High Courts Weekly Round-Up

Allahabad High Court

Full Court of the Allahabad High Court on Wednesday upheld the constitutional validity of Section 14A (2) of the Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Act, 2015, which makes provision for an appeal from an order granting or refusing bail, even though such order is an interlocutory order, notwithstanding anything contained in sub­section (3) of Section 378 Cr.P.C.

The High Court upheld death penalty for a man accused of murdering his wife and a daughter.

A Full Bench of five judges of the High Court turned down the reference which doubted the correctness of the Division Bench decision in Dr. Vishwajeet Singh and ors. Vs. State of U.P. and ors, which had held that no reservation in post of Lecturer as per  UP Higher Eduction Service Commission Act, 1980 need be provided if the number of posts in the cadre is less than three.

On Wednesday, the High Court ruled that an order passed under Section 14(2) of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 can be challenged under Article 227 of the Constitution of India, and that Section 115 of the Code of Civil Procedure cannot be viewed as a bar against the court’s extraordinary supervisory jurisdiction.

Bombay High Court

The Bombay High Court directed the Director, Higher Education, Maharashtra, for the Common Entrance Test (CET) to admit a law aspirant to the three-year LLB course and said the denial of admission had no ‘logical justification’.

The High Court quashed criminal prosecution against a woman from whom some counterfeit currency notes were found in the cash she had brought for depositing in the bank after demonetisation.

The High Court recently sought to know the statutory impediment in the way of a person to avail of the benefit of more than one Slum Scheme.

The High Court recently upheld the conviction of a father for raping his minor daughter, opining that the mother would have no reason to file a false rape case against him, as it can even damage “prospect of marriage” of the girl child.

A full bench of the High Court sentenced Ketan Tirodkar, formerly a journalist, to three months’ simple imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs 2,000 after finding him guilty for criminal contempt of court. The bench comprised Justice AS Oka, Justice SC Dharmadhikari and Justice RM Savant. The court had taken suo motu cognizance of Tirodkar’s Facebook posts. In these posts, Tirodkar had named sitting and retired judges of the high court and alleged that they take bribes for passing favourable orders.

Calcutta High Court

The Calcutta High Court Wednesday refused to interfere in the West Bengal government’s decision to give Rs 10,000 each to 28,000 Durga puja committees in the state.

 Delhi High Court

On Monday, the High Court termed as “gender discrimination” the Indian Army’s practice of having only women in its nursing service. “It is gender discrimination, only other way round,” a bench of Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice V K Rao observed after it was informed that male nurses were not recruited into the Army’s nursing branch.

The High Court on Monday also ruled that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) need not seek the State’s consent for investigation under Delhi Special Police Establishment Act, 1946 (DSPE Act), except when the case is registered in such State.

The High Court permitted the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to file a closure report in the case concerning the disappearance of JNU student Najeeb Ahmed nearly two years ago.

The High Court held that a Public Information Officer(PIO) cannot deny information under the Right to Information Act 2005(RTI Act) on the ground that authentic information is available with another authority.

On Tuesday, the High Court dismissed a petition seeking cancellation of Shashi Tharoor’s anticipatory bail in the case accusing him of allegedly abetting the suicide of his wife, Sunanda Pushkar.

The High Court, on Tuesday, also refused to entertain a PIL seeking directions to the Election Commission of India (ECI) to frame guidelines for advertising criminal antecedents of candidates in the election campaign in compliance with the Supreme Court judgment in Public Interest Foundation v. Union Of India.

The High Court refused to stay the order of the Chief Information Commission (CIC) by which the Delhi University was directed to allow inspection of evaluated answer sheets.

The High Court recently quashed defamation proceedings initiated against Bennett Coleman and Co. Ltd., its Whole-time Directors, Managing Directors and Editors, for an article published on Advocate Deepak Khosla.

The High Court on Friday upheld the conviction of a man who was accused of killing his wife’s secret lover. The trial court had sentenced the man and another accused to life imprisonment.

On Friday, the High Court quashed the Aam Aadmi Party government’s circular on giving preferential treatment to Delhi residents over non-residents at the GTB Hospital here. A bench of Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice V K Rao had earlier reserved its verdict on the PIL filed by NGO Social Jurist challenging the Delhi government’s pilot project.

The High Court agreed to hear a plea of All-India Bank Officers’ Confederation (AIBOC) challenging the Centre’s proposal to merge Vijaya Bank, Dena Bank and Bank of Baroda.

Kerala High Court

The High Court of Kerala held that the District Collectors should involve the Kerala High Court Advocates Associations(KHCAA) while distributing the flood relief materials imported by the Association.  The wishes of the Association should be given due weightage while distributing flood relief materials imported by it, observed the Court.

The High Court on Thursday dismissed a petition filed by Akhila Bharat Hindu Mahasabha seeking directive to the Centre for issuing an order enabling Muslim woman to enter mosques for offering prayers.

Madhya Pradesh High Court

The Madhya Pradesh High Court recently reiterated that establishing sexual relations with a woman on false promise of marriage falls under the definition of rape and refused to quash an FIR filed against a man.

Madras High Court

The Madras High Court issued certain directives while answering a reference on the scope of Section 482 CrPC proceedings challenging refusal to record the information about crime by the Station House Office. The bench comprising Justice MM Sundresh and Justice N Sathish Kumar held that such petitions can only be filed after the completion of 15 days from the date of receipt of the information by the Station House Officer.

The High Court on Friday ordered CBI investigation into the corruption allegations against Tamil Nadu Chief Minister E Palaniswami, which pertain to awarding of contracts of highway projects worth crores to his relatives.

Patna High Court

The Patna High Court on Tuesday dismissed an anticipatory bail plea filed by former Bihar minister Manju Verma who is facing arrest in an Arms Act case.

The High Court converted sentence of death penalty imposed on a man accused of rape and murder of a 3-year-old to life imprisonment taking into account of his ‘early’ age and lack of criminal antecedents.

Punjab & Haryana High Court

Reiterating that there is no bar on teachers being posted on election duty, the Punjab and Haryana High Court held that the mere fact that some teachers are drawing higher salary than the Deputy Commissioner and therefore, cannot be directed by him to perform a duty, does not hold any significance as the electoral officer is discharging constitutional duties.

The High Court on Tuesday directed the State of Punjab to initiate appropriate action on the complaints regarding morphing of images of Sikh Gurus on social networking sites.

Tripura High Court

The Tripura High Court stayed the cancellation of registration of newspaper “Daily Deshar Katha”, which has been the mouthpiece of CPI(M) in Tripura for the last forty years.

 Uttarakhand High Court

The Uttarakhand High Court on Wednesday directed the State to restore the Samadhi of Adi Shankracharya Ji at Kedarnath within one year. The Bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Rajiv Sharma and Justice Manoj Kumar Tiwari  also directed the District Administration to ensure that the local traditional hill architecture is taken into consideration while repairing/restoring the samadhi, and to ensure that the “architecture merges with the surrounding landscape”.

The High Court on Thursday directed the Centre to appoint a regular Director to the National Institute for Visually Handicapped within three weeks. The Bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Rajiv Sharma and Justice Manoj Kumar Tiwari also banned newspaper reporters from publishing any oral observations made during submissions or interactive sessions. Additionally, it warned them against publishing any news-item without verifying its contents as per orders passed by the court.