High Courts Weekly Round-Up

Allahabad High Court

The Allahabad High Court dismissed a writ petition challenging recovery proceedings initiated against a borrower firm, which challenged recovery proceedings on the ground that due to demonetisation and imposition of GST, it suffered loss in business and could not pay loan installments to the bank.

 Bombay High Court

Upholding the decision of the Supreme Court in Valsamma Paul vs Cochin University and Others, the Bombay High Court held that a married woman cannot simply rely on her husband’s caste to contest an election from a reserved seat.

The High Court dismissed a petition filed by a 35-year-old woman from Navi Mumbai who sought quashing of her termination as document consultant in the Government of India funded Water and Sanitation Support Organization (WSSO) under National Rural Drinking Water Programme (NRDWP) in the Water Supply and Sanitation department, Government of Maharashtra.

Sixteen years after a police report was filed by a girl from Nagpur against a 20-year-old man for outraging her modesty and 12 years after he was convicted under Sections 354 and 506 of the Indian Penal Code, the Bombay High Court cancelled his bail bond and sent him back to jail.

In an important judgment, the Aurangabad bench of the High Court held that the Indian Nursing Council has no authority to grant recognition to institutes imparting nursing training in a state, also the degrees and diplomas being offered by such institutes which are approved by the state nursing councils will have applicability in the state only.

The High Court fined telecom company Vodafone for flouting Vishaka guidelines in the past.

Delhi High Court

Mere silence cannot be taken as proof of consensual sexual relations, the Delhi High Court held while upholding the conviction and 10-year jail term of a man for repeatedly raping a minor for over six months.

The High Court stayed the proceedings in furtherance of the order of attachment of assets worth Rs. 23 crore belonging to businessman Mr. V. M. Radhakrishnan (Chakku Radhakrishnan).

The High Court allowed Meenakshi Varma, wife Ardee Group’s late chairman and managing director Ashok Varma, to lease vacant space in Ardee Mall in Gurgaon while appointing retired district judge Rakesh Kapoor as court observer to supervise the leasing of the space in the mall which has been gathering dust for years now owing to a property dispute.

The High Court, on Tuesday, allowed telecom major Ericsson’s plea for constitution of a “confidential club” in its ongoing legal tussle with Chinese handset maker Xiaomi. A confidential club essentially consists of only certain persons, usually the lawyers and some key witnesses, who are permitted to view the documents in question.

The High Court, on Tuesday, also refused to grant bail to an Afghan national accused of raping a woman from the United States of America.

The High Court dismissed what it termed ‘political’ interest litigation filed by BJP leader Subramanian Swamy and advocate Ishkaran Bhandari seeking SIT probe into the “mysterious” death of Sunanda Pushkar, the wife of Congress MP Shashi Tharoor while stopping short of imposing cost on them for withholding information and facts from the court and also cautioning against making the PIL public even before the same comes up before the court.

Kerala High Court

A single bench of the High Court of Kerala held that the Bar Council cannot insist that a retired employee should pay back the amount which he had withdrawn from the welfare fund upon joining government service, for re-enrolling as an advocate after retirement.

In Commissioner of Income Tax (Exemptions) vs M/s Mata Amrithanandamayi Math (ITA.No. 34 of 2017 ), a division bench of the High Court held that if the donors to a charitable institution had instructed that the interest earned on their voluntary contributions shall be added to the corpus of the trust, then the interest earned on such contributions would also partake the character of income in the form of voluntary contributions made with a specific direction that they shall form part of the corpus of the trust.

Madhya Pradesh High Court

The Madhya Pradesh High Court held the government servants ‘did not violate’ Rule 5 of Central Civil Services (Conduct) Rules, 1964, by meeting RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat in Jabalpur during the local body elections in year 2015.

Madras High Court

The Madras High Court upheld the Centre’s latest notification providing for ex-post-facto environmental clearance for project proponents as it held that any establishment, which is contributing to the economy of the nation and providing livelihood to hundreds, cannot be shut down only because of failure to obtain prior clearance even if it may not be otherwise causing pollution.

 The High Court directed the State to lift its ban from the two Tamil books written by Mr. K. Senthil Mallar on the condition that the “provoking contents” in the books be altered or deleted.

The High Court, on Wednesday, directed the Police to act on a complaint filed against actor Kamal Haasan and register an FIR against him if they see merit in the allegations.