Author: J. Venkatesan
J. Venkatesan
J. Venkatesan is a member of NitiRiti's advisory board; a legal journalist of repute, he has worked with several Delhi-based national newspapers, including the Hindu, and has received many rewards acknowledging his yeoman contribution to the development of legal journalism. You can reach him at editor@nitiriti.com
Fali Nariman (95), a doyen of the bar, passed away on February 21, a huge loss to the legal fraternity. He was a jurist par excellence; a champion of human rights and a free press and left an indelible imprint on the legal profession. This writer has closely interacted with him for two decades in a number of cases. Fali Sam Nariman was born on Thursday, January 10, 1929 at Rangoon in Burma (now Myanmar) as the only child of Sam and Banoo Nariman. They were in Burma as his father was the Manager of the New India Assurance Co.…
New Delhi The recent victory of the BJP in the Assembly elections in the states of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan and the Congress in Telangana, has given enough indications of a north vs south “political divide”. In Karnataka, the ruling BJP government was ousted by the Congress in the Assembly polls held in May this year. While the DMK is the ruling party in Tamil Nadu, the CPI (M) rules in Kerala and YSR Congress led by Jaganmohan Reddy is at the helm in Andhra Pradesh. Except Congress no other political party can be labelled as a pan India…
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin’s son, DMK leader and Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin’s recent remarks, comparing “Sanatana Dharma” with diseases such as dengue and malaria which must not merely be opposed but “eradicated”, evoked much national outrage. For the unfamiliar, Encyclopedia Britannica defines Sanatana Dharma as follows: “Sanatana Dharma in Hinduism is used to denote the eternal or absolute set of duties or religiously-ordained practices incumbent upon all Hindus regardless of class, caste or sect.” Udhayanidhi made these remarks while participating in a conference organized by the Tamil Nadu Progressive Writers and Artists Association on September 2, 2023. He also…
New Delhi, May 28. The new Parliament building built at a cost of Rs 1200 crore was inaugurated on Sunday by Prime Minister Narendra Modi amidst boycott of over 20 Opposition parties as May 28 coincided with birthday of Veer Savarkar, the proponent of Hindu nationalism. Congress and other Opposition parties boycotted the inauguration event as they wanted the President of India Droupadi Murmu, the first tribal woman to inaugurate the new Parliament. The new Parliament has a capacity of 888 seats in Lok Sabha (present capacity 543) and 384 seats in Rajya Sabha (presently 250) and a Central lounge. …
J. Venkatesan Holding that Jallikattu is a bovine sport and essential aspect of cultural heritage of Tamil Nadu and a tradition being followed for a few centuries, a five-judge constitution bench of the Supreme Court has upheld the law passed by the state for conducting the sport. The bench, comprising Justices K.M. Joseph, Ajay Rastogi, Aniruddha Bose, Hrishikesh Roy and C.T. Ravikumar, also upheld the laws passed by Karnataka and Maharashtra for the conduct of Kambala and bullock-cart race in their respective states. This judgment has given a ray of hope for pilgrims of Sabarimala Ayyappa temple in Kerala that…
New Delhi The Narendra Modi government at the Centre and the Supreme Court led by Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud, seem headed for a confrontation with the Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju targeting the collegium system of judicial appointments.The Law Minister squarely blamed the collegium system for the inordinate delay in filling judicial vacancies forgetting the fact that the Centre was sitting over several recommendations made by the collegium on flimsy grounds. Rijiju said: “Unless the procedure of the appointment of judges changes, the issue of high judicial vacancies will keep cropping up.” The minister was responding to a…
New Delhi, Nov 30. A five-judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court has begun hearing arguments on whether Jallikattu (the traditional bull-taming sport) in Tamil Nadu can get constitutional protection as a “traditional and cultural fundamental right” under Article 29 (1) of the Constitution. Similarly, sports such as Kambala (running contest between buffalo pairs in wet, slushy rice fields held at the beginning of the sowing season) in Karnataka and bullock cart races in Maharashtra are also under challenge as violative of India’s laws against cruelty to animals. A bench, comprising Justices K.M. Joseph, Ajay Rastogi, Aniruddha Bose, Hrishikesh Roy and C.…
Will these be answered in review? Photo Courtesy: INC Website
J. Venkatesan New Delhi Informal interactions of judges with journalists were very frequent before the advent of social media. Judges are now scared to speak to journalists as they are afraid that anything they say will be published in the media and more often than not, twisted out of context. I am one of the privileged few to have met successive CJIs and judges in the higher judiciary. During many such meetings, many judges used to share sensitive information on collegium appointments, about the functioning of judiciary in general and certain judges in particular. They were confident that nothing they…
New Delhi The collegium system of appointing judges of the High Court and the Supreme Court needs to be revamped to ensure more transparency in the selection process. This is the view expressed by former Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramana and Justice Madan B. Lokur, who publicly objected in January 2018 against the then Chief Justice Dipak Misra assigning high-profile cases to junior judges bypassing seniors. Justice Ramana, whose tenure witnessed the highest number of judicial appointments, was forthright in his comments when he said at a meeting “there have been various concerns raised in different quarters including by…