Ashish Singh

Despite of formation of various effective rules and regulations by the Indian government to handle and control the crimes against women, the number and frequency of crimes against women are increasing day by day. Women status in the country has been more offensive and dreadful in the last few years. It has decreased the confidence level of women for safety in their own country. Women are in doubtful condition for their safety and have fear while going anywhere else outside their home (office, market, etc). We should not blame the government because women safety is not only the responsibility of government only, it is the responsibility of each and every Indian citizen especially men who need to change their mind set for women.
Women safety is a big social issue which needs to be solved urgently by the effort of all. It is inhibiting the growth and development of the country and most importantly hurting the half population of the country in all aspects (physically, mentally, and socially).

The term “child labour” is often defined as work that deprives children of their childhood, their potential and their dignity, and that is harmful to physical and mental development. It refers to work that:
is mentally, physically, socially or morally dangerous and harmful to children; and/or
interferes with their schooling by: depriving them of the opportunity to attend school; obliging them to leave school prematurely; or requiring them to attempt to combine school attendance with excessively long and heavy work.
The worst forms of child labour involves children being enslaved, separated from their families, exposed to serious hazards and illnesses and/or left to fend for themselves on the streets of large cities – often at a very early age. Whether or not particular forms of “work” can be called “child labour” depends on the child’s age, the type and hours of work performed, the conditions under which it is performed and the objectives pursued by individual countries. The answer varie

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is a milestone document in the history of human rights. Drafted by representatives with different legal and cultural backgrounds from all regions of the world, the Declaration was proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly in Paris on 10 December 1948 (General Assembly resolution 217 A) as a common standard of achievements for all peoples and all nations. It sets out, for the first time, fundamental human rights to be universally protected and it has been translated into over 500 languages.

Elites are those political, economic, and military circles, which as an intricate set of overlapping small but dominant groups share decisions having at least national consequences. Insofar as national events are decided, the power elite are those who decide them.
Elite theory is a theory of the state which seeks to describe and explain the power relationships in contemporary society. The theory states that a small minority, consisting of foundations or position with think tanks or policy-discussion groups, members of the “elite” are able to exert significant power over the policy decisions of corporations and governments.

The 'Polluters Pays Principle’ is the commonly accepted practice that those who produce pollution should bear the costs of managing it to prevent damage to human health or the environment. For instance, a factory that produces a potentially poisonous substance as a byproduct of its activities is usually held responsible for its safe disposal.
Polluter pays principle what then is the polluter pays principle? The term was first used in a 1974 declaration of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development States (oecd). The declaration stated that, "The polluter should bear the expenses of carrying out measures...to ensure that the environment is in an acceptable state. In other words, the costs of these measures should be reflected in the costs of goods and services which cause pollution." The oecd recommendation was never formally ratified by any state and hardly any member country brought out comprehensive legislation incorporating the polluter pays principle. However, there are stray instances of adherence to the spirit of these principles. For example, a few provisions of the Clean Air Act, 1970, the Clean Water Act, 1977 and the Compensation and Liability Act, 1980 impose costs on polluters.

The concept of reservation, which was discussed in great detail during the Constituent Assembly debates, is much older than the drafting of the Constitution. The Members of the Assembly, along with many of the minority groups that they represented, were wary of the implications of reserving seats in the Legislative Assembly, claiming that it would serve to exacerbate differences that people felt with one another and increase separatist tendencies. They also identified that promoting reservations, ironically, came with a certain degree of exclusion.

'Constitutionalism' connotes in essence limited government or a limitation on government. Constitutionalism is that the antithesis of arbitrary powers.  'Constitutionalism' recognises the need for state with powers but at the same time insists that limitations be placed on those powers. The antithesis of Constitutionalism is despotism. Unlimited power may cause an authoritarian, oppressive, government which jeopardises the freedoms of the people. only the Constitution of a country seeks to decentralise power instead of concentrating it at one point, and also imposes other restraints and limitations thereon, does a country haven't only 'constitution' but also 'constitutionalism'.

The object is to determine Rule of Law and it might not be wrong to mention that the Indian Constitution during this respect goes much ahead than the other Constitutions of the planet the thing isn't merely to supply security and equality of citizenship of the people living during this land and thereby helping the method of nation building, but also and not smaller to supply certain standards of conduct, citizenship, justice and fair play. They were intended to form all citizens and persons appreciate that the paramount law of the land has caught in a frenzy privileges and has laid down the paramount perfect equality between one section of the community and another within the matter of all those rights which are essential for the fabric and more perfection of man.

The concept of Public interest litigation can be traced in the system of actio popularis of Roman law which permitted anyone in the society to initiate an action for a public delicit in the court of law to bring an action of restitution or injunction for the protection of public property or a religious charitable property . 
Thus, this system can be out lined as an ancient foundation of the current form of public interest litigation. The best example of roman actio popularis in the contemporary times can be seen through The Bhopal Gas Disaster Act, 1985 which made union government to file a suit for damages in the interest of gas victims.
The power of judicial review is exercised by the courts concerned with the protest of the poor, women, children, depraved, handicapped, unorganized labours, and other oppressed that have either no access to justice or have been denied justice. When there has been the insensitive abandonment in state policies, lack of integrity in public life, misuse of power in the control and demolition of environment the courts intervened pro bono proceedings.

Judicial Activism: The expression `Judicial Activism' signifies the anxiety of courts to find out
appropriate remedy to the aggrieved by formulating a new rule to settle the conflicting questions in the event of lawlessness or uncertain laws. The Judicial Activism in India can he witnessed with reference to the review power of the Supreme Court under Article 32 and I (belt Courts under Article 226 of the Constitution particularly in Public Interest Litigation.
The doctrine of separation of powers was propounded by the French Jurist Montesquieu. It has been adopted in India as well since the executive powers are vested in the President, Legislative powers in the Parliament and State Legislative Assemblies and the judicial powers in the Supreme Court and subordinate courts. However, the adoption of this principle in India is partial and not total. This is because even though Legislature and the Judiciary are independent yet Judiciary is
entrusted with implementation of the laws made by the legislature. On the other hand, in case of
absence of laws on a particular issue, judiciary issues guidelines and directions for the Legislature
to follow.

The Custom Duty in India is one of the most important tariffs. The Customs Act was formulated in 1962 to prevent illegal imports and exports of goods. Besides, all imports are sought to be subject to a duty with a view to affording protection to indigenous industries as well as to keep the imports to the minimum in the interests of securing the exchange rate of Indian currency. Duties of customs are levied on goods imported or exported from India at the rate specified under the Customs Tariff Act, 1975 as amended from time to time or any other law for the time being in force. For the purpose of exercising proper surveillance over imports and exports, the Central Government has the power to notify the ports and airports for the unloading of the imported goods and loading of the exported goods, the places for clearance of goods imported or to be exported, the routes by which above goods may pass by land or inland water into or out of Indian and the ports which alone shall be coastal ports.

In order to give a broad guide as to classification of goods for the purpose of duty liability, the Notes Central Board of Excises Customs (CBEC) brings out periodically a book called the “Indian

Customs Tariff Guide” which contains various tariff rulings issued by the CBEC. The Act also contains detailed provisions for warehousing of the imported goods and manufacture of goods is also possible in the warehouses. For a person who do not actually import or export goods customs has relevance in so far as they bring any baggage from abroad.

A patent is an exclusive right granted for an invention, whether it is a product or a process which gives a new technical solution to a problem, and this patent is granted for a specific period to the inventor. The Patents Act, 1970 was amended three times in 1999, 2002, 2005 respectively to include the concept of ‘compulsory license’ and these are given in the sections 84-92 of the Indian Patents Act, 1970.

Patents in India are granted to encourage inventions and to secure that it is worked on a commercial scale. The Indian Patent Act ensures that a Patentee should not be able to enjoy a monopoly for the importation of the patented article. The Patent Act provides measures by way of compulsory licensing (CL) to ensure that the patents do not impede the protection of public health and nutrition and the Patent Rights are not abused by the Patentee. The CL therefore serves to strike balance between two disparate objectives- rewarding patentees for their invention and making the patented products, particularly pharmaceutical products, available to large population in developing and under developed countries at a cheaper and affordable price. The Indian Constitution also provides assurance regarding the right to health as a part of the right to life under Article 21. Further, Article 47 affirms the state obligation to improve public health. It is believed that ultimately, the responsibility to develop and sustain public needs and demands, including public health and safety, lies with the government. The idea behind compulsory licensing is to impose limitations on the

exploitation of a patent, and this was supported in the Ayyangar Committee’s recommendations. The compulsory licensing provisions under Section 84 of the Patents Act have existed since the act was implemented. However, the relevant provision

was amended in 2005 by introducing a time bar on a third party seeking compulsory licensing.

Since times immemorial, law in its umpteen number of forms has been the prime source of governance. Often we've studied in brief about the laws of the land, however, India also has had a long-standing history in dealing with the sea and conducting trade and commerce both within the region and beyond its territorial borders.
Howbeit, there were no codified laws as are prevalent today, the customs ans the regulations concerning sea and maritime activities have been in place since the beginning of era.
In a generic sense, Maritime Law is a set of rules and regulations which superintend the matters encompassing sea and ships.
The law is insidiously cosmic in nature covering in its ambit a lot more than we can perceive.
Notwithstanding the fact that there exsists certain key elements after due comprehension of which, the Maritime Law shall appear relatively easy to analyze and learn the significance of.
Thus, it is imperative to trace the Historical Evolution of the said law, The essence of Innocent Passage and the rights bestowed in the coastal states and other states'.

Its time when people have preferred to carry and execute a small piece of paper called cheque than carrying the currency worth the value of cheque. Dealings in cheques are vital not only for banking purposes but also for the commerce and industry and the economy of the country. Rhetorically therefore a truncated cheque system is injurious to the economic health of the country as the system of cheques is a matter, a subject that concerns everybody whether he is a man on the street, a layman, a business magnate, an industrialist, a banker or a member of bench or bar. One of the biggest problems, which we are facing in the smooth functioning of the cheque system, is Dishonor of cheques, which threatens the credibility of this negotiable instrument. The problem is becoming bigger with the passage of time. It is hindering smooth business transactions. The great hardship is caused to a person if a cheque issued in his favor is dishonoured due to insufficiency of funds in the account of the drawer of the cheque. To discourage this, the dishonour of certain cheques has been made an offence by an amendment of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881 by the Banking Public Financial Institutions and Negotiable Instrument Laws (Amendment) Act, 1988. After this amendment, a new chapter consisting of section 138 to 142 has been inserted in the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881. Prior to the year 1988, the act of dishonor of cheque was treated as an offence under Indian Penal Code. Other remedy was to file a suit for recovery which was civil in nature and was dilatory. To ensure promptitude in remedy against defaulters and to ensure credibility of the holders of the negotiable instrument a criminal remedy of penalty was inserted in Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881. Bounced cheques are one of the most common offences plaguing the financing world. According to the Supreme Court, there are over 40 lakhs such pending cases in the country. Although, there have been a few amendments in the Act which has made the Act, a self contained statute, wherein provisions have been made to check the delays and to ensure speedy justice with more deterrent punishment, yet the problem of cheque bouncing is not decreasing. Moreover, the law is unnecessarily complicated and there is lack of provisions for forcing the appearance of the accused in the court. Though the amendments to the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881 are helpful in dealing with the offence of bouncing of cheque, they are not fully proved successful in stopping the offence.

Properties are exposed to a plethora of perils, for instance, fire, earthquake, perils of sea, civil commotion and et cetera. Each of these events is an effect to some cause. The law, however, refuses to carry on investigation further than it is necessary.
It looks exclusively to the immediate and most proximate cause, all causes preceding the most proximate cause being rejected as too remote or not considered. Thus, the principle of proximate cause virtually revolves around the claims of the administration and, more precisely, diagnosing the playability or otherwise on the question of perils covered by a policy.
A policy may contain perils specifically mentioned (known as insured perils), or the ones specifically excluded (known as excepted perils) or lastly the ones which come in neither of the paradigm thus known as uninsured perils.
At this juncture, it is imperative to mention that predicaments occur where a mixture of either two of them or all three might be seen. More so, the position gets further complicated when an insured peril is followed up by an excepted peril or an excepted peril is followed up by an insured peril, simultaneously getting mixed up by uninsured perils.
Therefore, the principle of proximate cause has been established to solve such a cumbersome situation and to enable a claims manager to decipher whether a claim is payable and if yes then to what extent?
The doctrine of proximate cause which is common to all branches of insurance must be applied with good sense so as to exhort the intention rather than defeat it. Wherever there is a succession of causes which must have existed in order to produce the loss, or which has contributed or is likely to have contributed to occurrence of the event, the doctrine has to be applied to ascertain which out of the successive causes may be applied to establish a link towards the loss that has been incurred within the ambit of the policy.

Substantive ultra vires means that the delegated legislation goes beyond the scope of the power conferred by the parent statute, or it is in conflict with the delegated statute, and hence, it is invalid. The doctrine refers to the scope, extent and range of power conferred by the parent Act on the concerned authority to make rules. A rule has to yield to the statutory provision. The rule must also come within the scope and purview of the rule making power of the authority framing the rule.7 While applying the doctrine of substantive ultra vires to delegated legislation, the courts do not look merely at the express words of the enabling provision in the parent statute, but go beyond them and also imply certain restrictions therein. The idea is that the courts do not want the executive to do certain things by using its general rule-making power without being specifically authorised by law to do so. This approach, to some extent, helps in preservation of individual liberty, strengthening of judicial control over delegated legislation, and giving a somewhat broader dimension to the doctrine of ultra vires.

Divorce by wife:
The divorce by wife can be categorized under three categories:
(i) Talaaq-i-tafweez
(ii) Lian
(iii) By Dissolution of Muslim Marriages Act 1939.
Talaaq-i-tafweez or delegated divorce is recognized among both, the Shias and the Sunnis. The Muslim husband is free to delegate his power of pronouncing divorce to his wife or any other person. He may delegate the power absolutely or conditionally, temporarily or permanently . A permanent delegation of power is revocable but a temporary delegation of power is not. This delegation must be made distinctly in favour of the person to whom the power is delegated, and the purpose of delegation must be clearly stated. The power of talaaq may be delegated to his wife and as Faizee observes, "this form of delegated divorce is perhaps the most potent weapon in the hands of a Muslim wife to obtain freedom without the intervention of any court and is now beginning to be fairly common in India".
This form of delegated divorce is usually stipulated in prenuptial agreements. In Md. Khan v. Shahmai, under a prenuptial agreement, a husband, who was a Khana Damad, undertook to pay certain amount of marriage expenses incurred by the father-in-law in the event of his leaving the house and conferred a power to pronounce divorce on his wife. The husband left his father-in-law's house without paying the amount. The wife exercised the right and divorced herself. It was held that it was a valid divorce in the exercise of the power delegated to her. Delegation of power may be made even in the post marriage agreements. Thus, where under an agreement it is stipulated that in the event of the husband failing to pay her maintenance or taking a second wife, they will have a right of pronouncing divorce on herself, such an agreement is valid, and such conditions are reasonable and not against public policy. It should be noted that even in the event of contingency, whether or not the power is to be exercised, depend upon the wife she may choose to exercise it or she may not. The happening of the event of contingency does not result in automatic divorce.
Divorce on the basis of irretrievable breakdown of marriage has come into existence in Muslim Law through the judicial interpretation of certain provisions of Muslim law. In 1945 in Umar Bibi v. Md. Din , it was argued that the wife hated her husband so much that she could not possibly live with him and there was total incompatibility of temperaments. On these grounds the court refused to grant a decree of divorce. But twenty five years later in Neorbibi v. Pir Bux, again an attempt was made to grant divorce on the ground of irretrievable breakdown of marriage. This time the court granted the divorce. Thus in Muslim law of modern India, there are two breakdown grounds for divorce: (a) non-payment of maintenance by the husband even if the failure has resulted due to the conduct of the wife, (b) where there is total irreconcilability between the spouses.
In contrast to the Western world where divorce was relatively uncommon until modern times, and in contrast to the low rates of divorce in the modern Middle East, divorce was a common occurrence in the pre-modern Muslim world. In the medieval Islamic world and the Ottoman Empire, the rate of divorce was higher than it is today in the modern Middle East. In 15th century Egypt, Al-Sakhawi recorded the marital history of 500 women, the largest sample on marriage in the Middle Ages, and found that at least a third of all women in the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt and Syria married more than once, with many marrying three or more times. According to Al-Sakhawi, as many as three out of ten marriages in 15th century Cairo ended in divorce. In the early 20th century, some villages in western Java and the Malay peninsula had divorce rates as high as 70%.In practice in most of the Muslim world today divorce can be quite involved as there may be separate secular procedures to follow as well. Usually, assuming her husband demands a divorce, the divorced wife keeps her mahr, both the original gift and any supplementary property specified in the marriage contract. She is also given child support until the age of weaning, at which point the child's custody will be settled by the couple or by the courts. Women's right to divorce is often extremely limited compared with that of men in the Middle East. While men can divorce their spouses easily, women face a lot of legal and financial obstacles. For example, in Yemen, women usually can ask for divorce only when husband's inability to support her life is admitted while men can divorce at will. However, this contentious area of religious practice and tradition is being increasingly challenged by those promoting more liberal interpretations of Islam.

The term 'dying declaration' has not been defined in Evidence Act but reading Section 32 and sub-section (1) of Section 32, the term "dying declaration" may be defined as follows :
"A dying declaration is statement made by a person who is dead; as to cause of his death or as to any circumstances of transaction which resulted in his death, in cases in which his death comes into question, such statements are relevant under Section 32 of Evidence Act, whether the person who made there was or was not, at the time when they were made, under expectation of death and whatever may be the nature of proceeding in which the cause of his death comes into question."
Dying declaration is admissible in evidence being a hearsay evidence. This piece of hearsay evidence is admissible as an exception to the general rule of evidence that hearsay evidence is no evidence in eye of law and it should be discarded as general rule because the evidence in all cases must be direct.
A dying declaration is admitted in evidence on the principle 'nemo moriturns proesumitur mentiri' (a man will not meet his maker with a lie in his mouth).

DEFINITION
The term 'dying declaration' has not been defined in Evidence Act but reading Section 32 and sub-section (1) of Section 32, the term "dying declaration" may be defined as follows :"A dying declaration is statement made by a person who is dead; as to cause of his death or as to any circumstances of transaction which resulted in his death, in cases in which his death comes into question, such statements are relevant under Section 32 of Evidence Act, whether the person who made there was or was not, at the time when they were made, under expectation of death and whatever may be the nature of proceeding in which the cause of his death comes into question."
Dying declaration is admissible in evidence being a hearsay evidence. This piece of hearsay evidence is admissible as an exception to the general rule of evidence that hearsay evidence is no evidence in eye of law and it should be discarded as general rule because the evidence in all cases must be direct.
A dying declaration is admitted in evidence on the principle 'nemo moriturns proesumitur mentiri' (a man will not meet his maker with a lie in his mouth).