Chess has been represented, or shall I say misrepresented, as a game – that is, a thing which could not well serve a serious purpose, solely created for the enjoyment of an empty hour. If it were a game only, Chess would never have survived the serious trials to which it has, during the long […]
Read more "A Man of Reason and Logic"Writ Petition (Civil) No. 373 of 2006 Hon’ble Justice Indu Malhotra The Petitioners have stated that they learnt of the practice of restricting the entry of women in the age group of 10 to 50 years in the Sabarimala Temple in Kerala from three newspaper articles written by Barkha Dutt (Scent of a Woman, Hindustan […]
Read more "The Sabarimala Temple I"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"The Doctrine of Absolute Territorial Sovereignty is most often identified with an opinion prepared in 1895 by the 41st Attorney General of the United States, Judson Harmon, in response to a request by the Department of State for advice concerning a dispute with Mexico over the use of waters of the Rio Grande. Pursuant to […]
Read more "The Harmon Doctrine"“Economic impact of a decision, wherever warranted, has to be kept in mind… in a situation where two views are possible or wherever there is a discretion given to Court by law, Court needs to lean in favour of a particular view which subserves economic interest… Conversely, Court needs to avoid that particular outcome which […]
Read more "Science for Everyone: Footnote the Scholar"“DNA is the abbreviation of Deoxyribo Nucleic Acid. It is the basic genetic material in all human body cells. It is not contained in red blood corpuscles. It is, however, present in white corpuscles. It carries the genetic code. DNA structure determines human character, behaviour and body characteristics. DNA profiles are encrypted sets of numbers […]
Read more "Science For Everyone: DNA Again"While discussing ‘Colour Blindness’ before SC [Pranay Poddar v. State of Tripura, Civil Appeal No. 4393 of 2017], Senior Advocate K.V. Viswanathan quoted Shinobu Ishihara, a Professor at Tokyo Imperial University, who, in 1916, had developed a diagnostic method which is still the most common test for ‘Colour Vision Deficiency’; and is called Ishihara. The […]
Read more "The Ishihara Test"A citation of questionable scientific standard. _____ In a child custody dispute in Suburbs of Pittsburgh, 3 teenage boys begged a Family Court Judge not to force continued visits to their father because, they said, he was physically abusive towards them. Judge relied on an Expert Witness, retained by the father, a Columbia University Professor […]
Read more "The Disputed Reality of Parental Alienation Syndrome"I am an Advocate, not an Academician. The practical impact of a Judgment interests me. Subramanian Swamy v. Union of India, [Writ Petition (Criminal) No. 184 of 2014] pronounced recently, is a significant weapon in my hand. Explanation 1 to Section 499 of The Indian Penal Code, 1860 reads as, “It may amount to defamation to […]
Read more "Section 499, Indian Penal Code II"“In this age of science, we have to build legal foundations that are sound in science as well as in law.” My Lord, What is Scientific Knowledge? “Neither Bacon, Popper nor Kunh, it is generally believed, gave a prefect description of what science is and how it works, but the US Supreme Court in Daubert, 509 […]
Read more "Scientific Knowledge"“Interest of justice is best served by ascertaining the truth and Court should be furnished with the best available science and may not be left to bank upon presumptions, unless science has no answer to the facts in issue.” My Lord, What is DNA? “All living beings are composed of cells, which are the smallest […]
Read more "Science for Everyone: DNA"My Lord, What is the difference between LCD and LED? “In Bloomsbury Dictionary of ‘Science for Everyone’, LCD and LED are described in the following manner: LCD AND LED are the two principal methods of forming number sand letters on instruments such as calculators and digital watches. A basic pattern of seven bars is used […]
Read more "Science for Everyone: LCD, LED"“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"Oft-Repeated Statement, Supreme Court Judges: “STATUTES SHOULD BE CONSTRUED NOT AS THEOREM OF EUCLID… WORDS MUST BE CONSTRUED WITH SOME IMAGINATION OF THE PURPOSES WHICH LIE BEHIND THEM“. Theorem of Euclid not purposively imagined? A strange notion has been harbored all these years that mathematics is purely mechanical. Euclid’s Theorem: “THERE ARE INFINITELY MANY PRIMES”. Without a […]
Read more "Euclid’s Theorem I"The Hon’ble Supreme Court of India, while assessing whether an eye-witness could remember a face, seen seven and half years ago for ninety seconds only, relied on the pioneering work of Geoffrey R. Loftus. It had the following to say in Pargan Singh v. State of Punjab, 2014 (10) SCALE 229: “Scientific understanding of how memory works […]
Read more "The Remarkable Memory of Geoffrey R. Loftus"Section 13(1)(iii) of The Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 does not make the mere existence of a mental-disorder, of any degree, sufficient in law to justify the dissolution of a marriage. Its degree must be such, the spouse seeking relief cannot reasonably be expected to live with the other. The same must be proved by positive […]
Read more "Schizophrenia"
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