The Editorial of this issue by Krishangee Parikh & Kovida Bharadwaj examines the privatization of India's space sector and contends that space resources like orbital slots, spectrum, and launch infrastructure must be allocated through transparent, non-arbitrary mechanisms. It also examines privacy and data governance challenges posed by remote sensing, geospatial technologies, and the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, highlighting risks of unchecked state and potentially

Anubhav Kumar & Neha Tripathi examine the evolution of Article 14 of the Indian Constitution from the reasonable classification test to the doctrine of arbitrariness. They trace its origins in Justice Bhagwati’s opinion in E.P. Royappa , where arbitrariness was positioned as antithetical to equality, and analyse Justice Nariman’s decision in Shayara Bano, which extended the concept of “manifest arbitrariness” to strike down plenary legislation. The article critiques this ju

Prof. (Dr.) Laurence Claus revisits Socrates’ observations that democracy can undermine itself when popular authority becomes concentrated in the hands of a singular leader. The article argues that while the British parliamentary and American presidential systems achieved durability through long formative periods marked by elitist constraints, the involvement of mass suffrage from the start has rendered the system vulnerable. The author suggests that charismatic leaders are

Archisa Ratn and Atharva Dwivedi contend that India’s legal framework for preventing political criminality is flawed and inadequately applied. The authors critically examine Sections 8 and 11 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 (RoPA), which disqualify convicted individuals from holding public office. By tracing the legislative history, the paper argues that the provision’s broad language and rigid application, specifically the two-year sentence threshold, fail to

Daisy Verghese and Parvathy K. Arun present a critical analysis of consociationalism, a political theory for managing deeply divided societies. The authors challenge Arend Lijphart’s classification of India as a successful consociational state, arguing that the theory’s power-sharing mechanisms, intended to mitigate ethnic conflict, have instead contributed paradoxically, to elite dominance and the oppression of minorities. By examining India’s political evolution, the pape

Gargi Bindal examines the escalating criminalisation of Indian politics, spotlighted by a 2024 Association for Democratic Reforms report revealing that 46% of Lok Sabha members face criminal charges, with 31% accused of serious offences like murder and rape. The study evaluates the proposed Section 8B of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, which advocates disqualifying candidates upon framing of charges for serious crimes, as recommended by the 244th Law Commission R