A Law Student's Contention

The hearing in the matter related to the entry of the women in Sabarimala Temple is in full swing before the Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court. Looking at the mood of the court and the past track record, most probable outcome is that that this ancient ‘patriarchal’ practice of exclusion of women between the age of 10 to 50 years will be wiped from the canvas of the history as petitions against such age-old practices are admitted only after Justices are determined to restore the balance into the society by obliterating such unconstitutional and discriminatory practices which often trembles their soul. No one can argue the fact this practice which has been practiced since times immemorial discriminates between men and women. The controversy is that before entering Sabarimala Temple a 41-day penance/ tapasya is to be observed and it is believed that only after enduring these harsh conditions for 41 days continuously, one can feel the splendor of god Ayyappan. This ‘ tapas...

A switch was made to democracy from monarchy when kings abandoned the divine duty of serving the people. Without this duty, only the structure of monarch remained as residue, a form without its soul. It was then that broad masses rose up in rebellion to clear away this purposeless post of 'king' and established the aesthetic edifice of Democracy. This process of conclusion of king’s dynasties is not a standalone example, whenever the spirit of the idea has been abandoned such processes have ensued to restore the essence of public service in the leaders by establishing a more efficient system. It may be argued that what happened with King’s in the past is also happening in with the contemporary democratically elected leaders i.e. democracy has lost its essence and its aim of serving the people. Democracy today has become a cliché and is taken synonymous with elections, as soon as elections are concluded the elected representative leaders are nowhere to be found betraying T...

Photo Courtesy: The Quint There is a prevailing notion in the society that Judges are people belonging to the elite class of the society and are persons of academic significance divorced from the reality of the society as is often accused by the Executive wing too. The view is not far from reality and is based on logical and reasonable grounds. When just to lay down that ‘Right to Privacy’ is a fundamental right and is an integral part of Article 21, the learned Judges had to write 547 pages of sheer philosophy! not much is left to say against the ‘Academic Judges’ view. These people babble about the idea of justice and liberty as if they are themselves the incarnation of goddess Justitia. The problem is not with their babbling but with their conduct when their own interests are at stake. How they abandon these ideas and make them orphan. Some examples of Judges who after breaking up from reality and practicality also divorced from their ideas about which they bragged a...

No, illogical coalitions are not the answer to the abovestated problem, well not at least in my view because the resultant mess would not be accepted by the society because they too want a stable government. Though stable government is last of their concern, their hearts will question them that for whose benefit will they work for instance a government made by a coalition between pro-Dalit party, pro-OBC party and Congress will work for the welfare of whom? Will they work for the benefit of Dalits or OBC or rather for all of them? To this, the simple answer is that they cannot work for the welfare of more than one community as no political group in India has neither the willpower to do so nor have efficient resources required for it. This unholy coalition made by sheer survival instincts will prefer not to work at all towards the welfare of anyone to save itself from being accused of discrimination and the resultant loss of traditional voter base. This is just a probl...

If someone makes a list of ‘most talked legal personalities of the country’ then I doubt that such a list would ever include the serving Chief Justices of any of the 24 High Courts (let alone small High Courts like Uttarakhand, Jharkhand or Chhattisgarh) but we right now have a beautiful exception to this general rule in the form of Hon’ble Mr. Justice K.M. Joseph who has become the contemporary baton of Independence of Judiciary. It is the general conception in the mind of people that the most brilliant legal minds always make to the apex court or rather, the most brilliant minds of legal profession are found only in the supreme court and we always forget Judges like A.P. Shah and M.C. Chagla but one name that we will not be forgotten for quite some time is that of K.M. Joseph. The most recent development in the matter is the reiteration of the name of Mr. Joseph by the Collegium for elevation to the Supreme Court is a welcome step to many but my paranoid mind says that ther...

Recently a rat race concluded amongst all the major political parties in commemorating ‘father of the Indian Constitution’ on his 127th Birth Aniversary a.k.a 'Ambedkar Jayanti'. Though there are gossips that it was solely to up-ease a substantial segment of voters in the country who take Dr. Ambedkar as their leader but as I said, just gossips. Before I begin advancing my contentions, lets me state some of the facts that even I for one cannot deny. That Dr. Ambedkar played a decisive role in the up easement of the ‘Scheduled Castes’( Scheduled Tribes are deliberately excluded here), In the eradication of untouchability and the making of the Constitution of India but here comes the problem, I certainly feel that the contribution of Dr. Ambedkar in the framing of the Constitution is a hyperbole.  He like many other members of Constituent Assembly played an important role but I doubt that he was anyway near to the role of a ‘Father’. “I Came into Constituent Assembly ju...

One of the first subjects that make way into our curriculum in the very early stage of our life is ‘Moral Science.’ I never found anything scientific in morals and I have tangible proof that neither the majority of my countrymen did. Also, being one of the subjects to which kids are introduced to in very early stage, it is also one of the first to be forgotten. This phenomenon has lead to a very sorry state of affairs which in my considerate opinion is an indication that it is ‘Armageddon’, not for humans but for humanity. Though there are a number of such instances I found these three recent instances particularly disturbing. Holi with semen filled balloon in Delhi Protestors outside Delhi Police headquaters, Image courtesy: Zee News First of all a very happy Holi to all and if you are lucky enough to be a girl then on the auspicious occasion of this festival you may be splashed with a water balloon filled with ‘semen’ because this is what is happening on sacred Hindu f...