Law Of India

In This Book A Well-Known Historian Offers A Critical Study Of A New Aspect Of Modern Indian History: The Gradual Introduction Of English Law Into India From The Advent Of The East India Company Till The Culmination Of The Period Of Codification In The Closing Years Of The Nineteenth Century. Special Stress Has Been Laid On The Impact Of English Law On Administration, Economy, Society And Constitutional Development. New Light Has Been Thrown Not Only On The Development Of Legal, Judicial And Constitutional Systems But Also On The Complex Historical Process Of The Emergence Of Modern India.

By accessibly recounting and analyzing the unique experience of institutions in colonial India--which were influenced heavily by both British Common Law and indigenous Indian practices and traditions--Law and the Economy in Colonial India sheds new light on what exactly fosters the types of institutions that have been key to economic development throughout world history more generally. The culmination and years of research, the book goes through a range of examples, including textiles, opium, tea, indigo, tenancy, credit, and land mortgage, to show how economic laws in colonial India were shaped neither by imported European ideas about how colonies should be ruled nor indigenous institutions, but by the practice of producing and trading. The book is an essential addition to Indian history and to some of the most fundamental questions in economic history.

India, a Union of 28 States and 7 territories, with a population of over a billion people and multiple cultures and languages, is a democratic republic often called, quite rightly, ‘the largest democracy in the world’. Because the well-established English legal system endured after independence in 1947, India categorically remains a common law jurisdiction, and its legal practice and procedure is conducted almost exclusively in English. Nonetheless, Indian law is sufficiently complex in ways that are distinct from other European-based systems that a book such as this – in which the business legal system of India is thoroughly reviewed – will be really welcomed by both practitioners and academics. This book examines the full spectrum of India’s legal system as it applies to commercial, customs, and tax matters, and covers among much else such elements as the following: division of executive and legislative powers between the Union and the individual States; role of the Supreme Court and State high courts; role of State legislative assemblies; levels of appeals in judiciary system; power of specialised State tribunals in, for example, tax, company law, bankruptcy; power of the State to appropriate property; constitutional protection of culture and environment; use and citation of foreign judgments and jurisprudence; contract law; trusts; industrial relations; minimum wage law; income tax rules and procedure; bilateral double taxation agreements; copyright and trademark protection; semiconductor integrated circuits layout design; protection of plant varieties and farmers’ rights; competition law; multi-State cooperation agreements; and regulation of financial services. An extensive appendix supplies texts of the Constitution of India, the Indian Penal Code and 23 Legislative Acts pertaining to commercial, customs and tax matters. There is a sample franchise agreement, and an informative summary of current and projected foreign trade policy through 2014. Both as a guide to business lawyers working with Indian partners and as a comparative law treatment of the world’s second most populous country (and a rapidly growing economic powerhouse), this book has no peers.

Rule of law is the foundation of modern democracies. It envisages, inter alia, participatory lawmaking, just and certain laws, a bouquet of human rights, certainty and equality in the application of law, accountability to law, an impartial and non-arbitrary government, and an accessible and fair dispute resolution mechanism. This work’s primary goal is to understand and explain the obvious dichotomy that exists between theory and practice in India’s rule of law structure. The book discusses the contours of the rule of law in India, the values and aspirations in its evolution, and its meaning as understood by the various institutions, identifying reason as the primary element in the rule of law mechanism. It later examines the institutional, political, and social challenges to the concepts of equality and certainty, through which it evaluates the status of the rule of law in India.

In Sexual States Jyoti Puri tracks the efforts to decriminalize homosexuality in India to show how the regulation of sexuality is fundamentally tied to the creation and enduring existence of the state. Since 2001 activists have attempted to rewrite Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, which in addition to outlawing homosexual behavior is often used to prosecute a range of activities and groups that are considered perverse. Having interviewed activists and NGO workers throughout five metropolitan centers, investigated crime statistics and case law, visited various state institutions, and met with the police, Puri found that Section 377 is but one element of how homosexuality is regulated in India. This statute works alongside the large and complex system of laws, practices, policies, and discourses intended to mitigate sexuality's threat to the social order while upholding the state as inevitable, legitimate, and indispensable. By highlighting the various means through which the regulation of sexuality constitutes India's heterogeneous and fragmented "sexual state," Puri provides a conceptual framework to understand the links between sexuality and the state more broadly.

First published in 2011, Water Law in India is the only book to offer a comprehensive survey of the legal instruments concerning water in India. It presents a variety of national and state-level instruments that make up the complex and diverse field of water law and policy. This book fills a critical gap in the study of water law, providing a rich reference point for the entire gamut of legal mechanisms available in India. This edition has been extensively revised to include new instruments on water regulation, such as the draft National Water Framework Bill, 2016, and the Model Groundwater (Sustainable Management) Act, 2016; new water-related instruments in such varied fields as criminal law, land acquisition law, and rural employment legislation; and a chapter on international legal instruments. Chapters on drinking water supply, environmental dimensions of water conservation, water infrastructure for irrigation and flood control, groundwater regulation, and institutions catering to water have been thoroughly updated for a complete coverage of water law.