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Human Rights Law

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Selected Works

Shubhankar Dam

Articles 1 - 8 of 8

Full-Text Articles in Law

India: Supreme Court Recriminalises "Carnal Intercourse Against The Order Of Nature", Shubhankar Dam Mar 2014

India: Supreme Court Recriminalises "Carnal Intercourse Against The Order Of Nature", Shubhankar Dam

Shubhankar Dam

The Indian Penal Code, 1860 in s. 377 makes “carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal” punishable with imprisonment for life. In Suresh Kumar Koushal and another v. NAZ Foundation and others, reversing a 2009 decision of the Delhi High Court, India's Supreme Court concluded that the provision is constitutionally valid. As a result, India now rejoins 76 other jurisdictions in criminalizing same-sex behavior. The decision is for the most part poorly written and insufficiently reasoned, and the four strands of arguments, individually and collectively, leave much to be desired. This comment for the …


Constitutional Standing In Singapore: A Comment On Tan Eng Fong V Attorney General, Shubhankar Dam May 2013

Constitutional Standing In Singapore: A Comment On Tan Eng Fong V Attorney General, Shubhankar Dam

Shubhankar Dam

No abstract provided.


Criminal Wrongs And Constitutional Rights: A View From India, Shubhankar Dam Dec 2012

Criminal Wrongs And Constitutional Rights: A View From India, Shubhankar Dam

Shubhankar Dam

This essay offers an overview of how ideas of constitutionalism, rule of law and fundamental rights contributed to the development of criminal law in India. Various courts, and the Supreme Court in particular, have summoned these broad constitutional concepts to understand, interpret and develop criminal law doctrines. But they are also drawing on these concepts to increasingly address “structural” issues of the criminal justice system - the very apparatus responsible for implementing the doctrines.


The Constitutional Right To Education In India: Horizontal Dimensions, Shubhankar Dam Nov 2012

The Constitutional Right To Education In India: Horizontal Dimensions, Shubhankar Dam

Shubhankar Dam

No abstract provided.


Unburdening The Constitution: What Has The Indian Constitution Got To Do With Private Universities, Modernity And Nation States?, Shubhankar Dam Dec 2005

Unburdening The Constitution: What Has The Indian Constitution Got To Do With Private Universities, Modernity And Nation States?, Shubhankar Dam

Shubhankar Dam

This article critically analyses the decision of the Indian Supreme Court in Yashpal and another v. State of Chhattisgarh and others holding the establishment of private universities as unconstitutional. Swayed by the overwhelmingly irresponsible character of the respondent universities, the Supreme Court innovated constitutional arguments to uphold the claims of the petitioners. While intuitively correct in the context of the immediate facts, the judgment, when analysed in the abstract, reveals the self-inflicted harm it has the potential to cause. The judgment is technologically regressive: it fails to account for the emerging trends in education, especially those related to the use …


Is Indian Democracy Dependent On A Statute?, Shubhankar Dam Jan 2004

Is Indian Democracy Dependent On A Statute?, Shubhankar Dam

Shubhankar Dam

What is the status of a right to vote in the Indian legal system? Is the right a constitutional/fundamental right? Or is it simply a statutory right? Contrary to the decisions of the Supreme Court in the last five decades, this paper argues that the right to vote is a constitutional right: its textual foundation may be located in Article 326. And, in this sense, the Supreme Court has erred in construing the right to vote as a statutory right under the Representation of Peoples Act, 1951. Interpreting the right to vote as a statutory right has larger implications for …


Green Laws For Better Health: The Past That Was And The Future That Maybe - Reflections From The Indian Experience, Shubhankar Dam Dec 2003

Green Laws For Better Health: The Past That Was And The Future That Maybe - Reflections From The Indian Experience, Shubhankar Dam

Shubhankar Dam

No abstract provided.


Strikes Through The Prism Of Duties: Is There A Fundamental Duty To Strike Under The Indian Constitution?, Shubhankar Dam Dec 2003

Strikes Through The Prism Of Duties: Is There A Fundamental Duty To Strike Under The Indian Constitution?, Shubhankar Dam

Shubhankar Dam

Much of the debates on the legality of strikes under the Indian Constitution has been on the issue of a right to strike. This paper argues that the constitutionality of strikes may be analysed through the prism of duties, i.e. fundamental duties under Part IVA of the Constitution. Strikes were an integral part of the ideals that inspired India's national struggle against imperialism. And, in this sense, when article 51A exhorts Indians to cherish and follow the noble ideals that inspired our freedom struggle, it includes a fundamental duty to strike. Invoking the philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi, the paper argues …