Snoopgate: The Petition The news is that father of the girl, who was allegedly spied upon by Narendra Modi as a love interest while he was Gujarat chief minister, has approached the supreme court as a next friend of the girl to restrain the state from conducting any enquiry in Snoopgate to protect the privacy of the girl, who is now married. The petition claims that the snooping was done…
AAP Resignation wrt Jan Lokpal Bill: The Legal Controversy The AAP government’s resignation wrt Jan Lokpal Bill is connected to the message sent by the lt. governor (LG) to the Delhi legislative assembly u/s 9 of the GNCTD Act, 1991. In his message, the LG stated that the bill was not sent to him for his prior consent as required u/s 22 of the GNCTD Act, 1991, for the bill…
AAP Mohalla Sabhas want to bring the bureaucratic decision making of the government to the general public through participatory democracy at the neighborhood level, albeit without any well thoughtout strategy. My non-exhaustive objections to AAP Mohalla Sabhas are as under: It will not reduce or curb corruption, rather it will increase it many fold because politicians, especially the local level politicians, are most corrupt. The large groups can’t make important…
Aarushi Talwar Murder Case: Facts The judgment of the trial court in the Aarushi Talwar murder case has been pronounced and the parents have been held guilty of murder of Aarushi Talwar and Hemraj on the basis of circumstantial evidence. The undisputed facts of the case are that Nupur Talwar, Rajesh Talwar, Aarushi Talwar, and Hemraj were last seen together on the night of 15/05/2008 in the flat owned by…
The Sources of Existence The recent Guwahati High Court judgment on CBI in W.A. No. 119 of 2008 (Navendra Kumar vs. Union of India) has created an existential crisis for the CBI. The CBI tried to justify its existence before the high court on the basis of two sources: As a “police” force established under the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act (DSPE Act). As a central bureau of “investigation” established…
The Right to Information Act: Application Processing and Fees The Right to Information (RTI) Act provides for charging of the fees under three sections: section 6(1), section 7(1) and section 7(5). I am surprised that till date the government has not laid down any rules for the collection of fees u/s 7(1) — this is not the same as initial application fees of Rs 10 charged u/s 6(1). Of course,…
The Critique (Comments Dated 24.01.2013) My critique of the amendment proposed in the IPC in the Justice Verma Committee report (download here) vide Appendix 4 of the report are as follows: Sec 100 : S 326A is not only grievous hurt; “which shall include” creates confusion about the intention of the legislature. The courts may misinterpret the provision to allow this defense even in those cases where no case for the…
In this blog post, I am making suggestions for the trial of rape cases in India suggesting measures that can be taken to expedite the rape/sexual assault proceedings and, more importantly, the measures that can be taken to bring in the certainty of results reflected in the larger number of genuine convictions. Assumptions The amendments in the IPC expanding the definition of rape to include sexual assault and making the…
Comment Dated 12.09.2011 In Zakia Jafri case, a special investigation team (SIT) investigated the matter on the directions of the supreme court. The supreme court also appointed an amicus curiae and directed him to file his report after an independent assessment of the statements of the witnesses who deposed before the SIT. The witnesses also included Sanjeev Bhatt. As per media reports, the SIT rejected the statement of Sanjeev Bhatt…
Should there be quota in promotions in jobs? Incidental to this debate is another legal question. Will the constitutional amendment introduced in the parliament pass the test of judicial scrutiny? I don’t intend to discuss the second question except to express a prima-facie view that there wouldn’t be any challenge to the basic structure of the constitution by introducing quota in promotions in jobs for the schedule caste (SC) and…