The debate on how we make laws has intensified in light of the disagreements on the Jan Lokpal Bill. Shamnad made an important point earlier on this blog that there is a democratic deficit in …
Continue readingTag: Indian Parliament
Hazare and the Potential Curing of a Democratic Deficit?
Tarunabh captured some of the reactions to the Anna Hazare campaign in his post here, where he also warned that the problem of corruption is a complex multi-factorial issue, not easily amenable to ready solutions …
Continue readingParliamentary Reform
For those who followed this previous post, the Rajya Sabha has sent the Prevention of Torture Bill to a Select Committee for further examination (see Pratap Bhanu Mehta’s piece in the Indian Express today on …
Continue readingAlternative Thinking Outside the “Law Firm” Box?
Many of us have lamented the fact that although the “national law schools” have churned out very gifted lawyers, we’ve lost many of them to law firms. It is but natural that many of them …
Continue readingNAC-II: Why we must oppose it, and what is the alternative
The National Advisory Council is being reconstituted. Its previous avatar saw a vigorous debate on its constitutional illegitimacy, one that is completely absent this time around. There is a sense that NAC-I did good things …
Continue readingLegislating Rights: Parliament, Courts and Separation of Powers
In an interesting column in the Indian Express, Mihir Sharma ponders over ‘The Four Rights that millennial India has promised its people — to information, to food, to education, and to (rural) employment’ and notes …
Continue readingFrom Frontline’s latest issue….
1. My article on the challenges to Supreme Court’s opaque functioning & why the Supreme Court Collegium is wrong in asking the Government to keep the Dinakaran recommendation in abeyance. 2. Nick Robinson’s survey of …
Continue readingIndia’s Under-Resourced MPs
In yesterday’s Indian Express I had this piece highlighting that the average MP has no office or staff, beyond a single secretary, and arguing that MPs need to get sufficient resources if we expect them …
Continue readingRajya Sabha debate on Judges’ Salaries Bill
The debate in Rajya Sabha on the Bill to increase the Judges’ salaries is, like the Lok Sabha debate earlier, equally noteworthy. Arun Jaitly, a former Law Minister, used the occasion to reflect on the …
Continue readingParliament’s debate on judiciary
I was lucky to watch the debate in Lok Sabha yesterday on the Bill (on the Lok Sabha channel) to increase the Judges’ salaries. Though the attendance in the House was thin, the House did …
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