Under India’s New Intermediary Rules, Fundamental Rights Take Backstage
The Indian Government’s Information Technology Ministry had recently invited comments on proposed amendments to the existing guidelines for intermediaries mainly governing how social networks (and other intermediaries) facilitate the flow...
Indian Supreme Court on Dance Bar Regulations: Victory for Bar Dancers?
A two-judge bench of the Supreme Court of India (‘SC’) recently relaxed the stringent conditions imposed by the Maharashtra government for obtaining licenses and running dance bars, public establishments which...
Re: Inhuman conditions in 1382 Prisons – Development in Indian Prisoner’s Rights
In June 2013, Justice R C Lahoti, a retired Chief Justice of the Indian Supreme Court, wrote to the then Chief Justice on overcrowding, unnatural deaths, inadequacy of staff and...
Elusive Equality: The Missing Element in the Oxytocin Ban Decision
Oxytocin is a WHO-recommended drug for the inducement of labour during childbirth, and in the prevention and treatment of post-partum haemorrhage. Recently, a two-judge bench of the Delhi High Court...
The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill, 2018: A Tale of Reneged Promises
On April 15, 2014, the Indian Supreme Court in National Legal Services Authority (‘NALSA’) v. Union of India recognised transgender persons as the ‘third gender’. The Court gleaned their extensive...
India’s Expanding Surveillance Scheme Violates the Right to Privacy
On 20 December, 2018, the Ministry of Home Affairs in India issued an office order authorising a plethora of security and intelligence agencies to intercept, monitory and decrypt all personal...
India’s New Transgender Bill and its Discontents
The government of India attempted to take a progressive step to protect the rights and dignity of transgender persons by introducing the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill 2016. This...
The Indian Anti-Trafficking Bill, 2018: A Misguided Attempt to Resolve the Human Trafficking Crisis in India
The controversial Trafficking of Persons (Prevention, Protection and Rehabilitation) Bill, 2018 (The Bill), is slated for debate and approval by the Indian Parliament’s upper house (Rajya Sabha) in its winter...
Affirmative Action Without Accessibility: India’s Higher Education System Fails Disabled Students
2.21 % of India’s population is disabled, and many of these disabled persons are subject to exclusion and discrimination in accessing higher education. To secure the rights of disabled people,...
Indian Supreme Court Judge Calls for Abolishing the Death Penalty
In a powerful dissenting opinion that has reignited the debate on the retention of the death penalty in India, Justice Kurian Joseph of the Indian Supreme Court has called for...
An Analysis of the NRC controversy in Assam: Migration and Citizenship in India
On July 30, 2018, the second draft of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) was published by the Government of Assam, in line with the 1985 Assam Accord. The aim...
Legal Gaps and Inconsistencies in India’s Commercial Surrogacy Ban
The Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill, 2016, which was laid on the tables of both Houses in August 2017, no longer allows non-Indians to commission surrogacy in India. Only infertile Indian couples...
