It is well settled, if a contract is in several parts, some of which are legal and enforceable and some are unenforceable, lawful parts can be enforced provided they are substantially severable and not merely textually divisible [Shin Satellite, (2006) 2 SCC 628]. Court must consider the question whether the parties could have agreed on […]
Read more "Substantial Severability v. Textual Divisibility"Honourable. Honourable. Honourable. Hon’ble Justice Altamas Kabir has shared the Bench with Hon’ble Justice J. Chelameswar for days on end. Hon’ble Justice Altamas Kabir was sworn in at the Hon’ble Calcutta High Court on the same day as Hon’ble Justice Ruma Pal. They are friends. It is widely rumored, Hon’ble Justice Ruma Pal facilitated Hon’ble […]
Read more "NJAC Judgment II: Jasti Chelameswar J"“Writ Court while deciding a Writ Petition is required to remain alive to the nature of the claim and the unexplained delay on the part of the Writ Petitioner. Stale claims are not to be adjudicated unless non-interference would cause grave injustice. In the case at hand, the employee was dismissed from service in the […]
Read more "Stale Claims Before Writ Court"My Lord, Per Incuriam? “In Mamleshwar Prasad, (1975) 3 SCR 834, Krishna Iyer, J., succinctly laid down what is meant by the per incuriam principle. He stated: “We do not intend to detract from the rule that, in exceptional instances, whereby obvious inadvertence or oversight a Judgment fails to notice a plain statutory provision or […]
Read more "Per Incuriam I"“In M/s. Motilal Padampt Sugar Mills Company, (1979) 2 SCC 409 this Court, on an exhaustive survey of the law pertaining to Doctrine of Promissory Estoppel, held, the same was equitable and would yield when equity so required. While propounding, the same had been evolved to avoid injustice where it is demonstrated that a party acting on […]
Read more "Promissory Estoppel II"An administrative authority cannot dispense with the requirement of issuing notice, deciding that no prejudice will be caused to the person against whom an action is contemplated. “It is not permissible to jump over the compliance of the Principles of Natural Justice on the ground that even if hearing had been provided it would have […]
Read more "Principles of Natural Justice I"Estoppels and Estoppels (Lord Denning). If equity is flexible enough to permit Proprietary Estoppel to be used as a cause of action, there is no reason in logic or principle why Promissory Estoppel should also not be available as a cause of action, if necessary to satisfy equity. “The law on the subject of Promissory […]
Read more "Promissory Estoppel I"An aggrieved person is entitled to judicial review if he can show that a decision of the public authority deprives him of some benefit or advantage which in the past he had been permitted to enjoy and which he legitimately expected to be permitted to continue to enjoy until he was given reasons for withdrawal […]
Read more "The Doctrine of Legitimate Expectation I"In Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation v. Rajendra Bhimrao, (2001) 10 SCC 51 a Two-Judge Bench [Babu and Raju JJ] held, “the rules of the game, meaning thereby the criteria for selection, cannot be altered by the authorities concerned in the middle or after the process of selection has commenced.” In K. Manjusree, (2008) 3 SCC 512 […]
Read more "Referred to Larger Bench I: The Rules of The Game Principle"“Case to Case Basis” is a grand excuse. In Ramkanya Bai v. Bharatram, (2010) 1 SCC 85 Hon’ble Justice Tarun Chatterjee rejected the application for a DNA test to be performed on the child of the Appellant-Wife. One fact that validated that rejection was the Respondent-Husband had made the paternity of the child a ‘prestige […]
Read more "DNA Tests: The Divide Between Science and Morality"In Surya Vadanan v. State of Tamil Nadu, [Criminal Appeal No. 395 of 2015] the custody of two minor girls, both British citizens, was in question. Following intense matrimonial discords, the mother had left U.K. and had come to India with her two daughters. She also instituted a proceeding in the Family Court at Coimbatore […]
Read more "The “First Strike” in Child Custody Battles I"Hon’ble Justice Nariman has the penchant for stating what is ‘settled’. Sitting Judges have something to learn from the confidence of his authorship. “It is well settled that the provisions of a statute must be read harmoniously together.” “However, if this is not possible then it is settled law that where there is a conflict […]
Read more "‘Settled’ Principles of Interpretation"In 1818, Abraham Thornton, acquitted on a charge of murdering Mary Ashford, on being rearrested, claimed a trial by combat. The prosecution stated that a law ought to become invalid if it was not used for centuries. The Court, however, had to “administer the law as they found it, and not as they wished it […]
Read more "Desuetude"In India, the true import of the phrase ‘public policy’ was, at first, put to question in relation to The Indian Contract Act, 1872. Section 23 reads as: “The consideration or object of an agreement is lawful, unless the Court regards it as immoral or opposed to public policy.” In 1959, in Gherulal Parakh v. Mahadeodas […]
Read more "Public Policy and Foreign Arbitral Awards"
The Last Word 