“There can be no doubt, a mere breach of contract is not in itself a criminal offence. However, as held by this Court in Hridaya Ranjan Prasad, (2000) 4 SCC 168 the distinction between mere breach of contract and cheating, which is a criminal offence, is a fine one. Breach of contract would amount to […]
Read more "Section 482 of The Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 III: Deception at Inception"“The issues arising relate to procurement of 36 Rafale Fighter Jets for Indian Airforce. It is our considered opinion/view, extent of permissible judicial review in matters of contracts, procurement, etc. would vary with subject matter of contract and there cannot be any uniform standard or depth of judicial review which could be understood as an […]
Read more "The Nature of Judicial Power: 36 Rafale Fighter Jets"“Equality means parity of treatment under parity of conditions. The rule of parity is the equal treatment of equals in equal circumstances.” – Chief Justice of India, Hon’ble Justice A.N. Ray, State of Kerala v. N.M. Thomas, AIR 1976 SC 490. “The imposition of a penalty in disciplinary proceeding lies in the sole domain of […]
Read more "Principle of Parity I"Every examination must be evaluated for what it is, what it should be and not for what it was, what it could be. Primary duty is to avoid arbitrary results. Correct answers to questions presented in NEET-UG, 2018 was one of the 4 Options offered. Bi-lingual questions were set in English with an Option of […]
Read more "Beauty of NEET, 2018"“There is a chequered history in this case, which is getting curious with each round of litigation. In English parlance, the word ‘suitable’ is assigned the meaning as ‘appropriate, fitted for the purpose or acceptable’. The Concise Oxford Dictionary defines the word ‘suitable’ as ‘well fitted for the purpose; appropriate’. This ordinary meaning is to […]
Read more "Suitable"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"While stating, ‘genesis’ of creamy layer principle is to be found in State of Kerala v. N.M. Thomas, (1976) 2 SCC 310 Hon’ble Justice R.F. Nariman quoted a few words of Hon’ble Justice Krishna Iyer in Jarnail Singh v. Lachhmi Narain Gupta, [Special Leave Petition (Civil) No. 30621 of 2011]. Of course, Ray CJ had […]
Read more "The Revival of Ray VI"In Allied Motors, (2012) 2 SCC 1 reference was made to the celebrated Judgment of Privy Council in Nazir Ahmad, AIR 1936 PC 253: “Where a power is given to do a certain thing in a certain way, the thing must be done in that way, or not at all. Other methods of performance are […]
Read more "Lord Roche II / The Revival of Ray IV"“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"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"Parliament often begins to legislate with remarkable vigor but about the same time it gives up the attempt to govern. It begins to lay down general rules, entrusting its working to Officials/Secretaries of State/Boards of Commissioners/Law Courts, who are endowed with new statutory powers. Once or twice upon a time, Ecclesiastical Courts could pronounce a divorce, ‘a mensa et […]
Read more "A Mensa Et Thoro"“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"“In an early Delhi High Court Judgment, Sandeep Kumar v. Dr. Ashok Hans, (2004) 3 Arb LR 306 Learned Single Judge of Delhi High Court specifically held, there is no requirement under the provisions of Section 34 for parties to lead evidence. The record of the Arbitrator was held to be sufficient in order to […]
Read more "Section 34(2)(a) of The Arbitration Act"The Respondent, a Cooperative Federation of Milk Producers of Karnataka, adopted the mark ‘NANDINI’ in the year 1985 and under that brand name produced and sold milk. The Appellant adopted the mark ‘NANDHINI’, for its restaurants in the year 1989, and applied for registration of the said mark in respect of various food items sold. The Respondent […]
Read more "Nandini v. Nandhini : No Deceptive Similarity"Rewarded with the presence of Justice A.N. Ray, Himat Lal K. Shah, (1973) 1 SCC 227 held: “Public meeting in open spaces and public streets forms part of the tradition of our national life. In the pre-Independence days such meetings have been held in open spaces and public streets and the people have come to regard […]
Read more "Reasonable Restriction II"“Writ of Quo Warranto cannot be issued on basis of assumptions, inferences or suspicion regarding factum of fulfillment of eligibility criteria. Being an extraordinary power, ordinarily such a Writ ought to be issued only on basis of indisputable facts leading to a singular conclusion – incumbent was in fact or in law disqualified to occupy […]
Read more "The Writ of Quo Warranto I"Witnessing Padmaavat unfold on screen, on its first day of release, was unique, especially since your smart phone kept reminding you of persistent violence. The casual viewer may have even ignored a woman threatening to immolate herself or even a policemen who stood guard, but the skeptic whispered if a riot broke out… on which […]
Read more "The Last Word on Padmaavat"TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA launched the world’s first hybrid car, ‘Prius’, in Japan in 1997. In India, the car was released in 2009 and until that point of time Toyota had not obtained registration of the mark ‘Prius’ in the Indian jurisdiction. M/S PRIUS AUTO INDUSTRIES LIMITED had got the mark ‘Prius’ registered way back […]
Read more "The Goodwill in Passing Off Actions: The Toyota Prius Story"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"Jactitation of marriage means persistent boasting of a marriage, falsely alleged to have taken place. The suit prays for a decree of perpetual silence on the subject. This is the only case in which a matrimonial suit can, as of right, be proceeded without prima facie proof of a marriage de facto. For the object […]
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