Bloomer time, Once Again!

1. Exploitation of the ocean mainly leads to piracy.
2. Under a contract of sale, sale without consideration is a nude contract.
3. Immovable property is land attached to the earth.
4. When there are five judges in a bench, and three judges give the majority judgement and two judges give the minority judgement, the ratio decidendi of the case is 3:2.
5. Disguised employment is a situation in which the persons are willing to work at the market rate but cannot find employment and this unemployment is not distributed evenly.
6. A negotiable instrument should have been complete and regular on the phase of it.
7. A person cannot use a petrol purchased from Kerala to be used in Himalayas. Te reason is that the petrol from Kerala would freeze at Himalayas where a different type of petrol (petrol with a solvent to lower melting point) should be used.
8. Tax is the money given to a government directly or indirectly for the welfare of the subjects. It is the money which given to the government of a country for luxurious items, etc so that government can give salaries, allowances and other facilities to its subjects.
My dearest students will please forgive me for not including the names.
They may also rest assured that these are not confined to the papers that I get to value.

On Constitutionalism

“The main objects of constitutionalism are to limit the arbitrary action of the government, to guarantee the rights of the governed and to define, the operation of sovereign power”.
– Friedrich

Why the need for Secrecy?

One little thing that matters most,
Never disclose your secret thoughts.
The seeds of any grand vision,
Mature unseen for their great mission.

Need Some Inspiration?

It is a Sunday and I slept all day today. In the evening had to have some inspiration to start the perspiration going. Here is a poem by Douglas Malloch that has given me the needed boost.
"If you can't be a pine on top of the hill,
Be a scrub in the valley - but be
The best little shrub by the side of the rill.
Be a bush if you can't be a tree.
If you can't be the bush, be a bit of the grass,
And some highway happier make;
If you can't be a muskie, then just be a bass.
But be the liveliest bass in the lake.
We can't always be captains,
We've got to be crew.
There's big work to do and there's lesser to do,
And the task we must do is the near.
If you can't be a highway, then just be a trail,
If you can't be the Sun, be a star.
It isn't by size that you win or you fail.
Be the best of whatever you are!"

True then. What about now?

"... many Englishmen and Indian officials honestly believe that they are administering one of the best systems devised in the world, and that India is making steady, though slow progress. They do not know that a subtle but effective system of terrorism and an organised display of force on the one hand, and the deprivation of all powers of retaliation or self defence on the other, have emasculated people and induced in them the habit of simulation.
... .
In my opinion, the administration of law is thus prostituted, consciously or unconsciously, for the benefit of the exploiter."
- Prabhu, R.K., (ed.), Two Memorable Trials of Mahatma Gandhi, Navajivan, Ahmedabad (1962), at p. 67.

Examination Bloomers

Here are some gr8 ones.
1. "Passing away of property means handing over the ownership over any goods or property after sale."
2. "To be a judge of the Supreme Court of India a person must be an opponent of the President or a distinguished jurist."
3. "The Recorder's Court consisted of a Recorder and Aldermen. The Recorder was to be a barrier of five years standing."
4. "The Supreme Court is a court of record with the power to condemn and punish itself."

On Democracy ...

Is democracy the rule of the majority or the rule of the empowered activist minority?
The way things are moving in India I would suggest that democracy everywhere is nothing but the rule of a privileged few, who utilise the fiction of the rule of majority to gain their own legitimacy.

Is it time to start once again...?

Here is something I thought I MUST put at the LAWSPOT.

"We are formally under a Constitution but by the grace of world corporatecracy, under American hegemony. Gandhi's Swadeshi is dead. Nehru's socialism is under eclipse. The Constitution is comatose and the courts are drowned in oceanic litigation. Dalits have none to lead and there is chaos in the cosmos. The court itself has changed its class character. E.M.S. Naboodiripad was punished for contempt when he poined out the class character of the judiciary but today the judicial class has secured larger emoluments, more power over the other two branches and justice, especially social justice, is in a precarious condition. The past projects itself into the present and the tryst with destiny madeby Indians cannot be betrayed."

From, V.R. Krishna Iyer, "the Noble Preamble: We have Promises to Keep"

Things are Moving Up

I always have wondered why the world is the way it is.
Why is it that only those men who are either saints or sinners remain the remebered ones and not the ordinary mortals like you and me who toil all day and make each others life an enjoyable one?
Now I get the idea that the saints and sinners are remembered only for the sole purpose of reminding the rest of the humans the absolute uselessness in living a life like theirs.
So, now things have started to move up....

Some Lighter Moments.

I get to correct papers written by law students. Occassionally certain gems reduce the monotony of evaluating a hundred similar answers.
Here are two from a recent testpaper that I jotted in my collection today.
"The Supreme Court is a Court of Record with the power to condemn and punish itself."
"To be a Judge of the Supreme Court of India a person must be an opponent of the President or a distinguished jurist."
But then, was it my inability to convey the correct idea that resulted in this kind of an answer? Tomorrow, I have to check it up with the students concerned.

Getting Started.Objectives.
Just getting started. Let me place my objectives here, lest I may forget why I started this at all.
Humans in this world have reached this stage by sharing ideas and allowing space for each other. Ideas, views, comments about anything and everything in some way or the other will influence the society, now or in future. Pathbreaking ideas are not born in isolation. They are always accompanied by lesser ones. This blog will attempt a comment on anything that affects me profoundly and I would try to place my comment in a philosophical context taking into account the larger picture. I am a lawyer by profession and I teach law for a living. Whether I wish it or not, my comments and subjects will reflect my profession and socio-cultural background. Hence the name LawSpot for the blog.