High Courts Weekly Round-Up

• Dismissed the bail pleas of Sudha Bharadwaj, Arun Ferreira and Vernon Gonsalves in the Bhima Koregaon case. Justice SV Kotwal pronounced the judgement to a packed courtroom with Senior Advocate Mihir Desai, Dr.Yug Mohit Chaudhary and Sudeep Pasbola present for the accused applicants.
• Held that there no vicarious liability in criminal law unless the statute takes it within its fold and set aside summons issued by Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Ballard Pier against Hindustan Unilever Limited and its Directors, for alleged non-compliance of certain provisions of the Maharashtra Shops and Establishment Act, 1948.
• Dismissed the bail pleas of Sudha Bharadwaj, Arun Ferreira and Vernon Gonsalves in the Bhima Koregaon case. Justice SV Kotwal pronounced the judgement to a packed courtroom with Senior Advocate Mihir Desai, Dr.Yug Mohit Chaudhary and Sudeep Pasbola present for the accused applicants.
• Discharged contempt proceedings against a litigant who made "wild allegations" against a Joint Civil Judge in Solapur district after he tendered an unconditional apology with folded hands. Division bench of Justice SS Shinde and Justice NB Suryawanshi was hearing a criminal reference made by Joint Civil Judge and JMFC Syedullah Khaleelullah Khan, Barshi, District Solapur, under Section 15(2) of the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971.
• Imposed a cost of Rs 3 lakh on a woman for filling a totally false petition seeking custody of a girl (victim rescued from a brothel), claiming to be her biological mother, with the intention of forcing her into flesh trade. The woman to prove her claim even had submitted fabricated Aadhar and Pan Cards.
• Directed the income tax department to release the refund of over Rs.43 crore with applicable interest for assessment years 2007-08 to 2013-2014 to Vodafone Idea Limited.
• Posted the hearing in Binoy Kodiyeri Balakrishnan's plea for quashing of FIR to June 2021 after police informed the Court that the Directorate of Forensic Science Laboritories (DFSL) which is supposed to examine the DNA sample obtained from Binoy, is overburdened.
• Quashed the order passed by the Sessions Judge staying the defamation proceedings of Mahua Moitra against Zee News Editor Sudhir Choudhary. The bench of Justice Brijesh Sethi passed the order while allowing Moitra's application.
• Held that Indian court will have jurisdiction over a complaint under Section 498-A IPC for domestic violence committed abroad. Justice SS Shinde was hearing a writ petition filed by one Md.Zuber Farooqi who sought quashing of an order of maintenance passed by Metropolitan Magistrate, Mulund in favour of his wife Neelima. Court concluded that Neelima had prima facie made out a case of domestic violence against the petitioner.
• Quashed all the Letter of Rogatory (LOR) issued by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence to authorities in Singapore, UAE, Hongkong and British Virgin Islands seeking information about the purchase and sale of Indonesian coal by subsidiary companies of Adani group.
• Set aside conviction of one Abdul Gani Mulla, a man sentenced to seven years in prison for allegedly ransacking the house, assaulting the wife and children of another man Balkrishna during the Bombay riots of 1992.

Delhi High Court

• Quashed the order passed by the Sessions Judge staying the defamation proceedings of Mahua Moitra against Zee News Editor Sudhir Choudhary. The bench of Justice Brijesh Sethi passed the order while allowing Moitra's application.
• Removed S Gurumurthy from the list of respondents in a contempt case after he promised to retweet the apology posted by the author of the contemptuous article within 72 hours.
• Asked Union Government and Delhi Government to file counter-affidavits in a PIL seeking linking of Aadhar card with property documents.
• Refused to grant ad-interim injunction to Saregama India Ltd. in its copyright infringement suit against Maddock Films Pvt. Ltd. for the song "Ke Odhni Odhu Odhu Ne Udi Jaye".
• Reiterated that suspension of sentence, pending an appeal, doesn't imply a suspension of order of conviction. It is held by Justice Rekha Palli that in a criminal trial, if a convict has been granted bail or suspension of his sentence pending his appeal, that doesn't mean that his conviction ceases to operate.

Jammu & Kashmir High Court

• Asked the government to ensure that legal assistance is made available to all the detenus under the Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act, 1978.The order was passed by the division bench of Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice Rashid Ali Dar, in a petition filed by one, Syed Tassadque Hussain, who asserted that no access to legal aid was made available to poor and financially unstable detenus who were detained under the recent orders of detention in the State.

Karnataka High Court

• Observing that this is a classic case of blatant violation of Fundamental rights by the police, the High Court quashed the First Information Reports registered against admin of a Facebook page Troll Maga. The court also directed the government to pay a cost of RS 1 lakh to the petitioner S Jayakant, within one month and ordered departmental action against the Magistrate who remanded the accused in violate of Supreme Court guidelines in Arnesh Kumar case.
• While setting aside an acquittal order and convicting a 47-year old man on charges of raping a minor girl said "The very evidence of victim inspires confidence of the Court that accused subjected her to sexual act and even in the absence of medical evidence this court can come to the conclusion that victim was subjected to sexual assault."
• Stayed felling of trees for the widening of National Highway 4-A between Belgavi and Goa. The road widening work is being carried out in Forest area of Dandeli Wildlife Sanctuary. A total of 14 kilometers of proposed four lane road passes through thick forest, which is home to elephants, tigers, leopards, black panthers and king cobra. Many sections of this road is critical wildlife corridors.

Kerala High Court

• Observed that toddy shops often invade the right of privacy of the residents in its neighbourhood. Justice A. Muhamed Mustaque observed thus while considering a petition filed by a woman, Vilasini, who complained of nuisances in her residential area due to a toddy shop near her residence.
• Held that a bank cannot claim any amount from its customer when a transaction is shown to be a 'disputed transaction' and in cases of online frauds, the banks should restore the amount withdrawn from the account of customers.

Madras High Court

• Held that evaluated answer sheets are `information' under the Right to Information Act, 2005 and Universities are bound to provide them to the Respondent-students.
• Reiterated that caste of a person is determined on the basis of birth and it cannot be changed by virtue of marriage.

Meghalaya High Court

• Held that existence of alternate remedy does not operate as an absolute bar to entertain a petition filed under Article 226 of the Constitution and that a person may approach the high court in case of natural rights violation.

Orissa High Court

• The full court of the Orissa High Court took suo motu cognizance of continuous strike and cessation of Courts work by the Bar Members in some parts of the State including the High Court, whereby the Associations had decided to abstain from work as a sign of protest against recent resolution of the Supreme Court Collegium and the Orissa High Court Collegium.

Patna High Court

• Reiterated that evidentiary value of an injured witness carries greater weight and the same may be relied upon unless there are major contradictions in his statements.

Punjab & Haryana High Court

• Ruled that merely because a person is in occupation of a government accommodation which is lower than his legal entitlement would not be a cogent reason to refuse him allotment as per his legal entitlement.