I found this statement today in P.L. Lakhanpal v. Union of India (AIR 1972 Del.), a judgment by Justice V.S. Deshpande. Does this mean that the expansive view of Article 21 predates Menaka? If that...

Was directed the Annual Review of the Supreme Court a few weeks ago by a friend (. Unfortunately accessible only to those have a subscription to JSTOR or Athens or such like). Even before browsing...

In a very convoluted way this takes of from Vikram’s post on M C Setalvad’s Common Law in India and his silence on the Statute of Frauds question. Was reading Harrold Berman’s Law...

Check out TDSAT’s cool new website: The Tribunal has been posting all its judgments online for some time. But it has also been putting out its orders recently. All this transparency should spur...

I never had the opportunity of reading Ram Jawaya Kapoor v. State of Punjab, AIR 1955 SC 549, in law school. Recently, I had to look at it for one section of my book, and I realized how important...

I’ve been reading Setalvad’s Common Law in India. It is so cogently written, and describes our legal system with elegance and modesty. Why did the style of writing die? Actually, the...

A friend mentioned to me in Bangalore last month that our Supreme Court has constituted another 13-judge bench to hear a Bombay rent-control case. If this story is true, it will be the first time...

Well, first, I must apologize for not being active on this blog, which I announced with much fanfare. I had too much going on at work, and I’m also under the gun to finish my book. But the more...

Now, Justice Kurup gives his version of who actually is responsible for the Kerala Smoking judgment. This episode strikes me as bizarre and quite contrary to our judiciary’s rather collegial...

Chief Justice Lahoti approved of the animal husbandry policy of the Gujarat State government and overruled the 1958 Mohd Qureishi ruling on laws prohibiting ‘cow slaughter’. The...

This letter seems like an odd clarification for a Supreme Court judge to offer a newspaper. Justice Lakshmanan, who I generally consider to be a reasonable and very pragmatic judge, appears to have...

Earlier today, The New York Times reported that a court in Mexico has held that marital rape is a crime within Mexico: The Supreme Court of Mexico ruled Wednesday that rape within marriage is a...

Today’s Telegraph carries a column by Rajeev Dhavan on the aforementioned topic. I am convinced that Dhavan is one of the most under-appreciated legal scholars in India. Most people recognize him...