Articles by Alok Prasanna Kumar

Two papers studying bias in judicial decision-making in India using large data sets have come to very different conclusions. One examines bail decisions and finds that childhood exposure to communal riots seems to influence whether a judge is likely to grant bail. The other examines convictions and finds no trace of similar bias on grounds of religion or gender. Both papers shed light, in different ways, on the working of India’s legal system and are not necessarily contradictory.

The Karnataka Prevention of Slaughter and Preservation of Cattle Bill, 2020 is the most recent attempt of the Bharatiya Janata Party in the state to make for harsh cow slaughter laws, which have been used in the past to disproportionately target Dalits and Muslims across the country. The bill is poorly drafted and offends notions of rule of law and procedural justice, raising questions on whether it is even intended to be applied as a law or is just a tool of state-sanctioned violence.

The impact of the appointment process for high court and Supreme Court judges following the recommendations of the collegium is examined. The functioning of the collegium itself was not significantly affected by the pandemic. However, how many of its recommendations have been implemented by the union government, and how quickly, point to the need for the judiciary and the government to work together to ensure optimal judicial functioning.

By clearing the confusion over the interpretation of the Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act, 2005, the Supreme Court in Vineeta Sharma v Rakesh Sharma (2020) has secured for Hindu women the right to be coparceners in joint family property with retrospective effect from 1956. The three-judge bench has restored the progressive intent to the 2005 amendment, but has based it on a conservative interpretation that reinforces the basic concepts of the Hindu joint family and coparcenary ownership of property.

India’s management of the COVID-19 global pandemic has been marked by excessive centralisation, lawless lawmaking and non-consultative decision-making processes at the union government level. This has created an atmosphere of confusion in the management of the disease, leading to India becoming one of the global hotspots and cases fast spiralling out of the control of local authorities.