Deepa Punjani is keenly interested in the dialogues possible between the judiciary and civil society and in the intersection between law, politics, and culture.
Deepa Punjani is keenly interested in the dialogues possible between the judiciary and civil society and in the intersection between law, politics, and culture.
The Bombay Lawyers Association was found in 2012 by lawyer Ahmed Abdi, who has been doggedly pursuing legal course in two curiously connected cases — the deaths of Sohrabuddin Sheikh and Judge BH Loya — both of which are in turn connected to Amit Anilchandra Shah, now the national president of the BJP.
Time will tell how Justice Chandrachud’s judgment will be regarded given that the constitutionality of the Aadhaar scheme and the Act of 2016 has been upheld by Justices Sikri, Khanwilkar, Bhushan, and the CJI Dipak Mishra. The only silver lining in this aspect is that the court declared that Money Bills, under which the Aadhaar Act was passed, are open to judicial scrutiny.
Section 377, as observed by the Supreme Court in its judgment on September 6, 2018, is, “irrational, indefensible and arbitrary. The majoritarian views and popular morality cannot dictate constitutional rights.” While the outcome of this was a somewhat foregone conclusion, this forward-looking development, is bound to raise other significant issues.
Often blandly described as a “conspiracy thriller”, JFK (1991), its artistic liberties notwithstanding, makes us sit up and ask uncomfortable and unrelenting questions about the government of the people, for the people, and by the people. Beset by yet another jingoistic round of nationalistic fervour, not seen since WWII, JFK, over and above its immediate subject, is actually re-examining the subversion of democracy and its institutions.