Constitutional Renaissance

July 31, 2022July 31, 2022

Guest Post: Maharashtra Political Crises, Anti-Defection Law and the Supreme Court

Amongst bigger states, after Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh, the Maharashtra post-poll alliance named Maha-Vikas Aghadi between Shiv Sena, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Congress has fell prey to defection. Shiv Sena won 55 seats in the 2019 Legislative Assembly elections in Maharashtra and formed a post-poll alliance with the NCP and the Congress to form the government under the leadership of Shiv Sena party supremo, Uddhav Thackeray. However, after an internal rift, senior Shiv Sena party leader Eknath Shinde along with 40 MLA’s split from the Shiv Sena and formed the government with the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP)—with which Shiv Sena had a pre-poll alliance, and Eknath Shinde took oath as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra on 30^th June 2022 by winning the vote of confidence of 164 MLA’s out of 288 in the floor test.

July 19, 2022July 20, 2022

Nupur Sharma gets relief from SC: Notes on clubbing on FIRs and TT Anthony Case

The Supreme court on Tuesday granted interim protection to former BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma. The court directed that no coercive steps be taken against her in the multiple FIRs registered in different states, over her remarks on Prophet Mohammed during a TV debate. The court also said that the same protection will be available for any FIRs registered in the future in respect to the same telecast. The top court essentially granted her the same protection which she was seeking earlier.

April 17, 2022April 17, 2022

Your #CaseLawResearch Assistant!

CaseLaw Research is an initiative by Chaitanya Singh, Founding Editor of Constitutional Renaissance Blog and a Legal Correspondent at Bar & Bench.

He believes that it is our fundamental duty to develop the scientific temper, humanism and the spirit of inquiry and reform, in the field of legal research. Law is for the citizens – we all must know the law – that is the objective of this initiative.

Case laws and legal research are important in presenting your argument before the Hon’ble Courts and in the moot courts as well. Digital legal research tools like SCC, Manupatra etc have made it easy to research in these times. But still, due to a lack of resources and time, we all struggle with legal research.

That’s why #CaseLaw Research Initiative wants to step in and help fellow law students and professionals alike. This is an extension of our existing initiative – Constitutional Database.

What do we do? We will offer help in three ways:

Case law research;
Decoding the law of the land;
Helping in citations (High Court and Supreme Court cases).

Need some assistance in your legal research? Fill out this form with your query and we will get back to you as soon as possible: here

We'd really appreciate some help in covering our website hosting and domain name costs. This will allow the blog to keep up with its objectives and keep helping fellow law students and lawyers in their #CaseLawResearch.
Support us: BuyMeACoffee ; UPI ([email protected])

February 1, 2022February 1, 2022

Guest Post: Damage Recovery Mechanism in India and the due process of law

In the recent past, India has witnessed a litany of violent protests that have caused a sizable amount of damage to public and private property. Tellingly, these protests have manifested the callous nature of protestors and the law enforcement officers governing them, and have subsequently thrown light on the lack of stringent laws that make it a strenuous task for the government officials to penalise the malefactors and claim damages from the same. The states of Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh underwent tumultuous agitations that led to a colossal damage to public property. Consequently, the respective state governments were under an obligation to act expeditiously and recover damages from the offenders. A recent investigation undertaken by the Indian Express shows the glaring misuse of authority on part of the State Government and how it had (mis)interpreted the age-old civil law principle of joint and several liability in the determination of damages and recovery of the money from the alleged culprits, thereby raising concerning questions on the adoption of due process. In this article, we analyse the constitutionality of the process or modus operandi adopted by the two governments to recover the damages and subsequently ascertain the pressing need for stricter and more comprehensive laws.

January 30, 2022January 30, 2022

Guest Post: Right to Equality of Persons with Gender Queerness

“There must remain a realm of private morality and immorality which is, in brief, and crude terms, not the law’s business.”—Lord Wolfenden

Last Constitution Day, one of the legal pillar of Calcutta High Court, Hon’ble Justice Soumen Sen, at the event organized by State Legal Service Authority at the Calcutta High Court on 26th November 2021, beautifully etched in our mind the history, law, and jurisprudence of the right to equality of persons with gender queerness. His speech was followed by a powerful and moving speech by Ms. Minakshi Sanyal, alias Malobika, founder member of Sappho for Equality. She shared the story of her struggle for identity as a lesbian and ardent quest to meet someone like her, which pushed her and her partner to stand outside the Cinemas showing the “The Fire” movie, desperately looking for someone just like them. This quest has brought her closer to genderqueer individuals and she has dedicated her life to the cause.