Publications

This study is a contribution to the understanding of jobs in platform economy or gig economy. It attempts to examine the earnings of platform workers and explores their experiences on the job in Bengaluru. The study documented below the minimum wage earnings despite long work hours well beyond 8 hours on average per day for most platform workers engaged in various food delivery platforms in Karnataka.

The article authored by Aparna Chandra, Mrinal Satish, Shreya Shree and Mini Saxena, is a result of a collaborative exercise between Center for Reproductive Rights, National Law University, Delhi and NLSIU. The report documents legal barriers faced by women in accessing safe abortion services, and the harm caused to women due to such barriers. Based on its findings, the report suggests measures for rights-oriented law reform.

The article aims to enrich reflections on the impact that labour law and the combination of sectoral policies can have on sustainable economic growth. Against a formalist approach, the intent is understanding how labour law can contribute to preserving and raising living standards and the planet’s health by introducing environmental issues (which are still conceived exclusively as universal) into local and corporate labour policies.

More than 95% of working women are engaged in informal work. There is a similar over-representation of socially and economically marginalized groups – Dalits, Adivasis, Muslims, and OBCs. In the light of the recent presidential grant to three acts – the Code on Social Security, Industrial Relations Code and the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, this article seeks to understand its impact.

Mapping the responses of feminist groups to the J. S. Verma Committee, this article underscores inconsistencies between the positions on defining sexual offences on the one hand and suggesting appropriate punishments on the other. It argues that the absence of engagement around complex issues of criminal law and sentencing not only left feminists divided on the outcome in Mahmood Farooqui’s case but also revealed unintended consequences of the newly introduced law on rape.

When the Supreme Court of India upheld the constitutionality of the death penalty in Bachan Singh v. State of Punjab in 1980, it also laid down a sentencing framework for subsequent sentencing courts. This article argues that it is not within the mandate of sentencing judges to invoke penological theories as separate sentencing factors in individual cases when deciding between life imprisonment and the death sentence.

This chapter focuses on consumer protection in E-Commerce in India and the success of online dispute resolution through mediation initiative carried out by National Law School of India University, Bengaluru.

Looking at Article 31 and its initial amendments from a “law and development” perspective provides a critique of the current narrative of “conflict” and offers an alternative interpretation of its history. The paper argues that rather than arising from the pursuit of either authoritarian socialist planning or an egalitarian social revolution, the travails of the Article came in the context of India’s quest for economic modernity through a process of “passive revolution”.

This paper explores the competition implications of trade associations in modern India. The paper posits that like competition regimes elsewhere in the world, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) may distinguish between anti-competitive practices of trade associations and practices that facilitate and support competition in the country.

In the forty years since Bachan Singh upheld the constitutional validity of the death penalty in May 1980, there have been numerous concerns about the fate of the death penalty sentencing framework laid down by the majority. Inconsistent application, interpretational errors, and judge-centric decision making have dominated these concerns. However, this article seeks to revisit the premise of those narratives, i.e. these concerns have emerged as a result of the incorrect application of Bachan Singh.

Built around procedures, precedents, and practices, the Fair Trial Manual is designed to show how Constitutional and human rights jurisprudence informs both the substantive and procedural aspects of criminal justice adjudication. It presents a balanced account of ever-evolving international standards and guarantees included in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

The essay reflects on literature’s relationship with contemporary crises through reading two recent novels, Samit Basu’s Chosen Spirits and Megha Majumdar’s A Burning, which share a concern for the challenges facing India today.