Constituting Benches, Allocating Cases

My Lord, Constitution of Benches and the Allocation of Cases by the Chief Justice must be Regulated by a Procedure? In the Allocation of Cases and the Constitution of Benches the Chief Justice has an Exclusive Prerogative. From an Institutional Perspective the Chief Justice is placed at the Helm of the Supreme Court. The Chief […]

Extra Judicial Confessions I

“In Gopal Sah, (2008) 17 SCC 128 Court held, an extra-judicial confession is, on the face of it, weak evidence and should not be relied upon to record a conviction, in the absence of a chain of circumstances. In Pancho, (2011) 10 SCC 165 as well, Court refused to convict the accused on the basis […]

Section 31(7) of The Arbitration Act IV

“The clause only bars interest upon earnest money or security deposits or amounts payable to the contractor under the contract. The above-mentioned amounts are amounts which in a sense belong to the contractor. They are amounts voluntarily deposited with the other contracting party in order to be refunded or forfeited depending on performance of the […]

Rojer Mathew, SLP (Civil) 15804/2017

Issues of Tribunals: Unresolved. 07.05.2018 “The functioning of Tribunals is required to be reviewed on the test of speedy and inexpensive quality justice. L. Chandra Kumar, (1997) 3 SCC 261 noted, various Tribunals have not evolved up to the expectations which is self-evident and widely acknowledged. Drastic measures were required to elevate the standards. R. […]

The Proof of Valid Wills I

The execution of a Will is proved not only when the statutory requirements for proving that Will are satisfied but the Will is also found to be ordinarily free from suspicious circumstances [Pragnaben, (2008) 15 SCC 365]. Whether a Will is surrounded by suspicious circumstances or not is essentially a question of fact. “3 Courts […]

Surrogacy

India’s first In-Vitro Fertilization (IVF) baby, and World’s second, Kanupriya, was born in Kolkata on October 3, 1978. The scientific technology behind IVF is known as Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART). Despite India being a hub of surrogacy, there is no legal framework. There are four types of surrogacy: traditional, gestational, commercial and altruistic. Commercial surrogacy […]

The Case of the Honest Prostitute

Books on Constitutional Law are on Judges, Lawyers, occasionally on Politicians. Judges are central actors. The central actor in Rohit De, A People’s Constitution, (Princeton University Press, 2018) is the citizen litigant; private interests assumes public significance. We rarely meet those who have, at least, one positive act to share on Former Hon’ble Chief Justice […]

Section 482 of The Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 III: Deception at Inception

“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 […]

Review of Death Penalty IV

“There is no doubt that the socio-economic factors relating to a convict should be taken into consideration for the purposes of deciding whether to award Life Sentence or Death Sentence. The consideration of socio-economic factors is tied up with another important issue and that is whether the convict has had adequate legal representation. It would […]

En Passant II

“Reliance was placed on State of Maharashtra v. Shankar Krisanrao Khade, 2008 ALL MR (Cri) 2143. It may be mentioned, en passant, view of Bombay High Court in Shankar was not accepted by this Court in Shankar Kisanrao Khade v. State of Maharashtra, (2013) 5 SCC 546 in Paragraphs 60 and 61.” – Hon’ble Justice Madan […]

The Nature of Judicial Power: 36 Rafale Fighter Jets

“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 […]

Section 8 of The Arbitration Act VI: Arbitrable Disputes

My Lord, Consumer-Disputes are Non-Arbitrable? No. Arbitration Act does not exclude jurisdiction of Consumer Forums to decide Consumer-Disputes under The Consumer Act [Skypak Couriers Ltd., (2000) 5 SCC 294]. If X opts for Arbitration, it may be possible to state, X cannot, subsequently, file a Complaint under The Consumer Act. However, National Seeds Corporation Limited, […]

The Revival of Ray X

Recently, Hon’ble Justice Ashok Bhushan quoted 650 words of 14th Chief Justice of India, Hon’ble Justice A.N. Ray. These words are to be found in 4 Paragraphs in 2 Judgments. The style is exhibited below: “In Jagir Singh v. State of Bihar, (1976) 2 SCC 942 Court was considering the definition of “owner” as defined […]

Section 34(3) of The Arbirtration Act I

“Appeal arises from the Judgment of a Learned Single Judge of High Court of Calcutta by which the Respondent’s Application for condoning a delay of 514 days in filing an Application under Section 34 of The Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 was allowed. This Court needs to assess whether the benefit of Sections 5 and […]

December 8, 1930

It was decided. 8 December, 1930 would be ‘Operation Simpson Day’. The journey began at 12:00 in the afternoon. Three Men sat in a taxi and headed for the Writers Building. One of them had his Birthday < 50 hours ago. The last ride together. [File No. 59/19/30] 12:30. Cap, coat, tie, trousers, boots – […]

Courts of Record

“High Courts are Courts of Record, set up under Article 215 of The Constitution of India. It is clear that these Constitutional Courts, being Courts of Record, the jurisdiction to recall their own Orders is inherent by virtue of the fact that they are Superior Courts of Record. This has been recognized in: National Sewing […]

Section 8 of The Arbitration Act V

“Though there are different agreements involving several parties, it is a single commercial project. All the parties can be covered by the Arbitration Clause in the main agreement. High Court, in our view, erred in not keeping in view the various clauses in all the three agreements which make them an integral part of the […]

Departmental Arbitrators

It had been considered, in earlier times, that an Arbitration Clause in a Government Contract providing that an employee of the department will be the Sole Arbitrator is neither void nor unenforceable [Indian Oil Corporation Limited, (2009) 8 SCC 520; Ace Pipeline Contracts (P) Ltd., (2007) 5 SCC 304; M.P. Gupta, (2004) 10 SCC 504]. […]

Setting Aside, Acquittal Orders I

There is no limitation placed on power to review evidence in an Appeal against Acquittal. It is relevant to refer to Lord Russell in Sheo Swarup, (1934) 36 BOM LR 1185; Surajpal Singh, (1952) 3 SCR 193; Muralidhar @ Gidda, (2014) 5 SCC 730 and Ghurey Lal, (2008) 10 SCC 450. “Interference with Judgment of Trial Court, […]

Principle of Parity I

“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 […]

The Last Word

A Diversion for Lawyers and Others