Right to Protest v. Convenience of the Public – The Indian Supreme Court’s Decision on Shaheen Bagh Anti-CAA Protests
On 7 October 2020, a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court of India held that the right to protest guaranteed under the Constitution of India cannot be exercised at public...
Choking the Non-Governmental Organisations: Amnesty India and the Regulation of Foreign Funding
On 29 September 2020, Amnesty International India (“Am-India”) halted its operations within the country after the Government of India froze its accounts. Am-India called it the “latest in an incessant...
Arbitrary & Disproportionate Criminalisation of Marginalised Communities: A Countermap of Pandemic Policing in India
The Criminal Justice and Police Accountability Project studied 34,000 arrest records and 500 First Information Reports filed in Madhya Pradesh, India to understand the patterns of pandemic policing and locate...
Transgender Persons Rules 2020: A Halfhearted Attempt at Redemption
Justice Chandrachud of the Indian Supreme Court, in the landmark Navtej Singh Johar judgment, opined that, “our ability to recognise others who are different is a sign of our own...
The Transformative Possibilities of a Constitution (with Joel Modiri and Gautam Bhatia)
Constitutions are the legal bedrock of many countries, but they’re also political, and are produced within a specific socio-historical context, much like any text. As much as Constitutions are there...
Right to Education & Emergence of a Digital Divide in Digital India
The recent statistical report presented by the National Statistical Organization (NSO) indicates the deteriorating standards of availability of internet and computers to students in India, which violates their fundamental rights...
Right to housing and dignity denied: Indian Supreme Court orders eviction of slum dwellers within 3 months
In a recent order passed in the case of MC Mehta v. Union of India, the Supreme Court has given directions to remove around 48,000 slum dwellings that run along...
The Unconstitutionality of the “Publication of Notice of Intended Marriage” clause under the Indian Special Marriage Act
The Special Marriage Act was enacted in 1954 to allow citizens of India to solemnize inter-faith and inter-caste marriages without the need to renounce their religion. The Supreme Court of...
India: Sharma v. Sharma – Constitutional Equality for Hindu Women?
On 11th of August 2020, a three-judge bench of the Indian apex court decided that its previous interpretation, of the words contained within s.6 of the Hindu Succession Act, was...
One step closer to gender justice: Equal inheritance rights to Hindu daughters
The Supreme Court of India, in a landmark order delivered on 11 August, 2020, cleared all legal cobwebs surrounding equal division of a Hindu ancestral property. Through this judgement, the...
Covid-19 and the Indian Supreme Court’s refusal to lift internet restrictions in Kashmir
The Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir had passed an order to restrict the internet speed in the entire Union Territory to 2G. On 11th May 2020, the Indian Supreme...
COVID-19 and the Digital Divide in Indian Island-territories
The lack of access to high speed internet within Indian island territories is a violation of digital equality, and a host of connected rights. This has been further exacerbated during...
