A sense of irony is the only way for me to describe how I felt when I heard about Balagopal’s death. Ordinary people leading ordinary lives die of heart attacks. And despite the simplicity with …
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Follow-up on Judges’ assets case
The Delhi High Court has admitted the Supreme Court’s appeal against Justice Ravindra Bhat’s Sep.2 judgment in the assets case. LAOT’s earlier posts can be read by clicking the label, judges’ assets. I found the …
Continue readingArticle 356 & Constitutional Interpretation: A Reply to Shubhankar Dam
In a recent article in the British journal Public Law, Shubhankar Dam critiques the Indian Supreme Court’s decision in Rameshwar Prasad. Dam argues that the Court incorrectly identified the stage at which a legislative assembly …
Continue readingOccasional Digest
1. My article, quoting anonymous I.P.experts at Spicy IP and a TTD’s advisor, on why the grant of G.I status to Tirupathi laddu is improper. I ask whether it is an instance of use of …
Continue readingPuisne Matters
A quick glance across the web page profiling former judges of the Supreme Court of India left me startled. The list of judges begins with (the famous) Justice Khanna, appointed in 1971, leaving all other …
Continue readingAll in the family
A Maharashtra Assembly ticket given by the Congress party to President Pratibha Patil’s son not only questions the independence of the president’s office, it highlights one of the gravest problems in Indian politics today – …
Continue readingMercy Petitions
The excessive delay in disposing of mercy petitions has received much public attention recently, especially in the case of Afzal Guru. Last week the Supreme Court expressed its concern about this delay, and suggested that …
Continue readingThe “Spuriousness” of Indian Law: Need to Delink Drug Regulation from Intellectual Property
The Indian Express published an editorial of mine, where I argue that India needs to urgently delink drug regulation from intellectual property issues, since the aims and objectives of these regimes are quite distinct. India …
Continue readingThe Significance of Kaminey
There is an interesting review of the movie Kaminey, titled Social Dystopia or Entrepreneurial Fantasy: The Significance of Kaminey (here), by M.K. Raghavendra, film critic and scholar, in the September 19, 2009 issue of the …
Continue readingThe origins of caste
I am not a scientist, and this is not a science blog. But the just-published study in Nature may have interesting implications for some important legal and political debates around caste. India, the study claims, …
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