National Law University Odisha
The author in this piece has discussed the relativity of free speech in light of a free democracy by highlighting the challenges of sedition law in conjunction to the republican era. The author also explores the topic's intersectionality by highlighting facets of democratic function and comments of aspects of legal procedure and function.
The authors in this piece argue that during the Covid-19 pandemic, the Union Government uses certain legislation in a fashion that undermined the letter and spirit of Indian Federal Setup as envisaged in the Constitution. The authors have also assessed the impact of the use of such legislation and their impact on the fiscal, administrative, agricultural sectors of the economy.
The authors in this piece argue that there is an emergence of trend by the Union Government of denying renewal of visas or out-rightly revoking visas of non-citizens without providing an opportunity of being heard, providing any reasoned order, or listing out substantial reasons for the same. The authors have also analysed the legal position under the Passports Act and provisions of the Indian Constitution guaranteeing fundamental rights in light of established judicial precedents to argue that the pattern is arbitrary and needs to be rectified.
By tracing the development of Administrative Law in the United Kingdom and simultaneouslly observing the developments in India, the authors have analysed the course of development of natural justice principles as justiciable concepts in administrative law proceedings. The authors have analysed how through the course of judicial developments, the conceptual form of administrative law transformed into its present functional structure.
The author in this essay has argued that the SC judgement in State of Bombay v. R.M.D. Chamarbaugwala incorrectly interpreted and applied the doctrine of Res Extra Commercium to constrict the scope of Article 19(1)(g). The essay examines how application of the instant doctrine has intertwined with the U.S. Law doctrine of police powers to have negative implications for Indian Jurisprudence.
The authors in this piece have argued against the Constitutionality of the Constitution (Scheduled Castes Order) of 1950 on grounds of non-discrimination and arbitrariness. The article argues that denial of affirmative action benefits to SC converts goes against the letter and spirit of the Indian Constitution and Equality Jurisprudence.
This piece examines the Constitutional validity of the Criminal Procedure Identification Act of 2022 and argues that the Act is ultra vires on grounds of excessive delegation of powers. The author also argues that the Act poses serious concerns to privacy rights of people who have been either convicted or arrested under any law.
This piece revisits the 1981 case of Air India v. Nergesh Meerza and argues that while the final judgement upheld the Right to Equality in terms of employment for Air India hostesses, the judgment left a glaring error while narrowly interpreting the scope of Article 15 to only classify sex discrimination and not expressly recognizing gender discrimination.
The piece anatomizes and critiques the recent steps implemented by the Uttar Pradesh Police to curb the use or watching of pornography by implementing mechanisms which include tracking web-searches as well as storing private data. The author has analyzed these steps in light of Constitutional provisions and former judicial precedents to highlight that not only are these measures unconstitutional, but also go beyond the scope of permissible State action in stymieing individual autonomy of citizens.
The following article examines the inalienable and intrinsic right to privacy, in purview of the recent Pegasus Spyware controversy and calls for an era of a more robust privacy law in India.
The piece analyses the recent amendments to the Gujarat Freedom of Religion Act in light of Constitutional provisions and former judicial precedents to argue that the recent amendment transgresses private rights and individual autonomy.
The article brings out the inconsistency of social media self regulation by analyzing pertinent issues regarding free speech, censorship and power of tech companies over public discourse, in light of the banning of Former U.S President Donald Trump's Twitter handle. The article refers to key Constitutional principles in navigating these ambivalent issues.
Marking the first death anniversary of late SCOTUS Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the Constitutional Law Society at NLUO pays their respectful obeisance to the widely revered and loved R.B.G.
The author in this piece analyses the recent amendments to the Cinematograph Bill and explores the implications which the recently accorded revisionary powers of the Governments shall have on Freedom of Speech and Expression.
The philosophy of Luck Egalitarianism propounded by eminent jurist Ronald Dworkin argues that social and economic inequality negatively contributes to the achievement of justice and equality. The article traces how this political philosophy has, over the years, driven the development of Right to Education in India.
The authors in this article analyse the debate surrounding the recognition of the domestic cohabitation between married and unmarried individuals by the Supreme Court of India and applicability of Article 21 to such a relationship.
This piece analyses the recent judgement of the SC in Lt. Col. Nitisha v. Union of India and traces the development of the doctrine of indirect discrimination over the world, and in India.
This piece analyses the measures adopted by the Indian Judiciary while dealing with the challenges posed before the nation due to the scarcity of oxygen at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The author in this piece argues that over-centralization of power, aggravated the persisting problems and that, an Integrated Health Policy must be equipped to better handle future exigencies.
Anchal Bhatheja provides a brief background to the Government of NCT of Delhi Bill followed by examination of the bill from a constitutional perspective.
Aryan Birewar briefly tests the recent Haryana State Employment of Local Candidates Act in terms of its constitutionality and analyses the issues and challenges pertaining to this legislation.
Mr. Sourav Paul has spurred a debate around the need to maintain checks and balances upon the exercise of power by the executive and legislature. Through a critical analysis of landmark judgements and provisions from our constitution, the author brings to you an informative piece on the new IT rules to allow discussion through introspection of the powers exercised by our authorities over acts that concern the lives of the people of India.
Anadi Tewari analyzes the Nehruvian and Gandhian philosophies directly impacting and leading to the development of Directive Principles of State Policy.
Abhijeet Shrivastava & Anujay Shrivastava discuss the recent developments surrounding the change in WhatsApp’s privacy policy and explore the idea, whether the functions of the mega-giant qualify as ‘public function’ under the scheme of the Constitution. The authors further suggest a way forward to effectively address the concerns posed by the shift in the company’s privacy policy.
Abhijeet Shrivastava evaluates the scope of Article 3 of the Constitution of India, which relates, inter alia, to the power of the Parliament to re-organize State territories. He analyses the purview of Article 3 when viewed from the archetype model of ‘co-operative federalism’.
A gradual, but undeniable, progression has transitioned Indian judiciary from its positivist rigidity, to an era of fluid, pervasive involvement in governance and law-making. Through the course of this article, Sarthak Sethi establishes the same through an analysis of the facet of Judicial appointments.
Praneeta Tiwari writes on the current system of judicial appointments and critically analyses it and poses an alternative of merit as the basis for judicial appointments.
Manudeep Kaur compares the constitutional framework accommodating multiculturalism in the respective constitutions of India and Malaysia.
Debby Jain writes about the customary practice of a woman changing her surname upon marriage and how it consequently contravenes the basic principles enshrined under Article 15.
Deveshi Madan and Shubhangi Agarwal critically analyse the legality, accessibility and feasibility of E-courts. They also discuss the challenges faced by virtual hearings.
Preetham Jude Correa from Symbiosis Law School, Pune delineates the myriad of legal complexities that have arisen in India's approach in dealing with the pandemic.
Neha Tripathi and Soumya Rajsingh, Assistant Professors of Law, MNLU Aurangabad discuss the test of Essential Religious Practices and the fundamental nature of the right to religious freedom in light of challenges which have to arise due to COVID-19.
Nikunj Maheshwari and Kapil Shrivastava Background In what may be diligently called as a political coup de tat, the Kamal Nath government in the State of Madhya Pradesh was toppled in the early weeks of March, even before his government could present the financial budget for the State. As a result of this political fiasco,... Continue Reading →
Dhanishta Mittal The Supreme Court, by exercising this power to grant relief to the disputing parties on multiple occasions, established a precedent, thereby diluting and undermining the authority of the statute which is silent on the matter concerned.[1] Objection to the exercise of such plenary power is primarily because it leads to the framing... Continue Reading →
Shubhangi Agarwal and Harsh Singh The Parliament passed the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment Act, 2019 (“UAPA”) and the National Investigation Agency (Amendment) Act, 2019 (“NIA”) amidst a lot of controversies last year in July. The amendment acts raised serious questions of human rights violation and erosion of federal character. In lieu of the same, the... Continue Reading →
Anchal Bhateja Rights like the right to life under Article 21 are so cardinal that they cannot be subjected to derogations even during exigencies. The right to life has a wide amplitude and has been interpreted to include a plethora of rights within its ambit. The right to privacy which was read into Article 21... Continue Reading →
Khushi Sharma and Aarushi Kapoor The Coronavirus outbreak has been devastating to the extent of raising the fears of superpowers like the US which, despite being the claimant of an extremely developed health infrastructure in the world, is experimenting novel methods to put up a tough fight against COVID-19. Belonging to the genus of severe... Continue Reading →
Rahul Nair For the first time in the history of independent India, capital punishment was meted out to four convicts simultaneously, in a seven-year-old case[1] of gangrape and murder of a young medical student of Delhi. This has sparked several debates regarding the constitutional validity and application of death penalty in India. In this post,... Continue Reading →
Randeep Dahiya Since 1991, India has seen a meteoric rise in the field of digital technology including modalities of surveillance. Such modalities include technological advancements in the form of genetic, biometric, financial and physical monitoring. Augmented by the advent of social media, an urgent need for the establishment of a data protection mechanism in order... Continue Reading →
Akshat Trivedi The recent decision of the UK Supreme Court in R v. The Prime Minister[i] was a landmark judgement in terms of common law jurisprudence on Parliamentary prorogation and its judicial review. Herein, the Supreme Court was called on to examine the constitutionality of the advice tendered by Prime Minister Boris Johnson to Her... Continue Reading →
Utkarsh Krishna After gathering ubiquitous criticism for its previous bills pertaining to transgender rights, the Government has yet again come up with a new Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill, 2019 (the Bill from herein).[i] One of the many commonalities between the Bill and its predecessors is that all of them in the name of... Continue Reading →
Meghna Bhaskar Introduction Dissent has been iterated by Justice D.Y. Chandrachud in the Bhima Koregaon case as the safety valve of a democracy. It is asserted by left-leaning civil liberty activists that the curb on freedom of speech and expression has become an institutional mechanism to police the opinions and curb lively debate and a... Continue Reading →
Juned Akhter This is for the second time in a span of two years when the Government has endeavoured to pass legislation pertaining to Right to Information Act, 2005 which also comes under the scope of Freedom of Speech and Expression.[i] In 1986, the Supreme Court in the famous case of Mr. Kunwar v.... Continue Reading →
Anmol Mittal A spate of floods in a self-declared water-stressed country has shed light on the governance of water ‘resources’ in India. The assumption of control over Water by the Union is an encouraging sign. India, already a self-declared water-stressed country, faces an immense challenge.[1] Behaviorally, there is not too much evidence to suggest that... Continue Reading →
Anjani Kumar Srivastava and Ashit Kumar Srivastava On 24th August 2017, the Indian Supreme Court shredded away the lethargic cloak of original(ism) and embraced privacy with both its hand. However, the functionality of privacy demands more than just an acceptance; there has to be an intricate surgery to imbibe criteria of applications; one such application... Continue Reading →
Deeksha Sharma Recent trends in Indian electoral politics have seen the emergence of an increasing number of candidates contesting from more than one constituency. This article highlights how the apex court of India, had already erroneously upheld the Constitutionality of this provision and also suggests some solutions for the same. This system of parliamentary elections... Continue Reading →
Priyanka Rai In a parliamentary democracy like India, Good Governance is the prime responsibility but is this actually a possibility given the continued election mode our country is always in, is a question which needs assessment. The citizens, the political parties and the Election Commission are the key stakeholders in the process of decision-making and... Continue Reading →
Tanmay Batham Tenth Schedule: Brief Overview Webster defines Defection as a conscious abandonment of allegiance or duty (i) while MacMillan defines it simply as an act of leaving one’s country or political party to go to another one. (ii) This understanding of the word indicates that there is a connotation of hostility attached to the... Continue Reading →
Sarvotham M Naik In the light of recent election results where the country has witnessed the formation of the government by a single political party with a sweeping majority, a debate has arisen as in who shall become the leader of opposition. The requirement of a minimum number of members for the recognition of a... Continue Reading →
Vrinda Aggarwal On 7th February, 2018, Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court of India against the Election Commission (EC) and the State, challenging the validity of S. 33(7)(a) of the Representation of People’s Act, 1951 (Act), according to which “person shall not be nominated as a candidate for election— in... Continue Reading →
Advik Rijul Jha According to recent reports, approximately 60 million men and women, crisscrossing the country as migrant workers, were unable to cast their vote because their voting rights are restricted to their villages, where they have to be present to be able to vote.[i] This gives rise to a concern about the political voice-lessness of... Continue Reading →
Constitutional Law Society 