26 February

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Video-Recording Of Proceedings Of Courts And Tribunals – A Panacea For The Ills Which Indian Judiciary Faces Today

VIDEO-RECORDING OF PROCEEDINGS OF COURTS AND TRIBUNALS – A PANACEA FOR THE ILLS WHICH INDIAN JUDICIARY FACES TODAY.Mathews J Nedumpara What prompts me to pen these few lines is a query from one of the few law students who started interning with me recently. The query was, what is the inspiration for me to initiate the campaign titled National Lawyers’ Campaign for Judicial Transparency and Reforms and the video-recording of proceedings of all Courts and Tribunals in the country as its prime objective. I had no difficulty to answer the query because of the injustice which I personally had to undergo, for,...

26 February

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“Criticizing Bar Council amounts to misconduct”?

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Every man has a right to his reputation and nobody has a right to violate it. This is undeniable and has been recognized from the early days of Roman law, all legal systems. Advocates, and for that matter even the judges have no right to violate the right of reputation. When the common people violate it, they will have to face the consequence of criminal and civil proceedings for defamation and even contempt. Lawyers certainly are not above law. But at the same time, any attempt to silence criticism and dissent in the name of protecting judges or any authority,...

26 February

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Referring Questions of Law to Larger Benches is in Ignorance of the Doctrine of Stare Decisis

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Referring Questions of Law to Larger Benches is in Ignorance of the Doctrine of Stare Decisis By Mathews J. Nedumpara It is said that even Homer nods at times, meaning that sometimes even very eminent and scholarly men err, for, to err is human. Lord Halsbury, known for his monumental work titled “Halsbury’s Laws of England”, in London Street Tramways Co. v. London County Council [1898] AC 375 (HL), had held that House of Lords is bound by its own decisions. That was a great deviation from the view hitherto then in force that no precedent is absolutely binding, but is only...

26 February

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NLC’s agendas are certain to become a reality

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10.5.2021 NLC's agendas are certain to become a reality because: a) unlike before, a large section of the legal fraternity, informed public, and in particular the press, is aware that the Collegium system of appointment and designation of lawyers as senior advocates have completely destroyed any semblance of inclusiveness in the higher judiciary as well as the in designated bar. People now readily accept that there is a real apartheid in the justice delivery system, b) the concept of virtual court, which includes making available the records of the court proceedings to the litigants cannot be denied forever. The mounting public opinion willl...

26 February

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Have Articles 226 and 32 led to denial of Justice. Will repeal of it lead to injustice?

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Have Articles 226 and 32 led to denial of Justice. Will repeal of it lead to injustice? Mathews J Nedumpara 98205 35428 Ambedkar described Article 32 as the very heart and soul of the Constitution. Our founding fathers, many of whom were victims of illegal arrest and confinement, being part of the freedom struggle, incorporated in our constitution, Part III, fundamental rights. By virtue of Article 32 of the Constitution a citizen can approach the Supreme court for the enforcement of his/her fundamental rights and that very right to access the Supreme Court itself was declared to be a fundamental right. It is...

26 February

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This letter I had addressed to the Chief Editor, Malayalam Manorama

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This letter I had addressed to the Chief Editor, Malayalam Manorama, way back in 2011 when the allegations of corruption against Chief Justice Balakrishnan was the talk of the town, not merely in the corridors of the bar. The editor told me that since it is about the judiciary, they cannot touch it, for, the threat of contempt hangs over their head like damocle's sword. What he further said provoked my thought, namely that if the court issues a contempt notice for speaking the truth about judicial corruption, the press will not even get a lawyer to represent them except...

26 February

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Questions of law

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(A) If a surgeon of a Government hospital, who conducts a cesarean operation, negligently leaves a scissor inside the belly of the patient leading to fatal consequences is liable under civil and criminal laws; so too the State, his employer, will not similar principle apply in a case, as the instant one, where the 1st Respondent, Presiding Officer, DRT-II, Mumbai, who fails to discharge his statutory function in the manner expected of him, which requires him to conduct a summary trial while adjudicating an application under Section 17 of the SARFAESI Act, which would mean the parties to the lis...

26 February

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Who are the Judges of the Supreme Court of India?

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The Supreme Court of India is the most powerful court on the planet. It probably is the only apex Court which is also the court of first instance. Under Article 32 of the Constitution of India, a citizen can approach it without recourse to any other court, complaining violation of fundamental rights. The founding fathers felt it necessary to provide so because of their concern for the lives and liberties of the citizens, for the horrors witnessed during the colonial rule. The constitution of India is a perfect blend of the concepts of federalism and that of a centralized government. It...

26 February

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An appeal to the people

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An appeal to the people Today is probably one of the saddest days in my life as a lawyer. Sri Harish Salve, whom the media has always glorified as one of the greatest of lawyers for his hair splitting arguments, a national icon since his appearance in Kulbhushan Jhadav, reduced himself to be one of the very ordinary lawyers, a defacto psychofant, agreeing to every word of the court, servile to the very core and betraying the state of Kerala whom he represented. The court took a very high moral standing, that it is ordering the demolition of the building to...

26 February

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Four- fifths of the CJs of High Courts are sons, sons- in -law, nephews, juniors of Chief Justices, Judges, Attorney Generals, Advocate Generals, Ministers et al.

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1. Our Constitution provides that the President (i.e., the executive) shall appoint the judges of the Supreme Court in consultation with the Chief Justice of India and such other judges of the Supreme Court and HCs, and in the case of judges of the High Courts the CJI and the CJ and the Governor (i.e. the state executive) of the state concerned. In other words, the executive, accountable to the Parliament and thereby the people of this country, is vested with the power of appointment. The only obligation is to consult the Chief Justice of India et al. 2. However, in the...

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