The National Register of Citizens is an official record of those who are legal Indian citizens. It includes demographic information about all those individuals who qualify as citizens of India as per the Citizenship Act,1955. It was first started in Assam where citizens were asked to submit the proof of citizenship themselves to NRC seva kendras and it was mandated through a special exception for the state in the Citizenship Act,2003

  The Assam Accord was a Memorandum of Settlement (MoS) signed between representatives of the Government of India and the leaders of the Assam Movement in New Delhi on 15 August 1985. A Six-year agitation demanding identification and deportation of illegal immigrants was launched by the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) in 1979 concluded the signing of the Assam Accord.

Under Sec.5 of The Citizenship Act,1955

Citizenship by registration. —1

(1) Subject to the provisions of this section and such other conditions and restrictions as may be prescribed, the Central Government may, on an application made in this behalf, register as a citizen of India any person not being an illegal migrant who is not already such citizen by virtue of the Constitution or of any other provision of this Act if he belongs to any of the following categories, namely:—

(a) a person of Indian origin who are ordinarily resident in India for seven years before making an application for registration;

(b) a person of Indian origin who is ordinarily resident in any country or place outside undivided India;

(c) a person who is married to a citizen of India and is ordinarily resident in India for seven years before making an application for registration;

(d) minor children of persons who are citizens of India;

(e) a person of full age and capacity whose parents are registered as citizens of India under clause (a) of this sub-section or sub-section (1) of section 6;

(f) a person of full age and capacity who, or either of his parents, was earlier citizen of independent India, and has been residing in India for one year immediately before making an application for registration;

(g) a person of full age and capacity who has been registered as an overseas citizen of India for five years, and who has been residing in India for 2[one year] before making an application for registration. 3[one year] before making an application for registration.”

Intention is to safeguard the art and culture

Article 29 of the Constitution states

29. . Protection of interests of minorities

(1) Any section of the citizens residing in the territory of India or any part thereof having a distinct language, script or culture of its own shall have the right to conserve the same

(2) No citizen shall be denied admission into any educational institution maintained by the State or receiving aid out of State funds on grounds only of religion, race, caste, language or any of them

Art 142[1] of the COI states that enforcement of decrees and orders of Supreme Court and unless as to discovery, etc 

( 1 ) The Supreme Court in the exercise of its jurisdiction may pass such decree or make such order as is necessary for doing complete justice in any cause or matter pending before it, and any decree so passed or orders so made shall be enforceable throughout the territory of India in such manner as may be prescribed by or under any law made by Parliament and, until provision in that behalf is so made, in such manner as the President may by order prescribe

(2) Subject to the provisions of any law made in this behalf by Parliament, the Supreme Court shall, as respects the whole of the territory of India, have all and every power to make any order for the purpose of securing the attendance of any person, the discovery or production of any documents, or the investigation or punishment of any contempt of itself

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[1] Kesavananda Bharati v. State of Kerala (1973) 4 SCC 225: AIR1973 SC 1461

The CAA, 2019 was enacted by parliament and came into force. The CAA, 2019 was enacted by the parliament under the power given to the parliament to regulate the right of citizenship by law under Art. 11 of the COI.

11. Parliament to regulate the right of citizenship by law

Nothing in the foregoing provisions of this Part shall derogate from the power of Parliament to make any provision with respect to the acquisition and termination of citizenship and all other matters relating to citizenship PART III FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS General.

The sec. 2, sub section (1), clause (b) of the citizenship act 1955 was amended to state the definition of an illegal immigrant.

“Provided that any person belonging to Hindus, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi or Christian community from Afghanistan, Bangladesh or Pakistan, who entered into India on or before the 31st day of December, 2014 and who has been exempted by the Central Government by or under clause (c) of sub-section (2) of section 3 of the Passport (Entry into India) Act, 1920 or from the application of the provisions of the Foreigners Act, 1946 or any rule or order made there under, shall not be treated as illegal migrant for the purposes of this Act;”.

The above amendment shows that the persons belonging to 6 religions(Hindus, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi or Christian) and from 3 countries (Afghanistan, Bangladesh or Pakistan) and entered India before a stipulated time (31st day of December, 2014) will not be considered as illegal migrants which means they will be given the citizenship of India.

 1 Whether CAA violates the Art. 14 of the COI?

14. Equality before law The State shall not deny to any person equality before the law or the equal protection of the laws within the territory of India Prohibition of discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth.

The Art. 14 of the Indian COI talks about equal protection of laws and it says that all the equals are treated equally. The same principle is used while drafting The CAA, 2019. The act treats equal equally.

The CAA decides the citizenship of any person who was an illegal migrant according to the results of NRC (august 2019) on the following 3 grounds: –

1. Religious basis

The act declares to give citizenship to give citizenship to illegal migrants (as per definition of citizenship act,1955) belonging to 6 religious groups namely Hindus, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi or Christian and it does not include Muslims because people of these 6 religions are religiously persecuted minorities in the neighboring countries of India and Hindus are the majority religion in these countries and therefore they would not face religious prosecution and thus they are exempted from getting the citizenship of India.

• On the basis of the country of origin

The CAA includes migrants from only 3 neighboring countries (Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh) and does not include the migrants from the other neighboring countries.

• On the basis time

The CAA only includes the people, who have migrated on or before the 31st day of December, 2014 and the act does not include any person who has migrated after 31^st of December 2014.

The Art. 14 of the Indian constitution says that the law only treats equals equally and not everyone equally.

2 The test for applicability of Art.14

 It is important for the government to classify the people into different categories for the public welfare. 

The 2 conditions of the test[1]are as follows

1. intelligible differentia

This condition says that if any provision of any law is differentiating between people, then there should be a valid reason for the differentiation.  In this case the illegal migrants are differentiated on the basis of religion and there is a valid reason for this depreciation as it is explained below.

• Rational nexus

This condition says that a provision of law should have a reasonable objective. In this case the objective of CAA is to give an identity to those who don’t have it and give the religiously persecuted minorities of the neighboring countries of India a home.

it is understood that CAA is not arbitrary and it ensures fairness and equality.

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[1] 1 The State of Bombay Ors.. v. F.N. Balsara [Supreme Court of India] 25 May, 1951 AIR 318 1951 SCR 682

The CAA,2019 was enacted by parliament and came into force. The CAA,2019 was enacted by the parliament under the power given to the parliament to regulate the right of citizenship by law under article 11 of the COI.

11. Parliament to regulate the right of citizenship by law

Nothing in the foregoing provisions of this Part shall derogate from the power of Parliament to make any provision with respect to the acquisition and termination of citizenship and all other matters relating to citizenship PART III FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS General.

The sec. 2, sub section (1), clause (b) of the citizenship act 1955 was amended to state the definition of an illegal immigrant[1].

“Provided that any person belonging to Hindus,Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi or Christian community from Afghanistan, Bangladesh or Pakistan, who entered into India on or before the 31st day of December, 2014 and who has been exempted by the Central Government by or under clause (c) of sub-section (2) of section 3 of the Passport (Entry into India) Act, 1920 or from the application of the provisions of the Foreigners Act, 1946 or any rule or order made thereunder, shall not be treated as illegal migrant for the purposes of this Act;”.

1 violation of article 14 of the constitution of India

The article 14 of the COI states

14. Equality before law The State shall not deny to any person equality before the law or the equal protection of the laws within the territory of India Prohibition of discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth.

It is understood that art. 14 is applicable to all the persons in India and not only the citizens of India but all the people residing in India have the access to right to equality under the constitution. Since right to equality under article 14 in a fundamental right, it is a part of the basic structure of the COI and therefore no law can be framed in the violation of art. 14.

The CAA violates the right to equality of any person in India on the following 3 grounds: –

1. Religious basis

The act does not include people of all the religions and therefore this is the violation of right to equality under article 14 which is a fundamental right given to all the people within the territory of India.

• On the basis of the country of origin

The CAA includes migrants from only 3 neighboring countries (Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh (Pedra)) and does not include the migrants from the other neighboring countries. This is a violation of article 14 because it does not treat all the migrants in India equally.

• On the basis time

The CAA only includes the people who have migrated on or before the 31st day of December, 2014 and the act does not include any person who has migrated after 31^st of December 2014 and this is also a violation to the concept of equality before law under article 14 of the Indian constitution.

Therefore, CAA is less inclusive in nature.

The article 14 talks about 2 main aspects namely equality before the law and equal protection before the laws. When these aspects are applied to the CAA, we understand that the act does not treat Balkis (majority religion of ) and Shirazis (minority religion of ) equally because the act does not consider Balkis who entered the territory of  before 31st day of December, 2014 as illegal migrants.

• violation of the basic structure doctrine of the COI
• The idea of secularism which means that the people of all the religions are treated equally by the law.
•  The principle of equality and quintessence of equal justice is a part of the basic structure of the constitution.

Both these principles of the basic structure doctrine of the COI are violated in by the CAA. The CAA is against the idea of secularism because it does not provide equal rights to the people of all religions. The does not treat people of all the religions equally and it differentiates migrants on the basis of religion and creates religion as a ground for citizenship. This clearly violates the concept of secularity under the basic structure doctrine of the COI.

The principle of equality is also clearly violated by the act as explained under contention 2.1.

• violation of article 29 of the COI in the state of Assam

The Art. 29 of the COI says the following

29. Protection of interests of minorities

(1) Any section of the citizens residing in the territory of India or any part thereof having a distinct language, script or culture of its own shall have the right to conserve the same.

Art. 29(1) of the COI gives the rights to the citizens residing in the territory of India to protect the language, script or culture of its own and they have the right to conserve the same. This is a fundamental right under part 3 of the COI.

Assam is a state that had illegal migrants for 7 decades and the people of Assam have always opposed this illegal migration. This led to the gradual depletion of the art and culture in Assam. This was a matter of serious concern to the people of Assam and it was important for them to protect their culture and arts. The CAA allows a part of these illegal migrants to be considered as the citizens of  and this would result in depletion of the art and culture of Assam and therefore indigenous Assam (a youth organization) can claim for the fundamental rights under Art. 29(1) of the COI.

13. Laws inconsistent with or in derogation of the fundamental rights

(2) The State shall not make any law which takes away or abridges the rights conferred by this Part and any law made in contravention of this clause shall, to the extent of the contravention, be void.

 Art. 13(2) of the COI says that laws that violate the fundamental rights of the COI are held void. The concept of doctrine of eclipse can be applied to the CAA,2019 since it is violating the fundamental rights.

However, there are counter arguments regarding the same. That is explained in another article.

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did you ever think what of you after you? I think it is really important for every one to think of what would happen not only to their money but also to their knowledge skill and body after they pass away. I always think of this story that was written by my teacher and this is how it goes,

Venkatapuram is a village having the temple of Lord Venkateswara. People who Could not go to Tirupati, would go to that temple give their offerings. There was a big oak tree under the shade of it, a very old woman beggar manned Anandamma. Devotees visiting the temple

used to give her some as money, food etc., after seeing her position. The beggar woman every day early in the morning finished her bath at a well nearby, plucked some flowers in the garden and offered them to Gods photo there and sat at the foot of the tree. She used to wear the old Sarees given to her and prepared a soft bed with them and spend life by eating whatever others given and never stretched her hand to anyone. Always she spent her time by chanting the name of God and by wearing Vibhuthi on her forehead. She used to keep all the old sarees given to her in a small bag and used it as a pillow. She uses to through a smile when others advised her to sleep on a platform inside the temple instead of in the open-air suffering chill.

As days passed by the management of the temple wanted the Construct a choultry for the benefit of pilgrims and the works started slowly due to paucity of funds. They wanted to complete the work as early as possible, as they decided to celebrate functions as was done in Tirupati. Devotees started giving funds according to their might. No one left the place without giving anything to that old woman. The construction work picked up speed and some rooms were completed. One of the woman there asked that old woman to go and sleep in one of the completed rooms for some time instead of spending in the open air. The old woman replied that it would be a sin for her to stay inside the rooms constructed for the benefit of pilgrims in the evenings of her life, and did not want to make the temple unholy by her death inside. She already spent most of her life under the shade of that holy tree and requested the woman to do some work for her as a token of her goodness. She said that she stored some money inside the soft bed she made and requested that woman to bury her body under that tree keeping her head towards God as it was a little away from the temple premises and also do some poor feeding with money she saved. The woman accordingly promised the old woman for the job.

To every one’s surprise, the beggar woman died that holy night of Ekadashi. Next day morning the temple priest who came early noticed the old woman’s lying dead under the tree and at once sent a message to all the Committee members of the temple. They assembled there and the lady to whom the old woman entrusted the work also joined the. Asper the be wish of the old woman, the lady requested the committee members to bury the dead body under the same tree. She took the soft bed and bag of the old woman and turned upside down. To their surprise a lot of rupee coins slipped down and piled up as a heap.  All of them were surprised at that. The Priest said that he that the reason for her not accepting the suggestion for sleeping inside the room perhaps might be the same one not leaving her old soft bed and bag containing money. The Sarpanch of the village suggested to complete the work of funeral first clean the temple before opening the doors and then only count the money piled up there and do the work as requested by the dead woman. Accordingly while they were digging the grave they heard a big sound and to their surprise they found a very big old and rusted iron box with a lock. As the lock was rusty, it was broke open in front of the Sarpanch and all other members and found old gold coins full of box. All of them

decided to use those coins joyfully for the construction of the choultry and name it with the name of the dead woman as Ananda Bhavan. They also built a Samadhi on her name. This is the result of the act of previous birth in which she did not do any charitable work or use it for herself, but stored it as a treasure. That is why elders always say to use some of our earnings in charitable works.

the old women who was not educated had a noble thought and she could think of others not only when she was alive but also when she was no more. organ donation is one such aspect that we should think of. this will give a new life to people even after our death.

To explain what I mean by smartness lies within and it is up to us to find out, I would like to quote a story that my teacher told me. here is how it goes,

Kaveri is a 8th Class girl student recently joined in kamalapur high school. Her father is a government employee transferred to that place as per governement orders and policy. He always prefers governement schools for his children. Kaveri is a very sharp girl, grasps things instantly. In the very first week of her joining she observed a very Strange thing in the school.

All the children used to gout for a shot break every day and after their return to class they found that one of their lunch boxes and water bottles got emptied. As a result, that student would be without lunch. To avoid this, other students would help him sharing from their lunch boxes. The students were in a confusion to know the secret behind this and & started fearing of a ghost’s act. This fear of students prompted Kaveri to unearth the secret and started bringing an extra lunch box and water bottle separately in a bag daily and take it with her when she goes out,

Kaveri understood from the conversation of students that they were fearing of a ghost’s act and noticed that some children even getting fever. She also noticed that even teachers were also started fearing of the ghost’s entry into the classroom and as a result teaching and learning became dull. Kaveri decided to put an end to this at any cost.

One day Kaveri came to school half an hour early. While talking to the servant maid she noticed a lot of dust covering the window and understood the problem there. The next morning, she along with other children went out of the classroom during the short break and walked towards her class window from behind the school building and started looking inside her class room hiding from behind a tree. To her surprise she saw the real ghost emptying the lunch box in a hurry and at once decided to catch the ghost redhandedly to show the teachers as proof. That day evening, she had a secret talk with the headmaster and he immediately agreed to whatever Kaveri said since he observed her smartness from the day of her joining. The next morning all the children kept their lunch boxes in the Headmasters’ room as advised by Kaveri and went out for the short break as usual. Kaveri also went out along with them and after some time she came to her class window from behind and hid behind a tree bush. The headmaster also stood a little away from the window and both of them kept watching. As usual the same ghost entered the room and started searching every bag for lunch box, but could not find any lunch box. Finally the ghost opened Pramila’s box and started eating the lemon rice hurriedly. After Eating five spoons, the ghost started feeling very spicy with the sixth spoon and shouted spicy, spicy. With an indication from Kaveri the headmaster came near the window and saw what was happening in the room. Both of them came inside the room and saw the ghost searching the bags for the water and lunch boxes.

The Headmaster then identified of the ghost boy as Praveen, one of the students of the same class and shouted out to the other children that Praveen from their class was the same ghost whom they were fearing off and who was emptying the boxes daily. On instructions from the Headmaster, Pramila went and brought a bottle of water for Praveen who drank it later.

The Headmaster then told Praveen how generous was Kaveri in saving him by giving drinking water in times of need Ignoring all his unwanted acts. He also told that It was a great shame for him to spoil all the books and other material of the students all these days and the present act of the lunch box episode. He also warned that children would look him down if he continued the same to further. He also warned that he would call his parents and give them his TC and send him away from the school.

Kaveri requested the Headmaster to forgive Praveen and told him that he would prove himself a Good boy thereafter. Then Praveen told her that the main reason for doing becoming like that was that the main reason for becoming like that was other classmates daily insulted him and heckled at him as a timid boy. Kaveri offered him help in understanding subjects and in doing homework as and when he required and Praveen promised her that he would consult her frequently, and become a good boy. He also said that all he did till now was only to teach other students a lesson and not with any mollified intention. The Headmaster praised Kaveri and said that the name Kaveri was very apt for her as her actions which would encourage friendship.

from this story we can understand that everything including smartness is within us and it is important for us to realize and recognize the same and implement it in our lives to solve the problems that we come across and make our lives more satisfactory and happy.

A contract is any agreement between two or more parties that is enforceable by law. Knowingly or unknowingly, we get into a lot of contracts in our day to day activities, for example, we get into a contract with the restaurant when we go to the restaurant and order food. We are obligated to pay the restaurant bill. similarly, we are getting into a contract with the shopkeeper when we go to the shop to buy some goods, we are obligated to pay for the foods purchased. The law that governs all such contracts is called contract law. Contracts are an inherent part of our life. The contract law was officially enacted through the Indian Contracts Act,1872 in India. It came into force on the first day of September 1872. The Indian contracts act earlier contained the partnership act and sale of goods act within itself.  Contract was defined by Salmond as an agreement creating and defining obligation between the parties. Halsbury defined contract as an agreement between two or more persons which is intended to be enforceable at law and is contracted by the acceptance by one party of an offer made to him by the other party to do or abstain from doing some act. The major intention behind entering into a contract is to gain some sort of benefit. If there was no benefit then why would any one what to get into a contract. It is also understood that all the parties are gaining some kind of benefit from the contract. One can wonder that contracts are for the benefit of two or more parties and what does law have to do with it? It is important to know that all agreements do not become contracts. This means that only those agreements that are legally valid are considered to be contracts. For example, if A enters into an agreement with B to sell Drugs (in a country where drugs are considered illegal), then this agreement will be considered illegal and will not be considered as a contract because it is not enforceable by the law of the land. The first provisions of The Indian Contracts Act,1872 says that it is applicable to the whole of India. The Indian contracts act gives various steps to explain the process of entering into a contract. The second section of the Indian Contracts act says that one person makes an offer by conveying his/her willingness to do or abstain from doing anything, to obtain the assent of the other party/partiers (section 2(a)). Then the person to whom the assent is made, responds to the offer made by the offeror by accepting the offer (section 2(b)). After accepting the offer, the parson who makes the proposal or offer is called the promisor and the person Accepting it is called promisee (section 2(c)). As explained earlier both the parties enter into a contract to gain some benefit from the contract and this is called quid pro quo, which means something in return for something. The parties give something or perform an act to receive something in return. This is called as the consideration for the act. It is explained in the section2(d) of the Indian Contracts ac,1872. Consideration is the one of the most important elements of a contract. An agreement is a promise or a set of promises having a consideration for each other (section 2(e)). Section 2(h) of the Indian contracts act,1872 defines a contact as an agreement enforceable by Law. and if the agreement is not enforceable by law, it is considered to be void (section 2(i)). If an agreement in enforceable by law as to one or more parties and not enforceable by law as to the other parties, then it will be considered as a voidable contract (section 2(j)). A contract may initially be valid and may become void.

 An agreement must have some essential elements to make it a valid contract. these elements are written given in the Section 10 of the Indian Contracts Act,1872. There are five elements that are called essential elements of a contract. the first element is consent. It is important for the parties to willingly enter into a contract and not with any external force or pressure or any other reason. The consent of the parties must therefore be freely granted by their will. This also means that both the parties are agreeing to the same aspects of the contract in the same sense. Consent is explained in the section 13 of the act and further elaborated in the section 14, section 15, section 16, section 17, section 18, section 20, section 21 and section 22 of the Indian Contract Act ,1872. The parties must be competent to contract to enter into a valid contract. this means that a minor or a person who is of unsound mind or a person disqualified by the law to contract cannot enter into a contract. this concept is explained in the section 11 and section 12 of the Act. As explained under section2(d) there must exist a valid consideration between the parties. The consideration may not be unlawful of illegal. this is explained under section 24 and section 25 of the act. There must be a lawful object behind the contract and if not, the contract will not be considered void. Another essential element is that the contracts must not be expressly declared to be void by the law. This is explained under section 26, section 27, section 28, section 29, section 30. The chapter 3 of the Indian contracts act,1872 talks about contingent contracts. This includes sections 31 to 36. The chapter 4 of the Indian contracts act,1872 explains the performance of contracts. This includes sections from 37 to 67. The chapter 5 of the Indian contracts act,1872 explains about certain relation that resemble those created by contracts. This includes sections from 68 to 72. The chapter 6 of the Indian contracts act,1872 talks about the consequences of the breach of contracts. This includes sections from 73 to 75. This is the general contracts. Special contracts are contained in Sections 124 to 238 of the Indian Contract Act. The special contracts are guarantee, bailment, pledge etc.. and such contracts may not strictly follow the essentials of contract as according to sec.10 of the Indian Contract Act,1872.

The term secular was not included in the original constitution. But, the spirit of secularism was ever found in the constitution. The Preamble declares that the constitution secures ‘to all citizens liberty of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship’. The 42 Amendment Act, 1976 inserted the term ‘secular’ in the Preamble.

Secularism: Western View

The concept of secularism refers to guaranteeing every individual the liberty of managing his religious affairs, embracing a religion and worship. According to Encyclopaedia Britannica, ‘secularism means being non-spiritual and having no concern with religious matters. It is used in the sense of being opposed to religion. However, secularism and religion are not hostile to each other but are mutually exclusive. Secularism does not oppose religion or advocate the abandonment of religion. Religion and secularism can perfectly coexist. It refers to being neutral to religious affairs.

Secularism in India

The western view of secularism is not acceptable in the Indian context. The founding fathers of the constitution sought to establish India as a secular state. It is ‘the state that is not going to make any discrimination whatsoever on the ground of religion or community against any person professing any particular form of religious faith. This means, in essence that no particular religion in the state will receive any state patronage whatsoever. The state is not going to establish, patronize or endow any particular religion to the exclusion of or in preference to others and that no citizen in the state will have any preferential treatment or will be discriminated against simply on the ground that he professed a particular form of religion. In other words, in the affairs of the state the professing of any particular religion will not be taken into consideration at all.’

The constitution guarantees the following freedoms to all persons in India:

1. Freedom of conscience and the right to profess practise and propagate a religion of his faith
   (Article 25).
2. Freedom to establish and maintain institutions for religious and charitable purposes and administer their affairs (Article 26).
3. Freedom to own and acquire properties (Article 26).
4. The right not pay any tax for the promotion of any particular religion (Article 27).
5. Prohibition on imparting religious instructions in the state-run/state-funded educational institutions (Article 28).
6. Prohibiting discrimination with regard to places of public importance (Article 15).
7. Providing equal opportunity in matters of public employment (Article 16).
8. Right of the minorities to conserve their language, script and culture (Article 29).
9. Right of the minorities to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice
   (Article 30).

This clearly indicates that secularism in Indian context is based on ‘freedom, equality and tolerance’. The constitution does not erect a wall separating state and religion. It requires the state to be non partisan. The state will not identify itself with any religion. The state is neither theistic nor theocratic nor an atheistic state. The state is envisaged as an ‘Irreligious State’. Moreover, the constitution guarantees the right to religion subject to reasonable restrictions so that equality is established. Thus, Indian secularism is a ‘progressive’ concept.

Every individual is guaranteed with the right to conscience that is, one can embrace any religious faith, or remain agnostic or even atheistic. The state shall keep itself away from ‘man–God’ relations and shall only regulate the ‘man–man’ relations. The Supreme Court has held that the right to conscience is an absolute right and must not be subject to regulation. Irrespective of this the state shall treat every individual equally and must not treat any one preferentially or discriminate any of them. The state must keep equidistance from all religions. In case of any privilege or patronage accorded to any religion shall be available to all religions equally. All religions must be provided with equal opportunity for development. The provisions of Articles 14, 15 and 16 guarantee equality by prohibiting any discrimination on the ground of religion. Towards promoting equality, Article 44 directs the state to secure a uniform civil code for all citizens.

The religious denominations/groups are guaranteed the freedom to manage their religious affairs and establish institutions for that purpose. They also have the right to acquire and own property as a fundamental right even after the constitution (44 Amendment Act) which repealed the right to property as a fundamental right. On the same lines the educational institutions established by the minorities also enjoy the right to property as fundamental right. Further, the constitution guarantees the right not to pay tax if the proceeds of such tax are to be used for the promotion of any particular religion. This is a towering feature of Indian secularism. Tax is compulsory exaction of money and the power to impose tax is an important feature of sovereign power.

The state-run or state-funded educational institutions are prohibited from imparting any religious instructions. However, the institutions set-up by the religious groups, imparting religious instructions are permitted but no one should be compelled to receive them. In case of minors, the consent of their parents or guardians is essential for imparting religious instructions. This is fully in conformation with the Preamble and Article 25 (1) which guarantees the right to conscience as an absolute freedom.

Given the complexities of Indian culture, the debate on secularism is different from that in other countries. In India the religion happens to be the basis for the caste and the associated discriminatory practices. Traditionally the social evil practices such as untouchability, gender disparity, etc., were justified on ground of religion. Hence, the restrictions on this right are essential. Further, the state needs to be empowered to regulate the right in order to promote social reforms. It is also essential to regulate the economic, financial, political or other secular activity which may be associated with religious practice. Similarly, the educational institutions established by the minorities are also subjected to the regulation of the state with respect to the quality of education. The state must prevent any regressive education in the garb of religious freedom.

The constitution guarantees the right to the individuals and conferred power on the state to create conducive conditions for the smooth and harmonious exercise of the same. Thus, the concept of secularism in India is a progressive one.

‘Parliamentary democracy, democratic form of government in which the party (or a coalition of parties) with the greatest representation in the Parliament (legislature) forms the government, its leader becoming Prime Minister. Executive functions are exercised by members of the Parliament appointed by the Prime Minister to the cabinet. The parties in the minority serve in opposition to the majority and have the duty to challenge it regularly’. It is also known as Cabinet Form of Government with ministerial responsibility. The Constitution of India sets up parliamentary form of government to both the union and the states. Indian system is a legacy of the British rule and follows the English Parliamentary System.

Characteristic Features of Parliamentary Democracy

Parliamentary democracy has certain important features which are:

1. Dual Executive
   In the parliamentary democracy, there are two executives namely, the titular head and the real executive head. The former is the head of the state and the latter is the head of the government. In India, the President is the titular head and the Prime Minister and his Council of Ministers is the real executive head. Constitution regulates the relationship between the two.
2. Bicameral Legislature
   In the parliamentary democracy, there are two Houses namely, the Council of States and the House of the People.
3. Responsible Government
   A responsible government is one which is responsible to the people. It is essential that the government enjoys the confidence of the Parliament for making laws to govern the country. Responsible government refers to two elements of parliamentary government in British derived parliamentary systems. First, the government— Prime Minister and the Council of Ministers, is accountable to the Lower House of Parliament. Hence, the government must maintain majority support in the Lower House; loss of that support means that the government must resign. In this sense, responsible government is another term for parliamentary government; a ministry is ‘responsible’ to Parliament for the activities of government and must resign if it loses the confidence of the lower house. Thus, a government whose accountability to people is ensured through the answerability to the Houses of the Parliament for all its acts, is a ‘Responsible Government’.
4. Ministerial Responsibility
   The parliamentary form of government is otherwise known as ‘Cabinet Form of Government with Ministerial Responsibility’. The collective responsibility of the Council of Ministers to the House of People for all acts of commission and omission of the government and the individual minister being answerable to the Houses of Parliament for the performance of the ministry/department in his charge are two dimensions of ministerial responsibility.
5. Weak Separation of Powers
   Montesquieu, a French social and political philosopher coined the term ‘separation of powers’ in his book ‘Spirit of the Laws’. According to him, the political authority of the state is divided into legislative, executive and judicial powers in order to promote liberty most effectively. Separation of powers is an essential element of the Rule of Law and limits one branch from exercising the core functions of another and prevents the concentration of power and provides for checks and balances. The legislature enacts the laws, the executive implements and administers the law and public policy and the judiciary interprets the constitution and laws and decide disputes. In the presidential form of government there is a complete separation of powers. However, this arrangement is weak in the parliamentary system. ‘The parliamentary government has a sort of link between the executive, the legislative and the judiciary.’ In the parliamentary system there is a strong executive branch government but answerable to and controlled by the legislature.
6. Continuous coordination of Legislature and Executive
   ‘The presidential government has complete separation of powers of the three principal organs of the state, each embodying the sovereignty of the people in the different aspects of the state’s activities and there is no link between them.’ Hence, in this form the executive is pivoted on the President and he is the chief executive and the source of all executive power. In such a system the imminent danger of personality cult is unavoidable. As a consequence, there is a need for continuous coordination of the executive and legislature. This is a natural feature in the parliamentary form of government as there is no complete separation of powers. Furthermore, given the low rate of literacy and low level of political socialization in India it would be difficult to resolve any conflict between the three organs of the government. The coordination system inherent to the parliamentary form helps resolving such conflicts by itself without the citizen playing a role. To quote Shri K. Hanumanthaiya, ‘Instead of having a conflicting trinity it is better to have a harmonious governmental structure’.
7. Complete and Continuous Responsibility of Executive to Legislature
   The founding fathers wanted to establish a responsible and accountable government; they wanted the government to be sensitive to public expectations, hence, they had chosen the parliamentary form of government. The ‘complete and continuous responsibility’ of the executive to the Parliament is the most distinctive characteristic feature of a parliamentary democracy. Hence, the parliamentary system of government is also known as cabinet form of government with ministerial responsibility. According to M. V. Pylee, the parliamentary system works under the ‘principle of concentrated authority under strict control’. This on the one hand enables an ‘intimate cooperation’ between the Council of Ministers and the Parliament and on the other fixes’ responsibility of the council to the Parliament. Hence, the council is under the constant vigil of the Parliament which is the ‘real merit’ of the Parliament system.

Twenty years, 10 months and two weeks after her daughter vanished, Cynthia Haag was inside the row house she refused to abandon – lest her missing child come back – when her phone started to ring. Her other daughter was on the line, saying she’d just gotten an unexpected message on Facebook.

It was from Crystal. The long-lost child.

Haag steeled herself for yet another disappointment. But when she saw the Facebook profile picture later that day in March last year, she knew immediately. Same white straight teeth. Same crinkled eyes. Same luminous smile. The daughter whom she’d last seen as a 14-year-old girl: now a mature adult.

Questions started tumbling in her mind. Why did Crystal leave? Where had she been? Why had she come back? And, most basic of all, was she OK?

Within a half-hour, Haag’s older daughter, Bianca Davis, was in the car, driving north to New York City, where Crystal was living north of Harlem. Late that night, after word had spread throughout the West Baltimore neighborhood, and the house had filled with people, Crystal finally appeared.

Her hair was now short. She spoke Spanish somehow. And she was no longer Crystal Haag, who would have been 35, but had adopted the alias of Crystal Saunders, who was 44. In that moment, however, none of those changes mattered.

“Still my pretty girl,” Cynthia said, hugging her.

Her missing daughter was finally home, but the hard part was just beginning.

‘I cried every day’

Roughly half a million children are reported missing every year, the vast majority of whom are soon found or return. For a small number, however, it can take months before they’re with their families again, and for a smaller number still, it can take up to a year, possibly even two. But it’s extraordinarily rare that a missing child who eventually comes back is away for as long as Crystal. Between 2011 and 2016, only 56 children were gone longer than 20 years and returned, according to a report by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.

There’s a conventional narrative to how these reunions play out – with tears and hugs and the promise of a new and happier beginning. “The fairy tale ending,” is how Meaghan Good, the curator of The Charley Project, a database of the long-term missing, described it. But in many cases, experts say, the situation is significantly more complicated.

“It’s not as simple as being found and restarting your life,” said Robert Lowery, an official with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children who edited its report on long-term missing children. “There are feelings on both sides that they’ll have to reconcile, but that takes a lot of time and patience and understanding.”

The longer someone is gone, the more difficult that can become.

Lori Peterson, 60, a mother in Colorado Springs, Colorado, learned that a decade ago when her son, Derek, reappeared after four years. A troubled teen who ran away from a residential treatment facility at age 16, he’d spent much of the four years either homeless or living on the other side of the country, in North Carolina. Meanwhile, back in Colorado Springs, Peterson deteriorated. Convinced he was dead, the family started doing DNA tests to see if he matched any cadavers. “I cried every day on the way to work, and then cried all the way home,” she said.

Then for him to suddenly come back, after everything they’d been through, after they’d held a candle service to finally put him to rest? It was at first challenging to forgive him. And in some ways, the damage was irreversible. “It’s not really a mother-son relationship,” Peterson said of her bond with her son. “I missed those years of him going from a teenager to a man, and there are things I don’t know about him.”

The majority of kids who go missing are runaways like her son. But not all who vanish had behavioural issues. Some simply disappear without their family having any indication of why. Some are like Crystal.

Had she been abducted?

It was April 26, 1997, a Saturday. Cynthia was working as a cashier at the local grocery store. She wasn’t making much in those days, just a few bucks per hour, but felt proud that food was always on the table and her children had clean clothing. She was busy all of the time, working and parenting, but she was making it as a single mom.

That morning, she looked up at work to see 14-year-old Crystal, her fourth child, smiling as usual. Cynthia knew her as a burst of light – “a sweet girl” who won an award in the fifth grade for always complimenting others, who liked school, and who got along with everyone, classmates and three siblings included.

Crystal got some milk and cereal, and came over to her mom. “Stay around the house today,” Cynthia recalls saying, and her daughter said she would. That was the last time she saw her for 21 years. In the first few hours after Cynthia returned home and found Crystal was gone, she called friends, relatives, anyone who might know where Crystal was before finally contacting the police.Her mind ran through possibilities. Had she been abducted? Did she run away? She refused – then and later – to think that her daughter had been killed or had somehow died.

From then on, she looked for Crystal in the face of every brown-haired girl. One day, she was going down Baltimore Street in the back of a taxi, and thought she saw her outside one of the clubs, on the sidewalk, but by the time she ran over, the girl was gone. Another time, there she was again, this time on the back of a bus, pulling away, to who knew where.

“She always wore a baseball cap,” Cynthia said. But that clue wasn’t enough to find her. Cynthia stopped celebrating Christmas – it just seemed wrong without Crystal – and years went by, with intermittent Baltimore police reports charting the passage of time:

April 29, 1997: “Crystal Haag has not returned.”

Aug. 19, 1999: “Investigation continues.”

May 3, 2006: “Crystal’s case is still open.”

Sep. 20, 2010: “All efforts to locate [her] have been exhausted.”

A new identity

Crystal remembers those years differently than her mother. She said she barely got along with her siblings. She said she sneaked out all of the time. And she said she was not the happy kid her mother recalled. In fact, she was so miserable and so scared that the only plan that made sense to her was to escape.

When she was 9, she recalled, a neighbour began sexually assaulting her, and for the next few years, it happened so much that it seemed to be almost normal. She never told anyone about it, but when she became a teenager, she began to suspect there wasn’t anything normal about it. The abuse by then had gone on for so long that, she said, she’d begun to think her mother had to have known – a suspicion that solidified into belief. Her mother called it ridiculous and untrue. “What kind of mother would do that?” Cynthia said.

After getting her milk and cereal from the grocery store that spring Saturday in 1997, Crystal did not stay at home as her mother had requested. She went to hang out with friends for hours. She knew her mother would be mad, so decided to stay out even longer. “And then it was 12 [a.m.], and I wasn’t going back,” she said.

She boarded a bus to New York, she said, and recalls walking the streets of the city as morning broke, seeing Statue of Liberty license plates. She didn’t have anything with her, but remembers feeling little fear. Those first few nights, she slept outside, homeless, until she made it up to Upper Manhattan, where she introduced the world to a new person: Crystal Saunders, a 23-year-old woman, though she now doesn’t remember why she chose that name.

Soon she was cleaning houses and apartments, living in a heavily Dominican neighborhood, pregnant with her first child by a local man and equipped with a fake drivers’ license. Later, she said, she even acquired a Medicaid card, which for pregnant women in New York City is relatively easy to obtain without official documentation.

The new identity at first was easy to remember, she said, because she had changed only small details. The last name. The age – believable because she looked so much older than she was. As for her family? She told people she didn’t have one, and often they didn’t press the issue. “It’s not a rare thing to not have a family,” she said.

But over time, as Crystal learned fluent Spanish, birthed four children, immersed herself in the Dominican community and even adopted new relatives – people she referred to as “grandpa,” “grandma” and “cousin” on social media – she didn’t have to remember anymore. Her new identity had subsumed the old.

And so on Jan. 29, 2014, the date Crystal actually turned 31, she posted an image on Instagram. It showed her holding a birthday cake. “Happy 40th to me!!!!!!” wrote Crystal, who was by then working in the food industry.

“We have seen this before,” said Lowery of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. “Some of these kids don’t want to be found, and they assume new identities.”

In the national records database, Nexis, Crystal Marie Saunders, now 45, is a fully-realized person, with a list of New York addresses, a 2010 lien against her in the amount of $1,282, and a felony conviction for criminal sale of a controlled substance. But for Crystal Marie Haag: nothing.

‘I just want to love her’

When her oldest child, Bryan, now 20, reached his late teens, he started asking questions. Where was her family? Everyone has at least some family, he said. At first she didn’t tell him what she’d been doing regularly since Facebook came into existence: furtively checking in on her family back in Baltimore.

She badly wanted to reach out to them and often thought of Cynthia. But she was terrified to contact her relatives, ashamed by what she’d put them through. Only after her son started urging her did she write her sister, Bianca. And then it all happened so fast. Bianca was coming to get her. Crystal was walking through the door of a home she’d left 21 years ago. And Cynthia was so overjoyed to see her – even asking Crystal to sleep in her bed that night – that Crystal decided to stay.

The joy at the reunion, however, soon gave way to uncertainty, even resentment.

Crystal: “She treats me like a child … but I have kids myself.”

Cynthia: “It’s like meeting a whole new person. She leaves as a child, and comes back as a grown adult.”

Crystal: “It’s been very difficult, and sometimes it’s easier to just stay away.”

Cynthia: “I just want to love her.”

But in addition to that, Cynthia had to know why she had left for so long. Crystal, after equivocating for months, finally came out with it. She’d been raped continuously as a child. And she’d thought that Cynthia had known.

Cynthia said she was shocked. She said she’d had no idea that had happened, but no matter how many times she says it, Crystal said she still isn’t certain it’s the truth. She loves her mother – that’s why she came home, why she wondered about her for so many years – but there are so many issues weighing down their relationship that it seems stuck at times.

Still, both keep trying, as months go by, 2018 turning to 2019. Crystal these days lives with an aunt in the same neighbourhood, and often sees her mother, who’s on disability. They’re in each other’s lives, each wanting more. “I just wish we were a bit closer,” said Cynthia, now 61.

But it’s a start. It’s also the end of something else: With her daughter back home, Cynthia will finally move out of the house that she’d refused to leave all of these years.

“Within the next year,” she said. “I’m gone. It’s time to go.”

The term “caveat” has been derived from Latin which means “beware”. According to the dictionary meaning, “a caveat is an entry made in the books of the offices of a registry or Court to prevent a certain step being taken without previous notice to the person entering the caveat”. In other words, a caveat is a caution or warning given by a party to the court not to take any action or grant any relief to the applicant without notice given to the party lodging the caveat. It is very common in testamentary proceedings. It is a precautionary measure taken against the grant of probate or letters of administration, as the case may be, by the person lodging the caveat. Section 148-A of the Code of Civil Procedure provides for lodging of a caveat.

Section 148-A

Section 148-A, as inserted by the Amendment Act, 1976 is a salutary provision. It read as under:

1. Where an application is expected to be made, or has been made, in a suit or proceeding instituted, or about to be instituted, in a Court , any person claiming a right to appear before the Court on the hearing of such application may lodge a caveat in respect thereof.
2. Where a caveat has been lodged under sub-section (1), the person by whom the caveat has been lodged (hereinafter referred to as the caveator) shall serve a notice of the caveat by registered post, acknowledgement due, on the person by whom the application has been, or is expected to be, made, under sub-section (1).
3. Where, after a caveat has been lodged under sub-section (1), any application is filed in any suit or proceeding, the Court, shall serve a notice of the application on the caveator.
4. Where a notice of any caveat has been served on the applicant, he shall forthwith furnish the caveator at the caveators expense, with a copy of the application made by him and also with copies of any paper or document which has been, or may be, filed by him in support of the application.
5. Where a caveat has been lodged under sub-section (1), such caveat shall not remain in force after the expiry of ninety days from the date on which it was lodged unless the application referred to in sub-section (1) has been made before the expiry of the said period.

Object

The underlying object of a caveat is twofold: firstly, to safeguard the interest of a person against an order that may be passed on an application filed b a party in a suit or proceeding instituted or about to be instituted. Such a person lodging a caveat may not be a necessary party to such an application, he may be affected by an order that may be passed on such application. This section affords an opportunity to such party of being heard before an ex parte order is made. Secondly, to avoid multiplicity of proceedings. In the absence of such a provision, a person who is not a party to such an application and is adversely affected by the order has to be taken appropriate legal proceedings to get rid of such order.

The provision related to the caveat would be applicable to suits, appeals as well as other proceedings under the code or under other enactments. It is no doubt true that no order should be passed against the caveator unless he is heard, but if the caveator is not present at the time of hearing of the application and the Court finds that there is a prima facie case in favour of the applicant, ad interim relief can be granted by the Court in his favour. Interim order passed without giving notice to the caveator is not without jurisdiction and is operative till it is set aside in appropriate proceedings.

Who may File?

Sub-section (1) of Section 148-A prescribes qualifications for the person who intends to lodge a caveat. He must be a person claiming a right to appear before the Court on the hearing of the application, which the applicant might move for the grant of interim relief. The language of Sub-section (1) of Section 148-A is wide enough to include not only a necessary party, but even a proper party. Hence, a caveat may be filed by any person who is going to be affected by an interim order likely to be passed on an application which is expected to be made in a suit or proceeding institute or about to be institute in a Court. Thus, a person who is a stranger to the proceeding cannot lodge a caveat. Likewise, a person supporting the application for interim relief made by the applicant also cannot file a caveat.

Rights and Duties

Sub-section (2), (3) and (4) of Section 148-A prescribe the rights and duties of the caveator who lodges a caveat, of the applicant who intend to obtain an interim order and of the Court.

Under Sub-section (2) of Section 148-A, once a party is admitted to the status of a caveator, he is clothed with certain rights and duties. It is his duty to serve a notice of the caveat lodged by him by registered post on the person o persons by whom an application against the caveator for an interim order has been or is expected to be made.

Sub-section (4) of Section 148-A provides that is the duty of the applicant to furnish to the caveator forthwith at the caveator’s expense a copy of the application made by him along with the copies of papers and and documents on which he relies. This provision thus makes it obligatory for the applicant to serve his application along with all copies and documents filed or intended to be filed in support of this application.

Once a caveat had been lodged, under Sub-section (3), it is duty of the Court to issue a notice of that application on the caveat. This duty has been cast on the Court obviously for the purpose of enabling the caveator to appear and oppose the granting of an interim relief in favour of the applicant.