A clear distinction is made between ‘prohibited goods’ and ‘other goods’. As has rightly been pointed out, the latter part of Section 125 of The Customs Act, 1962 obligates release of confiscated goods (i.e., other than ‘prohibited goods’) against redemption fine. But, the earlier part of this provision makes no such compulsion as regards ‘prohibited […]
Read more "Discretion in Absolute Confiscation of Prohibited Goods"“What’s in a name?“, said Juliet. It conveys, natural characteristics of an individual are more important than his/her artificial/acquired characteristics. A poetic statement as it certainly is, it does not go in tune with significance of a ‘name’ in marking identity of an individual in his/her societal transactions. An individual must be in complete control […]
Read more "Names in CBSE Certificates"Time fleets, generations grow, society changes, values and needs also change by time. There can be no denial, law should change with changing time and changing needs of society. Famous words of Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. in Towne v. Eisner, 245 US 425 (1918): “Word is not a crystal, transparent and unchanged; it is […]
Read more "Precedential Certainty / The Revival of Ray LXVI"Repugnancy can be looked at from three distinct perspectives. The first is where provision of a State enactment is directly in conflict with a law enacted by Parliament. Compliance with one is impossible along with obedience to the other. The second is where regulation of subject matter by Parliament is so complete as a code, […]
Read more "Repugnancy I"Lord Hoffmann in Investors Compensation Scheme Limited v. West Bromwich Building Society, 1998 (1) AIR 98 summarized broad principles of interpretation of contract. “Interpretation is the ascertainment of the meaning which the document would convey to a reasonable person having all the background knowledge which would reasonably have been available to the parties in the […]
Read more "Well-Known Principles of Interpretation II"Constitution Bench in T.M.A. Pai Foundation, (2002) 8 SCC 481 has expounded, private unaided school management must have absolute autonomy to determine school fees. The consistent view has been restated and enunciated by Constitution Bench in Modern Dental College and Research Centre, (2016) 7 SCC 353 in Paragraph 75. Though fee can be fixed by […]
Read more "Permissible School Fees"In the present case, we are concerned with Article 224A. Krishan Gopal v. Shri Prakash Chandra, (1974) 1 SCC 128 observed, if a person appointed under Article 224A was not considered to be a Judge of the High Court for the purpose of jurisdiction, powers and privileges, the question of appointing such a person would […]
Read more "An Alive Article 224A / The Revival of Ray LXV"My Lord, Indian-Companies can Arbitrate outside India? Yes. It is clear, there can be more than one ratio decidendi to a Judgment. Jacobs v. London County Council, (1950) 1 All ER 737 has been followed in State of Gujarat v. M.P. Jadeja, (2013) 2 SCC 300 and in Shayara Bano v. Union of India, (2017) […]
Read more "Seat of Arbitration II"Offences that are committed as part of the ‘same transaction’ can be tried jointly as per Section 220 of The Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973. What is meant by ‘same transaction’ is not defined and it seems to us to be a difficult task to undertake a definition. We have not come across a single […]
Read more "Same Transaction"Though retrospectivity is not to be presumed and rather there is presumption against retrospectivity, it is open for Legislature to enact laws having retrospective operation. “Where a statute is passed for the purpose of supplying an obvious omission in a former statute or to ‘explain’ a former statute, the subsequent statute has relation back to […]
Read more "Explanatory Legislations"High Courts in India as well as Supreme Court recognize Doctrine of Indirect Discrimination. Only by exercising close scrutiny and exhibiting attentiveness to possibility of alternatives can a Court ensure, full potential of Doctrine of Indirect Discrimination is realized and not lost in its application. _____ In a case of direct discrimination, judicial enquiry is […]
Read more "The Doctrine of Indirect Discrimination"There is no doubt on the principles that, depending upon context, the same word may be used in different parts of the statute with different meanings and the same word in the context of one provision of the enactment may convey one meaning and another meaning in different context. However, it is also fundamental that, […]
Read more "Same Words, Different Meanings"NCDRC dismissed a Consumer Case, instituted under Act of 1986 on 18.06.2020, on the ground, after enforcement of Act of 2019, pecuniary jurisdiction of NCDRC has been enhanced from Rupees One Crore to Rupees Ten Crores. The decision has been set aside. _____ A change in forum lies in the realm of procedure. Accordingly, in […]
Read more "Act of 1986 v. Act of 2019"Renusagar Power Co. Ltd. v. General Electric Company, (1984) 4 SCC 679 held, “expressions such as “arising out of” or “in respect of” or “in connection with” or “in relation to” or “in consequence of” or “concerning” or “relating to” the contract are of the widest amplitude and content.” Mansukhlal Dhanraj Jain v. Eknath Vithal […]
Read more "Arising Out Of / Relating To"Hardeep Singh v. State of Punjab, (2014) 3 SCC 92 held, if an interpretation leads to a conclusion that the word used by Legislature is redundant, it should be avoided as the presumption is Legislature has deliberately and consciously used the word for carrying out the purpose of the Act. The legal maxim ‘a verbis […]
Read more "A Verbis Legis Non Est Recedendum"The expression ‘copyright’ has to be understood only as is stated in Section 14 and not otherwise. It is an exclusive right, which is negative in nature, being a right to restrict others from doing certain acts. The ownership of copyright in a work is different from the ownership of the physical material in which […]
Read more "The Copyright Act, 1957"A reading [State of Assam v. Ranga Mahammad, (1967) 1 SCR 454; Jagdish Chander Gupta v. Kajaria Traders (India) Ltd., (1964) 8 SCR 50; Rajasthan State Electricity Board v. Mohan Lal, (1967) 3 SCR 377; CBI v. Braj Bhushan Prasad, (2001) 9 SCC 432; Godfrey Phillips India Ltd. v. State of U.P., (2005) 2 SCC […]
Read more "Civil Sheep & Criminal Wolf"Where a High Court construes a local statute, ordinarily deference must be given to High Court Judgments in interpreting such a statute, particularly when they have stood the test of time [State of Gujarat v. Zinabhai Ranchhodji Darji, (1972) 1 SCC 233 at Paragraph 10; Bishamber Dass Kohli v. Satya Bhalla, (1993) 1 SCC 566 […]
Read more "Interpretation of Local Statutes by High Courts / The Revival of Ray LXII"“In every case where a statute inflicts a penalty for doing an act, though the act be not prohibited, yet the thing is unlawful, because it is not intended that a statute would inflict a penalty for a lawful act. It is a question of construction in each case whether the Legislature intended to prohibit […]
Read more "The Revival of Ray LXI"One of the meanings of the expression ‘inconsistent’, as approved by this Court, is: mutually repugnant or contradictory. Constitution itself has used the words ‘inconsistency’ and ‘repugnancy’ interchangeably. Things are inconsistent when they cannot stand together at the same time and one law is inconsistent with another law when the command or power or provision […]
Read more "The Question of Apparent Conflict"
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