High Courts Weekly Round-Up

Allahabad High Court

In a huge relief for a police head constable of Uttar Pradesh, who was instrumental in saving the life of a former chief justice of Allahabad High Court from an unruly mob during a bandh in 1994, the High Court observed that he cannot be denied promotion to the post of sub-inspector on the sole ground that he had not qualified the training course for the post of head constable. 

Bombay High Court

The Bombay High Court decided to interfere in an order passed almost 19 years ago on November 26, 1998, wherein BN Sanas Company Pvt Ltd, which runs a liquor shop in the name of Nupur Wines in Pune, was asked to pay Rs. 1.5 lakh as composition fee for license transfer.

The High Court on Wednesday refused to de-freeze two bank accounts of the Adarsh Co-operative Housing Society(ACGHS) having around Rs.1.47 cr.

The Court, while deciding a reference submitted by a joint civil judge, Senior Division, Kolhapur, upheld the vires of Section 28 A(1) of the Maharashtra Civil Courts Act, 1869.

The Aurangabad bench of the High Court quashed and set aside a notification issued by the state government dated July 6, 2016, appointing one Sunil Popatlal Jain as district government pleader and public prosecutor for district Dhule.

The High Court granted ad-interim relief to four clubs from Pune that were issued notices by the state Excise department on May 18 to close down their operations with immediate effect. 

Delhi High Court

The High Court of Delhi recently refused to set aside the conviction of a man in a case of dowry death merely on the ground that no harassment had occurred right before the incident.

The High Court on Thursday upheld the conviction and sentence of a man convicted for raping his 8 year old step-daughter.

The High Court asked the Ministry of External Affairs to inform the Embassies and High Commissions in Delhi that their citizens should be well aware of the local laws in order to avoid inadvertent violations.

The Court recently highlighted the distinction between an untoward incident and an act of criminal negligence, to hold that only the latter would disentitle grant of compensation under the Railways Act, 1989.

Justice IS Mehta of the High Court disposed of around eight criminal appeals by affirming convictions but by modifying the sentence to the sentence already undergone.

The High Court recently set aside an order of grant of bail, observing that such orders can be cancelled to prevent miscarriage of justice, if they are based on irrelevant material,

Kerala High Court

The High Court of Kerala set aside the decision of its administrative committee to increase the cadre strength of district and sessions judges in the state.

In a significant judgment, the High Court held that private self-financing Colleges cannot withhold certificates of students, for payment of amount. The practice of withholding the certificates, and non-issuance of transfer certificate to students, to coerce them into meeting unconscionable demands like paying entire course fee for leaving the course midway, or to force them to serve the institution after completion of course, etc. is very rampant.

Justice Devan Ramachandran of the High Court on Tuesday strongly censured and deprecated the approach taken by the Excise department in matters pertaining to ban on sale of liquor along national /state highways.

The High Court personally questioned an organ donor to ascertain genuineness of offer and permitted the organ transplant

The High Court held that if the counsel of a litigant is aggrieved in a cause initiated by his client and if he has an independent cause of action, he can sue in his own name.

The High Court refused to stay the operation of new Cattle Rules (Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Regulation of Livestock Market) Rules, 2017 ). However the High Court had observed that there is a strong prima-facie case in favour of the petitioners. The Court has directed to post the matter on August 26.

Though the Court on Wednesday refused to grant interim stay of operation of Rule 22 of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Regulation of Livestock Market) Rules 2017, the Court made some serious observations doubting the constitutional validity of the Rules.

A division bench of the Kerala High Court, presided by Justice V Chithambaresh and Justice K Ramakrishnan, on Wednesday ruled that a person cannot be denied his/her property rights on the mere fact of being a priest or nun. 

Gujarat High Court

A Division Bench of the High Court of Gujarat decided to visit the scene of offence in the 2002 Naroda Patiya massacre case. The Court has however, warned the media against “any intervention”, which it said would amount to interference with judicial proceedings.

Himachal Pradesh High Court

The Himachal Pradesh High Court came down heavily on a magistrate, who within four days of the rejection of bail application by the high court, granted bail to the accused.

Hyderabad High Court

Hyderabad High Court judge Justice B Siva Sankara Rao held that time has come to amend the law with stringent penal consequences and strict enforcement of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960, and laws covering the prohibition of cow slaughter.

Madhya Pradesh High Court

In a reply to an RTI application, the public information officer of the Madhya Pradesh High Court said documents pertaining to ‘Mace of Justice’ cannot be supplied due to unavailability with the record room. 

Madras High Court

The Madras High Court recently directed the Tamil Nadu Government to frame guidelines/qualifications for releasing government advertisements to the newspapers on the basis of circulation and other criteria without any discrimination.

A Petition was filed before the High Court, demanding a declaration that the fee structure for self-financing medical and dental colleges for Post Graduation courses shall be fixed by the Puducherry Fee Committee. The High Court has issued notice to parties.