Revisiting Right to Information in India: Is the DPDP Act counterproductive to RTI Act?
The Right to Information Act of 2005 (‘RTI Act’) in India empowers citizens to demand transparency and accountability from the government. However, the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (‘DPDP...
Bangladesh’s National Human Rights Commission: A Watchdog Without Teeth?
The haunting image of fifteen-year-old Felani Khatun’s body hanging from a barbed wire fence after being shot by the Border Security Force (BSF,) the extrajudicial killing of 1,926 individuals over...
Affordable Housing and Reasonable Standards of Sanitation in Kenya
In the Global South, particularly in Africa, to be born and raised in a poor background is to learn the harshness of life too early. It’s waking up in a...
How a Caste Census Could Transform India’s Reservation Policies
The Indian government recently announced that the next nationwide population census will be conducted in 2026-27, and will include collection of caste data. This was a central issue in the...
The Internationally Recognised Right to Conscientious Objection Under Real Risk in Ukraine
Going into the fourth year of resistance of the Ukrainian nation to Russian aggression, a lack of soldiers is one of the main problems of Ukrainian reality. The Ukrainian government...
Reopening Finality: Capital Punishment on Trial (Again)
Capital punishment has been the subject of considerable judicial discourse in India, a significant part of which has focused on isolating the right to life from sweeping judicial discretion in...
Judicial Activism in Protecting the Right to Equality in Bangladesh: Reflections on High Court Division’s verdict on Redefining Parental Identity in Student Information Forms
The case of BLAST and others vs. Bangladesh and others (Writ Petition No. 5343 0f 2009) challenged the mandatory requirement for students to provide their father’s name in examination registration...
When Bulldozer Justice Breeds Injustice: Indian Supreme Court Curtails Arbitrary Demolitions
On 13 November 2024, the apex court of India delivered a landmark judgment in In Re: Directions in the matter of demolition of structures addressing the important injustice being caused...
A Critical Analysis of the Indian Supreme Court’s Ruling on Same-Sex Marriage
On October 17, 2024, the Supreme Court’s five-judge Constitution Bench ruled that same-sex couples do not have an unconditional right to marry, stating it is a matter for Parliament, and...
Can’t Fathers Feed their Babies? Critiquing the Indian Supreme Court’s order on gendered infant-care in public
In February 2025, the Supreme Court of India passed a landmark order in Maatr Sparsh, An Initiative by Avyaan Foundation v. Union of India, acknowledging the intertwined legal rights of...
Commercial or Altruistic Surrogacy: The Indian Supreme Court Finds Middle Ground
Governance of surrogacy in India has been multi-faceted. Whereas commercial surrogacy was previously allowed, the current legislation is focused on altruistic surrogacy. The Surrogacy Regulation Act 2021 as defines ‘altruistic...
Human Nature: Understanding the Constitutional and Indigenous Context of Granting Legal Personhood to Taranaki Mounga
Last week Taranaki Mounga (mountain) joined a growing family of natural entities given legal personhood in Aotearoa New Zealand. Te Urewera was the first natural entity in the world to...
