1. A.G.Noorani on the illegality of Jaswant Singh’s expulsion from the BJP. He refers to the Gopal Godse case and Justice Chandrachud’s judgment. Though he refers to S.95 Cr.P.C. in passing, I have dealt with it separately in this piece. AGN has not yet reviewed Jaswant Singh’s book yet. One could perhaps expect it in the next issue.

2. I have traced the roots of the Epidemic Diseases Act 1897 and dealt with the recent efforts to replace this in this article. Strangely, even the swine flu has not led to a renewed effort to replace this outdated Act.

3. I have reviewed two books on Indian elections in this article, Miracle or Enigma?. Among other things, the former CEC, Krishnamurthy’s view that economic backwardness and democracy cannot coexist left me bewildered. I would rather assume that democracy is essential to remove economic backwardness.

4.A.G.Noorani reviews Hector Olasolo’s book and makes a case for punishing Narendera Modi for 2002 pogrom.

5.R.K.Raghavan’s excellent piece on the DNA controversies. A national DNA databank can help an investigator handling a blind crime, but human rights concerns and a huge backlog of cases are major hurdles, he says. In the Buddha Jayanthi Park rape case, [State v.Harpreet Singh, Sessions case No.10/2004. Judgment by ASJ S.K.Sarvaria on August 22]which Raghavan cites, the initial blood sample taken from the accused got putrefied, and the accused refused to give another sample before the Metropolitan Magistrate to the I.O.

6. An article by Aparna Alluri says repeated cases of acid attacks in Andhra Pradesh form part of a disturbing trend of rising crimes against women. This is another area where absence of a separate legal provision to tackle acid attacks has resulted in the crime being treated as just a grievous hurt. The CSAAAW has sought an amendment of Section 320 IPC to deal with acid attacks specifically. Bangladesh has already introduced death penalty against acid attacks in 2002. I am unable to understand why human rights groups disagree on the need for a separate legal provision to tackle acid attacks.