Best of 2015; Read 25 Significant Judgments of High Courts in India last year [Updated]

LiveLaw has reported almost all important judgments of various High Courts across India in 2015. Here is the list of 25 significant and most discussed Judgments delivered by various High Courts across India.1. Newspaper must report an order of the Court as it stands, instead of creating sensation This ruling by Himachal Pradesh High court is very significant as far as we reporters are...

Constitution Bench Judgments of Supreme Court of India in 2015

A bench of at least five judges of the Supreme Court which sit to decide any case “involving a substantial question of law as to the interpretation of the Constitution of India” is popularly known as ‘Constitution bench’. Largest ever Constitution bench comprising of 13 judges of the Apex Court had heard the famous Keshavananda Bharati case. More than 75% of the Constitution...

Order. Order! Order? – Visiting Judicial Controversies of 2015

Whittier wrote –“For all sad words of tongue or pen,The saddest are these : It might have been.”Shedding the controversies of the winter past, 2015 wrote its own bundle of issues. Apart from the political establishments which have mastered the art of controversies and which probably run their business on controversies, the judiciary too this year proved correct Whittier’s notion of...

Exclusive; This Powerful Dissent of Prof. Sridhar in CIC Order shows 'all was not well in #DDCA'

Even as the nation remains transfixed with the controversy surrounding Arun Jaitley’s role as the head of the scam-hit DDCA from 1999 onwards for a period of 13 years, it has now come to light that the Central Information Commission by a majority of 2:1 vide judgment dated 13.04.2015 has deferred for consideration the question as to whether the DDCA would be a public authority within...

Lifer without Remission, Another Regressive Verdict

The US is known for very long sentences: Dudley Wayne Kyzer was awarded 10,000 years imprisonment for brutally murdering his wife; Juan Corona was given 25 consecutive life sentences for the murder of 25 migrant farm workers; Ariel Castro was sentenced to life plus 1,000 years for kidnapping; Chamoy Thipyaso in China was given 1,41,078 years of imprisonment for corporate frauds; Moses Sithole,...

Bombay High Court should have ordered retrial of Salman Khan

R v Sussex Justices, Ex parte McCarthy ([1924] 1 KB 256, [1923] All ER Rep 233) is a leading English case in which emerged the oft-quoted aphorism "Not only must Justice be done; it must also be seen to be done." When High Court noticed deficiencies in investigation and prosecution, most common sense remedy could have been ‘retrial’ i.e., remanding back to trial court to summon...

Kerala Liqour Policy; Placing a moratorium on hotels other than Five Star is not a violation of Article 14 of the Constitution; SC [Read Judgment]

In a major setback to the bar owners in Kerala, the Supreme Court has upheld the controversial Abkari policy for the year 2014-2015 framed by the Kerala Government restricting the issuance of bar licenses (FL-3) to five-star hotels in the State to serve alcohol to the public, and not to renew the existing bar licences issued to any of the other hotels. Additionally, the Government had decided...

Best of 2015; Read 25 Significant Judgments delivered by Supreme Court of India this year

As 2015 is going to end soon and we are about to see the dawn of 2016, it is the apt time to have a relook at what all we did this year. For humans living in legal world, viz. Lawyers, reporters and Law student, it is apt time to re look at what Supreme Court said this year. What new interpretation of law did the Apex Court offer and what Law has been struck down? We at LiveLaw,...

SC Constitution Bench hearing on every Mondays and Fridays from next month ; Euthanasia, NCLT, Guidelines on SLP, Removal of Governor etc listed for hearing

From 11th January 2016, on Mondays and Fridays at 2.00 P.M, Five Judge Constitution bench of the Apex Court would take up the matters published in the list. The notice dated 23.12.2015, published in the Supreme Court website has a list of the cases which would be taken up for hearing by the Constitutional bench.The notice reads as follows “TAKE NOTICE that the matters shown below which are...

Exclusive: Startling revelations after Bombay High Court stays the release of Encounter Cops

An interim stay by the Bombay high court on the suspension of sentence and release of 11 encounter cops has brought to light startling facts with regard to the abuse of the statutory powers to suspend/remit sentences  by the Maharashtra Government.  The high court bench, comprising Justice Ranjit More and Justice VL Achliya, stayed on December 21, the state Government’s suspension of...

Exclusive: Arvind Datar-Pinky Anand Committee’s Second Report on Collegium Reform [Read Report]

The second report of the Supreme Court-appointed committee comprising senior Advocate Arvind P Datar and Additional Solicitor-General Pinky Anand has now been made public. The committee had to submit the second report, following the decision of the Court to issue a public notice through the Department of Justice, Ministry of Law and Justice, seeking suggestions from the public.  Although...

Rethinking the Preamble

It is an irony that much debate was required for the Government to say that the Constitution is our holy book. The treacherous remarks on secularism and socialism by the Home Minister created initial obfuscation that had to be erased by the Prime Minister’s assurance to stick on to the constitutional values. The Government ultimately acknowledged the distinction between conventional...