Rayat College of Law, Railmajra(Affiliated to Panjab University, Chandigarh) under the guidance of Dr Monika Sharma(Principal-Rayat College of Law) are geared up to organize yet another illuminating virtual Session 5.0 of 2 days
Jus Commune is an online forum that promotes and seeks to maintain various legal competitions. The contests’ platter shall consist of quizzes, article writing, judgment writing, online debates, etc. We strive to stimulate your abilities and encourage you to sharpen your skills. We would showcase the best compositions with pride on Jus Commune. We believe that it’s a competition that ensures the survival of the fittest.
NATURE OF WORK:
Team Jus Commune is looking for passionate, hard-working and sincere members for several different creative and exciting positions available at the moment. A wide range of tasks, be it legal or non-legal, shall provide ample scope for discovering, honing and utilizing skills for a better cause.
LOCATION
Work from home
WHO CAN APPLY?
Any student who finds himself eligible can apply for the same, though preference shall be given to Law Students currently enrolled in either 5 Year/3 Year Law Course.
Note: One student can apply for one position and no stipend whatsoever shall be paid.
VACANCIES:
CONTENT WRITERS REQUIRED
1. Job Description of Legal Content Writers
Jus Commune requires knowledgeable, creative and sincere legal content writers for simplifying the legal complexities and presenting them in a lucid manner before the masses for their perusal.
2. Vacancies
6 Content Writer.
3. Responsibilities:
Work includes writing short creative legal posts for Instagram Handle.
Jus Commune requires creative and artistic members for typesetting through to design, print, and production. The work would consist of creating posters and certificates for the events conducted.
2. Vacancies
5 Designers required.
3. Responsibilities:
Work ideally includes designing creative posters on socio-legal issues.
4. How to apply
Send your CV at hr.communejus@gmail.com along with a poster on “Essay Writing Competition organized by Jus Commune”. Add the required details for the poster as per your imagination.
VIDEO EDITORS REQUIRED
1. Video Editor Job Description
Jus Commune required Video Editors for editing videos for Social Media Handles which shall be helpful, in promoting legal facets in a creative manner to the masses.
2. Vacancies
3 Video Editors required
3. Responsibilities:
Work includes all facets of video editing as and when required by the Organization and prior experience shall be preferred.
4. How to Apply
Send your CV at hr.communejus@gmail.com
PUBLIC RELATIONS AND MEDIA REQUIRED
Job Description
Team Jus Commune requires students who are good at handling people and considerably active on various social media handles available herein.
2. Vacancies
– 8 Members
Responsibilities:
Work Includes assisting in handling or taking the lead (as the case may be) the Instagram and Facebook handle of Jus Commune and helping expand outreach amongst various Law Firms and Law Schools in the country.
4. How to Apply
Send your CV at hr.communejus@gmail.com
COLLEGE REPRESENTATIVES REQUIRED
1.About the College Representatives Program
Campus Ambassador program is essentially the campus-based promotion of Jus Commune. It will mostly consist of creating a stronger base of legal enthusiasts in Jus Commune.
• Social media marketing: The College Representatives have to circulate the E-posters on WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram. They must utilize the official website and spread awareness about it in the students.
• In college promotion: It includes promotion by displaying banners and other information about Jus Commune on the notice board.
2.Eligibility
• Essential marketing skills are also required.
• We would accept 1 campus ambassador from each college.
3 Duration
Sincere availability of the candidates for 2 months
4. How to apply
Mail us your CV at hr.communejus@gmail.com
PERKS
Position will be permanent in nature
Outstanding work shall be awarded and recognition shall be assured on social media handle.
Certificate after the completion of the tenure
A certificate of appreciation shall be awarded to the ones who perform the best.
From the beginning, Lawschole has been driven by the interests and involvement of our incredible and engaged law students. We are a growing law-student forum focused on improving our collection of law school news and opportunities, and enhancing the forum experience. We are a great resource, offering opportunities for students to be active in a variety of topics and to engage with each other in an interesting and safe online environment. It is a forum where law students can share thoughts, seek opinions and advice, and learn something new from other members of the forum. Found by a final year law student, it is an online platform by law students, for law students.
About the Blog
Lawschole’s Blog is a collection of work by various law students across the country. Student Editors work involves editing and ensuring quality content on the website. Typically this will involve proofreading articles, checking footnotes, and verifying all sources cited by the authors.
Student Editors gain valuable experience in high-level academic writing in law and develop excellent analytical and legal skills. They also get the opportunity to work with the members and other law students in the forum. The role is totally voluntary. Student Editors are also acknowledged within the publication.
Submission Registration and Application Details
Application Process
Applications for 2020 close at 11:59 PM on 12th July 2020.
If Lawschole gets suitable applicants for all the positions, the call for applications can be closed before the above mentioned last date. Hence individuals are requested to apply as soon as possible.
Your application should consist of
1. A CV (Not More than Two Pages)
2. Cover Letter (about 500 words)
3. Write-Up (Blog Style) (about 1000 words) (Detailed research papers are not accepted)
All applications must only be emailed to lawschole@gmail.com as per the stipulated deadline. The Subject of the emailed application must contain the wording “Application for the position of Student Editor”. Applications must be accompanied by the above-mentioned documents.
Lexpeeps is totally dedicated to the legal fraternity, law professionals get an opportunity to flourish their career in a better way. Lexpeeps organises various events like debates, seminars of its own and also organises the major law school activities on tie-ups with leading law school. Lexpeeps is not only limited to managing the legal events but it also provides internships to law students where the law professionals come in touch with each other and grow by associating with the company. Lexpeeps is also focussing on several social works like providing information and free legal aid to the poorer section of society.
ABOUT THE EVENT:
Lexpeeps.in is organising a Virtual Summit on “International Maritime Law- Nationality of Ship and Access to Ports in International Law”. Students will get to know about the nationality of ship and maritime contracts. Moreover, it will be a golden chance for the students to explore the unexplored area of law.
EXPERT GUESTS:
Abhimanyu Singh (Academician, Jindal Global Law School)
In a literal sense, conspiracy can be defined as an immoral, illegitimate, risky or surreptitious scheme developed by two or more individuals in secret. Law recognizes such secretive plotting to achieve malicious intent as Criminal Conspiracy.
A criminal conspiracy arises when two or more entities decide to commit almost every illegal act, and take some steps to achieve it. The conduct taken does not appear to be a felony in itself, although it does show that those engaged with the plot were aware of the scheme and planned to break the rule. An individual can be accused of fraud even though he never perpetrated the alleged crime.
A crime is an act which is prohibited by law because it violates the public interest. Such a ban is at the possibility of penalty. It means that if the crime were performed a particular sentence will occur. Therefore, to constitute an offence, it is necessary to have actus reus, i.e. an act or action, accompanied by means rea, implying ill will or malicious intent. Such an intentional act shall have certain external consequences that cause harm or injury to the community.
A crime can contain either a positive or negative act. Hence committing an unlawful act may amount to a felony as well as omitting to perform an act that causes the other party harm or damage.
However, unlike other criminal offences that require actus reus and mens rea to occur simultaneously, Criminal Conspiracy is made punishable only at the mens rea stage. Failure to act in support of intention is therefore not an essential aspect of criminal conspiracy.
What constitutes Criminal Conspiracy?
Criminal Conspiracy has been formally explained under Section 120A of the Indian Penal Code. The section defines the offence as:
Agreement between two or more persons to do, or cause the doing of: a. an illegal act, or, b. a legal act by illegal means.
The essentials of Criminal Conspiracy, as per Section 120A are as follows:
a. Two or more people should be involved: it is an established principle that conspiracy requires 2 people to be involved and one person alone cannot commit the conspiracy offence.
b. The persons involved must agree with one another
c. This agreement concerns causing or accomplishing: an illegal act; or, an illegal act.
In the case of Rajiv Kumar v State of UP, the court observed, that meeting of two or more people’s minds for committing or inducing unlawful actions or actions through illegal means is sine qua non to criminal activity. It would not be criminal conspiracy merely to discuss or have knowledge or have any ill intent to commit a crime. Committing the offence to be framed is essential for the combination. “Meeting of minds” between all conspirators is absolutely essential for such conspiracy to be committed. Furthermore, the proviso to the clause makes it clear that a mere agreement between the parties to commit an offence is valid and does not allow a transparent act in favour of this crime to be authorized.
Therefore, the essence of the conspiracy crime, as defined in Section 120A, is that there is an unlawful combination, i.e., to do an unlawful act or to do a lawful act by unlawful means, and the offence is complete when the combination is complete. Therefore, criminal conspiracy is considered an inchoate offence as it does not allow any crime to be done to achieve this purpose. Conspiracy is thus punished not because of what the conspirators are doing, but because of what they plan to do. What the parties agree to do is the essence of criminal conspiracy and not the commission of the substantive crime.
For instance: A, B, C and D conspire to kill E. To carry out such task, it is decided that A and B will break into the house of E and commit the act of murder, while C and D stay outside to act as lookouts. In the aforementioned scenario, even though A and B are the ones directly responsible for committing murder, all four of them shall be liable for the offence of criminal conspiracy. The crime of conspiracy also requires for there to be proper knowledge about the object and purpose of crime being committed.
How can Criminal Conspiracy be proved in court?
The primary evidence for proving a conspiracy charge is hard to adduce because it is still conceived in secrecy. Under this section, only inferences derived from the illegal omissions committed by the conspirators can lead to a conviction. Therefore, it is important to prove the circumstantial facts exists post and prior to the execution of the crime in assessing an individual’s complicity. Inferences may be drawn from the accused person’s conduct and circumstances. The courts are mandated to inquire into the existence of independence of the persons pursuing the common design. If that is proved then there is no conspiracy. The prosecution does not have the burden of proving that an explicit agreement would be sufficient to entertain conviction under Section 120A between the parties on the common conspiracy design and its implications.
Punishment for Criminal Conspiracy
Section 120B of the Indian Penal Code gives an insight on provisions of punishment for committing the offence of Criminal Conspiracy. In this section, conspiracy is separated into two categories for punishment purposes. Parties involved in the scheme of the commission of serious offences not specified in the Indian Penal Code shall be prosecuted in the same manner as if the crime had been abetted, wherein these ‘serious offences’ are typically punishable by a death penalty, life imprisonment or stringent imprisonment. In addition, the conspiracy to perpetuate any other offence or unlawful act is also punished with imprisonment that may extend with or without fine for up to six months.
Section 120B punishes any act that did not amount to an offence in furtherance of a criminal conspiracy. Furthermore, if more than two persons are engaged in the design for the commission of an offence or the purpose of the conspiracy, then even if some of the accused persons are exonerated, that does not mean that the remaining persons could not be held guilty under Section 120B.
In the famous Hawala case[18], the Jain brothers allegedly bribed well-known politicians to win preferential contracts and reported those sums of bribes in a diary. The Special Court dismissed the petitions for discharge submitted by two prominent politicians whose names were found in the diary-VC Shukla and LK Advani. On another appeal, the Apex court dismissed the charges levied against the politicians due to lack of prima facie evidence. Under Section 120B, the Jain brothers were held responsible, though.
This article has been submitted by Aaditya Kapoor, a law-aspiring student of Vivekananda Institute of Professional Studies.
An employee who has received an injury during the course of his employment should be given compensation as fast as possible, for him to be able to make good his losses. Motor accidents are also very frequently heard in our daily lives which lead to considerable loss of person and property.
For the same reason the Employees’ State Insurance Act, 1948 was enacted with the purpose of providing benefit to the victims dealing with the cases of injury during the course of employment or dealing with maternity and sickness. The contribution is not necessarily always made by the employer it can sometimes be made by the employee. For the compensation to be claimed under this act it is necessary that there should pre-exist an employer-employee relationship.
The Motor vehicle Act, enacted in 1988, has a designed “structured formula basis” framework to provide compensation to the injured party. This framework may include the victim’s age, his or her income, previous suffering or injuries, etc. This act was further amended in 2019 to curb the road accident and enhance road safety. This amendment has various new operating standards for both commercial and personal motor vehicle, along with the introduction of fresh penalties and compensation amount.
The Employees’ State Insurance Act was enacted by the legislation subsequent to the Motor Vehicles Act. Therefore is the employee has received compensation from the Employees’ State Insurance Act he cannot further claim from the Motor Vehicle Act.
For this very reason, the Madras High Court in a popular Mangalamma’s case pronounced the judgment that the primary purpose of Section 53 of Employees’ State Insurance Act is to prevent the employer from the liability of more than one claim in connection to the same injury or accident.
Cases dealing with the claim of damages
In a very celebrated case of Oriental Insurance Co. Ltd. v. Mohan Kanwar and Ors., the question of whether the victim can claim compensation from both Employees’ State Insurance Act, 1948 and Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 was decided by the court. In this case, the plaintiff, under the course of his employment, met with an accident involving the company’s vehicle. The plaintiff claimed compensation from the Motor Vehicle Act as well as from the Employees’ State Insurance Act. The contention raised here by the insurance company was that the plaintiff, being an employee, was already compensated by the employer under the Employees’ State Insurance Act and therefore he should not be compensated again by the insurance company. The court sited Sec 53 and 61 of the Employees’ State Insurance which reads that if an employee’s claim has been covered by one provision then he cannot claim compensation for the same from other provision which deals with the same issue. Therefore, since the plaintiff was already compensated by the company under the 1948 Act, he cannot again claim compensation under the Motor Vehicle Act, 1988.
Whenever the cases concerning compensation for the damage come before the court of law, section 53 plays a vital role in determining the maintainability of the claim. This section puts a limit on the claim on compensation for damage from different provisions. Similarly, section 61 also deals with the same issue.
Another landmark case is a case of Trehan v. Associated Electrical Agencies and Anr. In this case, the employee got injured on his face while performing his duty. Because of the injury, he lost the vision of his left eye. He recovered his compensation amount under the Employees’ State Insurance Act, but still, he further demanded from his employer. In defence, the employer invoked section 53 of the ESI Act, 1948. The court upheld the employer’s claim and denied giving compensation to the employee.
Even though the Employees’ State Insurance Act is welfare legislation, but the legislature was of the view that if the employee has sustained an injury during his course of employment and has received compensation, then he should be prohibited from claiming compensation from other sources for the same injury.
The Supreme Court in Sarla Verma v. Delhi Transport Corporation pointed out the fact that different corporation or tribunals use a different mechanism to calculate similar factual scenario, which results in lack of uniformity and consistency while deciding compensation under specified claims.
Fair Proceedings
It is the duty of the state and the court to make sure that the legitimate claim of the victim should be heard and should not be defeated on the grounds that he is illiterate or he does not hold sufficient resources. In many a case, it happens that the victim’s case his not produced before the judge or it is not heard and the reason being his poverty n\and illiteracy.
It is also important to mention that in cases where the victim is very poor that he could not afford the prescribed fees, then in such cases he may remit such fees. And if the case is decided in the favour of the victim, then the commissioner is required to pay the prescribed fees along with the cost of the case.
Since the Motor Vehicle Act is welfare legislation enacted with the intent to provide maximum benefit to the victim. The court in several cases also stated that the victim can claim compensation of amount excess to the one that he has claimed. Section 168 of the Motor Vehicle Act grants court to provide just and reasonable compensation to the victim. Reasonable compensation can be claimed from the evidence produced. And also there is no time-barred in the Motor Vehicle Act to claim compensation.
Conclusion
After analyzing both the Employees’ State Insurance Act and the Motor Vehicle Act it is reasonable to conclude that both the legislature are designed in such a way that the victim can claim compensation from any one of them and not from both.
This article has been written by Nimisha Mishra, a second-year student of NALSAR University of Law.
When humans are traded for purposes like forced labour, sexual exploitation or slavery etc. illegally from one person to another, it is called human trafficking. Since such an act violates the movement of the person and also exploits him it becomes a crime. It is a heinous crime that has its roots in India from a very long time. Trafficking can take place not only inside the boundaries of the nation but also across the borders. There can be various motives behind human trafficking like forced marriages, organ donation, begging etc. But in order to eradicate this and to control the current situation, there is an urgent need to reform the laws and strictly apply them. Tragically, there is much more involvement of women and children in trafficking.
Trafficking and prostitution are not synonymous and have very different meanings. As per the current laws, prostitution becomes when a person has been commercially sexually exploited. Hence trafficking is a prior step to prostitution. People are moved from one place to another, hired and recruited for commercial sexual exploitation (CSE). Therefore, trafficking is the process and prostitution is the result. The rise in demand for commercial sexual activities leads to more cases of trafficking. As discussed earlier the motives behind trafficking can be numerous but the ITPA,1986 deals with only trafficking that lead to prostitution or commercial sexual exploitation. Under this act CSE in all forms is covered be it in a brothel, cars, massage parlour, bartending, tourist service etc. and the person in power has all powers to take action against these vicious acts.
ITPA at a Glance
To curb this problem the government in 1956 passed the act Suppression of Immoral Traffic in Women and Girls Act, 1956 (SITA) which was later with amendments renamed as Immoral Traffic Prevention Act(ITPA) in 1986. However, this act only discusses the trafficking that leads to prostitution and not other crimes like child abuse, forced labour, organ donation etc.
The first section of the act lays down the measures for the illegality of prostitution and also for those who own the brothel or live on the earnings of that business etc. Another section talks about the act of persuading a child i.e. a person below 18 years into this heinous act of prostitution and can be punished for seven years or less. It also aims to deal with people who are not directly in that business like the transporters, keepers, managers etc so that every person involved in punished.
Definition of Trafficking
The glimpse of the definition of trafficking but the original definition of ‘trafficking’ is given under the Goa Children’s Act, 2003. Although it aims to focus on child trafficking since it is too wide it covers all areas. As mentioned in Section 2(z) child trafficking can be defined as “the procurement, recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, legally or illegally, within or across borders, by means of threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of giving or receiving payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for monetary gain or otherwise”.
Hence it can be clearly noticed as per the act that the following three are the essentials for trafficking:
1. Movement of person from one place to another– There must be movement of the victim from one place to another without his consent irrespective of the distance covered.
2. Exploitation of the aggrieved person- It is essential that the trafficked person must be sexually exploited to be covered under ITPA. Again, it can occur at any place like a brothel, building etc.
3. Exploitation must be commercialised- The victim is considered as a commodity for use of sexual exploitation. The convicts must get profit out of the same business. There can be more than 1 person and they may also share the profit with the victim.
Important Sections of ITPA
*As per the section 5 of ITPA the trafficker could be anyone be it a male or female and there is no age prescribed for it. Also, the place of movement could be anywhere. Even fir the attempt of trafficking the ITPA provides punishment.
*Also, it has been mentioned in ITPA that the consent obtained under threat, coercion, pressure etc. are not accountable to trafficking. The mens rea again plays an important part here.
*Trafficking is not a single-stage process. It includes a lot of people and places i.e. place of recruitment, transit, exploitation. There can be a lot of exploiters that include people at the brothel, a person in charge of brothel or dance bar, managers of the place, hoteliers etc. Some specific people are also included in ITPA like the keepers of the place used as mentioned in Section 3.1 of ITPA and person who detains the victim in those places as mentioned in Section 6, ITPA and the person who gives permission to use the place as mentioned in Section 3.2 ITPA and last that person who allows to use the public place as written in Section 7 ITPA.
*The ‘customer’ is that person who exploits the victim. He is due to whom there is demand for CSE and profit for the other parties. Also, those persons who directly or indirectly abet the exploitation of the victim in any are triable by the court under Section 3,4,5,6,7,9 of ITPA.
*The people who either live on the earnings of the brothel business or who are anyhow financially involved with the brothel can also be held liable under Section 4 ITPA.
*There are also various people involved in the conspiracy of human trafficking and they are punishable under Section 120 of IPC. As per the ITPA, all those who allow to use the place or who induces the person for prostitution or who live on earnings of this act are held as conspirators.
*It also aims to punish those who involve children in the prostitution and if any person is found with child in the brothel he can be punished for seven years extending to ten years with fine. And such a child would be kept with security.
CONCLUSION
The act, however, focuses on preventing such acts but also lacks somewhere that needs to be improved. The act of prostitution is not illegal but practising it in a brothel or within 200m of a public place is illegal. Hence this is a loophole that fails to recognise prostitution as a legitimate way of earning.
Also, the act fails to cover other areas of trafficking. The bill also does not mention the role and functions of the concerned authorities in detail. These are some of the issues in this act that needs to be covered up for better application
This article is written by Ishika Gupta pursuing BBA L.LB from Gitarattan International Business School.
In different countries and among people belonging from a whole different culture it has been agreed as a whole that there are certain acts that are allowed during a war and there are certain acts which are not allowed be it towards your enemy or your own troop and this idea evolved for thousands of years and laid the foundation stone of the Humanitarian Laws that we see today.
It is found in old texts of countries like India, China and many other countries in the middle east that there have always been certain guidelines or principles that were followed when enemy states used to go on a war against each other. Like in India, we find principles like one should not kill his enemy when he(enemy) does not possess any type of arms to protect himself in texts like Ramayana and Mahabharata. Apart from that in “On the Law of War and Peace” by the jurist Hugo Grotius, he laid down certain principles and rules to be followed during a war which included prohibition regarding the use of poison and poisoned weapons, rape and killing of all those in enemy territory – even women and children, and prisoners. Thus, the need to have a fixed codified law to honour the basic human rights and needs that cannot be curbed in any situation was felt by everyone.
History of International Humanitarian Law
Henry Dunant for the first time in 1862 came ahead and published Un Souvenir de Solférino as he was deeply moved by the battle fought in Solférino and it’s consequences along with proposing that nations at war during the wartime should mandatorily form some kind of relief societies or temporary nursing facilities to provide due care to the wounded soldiers and citizens. This exact incident first led towards establishing the International Red Cross in 1863 and then Geneva Conventions in 1864.
Although The first attempt to bring together existing laws and customs of war in a document, and to impose them on an army in battle, was the “Lieber Code” (1863). This was intended solely for Union soldiers fighting in the American Civil War, and as such did not have the status of a treaty.
In 1864 the first Geneva Convention “for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded in Armies in the Field”, for the first time introduced the idea of having an International Humanitarian Law and also explained the need of having the same. The first Geneva Convention was a success as twelve nations came together agreeing on certain principles and rules to maintain during wartime along with agreeing to guarantee neutrality to medical personnel during war and signed the Convention. In that same convention, they also adopted a special emblem to mark this togetherness of the nations and this emblem, later on, became the symbol of the International Red Cross Society in 1870.
Development of International Humanitarian Law
After the first Geneva Convention, The Hague Peace Conferences in 1899 and 1907 led to The Hague Conventions which worked and implementations of various international treaties introduced in the previously held Peace Conferences to govern the conduct of war. There were many Principles or Rules or limitations on armaments among the countries at war during the wartime was put up as proposals and based on the votes of the countries present at the conventions they were included as terms in the international treaties between the countries at war, for example, a prohibition on the use of air bombs and chemical warfare was proposed as it the consequences of using such weapons was previously observed. In conclusion, these two Conventions laid down a basic practice of having meetings with representatives from multiple Nations and discuss the interstate policies and form International Laws to be followed by all the present nations. These Conventions, in reality, paved the way for the formation of the League of Nations after World War I in 1919.
World War I
Among the first notable policies that were signed in these conventions were, on 8 February 1928 the use of all kinds of a chemical weapon was permanently banned in warfare after observing the tremendous effect of mustard gas and alike weapons which were used in World War I, in the Biological Weapons Convention in 1972 and the Chemical Weapons Convention in 1993.
World War II
After World War II the governments adopted the four Geneva Conventions of 1949 rewriting the existing convention with the agenda of protecting civilians during warfare when they find themselves under the control of the enemy State. The Geneva Conventions of 1949 was adopted by every single Nation in the world and it was after the formation of the United Nations in the year 1945 the Protocols proposed, had a very broad acceptance and their provisions are considered as customary law to be implemented in the respective countries by the respective Governments.
Here we see a gradual shift of the main focus that these Conventions or the International Humanitarian Laws as at the beginning the sole agenda that they had is to ensure the lives of the soldiers who are actually fighting in the war for their country but after witnessing two world wars they realized that during warfare not only the soldiers get exposed to the potential threat from the enemy state but also the lives of the civilians gets heavily affected by it. So they decided to focus more on civilian safety and hence they introduced two protocols whereas Protocol I deals with international armed conflicts, Protocol II with conflicts of a non-international nature.
International Committee of Red Cross
ICRC was set up in the year 1863 after the first-ever Geneva Convention where the States decided that all the soldiers irrespective of what country or side they belong to in a war if wounded should be taken care of and also laid down a set of ten articles explaining the rules regarding the same.
ICRC has always been the torch bearer in the fields of International Humanitarian Law and has always been closely attached to it. It was ICRC who after every world event like world wars or natural calamities used to go to the respective governments and urged them to make the changes in the policies to be better suited to the people in the society with their current mindset. When the focus of the International Humanitarian Law changed from the safety of the soldiers to the safety of the civilians it urged the governments to expand their reach of the International Laws so that the issues like civilian safety, the safety of prisoners of war, sea borders during warfare gets covered.
The red cross and red crescent emblems of the International Committee of the Red Cross were enshrined in the Geneva Conventions in 1864. But in order to make the protection they represent more easily acceptable to a diverse global audience, an additional emblem – the red crystal – was introduced in 2005.
The Aftermath
After the two world wars and an era of cold wars between the prominent nations on earth when gradually the condition started settling in the Humanitarian Laws also changed its approach. w.
Later in !980s it was realized that it is not enough to only make International Laws to protect basic Human rights but it is very important to aptly implement them in each country and make the people in each country aware about the International laws so that people actually follow it. It was important for the civilians because in wartime they should be aware of the rights they have but also it was very important to make the military of each nation to be aware of the laws as only then they would refrain themselves from doing anything forbidden in the International Humanitarian Laws even to the citizens of the enemy states during warfare.
Conclusion
In this article, it is decided how and why the concept of having an International Humanitarian Law evolved for the very first time and its development till today’s era. Humanitarian Laws are ever-evolving as the rights of Humans are ever evolving depending on the circumstances they are facing. But that does not mean that the efforts of the Geneva Conventions or The Hague Conventions went in vain as those conventions provided us with the basic format and the procedure of having the modern International Humanitarian Laws as per the needs of the changing society and humans.
This article is written by Sagnik Chatterjee, who is currently in IInd Year pursuing BA.LL.B, from Symbiosis Law School, Pune.
Competition is the act of the sellers individually seeking to acquire the patronage of buyers in order to achieve profits or market share. The Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Act, 1969 was replaced by The Competition Act, 2002 which was enacted by the Parliament of India in 2002. Its purpose is to govern Indian competition law. It has been amended twice after its enactment i.e. The Competition (Amendment) Act, 2009 and The Competition (Amendment) Act, 2007. The two major characteristics of the Act is the structure it gives for the formation of the Competition Commission, and the instruments it provides to avoid anti-competitive practices and to develop positive competition within the Indian market.
Objectives of the Act
The Act seeks to bring the legal structure and instruments to assure competition policies are met and to avoid anti-competition practices and provide for the penalisation of such acts. The Act safeguards the free and fair competition which protects the freedom of trade, which in turn protects the interest of the consumer. The Act seeks to prevent monopolies and also to prevent unnecessary intervention by the government. The major objectives of the Competition Act, 2002 are as follows:
to provide the framework for the establishment of the Competition Commission
to prevent monopolies and to promote competition in the market
to protect the freedom of trade for the participating individuals and entities in the market
to protect the interest of the consumer
Prohibition of certain agreements under The Competition Act 2002
No enterprise or association under this Act shall enter any sort of the agreement for the production, deliver or supply, production, distribution, storage, acquisition or control of products or services which might cause any sort of appreciable adverse effect on the competition in Indian markets. Any such an agreement which is entered in contravention of provisions as contained in subsection (1) shall remain void.
Any agreement which shall directly or indirectly determine the purchase or sale prices of goods and/or services or limits or controls the production, supply, markets, technical development, investment or provisions of such services or good, or shares the market or source of production by way of allocation of the geographical area of market or type of goods or services or a number of customers in the market or directly and/or indirectly results in bid-rigging or collusive bidding, shall be presumed to have an adverse effect on the competition and shall stand void under The Competition Act 2002.
Here the term bid-rigging means any sort of agreement between the business enterprises or any business entity who are engaged in identical production or trading of goods or provisions of service and which might affect the elimination or reducing the competition for bids or adversely affect the manipulation of the process of bidding.
Any such agreement among the person or business body at any level of market in respect to production, supply, distribution, storage, sale or trade of goods or services including tie-in arrangements, exclusive transfer agreements, exclusive distribution agreements, denial to deal and resale price maintenance shall be taken into the account of subsection (1) of The Competition Act 2002 and is taken into account to have an appreciable adverse effect on the competition in markets in India and shall be considered void under The Competition Act 2002.
Abuse of dominant position
The abuse of a dominant position is prohibited by Section 4 of the Competition Act. Under this provision of The Competition Act 2002, no enterprise must be permitted to abuse its dominant position. By this, we mean that if an enterprise is directly or indirectly imposed of any unfair or discriminatory means to condition in purchase or sale of any sort of goods or services or in prices in purchase or sale of any sort of goods and/or services or by any means limits or restricts the production of goods or services and the market thereof and/or limits or restricts any technical or scientific developments relating to the goods or services to the prejudice towards the consumers. Or indulges in any means or practices which can end in denial of market access or makes any conclusion of contracts which are subject to acceptance to other parties of any supplementary obligations in their nature or per its commercial usage or in connection to the topic of such contracts. Or used the dominant position in any other relevant market to enter it, then it will have considered the abuse of its dominant position to alter the competition.
Remedies
Remedies contrary to AAEC agreements and abuse of dominant position were provided by the Competition Commission of India. Upon a review and enquiry into the alleged practices the Competition Commission may pass the subsequent orders:
Direct the discontinuance of such practices
Impose a penalty that’s lower than 10% or the turnover of the preceding three financial years; within the case of a cartel the penalty shall be 10% or three times the turnover of every financial year and shall continue for the period of continuance of such practices
Direct the modification of such an agreement or abuse so as to decrease its adverse effect upon the competition of the market
Pass any order that it may so deem fit.
Competition commission
The Competition Commission of India is organized under the Competition Act, 2002. It is a legal body whose power is to govern and enforce the Competition Act including penalties. It was established when the need for a healthy competitive environment became necessary following liberalisation under the Vajpayee government.
The Commission is composed of a chairman and a minimum of 2 board members and a maximum of 6 board members. These members are required to have a minimum of 15 years of experience in their respective fields. Its goals, duties and powers are specified in the Competition Act, 2002. Its main duty and object are to ensure that the Indian markets maintain a healthy and fair competitive environment and is granted the power to ensure such an environment and penalise any acts adversely affecting its duties.
Regulation of combination
Under the Competition Act 2002, the regulation of combinations refers to the procurement of one or more enterprises within the market by one or more person with the help of a merger or amalgamation of enterprises where —
The parties to the acquisition, whose control, shares, voting rights or assets have been acquired or being acquired jointly, be it either in India or outside India.
The Group to which the enterprise whose control, shares, assets or voting rights are acquired or being acquired after the procurement is either in India (with assets useful more than four thousand crores or turnover of more than twelve thousand crores), or outside India (with assets of value more than two billion US Dollars or of turnover more than six billion US dollars).
Acquisition of control by a person over an enterprise when such person already has direct or indirect control of another such enterprise which is engaged in the production, distribution, trading of similar or identical or substitutable goods or services, the enterprise over which the control has been acquired along with the enterprise which is already in control of the acquirer, be it in India (of assets more than one thousand crores or turnover more than three thousand crores), or outside India (of value more than five hundred million US dollars or turnover more than 15 million US dollars).
No person shall enter such a combination which may cause or is likely to cause an appreciable adverse effect on the competition within the relevant market in India and all such combination can be deemed void under the provisions of the Competition Act 2002.
Conclusion
Thus, The Competition Act 2002 is a comprehensive and meticulously carved out to meet the requirements of the new era of the market economy, which has dawned upon the horizon of the Indian economic system. It is in simultaneity with other sets of policies like liberalized trade policy, relaxed FDI norms, FEMA, deregulation etc, that would ensure uniformity in overall competition policy. It’s just a matter of time when the Act is made effective and CCI becomes functional, which would, in turn, help realize our aspiration to catch up with the global economy. However, the Act is a true reflection of changing the economic ambience of our country and is well equipped to encourage fair competition and take care of encroaching market practices, facilitate domestic players vis-à-vis outsiders, safeguard the interests of consumers and thus, ensure vibrancy and stability in the Indian market.
This article has been written by Parul Sharma, pursuing BBA LLB from Centre for legal studies Gitarattan International Business School GGSIPU.
In recent times there are several movements that have been initiated to give victims of criminal cases certain rights in the court proceedings. As compared to justice in a broad sense, social justice is a newer concept, especially when dealing with the rights available with the victim. The main agenda of social justice is to protect the rights of the victim and make him exercise his rights freely.
To fulfil that agenda Criminal Victims Rights Act (CVRA) was introduced to take into consideration the victim’s right before and during the criminal proceedings.
Challenges in exercising the rights
One of the major concerns of the victims is regarding their employment while they are summoned in the court of all. Its remedy is provided on the state to state basis. Some states prohibit an employer from terminating the victim while he is attending the court’s proceedings. While some states do not grant such relief to the victim and they leave it to the employer to decide the course of action.
It is also said that the victim has the right to attend those proceedings at which the defendant has the right to present. But in certain cases, the victim’s right is limited to the extent where he himself is a witness. This limitation is set by the rule in order to prevent the witness from getting influenced by the testimony of other witnesses during the court proceeding. This is not an absolute rule; it applies as per the discretion of the judge.
The victim is also given the advantage of having a support person present with him during the proceedings, for him to be able to exercise his rights properly. The support system could be anyone, he can be a family member, an advocate or any trusted person by the victim. This right of the victim also obliges the state to provide a victim, who does not have a support person, with a support person or an advocate to represent the victim.
In the majority of criminal cases, the state is also required to reimburse the victim of the loss he has to incur because of the criminal act. It is irrelevant whether the person who has committed the crime is convicted or not.
The victim is guaranteed the right to be heard in the court proceedings. Along with that, the court facilitates an arrangement of “victim-offender mediation” setup. Wherein the victim or the other members of his family who have survived meets the offender or the convict to discuss the future course of action.
Protection of Privacy of the Victim
Privacy of the victim is a major concern when it comes to criminal cases. There always lingers the fear in victim of harassment or revenge by the offender. This is one of the major obstacles in the criminal cases which hinder the victim from attending the criminal procedure. The victim may restrain themselves from providing any details related to them or the offender because of the fear of retaliation. The victim will always be anxious about as who could have access to his personal details. The court provides the victim to protect his privacy by not providing his personal information to the third party. His name, identity, place of employment, phone number, etc is kept at high privacy.
Duty of the State
It is the duty of the state to make resources accessible and available to the most underprivileged non-state actors. The marginalised income division between the rich and poor is increasing at a fast rate. The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. There is a widespread population around the world who are experiencing extreme and absolute poverty. This prolonging and persistence existence in poverty is in itself is injustice. Those who are living in poverty are denied many fundamental rights. Even those who are stuck in the countries where continuous war and attacks are witnessed are also denied several fundamental rights as mentioned in the framework of Charter of the United Nations and also mentioned in Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The injustice has several faces including hunger, vulnerability, discrimination, poor health due to lack of medical facility. The increasing poverty is an indication of the rising refugees and other displaced victims of such circumstances around the world.
The non-profit organisation requires full-time work like any other organisation and is the least paid sector with negligible social benefits. India has a welfare nature of the state and its duty is to provide social welfare to its citizens. Despite the fact that India is facing extreme poverty and population challenge, it is able to provide and have a better health system in the whole world at an affordable cost.
The state with strong and weak legal protection towards victims has a huge role to play while determining whether the victim can exercise his right or not.
Notification of case events
The most fundamental right that any victim seeks is the right to be kept informed by the criminal justice system of the country. It is very essential for the victims to know that rights available with him to be able to fairly participate in the criminal proceedings. Certain core rights are guaranteed to victims, for instance, right to a speedy trial, right to apply for compensation, right to attend criminal justice proceedings, etc.
In addition to the core rights, a few more rights were given to the victims through the constitutional amendment. These include victims to be treated with fairness, respect and dignity, the right to attend the trial and other proceedings, etc. One of the most fundamental rights of the victim is a right to be heard during the court proceedings which has the potential to affect their interest. Certain amendments are also made to make the criminal proceedings more inclusive by introducing open-ended language to make the proceeding fair for the victim.
Conclusion
With the growing number of cases, it has become very essential for the court to keep in mind the rights available with the victim and the offender. There are certain rights which are absolutely essential and must be guaranteed to the victim. To make the court proceedings more reliable and to gain the faith of the people in the judiciary, courts and state must protect the victim’s right.
This article has been written by Nimisha Mishra, a second year student of NALSAR University of Law.
