High Courts Weekly Round-Up

Bombay High Court

The Bombay High Court recently cut short the life sentence awarded to a man convicted for throwing acid on his former girlfriend after it was informed that they had “amicably settled” the matter, with them having married each other.

 The High Court recently dismissed a petition filed by one Dattaray Mane and ordered and him and his family to vacate his 73-year-old mother’s property in Girgaon. Mane, along with his wife, son and daughter, was residing in the house of his mother, Lilabai Mane.

On Wednesday, the High Court rejected a revision application filed by two cops from Rajasthan accused in the case. The two cops are Himanshu Singh Rajawat and Shyam Singh Charan.

Delhi High Court

The Delhi High Court on Monday reiterated the importance of maintaining discipline in colleges without treating students like criminals while coming to the rescue of a medical student who had been expelled 6 years back for forging certain documents.

The High Court on Tuesday held JNU Students’ Union (JNUSU) president Geeta Kumari, vice-president Simone Zoya Khan, general secretary Duggirala Srikrishna and joint secretary Shubhanshu Singh guilty of contempt for disobeying the court’s order to not hold any protest within 100 metres of the administrative block or obstruct the movement of JNU officials.

On Friday, the High Court sought to know what action has the AAP government taken on the representation sent to it on 176 students being allegedly arbitrarily denied admission in government schools.

With a view to balance the mandate of Bar Council of India (BCI) Rules and the students’ “legitimate expectations” of a fixed academic schedule, the High Court on Friday quashed the list issued by the Faculty of Law, Delhi University, of students detained for not meeting the prescribed attendance while directing the institution to hold within 8 weeks at least 139 hours of extra classes/tutorials for all those students desirous of attending the same and making up the shortfall in their attendance caused only due to the faculty’s failure to hold the mandatory minimum number of class hours in compliance with the Rules.

Gujarat High Court

The Gujarat High Court last week awarded ten years of rigorous imprisonment to three convicts in the 2002 Naroda Patiya massacre case, in view of the “gravity and magnitude of the offence and the agony of the victims”

Karnataka High Court

The Karnataka High Court observed that there need not be any apprehension of immediate arrest or detention in civil prison on issuance of a show cause notice by the Income Tax authorities.

Recently a public interest litigation filed by a Professor challenging the appointment of G Parmeshwar as Deputy Chief Minister of Karnataka was dismissed by the High Court with costs. A bench of Chief Justice Dinesh Maheshwari and Justice Krishna S Dixit observed that mere description of any minister in the Council of Ministers as Deputy Chief Minister does not confer on the person concerned any powers of the Chief Minister and does not result in any unconstitutionality.

Kerala High Court

While dismissing public interest litigation against corporate funding of political parties, the Kerala High Court observed that it cannot be said that contribution of the corporate to the coffers of the political parties will have any bearing on how voters exercise their franchise, in favour of one party or the other.

The High Court ruled that in the absence of any formal ceremony for conversion to Hinduism, declaration by a person that he is converted to Hindu would be sufficient for the public authorities, the Marriage Registrar in the instant case, to act.

A division bench of Kerala High Court restored Section 56A of the Kerala Co-Operative Societies Act, which was struck down as unconstitutional by a single bench judgment. Section 56A mandates co-operative banks to dispose of non-banking assets acquired by them within seven years of acquisition. This provision was declared as unconstitutional by the single bench in Radhakrishna Kurup v Nadakkal Co-operative Bank Ltd 2016(4) KLT 82. The single bench reasoned that the provision violates 14 of the Constitution, as the restriction was applicable only to co-operative banks and not to commercial banks.

The High Court set aside the order of dismissal passed by a Co-operative Society against an employee on the ground that due procedure was not followed before imposing a penalty. A division bench of Justice V Chitambaresh and Justice Satish Ninan held the dismissal bad in law as the Society had not followed any of the mandatory procedure like issuing show-cause notice, framing charges, constitution of an inquiry committee etc. The court held that the observance of these procedures was “mandatory” as per Rule 198 of the Co-operative Societies Rules.

The High Court in Njanadas v State of Kerala held that simply filing a false complaint against a member of Scheduled Caste, before any authority, is not punishable under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.

Madhya Pradesh High Court

The Madhya Pradesh High Court on Friday summoned the Superintendent of Police, Panna in connection with the alleged sealing of Ajaygarh Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) Manoj Soni’s official residence.

Madras High Court

The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court last week directed a petitioner seeking anticipatory bail to “apologise in person with folded hands” to the Sub -Inspector of Thirukurungudi Police, Tirunelveli for insulting him.

Rajasthan High Court

The Rajasthan High Court on Friday postponed the exam for direct recruitment in the District Judge Cadre, 2017, owing to Prime minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Jaipur and the expected congestion on the roads.

Uttarakhand High Court

The Uttarakhand High Court on Wednesday declared the “entire animal kingdom including avian and aquatic” as legal entities with a distinct persona and corresponding rights, duties and liabilities of a living person.

The High Court on Friday issued a slew of directions for enhancing road safety. Among other things, Justice Rajiv Sharma granted 72 hours for removal of words such as Police, High Court, Journalist, Army etc. from private vehicles.