The Proof of Guilt
2,837 FOLLOWERS
A blog about criminal law, procedure, and evidence.
The Proof of Guilt
2w ago
(This is the third post in a series on restrictive bail regimes)
The previous post considered restrictive bail regimes in India's pre-independence context. In the first of two posts, we travel through independent India's history to look at such regimes.
Partition and Post-War Scarcity
It appears that the earliest instance of a restrictive bail regime in post-independence India came a few months after independence, in the form of the East Punjab Armed Bandits (Arrest and Detention) Act 1947. This law was promulgated to replace an ordinance that had come in less than a month after August 15 ..read more
The Proof of Guilt
3w ago
(This is the second post in a series discussing restrictive bail regimes)
This post looks at restrictive bail provisions through Indian legal history, drawing the line at India's independence. The next post will look at post-independence history. A similar exercise was attempted several years ago on the Blog, and a gradual increase in digitisation has meant that even within this short span of a decade, one can try to offer a more nuanced and textured presentation of the issues involved here. However, since this post is, again, based on publicly available material, it may have missed out ..read more
The Proof of Guilt
3w ago
Growing up, the soundtrack of Amar Prem was very popular in my house. I never understood it much, but as I grew older, I came to love it too. Why such a random start? Because it is a few lines from one of its songs, called Chingari Koi Bhadke, that I have been stuck on for the past few days. The poetry of its lyric (crooned by Kishore Kumar) is laced with intriguing posers, and one of them asks us that if the boatman is the one responsible for keeping us afloat at sea in choppy waters, what will happen if the boatman decides to sink the ship?
Let me use a different f ..read more
The Proof of Guilt
1M ago
(This is a call for submissions for the National Law School of India Review)
NATIONAL LAW SCHOOL OF INDIA REVIEW (NLSIR)
VOL. 36(2): DEMOCRACY, FREE EXPRESSION, AND PRESS CENSORSHIP
INTRODUCTION
The freedom of expression finds expression in the world’s largest democracy in Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution of India. In any democratic polity, accountability, checks and balances, and transparency among various institutions are of paramount importance. As an institution, the media and the free press play a critical role in upholding accountability and transparency norms in public life. In Indi ..read more
The Proof of Guilt
1M ago
(This is a guest post by Kartik Kalra)
The Supreme Court delivered its judgment in Central Bureau of Investigation v. Kapil Wadhawan on January 24 ('Wadhawan'). It held that the Respondent-accused’s previous release on default bail sanctioned by the trial court, and affirmed by the Delhi High Court, was incorrect, as these findings were based on an incorrect appreciation of the “sufficiency” or “completeness” of the police investigation when assessing applications u/s 167(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (“CrPC”).
In this post, I propose that the Court’s prohib ..read more
The Proof of Guilt
1M ago
(This is a guest post by Manya Gupta)
The doctrine of last seen evidence “LS” is one of the major kinds of evidence under the IEA “Act” which provides for an inference of guilt on the accused if they are last seen with the deceased, and subsequently the victim is found dead.
It is deduced from Section 7 of the Act which provides for fact(s) which is the occasion, cause or effect, immediate or otherwise, of a relevant fact, or a fact in issue to be relevant under the scheme of the Act.
It is one of the most interesting pieces of evidences in the circumstantial chain; since it effectivel ..read more
The Proof of Guilt
2M ago
The Editorial Board of the NLS Business Law Review (NLSBLR) for 2023-24 is inviting original and unpublished submissions for the upcoming print Volume 10 of the Journal.
About NLSBLR
The NLSBLR is a student-run journal at the National Law School of India University (NLSIU), Bengaluru, India’s premier law school. Our goal is to recognise and foster cutting-edge academic scholarship on commercial law. Over the years, since the publication of our first volume in 2015, we have featured scholarship by a diverse range of leading academics, advocates, judges, scholars, and other luminaries, such as ..read more
The Proof of Guilt
2M ago
(This is a guest post by Siddharth Malik and Navjot Punia)
The Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court in Nitin Damodar Dhaberao v. State of Maharashtra [Crl Appln (BA) No. 724 / 2023 decided on 05.01.2024] granted bail to a 26-year-old accused who had been charged, among others, under Sections 4 and 6 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act 2012 (“POCSO”) and Section 376 of the Indian Penal Code 1860.
The case concerns a 13-year-old girl who had gone away with the 26-year-old accused, who had promised to marry her. She admitted to a love relationship wi ..read more
The Proof of Guilt
2M ago
(This is a guest post by Anushka Kanabar)
In 2020, a 3-judge bench of the Supreme Court in Arjun Panditrao Khotkar v. Kailash Kushanrao Gorantyal settled a conflict with regards to the application of Section 65-B of the Indian Evidence Act. It upheld the 2014 decision in Anvar P.V. v. P.K. Basheer, which laid down that a certificate complying with Section 65-B is a mandatory requirement, and that electronic evidence tendered without it is inadmissible.
Despite this, the Supreme Court decided Sundar @ Sundarrajan v. State in 2023 and dismissed objections relating to t ..read more
The Proof of Guilt
3M ago
[This is a long post]
Prologue
For over a century, the foundations of the Indian criminal process have been identified by its three codes: the Indian Penal Code of 1860 [IPC], the Criminal Procedure Code of 1973 [Cr.P.C.], and the Indian Evidence Act of 1872 [IEA]. Not anymore. Henceforth, unless some last minute surprise is sprung upon us, the three codes are to be replaced by the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita [BNS], the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita [BNSS] and the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam [BSA] of 2023.
There are many questions that come to mind when considering this develop ..read more