Articles
Lapses In Extending Compensation To Victims
Justice is often perceived as complete once court delivers its verdict. Yet, the true measure of Justice lies in its ability to address the harm suffered by the victim through meaningful restitution, rehabilitation, and support. In this regard, Victim Compensation has become an Integral component of contemporary Criminal Justice Systems, marking a transition from offender-centric models to victim-oriented frameworks that acknowledge and address the rights, needs, and rehabilitation of...
Diluted Spirit: Kerala's Low-Alcohol Tax And What Law Permits
A single line in the revised Kerala Budget has reopened the oldest argument this State has with itself. The line cuts the tax on a class of drink the law calls low alcoholic beverages, and it now sits inside a Finance Bill due before the Assembly on July 1. Most of the conversation around it has been about who gains and who is embarrassed. I want to set that aside and ask the two questions a lawyer is trained to ask. What does the law allow the State to do here, and what should it choose to do....
Crypto's Regulatory Vacuum: India's ₹2,500 Crore Problem
On 17 June 2026, officers of the Enforcement Directorate descended on six premises across Bengaluru linked to five cryptocurrency payment companies. The alleged offence is routing over ₹2,500 crore (roughly $300 million) abroad through stablecoin transfers, without the RBI's authorisation. 6 crore in bank assets were frozen. No arrests have been made. Significantly, the action was not under India's money laundering law. It was under the Foreign Exchange Management Act, a 1999 statute designed...
Revisiting Section 56 CPC: Does Article 15(3) Still Justify Civil Arrest Immunity For Women?
More than a century after its enactment, Section 56 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 continues to occupy an unusual place in Indian procedural law. The provision declares in unequivocal terms that no woman shall be arrested or detained in civil prison in execution of a decree for payment of money. While the remainder of the execution framework under the Code permits arrest and detention of a judgment-debtor in specified circumstances, women remain completely exempt from such coercive...
A Fraudster's Best Friend
SEBI put out an interim order in one of the most comprehensive front-running cases in India's regulatory history in January 2025. The alleged scheme was led by Ketan Parekh, who was suspended for 14 years due to the 2001 stock market fraud scandal. The scheme had involved brokers based in Singapore and a large American fund house using complex trading structures through numerous layers of broker-dealers in many jurisdictions. This case is significant not just because of its complexity, but...
Prosecution Sanction And Jurisdictional Contours Of The High Courts In The Exercise Of Writ Jurisdiction
The origins of Section 197 can be traced to the British-era Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898. The provision was introduced by the colonial administration to protect public officials from vexatious or retaliatory criminal proceedings initiated by private individuals in response to actions performed in the course of their official duties. Under the 1898 Code, no court could take cognizance of an offence alleged to have been committed by a Judge, Magistrate, or a public servant who was not...
Why Employment Surveillance Clauses Are Void, Not Just Risky, Under DPDP Regime
Employment contracts and onboarding policies across Indian companies now routinely contain clauses authorising the employer to track emails, log keystrokes, monitor browsing activity, and capture screenshots. Compliance guides issued after the Digital Personal Data Protection Rules, 2025 came into force have encouraged exactly this: insert a monitoring clause, call it “legitimate use,” move on. The advice treats the clause as a compliance checkbox. It is not. Most of these clauses are void.The...
14 Lawyers – Portraits From Bar By Raju Ramachandran: A Book Review
I first learnt of Senior Counsel and former ASG Raju Ramachandran's intent to write pen-portraits of lawyers he admired on the hot summer morning on which the annual SCBA Elections were held in May 2025. Both he and I - early voters were waiting in line for the process to begin and were chatting. And ever since, I have been eagerly waiting to read his book titled 14 Lawyers – Portraits from the Bar. The book comprising of pen portraits of distinguished lawyers is an excellent read. An...
From US–EU Divergence To Global Approach In AI Governance
Artificial intelligence has become one of the most challenging fields to govern in the last decade, and the two jurisdictions that have shaped global technology policy have chosen strikingly different paths. The European Union has enacted comprehensive, binding legislation rooted in product safety and fundamental rights. The United States, by contrast, has pursued a fragmented, innovation-permissive course defined by light federal guidance and a growing patchwork of state laws. For organisations...
Beyond Boilerplate: GST Indemnities In Commercial Contracts And Allocation Of Tax Risk
A company has signed a supply contract with a vendor at a fixed price. The vendor raises a tax invoice on which GST is charged. The company pays the entire amount, including GST, and accounts for it in its books. After a few months, on a tax audit or departmental inspection of its records, the company is informed that the vendor has either not remitted the GST collected, has not reported the invoice correctly to the department, or has had issues in its compliance related to the...
What Mamla Legal Hai Gets Right And Misses About Death Penalty
One of the most unexpected explorations of the death penalty in recent Indian popular culture comes from Netflix's Mamla Legal Hai. Known for its humour and everyday courtroom chaos, the show's final episode quietly raises difficult questions about reform, punishment and justice.Mamla Legal Hai is a Netflix courtroom drama set in Delhi's district courts. The show uses humour to highlight the chaos which abounds in legal practice, and allows a glimpse into how people negotiate and navigate law in...
