High Courts Weekly Round Up

• Acquitted one Ramdas Shinde, who was sentenced to death after being convicted by the Sessions Judge, Nashik under Section 302 of IPC for murder of a 34-year-old woman and her 6-year-old son.
• While hearing a petition filed by a 29-year-old transgender, the High Court observed that the state government should take steps to include a column for transgenders in the online application form for change of name in the official gazette.
• Held that once the notice of voluntary retirement is accepted, it cannot be withdrawn as the relationship between an employer and an employee comes to an end.
• Declined to restrain a journalist and two flat purchasers from making critical comments against a construction by Lodha Developers of Mumbai.
• While quashing the process issued by a judicial magistrate on a complaint filed under Section 15 of the Environment Protection Act 1986 alleging violation of orders of the National Green Tribunal, the High Court observed that the efficacious remedy in such cases is to approach the NGT itself under Section 26 of the NGT Act.

Calcutta High Court

• Taking suo motu cognizance of the brutal police assault on lawyers in Howrah following a row with the Howrah municipal corporation staff over parking, the Calcutta High Court said "The Court premises are locations which are to be insulated from all sorts of intrusions, except as authorised by law" and that "the society cannot afford to exclude the existence of courts within the reasonable reach of the citizens, including geographically".
• In the suo moto proceedings initiated by the High Court following the attack by police on Howrah lawyers, the Division Bench of Chief Justice T B Radhakrishnan and Justice Arijit Banerjee directed the police officials to ensure that there is no intrusion into the court premises without request or direction by the judicial officer in control.

Delhi High Court

• Dismissed a PIL seeking restrictions on media reporting of the sexual harassment allegations against CJI. The bench headed by CJ Rajendra Menon observed that as the Supreme Court is seized of the matter, the High Court cannot interfere.
• Set aside the Centre's decision to restrict production of Basmati rice only to the Indo-Gangetic plains in Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and parts of Uttar Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir under the garb of maintaining the quality and purity of the seeds.
• issued notice to the government in a plea before it for ensuring that the banks stop practice of technical writing-off of Non Performing Assets (NPAs) and to restrain political parties from offering loan waiving schemes or other monetary schemes in their election manifestos and also to not permit the Central and state governments to reduce or waive off loans as same is bad for the economy.
• Issued notice to the Lieutenant Governor and the Delhi government on a petition seeking quashing of the Delhi Prison Rules, 2018 for being passed in violation of the laid-down procedure and overlooking the welfare of prisoners.
• One can't put value to time & effort put in by mother in upbringing the child said the High Court. Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva said so while deciding the appeal of a woman seeking maintenance from her former husband for herself and their minor daughter.
• In a major embarrassment for the Centre, the High Court quashed the cadre allocations made by the Centre of the IAS officers and IPS officers of the 2018 batch under the new cadre allocation policy as being unfair and illegal and ordered fresh cadre allocation.

Gujarat High Court

• Dismissed a plea of a 'banker' who aspired to become a judicial officer. Bank employee working in its legal branch ineligible to become a Judge the court held.

Madhya Pradesh High Court

• Upheld the restriction imposed by the Election Commission of India in using pictures of defence and military personnel in any advertisement, poster or any other campaign related activities.

Madras High Court

• The Lieutenant Governor (LG) does not have the right to interfere in the daily affairs of the elected government of Puducherry, the Madras High Court ruled.

Patna High Court

• A full bench of Patna High Court held that writ petitions or a Tax Reference can be filed in Hindi but it will have to be accompanied by an authentic English version of the petition.

Punjab & Haryana High Court

• Imposed costs of Rupees Ten Lakhs each on Vishal Dadlani and Tehseen Poonawala for 'insulting' Jain Saint Tarun Sagar in Twitter, even though it found that the criminal cases registered against them are liable to be quashed. The High Court has held that no offences under Sections 153A, 295A , 509 IPC And 66E of IT Act made out from the Compliant.

Tripura High Court

• Held that there is no requirement in the Negotiable Instruments Act that the demand notice under Section 138 of the Act is to be sent through an advocate.