By Ashna D After making innumerable attempts to postpone their execution, Mukesh Singh, Pawan Gupta, Vinay Sharma and Akshay Kumar Singh, the four convicts in the Nirbhaya gang-rape case have been hanged to death on 20th March 2020. In recent years, there has been a heightened support in favour of imposing the capital punishment for … Continue reading Looking Beyond Retribution: A Plea To Abolish Capital Punishment
By Jagriti Pandey and Deeptangshu Kar On 11th February 2020 in Praveen Kumar Chaudhary & Ors. v Election Commissioner of India and Ors., the Delhi High Court re-affirmed the constitutionality of Section 62(5) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 that deprives prisoners of their right to cast vote in elections. The Section … Continue reading A Critique of Section 62 (5) of Representation of the People Act, 1951
By Anmol Mathur Introduction The Constitution of India guarantees all persons the right to personal life and liberty, equal protection of laws and prohibits any discrimination based on sex. The Constitution is not simply a long, celebrated, big-book of ideas on democracy and civil society, but is a tool for social change in the coming … Continue reading The Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill, 2019 and Gender-Neutral Sexual Offences in India
By Sehaj Cheema and Kuldeep Garg Although dubbed as the world’s ‘second oldest profession’, it was not until the 20th century that the potential of currency-counterfeiting as a strategic weapon was realized. An ingenious prong of Hitler’s offence against the British consisted of efforts at smuggling counterfeit currency into their territory, and therefore, economically destabilizing … Continue reading From A Peccadillo to Treason: How Counterfeiting Became a Terrorist Offence
By Nipun Kalra INTRODUCTION Judgement is not upon all occasions required, but discretion always is. -Philip Stanhope Discretion is said to be the right or the power to make official decisions using reasoning and accurate judgment of the circumstances while choosing from the available alternatives. The exercise of this power is considered to be omnipotent … Continue reading Scope of Judicial Discretion in Sentencing
By Raj Krishna and Jagriti Pandey INTRODUCTION “Rape is a very serious offence, constituting as it does a humiliating, degrading and brutal invasion of the privacy, the dignity and the person of the victim. The rights to dignity, to privacy, and the integrity of every person are basic to the ethos of the Constitution and … Continue reading South African Constitutional Court Affirms Doctrine of Common Purpose in Rape Cases
By Raj Shekhar and Zevesh Modi “Justice delayed is justice denied.” Abstract On December 16th, 2012 a young paramedical intern was beaten, brutalized and raped by five men and a juvenile on a moving bus. They threw her out afterwards and thereafter, she died due to her injuries and internal bleeding. This case sparked a … Continue reading Nirbhaya Case: An Analysis of the Cyclic Syndrome of Delay and Pendency
By Abhiraj Das and Nihal Deo On the 24th of February, when the international community was keenly looking forward to the U.S. President’s visit to India, a severe riot broke out in Delhi. More than 50 people are reported to have lost their lives with hundreds being injured, shops thrashed and several homes set ablaze. … Continue reading Delhi Riots: Duties of the State Organs
By Abhinav Sekhri Basit, Talib, and Amir are three students of the prestigious KLE college in Karnataka. They are all in their early 20s and received scholarships to pursue their college education. They also happen to be Muslim, and hail from the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir. These students made a short video … Continue reading Descending into the Abyss: The Denial of Bail in the KLE Students Case.
By Bodhisattwa Majumder Apology legislation provides an opportunity for a guilty person to provide information without the fear of liability, thus strengthening the victim’s right to have accurate information.[i] The main purpose behind having apology legislation is to enable the accused to feel culpable for their actions, and offering of sympathy without the fear … Continue reading Apology Legislation: A Boon for an Overburdened Judiciary.
By Abhinav Sekhri (This is the third post in a multi-part series on the Blog on Section 144, Cr.P.C. The previous posts could be found here and here) The previous post traced a historical arc stretching from 1861 till the end of the 19th Century to show the gradual development of Section 144, Cr.P.C. It … Continue reading Section 144 Cr.P.C. – Part III: Expansive Powers, in the hands of many officers
By Abhinav Sekhri (This is Part II in a multi-post series on the Blog. The previous post can be accessed here) In this post, the agenda is threefold: (i) offering a history of how the text behind what is Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code [Cr.P.C.], 1973 evolved during the first thirty years of its existence;(ii) showing … Continue reading Section 144 Cr.P.C. — Part II: Origins, Use, and the “Rule of Law” (From 1861 till 1901)
By Gopal Gour Introduction The criminal justice system works in a set of the hierarchy of institutions which make the process of justice-seeking smoother. It starts with the police and finally leads up to the court which imparts justice. For the sake of impartial and efficient working of the criminal justice system, the courts have … Continue reading Cognizance of the Case after Committal: An Analysis of the Dharam Pal Judgment
