Abhishek Singhvi, the national spokesperson of the Congress party, has a column in today’s Hindustan Times where he seeks to defend the much criticized Broadcasting Bill. Posts about the bill on this blog (two of …
Continue readingMonth: December 2007
Judicial Backlog : Focus on the Madras High Court, and a stimulating suggestion
The huge backlog of cases in the Indian judiciary has often cropped up in posts and discussions on this blog. Recently, this post incidentally mentioned Chief Justice Balakrishnan’s Law Day speech where he provided details …
Continue readingMyriad responses to the Aravali Golf Club ruling: Not earthshaking, but significant
The previous post ended by speculating about the reactions of judges – especially those who are regarded as more ‘activist’ – to the caustic remarks of the Mathur-Katju bench on judicial activism in the Aravali …
Continue readingA fresh round in the internal debate within the Supreme Court over the limits of Judicial activism
Today’s newspapers are devoting considerable attention to a recent decision of a division bench of the Supreme Court consisting of Justices AP Mathur and Markandey Katju. This is how the news-item in the Indian Express …
Continue readingNarendra Modi -Sonia Gandhi spat: Limits to how Election Commission can intervene
There are limits (read self-imposed) to what the Election Commission can do with regard to its powers to stop an ongoing corrupt behaviour of candidates to secure votes. Currently, the E.C. is examining the reply …
Continue readingTrial Court judgment in the Uphaar Tragedy: “A Much Needed Precedent”
The quotation marks in the heading of this post refer to the title of a recent EPW editorial, which begins as follows: The judgment delivered recently by a Delhi sessions court that upholds the guilt …
Continue readingGujarat Elections: Development v. Communal Agenda
My view of a possible chasm between the political class and the voter on the question of seeking political mileage from communal violence met with a well-articulated critical response from Dilip in the comments section. …
Continue readingSupreme Court upholds ban on a Kannada novel on questionable grounds
“Dharmakaarana”, a Kannada novel, might well turn out to be the first work of literature in Indian languages to be banned by the State Government for carrying certain objectionable paragraphs seen to be derogatory by …
Continue readingSocial censorship and the legitimacy of book bans
Today, Rajeev Dhawan has written an interesting article in Mail Today on the Tasleema Nasrin controversy. With the controversy on the film Aaja Nachle also throwing up similar issues, there is likely to be extraordinary …
Continue readingOutcome of 2002 Gujarat assembly elections: An Analysis
As Gujarat goes to the assembly elections, the question whether the BJP can continue to seek political mileage from the 2002 carnage in the State is often raised. The answer to this, as we saw …
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