Saurabh Bhattacharjee’s academic interest includes Labour Law, Sports Law, Law and Impoverishment, Nuclear Law and Refugee Law.
Before joining National Law School of India University Bengaluru, he worked at NUJS Kolkata between December 2009 and June 2021 where he taught courses on Legal Methods, Labour Law, Law and Impoverishment, Refugee Law, and Socio-Economic Rights at NUJS.
Saurabh has also been a Member of the Committee to Review Vagrancy Laws, constituted by the Government of West Bengal. He also established the Centre for Labour Laws and Livelihood at NUJS.
... PROOFREADERS Lakshmi Neelakantan Prateek Bhattacharya BOARD OF ADVISORS ... ARTICLES 1. From ... more ... PROOFREADERS Lakshmi Neelakantan Prateek Bhattacharya BOARD OF ADVISORS ... ARTICLES 1. From Basel to Hong Kong: International Environmental Regulation of Ship-Recycling Takes One Step Forward and Two Steps Back Saurabh Bhattacharjee 193 ...
The nation-wide lockdown due to COVID-19 has caused acute distress amongst the large informal wor... more The nation-wide lockdown due to COVID-19 has caused acute distress amongst the large informal workforce in India. India’s federal system has meant that relief measures have been introduced both at the central and state level. However, these measures have largely been imposed without a consultative process and are piece-meal and sector-specific in their scope. Consequently, these measures extend to only a small slice of the labour force in the country and do not effectively guarantee the fundamental right to social security for all workers.
A defence of poverty frontally questions liberal assumptions of freedom and equality of choice an... more A defence of poverty frontally questions liberal assumptions of freedom and equality of choice and therefore cannot be reconciled with the liberal model of criminal responsibility. Yet, if all of us are subject to constraints of varied degree and gradation, legal doctrines on criminal responsibility must also accommodate such differences in scale. Thus, a singular assessment of poverty as a defence must be eschewed in favour of a case-by-case analysis that takes into account, the nature of economic compulsion and its impact on the offence. It is further argued that the debate on poverty-defence is inextricably linked with criminalisation of poverty since empirical evidence on criminogenic risks of poverty discredits the basis for criminalisation of poor and their accommodative responses to impoverishment such as vagrancy and homelessness among others.
Global hunger is widely seen as one of the foremost threats to humanity. The Constitutionality of... more Global hunger is widely seen as one of the foremost threats to humanity. The Constitutionality of the Right to Food has been a long-standing debate within the Indian Subcontinent as there is no explicit mention of the said right. Through various judicial pronouncements over a relatively long period of time, the right to food has been construed to be constitutionally ingrained. This paper explores the history of the right to food as a fundamental right in India, as per the Constitution. It analyses landmark cases on the right to food and examines the fundamental right to food, in terms of state obligations. Is the impact of the entrenchment of the right to food as a fundamental right, limited only to its symbolic meaning? Or has such right substantively shaped the contours of governmental policies too? What are the remedial interventions that the judiciary has made in view of the constitutional right to food? These are questions that the paper will explore. In this process, the paper...
The right to vote has become a well-accepted part of international law and Indian constitutional ... more The right to vote has become a well-accepted part of international law and Indian constitutional jurisprudence. The historical and the jurisprudential foundations of this right have been largely ignored by public discourse. As demonstrated by the controversies over the Presidential elections in the United States of America in 2000 and the subsequent judgment of ,the Supreme Court of United States in Bush v. Gore, the citizenry can ill-afford a sense of complacency over this valuable right. The precise status of the right to vote has serious ramifications in determining the future of a polity.This research paper examines the status enjoyed by this right under international instruments and in various jurisdictions, with special reference to constitutional treatment of the right to vote in India.
... PROOFREADERS Lakshmi Neelakantan Prateek Bhattacharya BOARD OF ADVISORS ... ARTICLES 1. From ... more ... PROOFREADERS Lakshmi Neelakantan Prateek Bhattacharya BOARD OF ADVISORS ... ARTICLES 1. From Basel to Hong Kong: International Environmental Regulation of Ship-Recycling Takes One Step Forward and Two Steps Back Saurabh Bhattacharjee 193 ...
The constitution of a seven-judge bench of the Supreme Court to examine whether the decision of B... more The constitution of a seven-judge bench of the Supreme Court to examine whether the decision of Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) v A.S. Rajapppa requires a reference to a larger bench has reopened the vexed question of defining 'industry' in industrial and labour law. The formation of a larger bench is a much-belated response to the request of a 5-judge bench of the Court in State of Uttar Pradesh v Jaibir Singh for a larger bench for reconsideration of the BWSSB verdict. The majority judgment in the BWSSB case, authored by Justice Krishna Iyer, had famously laid down the 'Triple Test' wherein any systematic activity, organised by cooperation between employer and employee for the production and/or distribution of goods and services would be considered an industry under Section 2(j) of Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 (IDA). The only exception the Court had recognised pertained to sovereign functions. Even though this judgment held sway as the ruling authority for almost three decades, in an astonishing decision in 2005, the Jaibir Singh bench held that the opinion of Justice Krishna Iyer could not be treated as an authoritative precedent and asked for a reference to a larger bench. After more than a decade, the seven-judge bench has finally been constituted and the Bench, after concluding the hearing last week, has reserved its decision. News-reports on the hearing indicate that the Bench appears to be favourably disposed towards referring the matter to a nine-judge bench. As we await its decision, I revisit the critique of BWSSB put forth by the 5 judge-bench and examine the arguments of the petitioners before the seven-judge bench in the Jaibir Singh case. In this series of three posts, I present the following arguments: 1) that Jaibir Singh's assertion that the Triple Test did not have the support of the majority of judges of the BWSSB Bench was based on an erroneous reading of the separate opinions in that case, 2) that the reliance placed by the petitioners before the seven-judge bench on the analogy with Supreme Court's recall of the NEET Order to plead that BWSSB decision is not a judgment in eye of law ignores the difference between the two cases, 3) that abandoning the Triple Test for a more restrictive interpretation of industry, without enacting parallel employee-protection legislation would be regressive and 4) that while Triple Test provides an accessible and coherent framework for defining industry, certain aspects of the BWSSB verdict do require further clarification. In this process, I submit that a reference should be made to a nine-judge bench. However, the larger bench should refrain from discarding the Triple Test but should instead clarify some of those questions left unanswered by the BWSSB case.
Global hunger is widely seen as one of the foremost threats to humanity. The Constitutionality of... more Global hunger is widely seen as one of the foremost threats to humanity. The Constitutionality of the Right to Food has been a long-standing debate within the Indian Subcontinent, as there is no explicit mention of the said right. Through various judicial pronouncements over a relatively long period of time, the right to food has been construed to be constitutionally ingrained. This paper explores the history of right to food as a fundamental right in India,as per the Constitution. It analyses landmark cases on the right to food and examines the fundamental right to food, in terms of state obligations. Is the impact of the entrenchment of the right to food as a fundamental right, limited only to its symbolic meaning? Or has such right substantively shaped the contours of governmental policies too? What are the remedial interventions that the judiciary has made in view of the constitutional right to food? These are the questions that the paper will explore. In this process, the paper will parse various judicial orders on the right to food and identify whether there are justiciable entitlements that presumptively constitute the core of the right. Further, the paper shall also highlight the multidimensionality of the right to food and illustrate that starting with Francis Mullin in the 1980s, to Laxmi Mandal and Swaraj Abhiyan in this decade, courts have underscored the interrelatedness between the rights to food, health, shelter and right to work.
Proliferation of social security has been one of the integral features of the modern industrialis... more Proliferation of social security has been one of the integral features of the modern industrialised world. In India too, social security has not only been enshrined as a constitutional mandate, but has also been embodied in a wide variety of legislation. Yet, multiplicity of legislation has created errors of harmonisation and engendered a regime riddled with variance in legal standards and rights of workers. Along with these inconsistencies and gaps, the centrality of the status of employment in extant regimes has excluded a large number of workers who fall through the crack. Such exclusion has been exacerbated by the occupation-centricity of these schemes that is ill-suited to the ongoing transformation in the labour economy and demographic changes. In view of these shortcomings, a shift to universal citizenship-based social security schemes is advocated. Delinking social security from occupation and predicating it on citizenship would extend these schemes to informal atypical workers and persons out of work and thereby make the constitutional right of social security a substantive entitlement for our citizenry.
Commercial transformation of sports has necessitated increased juridification or intervention of ... more Commercial transformation of sports has necessitated increased juridification or intervention of legal instruments of the state, leading to claims of emergence of a new autonomous body of law, Sports Law. At the same time, in this age of globalisation of capital and means of communication, comparative legal research has become almost pervasive across different branches of law. Comparative method of legal research provides a number of functional and heuristic benefits. The transnational and autonomous nature of sports law and the aggravated need for harmonisation of applicable norms makes the use of comparative law a particularly appropriate analytical tool in sports law.
... PROOFREADERS Lakshmi Neelakantan Prateek Bhattacharya BOARD OF ADVISORS ... ARTICLES 1. From ... more ... PROOFREADERS Lakshmi Neelakantan Prateek Bhattacharya BOARD OF ADVISORS ... ARTICLES 1. From Basel to Hong Kong: International Environmental Regulation of Ship-Recycling Takes One Step Forward and Two Steps Back Saurabh Bhattacharjee 193 ...
The nation-wide lockdown due to COVID-19 has caused acute distress amongst the large informal wor... more The nation-wide lockdown due to COVID-19 has caused acute distress amongst the large informal workforce in India. India’s federal system has meant that relief measures have been introduced both at the central and state level. However, these measures have largely been imposed without a consultative process and are piece-meal and sector-specific in their scope. Consequently, these measures extend to only a small slice of the labour force in the country and do not effectively guarantee the fundamental right to social security for all workers.
A defence of poverty frontally questions liberal assumptions of freedom and equality of choice an... more A defence of poverty frontally questions liberal assumptions of freedom and equality of choice and therefore cannot be reconciled with the liberal model of criminal responsibility. Yet, if all of us are subject to constraints of varied degree and gradation, legal doctrines on criminal responsibility must also accommodate such differences in scale. Thus, a singular assessment of poverty as a defence must be eschewed in favour of a case-by-case analysis that takes into account, the nature of economic compulsion and its impact on the offence. It is further argued that the debate on poverty-defence is inextricably linked with criminalisation of poverty since empirical evidence on criminogenic risks of poverty discredits the basis for criminalisation of poor and their accommodative responses to impoverishment such as vagrancy and homelessness among others.
Global hunger is widely seen as one of the foremost threats to humanity. The Constitutionality of... more Global hunger is widely seen as one of the foremost threats to humanity. The Constitutionality of the Right to Food has been a long-standing debate within the Indian Subcontinent as there is no explicit mention of the said right. Through various judicial pronouncements over a relatively long period of time, the right to food has been construed to be constitutionally ingrained. This paper explores the history of the right to food as a fundamental right in India, as per the Constitution. It analyses landmark cases on the right to food and examines the fundamental right to food, in terms of state obligations. Is the impact of the entrenchment of the right to food as a fundamental right, limited only to its symbolic meaning? Or has such right substantively shaped the contours of governmental policies too? What are the remedial interventions that the judiciary has made in view of the constitutional right to food? These are questions that the paper will explore. In this process, the paper...
The right to vote has become a well-accepted part of international law and Indian constitutional ... more The right to vote has become a well-accepted part of international law and Indian constitutional jurisprudence. The historical and the jurisprudential foundations of this right have been largely ignored by public discourse. As demonstrated by the controversies over the Presidential elections in the United States of America in 2000 and the subsequent judgment of ,the Supreme Court of United States in Bush v. Gore, the citizenry can ill-afford a sense of complacency over this valuable right. The precise status of the right to vote has serious ramifications in determining the future of a polity.This research paper examines the status enjoyed by this right under international instruments and in various jurisdictions, with special reference to constitutional treatment of the right to vote in India.
... PROOFREADERS Lakshmi Neelakantan Prateek Bhattacharya BOARD OF ADVISORS ... ARTICLES 1. From ... more ... PROOFREADERS Lakshmi Neelakantan Prateek Bhattacharya BOARD OF ADVISORS ... ARTICLES 1. From Basel to Hong Kong: International Environmental Regulation of Ship-Recycling Takes One Step Forward and Two Steps Back Saurabh Bhattacharjee 193 ...
The constitution of a seven-judge bench of the Supreme Court to examine whether the decision of B... more The constitution of a seven-judge bench of the Supreme Court to examine whether the decision of Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) v A.S. Rajapppa requires a reference to a larger bench has reopened the vexed question of defining 'industry' in industrial and labour law. The formation of a larger bench is a much-belated response to the request of a 5-judge bench of the Court in State of Uttar Pradesh v Jaibir Singh for a larger bench for reconsideration of the BWSSB verdict. The majority judgment in the BWSSB case, authored by Justice Krishna Iyer, had famously laid down the 'Triple Test' wherein any systematic activity, organised by cooperation between employer and employee for the production and/or distribution of goods and services would be considered an industry under Section 2(j) of Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 (IDA). The only exception the Court had recognised pertained to sovereign functions. Even though this judgment held sway as the ruling authority for almost three decades, in an astonishing decision in 2005, the Jaibir Singh bench held that the opinion of Justice Krishna Iyer could not be treated as an authoritative precedent and asked for a reference to a larger bench. After more than a decade, the seven-judge bench has finally been constituted and the Bench, after concluding the hearing last week, has reserved its decision. News-reports on the hearing indicate that the Bench appears to be favourably disposed towards referring the matter to a nine-judge bench. As we await its decision, I revisit the critique of BWSSB put forth by the 5 judge-bench and examine the arguments of the petitioners before the seven-judge bench in the Jaibir Singh case. In this series of three posts, I present the following arguments: 1) that Jaibir Singh's assertion that the Triple Test did not have the support of the majority of judges of the BWSSB Bench was based on an erroneous reading of the separate opinions in that case, 2) that the reliance placed by the petitioners before the seven-judge bench on the analogy with Supreme Court's recall of the NEET Order to plead that BWSSB decision is not a judgment in eye of law ignores the difference between the two cases, 3) that abandoning the Triple Test for a more restrictive interpretation of industry, without enacting parallel employee-protection legislation would be regressive and 4) that while Triple Test provides an accessible and coherent framework for defining industry, certain aspects of the BWSSB verdict do require further clarification. In this process, I submit that a reference should be made to a nine-judge bench. However, the larger bench should refrain from discarding the Triple Test but should instead clarify some of those questions left unanswered by the BWSSB case.
Global hunger is widely seen as one of the foremost threats to humanity. The Constitutionality of... more Global hunger is widely seen as one of the foremost threats to humanity. The Constitutionality of the Right to Food has been a long-standing debate within the Indian Subcontinent, as there is no explicit mention of the said right. Through various judicial pronouncements over a relatively long period of time, the right to food has been construed to be constitutionally ingrained. This paper explores the history of right to food as a fundamental right in India,as per the Constitution. It analyses landmark cases on the right to food and examines the fundamental right to food, in terms of state obligations. Is the impact of the entrenchment of the right to food as a fundamental right, limited only to its symbolic meaning? Or has such right substantively shaped the contours of governmental policies too? What are the remedial interventions that the judiciary has made in view of the constitutional right to food? These are the questions that the paper will explore. In this process, the paper will parse various judicial orders on the right to food and identify whether there are justiciable entitlements that presumptively constitute the core of the right. Further, the paper shall also highlight the multidimensionality of the right to food and illustrate that starting with Francis Mullin in the 1980s, to Laxmi Mandal and Swaraj Abhiyan in this decade, courts have underscored the interrelatedness between the rights to food, health, shelter and right to work.
Proliferation of social security has been one of the integral features of the modern industrialis... more Proliferation of social security has been one of the integral features of the modern industrialised world. In India too, social security has not only been enshrined as a constitutional mandate, but has also been embodied in a wide variety of legislation. Yet, multiplicity of legislation has created errors of harmonisation and engendered a regime riddled with variance in legal standards and rights of workers. Along with these inconsistencies and gaps, the centrality of the status of employment in extant regimes has excluded a large number of workers who fall through the crack. Such exclusion has been exacerbated by the occupation-centricity of these schemes that is ill-suited to the ongoing transformation in the labour economy and demographic changes. In view of these shortcomings, a shift to universal citizenship-based social security schemes is advocated. Delinking social security from occupation and predicating it on citizenship would extend these schemes to informal atypical workers and persons out of work and thereby make the constitutional right of social security a substantive entitlement for our citizenry.
Commercial transformation of sports has necessitated increased juridification or intervention of ... more Commercial transformation of sports has necessitated increased juridification or intervention of legal instruments of the state, leading to claims of emergence of a new autonomous body of law, Sports Law. At the same time, in this age of globalisation of capital and means of communication, comparative legal research has become almost pervasive across different branches of law. Comparative method of legal research provides a number of functional and heuristic benefits. The transnational and autonomous nature of sports law and the aggravated need for harmonisation of applicable norms makes the use of comparative law a particularly appropriate analytical tool in sports law.
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