Dr Swati Jindal Garg

A Madras High Court order denying a Scheduled Caste certificate to a Christian woman who claimed to be a Hindu while applying for an upper division clerk job is just the latest in a number of pleas pending before the apex court that deal with the larger question on the constitutionality of using religion as a yardstick for Scheduled Caste quota

Union Home Minister Amit Shah recently said that the undertrials who have spent more than a third of the maximum prescribed sentence for the crime they are accused of committing should be released before Constitution Day on November 26. This is in light of the new relaxed provisions on bail for first-time offenders in the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023

The apex court has recently observed that there is a need to establish a comprehensive rehabilitation framework for them and the centre must take prompt measures to address the issue. The verdict is a big leap in the arena of progressive and reformative justice where the root, and not the tip, of the problem has been addressed

The Madras High Court in a recent judgment held that “spousal privacy is a fundamental right and documents violating it are not evidence”. The Madurai bench of the Court refused to accept as evidence the call record documents of a woman, obtained stealthily by her husband to seek divorce on the grounds of adultery and cruelty. The verdict is important as it goes a long way in maintaining that the right to privacy trumps all rights

In a latest twist to a long pending family feud, former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has written to the National Company Law Tribunal, seeking to nullify his sister YS Sharmila’s “illegal” transfer of shares in Saraswati Power and Industries Private Limited to herself and their mother YS Vijayalakshmi

Taking another giant leap towards ending the menace, the apex court in a recent judgment held that personal laws and traditions cannot prevail over the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act. The Court also issued a host of guidelines to achieve the “whole purpose” of the legislation

It is an alternative to capital punishment and has today become the subject of international debate with scholars and free thinkers arguing that the loss of the hope of ever living in a free society infringes upon human dignity and the right to personal development

Women lawyers especially have been suffering for the past several decades and agitating over the issue of non-existent toilets in various district court complexes across the country. This lack of infrastructure is felt not only by the hapless litigants, but also internal stakeholders such as judges and staff

The apex court directed that a minimum of 1/3rd seats for women members must be reserved in the executive committee of the Supreme Court Bar Association from the 2024 elections. Taking a cue, the Delhi High Court also issued notice on a plea seeking reservation of 33 percent seats for women lawyers in various Bar associations in the national capital

Many cases have come to courts over alleged disrespect to temples and their traditions. And violators have been pulled up and warned not to defame Hindu culture and beliefs