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Right to Higher Education of Persons with Disabilities: Indian Scenario
No full textThe Book Disability: A Journey from Welfare to Right , is a collection of excellent pieces on disability laws and policies at the national and international level. This monumental work is a comprehensive exploration of the legal frameworks, policies, and jurisprudence surrounding disability rights
From Bulldozer ‘Justice’ to Migrants Walking Home: Political Organising has Ignored Housing Rights
No full textExcerpt: A politically articulated demand for housing rights is uniquely placed to be able to speak against minority and institutional violence, and brings concerns of labour rights and gender justice to the forefront. Housing justice could, therefore, provide that space and language that social movements in India are in need of – one that could possibly regenerate new political futures at this particular juncture
Ambiguous Identity and Uncertain Belonging: Assessing the Lives of Undocumented Brihannalas in the Backdrop of the COVID-19 Pandemic
No full textThis study explores the predicament faced by the undocumented Brihannala community in the north-eastern state of Tripura, India, in the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, foregrounding their gender non-conforming identity and the entangled layers of marginalisation they face. We situate the perils of the undocumented Brihannalas during and in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic imposed lockdown in terms of their sense of belonging, experiences of migration and concerns of livelihood. Furthermore, we examine the everyday precariousness that emerges from their characteristic migration patterns, their experiences of fuzzy spaces at the Indo-Bangladesh border and the absence of documents of legibility. In doing so, we argue that the persistent non-recognition of the undocumented Brihannalas by the state as well as their choice of remaining undocumented—and hence, ambiguous—have co-produced their illegibility and amplified their distress during the pandemic
Environmental Law and Policy in India
No full textThis book focuses on administrative regulation in environmental law. It also focuses on climate change, and the push for sustainability.
Covering the regulation on forest conservation, wildlife protection, water pollution, air pollution, and noise pollution, the book looks into the practical application of environmental legislation. This includes responses to international environmental agreements within India and the economic impact. It also discusses historical jurisprudence, and the administrative frameworks existing as a result of this.
Focusing on contemporary issues within the legal landscape, the book aims to provide a solid foundation for researchers, legal practitioners, and scholars in the field of environmental law and policymaking.https://repository.nls.ac.in/books/1050/thumbnail.jp
Karnataka Government Must Revisit Gig Workers Bill, Make It More Inclusive
No full textThe Karnataka Platform-Based Gig Workers (Social Security and Welfare) Bill, 2024 has been favourably received by several commentators, but a closer inspection of the text of the Bill reveals glaring omissions, which if left unaddressed are likely to undermine the Bill’s objectives
The Trials of Bail: Pre-Trial Presumption of Innocence Under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 and General Criminal Laws
No full textThe crisis of undertrial prisoners in India, constituting three-fourths of the total prison population, has occasioned a normative recognition of the relationship between bail and the presumption of innocence (‘PoI’). The same recognition, however, does not extend to special criminal laws such as the UAPA, where almost every single prisoner is an undertrial on account of provisions prohibiting grant of bail. With a focus either on outcomes (prison population) or exceptions (national security considerations), the jurisprudential relationship between bail and PoI per se remains underexplored under both the general and special criminal legal regimes. At issue is the ‘thin’ conception of PoI, limited to the distribution of burdens and standards of proof during trial, versus the ‘thick’ conception operating as a principle of fair trial throughout the criminal process protecting individuals against unjust deprivations of liberty. This paper undertakes a jurisprudential excavation of the applicability of PoI in the pre-trial stages of the criminal process, particularly on the issue of bail. Such a jurisprudential analysis enables a fuller appreciation of both general and special criminal laws, particularly in relationship with each other. For general laws, it reveals avenues for a systematic application of PoI to the entirety of the criminal justice process encompassing the pre-trial stages, beyond patchwork resolutions banking on judicial discretion at the stage of bail. For special laws like UAPA, it enables an assessment of the manner in which the statute constructs a violation of PoI through its bail provisions.
Here, I argue that UAPA subverts PoI not simply by prohibiting bail, but by shifting the stage of guilt-determination from the trial to the pre-trial stage, thus rendering the trial effectively irrelevant to punitive detention by subterfuge. For the relationship between general and special criminal laws, the jurisprudential excavation questions the traditional wisdom that special laws are extraordinary as they derogate from rule of law guarantees otherwise available under so-called ordinary laws. Here, I demonstrate that the distinction between the ordinary and extraordinary may be superficial, as the UAPA shares significant continuities with the CrPC (and now, ‘BNSS’) in its violation of PoI at the pre-trial stage, and criminal process overall
The Violence of Numbers: A Critical Appraisal of the Justice Capabilities Framework
No full textSystems of indicators and international rankings have today become a new mode of evaluating social, political, and economic life. In the context of measuring the rule of law and justice delivery systems at a local as well as a global level, such indicators enable empirically grounded solutions to justice reform issues. However, scholars like Siddharth Peter de Souza argue that the existing discourse concerning the rule of law and access to justice indicators promote a specific vision of a well functioning justice system grounded in western normative considerations. de Souza, in his book Designing Indicators for a Plural Legal World, challenges the institutional and state-centric approach to indicators. The book highlights the need for an anti-hierarchical and counter-hegemonic approach that allows for a plurality of discourses on matters of law and governance. Most significantly, de Souza tries to develop a bottom-up approach towards indicators using the capabilities approach that he calls the Justice Capabilities Framework. In this article, I undertake a critical appraisal of this framework. I characterise the processes through which indicators mask contestations and impose prescriptive frameworks on individuals and institutions as a violent process—something that vitiates the subjectivity of agents. In this reading, the value of the Justice Capabilities Framework is understood as an attempt to curb the excesses of this violent process, which categorises, hierarchises, and orders knowledge and influences social and institutional behaviour. Through my conceptual scheme, I attempt to analyse five key issues in relation to the Justice Capabilities Framework
Green Regionalism: US Strategies to Ensure Secure and Reliable Supplies of Critical Minerals
No full textCritical Minerals are essential constituents for numerous modern technologies from computers, and modern cars to household appliances. Most critical minerals are also key inputs in technologies that are crucial for clean energy transitions such as batteries, electric vehicles (EV), wind turbines, solar panels etc. Global trends indicate that the race for ensuring a secure and reliable supply of critical minerals is being furthered through industrial policy, domestic regulations as well as international economic law instruments. More recently these three aspects have been characterized by increasing securitization as seen through attempts to friendshore and reshore supply chains and capacities. This paper peruses the recent Critical Material Transparency and Reporting of Advanced Clean Energy (Critical Material TRACE) Bill which focuses on implementing a digital identifier system for advanced energy systems including batteries and battery components. The paper looks at the bill in connection with other initiatives aimed at creating United State (US) led critical mineral value chains. These include industrial policy measures including the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) as well as international initiatives such as the Mineral Security Partnership (MSP) and the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) inter alia. In our examination, the focus is on analysing the progress made under the US-led MSP and the potential coverage and implication of the Critical Material TRACE Bill. We also examine if such steps by the US further promote green regionalism or are necessary to break the dominance of a few countries (mainly China) in leading the critical minerals supply chain