Gujarat Govt. Failed To Maintain Law And Order: HC In Godhra Verdict [Read Judgment]

The Gujarat High Court in the ‘Godhra’ Judgment held that the state Government had failed in its duty to maintain law and order in the state during the period of Godhra incident. The High Court, on Monday, commuted to life imprisonment the death sentence awarded to 11 convicts in the case of the burning of Sabarmati Express in Godhra in 2002, which had triggered massive communal riots...

The Supreme Court’s Right to Privacy Judgment – IX: Living Constitutionalism, Natural Law, and Other Interpretive Issues

The Puttaswamy case came to Court because the Indian Constitution does not have a textually guaranteed right to privacy. Each of the six judgments spent considerable time establishing why, despite the constitutional text, privacy was a fundamental right. Many different arguments were advanced, and in the first two posts in the series, we discussed one of them: privacy was a fundamental right because without it, effective enjoyment of textually guaranteed rights such as the freedom of speech, the...

Bombay HC Slams Trial Court For Branding Petitioner With Stigma Of ‘Living In Adultery’ Without Evidence [Read Judgment]

The Bombay High Court has quashed and set aside an order of a family court in Sholapur wherein an application filed by X seeking enhancement of compensation for herself and her son was rejected and her ex-husband’s (respondent) application seeking cancellation of maintenance was allowed.The family court had relied upon an earlier order dated December 21, 2006, which allowed the...

Constitution Bench Verdict On Triple Talaq Does Not Have A Long Life

Three judgments were delivered by the constitution bench on triple talaq recently. The entire exercise of the constitution bench can be held to be nothing if the three judgments are analysed carefully. The popular belief that triple talaq called ‘talaq-i-biddat’ has been constitutionally ostracised is far from the truth.The first of the three delivered by Chief Justice JS Khehar, though prolix and elaborate, appears to be the correct and one within the constitutional parameters.  The second one...

Appointment Of Dalits As Temple Priests, Affirmative Action & The Way Forward

In the year 1930, Dr. Ambedkar launched his temple entry movement in Nasik (Maharashtra). The Depressed Classes in Nasik informed the trustees of the famous Kalaram Temple that they would launch satyagraha if the trustees did not throw the temple open to the Untouchables before a particular date. The temple entry satyagraha was an initial symbolic move towards social equality and saw resistance from high caste Hindus.After Independence, the Dalits, who account for around 16% of total population,...

MP HC Bars Judicial Officers From Using Social Media During Court Hours

The Madhya Pradesh High Court administration on Saturday restrained the judicial officers and other officials from using any social media such as WhatsApp, Skype, Facebook etc. during the court hours for personal and for any official communication.High Court Registrar General Fahim Anwar has issued the order to this effect.He gave reference of the orders issued by the Chief Justice on...

The Implications Of Collegium’s Decision To Bare its Decisions

The decision of the collegium of the Supreme Court, consisting of the Chief Justice of India and four senior judges, to disclose its decisions and reasons thereof on appointments or non-appointments of judges of the high court and the Supreme Court etc is no doubt popular, but a complete surprise.On the judicial side, the constitution bench of the Supreme Court in 2014 had directed the Union of India to frame a Memorandum of Procedure (MoP) in consultation with the Chief Justice of India on the...

A Tea Vendor’s Battle With Bullet That Killed His Daughter [Read Petition & Rejoinder]

Name: Shyam Sunder Kaushal Age: 47 Occupation: Tea vendor Ambition: Ensuring a strong legislation against celebratory firing“Mera naam Shyam hai. Meri chai ki dukaan hai. Main bus ye chahta hoon ki kisi ki jaan iss tarah ki firing main na jaaye (My name is Shyam. I run a tea stall. All I want is no life is lost in such firing),” he says.A small-time tea shop owner, Shyam talks of...

Karnataka HC's Order Upholding The Ban On Mate Mahadevi's Book Is In Consonance With Law, Says SC [Read Order]

On September 20, the Supreme Court bench of Justices S.A. Bobde and L.Nageswara Rao dismissed the Kannada author and scholar, Mate Mahadevi's petition against the Karnataka High Court's order upholding the Karnataka Government's ban on her book, Basava Vachana Deepthi, without a reasoned order, after hearing arguments for two days. The Karnataka Government had imposed a ban on the book in...

The Jurisprudential Conundrum Of Hadiya Case

Justice has a protean face, capable of change, readily assuming different shapes, and endowed with highly variable features, writes Edgar Bodenheimer in his magnum opus, Jurisprudence, the Philosophy and Method of Law. However, variable the features of our perception of Justice maybe, at its core, it essentially has three values; Liberty, Equality, and Security. Striking a perfect balance between these three components is what ensures moral and legal order in our society. Any of the...

Collegium Clears Three Names For Appointment As Kerala HC Judges [Read Collegium Recommendation]

The Supreme Court Collegium has recommended the names of three District Judges for the appointment as Additional Judges in Kerala High Court.According to the sources the names of Senior District Judges Ashok Menon, R. Narayana Pisharadi and Annie John were recommended by the collegium.Mr.Ashok Menon is now working as the Registrar General of High Court. Mr. Narayana Pisharadi is the...

Allahabad HC Allows Woman’s Plea To Give Her Child In Adoption To Her New Husband [Read Judgment]

Renunciation of the child by a parent can be taken into consideration while determining whether the power to give in adoption has been delegated or to determine the consent to giving in adoption, the court observed.The Allahabad High Court, while expressing its concurrence with the Delhi High Court’s view taken in a matter relating to adoption laws, observed that though the Indian law does...