by IJLMH | Oct 26, 2020
GST which was termed as the radical indirect reform regime which came into force on the mid night of 1st July 2017 was termed as the ideal example of cooperative federalism. GST was an attempt to bring about uniformity in indirect taxation in India which suffered from the multi layered imposing structure and cascading effects. The change was not easy as there was no concurrent power of taxation under the constitution. So after the101th constitution amendment in 2016, GST was implemented to form ‘’one Nation, one Tax’’ to make India internationally more competent and to enhance the intra national trade and commerce to develop the GDP of the country. The drastic changes in taxation regime could be successfully implemented only with the corporation of the States. The states were worried about there revenue loss while changing over from an origin-based tax structure to a destination-based taxation. The Centre promised the states to compensate initially for 5 years to cope up with new system. But now at amidst the pandemic of Covid 19 both the Centre and State is suffering a huge economic loss. The financial crisis of the states is augmented by the Centre’s decision to stop the payment of the GST compensation which was due to the States. This has certainly and truly effected the Centre -State relations and the ‘’federalism’’ the one among the basic feature of Indian Constitution. Turning back at the States at times when they need the most may disrupt the working of GST, the indirect tax regime which was already struggling to exist.
Keyword: Indirect tax, Centre –Sstate financial relation, GST, revenue loss, compensation to the states, cooperative federalism.
by IJLMH | Oct 25, 2020
The World Intellectual Property Organisation mentions traditional knowledge as “indigenous cultural and intellectual property”, customary heritage rights as well as indigenous heritage. Some innovation and creation are based on tradition referring knowledge system that is transmitting from one generation to another through people and their territory. It is necessary to protect traditional knowledge for establishing equity consideration, preserving traditional culture and practices, preventing unauthorized parties appropriation of components of traditional knowledge and promotion of its use in development.
It is very much indispensable to incorporate global legal instrument so as to give effective protection to traditional knowledge, cultural expressions and genetic resources. Thus the members of the WIPO agreed upon to develop a global legal instrument for helping members outside the local community threshold to access traditional knowledge. The “Copyright Act, (1957)”, was passed to protect the creations of artists such as literary sources, music and art. Moreover, there were specifications regarding the protection of traditional knowledge in Article 31 of the UNDRIP Convention. The report stated that the role of the members of the WIPO was to put emphasis on developing international legal structures such that creative inventions and works of the creators could be protected. Legal structures of IPR were designed such that traditional knowledge of the local indigenous people residing in multiple belts of India could be protected.
The report highlighted the implications of traditional knowledge of Indian economic growth. Moreover, the ecological traditional knowledge of natives of the rain forests led to the development of the market economy.
Some probable recommendations were also suggested by the researcher. The researcher recommended that technical advice is to be circulated among community members and representatives should be encouraged to participate in meetings organized by the WIPO agency.
Keywords: Traditional, knowledge, IPR, indigenous, protection.
by IJLMH | Oct 25, 2020
The United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, 1972 was the starting point for India’s legislations for ecology, environment and biodiversity. Following this Conference, the Parliament of India enacted a number of comprehensive legislations relating to water, air and forests and wildlife and, thereby, initiating appropriate steps, in this regard, to implement the decisions taken by the Government of India in the said Conference. The role of the judiciary was very crucial in this phase. Because the judicial interpretation of Article 21 of the Constitution of India, in its historic judgement delivered by the Apex Court in the famous Maneka Gandhi’s case, was the epicenter of evergrowing environmental jurisprudence of India. Facts remain that the pronouncement of the Supreme Court on the “right to live” which accorded a new dimension, to the “right to life” became a judicial breakthrough in the area of environmental protection in the post Maneka Gandhi cases involving issues of forests, wildlife and biodiversity. On the foundation of the “affirmative duty doctrine” enunciated in the Maneka Gandhi’s case, the Supreme Court enunciated the theory that it is open to the Court to enforce the duty implied by Article 48-A through the device of issuing directions under Article 48-A through the device of issuing directions under Article 32(2) of the Constitution. The pronouncement of the Supreme Court of India made the Directive Principle of State Policy contained in Article 48-A judicially enforceable. In the famous Oleum Gas Leak Case, the Apex Court while rejecting the “rule of strict liability” introduced a new rule called the “rule of absolute liability” for the industries engaged with hazardous activities. The Supreme Court, while taking recourses to an ecocentric approach to environment, started passing directions for the protection and preservation of fragile ecosystems including forests, wildlife, wetlands, mountains, rivers, hillocks etc. The Apex Court also declared the “public trust doctrine” as an integral part of environmental jurisprudence of India in a number of public interest litigations involving issues of ecology and environment. The Court recognized the citizen’s “right to live in a healthy environment” as a solidarity right emerating from Article 21 of the Constitution. Apart from that, the “right to information concerning the environment” was also recognized as a basic procedural human right. According to the Court, this right promises environmental protection essentially by way of democracy and informed debate. A strong argument, in this regard, is that the democratic decision making always lead to environmentally friendly policies.
Keywords: Environmental Jurisprudence, Stockholm Conference, The Supreme Court, Rule of Absolute Liability, Public Trust Doctrine, the Right to A Healthy Environment and Maneka Gandhi’s case.
by IJLMH | Oct 25, 2020
Women in India from the medieval period to the present has seen inequality in Indian society. The intersectionality is in full swing while the ancient Indian Vedic period mentioned women the divine mother. The rule of the Muslim dynasty was one of the contributors to change Indian society and to look at women as slaves or personal objectives. The Hindu prejudice such as sahamaran, sati, purdah (veil) destroyed the section of women and thus created rules for them to become quiet, and to accept their path as a fate of life. While in ancient India, in Indus civilization, Vedic India the status of women was a mother of everyone. It is about a form of masculinity, a society where women are under control by her intimate partner, by her husband. The social reformation process since independence is a great impact on India’s diaspora but is contradictory as well due to continuous practices of abuse. Dowry death, domestic violence (beating by husband, partner, family members etc.), child marriage, societal violence (isolation from society, untouchability, recognition as unlucky, witches etc.), female foeticide, and female infanticide, forced eviction and exclusion, sexual harassment at the workplace etc. The objective of the paper is to find out their struggle from the midlevel to the present, government action to re-establish their rights legitimately. The outcome of the paper is to get success to know women’s history of struggle not only in India but as universally. The feature question of the paper is, how the meaning of women properly understandable through society? The future activity of this paper is to share communities for ensuring that women are not objecting but institute, nations that depend on future citizens and they come from the womb of women. Therefore, inelegancy must be eliminated. It is therefore an effort through this paper to understand women and their entity in Indian diaspora included global society. The feature question is, is there any possibility of a permanent solution to the women’s challenges in India?
Keywords: Intersectionality, Social Justice, Social Transformation, Social Feminism, Class-Caste-Pervasive Nature of Violence.
by IJLMH | Oct 25, 2020
The basic objective of the legal system is to maintain the peace and order in the society and to fulfill the idea of justice as mentioned in the Preamble of our Indian Constitution. In the case of the violation of the rights of the person. Offences can be of civil as well as criminal nature. In the civil cases the dispute can be settled by various modes by following the outside the settlement procedure. In criminal cases also there are cases which are minor and are of compoundable nature. But because of the trial processes these cases remain pending in the courts thereby leading to the huge pendency of the cases. The accused in such types of cases are sometimes the first time offenders and due to the trial process they are being kept with the hardened criminals which can affect them. So, in order to reduce the pendency of such cases, the concept of Plea-Bargaining has been introduced. It is a process which tries to reduce the burden of the courts. It is method of pre-trial/negotiation between the accused and the victim. This paper has tried to laid the emphasis upon the use of plea-bargaining as one of the modes of Alternative Dispute Resolution for serving the two purposes i.e. one for disposing off the criminal cases of petty nature and secondly as a ray of hope for under trials.
Keywords: Dispute, Speedy Disposal, Alternative, Settlement, Burden
by IJLMH | Oct 25, 2020
Irrespective of how women were stereotypically perceived during the olden days, one cannot dissent from the fact that women and men today are (ideally) equals. Women all over the world have struggled and accomplished abundantly more than the previously set records. After the countless years of oppression, there was an imperative need to frame international instruments catering to recognition of women’s rights as ‘human rights’. This ever-increasing need for a certain set of codes led the United Nations to create the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women and many more instruments that worked towards dealing with safeguarding rights of women and advocating gender equality. Conversely to this effort, women’s rights still remain subject to inclusion and effective implementation in many parts of the world. Even though the public outcry for enforcing the concept of gender equality has taken a global and all-encompassing embodiment, gender equality remains a mirage to many. This is largely due to implementation problems such as the herculean cultural, social and economic gaps faced by the countries that have ratified these instruments. This article attempts to succinctly discuss the instruments arrayed for gender equality and women’s rights. Furthermore, it also delves into the models that are adopted transnationally to implement the instruments mentioned above and traverses the challenges that are presented in the course of implementation. Lastly, this article proffers suggestions that could be inculcated in the current implementation process to overcome the challenges faced.
Keywords: women, women’s rights, United Nations, instruments, international, implementation, challenges, solutions
