-Dhruv Madan and Maya Sarmah In Part I of this two-part post, we examined the shifting jurisprudence under Sections 375 and 377 IPC, through the cases of Imran Khan @ Ashok Ratna v. State of U.P. and Mohd. Mustafa & Ors. v. NCT of Delhi. Both these cases take a contradictory stance on whether the … Continue reading From 375 to 377: right to orientation conflicting with right to consent? Part- II
- Kush Taparia, Hanshita Sharma “The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding.” - Justice Louis D. Brandeis Introduction The recent ruling of the Supreme Court ["SC"] in Imran Pratapgadhi v. State of Gujarat [“Imran Pratapgadhi”] has once again brought into focus the ambiguity and uncertainty … Continue reading From Mandate to Discretion: How Imran Pratapgadhi Reconfigures the Understanding of FIR Jurisprudence
-Ayush Gupta Introduction The long and contentious aspect of solitary confinement has always been a topic of debate in criminal law jurisprudence, which raises serious human rights and legal concerns. Keeping inmates in confinement for prolonged hours without meaningful human contact has been criticized globally for its harmful physiological and psychological effects. This practice is … Continue reading How Judicial Permissiveness Sustains Solitary Confinement in Indian Prisons
-Ishan Vijay Introduction There is a lot of uproar of Section 498-A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) or Sections 85 and 86 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) i.e. cruelty, and its misuse, from activists to courts. And while that remains to be an existing challenge, this article seeks to focus on a less … Continue reading CRUELTY; BUT NOT FOR THE SECOND WIFE
-Mohamed Thahir Sulaiman INTRODUCTION In its recent judgment in Jalaluddin Khan v. Union of India, the Supreme Court has reemphasized the well-established principle that "bail is the rule, jail is the exception," even in cases arising under special statutes like the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 (‘UAPA’). However, this ruling conflicts with the Court's earlier … Continue reading REAFFIRMING THE LIBERAL BAIL JURISPRUDENCE
-Yash Sharan Introduction In the first half of 2024, the lawmakers of the United States of America (“US”) have taken cognizance of the cases involving prisoners undergoing long-term sentences. For instance, the state of Oklahoma in the US passed a law that would reduce sentences for those criminals who are victims of domestic violence. This … Continue reading REDEMPTION AND REFORM: ANALYSING THE ‘SECOND CHANCES’ LEGISLATION IN AMERICA’S CRIMINAL JUSTICE LANDSCAPE
-Jugaad Singh INTRODUCTION Overflowing and overburdened prisons are often a consequence of either an increased crime rate or an increased conviction rate. However, in India, the situation is neither. It is the consequence of a delayed judicial process, as more than 75% of the in-mates are under trial prisoners. While the overflow of prisons is … Continue reading UNCERTAINTY UNDER-TRIAL: DISCRETION IN DENIAL OF BAIL U/S 436A
- Vedant Choudhary The Law Commission of India in its 283rd report, titled, ‘Age of Consent under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012’ has recommended against amending the age of consent under the POCSO Act. This negative recommendation comes in light of growing cases of romantic relationships between minors, where de facto … Continue reading The 283rd Law Commission Report – Better If Not Implemented
-Madhav Aggarwal INTRODUCTION The Supreme Court in its recent judgement in the case of Manoj v. State of MP laid down guidelines to be adhered to in cases pertaining to offences that can lead to a death sentence. It held that for sentencing, the jail authorities must produce a contemporaneous psychological and psychiatric report of … Continue reading EXECUTION OF DEATH SENTENCE AFTER TREATING MENTAL ILLNESS
-Avanti Deshpande Introduction In January 2022, a Division Bench of the Supreme Court set aside an order of externment against a man from Maharashtra who had been externed from the Jalna district for a period of two years, holding that, an order of externment was not an ordinary measure, but an extraordinary one, and it … Continue reading Evaluating Externment: Does the Anachronistic ‘Exile’ Continue to be an Effective Practice?
-Ms. Lovleen Sharrma & Sakshi Komal Dubey Introduction As per the Prison Statistics India Report, 2021 the figure of prison inmates in women’s jails adds up to 3,808. The Women In Prison Report, 2018 which sought to study the condition of women prisoners highlighted that the prison population increased drastically, and had therefore created challenges … Continue reading Addressing the Right of Female Prisoners (to Bleed): Menstrual Management Behind the Bars
~By Pragun Goyal The presumption of innocence of the accused is an esteemed 'golden thread’ in the criminal jurisprudence which is fundamentally tied to a reputation-related aspect of the accused in the criminal trial. The raisons d'être of this aspect is that no one can impute guilt to the accused before he is convicted beyond … Continue reading Reverse Burden of Proof and its Implications on Presumption of Innocence
-By Harsh Panwar Introduction Access to legal aid is considered a pertinent issue by the stakeholders in the criminal justice system. However, much of the conversation on legal aid mechanisms have only been centred around access to legal aid to an accused. At the same time, there exists hardly any conversation around guaranteeing the ‘effectiveness’ … Continue reading Assessing the Quality of Legal Aid: Need for A Uniform Legal Framework
-By Sanjeet Aggarwal The Nazi extermination camps of Central Europe, which used to murder over 2.7 million people during the Holocaust, were among the most brutal and barbarous manifestations of human malice and cruelty that anybody could persist through. On detainment by the SS(Schutzstaffel), the prisoners taken in by the Nazi's went through a literal … Continue reading Exploring Holocaust Survivors’ Post Liberation Delinquency: An Analysis Through an Unexplored Theory of Neutralization of Crime
- By Shraddha and Yana Gupta (This article is the second part of a two-part series) Introduction India is a democratic nation and recognition of dissent remains a sine qua non of a true and a living democracy. However, grave misreading of law coupled with dubious intents on the part of the Indian government has … Continue reading Crackdown on Dissent : A Call for Reform and Action
By Divyanshu Gupta Introduction In a recent report prepared by Adrian Zenz titled ‘The CCP’s Campaign to Suppress Uyghur Birthrates in Xinjiang’, it has come to light that China is forcing Uyghur women, a Muslim ethnic minority population in Xinjiang, to be sterilized and take birth control measures to curb its population. Adrian Zenz is … Continue reading China forces birth control on Uyghur Community: violation of International Law Principles
By Rashika Bhardwaj & Prasoon Introduction The Prisons Act of 1894 (PA) and the Prison Statistics India reveal how mental health is not a lesser discussed issue in just the society, but it has largely been ignored by the government and especially the prisons of India. When the prison statistics released by the National Crime … Continue reading Mentally Ill Prisoners & their Rights
By Gahna Rajani and Himanshu Bhargava Introduction J Jayaraj and Bennix Immanuel were subjected to brutal torture in police custody and later succumbed to death. This was not the first incident. The prisoners in India have been subjected to torture and violence for a long time. The apex court has issued several guidelines in the … Continue reading Police in India: Protectors against Injustice or Perpetrators of Injustice?
By Abhiraj Das and Nihal Deo Sudan has in April 2020 banned and criminalized Female Genital Mutilation. India is also no less a victim of the practice, but the absence of special legislation and inadequacy of the existing laws has allowed FGM to persist in silence. What is FGM? WHO has defined Female genital mutilation/Cutting … Continue reading Female Genital Mutilation: When Will India Take Concrete Steps?
By Rishav Devrani and Poojan Bulani INTRODUCTION The Sudanese government on April 22, 2020, made an announcement criminalizing the long-followed practice of Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (hereinafter ‘FGM/C’) by amending its Criminal Law Article 141. A WHO report shows that more than 200 million women and girls alive today have undergone the practice of female genital … Continue reading Sudan’s Criminal Law Amendments and the State of Women’s Rights
By Diksha Singh “Adherence to the constitutional principle of substantive due process is an integral part of our collective response to terrorism. We must uphold the right of fair trial for all individuals, irrespective of how heinous their crimes may be.”[i] Terrorism persists as an iniquitous operation in society that has shaken the entire human … Continue reading UAPA, 1967: A Draconian Law to Combat Terrorism
