Constitutional Law

"There is nothing anti-intellectual in the leap of faith, for faith is not believing without proof but trusting without reservation" Reservation is a system in which certain communities get representation which are currently in a disadvantaged group in the society i.e., in education, employment and politics. This can be found in the Articles 15 and 16 of the Indian constitution.  Article 15 – prohibition of discrimination on the basis of caste, gender, religion, sex or place of birth. (4) Nothing in this article or in clause (2) of article 29 shall prevent the state from making any special provision for the advancement of any socially and educationally backward classes of citizens or for the scheduled castes and the scheduled tribes. [1] (5)Nothing in this article in sub-claus...

“It is my appeal to my fellow Indians. Kindly contribute to the PM-CARES fund to donate to India’s war against COVID 19” reads Prime minister Modi’s tweet. Lakhs of people did not contribute to PMCARES fund thinking it’s a private fund, but as their PM called to donate for it, they donated generously because of their confidence in the government under the name of prime minister. However, any RTI query about the fund’s details of amount received and spent, trust deeds, its creation or operation, have been responded bluntly with “such details about the fund cannot be revealed as PMCARES Fund is not a public authority”.  RIGHT TO KNOW INFRINGED: This denial of answers severely infringes with the “right to know”, an indisputable fundamental right, of the general public and the COV...

INTRODUCTION: The right to self-determination is a basic norm recognized invariably all around the world, but do any of the statutes in India embody this principle in its provisions? The absence of a definite reference to self-determination in India is increasingly evident; the Kashmir conflict arose as a result of the people of Kashmir reaffirming their right to self-determination which was denied to them for decades. Currently, it is an imperative call to evaluate India’s position regarding self-determination. LEGAL STATUS OF SELF-DETERMINATION: The right to self-determination was established as a legal right under the realm of International law subsequent to the establishment of the U.N., i.e., after the Second World War. What was once a mere political assertion coming to be a...

In a democracy, freedom of speech and expression is important. The cornerstone of a democratic society is an undisturbed word creation in an open forum. This right is imperative to prevent the suppression of the state and to audit the State's forces. In order to deter violence, any right comes with certain limitations. Thus, the image was taken of Article 19(2). Sedition is one of the limitations alluded to in Article 19(2). Sedition is discussed in Section 124A of the IPC. It is a non-rentable and punishable felony, along with the paying of a tax, and a minimum jail sentence of up to three years. Section 124A was named by Mahatma Gandhi as "the Prince of the IPC and planned to curtail independence for civilians" at a time when India was under British control. This indicates that in th...

Introduction Since the past few months, media the 'fourth pillar of democracy' [1] is working really hard in making information available to their audience, possibly of questionable accuracy, they know time is limited and people believe that seem logical on the first go without any reasoning. Once they find the attention and trust of the audience they disregard the ones who challenge them and start acting as the house of justice or the third pillar. I guess you must have anticipated the direction of this theme, with what’s been happening from the last few months. Media has gained its popularity of being the new courts in the country where they are the one doing all the investigations and passing a judgement. No doubt with the title of the fourth pillar they hold certain amount of po...

Introduction For more than three months now the press is widely covering the day to day developments in late actor Sushant Singh Rajput Case. This case started off as a mere case of suicide, but since then has taken sensational turn of events. The general public is very much hooked in the process of attaining justice, as they believe in the presence of foul play. The curiosity of the public has led the media houses to display every aspect of information it comes across. The information at times does not have anything to do factually with the case or any reliability to it in the court of law. It is difficult to say how media’s role will impact this case at large as it is too raw to decide. But owing to previous cases which have been widely discussed in the media, we can draw a parallel ...

On September 27th, 2020 President Kovind assented to all the three farm bills namely; The Farmers Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020,The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Service Bill, 2020, andThe Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill, 2020. These bills were passed amidst huge outcry against them from the farmers and the opposition alike. According to the government the objective behind passing these bills is to create a free market system in the agricultural sector. This is done by allowing the farmers to sell their produce directly to the private traders across states and hence broke the monopoly of the APMCs or the mandis. It gives them the power to negotiate the price on their own terms and not be depe...

“Alcohol may be man’s worst enemy, but the bible says love your enemy”Frank Sinatra INTRODUCTION The Supreme Court bench of Chief Justice of India T.S Thakur, and Justices D.Y. Chandrachud, and L. Nageswara Rao passed an order of banning sales of liquor in States and Union Territories along National and State Highways across India from a PIL filed by "Arrive Safe" NGO which said nearly 1.42 lakh people die annually on roads in India because of accidents, drunk and drive being a major contributor to this high toll of human lives. The bench also said that ‘The license after 31st March 2017 will not be renewed’. The bench thereby directed that liquor vends should be 500m away from high populated highways, and 220m away from highways where the population is less than 20,000 and the shop...

Introduction Fundamental Duties were added on the recommendation of the Swaran Singh committee in 1976. They are now mentioned under part IV A of the constitution of India. They were inserted through the 42nd Amendment Act, 1976 during the tenure of Ms. Indira Gandhi as the Prime Minister of India. Article 51A of the constitution talks about the 11 fundamental duties that describes citizen’s duty towards the society and nation. The 11th fundamental duty was added through the 86th Amendment Act, 2002 that deals with the right to education to all children in the age group of 6-14 years. It is considered that they will strengthen democracy and bring socialistic values to life. These fundamental duties are ‘non-justiciable’. We all know that rights and duties are interdependent and co-r...

Introduction Article 370[1] of the Indian Constitution focuses on the special status granted to the state of Jammu & Kashmir. Earlier, this section was introduced in the Indian Constitution on a temporary basis. There were only three subjects under which the Union of India could introduce the state emergency or financial emergency in Jammu & Kashmir. India can impose emergency only based on communication, defense and external affairs. The main focus of this article is on whether the revocation of Article 370 from the Indian constitution is valid or not. There were both affirmative and negative arguments. As per the affirmative views, since Article 370 was introduced temporarily, it is valid to remove it. On the contrary, few forwarded arguments that,  in case Article 370 i...

Introduction Criminal investigations and inquiries are based on one single motive- to find the truth. Though there has been an increase in the number of third degree tortures by Police officials on the accused to elicit principle and key details, technological advancements are used in arduous situations when the accused won’t take yes as an answer and are unwilling to provide confessions. The art of Educing Information Science and technological advancements have led to the invention of state of art tools to extract confessions to avoid miscarriage of justice. Some of these devices include the truth serum test, the Polygraph test and the Brain Mapping test. These psychoanalytical tests also known as the Deception Detection Tests (DDT) are used to define and observe the accused’s b...

1. Introduction The Indian subcontinent with its diverse cultural and natural wealth attract people from all walks of life, some to appreciate, while some to steal. The richness of Indian culture and heritage has paved a way for many smugglers to carry on illicit smuggling for enormous profits. Thus, smuggling of Antiquities in India has become a very rampant business for the racketeers. The government on its part has brought out a few methods to prevent such illicit activities through the enactment of laws. One such important act is the Antiquities and Art Treasure Act (AAT Act), 1972.  However, as the act is riddled with certain limitations, anti social elements tend to take advantage of the law. 2. Brief introduction to the AAT Act The AAT Act was introduced in the yea...

1. Introduction On 5th August, 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi led Government, boldly scrapped seven decades of legal precedent by amending Article 370 that granted constitutional autonomy to the state of Jammu and Kashmir and stripped off the state into two “Union Territories” J&K UT and Ladakh UT subject to direct rule by national government in Delhi. The firm stand taken by Modi government earned him praise in India but fury in the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir. Taking such bold step was not possible without the suppression of liberties and rights guaranteed by the Constitution. To contain the protest and the justified rage and anger of common people against unilateral decision, a communication blackout was imposed in the region and political leaders were detained i...