High Courts Weekly Round-Up

Allahabad High Court

The Allahabad High Court came down heavily on the Uttar Pradesh Government for cancelling a Type-VI accommodation provided to the Lokayukta and instead allotting a lower category accommodation.

Bombay High Court

The Bombay High Court on Monday refused to stay the Reserve Bank of India’s deadline of December 31 for dilution of promoter stake in Kotak Mahindra Bank. The RBI had ordered the bank to reduce its promoter shareholding to 20% of paid-up capital by December 31, 2018, and 15% by March 31, 2020.

The High Court issued notice to the Centre and the Maharashtra government on plea of 12 farmers from Nanded district seeking compensation in lieu of their land acquired for facelift of a stretch of NH50.

The High Court issued landmark directions to Nashik Municipal Corporation (NMC) for ensuring that the river Godavari remains pollution-free. The Godavari, the second largest river in India, is also known as Dakshin Ganga (the Ganges of the South) is the main source of water supply to Nashik.

The High Court recently enhanced the interim compensation sought by one Catherine Edwards from Rs 8,000 to Rs 50,000 and set aside two judgments, one by the magistrate court granting her only Rs 8,000 per month as maintenance and the other by an Additional Sessions Judge who rejected her appeal against the said judgment.

The High Court on Tuesday asked the State of Maharashtra to conduct a fresh census of street children in Mumbai and other areas in the State. The court directed the State to submit a proposal regarding the same. A division bench of Chief Justice Naresh H Patil and Justice Makarand S Karnik also sought to know what the task force committee constituted for assessing the situation of street children and finding solutions has done in the past 3-4 years.

The High Court in a judgment pronounced on Thursday confirmed the death sentence awarded to one Chandrabhan Sanap who was convicted of rape and murder of a 23-year-old software engineer from Andhra Pradesh employed with TCS in Goregaon, Mumbai.

The High Court on Friday dismissed Professor Anand Teltumbde plea to quash FIR registered against him in relation to Bhima­-Koregaon incident.

Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court on Friday acquitted six people in the Yavatmal human sacrifice case of 2012. The judgment was passed by a bench comprising Justice PN Deshmukh and Justice MG Giratkar.

A Hong-Kong based concern claiming to be working in India under the ‘Make in India’ initiative secured relief from the Bombay High Court on Friday. Some 69 workers of the said concern were invited by Pacific Cyber Company Pvt Ltd, an Indian company engaged in development and assembly of mobile phones, to visit the Pacific’s plants in Daman and Silvasa, to provide technical know-how and train the Indian staff. These workers were issued a business visa which is still valid.

Calcutta High Court

The Calcutta High Court Friday quashed the single bench order that allowed BJP’s ‘Rath Yatra’ in West Bengal. The Division bench comprising Chief Justice Debasish Kargupta and Justice Shampa Sarkar send the case back to the single bench to consider intelligence inputs by state agencies.

Censuring litigants and lawyers for filing multiple bail applications in the same matter, the High Court recently dealt with the practice with iron hand. The bench comprising Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Suvra Ghosh was dealing with three petitioners who had applied for anticipatory bail without disclosing that the High Court had rejected their prayer in March last year.

Chhattisgarh High Court

The Chhattisgarh High Court recently quashed government circulars that restrained Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTG) from ‘family planning’ by undergoing sterilization.

Delhi High Court

The Delhi High Court upheld the conviction of three men for attempting to murder three judges by hurling bricks at their official car in 2012. Justice Mukta Gupta, however, modified the sentence awarded to the three convicts—Rohit (five years), Anil Raj (five years) and Prashant Kumar (period already undergone).

The High Court, on Monday, convicted Congress leader Sajjan Kumar in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case. A bench comprising Justice S. Muralidhar and Justice Vinod Goel set aside a lower court order that had acquitted him of the charges. In doing so, the bench reportedly said,

The High Court allowed the NGO, Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust to file its annual returns under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA), 2010 offline, without registration with the NGO-DARPAN portal maintained by NITI Aayog, which mandatorily requires input of Aadhaar details.

The High Court directed Patanjali Ayurveda Ltd. to cooperate with the Income Tax Department, for the special audit proposed by the latter. A bench comprising Justice S. Ravindra Bhat and Justice Prateek Jalan opined that “far from showing non-application of mind”, the Assessment Officer (AO) had carefully looked into all aspects before passing the impugned order.

The High Court held that advertisement is a facet of commercial speech which is protected by Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution of India and the same can be restricted only in accordance with law enacted under Article 19(2) of the Constitution

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday sought the Centre and AAP government’s stand on a plea by the Honorary Consul of South Africa seeking permission to put up a statue of late Nelson Mandela on a road named after him in the national capital.

The High Court held that Section 69(2) of the Indian Partnership Act,1932 does not bar an unregistered partnership firm filing a suit on a cause of action based on dishonour of cheque.

The High Court on Friday, dismissed the petition filed by Sajjan Kumar seeking extension of time to surrender. He was directed by the Court last Monday to surrender on or before December 31 to serve the sentence of life imprisonment imposed on him for his involvement in 1984 anti-sikh riots.

The High Court held offence of domestic violence under Section 498A IPC  has to be treated as a “continuing offence”. The Court further held that the claim for maintenance was a “continuing cause of action”, and wife was not barred from claim it under the Domestic Violence Act even after a period of three years.

The High Court on Friday dismissed the plea by Associated Journals Ltd (AJL), publisher of National Herald, challenging the Centre’s order to vacate the premises in the national capital. Justice Sunil Gaur said AJL will have to vacate the premises at ITO here within two weeks after which proceedings under the Public Premises (Eviction of Unauthorized Occupants) Act, 1971 would be initiated.

Tandoor murder convict Sushil Sharma will see the light of the day after having spent 23 years in incarceration with the Delhi High Court on Friday ordering his immediate release. A  bench of Justices Siddharth Mridul and Sangita Dhingra Sehgal ordered that Sharma be released from Tihar jail where he has been serving life term since 1995 for murdering his wife and attempting to destroy her body parts by burning them in a clay oven or tandoor at a restaurant here.

The High Court abolished the Beggars Court, through a public notice dated December 20. The move comes four months after the court struck down anti-begging provisions as unconstitutional.

Gujarat High Court

Tolerance for all religions, patience, harmony and welfare of mankind are the basic tenets of Hinduism, the Gujarat High Court observed recently, while refusing to ban showcase of the movie “Kedarnath” in the State of Gujarat. The order was passed by a bench comprising Acting Chief Justice AS Dave and Justice Biren Vaishnav on a petition filed by an organisation called International Hindu Sena.

Karnataka High Court

The Karnataka High Court recently rejected a petition filed by a Mysuru woman against her 82-year-old mother, asserting that it is the “duty and dharma” of children to take care of their aged parents.

Kerala High Court

The High Court of Kerala ordered the re-instatement of Prasad Pannian, Associate Professor of Central University of Kerala(CUK),who was placed under suspension for a making a post in Facebook criticising the University’s action against a student.

The High Court of Kerala on Wednesday dismissed the petition filed by Malayalam cine actor Dileep for CBI investigation in the criminal case relating to sexual crimes committed against an actor.

The High Court held that a candidate who secured admission for PG Medical course in the quota for Insurance Medical Service(IMS) cannot seek to switch over to Government service after course. The Court held that he has to serve the IMS itself as per the bond executed.

While considering a petition related to church case involving Jacobite and Malankara Orthodox factions, the High Court observed that no discretion is vested in any of officers of the Police department, however high he may be, to decide as to which court order shall be enforced and which shall not be.

Recently, the High Court observed that laminating an identity card destroys its legality and authenticity. While hearing a co-operative society matter, the division bench comprising of Justice V. Chitambaresh and Justice R. Narayana Pisharadi was responding suggestion made by Advocate George Poonthottam about modernizing the voter’s identity cards of cooperative societies by lamination and bar code.

While setting aside a single bench order imposing exemplary costs for some defects in a writ petition, the High Court observed that no court shall be prestige conscious as to disallow permission to withdraw a writ petition unless the hearing has advanced to a considerable stage consuming time.

The High Court directed the exclusion of persons below the age of 18 years from the ‘Women Wall'(vanitha mathil) campaign of the Government. The Division Bench of Chief Justice Hrishikesh Roy and Justice A K Jayasankaran Nambiar was considering a batch of petitions challenging the program.

Madras High Court

The Madras High Court restrained online business in drugs and cosmetics until Central Rules in this regard are notified. Justice Pushpa Sathyanarayana directed the Central Government to notify the rules at the earliest, not later than 31st January 2019.

In a major setback to the Vedanta Group, the Madurai Bench of the High Court on Friday stayed the National Green Tribunal’s (NGT’s) December 15 order that had permitted it to reopen its copper smelting plant in Tuticorin.

Meghalaya High Court

The Division Bench of Meghalaya High Court on Monday stayed the proceedings before Justice S R Sen for enhancing the post-retirement benefits for judges. This was after Justice Sen had served contempt-notice on Chief Secretary and other officials of the Government for failing to comply with his orders within time.

Orissa High Court

The Orissa High Court observed that serving judicial officers cannot participate in the selection process of the direct recruitment meant for lawyers in the cadre of District Judge.

Punjab & Haryana High Court

The Punjab and Haryana High Court stayed the proceedings in the rape case against Jalandhar-based priest and self-styled healer, Baljinder alias Pastor.

 Telangana & Andhra Pradesh High Court

The High Court of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh quashed an order of Tirumala Tirupathi Devasthanams (TTD) retiring two Sambhavana Archakas and directed it to allow them to discharge their duties as such as long as they are physically fit.

The High Court directed the State of Andhra Pradesh to forthwith constitute State Human Rights Commission. “We are amazed to hear that no appointment is made to the State Human Rights Commission of the State of Andhra Pradesh. lf such institutions do not work what would be at peril is the eligibility of humans to ask for human rights through duly constituted institutions”, remarked the division bench comprising Chief Justice Thottathil B. Radhakrishnan and Justice S.V. Bhatt while hearing a writ petition filed by Saipu Ramakrishna.