Apar GuptaA labyrinth is one of the many metaphors employed to describe the confusion caused due to the lack of a clear path laid out by law. A recent example is India’s law on obscenity. Last weekend, the Department of Electronics and Information Technology issued directions to internet service providers to block access to 857 websites. Most hosted pornographic content, while others were comedy sites.
Archives for the category Analysis
Law as farce
But what about Section 69A?
As your social media timeline is flooded with news of a pathbreaking verdict by the Supreme Court of India on freedom of speech, there is reason to pause. While holding that Section 66A of the Information Technology (Amendment) Act, 2008, is unconstitutional and laying down guidelines for online takedowns under the intermediary rules, the court, in Shreya Singhal vs Union of India, has upheld Section 69A and the blocking rules framed under it.
Lawyers ML Sharma, AP Singh rapped over India’s Daughter: Bar Council should not expel them
“Our culture is the best. In our culture there is no place for a woman.” – The above is just one line from the many remarks made by ML Sharma on camera in India’s Daughter, the controversial documentary on the 2012 Delhi gang rape case.
Charges against AIB are another sign that our hate speech laws need reform
Our goal has to be to reach legal standards that prevent any abuse. At its heart should be removing the tremendous subjectivity that permits the most easily offended to have their day in court as the author, artist or activist spends a night in jail.
Why the law can’t prohibit women from participating in beauty pageants
We have come a long way from the days when we used to be a proud nation of beauty queens. Close to two decades ago, a sense of insecurity made us claim that Indian women were physically the most beautiful in the world. A basis to this hyperbole existed. Indian women had received high honours at several international beauty pageants.
Supreme Court on CCTV Footage as the best evidence
Beyond Uber
India can do better than this luddite response to Uber
The Delhi transport department’s decision to ban Uber is luddite. It is reminiscent of how the first regulations concerning motor cars sought to ban them, reasoning it would scare the horses which were used to draw carriages.