Criminal law – N South

Are private sting operations legal?

Consider this. An employee of your company has run off with your confidential documents and takes up employment with a competitor. You need to act fast and get a court injunction that prevents him from sharing your valuable trade secrets with your rivals. The company needs evidence to prove the…

Should hijack hoax callers and other nasty pranksters be jailed for life?

By Ranjeev C DubeyCriminal Law

If it wasn’t for the terrifying reality facing Birju Salla, one could, at first sight, be amused with the news of a lovesick businessman trying to shut down the Delhi office of a major airline in order to compel his reluctant girlfriend to quit her job. Instead, on June 11,…

Why the dance bar ban had to go

By Ranjeev C DubeyConstitutional Law

Fifteen years after the Maharashtra government decided it wanted its bar girls to dance no more, the recent decision of the Supreme Court in Indian Hotel and Restaurant Association v State of Maharashtra has delivered the reassuring message that liberal winds continue to blow through the fair corridors of the Supreme Court.…

Supreme Court is being transformed into a stern headmaster

By Ranjeev C DubeyConstitutional Law

When the Chief Justice of India announced on August 20 that the judges would contribute funds to help relieve Karala from the flood fury, no one protested that the judiciary is the last institution we should expect to make cash contributions to worthy causes. A cursory glance at the Union…

Negotiable Instruments (Amendment) Bill: Cheque-mate!

By Ranjeev C DubeyCriminal Law

Amendments to curb cheque bouncing are flawed as they criminalise the victim of the crime when it should be the debtor approaching the court to find a way to stay out of jail. On July 25, 2018, the Lok Sabha approved yet another set of amendments to India’s troubled cheque…

Dangers of Internet: What is Fake News?

By Ranjeev C DubeyConstitutional Law

When journalist-turned-politician S Ve Shekhar casually forwarded a social media post suggesting that women journalists needed to sleep with their bosses to keep their jobs, he found himself accused of crimes under Sections 504 (Provoking Breach of Peace), 505 (Public Mischief) and 509 (Insulting the Modesty of a Woman) of…

Pul’s perversity tale

By Ranjeev C DubeyCriminal Law

In history, no one has the last word, but the former Arunachal Chief Minister Kalikho Pul’s suicide note must at least be a kind of judicial full stop. The note is as you would expect a credible suicide note to be: a potent 60 page tale of misappropriation of public…

Sedition is the new Arranged Marriage

By Ranjeev C DubeyCriminal Law

When Karl Marx observed in 1852 that history repeated itself, first as tragedy and then as farce, he could have been taking about our sedition law! Consider the absurdity of the situation we face today. Back in college, when my friends and I ranted from time to time about some…

Decriminalising Defamation

By Ranjeev C DubeyCriminal Law

When the inimitable Subramanian Swamy added his name to a gallery of eminent Indian politicians who have been sued for criminal defamation, he could at least demand that he be taken seriously because he had suffered the mandatory rite of passage! I am not being facetious. An allegation you make…

Persecuting victims: Justice for the emotionally overblown

By Ranjeev C DubeyCriminal Law

Long before Tarun Tejpal’s legendary libido unfairly dented her credibility; Tehelka’s Shoma Chaudhury devastatingly demolished CBI’s case against Arushi Talwar’s parents back in June 2013. Avirook Sen’s recent book on the subject expands substantially on her critique without necessarily unearthing a great deal of new data. What neither Chaudhury nor…

Tag: Criminal law