Playing the Solitary Reaper

The Banks have adopted an education loan scheme (‘Scheme’), following the revised Model Scheme formulated by Indian Banks Association to provide need- based assistance to meritorious students to pursue higher education. Eligibility criteria stipulated under the scheme says:- the applicant should have secured admission to a higher education course in recognized institutions in India or abroad through Entrance Test/Merit based selection process after completion of HSC (10 plus 2 or equivalent)....

Hyper Constitutionalism- The Journey from TMA Pai to NEET case

Judicial dissent is rare in these collegium days. The master of the roster, the Chief Justice, enjoys the privilege to constitute the Bench and majority and minority views, are often decided at the time of  selection of judges for the bench constitution. After all it is a number game world over, and not free from its vices.Judicial discipline commands obedience to the majority view Stricto Sensu. Inside the court, minority judgment is often assigned literary value, contrary to perception I would...

Judicial Legislation – Boon or Bane?

Press Council Chairman and former Supreme Court Judge, Justice Katju in his article to The Hindu dated 17th July, 2013 criticized the recent judgments on the disqualification of convicted legislators and candidates in custody, and the banning of caste rallies on the ground that that judgment given are not correct in law and must be revisited.  He relied on his own judgment, Government of Andhra Pradesh v. P. Laxmi Devi and quoted that “invalidating an Act of the legislature is a grave step and...

Identity Disclosure of Rape Victims: Judicial Apathy

On 1st July 2013 Justice P. Sathasivam and Justice Jagdish Singh Khehar of Supreme Court of India delivered a judgment in Karthi@ Karthick v. State represented by Inspector of police, Tamil Nadu. This is a record breaking judgment not because it has laid down a new theory or new school of legal thought or latest method of interpretation of law but it will be regarded as the ideal example of judicial laxity as it disclosed the identity of the rape victim 62 times in a nine pages judgment which...

Auction Purchasers be on the alert –Lawmaker is unmindful of the injustice imprint in Article 134 of the Limitation Act R/W Section 47 CPC

Whether an auction purchaser who purchased the property in execution of a decree of a civil court could file a separate suit for delivery of vacant possession of immovable property or whether his remedy is limited to an application under O.21, R.95, Civil Procedure code is an important issue where unfortunately one could find conflicting views among different benches of the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India.Section 47 of the Civil Procedure code provides that all questions arising between the...

Let us do away with 'Your Lordship' and 'My Lord'

Fali S Nariman often tells interesting stories. He writes in his autobiography (Chapter 5): “...a city court judge and a district judge must be addressed as ‘Your Honour’, and (most important of all) a high court judge must always be addressed as ‘Your Lordships’ (believe me, the judges simply love it). Years ago, I appeared before a judge who had just been’ elevated’ from the city civil court to the high court, and was particular about how he should hence forth...

Who is this Law For?

Dr. B Umadethan analyses “Transplantation of Human Organs Act”, introduced in 1994 by the Central Government to curb the kidney business that flourished in our land. Caught entangled in the labyrinthine paths of the law many patients succumb to death as transplantation is not done in time. A few amendments were introduced in 2011. Still it is high time to redefine the purpose and execution of the law says Dr Umadethan in this column. Scene-1  Amrita Medical College Hospital, KochiA young...

Time to revisit Bachan Singh

If we have to go by what the constitution makers considered about the capital punishment, it is easy to find out that they were aware that our Penal Code prescribed it and yet they did not want to interfere with it.  The Indian Penal Code which was in force in many states at the time when the Constitution was made contained more than one offence punishable with death penalty.  In fact, some articles were formulated by the Constitution makers by reference to the death penalty. e.g. The President...

Government all set to open the floodgates, but is there still water left?

Crippled with falling Rupees and increasing deficits, the Government is all set to open the Pandora box of reforms, substantially liberalizing the foreign investment regime in India. Many restrictions, which were considered as sacrosanct earlier, are now going to wither.Foreign investment comes into India mainly through three routes: foreign direct investment, institutional investment or portfolio investment and external commercial borrowing. The first two routes are preferable from a...

Betting In Cricket: Need for a law

The absence of any law to regulate betting in Cricket, a bane on what is considered a gentleman’s game has affected the credibility of those connected with the game of cricket including the sponsors, the owners, the clubs, the players and several others. Cricket is not just a sport, it is a big business now. All those connected with the game are from the affluent sections of the society. Those who manage it are big business houses and those who participate in the game as players do so due to the...

Winning the Battle and Losing the War

Governmental ability to restrict competitions for public contracts only to domestic entities is both important and universal. The underlying economic argument is that public tax dollars spend on procurement must be used, as required, for bolstering domestic manufacturing and employment. As a corollary, national discrimination in public procurement is almost universal: the US, for instance, does not allow Indian bidders to bid for federal contracts, and imposes discriminatory practices such as...

Who Owns Your Genes? You or Myriad Genetics

Patent scholars all over the world are closely watching the verdict to be pronounced by the US Supreme Court in the famous case of Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics Inc. They are hopeful that this decision will eventually settle the law dealing with the patentability of human genes.The main issue before the Supreme Court is to find out whether the composition-of-matter claims in patents owned by Myriad Genetics (since 1997) are patentable under the existing law. These...