Eklavya Vasudev
Eklavya Vasudev, a legal scholar at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg. His career began with roles at the Lawyers Collective and a judicial clerkship with Justice Muralidhar at the Delhi High Court, followed by a position as counsel in the Chambers of Senior Advocate Gopal Subramaniam. Before co-founding the Neev Foundation for Legal Aid, he served as a senior associate in law at the Indian Institute for Human Settlements. Internationally, Vasudev has held positions at the O’Neill Institute for Global Health Law in Washington DC and the American Bar Association. He earned his Master’s in Law from Georgetown University, USA, and is currently a doctoral candidate at the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg focusing his research on Comparative Constitutional Law and Climate Litigation.
In every nation, the police are a prominent representation of the state, backed by a profound constitutional and criminal justice architecture. The ru
In every nation, the police are a prominent representation of the state, backed by a profound constitutional and criminal justice architecture. The rule of law, a cornerstone of robust democracies, binds the triad of voters, elected representatives, and the state through legal frameworks. Beyond the fundamental question of for whom laws are drafted lies the critical role of law enforcement officers – the police machinery, and officers of the court – the judiciary. In this Policy Watch, Eklavya Vasudev, a legal scholar at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, and Thomas Blom Hansen, Professor and Department Chair of Anthropology at Stanford University, U.S., take a deep look at the dynamics between the citizens and the state in the context of the criminal justice system. Amidst recent reforms by the Union Government, the authors critique the unchanged, historically rooted design of the criminal justice system, which endows the police with extensive powers often disadvantageous to vulnerable groups. The suggested remedy lies in reshaping the police into a community-sensitive force, steadfast in upholding the rule of law.Keywords: India’s penal laws, IPC, CrPC, Judiciary, Police, Criminal justice system. Click here to download Policy Watch No.18 [PDF 737 KB]
Related Resources1. ARC Working Group Report on Police Administration, 1967.
(Convenor: S. Balakrishna Shetty, IP)2. National Police Commission Reports (1979-1981)3. India’s Criminal Laws4. The Police Act, 1861 and Model Police Act, 20065. Malimath Committee Report - 2003 6. Mooshahary Committee Report - 2005
Related Articles from The Hindu GroupThe Hindu1. Bhaumik, A. 2023. Revised criminal law bills: Key changes explained, The Hindu, Dec. 18.2. Bajpai, G.S. 2023. New Bills and a principled course for criminal law reforms, The Hindu, Aug. 17.3. Vij, R.K. 2023. An overhaul, the criminal law Bills, and the big picture, The Hindu, Sep. 09.Frontline4. Chandru, K. 2023. The Centre’s controversial makeover of crucial criminal codes can have far-reaching impacts, Frontline, Sep. 01.The Hindu BusinessLine5. Editorial, 2022. New criminal laws could have been conceived with more rigour, The Hindu BusinessLine, Sep. 01.
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Sedition laws sit at the crossroads of politics and society, and law and justice. The political nature of this “offence against the state” tests the l