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Combat Roles for Women in India’s Armed Forces – Constitutionality of the Prohibition
In 2019, the Supreme Court of India (‘the Court’) delivered seminal judgments with regard to the role of women in the armed forces. In two landmark rulings, The Secretary, Ministry ofDefencev. Babita Puniya, (‘Babita Puniya’) and Union of Indiav. Lt. Cdr. Annie Nagaraja, (‘Annie Nagaraja’), the Court struck down the discriminatory policy of not allowing permanent commission for women in the Army and Navy. This article argues that the recent judgments in Babita Puniyaand Annie Nagaraja only scratch the proverbial patriarchal surface of institutional roadblocks that the Constitution still preserves.
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Kashmir and Transgender Rights
On August 5, 2019, India’s lower house of parliament, the Lok Sabha, passed the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill of 2019 after little substantive debate. On the very same day, India’s president took steps to abrogate the erstwhile State of Jammu & Kashmir’s territorial integrity and autonomy. As I explain in this brief blog post, these two developments are not just temporally but substantively linked too.
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Heathrow Runway and Mopa: The Limits of the Law’s Role in Environmental Impact Management
The way in which the law manages the environmental impact of major infrastructure projects is different in different jurisdictions. Despite the differences in legal culture, the following analysis of the two cases will be used to reflect on a single lesson about the limitations of the law’s role in managing the environmental impacts of major infrastructure projects.
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The Problem with India’s Living Constitution
The Supreme Court of India has repeatedly held that our Constitution is a ‘living document’ which evolves according to the changing times. How does this evolution take place? Does this evolution mean a change in the text of the Constitution? Or does it mean a change in the way we understand the text of the Constitution?
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Crisis Cartels During the Pandemic: A Beacon of Hope for the Indian Economy?
The COVID-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc on the global economy, thereby bringing various antitrust issues to light. One such issue pertains to whether competition authorities should consider allowing crisis cartels to function. I argue that an exemption for restructuring cartels is necessary to deal with the current economic crisis, specifically the problem of overcapacity. I substantiate my argument with examples of Indian industries that are currently plagued by overcapacity.
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Indus Biotech v. Kotak: Interactions Between Insolvency and Arbitration Regimes In India
Across several jurisdictions, there is an ongoing discussion regarding the intersection and interaction between insolvency and arbitration laws. In the Indian context, recently, the National Company Law Tribunal (‘the NCLT’), Mumbai Bench, delivered an intriguing and pioneering judgement in Indus Biotech v.Kotak India.
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Searching for the Goal of the Indian Competition Act, 2002
The overriding goal of Indian competition law is enhancement of end-consumer welfare. It is this that must consistently determine appreciable adverse effect on competition [‘AAEC’] and dominance analysis, in CCI decisional practice. To make this argument, I examine various aspects of the Act, concerning predatory pricing, monopsony power, mergers, [...]
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Reorganisation of Special Courts under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act – A Step Forward
This article evaluates the Government of Maharashtra’s initiative of state-wise decentralisation of the MCOCA Special Courts. To substantiate the argument, I analyse the judicial business of the MCOCA Special court, Pune, which caters to five districts of Western Maharashtra, namely, Sangli, Kolhapur, Satara, Pune and Solapur [...]
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The Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act: Looking into the Failure of Human Rights Challenges Against the Law
Farooq and Omar Abdullah, Mehbooba Mufti, and Shah Faesal are some of the well-known names who have been detained by the state, time and again, under the Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act (‘PSA’). Even though these people too have faced a harrowing experience, they have still been fortunate enough to get the media attention, the resources, as well as the support to legally challenge their detentions.
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Treading the Line Between Arbitrability and Serious Fraud: An Analysis of Avitel Post Studioz Ltd. v. HSBC PI Holdings (Mauritius) Ltd.
Parul Kumar - 0
The judgment in Avitel Post Studioz Ltd.v. HSBC PI Holdings (Mauritius) Ltd.is the latest in a series of judgments delivered by the Supreme Court of India in recent years engaging with the question of arbitrability of fraud. This article discusses the thematization of the arbitrability of fraud by the Supreme Court in this judgment, analyzing its contribution to the jurisprudence on the topic.
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Trading in Guilt: Unreliability and Institutional Abuse of Sec. 30, Indian Evidence Act
In India, the confession of a co-accused has been provided in Section 30 of the Indian Evidence Act. Section 30 provides that courts may consider the confession of a co-accused against the accused if the confession affects both of them when they are tried jointly. However, such confession may only be used as an additional support [...]
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Bright-Lines, Blurred-Lines, and Between-the-Lines: Interpretative Dogmas in Service Law
In practice, not all Service Rules are read alike. Intertwined with political considerations, these Rules raise several jurisprudential difficulties of interpretational consistency, jurisdictional competence, and realpolitik effect. While some Rules are proclaimed as absolute, others are spoken with negotiability; and on rarer occasions, there are whispers of surreptitiousness. The question that arises is whether there exists a uniform judicial approach in Service Law interpretation
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Structural Interpretations in Article 25 – Clarifying the Meaning of ‘Freedom’
what is the extent of freedom that is guaranteed under A. 25 (‘the question’)? Prima facie, it may seem as if the answer to this question is very easy. I argue that the opening words of Art. 25 ‘subject to’ can indeed be given differing interpretations, and that the SC has adopted a certain approach implicitly (in that it does not form a part of the court’s analysis explicitly) in Sabarimala. I will clarify the exact meaning (and implications) of the question posed above [...]
