Joseph Shine v. Union of India, [Writ Petition (Criminal) No. 194 of 2017] Hon’ble Justice Indu Malhotra The issue is whether ‘adultery’ must be treated as a penal offence or a marital wrong. Adultery has the effect of not only jeopardizing the marriage between the two consenting adults, but also affects the growth and moral […]
Read more "Section 497: A Tripartite Labyrinth"“In legal parlance, ‘consortium’ is a compendious term which encompasses ‘spousal consortium’, ‘parental consortium’ and ‘filial consortium’. The right to consortium would include company, care, help, comfort, guidance, solace and affection of deceased. With respect to a spouse, it would include sexual relations with deceased spouse; parental consortium is granted upon premature death of a […]
Read more "Consortium I"A LOC can be issued, when the accused evades arrest or does not appear in Court or is likely to leave the Country. After a year, the Investigating Officer must renew the LOC or issue a fresh one. One of Odisha’s richest businessmen [supposedly] caused a murder in 2016. Mahimananda Mishra had fled to Thailand […]
Read more "The Look Out Circular"Questions, My Lord Did Massimiliano Latorre [L] and Salvatore Girone [G] ‘deliberately’ fire? Did L and G ‘mistake’ Indian trawler ‘St. Antony’ to be a pirate boat? Should it be considered, ‘St. Antony’, unregistered under The Indian Merchant Shipping Act, 1958, did not raise the Indian Flag? Indian Authorities are permitted to prosecute Foreign Nationals for supposed […]
Read more "The Enrica Lexie Incident II"[This Article was First Published in June, 2016] As per Article 97 of The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (“Convention”): “In the event of a collision or any other incident of navigation concerning a ship on the high seas”, only the Flag State of that ship can launch penal proceedings. Is […]
Read more "The Enrica Lexie Incident I"Dio non fa mai retromarcia con il suo amore Offences involving ‘moral turpitude’ were in discussion recently in Union Bank of India v. C.G. Ajay Babu, [Civil Appeal No. 8251 of 2018]. You may read Section 4(6)(b) of The Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972. ‘Moral turpitude’ describes conducts which are: inherently vile, depraved; immodest; shameful and wicked [Pawan Kumar, (1996) 4 SCC 17 and Sushil […]
Read more "Moral Turpitude I"Navtej Singh Johar v. UOI, [Writ Petition (Criminal) No. 76 of 2016] was filed for declaring Section 377 to be unconstitutional. It was held by: Dipak Misra CJI and A.M. Khanwilkar J. The phrase ‘against the order of nature’ has neither been defined in any provision of the IPC. What is ‘against the order of nature’? Procreation […]
Read more "#The377Debate II : 06.09.2018"Additional Commissioner of Police (III) Shri Supratim Sarkar’s efforts, translated in English, is nothing short of brilliant. He can either be e-mailed at addlcp3@kolkatapolice.gov.in or called on 033-22143970. There are several who enquire, why do some prefer watching/reading stories on crime; are they criminals themselves or are they learning how to protect/investigate/solve? I remember the ‘coin […]
Read more "The Closet Killer"“It is a well settled position of law, testimony of a witness cannot be discarded in toto merely due to presence of embellishments or exaggerations. Doctrine of ‘falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus’, which means ‘false in one thing, false in everything’ has been held to be inapplicable in Indian scenario, where tendency to exaggerate […]
Read more "Falsus in Uno, Falsus in Omnibus"It was decided once by Gujarat HC, an unreportable Judgment is not ‘unreportable’ on a website. Nonetheless, there has been no report on Sajid v. State of Uttarakhand, [Criminal Appeal No. 983 of 2018]. Appellant was convicted under Sections 363 and 366, IPC and was sentenced to undergo imprisonment for 7 years [CRLA/314/2004, High Court of Uttarakhand […]
Read more "The Compromise in Illicit Intercourse"“A single revolutionary spark may kindle a fire that, smouldering for a time, may burst into a sweeping and destructive conflagration.” It was the Judgment of Holmes J in Schenck v. United States, 249 US 47 at 52 (1910) that gave rise to the test of ‘clear and present danger’ for determining whether restrictions on […]
Read more "Clear and Present Danger"Behind every successful fortune there is a crime, wrote Mario Puzo. Truly, not everyone fears the law. How else would a Head Constable’s son be Dawood? It is magnificent, Supreme Court has recommended to Parliament the creation of a separate offence of lynching. While all that you read after is the charm of law and […]
Read more "The Fear of Law and Lynching"“Section 465 provides punishment for the commission of the offence of forgery. In order to sustain a conviction under Section 465, first it has to be proved that forgery was committed under Section 463, implying that ingredients under Section 464 should also be satisfied. Therefore unless and until ingredients under Section 463 are satisfied a […]
Read more "The Proof of Forgery I"There is a certain degree of lasciviousness that’s attached to crime or investigative reporting. Because the Police Force is predominantly male and while there are women crime reporters, men outnumber them easily; stories that emerge from CBI or from Police have an undeniable male gaze. And so the first reports of Anca Neacsu being arrested […]
Read more "Jailed Abroad: Platinum Blonde, Anca Neacsu"The Fourth Chapter is intriguingly titled ‘Bloodless Murder: Defamation‘. Senior Advocate Pinky Anand and her daughter Gauri Goburdhun have stood by Sections 499 & 500, IPC in Trials of Truth: India’s Landmark Criminal Cases, (Shobhaa Dé Books, Penguin, 2017). Here is brief excerpt from pp. 61 to pp. 79: “The origin of defamation can be traced […]
Read more "Section 499, Indian Penal Code IV"I had earlier defended Explanation 1 to Section 499 and Subramanian Swamy v. Union of India, [Writ Petition (Criminal) No. 184 of 2014], in the wake of strong arguments that, the legal regime of defamation as set out in Sections 499 and 500 is unconstitutional. Legislature in its wisdom has still not thought it appropriate to abolish […]
Read more "Section 499, Indian Penal Code III"Late Nineties, Vijay Palande had adopted an interesting identity – that of a waiter at the iconic Copper Chimney restaurant in Juhu. The job was ideal as it gave him the opportunity to keep a close watch on prospective victims while serving them their favourite dish. On one such occasion, he met a young engineer […]
Read more "India’s New Serial Killers II: Vijay Palande"Justice Arvind Kumar Mishra of Allahabad High Court commenting on (Retd.) Justice Shyam Lal, in Nupur Talwar v. State of U.P., [Criminal Appeal No. 293 of 2014]: “Learned Trial Judge has prejudged things in his own fashion, drawn conclusions by embarking on erroneous analogy conjecturing to the brim on apparent facts telling a different story […]
Read more "The Finesse of a Trial Judge"On 19.11.2002, Ms. Pushpa Lekhumal Tolani, of Indonesian Passport, carried with her, on her flight from London to New Delhi, 28 packages containing 44 items of jewellery worth Rs. 25 Lakhs. The competent authority confiscated her articles and imposed ‘fines and penalties’ worth Rs. 18 Lakhs. HC quashed the order. In an appeal by Directorate […]
Read more "The Comfortable Life of Gold Smugglers II"Former Delhi Excise Chief, Dr. Anup Kumar Srivastava received a reprieve from Supreme Court, recently. “There is no material evidence on record in order to bring home a charge of conspiracy against Respondent. There is no direct or circumstantial evidence to prove, Respondent has demanded any illegal gratification and has accepted or obtained any such […]
Read more "The Question of Six Zeroes in Call No. 51"
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