Magazine

Courts have stressed that daughters, single or married, have an equal right over their father’s property. But till mindsets change, they will continue to get the short end of the stick.

There is a contention that if women of India are allowed into the labour force as equal partners, India may reach the levels of China and Vietnam on the manufacturing scale. However, age-old religious restrictions may not allow this to ever happen in India.

A 16-year-old Muslim girl has become the focus of a petition in the Supreme Court where Muslim Personal Law clashes with the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, which prescribes 18 years as the age for sexual consent. There are some precedents, but this case is an important landmark.

As pressure bears on the judiciary for its constitutional verdicts and collegium system, Justice VS Sirpurkar, a former SC judge, says that democracy is not in danger as the constitutional bedrock is strong. He spoke to India Legal on Constitution, collegium and judges’ appointments.

Demands by the government for changes in the judges’ appointment process and in the collegium system have led to strained relations with the judiciary. As the head of the Constitution Review Commission, former CJI Justice MN Venkatachaliah had suggested measures for promotion of judicial accountability and judicial culture. In the light of the current standoff, Justice Venkatachaliah spoke with India Legal on the underlying issues.

The government is leaving no stone unturned to persuade the judiciary to adopt the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) type of system. Will the judiciary acquiesce? How valid are allegations of secrecy in the collegium functioning? Former Chief Justice of India KG Balakrishnan spoke to India Legal on these issues.

This week’s cover story is part of our continuing reportage on a subject that is perhaps the most explosive constitutional showdown since the Founding Fathers, in 1950, framed the principles, laws, rules and regulations within whose framework the institutions of the newly-founded Indian Republic are designed and meant to function.

In a landmark judgment, the Supreme Court has prohibited division of residential units in Phase I of Corbusier’s garden city in order to save it from bureaucratic shortsightedness, deviations and defiance.

The SC’s Kesavananda Bharati moment came recently when it asked ex-president Maithripala Sirisena to personally pay a huge compensation to victims of the April 2019 Easter Sunday terror blasts.

As the centre’s calls for reforms in the system get strident, questions of primacy of the executive over the judiciary have raised concerns. Objections by the executive betray a sense of insecurity.