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Introduction The term “illegal immigrant” occupies a contested and consequential space in Indian law: it engages immigration control, citizenship law, criminal procedure and fundamental rights. For practitioners, precise understanding of what constitutes an “illegal immigrant” is not merely academic — it determines detention, deportation, criminal liability under immigration statutes, reliance on the National Register of…

Introduction Hurt is a foundational concept in criminal law. It captures the quintessential wrong of causing bodily pain, disease or infirmity to another person and forms the matrix against which more serious injuries (grievous hurt) and related offences are measured. For practitioners, ‘hurt’ is litigationally significant because it determines charge framing, the degree of proof…

Introduction The House Rent Allowance (HRA) is a ubiquitous component of Indian salary structures and a frequent battleground in tax assessments, employment disputes and compliance audits. For practitioners advising salaried clients, employers, or litigating before tax authorities, mastery of HRA’s statutory contours, evidentiary thresholds and litigation patterns is essential. This article distils the legal framework,…

Introduction Hookah (also called shisha, narghile, or water-pipe) is a smoking apparatus in which tobacco (often flavoured, moassel or gush tobacco) or other smoking mixtures are heated and the smoke is drawn through water before inhalation. In India hookah acquired commercial visibility through “hookah bars” and cafes, raising regulatory, public‑health and licensing issues. For lawyers,…

Introduction The phrase “holder of cheque” is small in words but large in consequence. In everyday commercial life cheques operate as negotiable instruments; the legal identity of the person entitled to enforce a cheque determines whether civil recovery or criminal prosecution under the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881 (NI Act) can be launched. For practitioners appearing…

Introduction HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) in the legal sense is not merely a medical fact — it is a legal identity that triggers a cluster of constitutional rights, statutory duties, penal liabilities and procedural safeguards. For Indian practitioners, HIV raises issues of privacy and confidentiality, discrimination in employment and service delivery, criminal liability for transmission,…

Introduction The label “Hindu” is not merely a sociological descriptor in Indian law; it is a legal category that determines the applicability of an entire body of personal law — marriage, succession, adoption, maintenance, custody, and obligations within the joint family. Determining whether a person is a “Hindu” for the purpose of personal law statutes…

Introduction The Hindu Undivided Family (HUF) is a sui generis institution of Hindu law that continues to play a decisive role in family, property and tax practice in India. Far from a mere anthropological concept, the HUF is a functional juridical entity used for succession, management of ancestral assets, commercial enterprise and tax planning. For…

Introduction Heavy passenger vehicle is a regulatory and forensic category that governs the use, operation, insurance, liability and enforcement of large passenger-carrying motor vehicles — typically buses used by schools, colleges, tour operators, public transport undertakings and corporate shuttles. In practice the label “heavy passenger vehicle” triggers distinct permit regimes, fitness and maintenance standards, driver…

Introduction A “heavy goods vehicle” (HGV) is not merely a technical classification used by transport authorities — it is a legal identity that triggers a distinct regulatory regime, enhanced safety obligations, specialized licensing, heavier penalties for non‑compliance, and particular evidentiary rules in civil and criminal proceedings. In India, the designation matters for registration, permits, taxation,…

Introduction Hazardous cleaning is a legally loaded phrase in contemporary Indian law. It denotes work that exposes employees to grave physical risks—most often the cleaning of sewers, septic tanks, dry latrines, manholes and similar confined spaces—without adequate safety measures, mechanisation or personal protective equipment (PPE). For practitioners, the term is not merely descriptive: it triggers…

Introduction Habeas corpus occupies a central place in the protection of personal liberty in India. Functionally, it is the fastest, most direct judicial remedy to challenge unlawful arrest or detention. For practitioners, habeas corpus is not an arcane writ confined to constitutional textbooks: it is an essential weapon to secure immediate physical liberty, to compel…

Introduction “Guardian” is one of the most frequently invoked yet misunderstood legal statuses in Indian practice. It governs who may make decisions for a minor or for an incapacitated person, who may manage that person’s property, who may consent to medical treatment, travel and education, and who may be held accountable for the child’s welfare….

Introduction Gross Total Income (GTI) is the bedrock concept of direct-tax compliance and controversy in India. It represents the aggregate of income assessed under the five statutory heads and forms the starting point for claiming normative head‑specific deductions, set‑offs and the Chapter VI‑A reliefs that reduce a taxpayer’s liability. For litigators, tax counsel and in‑house…

Introduction Grievous hurt is a core concept in criminal practice and adjudication in India: it elevates a bodily injury from an ordinary assault to an offence carrying substantially higher stigma and punishment, and it shapes investigative priorities, charge-drafting, bail strategy and sentencing. For prosecutors it is often the difference between a bailable and a non‑bailable…

Introduction Gratuity is a statutory terminal benefit payable by an employer to an employee on termination of employment by retirement, superannuation, resignation after qualifying service, death or disablement. In India, gratuity is both a social welfare measure and an employment-rights issue that frequently gives rise to disputes on eligibility, computation and enforcement. For practitioners, mastery…

Introduction Goods is a deceptively simple term that underpins a vast swathe of commercial litigation in India: sale, transfer, pledge, insurance claims, insolvency disputes, tax assessments, carriage of goods and securities enforcement all hinge on whether something is “goods,” what category of goods it falls into, how property and risk in goods pass, and what…

Introduction “Good faith” (bona fides) is a modal thread that runs through multiple branches of Indian law — criminal, corporate, contract, property and administrative law. It is not a single technical term with a universal statutory definition; rather it is a fact-sensitive standard used to distinguish honest, reasonable conduct from mala fides, fraud or wilful…

Introduction A “gift card” in India functions as a commercial voucher or prepaid payment instrument (PPI) that allows the holder to purchase goods or services from a designated merchant or network of merchants. In practice gift cards bridge marketing, contract and payments law: they are simultaneously a means of deferred purchasing, a contractual instrument issued…

Introduction Gift is a fundamental, frequent mode of voluntary transfer in Indian property law. Unlike contracts for consideration, a gift is gratuitous: the donor transfers present ownership to the donee without consideration. Gifts are used across family transactions, estate planning, matrimonial arrangements and commercial restructuring. For practitioners, gifts raise recurring issues: competency, acceptance, registration, stamp…

Introduction “Gestation” in law is not merely a biological period; it is a legal fact with immediate consequences across criminal law, medical regulation, family law, assisted reproduction and evidence. In the Indian context, the precise number of weeks of gestation can determine whether a pregnancy may be lawfully terminated, whether a third party may be…

Introduction Gender queer persons — often described as non-binary or genderqueer — are individuals whose gender identity does not fit within the conventional male/female dichotomy. In the Indian legal landscape, recognition of gender‑diverse identities has shifted from marginalisation to constitutional protection over the last decade. For practitioners, understanding how the law defines, protects and operationalises…

Introduction “Gender Identity Disorder”—more commonly referred to today among clinicians as “gender dysphoria” and in public-health usage as “gender incongruence”—describes the distress that arises when an individual’s self‑identified gender differs markedly from the sex assigned at birth. In the Indian legal context the term sits at the intersection of constitutional rights, criminal and mental‑health law,…

Introduction Gender based discrimination denotes adverse treatment, disadvantage or exclusion of a person because of their sex, gender identity, gender expression or related characteristics. In India’s constitutional and statutory order, prohibitions against sex- or gender-based differential treatment sit at the intersection of fundamental rights (equality, dignity) and a panoply of protective and corrective statutes (labour,…

Introduction Gender affirmative hormone therapy (GAHT) — commonly called hormone replacement therapy (HRT) in some clinical settings — refers to the medically supervised prescription of sex steroids and adjunct medications to induce secondary sex characteristics that align an individual’s physical appearance with their gender identity. In India’s evolving jurisprudence on transgender and gender-variant persons, GAHT…

Introduction The Gazette — commonly styled as the Official Gazette, Gazette of India, or State Gazette — is the formal public journal through which the executive publishes notices, orders, regulations, statutory rules, appointments, notifications and other instruments of public administration. In India the Gazette performs three inter-related functions of great practical importance: (i) it is…

Introduction Ganja occupies a central and practically consequential niche in Indian narcotics law. Although popularly treated as one of several names for cannabis, the statutory meaning assigned to “ganja” under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 (NDPS Act) is precise and determinative of criminal liability, evidentiary strategy and prosecutorial approach. For criminal practitioners…

Introduction Gang rape is not merely an aggregate of individual sexual offences; it is a qualitatively distinct offence that combines multiple assailants, a shared criminal design and the heightened violence, humiliation and social trauma that flow from a coordinated sexual attack. In India’s criminal law landscape, the term is central to how the prosecution frames…

Introduction Fundamental Rights occupy the central place in India’s constitutional order. Enshrined in Part III (Articles 12–35) of the Constitution, they are the primary guarantors of individual dignity, equality, liberty and justice against arbitrary State action. For practitioners, Fundamental Rights are not abstract ideals but sharply effective tools—vehicles for immediate relief, systemic reform and claim…

Introduction Force majeure — a Latin phrase meaning “superior force” — is a central contractual and doctrinal concept in commercial practice. In India it operates both as a creature of contract (the “force majeure clause”) and as a gateway to the statutory doctrine of frustration under Section 56 of the Indian Contract Act, 1872. Practitioners…

Force Introduction Force is a foundational concept in both criminal and civil law in India. It underpins offences ranging from simple assault to rape, informs the doctrine of coercion in contract law, and shapes evidentiary strategies in the courtroom. For practitioners, precise analysis of whether an act amounted to “force” (and whether it was accompanied…

Introduction The legal concept of the foetus occupies a pivotal place where criminal law, medical regulation, reproductive technologies, family law and constitutional rights intersect. For practitioners advising hospitals, litigating reproductive-rights and negligence claims, defending or prosecuting offences related to miscarriage/foeticide, or framing petitions for late-term medical termination, a precise grasp of how Indian law treats…

Introduction Foeticide — the deliberate killing of a foetus in utero — sits at the intersection of criminal law, medical ethics, reproductive rights and specialised regulatory regimes in India. Practitioners encounter it in three distinct contexts: (a) unlawful or criminal termination of pregnancy (often prosecuted under the Indian Penal Code), (b) sex‑selective termination and illegal…

Introduction The First Information Report (FIR) is the trigger that sets criminal machinery in motion in India. It converts a private grievance into a public function—bringing the state’s investigative and prosecutorial resources to bear on alleged criminal conduct. For practitioners, mastery of the law and practice surrounding the FIR is indispensable: it determines whether an…

Introduction A “Financial Year” (FY) is a deceptively simple phrase that anchors a host of substantive and procedural obligations across Indian law — taxation, corporate compliance, GST, company secretarial practice, audit, insolvency and commercial contracts. Practitioners must treat the concept not as mere calendar convenience but as the legal framework that fixes the period for…