High Courts Weekly Round-Up

Allahabad High Court

• The Lucknow bench of the High Court issued notices on petition challenging the use of "reserved election symbols" by political parties as their party logos.
• Held that cogent evidence was required to summon a person under Section 319 of CrPC and that the same was a subject matter of scrutiny of trial court, which were to decide the application.
• While quashing the summoning order passed by a Judicial Magistrate, the High Court clarified that material which does not form part of the case diary cannot be considered for taking cognizance.

Bombay High Court

• While hearing a PIL regarding permissions and approvals granted to several entities and organisations to use Shivaji Park Maidan at Dadar for activities and events other than strictly permissible in the law, the High Court raised some concerns ahead of Shiv Sena supremo Uddhav Thackeray's oath taking ceremony at Shivaji Park, Dadar in Mumbai
• Held that even if a contract is executed outside the State of Maharashtra and the work is also carried outside the State but arbitration of any contractual dispute is to be held within the State (in this case Mumbai), stamp duty will be payable under the Maharashtra Stamp Act, 1958 .
• Pronounced its judgement in a writ petition filed by 56-year-old Anil Mohabay, a former District Judge challenging the decision of Bombay High Court to retire him "prematurely" at the age of 55.
• First court of the High Court expressed displeasure at the conduct of State Bank of India, its officials and the law firm engaged by them while hearing a writ petition.

Calcutta High Court

• Upheld an order of conviction for possession of counterfeit Forged Indian Currency Notes (FICN) and remarked that the same would amount to trafficking FICN.
• While setting aside an order passed by the West Bengal Medical Council, the High Court remarked that even though the Council has medical expertise, it may not have jurisprudential expertise.

Delhi High Court

• Asked jail authorities in Tihar prison to decide upon Manu Sharma's furlough application within one week. Manu Sharma, who was convicted of murdering model Jessica Lal, and consequently serving a life sentence, had moved a furlough application before the Delhi High Court on the ground on maintaining the family ties.
• Issued notice to Malvinder Singh and Sunil Godhwani, in ED's application seeking custodial interrogation of the duo in the Religare Fraud case.
• Reiterated that evidence of a hostile witness, if corroborated by other material evidence, may form the basis of conviction of an accused. In an appeal filed against the order of acquittal passed by the Trial Court, the division bench of Justice GS Sistani and Justice Chander Shekhar ruled, "The law on it is well settled that such portion of the evidence of a hostile witness can be relied upon which is trustworthy and not as if the entire evidence of such a witness is to be negated completely.
• Directed Delhi Police to refrain from mechanically using Urdu/Persian words while lodging the FIR. The Division Bench of Justice DN Patel and Justice Hari Shankar opined that FIR should be lodged in the simplest language possible or on the language of the person who has approached the police for lodging of the FIR.
• Issued notices on a plea seeking the removal of National Law University, Delhi Registrar GS Bajpai.
• Said that all its employees should be paid the equal washing and clothing allowance and the policy of selectively entitling certain category of employees for such benefit is discriminatory.
• Directed the Delhi government to ensure drinking water is available in all government schools and any infrastructure upkeep is taken care of at the earliest.

Gauhati High Court

• Slapped a cost of Rs 50,000 on 'Super 30' fame mathematician Anand Kumar for his failure to appear before the court despite repeated directions for his personal appearance.

Himachal Pradesh High court

• Taking suo moto cognizance of a complaint against release of one Raghubir Singh under Section 4 of the Probation of Offenders Act, 1958, after his conviction under Section 332 IPC for beating a police officer, the High Court upheld his release on probation and remarked that the Act does not bar the grant of probation to "spoilt brats".

Karnataka High Court

• Held that the 'word' used under Section 304B of IPC, though it is used soon before the death', cannot interpreted as prior to the death immediately, even it has to be taken into consideration depending upon the facts and circumstances of each case and the entire statement of the witnesses and charge sheet material has to be looked into in this behalf.
• Held that the counsel on record after retiring from the case with the leave of the Court cannot become an agent of the party for prosecuting the suit proceedings.
• Directed the State and Central government to give their responses on what steps can be take to safeguard interest of children of arrested illegal immigrants, who are kept inside, detention centres.
• Upheld a notification issued by the Government, for levy of entry tax at 5% with effect from October 2, 2013, on 'unmanufactured tobacco' in sealed container.
• Held that Karnatala Electricity Regulatory Commission has no jurisdiction to interfere with Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA), proceedings under Section 86 of Electricity Act.

Kerala High Court

• Sought the responses of Bar Council of India (BCI) and Bar Council of Kerala (BCK) on a writ petition which challenges the amounts collected by them for enrolment as 'exorbitant and illegal'.
• Denied bail to Allan Shuhaib and Thawaha Fazal, who were arrested by Kerala police under Unlawful Activities Prevention Act for alleged links with banned Maoist organization.
• Gave a green signal to the merger of District Co‑operative Banks to the Kerala State Cooperative Bank.

Madhya Pradesh High Court

• Reserved its order on an application filed by BJP MP Pragya Thakur seeking dismissal of a petition challenging her election to the Lok Sabha, her lawyer said.

Madras High Court

• In a sharp blow to the Corporation of Chennai, the Madras High Court directed it to pay compensation worth Rs. 63,26,000 with interest to a 26 yrs old man, for depriving him of marital pleasure, in addition to other grievances, by rendering him physically disabled in an accident. The court recognized that accidents were a source of human rights and fundamental rights violations and said that is the duty of the Government to see that the rights of citizens are protected.
• Issued certain guidelines to be followed by the investigating officers, for audio-visual recording of witness statements in heinous crimes punishable with imprisonment of ten years and above and in offences involving women and children.

Tripura High Court

• Reiterated that courts do not have the jurisdiction to interfere in policy decisions of the government. While adjudicating upon a petition filed by one Sachindra Chandra Das, a dealer of Fair Price Shop, the single judge bench of Justice Arindam Lodh said, "The decision of the government was not to allow any person to run the Fair Price Shop other than the original licensee, is a policy decision of the government and the court has no jurisdiction to invade/replace the decision of the government."