High Courts Weekly Round Up

• Extended the interim protection granted to scholar Anand Teltumbde from February 11 to February 22. Fixing the next date of hearing as February 22, the court added that in case of arrest, he could be released on bail upon providing a bond of Rs 1 lakh.

Delhi High Court

• Held that the Board of Discipline under the Chartered Accountants Act 1949 can proceed against a Chartered Accountant for acts of sexual harassment committed by him outside his professional capacity.
• Upheld the validity of Rule 3(2) of the Companies (Registered Valuers and Valuation) Rules 2017. As per the Rule, no partnership entity or a company can be a registered valuer if it is a subsidiary, joint venture or associate or another company or body corporate.
• set aside the Centre's notifications banning manufacture and sale of fixed drug combinations (FDCs) used for the treatment of Type-2 diabetes mellitus in patients who do not show improvement or glycemic control with diet, exercise and the usage of dual therapy.

Gauhati High Court

• Granted anticipatory bail to Assamese litterateurHirenGohain and KMSS leader Akhil Gogoi, against whom the police had registered a sedition case.

Jammu & Kashmir High Court

• Turned down the plea challenging special dispensation in the matter of employment given in favour of Kashmiri Pandits, living in Kashmir Valley.

Karnataka High Court

• Observed that here is no harm in doing away with the minimum marks in interview. Justice R. Devdas suggested that, instead of minimum marks, a clause could be stipulated that if the selection Committee is of the opinion that a candidate is not suitable for appointment, the Committee could mark the candidate as 'failed' or 'try again', where the candidate is found too young.
• Observed that the Child Welfare Committee cannot usurp the jurisdiction of Family Courts in child custody matters pending before it.

Kerala High Court

• Dismissed a Public Interest Litigation filed by a lawyer seeking prohibition of donation of organs such as liver, kidneys, heart etc., even as a life saving exercise.
• Directed that Permanent Lok Adalat in the state shall be treated as the final level appellate authority in the Grievance Redressal Mechanism put in place by the state, for persons affected by flood/landslides, in relation to the benefits announced for them through the various Government orders.

Madras High Court

• No God is expecting from anybody to torture his own body for atonement, said Justice N. Seshasayee while exhorting temple authorities to start thinking of giving up self-torturing faith based practices. The Madurai Bench of the High Court was considering a petition challenging rejecting the usage of cranes in the milk pot, ParakkumKavadi procession.
• Directed the authorities to obtain a written undertaking from the organizers of meeting or congregation or convention of any religious group that they would ensure that no speech offending or denigrating any other religion or their faith or their mode of worship or other practices associated with it will be made.
• Directed the Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) to look into the sexual harassment allegations against S. Murugan, joint director of the Directorate of Vigilance & Anti-Corruption, on a complaint filed by a woman IPS officer.
• Granted parole to a man to attend his son's engagement ceremony rejecting the State's objection attending engagement ceremony was not one of the enlisted grounds to give parole.

Meghalaya High Court

• expressed its disquiet and stopped short of ordering proceedings for perjury against official of Airlines for citing "false" visibility issues as a reason for not operating their flights from Umroi airport and even suggesting that roads are more preferred way of travelling to Shillong than air travel.