Author: Krishnesh Bapat

16 May 2023

Monitoring Shutdowns – Introduction

India suspends internet services more often than most countries. In 2023 alone, governments across the country suspended internet services on 33 separate occasions – effectively prohibiting citizens from accessing news, availing banking services, conducting business and staying connected with friends and family. Considering the ubiquity of internet today, I am of the opinion that internet should be considered a non-derogable...

Categories Monitoring Shutdowns

14 May 2023

Conflicting decisions on Section 24 of the RTI Act

On 26th April, 2023, a single judge of the Delhi High Court in Nisha Priya Bhatia v. CPIO, Ministry of Urban Development, upheld the decision of the Central Information Commission to not direct the Research and Analysis Wing (‘RAW’) to disclose applications made by an IPS officer seeking allotment of government accommodation. The Court ruled that RAW was an exempted...

Categories Right to Information

10 May 2023

Supreme Court condones denying 4,00,000 citizens, the right to vote

[This post is based on a paper titled Undertrials, Voting and the Constitution, authored by Meghna Jandu and myself, which was published in the 10th edition of Indian Constitution Law Review] 76% of prisoners in India are undertrials. They have not been convicted of any offence are in prison, and are in prison only because they have not yet been...

Categories Supreme Court

6 May 2023

Devangana Kalita Bail Order: Protecting the State at the cost of Rule of Law?

Our legal system is not complicated. Inherited from the British, it is based on certain commonsensical principles which ensure parity. The foundational principle in this system is stare decisis, which simply means that a rule established in a previous legal case by Court (say, High Court) is binding on Courts below it (say Sessions Courts) when deciding subsequent cases with...

Categories Supreme Court

3 May 2023

Punjab and Haryana High Court imagining that there’s no countries?

In 1971, John Lennon famously asked us to imagine there’s no countries. While philosophically this is a worthwhile endeavor, it is important that Courts in India remember that their jurisdiction does not extend beyond India’s borders. The Punjab and Haryana High Court did not do so in its order dated 20.02.2023 in Court on its Own Motion v. Union of...

Categories Technology Law

6 April 2023

The Bar ‘Councilling’ the Supreme Court?

The Bar Council of India, in a joint-meeting with the State Bar Councils, has passed a patronising resolution insisting that the Supreme Court of India should let the legislature decide the issue of marriage equality. The resolution, which is a classic example of browbeating the court, has been passed while the Constitution Bench is adjudicating whether existing laws which do...

Categories Supreme Court

3 January 2022

A Tale of a Commission and a Committee

On December 16, 2021, the counsel for an NGO named Global Village Foundation Public Charitable Trust mentioned before the Chief Justice of India a petition challenging the constitution of the Commission of Inquiry (‘Commission’) by the State of West Bengal under the Commission of Inquiry Act, 1952 (‘Act’). The Commission was constituted to inter alia enquire into whether the Pegasus...

Categories Supreme Court

3 September 2020

The Re-Appropriation of MP-LAD Funds – a Case of Bypassing Constitutional Procedure

In 1993, the then Prime Minister, P.V Narasimha Rao announced the Member of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (“MPLADS”). The objective of the scheme was to enable Members of Parliament to recommend works of developmental nature in their constituencies with an emphasis on the creation of durable community assets based on locally felt needs. Since 2011-12, the legislature has been...

Categories Administrative Law

29 June 2020

On the Unlimited Power of Review in Writ Proceedings

In this belated post, I discuss the judgment of the Supreme Court passed in Kantaru Rajeevaru vs Indian Young Lawyers Association on 11th of May 2020 (For the sake of convenience, hereinafter referred to as 11th May order). In this order, a 9 Judge bench of the Supreme Court has detailed the reasons for holding that questions of law can...

Categories Supreme Court