by IJLMH | Dec 17, 2020
“The patent scheme has historically been used for mechanical instruments and the like. Including the use of a patentable biological substance. Disputes over their artistic status and private control and monopoly over life, per se, arose. There is a controversy as to whether modern technical developments mandate a new patent system. The problem was not between living and inanimate objects but between products of nature, whether living or not and innovations created by humans. Even today, ethical issues are constantly expressed, but they are much less vociferous. According to patents, the European system exhibits a disciplined but inclusive regime for correct biotechnology and its various progenies. This position is contradictory to the American law on patents, which is stripped of any such moral clause. The patent regime in Europe is all inclusive. As regards bio-patents, the European clause was liberal and stemmed a great deal from the TRIPS Agreement. The aim of this paper is to raise the question of non-obviousness in US patent laws and EPO laws and to find out how straightforward they are in dealing with or granting a patent on subjects relating to biological objects or living organisms. In addition, in this paper the writers will also concentrate on the fundamental notions of novelty, usefulness and genetic modification with regard to the award of patents or the non-obviousness of biological processes.”
Keywords: Intellectual Property Rights, Bio-patent, Patent laws, Non-obviousness, European Patent Organisation, Genetic Engineering.
by IJLMH | Dec 17, 2020
Public masturbation has been an issue long ignored and strategically side-lined due to its pervasiveness, by the law and the society, in spite of the large perpetration rate it bears in India. Although ubiquity stresses on the need of a remedy, yet no recognized legal category has been in place exclusively for Public Masturbation. This can be attributed to the reality of women’s sexual treatment by men.
Offences like that of public masturbation usually are not only large in number, but have far reaching results. Public Masturbation resembles the conduct prohibited by certain sections of the Indian Penal Code, 1860. Yet, by the absence of the effective usage of laws and the frivolous and unconcerned attitude towards public masturbation as a crime, it becomes imperative to understand its frequency in India and the slow application rate of a bunch of laws which do not directly target the issue.
This paper aims to broach this recurring subject and analyse the application of laws which encompass indecent exposure along with other relevant charges. Further, it seeks to analyse the medical conditions of public masturbators by the virtue of which they are inclined towards masturbating in public. It also studies the Hobbesian Perspective on Street Harassment and its relation to the crime of public masturbation. It also analyses the perspective of minors and LGBTQ as victims of public masturbation.
The paper adopts the doctrinal method of study to analyse and comment on the efficacy of the existing laws. The paper concludes that the current scattered laws are inadequate to curb the issue by citing various incidents of public masturbation in India.
Keywords: Public Masturbation, Indian Penal Code, Street harassment laws, Indecent exposure.
by IJLMH | Dec 17, 2020
Coronavirus surfaced in China in December 2019. Fast forward a few months, it had become a pandemic and WHO named it ‘COVID-19’. In an attempt to control this virus, the act of quarantine and the global lockdown has strictly been recommended and ardently followed worldwide. It was also accompanied by digital surveillance to gain accurate ground-level information. WHO also provided guidelines for health-related surveillance. Comprehensive surveillance, Sentinel syndromic surveillance, Hospital-based SARI surveillance, Mortality surveillance, Virological sentinel surveillance, are some of the methods, to name a few. With the advancement of time, voices were heard citing the dangers associated with rising surveillance. The Right to privacy is a fundamental human right under International Law. The Right to Privacy for an individual is the right to keep secrets or obscures elements of their life from the public at large. It is a part of domestic law in many countries. The companies must also provide a way in which customers can review the data collected about them and control their usage. The right to privacy was held to be a fundamental right in India by nine judges of the Supreme Court in the celebrated judgment of K.S. Puttuswamy v. Union of India. However, these rights have been blatantly violated in many jurisdictions by governmental and private bodies. This paper analyses such violations and tests them through the lens of privacy laws. The conclusion is reached that surveillance measures must be least intrusive and should not be at the cost of basic human rights and must be time-bound. States must also ensure that data collected through apps should not leak to the outside agencies and peoples should have a say in their data that how and where it should be used or what they want to do with their data collected.
Keywords: Covid-19, Privacy & Surveillance.
by IJLMH | Dec 17, 2020
Criminalization of politics is a vital topic to be discussed in any democratic platform. This issue is on focus every now and then. The Government and the governance system’s credibility is questioned. Sometimes the government loses its legitimacy and authenticity due to the involvement of persons with criminal backgrounds. The frequency with which alleged or convicted criminals manage to gain public office threatens the ideals and the functioning of the Indian democracy. The members of the legislature are expected and directed to represent vicariously the aspirations and concerns of the people whom they represent. Hence it is important for the legislature of a representative democracy to be a true reflection of the aspirations and dreams of the people and also to be fair, honest and accountable to the people they represent. But nowadays India is witnessing a crisis of empathy, quality, fairness, equality etc. amongst all the chosen MPs or MLAs. Not only is there a serious question of propriety lying over the fairness of electoral procedure followed, an even greater concern lies in the kind of people who are entering the polity of India. India stands witness to an alarmingly high number of people with criminal background who have polluted Indian polity. Several government-appointed Commissions have already made clear recommendations for electoral reforms, but the political will to implement these recommendations in letter and spirit is lacking. We have allowed criminalisation in politics to go completely unchecked. The numbers are appalling. In the Lok Sabha, 139 of the 539 members elected in 2019 had been charged with serious criminal offences such as murder, rape and dacoity. This paper discusses about the meaning of criminalisation of politics, reasons for criminalisation, consequences of criminalisation and the role of legislations and judiciary in decriminalisation of politics in India.
Keywords: Criminalisation, Decriminalisation, Politics, Legislations and Judiciary.
by IJLMH | Dec 17, 2020
The manner in which police investigations are conducted is of critical importance to the functioning of the Criminal Justice System. Not only serious miscarriage of justice will result if error or malpractice vitiates the collection of evidence, but successful prosecution of the guilty depends on a thorough and careful search for truth and collection of evidence, which is both admissible and probative. In undertaking this search, it is the duty of the police to investigate fairly and thoroughly and collect all evidence, whenever for or against the suspect. Protection of the society being the paramount consideration, the laws, procedures and police practices must be such as to ensure that the guilty are apprehended and punished with utmost dispatch and in the process the innocent are not harassed. To achieve this objective, the investigating officers must be properly trained and supervised and necessary scientific and logistical support should be made available to them. The police perceive themselves psychologically and morally bound to do everything possible to curb crime and investigate the cases successfully to meet the peoples’ expectations. In this process, the police often resort to short cut methods and exhibit negative traits of police sub-culture, namely, rudeness, use of third-degree methods, defensiveness in the face of criticism, lack of innovativeness etc. Now-a-days in India Criminal Justice System is much affected by delayed disposal of cases. Pubic has now completely lost its confidence in law and criminal law has lost deterrent effect over prospective criminals resulting into increase in criminality in society giving rise to crime waves and ultimately the common citizenry is fearing of crime victimization. There are many reasons for delayed disposal of criminal cases, one of most important reason is that the investigating agencies are not investigating the cases promptly and effectively. Longer time period consumed during investigation is most important causation for delayed disposal of criminal cases.
by IJLMH | Dec 17, 2020
The case Victoria Laundry Ltd v Newman Industries Ltd was decided in 1949 for the King’s Bench by the Court of Appeals. The subject matter of this case revolved around reasonable foreseeability and remoteness of damage. This case added onto the consequential damages rule laid down in the Hadley judgment by clarifying it by resolving a significant lacuna in it.
Victoria Laundry (plaintiff) had entered into a contract with Newman Industries (defendant) to build and deliver a large boiler with a heavy steaming capacity of 8000lbs an hour. As per the contract, the boiler had to be delivered in early June. The plaintiff had explicitly told the defendant regarding the need for the boiler being very urgent and wanted to use it immediately after delivery. The delivery was made twenty (20) weeks late even after knowing about the boiler’s urgent need. Due to this delay, the plaintiff incurred significant losses in profits and many profitable contracts. Victoria Laundry then sued Newman Industries for the losses incurred by them. Newman Industries were charged both under ordinary as well as special damages. The Trial Court held that the defendant was liable, relying on the first rule of the remoteness of damage laid down in the case of Hadley v Baxendale . The Court of Appeals later overruled this judgment for the King’s Bench, which held that the defendant was liable for the plaintiff’s damages.
