per cent of employers including teachers, have reportedly sold their postal ballets in recent elections. They are self-centered to the extent that they do not bother...

“Look, Ultimately, Ultimately, Ultimately…” – The lawyer on the bench: Justice Lodha’s Final Day in Court

The scene in courtroom no. 1 today was astonishing. A jampacked courtroom with lawyers having experience at bar ranging from a month to over 70 years were present, few to argue and few just to see Chief Justice R.M.Lodha presiding over the last time. Not to mention, the Attorney General Rohatgi, the Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar, Harish Salve, Dushyant Dave, R.P.Bhatt, Ram Jethmalani and above all Mr. Soli Sorabjee stood tall in the first queue to verbally salute Justice Lodha. Wishes were...

Telangana: Intolerance to hostile media

Voltaire [François-Marie Arouet (1694 –1778)], a French Enlightenment writer, historian and philosopher famous for his wit, advocacy of freedom of religion, freedom of expression, and separation of church and state, said:“I may disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it”. What is happening in Telangana, the new state on tolerance to hostile media?K Chandrasekhar Rao has been caught in the controversy for the first time as CM for his harsh comments against...

Uniform Civil Code: The Unique Goa Experience

The laws of India, be it procedural or substantial do govern every citizen, irrespective of religion, caste or creed. But in matters of marriage, divorce and inheritance, citizens are governed by diverse laws depending on their religion, which are termed as personal laws, though religion is not merely a matter of personal choice. Under a Constitution which promotes an egalitarian society and wedded to the ideals of equality and fraternity, this rule of treating citizens differently based on...

Ethics in Medical Practice

Introduction                                                  “Vaidyaraja namasthubhyam,Yamaraja sahodara                                                Yamasthu harathi pranan, Vaidya pranan dhanani cha”  -- ?The authorship of this stanza is unknown. The meaning is as follows:  “ I salute the physician, who is the brother of Yamaraja (god of death). Yama takes away the pranan (lives), but the physician takes away the pranan as well as the money”.Once upon a time,  the physician was considered...

India’s tryst with tribunalization and transfer of judicial power to regulatory bodies

IntroductionThe liberal economic approach undertaken in 1991 inserted into the Indian political governing system, elements of both democracy and oligarchy. Montesquieu identified three essential organs of a government: legislature, executive and the judiciary. The democratic branch in our system is represented by legislature (bureaucracy as its subordinate) and executive, while the judiciary represents the oligarchy. The constitution as the grund norm and a political document lays down the...

Intellectual Property Rights protection in South Asian countries

Intellectual Property Rights is now considered valuable assets in any major economy as business models of the world over has transformed into more ideas driven. It is intangible domain of rights, so its protection is unique and technically elaborated. IPRs comprises of trademarks, copyrights, Geographical Indication, patent, designs rights. Prior to the multination agreement TRIPS these rights used to be protected through individual manner and most of the times breaches and violations occurred...

Trial by Media [Updated]

This article is confined to the objectionable parallel trial by the media of a case which may be the imminent or current subject matter of a trial before a Court of justice.The Fourth Estate and the Need If Any,  For Its EmpowermentThe term “fourth estate” comes from the Reporter's gallery in the House of Commons of the British Parliament.  The said expression is currently used  to mean the journalistic profession  and the news media.  The origin of the  term   “fourth estate” is attributed to...

Appointment of a former CJI as Governor. Does it improve the status of the Governor or lower the status of judiciary?

It is quite ironical or surprising that a former Chief Justice of India has accepted the post of Governor at a time when the status of the constitutional post has touched upon its nadir. The present day Governors are treated like ‘clerks’ in central secretariat, who continues at the pleasure of their new political masters. For Governors, now transfer has become an ‘incidence of service’. In such context, appointment of a former CJI, does it improve the status of the Governor or lower the status...

Inaccessibility to faith based Banking- Denial of a Constitutional Privilege??

"There have been from time to time demands for experimenting (with) Islamic banking. I would certainly recommend to RBI, which is looking into the question, to look at what is happening in Malaysia in this regard", - the then Indian Prime Minster Mr.Manmohan Singh was quoted as saying in the year 2010. Dr.Raghuram Rajan Committee, a high level Committee on the Financial Sector Reforms appointed by the Planning Commission, Government of India recommended that measures be taken to permit the...

Bench Structure and Constitutional Adjudication – The Court at a Crossroads

What is the thread that binds the Salwa Judum, Aruna Shanbaug, Right to Education and the Naz Foundation cases? These all happen to be relatively significant constitutional matters and, belying Article 145(3) of the Constitution of India, have been decided by benches of two or three judges of the Supreme Court of India. The subject of bench structure which forms a significant part of the literature on adjudication bears important consequences on various issues, some of which shall be outlined...

Can the Constitutional Courts Quash an FIR ?

This article which may perhaps embarrass the higher judiciary of the country and antagonise a section of the robed brethren at the Bar, is penned  out of the disillusionment of the author at the way truth and real life  miseries are forensically placed on the adjudicatory  altar for being judicially guillotined.    Those who are familiar with the curial mechanics know how easy it is to get an FIR quashed and how, until then the investigation of the case is got stalled through an interim order.2....