Tackling India’s Devadasi System – A Matter of Policing and Public Order?
In September 2017, India’s National Human Rights Commission issued notices to the states of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu about the dedication of young girls to the Devadasi system. However,...
Transformative Constitutionalism: Indian Supreme Court Upholds Constitutional Morality by Reading Down Section 377
In a historic judgment pronounced on 6th September 2018, the Supreme Court of India in Navtej Singh Johar vs Union of India declared Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code...
Indian Supreme Court Decriminalizes Same-Sex Relations
In a landmark judgment delivered today, the Supreme Court of India decriminalized same-sex relations, and affirmed that the LGBT+ community was entitled to equal rights under the Indian Constitution. The...
Patchy Implementation of the Law is Failing India’s Girls
India is suffering from a supposedly ancient yet timely problem. In violation of the law and Constitution, India’s girls are vanishing. It has been reported by government officials that more...
Discipline and Punish: How Anti-Beggary Laws in India are used to Criminalize Transgender Persons
The Delhi High Court in a landmark judgment (Harsh Mander v. Union of India and Karnika Sawney v. Union of India) has held the Bombay Prevention of Begging Act, 1959,...
The Sabarimala Temple Ban: An ‘Untouchable’ Rule
On 1st August, 2018, the Supreme Court of India concluded its hearing on a crucial matter regarding the Sabrimala Temple in the State of Kerala. The case deals with the...
Section 377: The Essence of Freedom
A country that routinely bans movies that attempt to speak of homosexuality is witnessing a historic discussion on the kind of sex Indians are legally allowed to have. The Supreme...
The Indian Supreme Court Reserves Judgment on the De-criminalisation of Homosexuality
In 2009, the High Court of Delhi handed down a landmark judgment in Naz Foundation v NCT of Delhi. It read down Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, which...
July 4, 2018 – A New Independence Day
In the United States, the Fourth of July is celebrated as Independence Day. Someday history books may celebrate the Fourth of July 2018 as a new “independence day” – not...
In Unregulated Spaces: Empowering Female Migrant Workers from India
On 4 May 2018, Sheeja Das, an Indian migrant worker, was forced to jump off her employer’s residence in Muscat, Oman, to save herself from on-going violence. Sheeja broke her...
The Restitution of Conjugal Rights in Indian Law violates the Right to Privacy
In 1983, the Indian Supreme Court held that the right to privacy did not guarantee the autonomy of an individual over her own body, and so the restitution of conjugal...
Indian High Court’s Recognition of a Person’s Right to Live as Transgender – A Bitter-Sweet Pill
In a recent judgement by the Kerala High Court, the court refused to issue a writ of habeas corpus and dismissed a mother’s plea to compel her daughter, referred to...
