High Courts Weekly Round Up

• Refusing to grant relief to the Petitioner, the High Court said that when the Rules pertaining to the Uttar Pradesh Higher Judicial Services did not provide, it could not direct the authorities to re-evaluate the answer sheets.

Bombay High Court

• Refused to interfere in proceedings filed under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act by Advocate Amar Mishra against his former clients Alka and KhanduAvhad. Justice SS Shinde heard the criminal writ petition filed by AlkaAvhad challenging process issued by Metropolitan Magistrate, Borivali against her and her husband in an order dated February 23, 2018.
• convicted Hemant Mittal, a 38-year-old man for rape, 22 years after the said crime was committed. However, the Court did not impose any sentence as Hemant was a juvenile at the time of the incident.
• Held that any authority under Central Goods and Services Tax Act who conducts seizure of documents or books of a company/individual must not keep them in custody for more than necessary period and copies thereof need to be given to the person from whose custody the said documents or books are seized.
• Upheld the acquittal of former journalist JignaVora in the murder of senior journalist JyotirmoyDey. Court held that there was no direct evidence to prove Vora's involvement in her colleague's murder.
• Directed a litigant Rakesh Chavan to work for lawyer and environmentalist Afroz Shah and "do some real social work" to prove his bona fides. Division bench of Chief Justice Pradeep Nandrajog and Justice BharatiDangre was hearing the PIL filed by Chavan wherein it was alleged that respondent company NESCO had filled a lake in Goregaon and was illegally constructing a building over it.
• Rejected a plea filed by accused Samir Kulkarni seeking video recording of proceedings in the 2008 Malegaon blast trial.Division bench of Justice Ranjit more and Justice NJ Jamadar however reiterated to the Special NIA Court that the trial must be conducted expeditiously as directed earlier by the Supreme Court and the High Court as well.

Calcutta High Court

• Held that an application for anticipatory bail could not be said to be non-maintainable merely because the accused was not in India while seeking it. The order was passed by a division bench of Justice JoymalyaBagchi and Justice Manojit Mandal while hearing multiple anticipatory bail applications filed by two leaders of GorkhaJanmuktiMorcha.

Chhattisgarh High Court

• "A child in the innocent purity of its mind and unsophistication is more likely to come forth with version which is unbiased, unsoiled, natural and forthright. It is less prone to manipulation, motivation and spirit of vendetta. It can as well be spontaneous and inspiring, once the child is enabled to overcome the initial shock and awe, and ensured protection, security, compassion and given confidence to come out with what was seen", held the High Court while reaffirming that testimony of a child witness can be the sole basis for conviction in a criminal trial.

Delhi High Court

• Upheld conviction of two accused persons were convicted under sections 324, 366 and 376(1) and 376 D of the Indian Penal Code for raping a mentally ill woman.
• Dismissing a batch of seven writ petitions, the High Court said that the Central Bureau of Investigation was empowered to investigate in matters of foreign contribution and upheld the constitutional validity of Section 43 of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010 (FCRA). The validity of the corresponding Rule 22 of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Rules, 2011 (FCRR) was also upheld.
• Asked the government to file an affidavit in a PIL seeking bringing about Uniform a Civil Code in the country.
• Restored screening Certificate for Punjabi movie "Kaum De Heere", featuring assassinators of former PM Indira Gandhi. The petition titled "Sai Cine Productions v. CBFC &Ors." was filed challenging the order of Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) and Film Certification Appellate Tribunal (FCAT), withdrawing the film's certificate for screening.
• "…a probationer is not a workman within the meaning of Section 2(s) of the Industrial Disputes Act and the service of a probationer can be terminated during the period of probation in terms of the appointment and such termination does not amount to retrenchment within the meaning of Section 2 (oo) of the Industrial Disputes Act", held the High Court while allowing a petition filed by M/s Deccan Charters Private Limited through Advocate Praveen Kumar.
• Dismissed a suit for defamation, initiated by the Popular Front of India through Advocate Bahar U Barqi against the Times Now group along with its Editor-in-Chief Rahul Shivshankar, Senior Editor Nikunj Garg and Journalist AnandNarasimhan.
• "The purpose and aim of this [Industrial Disputes] Act is not only to provide a permanent machinery for the settlement of industrial disputes but also aims to improve the service conditions of industrial labour force. The provisions of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 are not strictly applicable to any proceedings under the Industrial Disputes Act even though the principles enshrined in the Code may be applied by the Tribunal on a case to case basis", said the High Court while remanding an industrial dispute back to the Industrial Tribunal.
• Held that there's no need to reconstitute Arbitral Tribunals existing since prior to 2015 just because the Amendment Act was brought in the same year. the court said the existing arbitral tribunal would continue to operate as per the Act in which they were constituted.
• Denied relief to a girl who missed out on admission to Delhi University by the fact of being deceived by an internet cafe owner. In Sandali Sharma v. Delhi University, the Petitioner moved the court seeking directions to be issued to the Delhi University to grant her admission in B.Sc. programme at Deshbandhu College.
• Granted relief to a Petitioner to apply for Judge Advocate General (JAG) exam by rounding off his marks to meet the eligibility cut-off. The court directed the Central Government to allow the Petitioner to apply again for the said exam with the rounded off figure.

Karnataka High Court

• Directed the state government to provide burial grounds to all villages and towns which do not have one within a period of six months. The state has earlier admitted in court that a total of 6,053 villages and 272 towns do not have burial grounds. A division bench of Chief Justice Abhay Oka and Justice Mohammad Nawaz gave the direction while hearing a PIL filed by one Mohamed Ikbal a resident of Bengaluru. In his petition it is also alleged that state government has failed to remove encroachments on its own lands. An estimated area of around 11, 77,925 acres of Government land is under encroachments. The state though clarified that the encroachment is only over area of 1, 77,449 acres.
• Directed the State government to ensure that vehicle emission testing centers in the state don't indulge in acts of illegality or irregularity, in issuing certificates, as they played an important role in controlling 'Air pollution' emanating from vehicles.
• A retired railway employee who committed an act of bigamy, assuming that his first wife had dead since he had not seen her for seven years, has been found guilty of misconduct, as per service rules, by the High Court and held liable for 50 percent reduction in pension amount. However, considering he has retired and solely dependent on pension amount, court reduced the punishment from five years to three years, period already undergone by him.
• Dismissed a petition filed by Congress party leader in the state, DK Shivakumar and four others, seeking to quash the summons issued to them by the Enforcement Directorate in an alleged case of money laundering, under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

Kerala High Court

• Held that 'demo cars', which are kept by dealers to demonstrate a vehicle model to a prospective buyer, require registration under the Motor Vehicles Act. The ruling was given by Justice Anil Narendran dismissing a petition filed by Kerala Automobile Dealers Association and RajasreeMotors(dealer of Mercedes Benz) against a directive issued by the Transport Commissioner to the Road Transport Officers to take steps to ensure that demo cars kept by the dealers were registered.
• Directed that the bail applications must be disposed of normally within one week and the orders shall be delivered on the date of hearing of the bail application itself or on the next date.
• Opined that a very efficient and wider investigation, at least with regard to the recent appointments, is necessary to regain the trust of the public in the Public Service Commission Examinations.

Punjab & Haryana High Court

• Directed the state government to demolish 98 illegal structures built within 100 meters of the Chandigarh International Airport, in a petition filed by Mohali Industries Association in 2015 on infrastructure related issues of the airport.
• Directed the Railway to pay Rs. 8,00,000/- to the heirs of the victim of an 'Untoward Railway Incident', as compensation along with interest @ 9% per annum, despite non-recovery of a valid ticket.
• Convenience of lawyer no ground for transferring petition to another jurisdiction the High Court observed.
• Almost six years after the Haryana government challenged Centre's inquiry report indicting it for victimising whistle-blower IFS officer SanjivChaturvedi, the High Court refused to hear State's petition saying it cannot hear any dispute between the Centre and the State.

Rajasthan High Court

• Issued summons to Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot along with State Election Commission and returning officer on a petition challenging his election from Sardarpura constituency.
• Rejected a challenge against exclusion of married daughters from availing the benefit of compassionate appointment under Rajasthan Compassionate Appointment of Dependents of Deceased Government Servant Rules,1996.