What a Vakalatnama is

Vakalatnama is a legal document being executed by every litigant as prescribed by law for the purpose of engaging an advocate to conduct some specific judicial proceedings and doing all what is lawfully necessary in that regard in a court. It is a species of Power of Attorney. The term originated from Urdu and it means power of attorney.

The Vakalatnama enables the advocate appearing for the litigant to do several acts as an agent of the litigant who remains as the principal. It creates a special relationship between the lawyer and the litigant. It regulates the extent of delegation of authority to the advocate in regard to the conduct of the judicial proceedings and the terms and conditions governing such delegation. It should, therefore, be properly filled, attested and accepted with due care and caution.

Covid : an unforeseen pandemic

The emergence of Covid-19 as a pandemic around the world in an unprecedented manner as nobody could foresee has brought in many unforeseen restrictions in movement, stoppage of production, scarcity of raw materials, shortage of labour and disruption in supply chain. Such restrictions have put timely performance of contractual obligations by many in disarray or made timely performance of many contracts delayed or impossible.

Such failures in performance by the contracting parties under a valid contract are protected by law under Section 32 and 56 of the Indian contract Act, 1872, if such failures occurred due to reason beyond the control of the parties. The Section 32 of the contract act invokes the concept of force majeure and the Section 56 of the contract act invokes the concept of frustrated contracts.

In order to get protection under the Section 32 of the contract act a clause technically called ‘Force Majeure’ clause should be specifically provided in the contract.

What is Zero FIR?

Zero FIR is not at all different from a commonly known FIR (First Information Report) which must be registered in any criminal offence in the police station authorized to investigate it. Zero FIR differs from an ordinary FIR in the sense that it is lodged in a police station which lies outside the location (jurisdiction) of crime. The Zero FIR must be later transferred to the police station having jurisdiction under the criminal Procedure Code, 1973 (CrPC).

That means Zero FIR is similar to an ordinary FIR but its serial number would be 0, until it reaches the respective police station having jurisdiction to take further proceedings. An example of a zero FIR is in the Asaram Bapu case in which a minor girl was raped in Jodhpur, Rajasthan, but the victim filed Zero FIR against him in Delhi, a place distant from the place of occurrence.

Criminal defence advocates, defending the accused persons who have been considered by the people to be guilty in heinous crimes, are at the receiving end many a time. The public at large, a section of lawyers and even some Bar Councils have a view that the defendant suspecting to be guilty of grave offences does not deserve to have the service of a defence lawyer at all.

Both in Kasab’s case and in Nirbhaya case the advocate’s body - the Bar Association - took a resolution not to defend the accused ones. In fact the proponents of this view, guided by some misconceptions about judicial niceties, fail to recognise that the court is dealing with nothing but the legal guilt rather than the factual guilt in a trial.

Seminal question before the SC

In a recent judgment in K Lubna v Beevi, the Supreme Court (SC) upheld that a pure question of law can be examined at any stage even before the SC if the foundation of the fact has already been laid. The examination of the legal consequences of such a well laid down fact would be a pure question of law.

The SC has already recognized in Chittoori Subbanna v Kudappa Subbanna ( AIR 1965 SC 1325) that by moving a separate application for permission, it is possible to include additional grounds in the grounds of appeal.

In upholding this principle, the SC relied on a 1892 judgment in Connecticut Fire Insurance Co v Kavanagh. In the judgment, Lord Watson stated: when a question of law is raised for the first time in a court of last resort upon facts proved beyond controversy, the court is not only competent but also it is expedient in the interest of justice to entertain the plea.

One of the modes of execution of a decree of a civil court is either by attachment and sale, or by sale without attachment, of any property.

The provisions relating to sale of property in an execution proceeding are Sections 65 to 73, and the Rules 64 to 94 of the Order 21, of the Civil Procedure Code, 1908 (CPC). The Chapter VIII of the Civil Rules of Practice Kerala state the procedural matters relating to execution. The provisions cover both movable and immovable properties.

Citizens have the right to a pollution-free environment

The citizen has the right to enjoy life in its entirety along with every permissible pleasure associated with it. The Article 21 of the Constitution offers every citizen a right to a decent environment, to live peacefully, to sleep well at night and to have leisure along with many other concomitant rights. Therefore anyone who wishes to live in peace, comfort and quietness within his house has every right to be protected from excessive sound or noise pollution.

On the other hand, no one got endowed with any right to create noise even in his own premises which would travel beyond his precincts and cause nuisance to others living within the precincts beyond his boundary. Any noise which interferes with the normal life of anyone is nuisance.

What is a dying declaration?

Dying declaration is a written or verbal statement made by a person, when he is facing imminent death, as to the cause of his death or any circumstances which resulted in his death. The declaration must be as to the cause of the declarant’s death or as to any of the circumstances of the transaction which resulted in his death.

The declaration is admissible when the cause of the death of the person who declares is directly in issue and both the declaration and the death have some proximate relation. Before a dying declaration is admitted it must be proved that its maker is dead. If the maker survives after the possibility of imminent death, his statement is not a dying declaration.

Confession means

Confession, in fact, is a statement by an accused suggesting that he committed the crime charged against him. A statement must contain specific admission of guilt or all the facts which constitute the crime in order it to be considered as a confession.

Strengthening subordinate judiciary – consisting of district and below level courts – is a much needed but grossly neglected reform. It has the potential to address the ever increasing problems of backlog and delay in justice dispensation and make the judiciary far more productive. A well functioning judiciary is a sine-qua-non for sustainable economic growth, investor confidence building and the overall human well being.