In Unsealed Covers, Gautam Bhatia provides a snapshot of the Indian judiciary between 2014 and 2023. The 2014 general election saw the installation of the first majority non-coalition government in many decades (the NDA). The 2019 general election saw its return with a greater majority. It is commonly accepted that the NDA years have generated significant conflict within and around various democratic institutions meant to act as checks and balances against majoritarian power.
One of the most important theatres of conflict has been the judiciary-in particular, the Supreme Court. Critics have distinguished the Supreme Court’s past assertive record with its quiescent and sometimes facilitative attitude towards the NDA government(s). Unsealed Covers provides a unique terrain where the actions of the judiciary and its relationship with the government are examined in terms of evolution and chronology. It also comments on some of the most important judgments of the past decade.
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When we think of the Indian Constitution, we think of the glorious chapter on fundamental rights which guarantees paramount civil liberties such as freedom of speech. But there is also a tension, because freedom of speech is compelled to co-exist with laws such as sedition - contained in Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). In 2021, numerous individuals petitioned the Supreme Court to take sedition off the law books. But, what is sedition? What is its provenance? How was sedition used in colonial India against nationalist leaders? Is there any constitutional justification for its continuance? In A Constitution to Keep, Rohan Alva answers these timely and relevant questions which every Indian should be asking. The book also makes a case for why political speech must be constitutionally protected and how the Supreme Court can do this while ensuring the purity of political discourse
Liberty After Freedom explores the origins of what is today considered the most important fundamental right in the Indian Constitution - the right to life and personal liberty guaranteed by Article 21. This is the article which in recent years made the right to privacy as well as the decriminalization of homosexuality possible. Without a doubt, Article 21 has had the most outsized influence on the progressive development of rights in India.
But the story of how this important right was birthed is deeply controversial and its passage in the Constituent Assembly divided opinion like no other feature of the Constitution. Liberty After Freedom explores the intellectual beginnings of this paramount fundamental right in an attempt to decode and unravel the controversies which raged at the time the Constitution was being crafted.
Written in lucid prose and drawing extensively on the Constituent Assembly debates as well as a wide array of scholarly literature, it questions long-held beliefs and sheds new and important light on the fraught history of due process and Article 21. It is an indispensable book for the legal community and for everyone interested in the genesis of the Constitution.
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Corporate crime also known as organizational crime is a type of white-collar crime. These are committed by individuals within their legitimate occupations for the benefit of their employing organisation. Most criminologists divide white-collar crime into two major types: corporate crime and occupational crime. Occupational crime is the crime committed during the course of a legitimate occupation for one’s own benefit. Most corporate criminals do not view their activities as criminal; since their violations are usually part of their occupational environment. Their inappropriate behaviour is often informally approved by their employers. For the past two decades the international community has focused on the development of extradition treaties mutual legal assistance treaties and sanctions to combat the proliferation of money laundering crimes on an international scale. The international focus for the next two decades must be directed towards internet crime and cyber-crime. With a special focus on new laws pertaining to such crimes. This unique book on corporate crime and human rights is essential for all students teachers accountants corporate houses and general readers.
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