Musings on India, the law, and policy
Posted in Court, Rule of Law on Jan 26th, 2012
One of John Grisham’s celebrated novels titled “The Firm” revolves around the life of a young law associate faced with the dilemma of disclosing legally privileged confidential information about his mob-clients and subsequently losing his license. The movie with the same name starring Tom Cruise is equally fascinating with the whole story spinning around this [...]
Posted in corruption, Rule of Law on Jan 12th, 2012
2012 marks 60 years since the first Indian general election. In this time, the Election Commission of India has come a long way in ensuring the conduct of free and fair elections at various levels, -thus cementing its reputation as one of the most respected constitutional bodies in recent times. Inspite of its reputation, [...]
Posted in Rule of Law on May 11th, 2011
“The ‘Rule of Law may not always be a good thing. It is still a necessary evil.” So said Joseph Raz in one of his many expositions on the rule of law. The existence of the rule of law today has been vindicated by the recent judgment of the Supreme Court in refusing the curative [...]
Posted in Court, Democracy, Rule of Law on Mar 3rd, 2011
A few days ago,the Government of India filed curative petitions (civil and criminal) in the Bhopal Gas leak case. The civil petition deals with enhancement of compensation as the settlement amount of $470 million was not adequate and the damage foreseen then was far lesser than the actual damage to life and property. In this [...]
Posted in Court, Rule of Law, Terrorism on Feb 21st, 2011
By now it should not come as news to all of us that the Bombay High Court has upheld the death sentence on Ajmal Kasab, the terrorist caught in the Mumbai attacks in 26/11. The Home Minister has hailed this verdict as a victory to the rule of law and the Indian Legal system. May [...]
Posted in Democracy, Rule of Law, Terrorism, Uncategorized on Feb 18th, 2011
The “Anti Nationals” : Review of the Human Rights Watch report on arbitrary detention and torture of terrorism suspects in India Just a few days ago, British Prime Minister David Cameron made a startling speech at the Munich Conference stating that the passing acknowledgment of ‘state multiculturalism’ and policy of tolerance was one of the [...]