In the past, the Kerala High Court has delivered many landmark judgements in relation to Muslims’ divorce. This month, a Division Bench of the High Court was dealing with the issue of conditions in “Khula”, divorce initiated by the wife. The legal issue before the Court was whether a Muslim wife, once she has decided […]

In the year 1994, the Supreme Court of India stated that “the culture of law in Indian democratic republic should be on secular lines”; and that there can be no democracy if anti-secular forces are allowed to work dividing followers of different religious faiths flying at each other’s throats. This is the understanding of the […]

THE order granting bail to the young climate activist Disha Ravi is one of the finest expositions of law in the present times. It comes at a time when many political dissents engaged in permissible actions have been unreasonably criminalised. One hopes that this order will give “disha” (direction) to the other pending and future bail cases of similar […]

In the recent past, various ordinances were brought by the States including the Ordinance relating to interfaith marriages in the State of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, animal slaughter in Karnataka. All these Ordinances have serious penal consequences affecting personal liberty of citizens. In many cases booked under the UP Ordinance, the High Court of […]

In a recently pronounced judgement, the Supreme Court said that a mother-in-law cannot be the accused of the offence of pronouncement of Triple Talaq under the Act of 2019, as the offence can only be committed by a Muslim man. However, while granting final direction in the judgement, the Court has bound the same mother-in-law […]

In a recent judgment, the Supreme Court stated that “when the protector of people and society himself instead of protecting the people adopts brutality and inhumanly beat the person who comes to the police station, it is a matter of great public concern”. A recently-reported case of torture is of Jayaraj in Tamil Nadu. Very […]

The Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 (CAA) was passed on December 12, 2019. The law excluded Muslims from its scope of grant of citizenship and led to hundreds of protests being organised in different parts of the country, starting from two universities in New Delhi and later, at Shaheen Bagh in the national capital, which became an inspiration for […]

Contemplating laws to regulate matrimonial relationships between two consenting adults would not be just against the constitutional guarantees but would offend the very notion of individuality and basic freedoms. Many state governments have announced that they are considering enacting an appropriate law to stop marriages which they term as “love jihad” — essentially a part […]

Whenever the criminal justice process fails, there is an outcry for new laws. We have enough laws. What we lack is the honest implementation of existing laws. The Hathras case has once again put the spotlight on our criminal justice process. The facts of the crime and subsequent support from powerful interests in favour of […]

Babri Masjid was demolished on 6 December 1992. It was not a general criminal incident. The Supreme Court said that ‘a five-hundred-year-old structure which was defenceless and whose safety was a sacred trust in the hands of the State Government was demolished’. This had the effect of shaking faith in the rule of law and […]