(In this guest post, Rohan Kothari, who represented one of the interveners before the Supreme Court in the recently concluded hearings on the constitutionality of the Haryana Panchayati Raj Act, discusses the tangled history of the jurisprudence on the right to stand for elections) — Oral arguments ...
Blogs by Gautam Bhatia
(In Part II of this series, Karan Lahiri continues his argument about the interpretation of Article 16 of the Constitution) — In the last post , I introduced the concept of “power coupled with duty”. In this part, I talk about a batch of writ petitions pending before the Supreme Court, emerging from...
(In an upcoming series of guest posts, Karan Lahiri argues that, properly interpreted, Article 16 of the Constitution not only permits, but actually casts an affirmative duty upon the State to ensure the adequate representation of backward classes of citizens in public employment.) — As this blog al...
Previously on this blog, we have discussed in detail the pending constitutional challenge to the Haryana Panchayati Raj Act, which imposes educational, property and debt-based disqualifications upon candidature in local government elections. Part of the argument has focussed upon the link between th...
November 9, 2015 · 8:22 pm Previously on this blog, we have discussed the doctrine of unconstitutional conditions (government may not make the grant of a privilege conditional upon the relinquishment of a fundamental right, even though there is no prior obligation upon it to accord the privilege in ...
The Delhi High Court held yesterday, in United Rwas Joint Action v. Union of India and ors ., that the Comptroller and Auditor General cannot be entrusted the audit of DISCOMs in Delhi, under Article 149 of the Constitution of India read with the duties laid down under the CAG Act, 1971. The allegat...
I’ve just finished reading a fascinating paper titled ‘Proportionality and Invariable Baseline Intensity of Review’, by Professor Cora Chan. The paper deals with judicial review standards of legislative action under the UK Human Rights Act, and addresses many of the issues that we have touched upon ...
October 28, 2015 · 9:32 am Today, the Supreme Court finished hearing arguments and reserved judgment in constitutional challenge to the Haryana Panchayati Raj Act, bringing to an end a protracted judicial process that began last year with the passage of a similar ordinance in Rajasthan. On this blog...
October 28, 2015 · 9:32 am Today, the Supreme Court finished hearing arguments and reserved judgment in constitutional challenge to the Haryana Panchayati Raj Act, bringing to an end a protracted judicial process that began last year with the passage of a similar ordinance in Rajasthan. On this blog...
On October 27, final arguments before the Supreme Court will resume in the Haryana Panchayati Raj Amendments case, dealing with the constitutionality of educational, property and debt disqualifications upon the right to run for elected office. On this blog, we have covered the issue extensively. In ...
On October 27, final arguments before the Supreme Court will resume in the Haryana Panchayati Raj Amendments case, dealing with the constitutionality of educational, property and debt disqualifications upon the right to run for elected office. On this blog, we have covered the issue extensively. In ...
While re-reading Justice Chelameshwar’s dissenting opinion in the NJAC Judgment, I just came across – what seems to me to be – a rather significant observation. In paragraph 85, Justice Chelameshwar writes: “Article 326 prescribes that election to Lok Sabha and the Legislative Assemblies shall be on...
While re-reading Justice Chelameshwar’s dissenting opinion in the NJAC Judgment, I just came across – what seems to me to be – a rather significant observation. In paragraph 85, Justice Chelameshwar writes: “Article 326 prescribes that election to Lok Sabha and the Legislative Assemblies shall be on...
In a landmark judgment today, the Supreme Court struck down the 99th Constitutional Amendment for being ultra vires the basic structure of the Constitution. The 99th Amendment was intended to replace the “collegium” system, in which the three senior-most judges of the Supreme Court had the final say...
October 12, 2015 · 1:18 pm Harvard Law School is seeking submissions for a workshop on Animals in Comparative Constitutional Law to be held on Thursday, February 18, 2016. We invite scholarly submissions on any theme relevant to this topic, including pieces addressing constitutional theory, institut...
From reports of today’s Supreme Court proceedings in the Aadhaar review petitions, it appears that counsel invoked the doctrine of waiver: it was argued that citizens were entitled to waive their fundamental right to privacy (assuming that privacy is a fundamental right) in return for the government...
On this blog, I – as well as guest essayists – have written extensively about Rajasthan and Haryana’s moves to impose educational and other restrictions upon the right to contest Panchayati Raj elections. One way or another, this issue will be resolved next week, when a two-judge bench of the Suprem...
(We are starting a new series called ‘Notes from a Foreign Field’, focusing on decisions of other constitutional courts, and constitutional controversies in other jurisdictions, written by specialists from those jurisdictions. In the opening post, Max Harris, a New Zealand lawyer and presently Prize...
Recently, my attention was drawn to a fascinating judgment of a division bench of the Delhi High Court, delivered last month. Inspector (Mahila) Ravina vs Union of India concerned a challenge to the CRPF’s denial of promotion to a female inspector. The facts are somewhat complex. For our purposes, i...
Yesterday , the Supreme Court admitted the State of Gujarat’s appeal against a decision of the High Court of Gujarat, which had set aside the Gujarat State Tax Commissioner’s denial of tax exemption to the film “The Colour of Life“. The Gujarat government grants a 100% entertainment tax exemption to...