Category: White Collar Crime
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Preventive arrest and security proceedings in CrPC (S.107/151 CrPC) and misuse abuse
Context Abuse of the criminal justice machinery is rampant in India. People are often wrongly implicated in criminal cases and deprived of their personal liberty. India – in fact – bears the dubious distinction of being a country with one of the highest number of pending criminal cases (relative to civil cases), where more than…
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Right of the Victim to be heard in a Revision petition filed by the Accused
Are we still arguing this? Wasn’t this decided already? Well, the answer is Yes AND No. Taking a step back for a moment and frankly speaking – apart from this specific problem, we have indeed come a long way; from the days when a Victim was relegated to being a mere footnote in a criminal…
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Deferment of cross examination of prosecution witnesses (Defence Counsel diaries)
Weaponisation of the Criminal Justice System and Perjury is rampant in India. False criminal cases are routinely filed to settle scores. In these cases, witnesses, who are often related to each other (and depose on the same set of facts), often depose falsely and parrot the same narrative/story and try to create a pretence of…
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Whether an accused can be directed to disclose his phone password by the investigators?
Background I’ve written on this subject earlier (see here) and primarily on the Karnataka High Court ruling (“Virendra Khanna”) on the subject. Ruling in Virendra Khanna In Virendra Khanna, the High Court permitted the Investigating agencies to direct the accused to disclose his password, and in case of non-compliance, seek Court’s intervention in that regard.…
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PMLA – A (P)oem On the (M)oney (L)aundering (A)ct.
“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,…
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Some thoughts on the distinction between a mere breach of contract and offence of cheating.
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…
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Law in 100 Words | Part 5 | Court’s power to direct ‘no coercive steps’ against the Accused.
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…
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Law in 100 Words | Part 3 | Forgery/use of forged documents in court proceedings – Remedies/Procedure
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…
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Committed a crime? Now, face(scan) the consequences! The law against self-incrimination and locked smartphones.
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…
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Definition of ‘Fraud’ under the Companies Act: A case of a blurred signpost to criminality.
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?…
The Blog of Bharat Chugh 