Musings on India, the law, and policy
Posted in Court, Democracy, Human Rights, Uncategorized on Jul 5th, 2011
Two years ago I had written about Gantal Raju, a tribal in the village of Lingagiri, Dantewada District Chhattisgarh. About how in 2006 his father had been shot by the forces in Chhattisgarh and he had to watch his sister being raped before his eyes. It was part of a report on 40 families returning [...]
Posted in corruption, india, Lok Pal, Politics, Reforms on Jun 13th, 2011
“You have to know the past to understand the present” – Dr Carl Sagan The 1990s are often referred to as the decade when India came of age. This attribution was basically due to the sweeping economic reforms that led to an absolute change in the Indian investment climate. The economic reforms apart, the Indian [...]
Posted in corruption, Democracy, india, Lok Pal on May 31st, 2011
Members of Parliament are protected from anything said or done in parliament or anything said or done in connection with proceedings in parliament. This, as such is a common law right and enshrined in the Constitution under Article 105. So much so, this is possibly one of the areas where even the Supreme Court is [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on May 30th, 2011
With the President rejecting the mercy petitions of two convicts on death row, time has again come for the debates surrounding the death penalty to be revived. The issue in the present cases seem to be rather political though. One of those convicted was a member of the Khalistan movement and the political parties from [...]
I sat in front of the computer today to read the judgment of the Supreme Court in Amar Singh v. Union of India. The expectation of reading a landmark judgment on the right to privacy of public figures turned out to be a disappointment. In this case, Amar Singh had challenged the ‘authorised’ tapping of [...]
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 [...]