Legopolis

Kunal Kamra, stand-up comedian recently moved the Supreme Court seeking an interim stay on the Central government notification for forming Fact Check Units (FCUs) under the 2023 Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Amendment Rules (IT Amendment Rules 2023). The aforesaid rules state that the Centre’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology can notify a fact-checking body which is empowered to identify and tag what it considers false or fake online news with respect to any activity of the Central government. Notably, it is Kunal Kamra’s case that the FCU regime will in effect coerce social media companies to implement self-interested censorship of online content about the Central government. The stand-up comedian in his plea mentioned that intermediaries, as profit making, commercial enterprises would naturally choose to avoid civil or criminal liability for third-party content, and would invariably remove it . He noted that there...

The Supreme Court has quashed a criminal case of obscenity pending against the makers of web series ‘College Romance’. The Bench of Justice AS Bopanna and Justice PS Narasimha on Tuesday set aside a Delhi High Court judgement, which refused to quash the obscenity case against the lead actors and makers of the web series. Noting that vulgarity and profanities did not per se amount to obscenity, the Apex Court observed that the High Court, while analyzing and examining the language used in the web series, erred in construing the language as obscene to be punishable under Section 67 of the Information Technology Act, 2000. It said while a person may find vulgar and expletive-filled language to be distasteful, unpalatable, uncivil, and improper, that by itself was not sufficient to be ‘obscene’. Obscenity was related to material that aroused sexual and lustful thoughts, which was not at all the effect of the abusive language or profanities that have been employed in the episode. Rath...

Coming down heavily on the Public Works Department over its alleged failure to preserve 400 trees, the Delhi High Court has directed PWD to file an affidavit indicating the total plantation that it will do in two months The Public Works Department (PWD) must comply with an order regarding the planting of trees and protect them, the Delhi high court remarked on Tuesday, while asking the authority to file an affidavit indicating the total plantation that it will do in two months. The order was passed by the single-judge Bench of Justice Jasmeet Singh on Tuesday on a petition related to the plantation of trees in the city from funds in the Green Delhi Account. The Bench observed that Delhi was a metropolitan city. Everyone wanted to repose its faith in PWD, but 400 trees had withered away. Despite hostility, the authority has to comply. It asked the department to take whatever action was possible, including putting up a cement grill or a barbed wire, in order to protect the trees. P...

The Central government has notified the transfer of Justice Anu Sivaraman from the Kerala High Court to the Karnataka High Court. Justice Sivaraman had asked for a transfer out of the State of Kerala on October 16, 2023. In February 2024, the Supreme Court Collegium accepted her request and recommended her transfer to the Karnataka High Court. A notification issued on Monday by the Department of Justice said that in exercise of the power conferred by clause (1) of Article 222 of the Constitution of India, the President, after consultation with the Chief Justice of India, was pleased to transfer Justice Anu Sivaraman, Judge of the Kerala High Court, as a Judge of the Karnataka High Court. She was directed to assume charge of her office in the Karnataka High Court. Justice Sivaraman enrolled as an advocate on March 3, 1991. She subsequently served as Standing Counsel for the Corporation of Cochin from 2001 to 2010 and later as a Senior Government Pleader from January 2007. Additiona...

The Central government has notified the transfer of Justice Sujoy Paul from the Madhya Pradesh High Court to the Telangana High Court. The resolution issued on Monday said that in exercise of the power conferred by clause (1) of Article 222 of the Constitution of India, the President, after consultation with the Chief Justice of India, was pleased to transfer Justice Sujoy Paul, Judge of the High Court of Madhya Pradesh, as Judge of the Telangana High Court. He was directed to assume charge of his office in the Telangana High Court. On February 14, 2024, the Supreme Court Collegium had recommended the transfer of Justice Paul after he made a personal request for the same on the ground that his son was currently practicing before the Madhya Pradesh High Court. Born on June 21, 1964, Justice Paul enrolled as an Advocate in 1990. He practiced civil, constitutional and service matters in the High Court of Madhya Pradesh at Jabalpur. He was appointed as Judge of the High Court of Madhy...

The Central government has cleared the transfer of Calcutta High Court judge Justice Moushumi Bhattacharya to the Telangana High Court. The notification issued by the Ministry of Law and Justice said that in exercise of the power conferred by clause (1) of Article 222 of the Constitution of India, the President, after consultation with the Chief Justice of India, was pleased to transfer Justice Moushumi Bhattacharya, Judge of the Calcutta High Court, as Judge of the Telangana High Court. Justice Bhattacharya was directed to assume charge of her office in the Telangana High Court. The Supreme Court Collegium recommended Justice Bhattacharya’s transfer in February 2024 after she herself requested for the same. The resolution of the Collegium said that by a communication dated February 12, 2024, Justice Moushumi Bhattacharya sought a transfer from the High Court at Calcutta to any other High Court for personal reasons. Acceding to the request, the Collegium has resolved to recommend...

The Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court has rejected to quash a summoning order as well as a charge sheet ag ainst 3 persons in a case related to hailing another country and raising slogans against India and of abusing and threatening the persons present in religious preaching in a temple. A Single Bench of Justice Subhash Vidyarthi passed this order while hearing an application under section 482 filed by Faizan Ahmad @ Idrisi Faizan Shamshad Ahmad and Others. By means of the application filed under Section 482 Cr.P.C, the applicant has sought quashing of the proceedings of summoning order dated 11.03.2019 passed by the Judicial Magistrate-II, Lucknow in Criminal Case under Sections 153, 506 IPC, Police Station Hasanganj, Lucknow as well as charge-sheet dated 29.03.2018 filed in respect of the Case under Sections 153, 506 IPC. Opposite party No 2 lodged an FIR in Police Station Hasanganj, Lucknow on 23.07.2017 stating that three persons had entered a temple campus while a re...