High Courts Weekly Round Up

• heard a petition filed by a 56-year-old lawyer accused under Sections 376(2)(i)(n), 323 and 496 of Indian Penal Code 1860 and Sections 6 and 10 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act 2012, and Sections 9, 10 and 11 of Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006 for quashing of FIR u/Section 482 of IPC. A division bench of Justice Ranjit More and Justice Bharati Dangre noted that if a girl who was a minor at the time of her marriage, willingly agrees to cohabit with husband, the voidable marriage would become valid.
• 'Fear of court martial might have led to jawan's suicide', the High Court said while quashing FIR against journalist
• In a significant judgment which can have impact on internet streaming services by OTT platforms, the High Court held that Section 31D of the Copyright Act 1957 covers only radio and TV broadcasting and not internet broadcasting.
• Recently allowed a petition filed by one Shaikh Istiyaq Ahmed, who was lodged in Thane Central prison after being convicted of being a drug trafficker by the Supreme Court of Mauritius in 2014 and sentenced to 26 years in prison. He was transferred to India three years later, in 2017.

Delhi High Court

• Justice Chander Shekhar allowed Bharti's plea to quash the criminal case after noting that Bharti and his wife Lipika Mitra are living happily together. The court also noted that the woman has no objection if the FIR is quashed.
• Coming to the aid of a man suffering from a rare life-threatening neuromuscular disorder, the High Court allowed the clinic from where he had been receiving stem cell therapy to provide him treatment even as the New Drugs and Clinical Rule, 2019 include "stem cell-derived products" as "new drugs" thereby requiring a clinic to obtain licence from central licensing authority for clinical trials, usage or treatment of stem cell.

Himachal Pradesh High Court

• Directed the State Government to take a decision on the licensing of cultivation of medicinal and industrial cannabis. The order was passed by the Division Bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Sandeep Sharma, while considering a plea by Advocate Deven Khanna for allowing non-narcotic use of cannabis in Himachal Pradesh.

Uttarakhand High Court

• Ordered four former Chief Ministers of Uttarakhand to pay within six months the rent for the buildings occupied by them for free as former chief ministers and also the amount payable for other amenities like electricity, security and guard, staff, civil works, telephone, etc., while dismissing as "specious" the plea of the state government that the due rent be waived off in lieu of the "priceless services" rendered by them during their tenure in office.