A fortnightly feature inspired by I-CONnect’s weekly “What’s New in Public Law” feature that addresses the lacuna of a one-stop-shop public law newsletter in the Indian legal space.

What’s new at LAOT

Chaitanya Hegde and Aalooka Verma, Incomplete Chargesheet and further investigation – A convenient tool to delay custody of an Accused (argues that Section 173(8) of CrPC is meant to allow additional evidence after a complete chargesheet is filed, not to continue incomplete investigations, and it needs to be clarified that incomplete chargesheets are not actually 173(2) chargesheets).

1. Shreya Sethi, Explainer: Assam Sanmilita Mahasangha v. Union of India (details the developments on the challenges to the constitutional validity of Section 6A of the Citizenship Act, 1955).
2. Rakshit Agarwal and Samriddha Basu, Bail Conditions Enabling or Right Restraining (uses a rights-centered perspective to argue that indefinite imposition of bail conditions exerts a profound impact on the cherished rights of the accused, encroaching upon their right to travel and a life of dignity).

Lately in Academic Articles

1. NLUJ Law Review’s Volume IX(2) was recently published. Some articles from the publication include:
   • Rakshit Agarwal, Addressing Ableism: The Abortion of a Differently-Abled Foetus (argues against the continuation of abortions for ableist reasons and examines whether restricting such abortions satisfies the test of proportionality).
   • Prakhar Ganguly and Udita Ghosh, Locating Paradoxes in the Indian Supreme Court’s Rendition of Gender Justice – An ‘Opportunity Creation’ Analysis Post the Charu Khurana Judgement (undertakes a socio-economic analysis of the 2015 Supreme Court judgment in Charu Khurana using scholarship on liberty, labor economics, and barriers to entry for women).
2. NUJS Law Review’s Volumes 16(2) and 16(3) were recently published. Some articles from the publication include:
   • Amisha Sharma and Thejalakshmi Anil, ‘Consent’ in False Promise to Marry: Deceptive Sex and the Legal Knot (discusses cases where consent to sex is argued to be vitiated if it was given under a misrepresentation that the defendant would marry the woman and analyzes the harms of such acts).
   • Adya Jha and Jasel Mundhra, How Accommodating is Reasonable Accommodation: Analysing India’s Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016, (analyzes the Disabilities Act in terms of equal access to education and employment).
3. Surbhi Karwa, Founding mothers of the Indian Republic: gender Politics of the Framing of the Constitution, Indian Law Review (a book review on Achyut Chetan’s new work on the women involved in India’s Constitution).
4. Kunal Ambasta, One hundred (and fifty) years of solitude: the Indian Evidence Act 1872 as a lost project of law reform, Indian Law Review (argues that the Evidence Act was designed to make substantive reforms to evidence law, and that judicial interpretation has misconstrued its principles and structures).
5. Sai Ramani Garimella and Gautam Mohanty, The Law Commission of India A Critical Analysis of its Contributions to Law Reform, Routledge (a chapter from “Law Reforms Around the World” which uses a historiographic method to understand the evolution of the law commission, its pre-independence role and current impact).

1. Adwitiya Mishra and Aasheerwad Dwived, Labour laws in India: history, evolution and critical analysis, Labor History (examines the evaluation of labor laws in India, with a focus on the labor codes of 2020, and argues that over time, there is increased labor market flexibility).
2. Mathew Idiculla and Gaurav Mukherjee, Local Governments, Federalism, and the Governance of Public Health in India, Springer (a chapter from ‘Local Governance in Multi-Layered Systems, analyzes the role of India’s local governments in the federal constitutional scheme, and how this has been interpreted by courts and exercised in practice, with a focus on governance of public health in the context of Covid-19).

Elsewhere Online 

1. Anushka Aggarwal and Shwetha Ramachandran, Panel Report on Marriage Equality Verdict, Law School Policy Review & Kautilya Society.
2. Gautam Bhatia, The Indian Constitution through the Lens of Power – IV: Guarantor Institutions, ICONnect Blog.
3. Gursimran Kaur Bakshi, Is Nepal Going to Have the Same Fate as India on Marriage Equality?, IACL-AIDC Blog.
4. Varun Dhond, The P&H High Court’s Judgment on Domicile Quotas in the Private Sector, Indian Constitutional Law and Philosophy.
5. Nikita Sonavane and Sagar Soni, New code will entrench prejudices in the police, The Hindustan Times.
6. Abhinav Sekhri, Errantry – Exploring the quotidian CBI archive, The Proof of Guilt.
7. A new website has been released which aims to compile the various books and articles written by Prof. Upendra Baxi. The same can be accessed here.

Listen Up

1. Dr. Nikhil Menon, Parv Tyagi and Prem Parwani, Planning Democracy: In conversation with Dr Nikhil Menon, Arbitrary by Law School Policy Review (disussing the main ideas in Menon’s book, Planning Democracy: How a Professor, an Institute, and an Idea Shaped India).
2. Justice MN Venkatachaliah and Alok Prasanna Kumar, None Wiser than the Law (Part 1 of 7), BIC TALKS (in this 7 part series, Justice MNV provides an intimate exploration of the legal realm, his life journey, political insights, and the Indian constitution).
3. Aparna Chandra and Milan Vaishnav, Demystifying the Indian Supreme Court, Grand Tamasha (explaining the primary points covered in the book Court on Trial: A Data-Driven Account of the Supreme Court of India, which includes the institutional crisis facing the Court, the Court’s shocking backlog, and the arbitrary powers of the Chief Justice).
4. Anil Verma and Arun George, Why electoral bonds need to change, The Times of India Podcast (elucidating on the issues with the implementation of the electoral bonds scheme).
5. Amit Basole, Saurabh Chandra, Pranay Kotas and Khyati P., Bhakti Movement, Puliyaabazi (analysing the constitutional principles in the Bhakti movement).

Opportunities and Other Things 

1. Call for Papers by Intellectual Property Innovative Review (IPIR) of HPNLU. The last date for submission is November 30, 2023.
2. Internship Opportunity at National Judicial Reforms Council of WICCI. The last date to apply is November 30, 2023.
3. 1st CLS-NLUO Essay Writing Competition by NLUO. The last date for submission is December 10, 2023
4. Call for Papers for  International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Law 2024 by Aligarh Muslim University. The last date to submit abstract is December 15, 2023.
5. Call for Papers for Environmental Law and Practice Review of NALSAR, Hyderabad. The last date to submit the abstract is December 30, 2023.
6. Call for papers by Intellectual Property Studies of NLU Jodhpur. The last date for submission is January 7, 2023.