High Courts and the Supreme Court have the power to direct the police ‘not to take any coercive steps against the accused’. Such power may be traceable to S.482 CrPC and/or Articles 32/226 of the Constitution of India. Having said that, it is settled law that such a direction should not be passed casually and…
Contrary to popular misconception – that only a Court can grant bail in a non-bailable offence – the reality is that : The Police can also grant bail in non-bailable offences. A perusal of Section 437, Sub-sections (2) and (4), CrPC reveals that the architects of CrPC, in fact, vested a police officer with the…
The general principle is that if a cognizable offence has taken place (and forgery is a cognizable offence!) any person can get an FIR registered. This should hold true for forgery and filing of forged documents in court too, right? Well, the answer is Yes. But this issue wasn’t settled for a very long time. The confusion…
The Certificate u/s 65B is not required to be on an affidavit. Though normally to be filed along with the electronic record (print-out, USB drive, etc), it can be filed subsequently too, either as a supplementary chargesheet, or by resort to S.311/391 of the CrPC. In Civil cases, the certificate can be brought on record subsequently by relying upon…
This is the second in a series of posts titled ‘Judgments without tears’ where we try to make complex judgments accessible and fun. A guest post by my dear friend and super talented Vishal Vyas. Let me try unpacking Satish Chander Ahuja vs. Sneha Ahuja delivered on 15.10.2020. A 151 page judgment but a well-reasoned judgment under…
First published on Bar and Bench A call from the High Court is a big thing, whoever and wherever one is – in life. Especially when you are a 25-year-old Magistrate, and it is your parent High Court. It fills you with excitement and dread. One late afternoon, during my stint as a Magistrate at Dwarka Courts,…
I didn’t imagine 2020 to shape out the way that it did. And my guess is – you didn’t, either. ‘The most well laid out schemes of mice and men often go awry’. The Pandemic brought life and all fancy plans to a grinding halt and compelled us to think, and meditate. “There are decades…
Authored by Bharat Chugh and Nimrah Alvi[1] First published by Bar & Bench at https://www.barandbench.com/columns/arbitrary-execution-of-foreign-letters-of-request-under-the-pmla I want the cultures of all lands to be blown about my house as freely as possible. But I refuse to be blown off my feet by any. Mahatma Gandhi In a debilitating blow to their functioning, the Enforcement Directorate…
This is a guest post by the very talented young judge – Pratik Sagar, (Civil Judge, 30th batch, Bihar). This is how it goes: Hello, hope you are doing fine! If you are reading this article, it means either you are preparing for coveted judicial service examination or maybe you are still in the decision making…
This is a guest post by the very talented lawyer Ambanshu Sahni. This is how it goes: The Jasmine Revolution in 2010-2011 in the Middle East showed us the power of social media. Social media appeared as a tool for righting many wrongs. It was this great unifier before which everyone was equal. It provided a voice…
Bharat Chugh 