High Courts Weekly Round Up

• Reprimanded the Uttar Pradesh for the "unsound" practice of taking possession of private land without an acquisition or giving any compensation. A bench of Justice Shashi Kant Gupta and Justice Pankaj Bhatia also reminded the government that the right to property might no longer be a fundamental right but it still is a constitutional right and also a human right.

Bombay High Court

• In a significant decision which could pave way for many homebuyers awaiting conveyance, the High Court held that once full occupation certificate has been received by the developer, there was no justifiable cause for it not issuing any conveyance deed in favour of the purchasers of flats.
• Directed the Director General of Police, Maharashtra to set up a Special Investigation Team in order to conduct a fresh probe into the death of one Sham Athwale who suffered from 40% disability and was killed in an alleged fake encounter.
• Quashed and set aside the conviction of a 19-year-old in a rape case. Court gave the benefit of doubt of the accused and concluded that the sole testimony of the victim cannot be relied upon as there were talks of marriage between the victim and the accused before the incident.

Delhi High Court

• Paved the way for an aspiring engineer desirous of joining one of the prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) to appear in JEE (Advanced)- 2019 examination even as he had appeared in Class XII examination in the year 2017 as against the information bulletin released by IIT-Roorkee required a candidate to have appeared in Class XII (or equivalent) examination for the first time in either 2018 or 2019.
• Stayed in the interim Rule 7 of the amended 'The High Court of Delhi Designation of Senior Advocate Rules, 2018' which provides that an advocate may be considered by the High Court for being designated as Senior Advocate on a Joint Proposal by three Senior Advocates.
• Declined to entertain a PIL which referred to actor-politician Kamal Haasan's remark about Mahatma Gandhi's assassin being a Hindu terrorist and had sought directions to the Election Commission (EC) to "restrict" misuse of religion for poll gains.
• Restrained Hyderabad-based Natco Pharma from manufacturing fresh stock of drugs comprising of compound named 'Ceritinib' meant for treatment of non small cell lung cancer but allowed it to sell the existing stock keeping in the interest of the patient community.
• Directed the government of NCT Delhi to decide on the establishment of 18 fast track courts and 22 commercial courts in various districts of Delhi as demanded by the high court and sought a report on the decision taken before May 30.
• In the case of Dr. Bishnupriya Dutt & Ors. v. JNU, the court ruled that to effect selections and faculty positions at Jawaharlal Nehru University, approval of Academic Council is necessary.
• Clarified that a book has to be judged by its functional characteristics to see if it is a 'work book' that test child's knowledge, in which case it will be fully exempt from GST, or is it merely an 'exercise book' containing lines to facilitate writing or manual copying of a text, in which case it will be subject to GST.
• Granted three-week parole to Santosh Kumar Singh, who is serving life term for the 1996 rape and murder of law student Priyadarshini Mattoo, to write his LLM examination.
• A murder accused lodged in Delhi Jail was able to attempt the Manipur Civil Service (Combined) Competitive Preliminary Exams 2019 after the High Court allowed him to travel to Manipur via flight in police custody. While passing the order, the court was mindful of the poor financial status of the accused as it directed the Prison Department of the Delhi government to bear the cost travel, boarding and lodging of the officers accompanying the accused.
• Asked the state legal services authority, DSLSA, how it determines the compensation to be awarded to victims of acid attacks. A bench of Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice A J Bhambhani posed the query to the Delhi State Legal Services Authority while hearing a plea by a woman, who claimed to be an acid attack victim, seeking enhancement of the compensation awarded to her.

Gauhati High Court

• Denied bail to one accused person who had uploaded his profile photo in his Facebook account with a message 'I stand with Pakistan Army'. The police registered the FIR against him for the offences under Sections 121/124A/505(1)(b) of the IPC R/W Section 66 of the I.T. Act.

Jammu & Kashmir High Court

• Directed the YouTube, Facebook and Twitter to remove all materials/posts/publications which tend to disclose the identity and name of the infant victim of the sexual violence in the incident on 8th of May 2019 in District Bandipora of Kashmir and to ensure that no such material is uploaded on their channels.
• Quashed an order of the Bengaluru Development Authority whereby appointment on compassionate ground was rejected on account of the applicant being born out of the second marriage of its deceased employee.

Karnataka High Court

• Upheld the verdict of the trial court whereby the latter had convicted advocate S. L. Rajappa, who had killed a fellow lady advocate in the court corridor by stabbing her with a knife multiple times on her chest and neck. The Trial Court had sentenced accused to imprisonment for life.

Kerala High Court

• Observed that there is a growing tendency in the recent years to foist false crimes against the biological father alleging sexual abuse of own child misusing the provisions of the POCSO Act when serious fight for custody of ward is pending resolution before the Family Courts. The bench comprising Justice K. Harilal and Justice TV Anil Kumar observed that unless there are reliable materials capable enough to convince the allegation of sexual abuse to be well founded, mere registration of crime shall not be reckoned as a ground for rejecting the claim of the parent for custody of the child.

Madhya Pradesh High Court

• Dismissed a plea for hoisting of the National Flag every day on the public buildings. There is no mandate in the Flag Code of India that the National Flag should be hoisted on all days on the public buildings, said the bench comprising the Chief Justice SK Seth and Justice Vijay Kumar Shukla.

Rajasthan High Court

• Took suo motu cognizance of rising rape incidents in Bharatpur and Jhalawar districts in the state and issued a notice to the state government seeking reply by May 27. A division bench of Justice Sandeep Mehta and Justice Vinit Kumar Mathur, while expressing concern over an abrupt spurt in such cases, said the administration and the police have miserably failed in taking befitting and timely steps to curb these incidents.