Blogs

The 4th NUALS Maritime Law Moot Court Competition, conducted annually by the National University of Advanced Legal Studies in the major shipping port of Kochi, is a red letter day in Indian maritime mooting circles. The fourth edition of this moot court competition to be held between the 14 th and 1...
“ The foundation of every state is the education of its youth, ” said Diogenes, the ancient Greek philosopher. Herein lies the crux of why education remains vital for any government across the world, often as a charitable and social responsibility. This piece intends to provide an overview of the ed...
By William James Hargreaves The Network Enforcement Act The Network Enforcement Act (NetzDG), a law passed on the 30th of June by the German Government operates to fine social media companies up to 50 million Euros – approximately 360 crore rupees – if they persistently fail to remove hate speech fr...

Revised CRI Guidelines – Ambiguity replaces certainty

by SFLC India on in Technology, Media & Telecommunications
by sflc_admin | July 6, 2017 Say No To Software Patents The Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trademarks has published the modified Guidelines for Examination of Computer Related Inventions (CRIs) by office order dated 30-6-2017. The revised guidelines have done away with the three-stage te...

Streaming platforms and self-censorship: An Indian perspective

by CCG NLU Delhi on in Technology, Media & Telecommunications
Introduction In May 2017, a movie titled ‘Angry Indian Goddesses’ was released on Netflix India. A censored version of the film, originally intended for theatrical release was made available. Critics brought attention to the self-censorship Netflix was resorting to, in the absence of censorship guid...

Financing urban development

by PRS Legislative Research on in Constitutional Law
India’s urban population has grown by 32% from 2001 to 2011 as compared to 18% growth in total population of the country. [1] As per Census 2011, 31% of the country’s population (377 million people) live in cities, and contribute to 63% of the country’s GDP. [2] The urban population is projected to ...

Hearing Update: Shantha Sinha & Anr. v. Union of India; June 27th, 2017

by SFLC India on in Technology, Media & Telecommunications
by sflc_admin | June 28, 2017 The Supreme Court on Tuesday, June 27, 2017, heard the petition against notifications making Aadhaar mandatory for social welfare schemes [Shantha Sinha & Anr. v. Union of India (W.P. (C) 342/2017)] for the grant of interim relief. You can read the summary from the...

No Interim Relief in Petition Seeking Stay on Mandatory Aadhaar – For Now

by CCG NLU Delhi on in Technology, Media & Telecommunications
The fresh petition challenging the constitutionality of the Aadhaar Act ( Shantha Sinha v. Union of India) came up for hearing before the Supreme Court today. While this petition has been tagged with the main bunch of petitions challenging the Aadhaar scheme, it also seeks urgent interim relief by w...
The Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Act, 2016 ( “Amendment Act” ), which was passed by Parliament on March 9th, 2017, introduced certain significant changes to the Maternity Benefit Act, 1961 ( “MB Act” ). The Amendment Act received Presidential assent on March 27th, 2017 and came into effect from Apr...
Recently, newspapers reported that certain power producers proposed to sell large amount of their stake in the Ultra Mega Power Projects. The proposal to sell their stakes is a direct outcome of the recent decision of the Supreme Court of India in Energy Watchdog & Ors. v. Central Electricity R...

Delhi Tech Talks [June 23, 2017; New Delhi]

by SFLC India on in Technology, Media & Telecommunications
by sflc_admin | June 26, 2017 On June 23, 2017, the second edition of Delhi Tech Talks – a collaborative series of quarterly discussions on the state of tech policy in India – was organized by the Centre for Communication Governance at National Law University, Delhi (CCG), Centre for Internet and So...

Real World IoT Security Conference 2017 [June 20, 2017; Bengaluru]

by SFLC India on in Technology, Media & Telecommunications
by sflc_admin | June 25, 2017 SFLC.in was a community partner at the Real World Internet of Things Security Conference (RISC) organized by the EFY Group on 20th June 2017 at Hotel Park Plaza, Bengaluru. In view of the fact that lack of security is the greatest challenge facing IoT deployments today,...
Yesterday, the BJP announced its candidate for the upcoming election of the President, which is scheduled to be held on July 17. In light of this, we take a look at the manner in which the election to the office of the President is conducted, given his role and relevance in the Constitutional framew...

Sacking a Director - Company Law

by Sathyanarayanan D on in Corporate law
Background: XYZ Private Limited has two directors in the board. Director A and Director B. One CEO C. It has two members (subscribers of shares), they are CEO C and Director A who hold 97% and 3% of shares respectively. As you must have noticed Director B is a non-shareholding director. The question...
Yesterday, the Supreme Court delivered its first verdict in a series of legal challenges that have been made against the Aadhaar project. [1] In the present matter, the court was examining whether a provision of the Finance Act, 2017 that made Aadhaar mandatory for filing of income tax returns and a...

Supreme Court Upholds Law Linking Aadhaar With PAN

by CCG NLU Delhi on in Technology, Media & Telecommunications
The Supreme Court delivered its judgment in the constitutional challenge to Section 139AA of the Income Tax Act today. Brought in by way of an amendment in April this year, this provision made it mandatory for all taxpayers to quote their Aadhaar number when applying for a Permanent Account Number (...
It seems we live in an independent director-bashing era. News articles, blogs, scholarly write-ups are replete with criticism relating to independent directors, whether it’s to do with their appointment, ‘true’ independence, removal, resignation or generally their very existence! Anything remotely c...

Panel Discussion on 03 June 2017: “Tech Policy Talks”

by SFLC India on in Technology, Media & Telecommunications
by sflc_admin | June 2, 2017 Software Freedom Law Centre, India (SFLC.in), along with Democratic Alliance for Knowledge Freedom (DAKF), is organizing a panel discussion titled, “Tech Policy Talks” on Saturday, June 3, 2017, from 10:00 -13:00 (10 AM to 1 PM) at IBIS Kochi City Center Hotel, Padma Jn....

The financial health of Air India

by PRS Legislative Research on in Constitutional Law
Recently there have been news reports about the NITI Aayog submitting its recommendations on improving the financial health of Air India to the Ministry of Finance. [1] , [2] The Civil Aviation Ministers have also mentioned that the Ministry will soon propose a roadmap for the rejuvenation of the na...
by sflc_admin | May 29, 2017 (image credit: inmediahk ) SFLC.in joined 17 other non-governmental organisations from across the globe as amicus in a voluntary intervention filed before France’s highest court, the Council of State (Conseil d’État), raising serious concerns about a ruling of France’s d...
The Bar Council of India (“ BCI ”), in a press release on Saturday, has said that it will file an application in the Supreme Court seeking modification of the order which allowed fresh law graduates to become judicial officers. It said that the BCI and the State Bar Councils are “strongly in favour”...
Thirty years ago, nobody could have accurately predicted the job market of today. The intervening technological progress must be blamed or credited for it. However, we seem to be able today to satisfactorily predict the job market we will have thirty years hence – plenty of machines and Artificial I...
Writing a great legal article is truly amazing. Not only it will be published in a good, well-known website or blog, thereby increasing your brand value and visibility, but also be read by many people who are in need of that information. It may help litigants, researchers, other lawyers or a reporte...

CLAT and the Law of Cognitive Inertia

by JayP on in Career in Law
The distinguished Prof. Shamnad Basheer recently launched an online petition in the form of a poem to make a fervent appeal to the invisible CLAT powers to make the critical shift to a permanent, centralized CLAT body that will conduct the CLAT examination every year. However, every effort till now ...
CLAT 2015 will go down in the history of national competitive exams in India as the most ludicrous and incompetent examination that openly insulted the intelligence of thousands of candidates and played with their careers with an unbelievably sick mentality. The entire CLAT 2015 affair reflected an ...

Connecting Legal field to the fourth estate.

by Nikhil Nair on in Career in Law
Law and journalism are two fields which demand up-to-date knowledge in this proliferating world. Neither of them is stagnant and obsolete. As a first year law student,I used to think that legal profession only meant to argue in courts. It was later that it dawned upon me that legal field has no peri...

Why this Ko-Law-very ??

by Nitin Gaurav Srivastava on in Career in Law
Why This Ko-Law-Very ?? The moment you enter an elite Law school campus,you will be tired of answering this question to everyone, from your Orientation day to Farewell.One simple question -“Why law?” Few oversmart kids would try to impress the first class by saying “Because I couldn’t make it to IIT...
Introduction Law has been the most variegated stream ever since it was incorporated in the human society. When one thinks of a vocation in law the first image that strike its mind is a dexterous person, dressed in black and white, going through some gigantic books, running in and out the court, figh...

Photo by Gulshan Sachdeva, via here.

At the outskirts of the Metropolitan court, life is not so fair and lovely

by amrut patil on in Advocates, the bar & litigation
LIFE IS NOT SO FAIR AND LOVELY At the outskirts of the Metropolitan court, I begin my day with the sight of all street smart lawyers who are out for today’s hunt. The hunters instinct is still seen in them when their roving eyes are targeting their next catch cum client. Sipping the cutting chai and...
What happens when you spend 5 years of your law school having the time of your life. Like literally, time-of-your-life!!! [Time of your life- excludes any such activity that requires paying attention in classes, taking internships seriously, taking moots seriously and/or taking anyone/anything serio...

Unlike Katju, I think “lady lawyers” must be banned from the courts

by Kian Ganz on in Advocates, the bar & litigation
A lady (not a lawyer) Retired Justice Markandey Katju published a blog post today entitled “Lady Lawyers” . In typical Katju blogging fashion (whenever not causing a media storm about judicial corruption), it’s a trip down memory lane starting with his time as a lawyer in 1970 Allahabad. Katju is tr...

No blogs found in this category.

What you can repair is what you own

by Abhay on in Technology, Media & Telecommunications
Last year, European Union has ratified the ‘Right to Repair’ regulation. According to these regulations, the manufacturers of the household electronic appliances i.e. lighting, washing machines, dish washers, and refrigerators, will have to make it easier for the consumers to get them repaired. Thou...

[RTI] 23030 websites/URLs currently blocked in India

by SFLC India on in Technology, Media & Telecommunications
by sflc_admin | October 9, 2017 According to the Cyber Laws and E-Security Group under Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology Group (MeitY), as many as 23,030 websites /URLs are currently blocked in India. This information was received as a reply to a Right to Information application fil...

Digital Security Training in Kochi

by SFLC India on in Technology, Media & Telecommunications
by sflc_admin | October 4, 2017 We live in an era where human activity is producing unprecedented amounts of digital data. The popular saying these days is ‘data is the new oil’. The high value of this data along with the lack of awareness among people about rights has prompted corporations and gove...

Summary Report: Digital Citizen Summit, 2017 (September 21-22, 2017; New Delhi)

by SFLC India on in Technology, Media & Telecommunications
by sflc_admin | September 27, 2017 The second Digital Citizen Summit was organised on September 21-22, 2017 by Digital Empowerment Foundation (DEF) and Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom at India Habitat Centre, New Delhi. SFLC.in was an associate partner of the summit. The summit aimed at fin...

Notable technology and rights related litigations

by SFLC India on in Technology, Media & Telecommunications

Notable technology and rights related litigations

SFLC
SFLC
Software Freedom Law Centre

Defender of your digital Freedom
Defender of your digital Freedom

You have the freedom to choose your color. Pick one:

First published here.

Author: sflc_admin

Workshop on Secure Communication

by SFLC India on in Technology, Media & Telecommunications
by sflc_admin | September 22, 2017 SFLC.in is organising a workshop on “Secure Communication ” in association with Sukhbir Singh, TOR Developer, on Saturday, September 23, 2017, from 11:00AM-:1:30 PM at the SFLC.in premises at K-9, Second Floor, Birbal Road, Jangpura Extension, New Delhi -110014 nea...

[RTI] Darjeeling Internet Ban: 3 months and counting

by SFLC India on in Technology, Media & Telecommunications
by sflc_admin | September 18, 2017 The ongoing Internet shutdown in Darjeeling, West Bengal completes 3 months today. This day, three months earlier, mobile Internet was shutdown in the city due to the ongoing agitation for a separate Gorkhaland. Two days later, on 20th June, the orders were extende...

CCG on the Privacy Judgment

by CCG NLU Delhi on in Technology, Media & Telecommunications
Written by the Civil Liberties team at CCG A 9 judge bench of the Supreme Court of India passed a landmark judgment last week, which unanimously recognized the right to privacy as a fundamental right under the Constitution of India. The Court found the right to privacy to be a part of the freedoms g...

An update on Sabu Mathew George vs. Union of India

by CCG NLU Delhi on in Technology, Media & Telecommunications
Today, the Supreme Court heard the ongoing matter of Sabu Mathew George vs. Union of India . In 2008, a petition was filed to ban advertisements endorsing sex-selective abortions from search engine results. Advertisements endorsing sex selective abortions are illegal under Section 22 of the PNDT Act...

Summary Report: Celebrating the Right to be Let Alone [Sep 02, 2017; New Delhi]

by SFLC India on in Technology, Media & Telecommunications
by sflc_admin | September 4, 2017 On Sep 2, 2017, SFLC.in organized a discussion titled “Celebrating the Right To Be Let Alone” to commemorate the recent recognition of right to privacy as a fundamental right, discuss the privacy judgment, its key takeaways, the impact it will have on pending Aadhaa...
The sub-committee of Insolvency Law Committee (ILC) of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Government of India (MCA) in its report dated October 31, 2020 has proposed the framework for the pre-pack and prearranged insolvency resolution process which the Government may adopt with / without modificatio...
Analysis of the Condonation of Delay Scheme, 2018 of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs The Scheme is by way of a General Circular No.16/2017 dated 29 December 2017. It is in exercises of powers u/Ss. 403, 459 and 460 of the Companies Act, 2013. Who can avail the scheme? A company registered under th...
Diwali is one of the most anticipated and celebrated festivals in India. It is also a festival of giving gifts, which is often a challenge for compliance professionals who struggle with policies and nuances of law around this time, on giving gifts that might seem like bribes. Under the Prevention of...

It’s a Yes – for Banks!

by Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas on in Corporate law
The RBI has amended the Master Directions on Financial Services provided by Banks. This is a significant move permitting Banks to invest in Category II Alternative Investment Funds. As of June 30, 2017, Alternative Investment Funds ( AIFs ) had raised the cumulative figure of Rs. 48, 129 crores, aga...
Image credit: Scroll.in, September 26, 2017 Sociologists know that the formation and survival of civilization is conditional upon the universal adherence to a framework of acceptable norms and guidelines of human conduct and interaction. Moses therefore set out as God’s message, the directive to lov...
Financial investors in India are scared of regulatory uncertainties. Not that uncertainties are exclusive to our country but it’s a critical risk factor that is assessed by those making substantial investments. Historically, one of the most important regulatory concerns for such investors is related...
India has long recognised the right of foreign creditors to participate in the winding up of Indian companies. As early as 1961, the Supreme Court of India, in Rajah of Vizianagaram (AIR 1962 SC 500) , clarified that foreign creditors have the same right as Indian creditors in winding up proceedings...
Photo credit: Indian Express, August 23, 2017 Through its historic ruling delivered by a five-judge bench in the case of Shayara Bano and Ors v. Union of India on August 22nd 2017, the Supreme Court of India ( SC ) liberated Muslim women from the perpetual fear of arbitrary and whimsical divorce. Th...
The ability to attract large scale Foreign Direct Investment ( FDI ) into India has been a key driver for policy making by the Government. Prime Minister Modi seems to be going along the right track, with India receiving FDI inflows worth USD 60.1 billion in 2016-17, which was an all-time high. Henc...
On August 31st 2017, the Supreme Court of India in the case of Innoventive Industries Limited v. ICICI Bank Limited* delivered its first extensive ruling on the operation and functioning of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 ( Insolvency Code ). The Court said that it is pronouncing its detail...