Krishnesh Bapat -

2 June 2023

Law Commission’s report on Sedition: My reservations

The Report recommends incorporating the ruling in Kedar Nath Singh in Section 124A, ignoring how law has evolved in the past 50 years.

Speech/Supreme Court

27 May 2023

SCOTUS decides to not interfere with 26 words that made the internet

While SCOTUS has decided not reduce the scope of the 26 words in Section 230(c)(1), the Government of India wants to do away with safe harbour altogether and change the internet as we know it.

Foreign Cases/Intermediary Liability

25 May 2023

Delhi Government, so close, yet so far! Part – 2

In this post, I discuss whether the ordinance is contrary to the decision of the Supreme Court or it permissibly removes the foundation of the judgment.

Federalism/GNCTD v UOI/Supreme Court

22 May 2023

Delhi Government, so close, yet so far! Part -1

Supreme Court’s judgment on who can exercise control over civil servants in Delhi, permits Parliament to enact laws on the issue.

Supreme Court

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

Supreme Court