Musings on India, the law, and policy
Posted in Constitution, Court, Human Rights on Oct 14th, 2011
Does the massive case backlog in India merit a consolidation of sorts – an enforced rationing of the judicial system? What are the implications of making justice scarce, and how can they be tackled? These are questions that Gaurav Laroia (GWU alum, currently with an election monitoring team in Liberia) raises in his pilot post [...]
Posted in Constitution, Court on Sep 7th, 2011
The South African Constitutional Court, an institution par excellence, will have a new Chief in its not-so-distant future. Comparative Constitutions has already reported on President Zuma’s strange pick for the job – a man with a disappointing judicial record. Apparently, Mogoeng Mogeong, as a lower court judge commuted the punishment of a man who had [...]
Posted in Constitution, Court, Democracy, Human Rights on Jul 7th, 2011
(Update: A version of this piece with minor tweaks appears on the op-ed page of The Hindu dated July 9, 2011) In the seventies, the Supreme Court of India was called upon to decide the constitutionality of Excise Rules that allowed the State of Punjab to regulate the number of days, even hours, when liquor [...]
Posted in Constitution, corruption, Court on Jul 6th, 2011
Succinctly summed up, the theory of separation of powers, accepted as a part of the Basic Structure of the Indian Constitution, implies that the Judiciary, Executive and Legislature have certain spheres of operations and distinct functions and that, stemming from the proposition of limited powers, they must not encroach into each other domains, for after [...]
Posted in Constitution, Democracy on Jun 5th, 2011
At midnight yesterday, we took one step further from democracy, towards authoritarianism. “I may disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it”, wrote Evelyn Hall in Friends of Voltaire (1906). The quote was later appropriated by Voltaire’s legacy and misattributed to the French philosopher himself. The [...]
Posted in Constitution, corruption, india on Jun 3rd, 2011
It would seem that Baba Ramdev’s demands if met would lead to better democracy. Atleast some think it to be so. Let us first take a short glance at the demands. Recovering the black money from abroad, declaring them to be a national asset, removal of Rs 500 and 1000 notes, popularising hindi as a [...]