Abortion Law Reform in India: One Step Forward & Two Steps Back
In an important development, the Lower House of the Indian Parliament on 17 March 2020 passed the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (Amendment) Bill 2020, providing for purportedly beneficial provisions furthering...
India’s new Abortion Bill Falls Short of Protecting Reproductive Autonomy
India’s Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has introduced the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (Amendment) Bill 2020 (the Bill) in the Parliament. The Bill seeks to make abortions more accessible...
India’s case against intellectual segregation in classrooms
A High Court in India recently handed down a significant judgment relating to equality in educational facilities. The case involved a practice regularly carried out in Indian schools, where children...
Indian Supreme Court Holds For Gender Equality in the Army
On 17th February, 2020, the Supreme Court of India (“SC”), in the case of The Secretary, Ministry of Defence v. Babita Puniya, delivered a landmark opinion, allowing Female Army Officers...
Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act, 1978: India’s Use of Preventive Detention Violates Human Rights
On February 5, the Indian Government informed the public that, following the abrogation of Article 370 of the Indian Constitution (which gave special status to the state of Jammu and...
A duty to implement affirmative action/reservations for India and South Africa?
A recent Indian Supreme Court judgement, Mukesh Kumar & Another v State of Uttarakhand & Others, held that there is no right to affirmative action under Article 16(4) of the...
Dilution of the Presumption of Innocence Principle in India
In two cases decided in 2019, the Bombay and Calcutta High Courts adopted diverging positions regarding the applicability of the reverse onus clause contained in Section 29 of the Protection...
Younger women, older men: The perpetuation of gender discrimination through minimum legal age for marriage
In India, the minimum legal age for marriage is different for men and women. Section 4(c), Special Marriage Act, 1954 requires a male to have completed 21 years of age...
Comparative Human Rights Law Book Launch: Sandy Fredman in Conversation with Justice S. Muralidhar
This is a special episode of RightsUp, which takes Sandy Fredman’s new book, Comparative Human Rights Law, as a starting point for global conversation around the role of law, lawyers,...
Equal Pay for Equal Work? Flaws in the Indian Law
The Equal Remuneration Act 1976 (‘ERA’), a legislation in India dealing with equal pay for equal work for men and women, was repealed in August 2019, and replaced by the...
The sex discrimination argument for LGBTQ rights: Contrasting the US with India
In October 2019, the United States Supreme Court heard arguments on a question of law that might shape the trajectory of LGBTQ rights for the years to come. The court...
The Communications Blackout in Kashmir: The Rebirth of a ‘National Security’ Court?
On October 1st, the Indian Supreme Court heard petitions relating to the media and communications blackout in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) following the government’s effective abrogation of Article 370 on...
