COVID-19 – XV: Atrocities against Healthcare Workers- Why India needs a Comprehensive Legislation?

By Milind Rajratnam and Srishti Bhargav Introduction The healthcare workers across the world are most susceptible to workplace violence, but still their concerns are least discussed and deliberated upon. According to the World Health Organization, around 8% to 38% of healthcare workers suffer physical violence at some point in their careers. A study conducted by …

Mobile Phones and Criminal Investigations

By Abhinav Sekhri [This post first appeared on the author's blog, 'The Proof of Guilt'.] I've put out a short primer/paper (made with friends) explaining the basics about mobile phones and criminal investigations. This is meant to help convey the legal issues that arise in the context of the following: (i) seizure of a phone by …

Law Against Police Brutality

By Bhoomika Agarwal Policemen so cherish their status as keepers of the peace and protectors of the public that they have occasionally been known to beat to death those citizens or groups who question that status.      - David Mamet The events that took place in the last few months have raised a very essential question …

Whether Section 37 of NDPS Act Renders the Provision of Anticipatory Bail Infructuous

By Nayan Grover Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 (“NDPS Act”) is a Sue Generis Code and thus anything provided in this act will prevail over the general law. The offences under the NDPS Act are considered to be of more serious nature than usual and also viewed with more scrutiny by the courts. …

Three Strikes and You’re Out: Indian Criminal Legislation Needs Baseball Rules?

By Sri Hari Mangalam Introduction Three Strikes and you are out, a common baseball phrase is also the underlying principle for criminal penalties in America. The measure originally enacted to curb the increase in violent crimes across the country is as of now, centred in a few states. California passed the law in 1994, in …

COVID-19 – XIII: Domestic Violence: The Unseen Crisis of the Pandemic

By Sneha Singh  Introduction The lockdowns following the COVID-19 pandemic have surged up the number of domestic violence cases among many countries worldwide. The populations were directed to stay indoors at their respective homes as it had been proved to be an effective measure for fighting against the coronavirus. While stopping the spread of the …

COVID-19 – XII: Some Thoughts on the Ordinance to Protect Health Care Workers

By Abhinav Sekhri On 22.04.2020, Ordinance No. 5 of 2020 was passed to amend the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897. It was a response to the most recent pleas by medical professionals for greater legal protection against physical attacks. I say most recent because this issue has been raised on many a prior occasion, but it only seems to have assumed critical importance …

There are No Right Answers: The Supreme Court and the Purity / Mixture Debate under the NDPS Act

By Abhinav Sekhri On April 22, 2020, a Three Justices' Bench of the Supreme Court decided a reference made to it in Hira Singh [Crl. Appeal No. 722 of 2017, decided on 22.04.2020]. The primary issue before the Court was the correctness an earlier decision by a Two Justices' Bench of the Supreme Court, E. Micheal Raj v. Intelligence Officer [(2008) …

COVID-19 – VII: Is the Indian Legal Framework Capable of Handling the Coronavirus Pandemic

By Devanshu Anada Introduction It was unimaginable for the government of most of the countries that a pathogen not even visible to a naked eye would have the potential to bring even the most developed countries down to their knees and their economies to a virtual standstill. As unprepared the immunity system of our bodies …

COVID-19 – VI: India’s Decaying Bail System: A Virus Exposes the Truth

By Tanay Singh and Tanya Rathod INTRODUCTION The term bail essentially means the interim release of an accused from the judicial custody and to place him/her under the custody of some monetary assurance to serve the accused person his right to enjoy the personal freedom. Granting of bail in the Indian criminal justice system has …

COVID-19 – IV: Infectious Diseases: Rein on Quarantine & Archaic Laws

By Ranjeet Soni and Rohit Shrivastava INTRODUCTION A clean environment is an indispensable fundamental right which is vested with all the people Article 21 of the Constitution of India. Supreme Court elucidated that any disturbance of basic environmental elements namely air, water and soil would amount to punishment. To prevent disturbance reasonable restrictions may be put …

Extra-Judicial killings: A solution for preventing crime in Adityanath’s UP?

By Amrashaa Singh The recent killing of the four accused in the Hyderabad veterinary doctor’s rape case created a huge hue and cry across the nation. While some people praised the incident, others pointed out the human rights violations caused by the incident. Many famous personalities, praised it, including Jaya Bachchan, a Rajya Sabha M.P., …

Are Rights of Victim Subservient to the Rights of Convicts: An Analysis in Light of the Nirbhaya Case

By Kartik Agarwal  India went into a state of despair on December 16th, 2012 when a 23-year-old girl was raped by six men in a moving bus in Delhi. Five of them were sentenced to death in 2013 by the Fast track court and one was sent to the juvenile justice board. The death penalty …

Section 144 Cr.P.C. — Part IV: Public Order and Political Agitation (1901 to 1920)

By Abhinav Sekhri (This is the Fourth Post in a series on the Blog. Previous posts can be accessed here) The previous post expanded upon the officers who dealt with the powers conferred under what, by 1898, was Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code [Cr.P.C.]. The post also elaborated upon the expansion of such powers …

The Probation of Offenders Act, 1958- An Extremely Crucial but Underplayed Legislation

By Shreyash Mittal Mahatma Gandhi once said, “Hate the crime, not the criminal.” Introduction The aim of the criminal justice system is the reformation of criminals rather than inflicting punishment on them. Probation is an alternative to the customary form of punishments, where instead of sending the offender into the jail; he is released on …

COVID-19 – III: Is Use of Lathi by Police During Lockdown Justified?

By Nishtha Gupta “The safety of the people is the supreme law.” -Markus Tullius, Roman statesman and lawyer The Indian state has recently faced the world’s largest lockdown wherein 1.6 billion people have been subjected to an unprecedented lockdown. This has obviously led to a certain protest in terms of people not following the lockdown …

COVID-19 – II: Lockdown and the Wave of Police Brutality

By Yashwanth J With the onset of nationwide lockdown following the COVID-19 pandemic caused by the coronavirus, various photos and videos have surfaced on the internet and the TV news channels portraying the highhandedness by the police officials against the flouters of the impugned curfew. The Government’s Guidelines on the measures to be taken by …

COVID-19 – I: Does the Epidemic Diseases Act of 1897 Call for an Amendment?

By Manan Daga The Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897 (hereinafter referred to as the Act) is one hundred and twenty-three years old legislation. It was incorporated by the Britishers to fight the bubonic plague epidemic in 1896 in the Bombay Presidency.[1] This underlines a vital fact which cannot be ignored. The Act was a mechanism for …

The DNA Technology Regulation Bill, 2019 and its Impact on Marginalised Communities

By Ashima Sharma and Nidhi Pratap Singh The DNA Technology (Use and Application) Regulation Bill, 2019 ( “Bill”) has been formulated to create a national DNA database for use in criminal investigation and civil matters. DNA technology can be used to ascertain the identity of a person and can be of use in criminal investigation …

Looking Beyond Retribution: A Plea To Abolish Capital Punishment

By Ashna D After making innumerable attempts to postpone their execution, Mukesh Singh, Pawan Gupta, Vinay Sharma and Akshay Kumar Singh, the four convicts in the Nirbhaya gang-rape case have been hanged to death on 20th March 2020. In recent years, there has been a heightened support in favour of imposing the capital punishment for …

The Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill, 2019 and Gender-Neutral Sexual Offences in India

By Anmol Mathur Introduction The Constitution of India guarantees all persons the right to personal life and liberty, equal protection of laws and prohibits any discrimination based on sex. The Constitution is not simply a long, celebrated, big-book of ideas on democracy and civil society, but is a tool for social change in the coming …

The Economics of an Imbalanced Scale of Justice

By Anchal Bhatheja The Law treats civil and criminal matters differently in terms of the degree of burden of proof required, the nature of courtroom procedure to be followed, the punishment to be awarded and so on. This is because civil matters concern only private individuals while criminal matters concern the society at large and …

Rekha Murarka v. State of West Bengal: Arbitrarily Undermining the Victim’s Rights

By Aastha Agarwalla and Daksh Aggarwal Prefatory The principal aim of the administrative and judicial processes is to provide a mechanism to protect the interests, physical and psychological well-being and dignity of the victims of serious crimes. One of the prerequisites to achieve the same is to enable the sufferer to be defended and represented …

Amidst Tort & Crime: Quasi-Criminal Liabilities in India’s Anti-Pollution Litigation

By Sehaj Cheema and Kuldeep Garg When the Supreme Court expressly dubbed pollution a tort in 1997,[i] the pronouncement was perhaps prophetic of India witnessing the contentiousness that the law of torts entails. Amongst the controversies that have ensued in the field of India’s environmental laws, a fundamental one is the blurring of the line …

The Constitution Bench Reference in Sushila Aggarwal v. State

By Abhinav Sekhri A Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court decided a reference made in Sushila Aggarwal & Ors. v. State (NCT of Delhi) & Anr. [SLP (Crl.) 7281-82/2017, decided on 29.01.2020], where two questions had been posed for consideration: (1) Whether the protection granted to a person under Section 438 Cr.P.C. should be limited to a fixed period …

The Peril of Hate Speech in India

By Diya Vaishnav and Nihal Deo Recently, Union Minister Mr. Anurag Thakur and BJP MP Mr. Parvesh Verma received a ban of 72 hours and 96 hours respectively from campaigning for the Delhi Elections. The reason behind the same was the ‘Hate Speech’ that they delivered in their respective rallies in Delhi. While Mr. Thakur …

Seizure of Motor Vehicles and Violation of Human Rights

By Deeksha The seizure of vehicles by police officers has been a matter of great legal concern in recent years. The police stations around the country are now being converted into dumping yards for seized vehicles with these confiscated vehicles gathering dust over a number of years.[i] Section 102 of Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898 …