LEX ASPIRANTS

The Supreme Court on Wednesday to keep court proceedings under section 124A of IPC in abeyance has the effect of temporarily erasing the colonial provision from the statute book while the union reexamines it. It was argued in court that nearly 13000 people were already in jail under the sedition provision. National crime records bureau (NCRB) report says 356 cases of sedition under section 124A of IPC had been registered and 548 people arrested between 2015 &2020 with just 6 convictions. Section 124 A of IPC, which criminalizes any speech, writing, or representation that excites disaffection against the government. The Indian experiences shows that whenever the court dilutes the harshness of penal provisions in a balancing approach, instead of striking down the entire provision, the instrumentalities of the state (police, prosecution, and court) continue to overuse or misuse the provision. The judgment of the top court in Kedar Nath Singh  V. State of Bihar (AIR 1962 SC...

  The Supreme Court has reiterated the time limit for filing of the written statement under Order VIII Rule 1 of Code of Civil Procedure is not mandatory (if it is not a commercial suit) in recent case Bharat Kalra vs Raj Kishan Chabra. In this case, a suit for injunction was filed by the plaintiff. The High Court upheld the Trial court order refusing to condone the delay of 193 days in filing of the written statement on the ground that there was "no plausible explanation and coherent reason" explaining the delay in filing the written statement. In appeal filed by the defendant, the Apex Court noted that the suit for injunction filed by the plaintiff is not the one which is governed by the Commercial Court Act, 2015. "Therefore, the time limit for filing of the written statement under Order VIII Rule 1 of CPC is not mandatory in view of the judgment of this Court reported as ' Kailash V. Nankhu & Ors.' reported in (2005) 4 SCC 480. In view of the aforesai...

Flying a kite is something which most of us love to do ,especially by kids. But you need to be careful, negligent kite flying may lead to criminal prosecution. We all do kite flying in our childhood, it was very common right?  but you won't believe that it is punishable as per the section 11 of the Indian aircraft Act, 1934. According to the above Act, you need to get a permit or license  to fly an aircraft. As per the definition of aircraft : it includes any machine that can derive support in the atmosphere from reaction of the air that include balloons,airships , kites , gliders and flying machines. Hence negligent flying of a kite is punishable by imprisonment of 2 years or fine up to 10 lakh rupees. Interestingly before 2008 the said punishment was 6 month or fine up to 1000rs. Eventhough the punishment has been increased the irrational inclusion of kite along with the definition clause of aircraft has not been amended. So presumably, if a person harms someone flying kite...

A Plaint is a legal document that contains the content of any civil suit which shows the Plaintiff’s claim after filing suit. The plaint is the first step of the Plaintiff in the form of a legal document for the commencement of suit and it shows what a Plaintiff wants from that suit. Through the help of plaint, the plaintiff narrates or describes the cause of action and related information which is considered to be essential from the viewpoint of the suit. In the case of the plaint, the cause of action consists of two divisions, first is the legal theory (the factual situation based on which the plaintiff claims to have suffered) and the second is the legal remedy that the plaintiff seeks from the court.  A plaint is considered an important concept because it is the foremost and initial stage to initiate any lawsuit and helps to find a civil court of appropriate jurisdiction. Section 26 of the Code of Civil Procedure states “Every suit shall be instituted by the presentation of a p...

The concept of secularism mentioned in the preamble of the Constitution considers secularism as neither anti God nor pro god, it treats alike the devout, the antagonistic and the atheist. Worshipping God should be according to the dictates of one's own conscience.  In Aruna Roy v. Union of India ,  court quoted gandhiji who said "The real meaning of secularism is sarva dharma sambhav meaning equal treatment and respect for all religions. But we have misunderstood the meaning of secularism as sarva dharma abhav meaning negation of all religions". On 2 December 1948, Dr Ambedkar acknowledged that religious conceptions in India “cover every aspect of life, from birth to death”. However, he added, “There is nothing extraordinary in saying that we ought to strive hereafter to limit the definition of religion in such a manner that we shall not extend it beyond beliefs and such rituals as may be connected with ceremonials which are essentially religious.” Essentially religious’ ...

The offence of dowry death has been inserted in the IPC as section 304B by the dowry prohibition (Amendment) Act , 1986 which intent to curb the social evil of bride burning and dowry demand. The offence is in a way fiction of law, whereby the offence of dowry death is deemed to have been committed if certain set of conditions are satisfied in a given case. These conditions are four in number, namely; 1. Death of a woman caused by burns, bodily injury, otherwise than under normal circumstances. 2. Death occurred within 7 years of marriage 3. Soon before her death, the woman was subjected to cruelty or harassment by her husband or any relative of her husband, 4. Such cruelty or harassment has been for, or in connection with, any demand for dowry. The Government, from time to time, has come up with legislations to protect women and to punish those committing atrocities on them, including Section 174 Cr.PC was also amended to secure Post Mortem in case of suicide or death of a woman withi...

  The three-judge bench of Supreme Court comprising of Chief Justice N.V. Ramana and Justices A.S. Bopanna and Hima Kohli clarified two important positions of the law relating to the offence of Robbery under the Indian Penal Code in the case Ram Ratan v State of Madhya Pradesh. The trial court convicted the appellant along with two co-accused under Sections 392 and 397 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 read with Section 11/13 of the Madhya Pradesh Dakaiti Aur Vyapharan Pravbhavit Kshetra Adhiniyam 1981 Act. The question that came up for the Court's consideration was whether the charge under Section 397 of IPC would hold in case the firearm had not been put to use ? Arguments by the Counsels : The counsel for the appellant contended the firearm even if was proved to be carried, had not been used and as such the charge under Section 397 IPC would not lie. Further, even if the incident of robbery is proved against the appellant there is no evidence which states that he used...

  Most of us view privacy as an individual right.Time has come to look beyond. Priscilla M Regan in her seminal work “Legislating privacy”,  highlights the importance of developing and understanding of the social importance of privacy.She conceptualizes privacy as a value and as a goal of public policy. In this case,  A Petition filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India,to issue a Writ of Mandamus to direct the second respondent to issue a No Objection Certificate to the petitioner to run a “SPA”. The petitioner herin is running a Spa in the name and style of “Queen Ayurvedic Cross Spa Centre” at Trichy. Originally, there was no law regulating the said business and no license was required from any governmental authority. Since vide Gazette Notification No.252 dated 16.07.2018, obtaining of license has been made mandatory, the petitioner applied for such license. Since no action was taken on his request, he filed this writ petition for directing the police au...

  The judgment of a two-judge bench of the Apex Court in  Laxmibai Chandaragi B. v. State of Karnataka, (2021)3 SCC 360 , which was delivered on February 8, 2021, whereby the police officials were directed to devise guidelines and train the Police on how to deal with socially sensitive cases like inter-caste marriages. The fact of the case is that a woman from State of Karnataka and a man from State of Uttar Pradesh fell in love with each other, while they were pursuing their professional careers. Consequently, they both married each other in Delhi and later they set up their marital home in Uttar Pradesh. The woman's father lodged a missing complaint with Karnataka Police. Based on this complaint, the Police officer called the woman, who was residing in Uttar Pradesh, to come to Karnataka and record her statement so that they could close the case if it was a consensual marriage. The woman expressed her unwillingness to come to Karnataka as she felt threat to her life from ...

  Marriage Registration in India has still not gained that much of importance and validation as any other registration relating to one’s life. The Government has made it compulsory to register marriage but does not penalise for non-registration. Purpose of Registration The purpose of registration is to officially validate marriage and to provide social as well as legal security to both husband and wife if things go south in future. A marriage certificate, which will be issued only once your marriage is registered, is essential in all future joint ventures, such as purchasing a home in the country together or applying for a spouse visa if you decide to travel overseas. In India, the following two laws govern the field of Registration of Marriage are: The Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 The Hindu Marriage Act of 1955 governs marriage registration where both husband and wife are Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, or Sikhs, or have converted to one of these religions. It should be remember...

  25 handpicked key judgments delivered by the Kerala High Court in 2021: 1. Marital Rape A Valid Ground For Divorce [X v. Y] A Division Bench of Justice A. Muhamed Mustaque and Justice Kauser Edappagath in a significant judgment upheld that marital rape, although not penalised in India, is a good ground to claim divorce although the law does not recognise marital rape under penal provisions. The Court while empathising with the situation of the woman observed that a husband's licentious disposition disregarding the autonomy of the wife is marital rape, albeit such conduct cannot be penalised, it falls in the frame of physical and mental cruelty. 2. Muslim Women Entitled To Invoke Extra-Judicial Divorce [X v. Y and other connected matters] Overruling a 49-year-old judgment that barred Muslim women from resorting to extrajudicial modes of dissolving marriage, a Bench of Justice A. Muhamed Mustaque and Jus...

 In the year 2021, there were many instances where Madras High Court placed constitutional freedoms and citizens' rights on a higher threshold. They are: 1. 'Right To Be Funny Can Be Mined In Article 19(1)(a)' : Madras High Court Quashes FIR Over Humorous Facebook Post [Mathivanan v. Inspector of Police & Ors.] While quashing an FIR registered against an office-bearer of CPI (ML) who uploaded vacation pictures with the caption 'Trip to Sirumalai for shooting practice', the Madurai Bench of Madras High Court went on to make some interesting observations about the 'duty to laugh' and the 'right to be funny'. Justice G.R Swaminathan quashed the FIR against the 62-year-old accused while underscoring that the case registered by Vadipatty Police, booking the latter for 'making preparations to wage war against the State', is 'absurd and an abuse of legal process'. The Court went on to observe that the correlative right to be funny can be...