Litigation

Are lawyers obsolete?

By Ranjeev C DubeyLegal Profession
The dynamics of the legal market continue to amaze me. India has lakhs of jobless lawyers sitting around exterminating houseflies in district courts around the country. In any random sample, less than 10% make a living wage. As has always been the case, without a daddy or uncle in the…

Fee Fixation

By Ranjeev C DubeyLegal Profession
“Can’t you see,” Pink Floyd’s singer songwriter Roger Waters berated us in 1984, “it all makes perfect sense, expressed in dollars and cents.” This must be why Supreme Court senior counsels aren’t celebrities till they make Rs 10 lakh a hearing! This is easy to understand: if you are that…

Justice for All

By Ranjeev C DubeyLitigation
ABOUT: Some of India’s landmark legislations such as MGNREGA, insurance for all, direct benefit transfer, education for all and health for all, have been instruments of bringing social equilibrium. But with crores of cases pending in Courts across the country, delayed justice continues to deny justice to the common man. How could…

AAP And The Endless Land Acquisition Lament

By Ranjeev C DubeyLitigation
Delhi isn’t overrun by poverty stricken subsistence farmers. It is overrun by ex-farmers, their lands long gone, who want better jobs and better opportunity. They would vote for those who look like they mean to deliver on their developmental promises. It seems India will not cease washing its land acquisition…

Judging Judges

By Ranjeev C DubeyLitigation
Freedom of speech is a right that is gaining in value in India. At the same time, restraint in public discourse is confronting a high strung emotionally overblown hysterical form of self-expression When it comes to a conflict between constituted judicial power and conflicting political ideology, the most poignant image…

Commercial Common Sense Justice

By Ranjeev C DubeyLitigation
The judiciary is ambivalent on the sanctity of commercial contracts. All too often, the judge prioritises a quest for what he thinks is justice over the integrity of contracts in the market place. To make India a wealthy country, we don’t need to read Arnold Toynbee’s twelve volume “A Study…

Jailbird Republic

By Ranjeev C DubeyLitigation
It seems that the default way to enforce resolve disputes these days is to employ the services of swashbuckler Station House Officers and file criminal cases in order to intimidate or imprison those with whom you do not agree. The great tragedy of our democracy is not that 22.1 per…

My Wages For Your Sins

By Ranjeev C DubeyLitigation
Why in this world of paralysed time and frozen turbulence, Supreme Court senior counsel aren’t taken seriously till they make Rs 10 lakh a day ! “Can’t you see”, Pink Floyd’s singer song writer Roger Waters berated us in 1984, “it all makes perfect sense, expressed in dollars and cents”.…

Means, Ends & Jurisdiction

By Ranjeev C DubeyLitigation
When we seek to do the right thing without adhering to both the form and spirit of the rules we have created for ourselves, all of us undermine the very ideas we believe we are upholding. Even economically savvy voters who never bought into the Aam Aadmi Party’s 1960s style…