“It’s very genesis is illegal; it can’t be a Money Bill! This vitiates everything; a lacunae that you can’t fill!” This issue – we decide not to decide, Let’s look at the other issues, for a moment, keeping this aside. The law is amazing; it’s beautiful; truly one of its kind, The legislature was competent,…
The clear distinction between these two concepts is often ignored. Often deliberately – with a view to turn a patently civil dispute into a criminal case (to exert pressure, ease recovery, etc.). This is – no doubt – a very unfortunate tendency. (Over 70% of all cases pending at the trial court level are criminal…
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…
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…
By Bharat Chugh. [1] First published one SCC Online Blog here. On the legality of compelling an accused to disclose his smartphone/laptop password, or open his phone through face-scan, or fingerprint and the constitutional protection against self-incrimination. Our smartphones are an extension of our minds and souls. Our deepest desires. Our darkest secrets. Our smartphones know…
First published by SCC Online #ExpertsCorner “When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.” “The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.” “The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master—that’s all.” ** Who is the master of them all?…
First published on SCC Online Blog There’s hardly any webinar on the effects of the pandemic that gets concluded without the wise panellists exhorting us – in Churchill’s words not to, “let a perfectly good crisis go to waste”. The intent, of course, is for us to gather newer skills and keep reinventing ourselves, in order to stay…
Shreyash and Sushant write on an area that is fraught with great confusion : the power and procedure of arrest under the GST laws and the permissibility of Bail/Anticipatory Bail. POWER TO ARREST UNDER GST Let’s say a businessman, Mr X, gets arrested for flouting taxation laws by allegedly issuing fake invoices in order to…
On the process of criminal prosecution for offences under the IBC and the problems created by the NCLAT judgment in Amtek case.. “YOUR WORD IS YOUR HONOUR. IF YOU SAY YOU ARE GOING TO DO SOMETHING, THEN YOU NEED TO DO IT.” Joyce meyer While honour and morality guide the higher man, for everyone else…
Bharat Chugh 