Registry Vs. Reality: Why Property Registration Does Not Guarantee Valid Title

It is commonly believed by property buyers in India that having a sale deed with the relevant stamps and registration is proof of their ownership. On the contrary, Indian property legislation functions according to a deed registration system, and not a title insurance system. Registration under the Registration Act, 1908 merely creates a public record of execution. While Section 3 of the Transfer of Property Act, 1882 treats this entry as constructive notice to the public, it confers no...

No More Arrest For Tax Recovery: What CBDT's Amendment To Rule 225 Really Changes

The CBDT on 17th September 2026 via a notification amended the new Income-tax rules of 2026 (“2026 Rules”) to remove the powers of the Tax Recovery Officer to arrest to recover tax arrears. This appears in line with the Finance Act 2026 which removed the substantive power to arrest from section 413 of the Income-tax Act, 2025 (“2025 Act”) and section 222 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 (“1961 Act”). Thus, the latest notification serves to remove the corresponding procedural machinery from the Rules...

'Non-Binding' Trap: What Term Sheets Really Bind You To, After Zostel V. Oravel Stays"

Imagine handing over the lifeblood of your startup, your confidential customer databases, your proprietary software architecture, and your key employees to a fierce rival, entirely on the premise of a document that loudly proclaims "NON-BINDING" across its header. For most people, this sounds like an egregious breach of basic transactional hygiene. Yet, in the high-stakes, fast-moving ecosystem of Indian startup acquisitions, this exact scenario played out between Zostel and OYO (Oravel Stays),...

Fine Print Behind India's Election Vehicle Requisitions

On a Saturday night in early September 2026, a transport department team in Jaipur stopped a private Toyota Hilux and sought to take it for civic election duty. The family travelling in the vehicle said no written order was produced. When they asked officials not to take the vehicle so late at night, they were allegedly told they would face an FIR and arrest if they refused. A crowd gathered, and the matter was resolved only after the police arrived, nearly two hours later.The statutory basis...

One Nation, One Time: Why IST Cannot Guarantee Reliable Digital Evidence

A timestamp can be an important part of evidence in a banking dispute, a cyberattack investigation, digital payments, telecommunications, government records, or a case involving an electronic record. Its importance has become greater with the growth of the digital environment. Today, more activities are carried out through digital platforms, such as the internet. So, in such cases, the timestamp becomes part of the factual chain used to understand an event. But a timestamp can be trusted only...

Legality Of Arms Exports And State Complicity In Genocide

Can a state become legally responsible for genocide simply by selling weapons to another state that commits it? For the greater part of the seventy-odd years since the adoption of the Genocide Convention, this was a question that could be found more in academic literature than anything else. It is a matter before the International Court of Justice today, in a case that poses, for the first time in such great detail, the limits of the doctrine of complicity in international law.The Doctrinal...

Conversations To Commercials: Analyzing Meta's Policy Update Under Digital Personal Data Protection Act.

Meta announced on 1st October, 2025 to use data from its AI products to personalize advertisements for consumers. This targeted advertising began from 16th December, 2025 and has expanded to changing feeds on meta platforms like Facebook and Instagram. Earlier too, Meta has relied on data from user profiles to offer advertisements to groups of people. However, now this is taken a step ahead by making advertisements person specific. This targeted advertisement was implemented by a privacy policy...

Beyond Dollar Monopoly: Decoding BRICS De-Dollarization, Eurozone Precedents, And Public International Law.

The United States Dollar (USD) has enjoyed structural hegemony over international trade, foreign exchange reserves and sovereign debt issuance for more than eight decades since the 1944 Bretton Woods Agreement. The USD makes up almost 58% of foreign exchange holdings in the central banks, and is the currency in almost 90% of the world's transactions. In this way, the United States has the ability to print the world's basic reserve asset at near zero marginal cost, continue to run persistent...

Silent Third Party: Victim Exclusion In India's Sentence Remission Framework

The law lets governments remit a sentence without ever turning to the person the crime was actually committed against. It is time to ask why that silence has survived so long.Section 473 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 ("BNSS") empowers the "appropriate Government" to suspend or remit a sentence, in whole or in part, on an application made by or on behalf of the convict. Section 475 restricts this power for life convicts whose offence was punishable with death, requiring at least...

When Interface Persuades: Rapido, Dark Patterns And Consumer Protection

The Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) has imposed a penalty of Rs. 10 lakh on Roppen Transportation Services Pvt. Ltd., which operates the app-based taxi aggregator Rapido, for the use of dark patterns in its ride-booking interface, misleading advertisements, and unfair contract terms against the Guidelines for Prevention and Regulation of Dark Patterns, 2023. The order is of significance because the violation did not arise from what Rapido advertised, but from how it manipulated...

One Excluded Candidate Can Void Election. Thousands Of Wrongly Excluded Voters May Not

What does it mean to win your right to vote back…after the election is over? In India, a voter who is wrongly deleted from the electoral roll can eventually prove their exclusion unlawful and, hypothetically, win their name back on the list. But once polling is over, even a successful appeal cannot restore the vote one was never permitted to cast. Consider two identically, and unlawfully, deleted voters. One wins an appeal just before polling day, while the other wins the same appeal a week...

Digital Footprint, Global Fault Lines: Data Extraction From Global South

A search query typed into a phone in Nairobi, a mobile money transaction from Singapore, a photography uploaded from Jodhpur India; each of this act generate data that outlive the moment of its creation. Collectively these traces are Described as “digital Footprint” a cumulative record of behaviour, preference and identity that persists long after the user has moved on. What Is less often examined is where that footprint goes, who processes it, and who profit from it? The answer, increasingly,...