Keshav Padmanabhan

Lessons from Baehr v. Lewin (1993) and United States v. Windsor (2013) that bolster the demand for judicial intervention in the ongoing marriage equality case in India

This post is part of the #VidhiBeyondMarriageEquality series, and examines misplaced arguments about the “elitist” nature of demands for marriage equality in India

Challenging the incest trope in the marriage equality case

Making political party offices and places of campaign accessible for persons with disabilities, ensuring accessible transport for public programmes and campaigns, mentorship and financial support programmes for disabled workers will encourage inclusion

The Parliament, Judiciary and Executive must collaborate to ensure the fundamental rights of the queer community are acknowledged and respected

There is no absolute concept of a 'man' or a 'woman'

Resolving healthcare disputes

Namrata and Shreyashi trace the developments in the marriage equality litigation and bring to light issues and claims from queer activists that go beyond marriage equality

A Caution on Constitutional Attitudes Towards Economic Weakness

The govt must remove barriers to their full participation in the political process

Online registration of documents enabled remotely would help us realize key goals of Digital India

They can create spaces for children to nurture the habit of reading, provide a gateway to knowledge and diverse material

Readers may have many predilections about what is happening in Kashmir but what Bhasin has to say is something that has not been given a chance to be heard

Wanton abuse of the concept of 'national security' by governments in India has led courts and academic commentators to try to define the term to restrict its usage. As the Supreme Court recently recognised in the case of Malayalam channel MediaOne, this is a fool's errand

In this piece, Kanav N Sahgal responds to Professors G.S. Bajpai and Ankit Kaushik’s arguments against judicial intervention on the issue of same sex marriage. He argues why the court, and not the parliament, is the appropriate forum to decide the issue

Chosen families and the right to live our lives as we are

SC severely critiques extra-judicial killings. But when it comes to pronouncing guilt, it baulks

Legalising same-sex marriage and recognising it as a legitimate union could greatly alleviate the sense of isolation that closeted gay and lesbian individuals experience

Along with overhauling regulations for the online gaming industry, the amended IT rules also has a highly polarising provision for a fact-checking body, which will be designated by the government to identify and mitigate misinformation pertaining to the business of the state

A new legal framework that balances the growth of platform businesses with welfare of workers is needed

India must leverage its G20 presidency to deliver global legal certainty for blockchain use, among other things, given its innovation-potential for designing Digital Public Infrastructure

The opposition to same-sex marriage by the 21 retired judges is based on misguided and discriminatory beliefs that have no factual basis. Their arguments reflect a deep-seated prejudice against the LGBTQI+ community and ignore the overwhelming evidence that same-sex marriage has no negative impact on society or children raised by same-sex couples.

The opposition to same-sex marriage by the 21 retired judges is based on misguided and discriminatory beliefs that have no factual basis. Their arguments reflect a deep-seated prejudice against the LGBTQI+ community and ignore the overwhelming evidence that same-sex marriage has no negative impact on society or children raised by same-sex couples.

A cut in library and beggary cess will critically impact existing programmes

Two lawyers parse Rajasthan’s Right to Health bill and argue that the state must define ‘emergency’ and create a reimbursement fund

Articles of Faith

From lack of communication to a lack of accountability, drug regulations in India continue to be a mess.

The amendment bill proposes to include only those lands within the ambit of the FCA which are recorded as the forest on or after 25th October 1980, thus restricting the applicability of the T.N. Godavarman judgement.

If his sentence has been suspended by the trial court, are there still grounds for disqualification?

Substance of ‘green’ push hampered by stagnant budget allocation

The challenge to death by hanging on the ground that it takes away a person’s dignity in death and is inhumane and barbaric, may be limited in its scope, but it may prove to be a landmark in the death penalty urisprudence in India

One of the principles underpinning the Rights of Persons with Disability Act, 2016 (“the Disability Act”) in India is empowerment of persons with disabilities (PwDs) through their independence.

Criminal defamation, under which Gandhi was convicted, is worded dangerously vaguely. SC had missed at opportunity to junk a law that has a chilling effect on free speech

Constitutional morality and the fundamental guarantees of life, liberty, privacy and autonomy.

The Jan Vishwas Bill transcends the decriminalisation mandate, as stated in its object and reasons. It should not be used as an opportunity to slide substantive changes in Acts with broad ramifications, as such changes require a wider public consultation.

Though the 2013 amendments to criminal laws recognised new offences like stalking and increased punishments for many sexual offences, it has failed to tackle sexual and gender-based violence, due to acts of omission and commission by police and courts. From dealing with such systemic biases to tackling intimate partner violence, many issues remain unaddressed

Revisiting reasonable restrictions to guarantee freedoms

Arrests in Assam are only a symptom of a larger problem - the State's constant over-reliance on criminal law to deal with prickly societal problems

State prison manuals legitimise caste-based rules for prisoner activities, from cleaning to cooking. Judiciary must step in to strike down offending provisions.

The Governor refused to allow the winter session of the Punjab Assembly to take place, prompting the Mann government to rush to the Supreme Court.

The keys to building an inclusive, efficient and resilient digital economy

The repeal of Section 377A came at a price. The parliament simultaneously passed a Constitutional amendment to "protect" the definition of marriage as a union between a man and a woman from further legal challenge.

Unlike other countries where pride parades have evolved over time into thriving hubs of queer tourism, in India, these marches remain essential for spreading the message of acceptance for the LGBTQ+ community.

Adoption of the AA ecosystem enables shifting away from the traditional asset-based lending approach to a cash-flow based approach

Prioritising privacy over transparency

Summary decriminalisation efforts no cure to make Indian laws more responsible.

While technology has enormous potential to level the playing field for the disabled, it can, at the same time, reinforce the barriers that the disabled otherwise face if it is not designed with their needs in mind

Law as an instrument of systematic change

Coupled with poor funds, the untimely release of funds for the community is reflective of the 'peripheral consideration' of the community in our society.

Her old statements made against Muslims and Christians were ruled out while nominating her to the Madras High Court.

Lack of accessibility and clarity and red tapism are some of the lacunae in the State law

Judges are not above their politics and life experiences, their diversity counts

Ensuring accessibility of content is the joint responsibility of the government and private stakeholders

To take banking to the underserved, issues women business correspondents face need to be removed

Recently though, the Union government's use of the 'money bill' route to bypass the Rajya Sabha has been controversial

303 Creative LLC v. Elenis is important because it deals with a longstanding tension undergirding American society today - the public acceptance of same-sex marriage.

Affirmative action policies made in the absence of data

Public libraries in Karnataka are set up and maintained under the Karnataka Public Libraries Act, 1965

The Law Comission’s role needs to be made much broader, given the current backdrop— a Swatantra Kanoon Aayog Aayog should take the lead in introducing the framework for Simple, Accessible, Rational, Actionable Laws (SARAL) in India, which are in tune with the needs of the 21st century Indian and can be understood, used, and relied on by everyone

Rethinking Indian Standard Time for today’s India

Public health is not only highly technical and inaccessible areas of knowledge, but also areas of regulation that seriously impact our well-being

The collegium system must go

Fee hike across legal institutions, discrimination are among many issues that students face in the education sphere

The forgotten state education laws of India

Governors are necessary. But as recent controversies like those in Tamil Nadu demonstrate, they must be made accountable to not just the Union but the state and Rajya Sabha as well

Making urban areas more disabled friendly

Compensatory afforestation' under the Rules is whitewashing forest clearances in the absence of a working definition of ‘forest’

A recent study conducted by Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy shows that in spite of the directions of the Court, the process of decongesting the prisons remained slow and cumbersome across almost all States.

The Story of Women and Law by Teri Kanefield

What is the legal position in India?

In Madhava Rao’s constitution, we see the earliest echoes of some of the provisions that we now have in the Indian Constitution

The new constitutional amendment in Singapore means gay rights activists will again need to convince the public that complete equality needs to be the norm

Courts have since 1950s incrementally expanded the scope of this constitutional right and more clearly defined the restrictions. The test is whether ordinary citizens will get the same protection as ministers and artists

British Raj trappings, originally meant to cow down Indians and signal imperial superiority, make our courtrooms intimidating for ordinary people seeking redressal

Drug regulators must stop viewing incidents in the Gambia and Uzbekistan in isolation.

Russia has been on the radar of LGBTQ+ activists for years... and not for the right reasons

Will 2023 be the year of possibilities for the LGBTQ+ community in India

It is no longer a question of ‘who’ gets to appoint judges but ‘how’ the process unfolds