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Gautam Bhatia Profile picture
Gautam Bhatia
@gautambhatia88
Constitutional law. Science fiction. Co-ordinating editor @strangehorizons. Pre-order The Sentence here: https://t.co/W007YdtjiF
24 subscribers
Aug 8 • 17 tweets • 3 min read
One discussion that is important to have is the link between institutions such as the Election Commission, their independence, and constitutional design. 🧵 Most modern constitutions recognise that there is a set of institutions (broadly known as “fourth branch institutions”), performing a set of tasks that require them to be independent of the other branches of State (legislature, executive, judiciary).
Mar 31 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
I remember how, one of the very first instances of our indoctrination into the glories of US First Amendment law was the “vagueness doctrine” - that US courts would come down hard on attempts to restrict or penalise speech through vaguely worded laws. (1/n) Along with that we studied the “over-breadth doctrine” - that US courts would strike down laws that were worded so broadly that, in their application, they could be applied to both protected and unprotected speech. (2/n)
Aug 1, 2024 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
Pending longer analysis on the blog (not be me), a couple of quick clarifications about today’s sub-classification judgment.

1. SC hasn’t said that states *have* to sub-classify. It has said that they *can* sub-classify, based only on empirical data of relative marginalisation. 2. The only question before the SC in these proceedings was whether the previous judgment in EV Chinnaiah’s case - which said that sub-classification is *unconstitutional* - was correct or not. The SC said it wasn’t correct, based on the wording of Art 341 of the Constitution.
Jun 22, 2024 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
Just re-read the 2013 judgment of the Gauhati HC that declared the CBI to be unconstitutional, primarily on federalism grounds. So well-researched and reasoned.
No wonder it was immediately stayed by the SC, which hasn't touched it in the last 11 years:

indiankanoon.org/doc/133280611/ Interestingly, the judgment of the Gauhati HC came exactly a month after the Bombay HC passed a diametrically opposite judgment upholding the validity of the NIA. The federalism arguments raised in both cases were almost identical (Entry 8 List I, etc).

indiankanoon.org/doc/114121933/
Jun 5, 2024 • 9 tweets • 3 min read
The judiciary and the 2024 General Election: a thread of the coverage on the ICLP blog.

1. A Critique of the Election Commission’s Order in the “Real NCP” Dispute (17 Feb 2024), by Yogesh Byadwal --

indconlawphil.wordpress.com/2024/02/17/gue… 2. The Unexamined Law: On the Supreme Court’s Stay Order in the Election Commissioners Case (22 March 2024) -- indconlawphil.wordpress.com/2024/03/22/the…
Mar 27, 2024 • 10 tweets • 4 min read
Reading this excellent book, which has a lot of resonance with present-day events.

Sharing some of the most striking paragraphs. Image “Mau Mau had to be eliminated at all costs,” he later recalled, “something had to be done to remove these people from society.”

Thinking about where that kind of language has been used recently. Image
Mar 10, 2024 • 20 tweets • 4 min read
In light of recent events with respect to the Election Commission, there is persistent confusion about the constitutionality of the current selection process, and the Supreme Court's 2023 judgment on the appointment of Election Commissioners.

A brief thread. (1/n) Article 324(2) of the Constitution grants to the President the power to appoint the Election Commissioners, subject to Parliamentary law.

The intention of the framers of the Constitution was that the President's power would be transitional, until Parliament made a law.

(2/n)
Aug 10, 2023 • 20 tweets • 4 min read
Have seen some confusion about the new Election Commissioners Bill, and what the SC held in its judgment earlier this year. Here is a brief thread to clear a few things up.

Earlier this year, a 5J-bench of the SC passed a detailed judgment on the independence of the EC. [1/n] The SC was examining Article 324(2) of the Constitution, which says that appointment of the CEC and ECs shall "subject to the provisions of any law made in that behalf by Parliament, be made by the President."

Article 324: [2/n]indiankanoon.org/doc/950881/
Jul 12, 2023 • 16 tweets • 3 min read
#MilanKundera, who passed away today, was one of those formative writers in my life. Sharing a thread of some of the most memorable lines from his works, that I've scribbled in notebooks over the years. 🧵 "The dance whirling around them is no longer a dance but barricades yet again, we are in 1848, & in 1870, and in 1945, & we are in Paris, Warsaw, Budapest, Prague & Vienna, & these yet again are the eternal crowds crossing through history, leaping from one barricade to another."
Mar 24, 2023 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
Today, the SC has given one of the worst and most damaging civil rights judgments in its history.

The 2011 judgment in Arup Bhuyan’s case was one of the only checks against executive abuse of the UAPA. Today, the SC has removed that check. The judgment in Arup Bhuyan had understood the simple point that the word “membership” is so broad and vague that State can make completely baseless allegations and keep people in jail for years without trial. So they established a higher threshold. Now that protection is gone.
Mar 22, 2023 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
A care package from Lagos, courtesy @masobebooks and @Ohmstonweth. Also, nice to hold in my hands at last, the blurbed copy.
Nov 15, 2022 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Recommendations for essential Japanese fiction to read? (not Murakami) Also, a good book on the history of Japan?
Sep 29, 2022 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
Ok wow.
Sep 27, 2022 • 7 tweets • 3 min read
A personal coda to this. As I was doing the final edits on this issue, I heard about the passing of Chandler “Chan” Davis.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandler_…

Chan was a great many things; in this context, he was a fiercely progressive SF writer at a time not known for progressiveness. Earlier this year, @theBekku put together an archive of Chan’s short stories from his active years 1945-1970 (see below).

What you find in these stories is an acute concern with the material power structures that shape our lives, and SF’s ability to interrogate them.
Aug 30, 2022 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
From September 13, a five-judge bench of the Supreme Court will start hearing the constitutional challenges to economic reservations (the 103rd Amendment).

Here is the coverage of the issue, from the archives of the ICLP blog. [Thread] 1. "Is the 103rd Amendment Unconstitutional?" (Jan 13, 2019)

indconlawphil.wordpress.com/2019/01/13/is-…
Jun 11, 2022 • 6 tweets • 1 min read
It is possible to simultaneously oppose blasphemy laws while also recognising and opposing the bullying and baiting of individuals and groups. The first is a constitutional claim about how coercive *State* power should not be deployed against speech, including insulting religious speech.

The second is about realising that speech is often used to bully and bait - especially in the public arena - where power is unequal.
Jun 10, 2022 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Judiciary will sing paeans to democracy, except when it comes to actually protecting the right to vote.

m.thewire.in/article/law/bo… In any random case, judges will cite Krishna Iyer’s rhetoric on “little man going to little booth and casting little vote” (or whatever that was). Then a case will come where there is actual denial of voting, and judges will be like *crickets*
May 20, 2022 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
A thread on some of my favourite city-books.

Eric Hazan’s “A Walk Through Paris - A Radical Exploration”: a wonderful political geography of the city, with a special focus on its revolutionary past. When he says a *radical* exploration, he means it. Image Edmund White, “Inside a Pearl - My Years in Paris”: this is Paris through queer eyes. Image
May 11, 2022 • 14 tweets • 3 min read
Delhi HC's split verdict on the marital rape exception has been uploaded:

http://164.100.69.66/jupload/dhc/RAS/judgement/11-05-2022/RAS11052022CW2842015_190346.pdf On reading the opening pages, struck again by the fact that J Shakder writes beautifully.
May 10, 2022 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
There's a huge difference between the Sup Court striking down sedition as unconstitutional, and an executive-led parliamentary repeal of the law (if it happens).

The former would entail the SC overruling its own earlier judgment that had upheld the constitutionality of the law + + reaffirming core constitutional standards that restrict the criminalisation of speech.

It would potentially make it harder for the govt. to abuse other laws that criminalise speech, and constrain its ability to throw people in jail for years for innocuous things.
May 9, 2022 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
An eventful life. Image “I do not have the quality to discuss Mr Cohen’s epistolary fantasies.”

Saving this line to use on my opponents. Image