Four notifications, two dated 21.12.2010 and two dated 31.05.2012, issued by Medical Council of India and Dental Council of India, were challenged in CMC, Vellore v. Union of India, (2014) 2 SCC 305. CJI Altamas Kabir held, the notifications were ultra vires the provisions of Articles 19(1)(g), 25, 26(a), 29(1) and 30(1). Hon’ble Justice Anil […]
Read more "Curse of NEET, 2016"“It was a scorching summer day on 31st May, when the NIA sleuths gathered in the chambers of Gopal Subramanian, the Attorney General of India. He had just returned from the US where he had spent hours discussing the David Headley issue with the US Attorney General, Eric Holder… Behera spoke, ‘We will be leaving […]
Read more "D for Dayan, D for David"It is a settled legal proposition, law of limitation may harshly affect a particular party but it has to be applied with all its rigour when the statute so prescribes. A result flowing from a statutory provision is never an evil. Court has no power to ignore that provision to relieve what it considers a […]
Read more "Dura Lex Sed Lex"There is a need to build confidence to help road accident victims. Good Samaritans fear of legal consequences, involvement in litigation and repeated visits to Police Station. There is a need to provide certain incentives to Good Samaritans. There is also a dire need to enact a Good Samaritan Law. Ministry of Road Transport and […]
Read more "A Good Samaritan Law"“It needs no special emphasis to mention, provisos can serve various purposes. Hidayatullah, J had observed, a proviso is generally added to an enactment to qualify or create an exception to what is in the enactment, and the proviso is not interpreted as stating a general rule. Further, except for instances dealt within the proviso, the […]
Read more "The Proviso I"“It is a matter of complete disgrace, you were hounded by Press and you were intolerant of them when there was a case against you…” – Padma Bhushan, Anupam Kher, The Telegraph National Debate, 2016 The choice of Retired Hon’ble Justice Ashok Kumar Ganguly as a Panelist at The Telegraph National Debate, 2016 was confusing […]
Read more "History Has No Dustbin: Hon’ble Justice Ashok Kumar Ganguly"In England it was the practice in times of danger to the State to pass what were popularly known as Habeas Corpus Suspension Acts. Suspension did not legalize an illegal arrest; it merely suspended a particular remedy in respect of particular offences. House of Lords took the view, the power to detain could not be […]
Read more "The Diamond-Bright, Diamond-Hard Hope"‘Res judicata’ literally means a ‘thing adjudicated‘ or ‘an issue that has been definitively settled by judicial decision‘. The principle operates as a bar to try the same issue once over. It aims to prevent multiplicity of proceedings and accords finality to an issue, which directly and substantially had arisen in the former suit between the […]
Read more "Res Judicata – Cause of Action"History will not forget Hon’ble Justice Pratibha Rani at the crossroad of Kanhaiya Kumar v. State of NCT of Delhi, Writ Petition (Crl.) 558 of 2016. “While dealing with the Bail Application of the Petitioner it has to be kept in mind, by all concerned, they are enjoying this freedom only because our borders are […]
Read more "The Country Without a Post Office"My Lord, What is the meaning of the expression “specific provision to the contrary” in Section 4(1) of The Code of Civil Procedure, 1908? The scheme of Section 4(1), as its marginal note provides, is to ‘save’ any special or local law from the applicability of The Code of Civil Procedure. The said Section therefore […]
Read more "Section 4(1) of The Code of Civil Procedure, 1908"Though the Rule of Casus Omissus i.e. “what has not been provided for in the statute cannot be supplied by Courts” is a strict rule of interpretation there are certain well known exceptions thereto. The following opinion of Lord Denning in Seaford Court Estates Ltd. v. Asher, (1949) 2 All ER 155 should be taken […]
Read more "Casus Omissus"Thank You, Chief. “Halsbury’s Laws of England, Fourth Edition, Volume I(I) 151 explains the meaning of ‘legitimate expectation’ in the following words: A person may have a legitimate expectation of being treated in a certain way by an administrative authority even though he has no legal right in private law to receive such treatment. The […]
Read more "The Doctrine of Legitimate Expectation III"My Lord, What is the James Scott Cumberland Reid Principle? Rules of construction are not rules in the ordinary sense of having some binding force. They are our servants not our masters. They are aids to construction, presumptions or pointers. In each case we must look at all relevant circumstances and decide as a matter […]
Read more "Lord Reid"My Lord, Perverse Judgment? “This Court has already laid down as to which finding would be called perverse. It is a finding which is not only against weight of evidence but altogether against evidence. This Court has held in Triveni Rubber, AIR 1994 SC 1341, a perverse finding is one which is based on no […]
Read more "Erroneous Judgment v. Perverse Judgment II"“Nisith Sen, the man I had chosen to be my grandfather was the Mayor of Calcutta. As a criminal lawyer he dealt with the darkest, seamiest side of human nature. I knew this was the reality. He wrung the truth out of scum who did not deserve to live and were human in name […]
Read more "In Re: Law and Other Things"“A report suggested, 39 lakh sedatives and narcotic tablets, 1.10 lakh capsules, over 21,000 drug syrups and 1828 sedative injections apart from 8 kilograms of smack and 84 kilograms of ganja were awaiting disposal in Bathinda Police stores alone. The position is no better in other States especially those situate along international borders. The menace […]
Read more "The Drug Lords"SC in Justice Mohapatra, (2002) 8 SCC 1 had “accorded primacy to the opinion of the Hon’ble Chief Justice in the consultative process for appointment of Lokayukta”. We have been reminded so in Sachchidanand Gupta v. State of Uttar Pradesh, [Writ Petition (Civil) No. 872 of 2015], decided on 28.01.2016. Justice Lokur in Justice Chandrashekaraiah, […]
Read more "Primacy of Views II: Justice Mohapatra, (2002) 8 SCC 1"My Lord, What is Truth? “That the preeminence of truth is the guiding star in a judicial process forming the foundation of justice had been aptly propounded by this Court in Maria Margarida Sequeira Fernandes vs. Erasmo Jack De Sequeira, (2012) 5 SCC 370. It was ruled, the entire judicial system had been created only […]
Read more "The Importance of Being Earnest II"The appointment of Hon’ble Justice Mirza Hameedullah Beg as the new Chief Justice of India in succession to Hon’ble Justice A.N. Ray on January 29, 1977 raised another wave of protest. Hon’ble Justice H.R. Khanna was superseded. Supreme Court Bar Association, Vice President Gobinda Mukhtoy: “The evil and dark forces have struck again. Now a citizen […]
Read more "The Significance of 29th January"“Section 66A of The Information Technology Act, 2000 was struck down by the Supreme Court. The effect of the Shreya Singhal Judgment is that Section 66A is void only as against citizens and not as against non-citizens. When this line of thought was voiced on fora, questions were raised as to whether Section 66A was still available […]
Read more "Bennett, Bennett Coleman"
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