Law Reform Centre

Justice K. Kannan writes on how India’s healthcare law should change. On end-of-life care, he argues that the current process for advance directives, with its notarisation, medical boards and judicial review in disputed cases, can delay relief for weeks or months. He also writes on consent, medical negligence, surrogacy, abortion, and health policy and insurance reform. The second edition of Medicine and Law (2025) tracks a decade of legislative change in healthcare, including the Mental Healthcare Act, 2017 and the HIV and AIDS (Prevention and Control) Act, 2017. It also addresses telemedicine.

Justice K. Kannan argues that telemedicine, health data analytics and AI-based early warning systems must be integrated into national health strategies. He adds that privacy, consent, equity and autonomy must sit at the centre of the legal framework. His passive euthanasia protocol applies the same approach, with an online registry, Aadhaar-linked verification and tele-counselling.

Justice K. Kannan calls for reform within each personal law. On Hindu law, he argues for abolishing the coparcenary right by birth and dissolving the Hindu Undivided Family as an entity for succession. On the Indian Succession Act, he points to inadequate recognition of illegitimate children and, in some cases of intestate succession, a preference for the father over the mother. He notes that the reforms proposed in the Law Commission’s 247th report (2014) to sections 41 to 48 of the Act remain unadopted. In his October 2026 Frontline article, he argues that a national Uniform Civil Code should ensure equal civil rights while leaving wedding ceremonies to each community. He draws on the Goa legitime, the Puducherry rule of “Quotité disponible,” and the 2025 omission of Section 213 of the Indian Succession Act, 1925, which he notes removed the statutory bar requiring probate before rights under a will could be established in court. He has revised Paruck’s Indian Succession Act since 2001.

Justice K. Kannan argues for mainstreaming mediation as a tool of dispute resolution. In his article on insurance claims, he proposes that after a grievance officer rejects a claim exceeding 30 lakh rupees, pre-litigation mediation be attempted before litigation or arbitration. As a member of the National Legal Services Authority, he takes part in shaping policy on legal aid and alternative dispute resolution.