Legopolis

A Supreme Court Constitution bench today set aside a 2018 earlier ruling of the apex court limiting the life of interim stay orders granted by courts in civil and criminal cases to six months. A bench comprising Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, Justice Abhay S Oka, Justice JB Pardiwala, Justice Pankaj Mithal, and Justice Manoj Misra stated that there cannot be automatic vacation of stay orders after six months as laid down in its 2018 judgment in Asian Resurfacing of Road Agency v. Central Bureau of Investigation. The bench remarked that they have held that they do not agree with Asian resurfacing judgement and that there cannot be automatic vacation of stay. Hence, the court set aside the directions in the 2018 judgment in Asian Resurfacing in which a three-judge bench of the apex court had directed that all stay orders in criminal as well as civil proceedings would be valid only for six months unless specifically extended. The Court stated that it is unable to concur with t...

The plea challenging the ‘normalisation’ procedure adopted in the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Mains exam was rejected by the Delhi High Court a few days back. The National Testing Agency (NTA) conducts a procedure called Normalisation which compares a candidate’s scores across the question papers of multiple sessions so that a student is not deprived or given advantage by the difficulty level of a particular session’s exam. On February 27, Justice C Hari Shankar rejected the plea filed by one Setu Vinit Goenka against the normalisation procedure at the threshold (in limine). The Court said that the process of normalisation puts away the discrepancy which arises due to unavoidable possibility of different papers being of different difficulty levels. NTA contended that normalisation on percentile basis is a detailed statistical process followed around the world. The Court said that although it does not possess the expertise to subjectively go into the intricacies of the no...

Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud has urged the legal fraternity to understand the peoples’ problems and improve their lives with the help of laws. Speaking during the felicitation function of newly sworn-in judges, organised by the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) on Wednesday, the CJI said that while it was important to have the knowledge of law and the context of its enactment, the understanding of people’s struggles was what made excellent lawyers and judges. The CJI, while comparing judicial decision-making to riding a bicycle, said that when teetering went out of control, complex theories could not help restore balance. In such moments of crisis, a simple idea of justice, rooted in the judge’s understanding of human life, could often provide the necessary stability, he added. He said in moments of imbalance, it was unlikely to find solutions in very complicated, theoretical statements of the law or policy. The stabilising influence in such moments of crisis was often ...

The Madras High Court on Wednesday dismissed the bail plea lodged by former DMK minister V Senthil Balaji, arrested last year by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a money laundering case. Dismissing the bail plea, Justice N Anand Venkatesh noted that Senthil Balaji had been in prison for almost eight months. He further directed the special court to conduct the trial on a day to day basis, aiming to complete it within three months. The Madras High Court stated that the bail application was devoid of merits and that it made more sense for the former minister to instead go before the special court for trial. V Senthil Balaji had also challenged the prosecution materials and alleged that the materials had been tampered with by the agency. Meanwhile, the Enforcement Directorate argued that the court could not venture into a mini trial at the stage of considering bail and even if Balaji had resigned from his ministerial post, he was still an MLA and could influence the witnesses. The i...

The Delhi High Court has directed the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) to provide a Low Income Group (LIG) flat to a man, who applied for the same 45 years ago. Ishwar Chand Jain had applied for a Low Income Group (LIG) flat under DDA’s New Pattern Registration Scheme (NPR scheme) on October 3, 1979. The single-judge Bench of Justice Jasmeet Singh observed that it was the dream of a majority of Delhiites to have a property in their name in the city and the DDA’s failure to provide the flat to Jain on time was mala fide, arbitrary, and amounted to misconduct. The High Court directed DDA to provide an LIG flat to petitioner Ishwar Chand Jain within four weeks at the rate that was prevalent in 1996, the date of allotment of the flat. It rejected the DDA’s stand that since the main file of the petitioner was not traceable in their records, it was not able to say on which date the DAL [Demand cum Allotment Letter] was issued except the statement that DAL was issued at address 3 [third...

The Central government has appointed Supreme Court judge Justice AM Khanwilkar as the new Lokpal Chairperson. The information was shared on the official website of the President of India on Tuesday by way of a press note, which said that President Draupadi Murmu appointed Justice Khanwilkar as the new Lokpal. It further said that three judges have been appointed as judicial members of the Lokpal. These are Justice Lingappa Narayana Swamy, Justice Sanjay Yadav and Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi. Besides, other three persons have also been appointed as members of the anti-corruption body. These are Sushil Chandra, Pankaj Kumar and Ajay Tirkey. The statement said the decision to appoint Justice Khanwilkar as the new Lokpal of India was made following a meeting by a high-level committee consisting Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury. The Lokpal was established under the Lokpal and the Lokayuktas Act 2013. The Lokpal...

The Delhi High Court has upheld a notice which was issued by Delhi Medical Council (DMC) making it compulsory for all the allopathy doctors in the national capital for gettig registered with DMC. Delhi Medical Council has clarified that the validity of the DMC registration of doctors before utilising their services is ensured by all the medical establishments and the registration is renewed every five years. Observing that the intent of making the medical practitioners amenable to the regulatory jurisdiction of the State medical council is in public interest, a division bench of acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora upheld the decision by DMC. The Court held that this would ensure and enable the medical council to hold erring medical practitioners accountable for their wrongful conduct and take disciplinary action against them. The Court said that the contention of the Petitioner that it would be inconvenient for the medical practi...

The Jharkhand High Court on Monday reserved its verdict on a petition lodged by former Chief Minister Hemant Soren who sought permission to attend the ongoing budget session of the Jharkhand assembly. Justice Sujit Narayan Prasad was hearing the petition filed by Hemant Soren and argued by former Union minister and Supreme Court Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal. The proceedings were carried out in virtual mode. While opening the case, Senior Advocate Kabil Sibal contended that Hemant Soren is a people’s representative and his presence in the assembly is required during the budget session. He argued that the former Chief Minister has not been charge-sheeted by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) nor charges have been framed against him.  Countering Kapil Sibal’s arguments, Enforcement Directorate’s counsel and Additional Solicitor General of India, S V Raju, said that Hemant Soren has been detained in custody by the authority of law. He added that the Enforcement Directorate has enough ...

The Supreme Court, while expressing its displeasure over the retired district judges being paid 19,000 to 20,000 after a long service, sought the assistance of Attorney General (AG) R Venkataramani in a case dealing with the judges’ pension. The Bench of Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra on Monday termed it a very serious issue, noting that after spending a significant portion of their working lives in service to the judicial institution, the judges cannot suddenly jump to private practice post retirement. The top court of the country further said that the judges were really disabled. It also took note of the fact that some High Court judges were not being paid pension after retirement, and asked the AG to look into the matter. The AG, while assuring to look into the matter, said that it must be some High Court judges, not all, who were not being paid pension. Earlier, the Apex Court had underlined the importance of enabling judges...

The Allahabad High Court on Monday upheld the order given by the Varanasi Court on January 31, allowing prayers in the ‘Vyas Tehkhana’ (southern cellar of Gyanvapi Mosque). The order was passed by the single-judge Bench of Justice Rohit Ranjan Agrawal on a petition filed by the Anjuman Intezamia Mosque Committee (which manages Gyanvapi Mosque in Varanasi) on February 1. The High Court had earlier reserved its judgment after hearing arguments from both the parties. The Anjuman Intezamia Mosque Committee had moved the High Court after the Supreme Court rejected its petition to urgently hear its plea challenging the Varanasi court order allowing puja in Vyas Ji ka Tehkhana. Earlier this month, the Hindu plaintiff apprised the High Court that even after 1993 when the CRPF took possession of the same, Puja-Path was continued inside the Tehkhana. Hari Shankar Jain who appeared for the Plaintiff-Shailendra Kumar Pathak Vyas submitted the same in a plea filed by the Gyanvapi Mosque commi...

The Tripura High Court has ordered transfer of a civil judge posted in Kamalpur, who was accused of sexually assaulting a rape survivor in his chamber. The High Court issued a notification on February 23, which said that judge Biswatosh Dhar, serving as Civil Judge (Junior Division)- cum-Judicial Magistrate First Class, Kamalpur, Dhalai District, has been transferred to the High Court. He would be kept on compulsory waiting for future posting, it added. The notification said that the charge of the court and office of the civil judge at Kamalpur (First Class Judicial Magistrate) would remain with Madhumita Biswas, Sub-Divisional Judicial Magistrate-cum-Civil Judge (Junior Division), Kamalpur, Dhalai District, till further orders. Judge Dhar was directed to report to the High Court immediately. As per media reports, a woman had claimed that the civil judge groped her on February 16, when she visited his chamber to have a statement recorded regarding her rape case. She filed a com...

The Gujarat High Court has granted 10-day parole to one of the 11 convicts in the Bilkis Bano, who had recently surrendered before Godhra jail, to attend husband nephew’s wedding. The single-judge Bench of Justice Divyesh Joshi granted parole to Ramesh Chandana on Friday on bail bond of Rs 5000 to the satisfaction of the jail authority on usual terms and conditions. The High Court passed the order on the grounds that the applicant had sought the temporary release for attending the marriage of his sister’s son. The applicant was represented by Advocate Khushbu P Vyas, while the State was represented by Additional Public Prosecutor Ronak Raval. Ramesh Chandana was among the 11 people, who were convicted for raping Bilkis Bano and murdering her family members during the Gujarat riots of 2002. These include Radheshyam Shah, Jaswant Nai, Govind Nai, Kesar Vohania, Baka Vohania, Raju Soni, Shailesh Bhatt, Bipin Joshi, Pradip Modhiya, and Mitesh Bhatt. Earlier, Pradipbhai Ramamlal Modi...

A woman in Indore was ordered by the family court  to pay Rs 5,000 per month as alimony to her estranged husband. In her complain the woman had alleged that she was harassed physically and mentally over dowry by her husband. She also filed a petition in the family court demanding spousal support.To this,her husband Aman complaint  that it was her who harassed him after their wedding and demanded alimony.  He alleged that he was unemployed because he had to leave his studies due to his wife. The court heard both sides and ordered the woman to pay Rs 5,000 per month to her husband. The court found inconsistencies in statement of the wife as she first told the police that she runs a beauty parlour. However, she submitted to the court that she was unemployed, and it was her husband who earned.  The family court due to lack of concrete evidence, ordered the woman to pay the monthly amount to her estranged husband. As per the lawyer of the man,this was the first ca...

The Supreme Court recently refused to interfere with a Himachal Pradesh High Court order directing East India Hotels (EIH) Limited, an Oberoi Group company, to hand over its iconic Wildflower Hall hotel in Shimla’s Chharabra to the state government. A bench comprising Justice Abhay S. Oka dismissed an East India Hotels appeal against the 6 January order. Nonetheless, the Supreme Court gave the company a year to comply with it. The High Court had given the company two months to vacate and hand over the hotel’s possession. The January 6 order stated that the EIH had failed to comply with a July 2005 arbitration award that required the company to execute a fresh lease deed with the state government. This followed after the state government filed a petition, seeking the execution of the arbitration award. The Himachal Pradesh government had also said it was willing to run the place. Earlier, in 17 November order, the HC said that the EIH had not completed the formalities laid down in t...

The Supreme Court on Wednesday suggested implementing environmental safeguards and raised concerns about people’s health and welfare while hearing Vedanta’s plea for resumption of its operations at its copper smelter facility in Tamil Nadu’s Tuticorin.  A bench of Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra stated that there is a need to protect the health and welfare of the people. The court added that they cannot be oblivious to the wider concerns of the community.  Appearing for Vedanta, Senior Advocate Shyam Divan informed the bench that the environmental clearance was granted in 2007 and was never ever challenged. To this, the bench observed that they may not be able to direct them to start operating today, but ensure that terms are put to you by an expert panel that show how a red category industry can start, and deposit a certain amount by which the company can start by satisfying environmental safeguards. The Chief Justice of...

Trinamool Congress leader Mahua Moitra has filed a writ petition in the Delhi High Court seeking directions to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to refrain from leaking sensitive and unverified information to the media concerning the investigation taken up by the agency against her for alleged violation of the Foreign Exchange Maintenance Act, 1999 (FEMA). The petitioner has made 19 media houses party to her case and sought directions to restrain them from publishing and circulating any ‘unverified, unconfirmed, false, derogatory content’ against her with regard to these proceedings and also to ensure that all the news reporting and publication were in tune with the official press releases that may be issued by the ED. The writ petition is likely to come up before the single-judge Bench of Justice Subramonium Prasad on Thursday. The petitioner alleged that the national agency leaked the details to the media about her being summoned even before she received the summons. ED also leake...

The Supreme Court has reserved its judgement on a curative petition filed by the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) against the arbitral award of Rs 72000 crore to the Delhi Airport Metro Express Private Limited (DAMEPL). The petition challenged the 2021 verdict of the Apex Court, which upheld the Arbitral Tribunal’s decision in favour of the DAMEPL. The Bench of Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra on Tuesday reserved its judgement in the matter. Appearing for DAMEPL, Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal contended that reopening the decision on an arbitral award under a curative jurisdiction would be akin to opening a Pandora’s box, considering the restricted scope of the Apex Court in a curative petition. The Senior Counsel submitted that the Supreme Court had multiple juridictions, including Special Leave to Appeal under Article 136, appellate jurisdiction, jurisdiction under Article 32 and the powers to do complete justice under Article 1...

Senior Advocate of the Supreme Court and eminent constitutional jurist Fali S Nariman on Wednesday passed away. The 95-year-old breathed his last in New Delhi. Nariman enrolled as an Advocate of the Bombay High Court in November 1950, and was designated Senior Advocate in 1961. He practised law for more than 70 years, initially in the High Court of Bombay and since 1972, in New Delhi in the Supreme Court of India. He was appointed Additional Solicitor General of India in May 1972, when he moved from Bombay to Delhi. The post Eminent constitutional jurist Fali S Nariman passes away appeared first on India Legal . from Top News of the Day – India Legal https://ift.tt/w6yVR9f

Senior Advocate of the Supreme Court and eminent constitutional jurist Fali S Nariman on Wednesday passed away. The 95-year-old breathed his last in New Delhi. Nariman enrolled as an Advocate of the Bombay High Court in November 1950, and was designated Senior Advocate in 1961. He practised law for more than 70 years, initially in the High Court of Bombay and since 1972, in New Delhi in the Supreme Court of India. He was appointed Additional Solicitor General of India in May 1972, when he moved from Bombay to Delhi. The post Eminent constitutional jurist Fali S Nariman passes away appeared first on India Legal . from India Legal https://ift.tt/dQwzjt5

The post Nature and definition of crime appeared first on Law Times Journal .

The Supreme Court recently observed that the termination of a woman nursing officer on the grounds of marriage is a coarse case of gender discrimination and inequality. The Division Bench of Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Dipankar Datta also echoed that rules on the basis of which such women officers were terminated because of their marriage are unconstitutional.  The top court in its order stated that the acceptance of such patriarchal rule undermines human dignity, right to non-discrimination and fair treatment. It added that laws and regulations based on gender-based bias are constitutionally impermissible.It also noted that rules making marriage of women employees and their domestic involvement a ground for disentitlement would be unconstitutional.  The petitioner was selected for Military Nursing Services and joined as a trainee at Army Hospital, Delhi. She was given a commission to the rank of Lieutenant in the MNS. Following, she entered into wedlock with an Army ...

Following a power outage at the Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh High Court in Srinagar leading to a blackout for a couple of hours, the High Court has directed the Union Territory administration to resolve the issue immediately and also devise a permanent solution to the problem. The Division Bench of Justice Atul Sreedharan and Justice Moksha Khajuria Kazmi on Monday recorded that the power failure took place at around 9:30 am and the electricity was yet to be restored at around 11:28 am, when the order was dictated by the Court. Calling the condition of the High Court’s Srinagar wing as ‘pathetic and unbelievable,’ the Bench directed the Chief Secretary of the Union Territory to pass necessary orders to solve the problem forthwith, as also come up with a permanent solution for the Srinagar Bench of the High Court. The Bench recorded in its order that the High Court suffered a complete power failure during the Court hours. There were no lights and the air heating unit (AHU) was als...

The Supreme Court has expressed its strong dissent over the diversion of police department’s resources in investigation of criminal cases, when they could be used for matters of greater societal consequence. The Bench of Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Satish Chandra Sharma observed on Monday that cases involving private parties levelling allegations of financial impropriety against each other should ideally have been decided through civil proceedings. It noted that police found itself entangled in the irrelevant and trivial details of unethical private issues, while it could channelise its efforts in the pursuit of more consequential matters. The Apex Court passed the orders on a petition challenging the Chhattisgarh High Court order, which refused to quash a cheating case regarding exchange of money in lieu of job promise. The case involved a series of parallel proceedings and counter-allegations by the two parties involved. At the outset, the Bench noted that law enforcement ...

Even as the Supreme Court gets ready to hear the allegations of foul play in the Chandigarh Mayoral elections, newly-elected Mayor and Bharatiya Janata Party leader Manoj Sonkar has tendered his resignation. Sonkar resigned on Sunday, a day before the Apex Court was to take up the matter. Chandigarh BJP President Jatinder Malhotra informed the media on Sunday that Sonkar resigned on moral grounds. He alleged that the AAP and Congress were vitiating the atmosphere by levelling baseless allegations of votes tampering. Now when fresh polls will be held, people will get to know who will get the majority, added the Chandigarh BJP chief. Earlier on February 5, a Bench comprising Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Mishra slammed the Returning Officer of Chandigarh Mayor election, stating that he can be clearly seen defacing the ballot papers on video to influence the election result. The Apex Court took strong exception to the Returning Officer...

Even as the Supreme Court gets ready to hear the allegations of foul play in the Chandigarh Mayoral elections, newly-elected Mayor and Bharatiya Janata Party leader Manoj Sonkar has tendered his resignation. Sonkar resigned on Sunday, a day before the Apex Court was to take up the matter. Chandigarh BJP President Jatinder Malhotra informed the media on Sunday that Sonkar resigned on moral grounds. He alleged that the AAP and Congress were vitiating the atmosphere by levelling baseless allegations of votes tampering. Now when fresh polls will be held, people will get to know who will get the majority, added the Chandigarh BJP chief. Earlier on February 5, a Bench comprising Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Mishra slammed the Returning Officer of Chandigarh Mayor election, stating that he can be clearly seen defacing the ballot papers on video to influence the election result. The Apex Court took strong exception to the Returning Officer...

Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud on Saturday suggested the National Law University to change the medium of instruction to Hindi, so that the best students from Uttar Pradesh could become the best lawyers. Speaking during the inauguration of the newest National Law University in the state of Uttar Pradesh, Dr Rajendra Prasad National Law University, the CJI said the NLU must understand the new demands of the legal profession. Calling law students as torchbearers of the future, he said that internships and moot courts were conventionally designed to favour students who belonged to elite and English-speaking background. He said the data taken from surveys of five National Law Universities revealed that the composition of law schools in terms of region, gender and the premium attached to the fluency of English language and a stigma for a lack of knowledge of English language amongst students was acting as a hinderance to the full participation and assimilation of students coming f...

Maharashtra Speaker Rahul Narwekar on Thursday dismissed disqualification petitions lodged against Ajit Pawar faction of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) by senior politician Sharad Pawar. The factions in the NCP emerged back in July 2023. The Maharashtra speaker referred to the legislative majority principle and observed that Ajit Pawar faction enjoyed majority support of MLAs in the legislative assembly and can be considered the real NCP. He added that the resolution that Ajit Pawar faction had support of 41 out of 53 MLAs is not disputed.  Rahul Narwekar said that Ajit Pawar had support of MLAs and they outnumbered the Sharad Pawar faction. He further stated that the switch by MLAs did not fall under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution and hence did not merit disqualification. The Speaker noted that the respondent cannot be disqualified as Ajit Pawar faction constituted the will of the party, therefore, the petitions against them are liable to be dismissed.  He also ...

Supreme Court Bar Association members have sought the removal of Supreme Court Bar Association President Adish Aggarwala over his letter to CJI DY Chandrachud for suo motu action against farmers in the wake of their protests. Around 150 Supreme Court lawyers have signed a resolution which calls for a general body meeting of the Supreme Court Bar Association to discuss the removal of the president for writing the letter to the CJI without having any authority and capacity in the matter and on the letterhead of the Supreme Court Bar Association in blatant misuse of his position. Earlier, the majority of the Executive Committee members of the SCBA had disassociated themselves from the SCBA president’s letter. Among 21 members of the Executive Committee of the SCBA, 13 members in a resolution, clarified that the SCBA President wrote the letter unilaterally without any consultation with the members of the Executive Committee. Mentioning that the letter to the Chief Justice of India, wri...

Supreme Court Bar Association President Adish Aggarwala wrote to Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud on Tuesday urging him to take suo motu action against the farmers who were attempting to forcibly enter Delhi, causing disruption and inconvenience to the public.  The SCBA president also appealed to the Chief Justice of India to direct the courts not to issue any unfavourable rulings owing to the absence of lawyers in court proceedings. Meanwhile, CJI DY Chandrachud took note of the traffic jam in the national capital region and said it would accommodate the lawyers. He added that if any lawyer is facing any travel difficulty, then they will adjust. In the letter, the SCBA president wrote that he is compelled to write this letter to bring to the Chief Justice’s notice that despite best efforts of the Indian government to protect the interest of farmers, some farmers are enroute to Delhi from Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab and are gearing up for a large-scale protest in the ...