(In this guest post, Akhil Deo argues that the Second Judges Case got it wrong in treating judicial primacy over judicial appointments as a binding constitutional convention, and part of the basic structure.) — The Groundwork The Supreme Court of India (SC) is currently hearing arguments on the cons...

(In this second post in a two-part series, Manasa Sundar Raman examines how, true to Agamben’s thesis, the “exceptional” remedy of making confessions to the police admissible has spilled over into “normal” judicial practice.) — In the previous post, the scope of right against self-incrimination and ...

(Previously on this blog, we have discussed Giorgio Agamben’s theory of the state of exception, according to which “extraordinary laws” ostensibly meant for “extraordinary times”, characterised by concentration of power in the executive, bypassing of parliamentary oversight, and incremental erosion ...

Case summary Title of the case Common Cause v. Union of India Citation Writ Petition (Civil) No.13 of 2003 (Passed on 15 th May 2015) Relevant laws The matter involves questions of law related to article 14, 21 & 142 of the Constitution of India. Brief facts The matter pertains to the regulatio...

(This post is by Vasujith Ram, a student at NUJS Kolkata) — A few days ago the Delhi High Court delivered an oral order in People for Animals v Md. Mohazzim (birds’ case). The case was initiated back in October 2004, when the police seized the birds and animals ‘belonging’ to the respondent and regi...

According to the classical model, constitutional rights are deemed to regulate the relationship between the individual and the State, acting as a check upon State power, and enforceable “vertically” by the individual against the State. They are not supposed to apply to interactions or transactions b...

(This is the second of a two-part series by Anindita Pattanayak on same-sex education and the right against discrimination) — In the previous post, we explored some of the arguments against state-aided same sex educational institutions. In this post, we will examine the issue of rights granted to mi...

(In a two-part series, Anindita Pattanayak explores the issue of same sex schools and the guarantee against gender discrimination under Article 15(1) of the Constitution, and the judicial doctrine and reasoning in this area). — The constitutionality of state supported same sex education has been a c...

(This is a guest post by Manish, who is a legal researcher based in Ahmedabad, and a regular contributor to this blog) The one hundredth Amendment to the Constitution, passed by the Rajya Sabha on May 6 and the Lok Sabha on May 7, is not merely a statistical milestone, but an event of immense politi...

When the Supreme Court struck down S. 66A of the IT Act in Shreya Singhal vs Union of India two months ago, the verdict was hailed as a landmark milestone in Indian free speech jurisprudence, for two reasons. First, for once, the Supreme Court followed up its platitudes about the value of free speec...

This is the second part of a series of analytical posts on Part IV of the Constitution – the Directive Principles of State Policy. In the first post , I examined the possible conceptual distinction between Part III (“civil/political” or “first-generation” rights), and Part IV (“socio-economic” or “s...

In a brief judgement today, the Bombay High Court rejected a challenge to S. 20(3) of the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act. Under Sections 20(1) and 20(2), a Hindu is bound to maintain his children as long as they are minors. Section 20(3) stipulates, however, that an unmarried daughter is to be ...

(My thanks to Malavika Prasad for bringing this case to my attention) With the recent release of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s [“TRAI”] “Consultation Paper” on the regulatory framework for over-the-top [“OTT”] services, net neutrality is up for sustained debate in India. Previously, I ...

Recent judicial pronouncements on law of contempt have brought the issue to the center stage of public debate and discourse . Against this backdrop, Dr KD Singh ruminates retrospectively on some major judgments rendered by the Supreme Court of India in this branch of law, with a particular focus on ...

Yesterday, in Ram Singh vs Union of India , the Supreme Court overturned a government decision to grant reservations to the Jat community in nine states (by including them in the Central List of Backward Classes [“Central List”]). The judgment has created a significant political stir . As a legal ma...

But when his drinking and lusting and his hungerFor power became known to more and more people