Delhi Law Review (Student Edition)
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Vol. VII 2019-20 DELHI LAW REVIEW STUDENT EDITION ISSN 0973-00IX FACULTY OF LAW UNIVERSITY OF DELHI DELHI LAW REVIEW STUDENT EDITION Volume VII 2019-20 PATRON Prof. (Dr.) Vandana Dean, Faculty of Law Head, Department of Law EDITORIAL BOARD 2019-2020 FACULTY ADVISOR Dr. L. Pushpa Kumar EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Ribhav Pande DEPUTY EDITORS-IN-CHIEF Daksh Aggarwal Zeeshan Thomas EDITORS Aakanksha Chandra Aashita Sharma Abhishek Aggarwal Akul Dev Saha Anjali Singh Manvi Dikshit Prateek Sharma Prerna Goel Samridhi Nain Tanisha Kohli Tanya Sharma Tarandeep Singh Mode of Citation : Vol. VII SDLR <page number> (2020) ISSN : 0973-00IX Copyright © 2020 Faculty of Law, University of Delhi Published by Faculty of Law Chhatra Marg University of Delhi Delhi – 110007 Disclaimer The views and opinions expressed in the journal are of the authors alone, and do not necessarily reflect those of the Editorial Board. The Editorial Board has limited itself to making suggestions and minor changes for improved readability, and ensuring consistent formatting. While every effort has been made to ensure that the information is accurate and appropriately cited/referenced, the Editorial Board or the Faculty of Law, University of Delhi shall not be liable or responsible in any manner whatsoever for any consequences or any action taken by anyone on the basis of information in the journal. All enquiries regarding the journal should be addressed to: Editor-in-Chief Delhi Law Review (Student Edition) Faculty of Law, Chhatra Marg University of Delhi, Delhi – 110007 Email ID : [email protected] Website : http://lawfaculty.du.ac.in INTRODUCTORY NOTE HON’BLE MR. JUSTICE S. RAVINDRA BHAT JUDGE, SUPREME COURT OF INDIA It is my pleasure and honor to have been invited to author an introduction to this Student Edition of the Delhi Law Review. The world order is in the crux of change this year, and the COVID-19 pandemic has upended all spheres of our lives. Its impacts have been especially pervasive for courts, legal practitioners, law makers, and students of the law. The manner in which lawyers practice their art is in the throes of transformation. Now more than ever, legal scholarship has a key role to play in making sense of the changes, providing critical analyses of law and policy, and envisioning a kinder, more equal world. As a student of the law at Campus Law Centre, Delhi University, my peers and I were lucky to have been taught by some of the foremost legal scholars of the time. This ensured robust and at times, intense debates as part of our learning process. This academic atmosphere at Delhi University has fostered an enormous number of successful legal practitioners as well as judges at various High Courts and the Supreme Court of India today. This only goes to show that legal practice and scholarship/ academia are deeply intertwined, and each must be constantly informed by the other. Critical insights provided through academic scholarship are valuable to law makers, as well as practicing lawyers and judges in interpreting and applying the law. In my experience as a lawyer and later as a judge, I have found academic writing to have a great impact on the quality of arguments as well as the lucidity of legal reasoning. What the law lacks on account of its rigidity, academic writing can provide, through envisioning and drawing attention to the possibilities that a particular law or a particular judicial interpretation may have failed to take into account. There is a large corpus of legal scholarship today, far more extensive than it was during my time as a law student. However, research papers and articles in law journals continue to remain structured along similar lines, with a focus on analyses of case law or legislation. There is much to be gained from expanding our horizons, and seeking out for publication in law journals, scholarly work that takes the form of empirical legal analysis, interdisciplinary approaches to the study of law, writing on legal pedagogy, as well as promoting diversity in authors. Co-authoring between law students and students of other disciplines could be beneficial for papers and articles analyzing the impact of a law on the ground, for example. This is especially relevant in areas such as intellectual property laws where scientific opinions are relevant, and in gender laws, where the lived experiences of persons across the spectrum of gender and sexuality are crucial to understand while evaluating the law. I sincerely hope that the future of legal scholarship makes space for such diversity, and transforms along with the changing times to make academia more inclusive. This edition covers a wide range of legal scholarship, in areas as diverse as the law on constitutional amendments, free speech, marriage rights, intellectual property, contracts, insolvency and bankruptcy, and international law. I note with pleasure that each of the articles presents a layered analysis of the issues involved, and pushes the frontiers of legal scholarship by provoking thought. Questions of policy, where relevant, have been seamlessly interwoven with sharp legal analysis. It is heartening to see young lawyers and law students producing academic work of such great quality. I am certain that such a commitment to academic rigour and an earnest desire to adhere to constitutional values can only bode well for the future of our democracy. I commend the editorial board and the authors for putting together an excellent journal despite all odds. I am informed that the COVID-19 pandemic, issues with remote connectivity, access to libraries, as well as the storms in the Bay of Bengal created several roadblocks. This edition is a labour of love, and a symbol of resilience in these times. I wish the authors, the editorial team, and the journal the very best! Justice S. Ravindra Bhat New Delhi, August 2020 FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK It is with great delight that I introduce the 7th Edition of the Delhi Law Review (Student Edition). This journal is the sole student-run law journal of the University of Delhi, and has made some great strides since its recent revival, the last edition being received most positively by the legal community. It was very encouraging for us to have received more than double the number of submissions for the present edition than we did for the last, with a greater diversity in terms of subject-matter and author profiles. From the time when the call for papers for this edition was sent out till the deadline for submission – incidentally the Ides of March, the import of which is significant only with the benefit of hindsight – we were in what is now known as the ‘Pre-COVID World’. Our schedules were prepared, the future was charted out, and COVID-19 suddenly struck. Everyone was taken by surprise, and the systems that society created for itself were violently disrupted. Once the lockdown was announced, everything came to a standstill. However, the Editorial Board owed a responsibility to the authors, and we set-out to make good on the daunting task of preparing a journal in the backdrop of the COVID-19 crisis. This edition is a testimony to the human spirit that perseveres in the face of adversity. It is to the complete credit of the authors that every deadline was met without any compromise on the quality of submissions. While issues with displacement from centres of study, lack of access to libraries, internet connectivity, and fighting off a general sense of despair affected all, even the storms over Bengal and Odisha impacted some of our authors. While these challenges had the potential of setting back the review process significantly, they did not. For this, I cannot thank each of the authors enough for their efforts and complete commitment to their work. I am happy to report that Editorial Board also rose up to the occasion, adapting to the situation quickly and delivering on their timely commitment to the authors. The editors were separated geographically since the lockdown was announced in March 2020, and have not met physically even once throughout the preparation of the journal. The selection, induction and training for new members of the Board (11 of the 15-member Board) as well as all the editorial work was carried out completely virtually. While this was first time that such an exercise has been carried out by us, it seems likely that such necessary adaptation will be the modus operandi for the foreseeable future. This journal’s spirited revival has been made possible chiefly due to the steadfast support of our faculty advisor, Dr. L. Pushpa Kumar. His guidance throughout the process as well as his encouraging approach of granting us decisional autonomy were instrumental in producing this journal. The contribution of our previous Editor-in-Chief, Mr. Harsh Bedi, has been seminal in this revival. We have carried forward our rich tradition of presenting a collection of thought- provoking articles across domains of law, the present edition carrying seventeen articles on varied issues pertaining to constitutional, civil, commercial, criminal and international law. An honest endeavour has been made to select critical writings on major societal issues through our double-blind peer review process. As this journal goes to publication, the world seems to emerge out of lockdowns and quarantines, to start afresh. In a similar vein, we have taken the opportunity to create a fresh new look for the SDLR – from its cover page to formatting styles – with the goal of improving readability and giving our journal a distinctive style in the academic community. I owe my deepest gratitude to our distinguished and cherished alumnus, Hon’ble Mr. Justice S. Ravindra Bhat, for providing us with an introductory note for this edition of our journal.