By Anchal Bhatheja The Law treats civil and criminal matters differently in terms of the degree of burden of proof required, the nature of courtroom procedure to be followed, the punishment to be awarded and so on. This is because civil matters concern only private individuals while criminal matters concern the society at large and … Continue reading The Economics of an Imbalanced Scale of Justice
Aman Garg On January 29, the Gujarat High Court, in a strongly worded verdict, declared the ‘two-finger test’ to be violative of woman’s right to privacy and dignity and held the same to be unconstitutional. The Hon’ble Court noted that the said practice was in direct conflict with different constitutional and statutory provisions and directed … Continue reading Two-finger Test: Transgression into Dignity, Privacy, and more…
By Milind Rajratnam and Shivang Yadav “Censorship is to art as lynching is to justice.” - Henry Louis Gates Jr. INTRODUCTION The UNHRC has passed a resolution that makes access to the internet a basic human right. Recently in the case of Faheema Shirin R.K. v. State of Kerala, the Kerala High Court has held … Continue reading Internet Shutdown under Section 144: Only Alternative?
By Abhinav Sekhri (This is the first part of a new multi-part series on the Blog) December 19, 2019. Thousands of people took to the streets across several major cities of India. The photographs would later reveal just how diverse the gatherings were: many students, of course, but numerous old men, women and salaried employees … Continue reading Section 144 CrPC — Part I
By Aastha Agarwalla and Daksh Aggarwal Prefatory The principal aim of the administrative and judicial processes is to provide a mechanism to protect the interests, physical and psychological well-being and dignity of the victims of serious crimes. One of the prerequisites to achieve the same is to enable the sufferer to be defended and represented … Continue reading Rekha Murarka v. State of West Bengal: Arbitrarily Undermining the Victim’s Rights
By Yagnesh Sharma INTRODUCTION India is viewed as an emerging superpower in the world that we live in today, and one of the major reasons for this status of India is attributed is to the sheer workforce that is translated to the population of the country. This population, however, brings its own problems. While India … Continue reading Privatization of Prisons and the Constitution in India
By Priyadarshee Mukhopadhyay INTRODUCTION “If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.” - George Orwell. Over the last five years, India has been thunderstruck by a growing number of informal public executions or extrajudicial killings commonly recognized under the term “Mob Lynching”. However, … Continue reading The Epidemic of Mob Lynching in India: Analysing Tehseen S. Poonawalla v. Union of India
By Aditya Suresh Introduction The Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 [“CrPC”] aims at consolidating the law pertaining to criminal procedure in India and seeks to ensure a fair and speedy trial, by encompassing the procedural powers and safeguards necessary for the purpose of effective criminal law administration. Chapter XX of the CrPC deals with the … Continue reading The Power to Discharge in Summons Cases Issued Upon Complaint: Judicial Divergence and Future Considerations
By Abhishek Choudhary and Aditya Shekhar “They carried all they could bear, and then some, including a silent awe foe the terrible power of the things they carried.”- Tim O’Brien, The Things They Carried.[1] INTRODUCTION Traumatic events have the potential to generate a psychiatric disorder i.e. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, popularly known as PTSD. War, rape, … Continue reading Debunking Post Traumatic Stress Disorder: A Dilemma for the Criminal Justice System
By Abhinav Sekhri The many public demonstrations across the territory of Delhi and also other parts of the country that began last December brought the police powers of regulating such demonstrations into sharp focus. The statutory powers of the police were easily traceable — the Delhi Police Act of 1978, modelled on the old Police Act of … Continue reading Delhi Police Circulars & Standing Orders for Regulating Protests
By Sehaj Cheema and Kuldeep Garg When the Supreme Court expressly dubbed pollution a tort in 1997,[i] the pronouncement was perhaps prophetic of India witnessing the contentiousness that the law of torts entails. Amongst the controversies that have ensued in the field of India’s environmental laws, a fundamental one is the blurring of the line … Continue reading Amidst Tort & Crime: Quasi-Criminal Liabilities in India’s Anti-Pollution Litigation
By Abhinav Sekhri A Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court decided a reference made in Sushila Aggarwal & Ors. v. State (NCT of Delhi) & Anr. [SLP (Crl.) 7281-82/2017, decided on 29.01.2020], where two questions had been posed for consideration: (1) Whether the protection granted to a person under Section 438 Cr.P.C. should be limited to a fixed period … Continue reading The Constitution Bench Reference in Sushila Aggarwal v. State
By Diya Vaishnav and Nihal Deo Recently, Union Minister Mr. Anurag Thakur and BJP MP Mr. Parvesh Verma received a ban of 72 hours and 96 hours respectively from campaigning for the Delhi Elections. The reason behind the same was the ‘Hate Speech’ that they delivered in their respective rallies in Delhi. While Mr. Thakur … Continue reading The Peril of Hate Speech in India
By Ishan Kumar Introduction “I know that it's hard to believe that the people you look to for safety and security are the same people who are causing us so much harm. ― Ijeoma Oluo, So You Want to Talk About Race On 17th December 2019, the Sri Lanka Supreme Court in the case of Rathnayeke Tharanga … Continue reading Custodial Death Verdict by Sri Lankan Supreme Court: Justice at Last
By Abhinav Sekhri On January 24, 2020, a bench of the Supreme Court, comprising Rastogi & Malhotra, JJ, delivered its judgment in State of Kerala v. Rajesh [Crl. Appeal Nos. 154-57 of 2020]. The State of Kerala had challenged an order of the High Court granting bail to persons in a case under the Narcotics, Drugs & Psychotropic Substances … Continue reading The complex world of bail in India’s Criminal Justice System
