-The Indian Express As legal scholar Gautam Bhatia put it in Transformative Constitution, Justice Khanna’s dissent would constitute a “contrapuntal” or something that appears as a counterpoint, often solitary, against the tide at the time, but something that conceals the kernel of the future and the way ahead, which lives on to speak forcefully, another day. Costa Gavras’ 1982 film Missing is a haunting story of what a military dictatorship does...

-Hindustan Times A study shows glaring gaps in Indian policing — from unfilled quotas of SC/STs to a dip in women officers. The rule of law has two extremes: a failed State and a police State. A failed State loses control over Law and Order as its monopoly slips over the use of physical force. The latter commands complete control, but ends up abusing State machinery for repression. Both extremes suffer...

-The Hindu Pandits, Dogras and Buddhists demand maintenance of current population status, rights over land With the revoking of the special status of Kashmir, Pandits, Dogras and Buddhists have made separate demands for domicile laws in the proposed Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. The reasons they cite include the need to maintain the current population status, ensuring jobs for local people and the rights over land use. BJP State spokesman...

-The Indian Express How an affable, erudite professor influenced everyone around him. The first time I met Shamnad Basheer was at a patent conference in Mumbai in 2007. He was wearing a light-blue linen suit (always ahead of the curve, be it law or fashion), looking more a GQ model than a professor who had helped organise a first-of-its-kind patent conference in India. There was also an exhibition moot court to...

-TheWire.in Over the years, the parliament, under powers granted by Article 368, added a number of constitutional provisions under Article 371 to grant special powers and privileges to several states. New Delhi: The announcement of the Narendra Modi government’s decision in parliament to scrap the exclusive position enjoyed by the state of Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370 of the constitution has brought about mixed responses from both political parties and the...