This article probes the inconsistency in the Supreme Court’s professed commitment towards assessing reformation in capital sentencing against its reliance on life sentences excluding remission as a commuting sentence in death penalty cases.
On 12 December, revised criminal law bills were introduced in the Lok Sabha, viz. Bharatiya Nyaya (Second) Sanhita Bill, 2023, Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha (Second) Sanhita Bill, 2023, and Bharatiya Sakshya (Second) Bill, 2023. This document highlights the key changes proposed.
Digital evidence has been growing in relevance over the past several years. Most recently, in the ‘Newsclick’ investigation there were several reports of devices of journalists being seized. This raises an important question: can the police under the garb of investigation force one to open their electronic devices. The article argues that the right against self-incrimination protects against such compulsion by demonstrating that unlocking of devices (whether by password or biometrics) amounts to giving testimony. The article goes further to ask what happens in case a person willingly or without compulsion opens their device. The article explores the possibility of tampering of digital evidence and social realities in India to argue that all the contents of one’s device cannot be attributed to a person merely by virtue of being on a person’s device.
The goal of this article is to ask, how do Courts judge whether or not the methodology through which a piece of evidence is presented is scientific or not (i.e. how does a Court make a determination about the foundational validity of scientific evidence)? What separates something like DNA evidence, in which our judicial system puts such high faith, from narco-analysis, which is generally deemed to be unreliable?
This post analyses the implications of the changes proposed to the provisions pertaining to the admissibility of electronic evidence under the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita Bill, 2023.
This post analyses the various modifications in the chapter relating to bail, including the introduction of definition and changes in the scheme of maximum period of detention as an undertrial under the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita Bill, 2023.
This post analyses the newly added provision in the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita Bill, 2023 that lays down the procedure for filing of mercy petitions by death row prisoners.
This post analyses the insertion of cl. 398 (directing States to frame witness protection schemes) under the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita Bill, 2023.
The post analyses the implications of replacing unsound mind with mental illness in provisions pertaining to fitness to stand trial under the Bharatiya Nyaya Suraksha Sanhita Bill, 2023.
