'No Action Against Consensual Sex Work': Chhattisgarh High Court Quashes Immoral Trafficking Case Against Sex Worker

The Chhattisgarh High Court has held that where it is clear that the sex worker is an adult and is participating with consent, the police must refrain from interfering or taking any criminal action. The Court observed that continuation of the criminal proceedings based on such a basis would amount to subjecting a woman to the very harassment against which the Supreme Court had issued...

Common Intention | S.34 IPC Attracted Where Co-Accused's Participation Has 'Functional Relationship' With Offence: Allahabad High Court

The Allahabad High Court has observed that to attract 'common intention' liability under Section 34 IPC, the participation of a co-accused must have a "functional relationship with the offense in question".The bench clarified that the mere fact that several persons participated in the same occurrence does not make each of them liable for every offence committed during it. A Bench of Justice...

Supreme Court Stays PMLA Trial Against J&K Officer

The Supreme Court has stayed the proceedings before the Special Court (Srinagar) under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA) against Tariq Ahmad Ganaie, after the petitioner raised the lack of prior sanction as required under Section 197 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (CrPC, now Section 218 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023). The provision mandates...

Merely Lodging A False FIR Is Not Abetment Of Suicide: Supreme Court

Merely because a dejected husband, or lover, out of frustration, ends his life and puts the blame on the accused, in his suicide note, is not enough to conclude that a prima facie case is made out.

Gujarat High Court Grants Bail To Man Accused Of Objecting To SC/ST Community Member's Invitation To Brahmin Marriage Function

The Gujarat High Court granted regular bail to a man accused of portraying complainant as a "bootlegger" and saying that a member of SC/ST community should not be invited to marriage in the Brahmin community. [2026 LiveLaw (Guj) 223]The court was hearing a man's appeal booked under Sections 3(1)(U) of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 whose regular...

Every Medical Error Not Criminal Negligence: Telangana High Court Quashes FIR Against Diagnostic Staff For Issuing False Positive Report

While quashing FIR against four staff members of a diagnostic centre for issuing an allegedly false positive Hepatitis B report to a woman before her hernia surgery, the Telangana High Court said that not criminal law cannot be invoked to punish every instance of professional negligence. [2026 LiveLaw (Tel) 134]In doing so the court held that mere inadvertence, an error of judgment, or a lapse...

Allahabad High Court Acquits Husband Accused Of Setting Wife Ablaze, Rejects Dying Declaration Recorded In Presence Of Relatives

The Allahabad High Court on Wednesday acquitted a man convicted of culpable homicide in connection with the burning death of his wife, observing that the dying declaration was recorded in the presence of relatives/family members and therefore could not be safely relied upon. A Bench of Justice Siddhartha Varma and Justice Achal Sachdev allowed the criminal appeal filed by Jagan against...

Madras High Court Flags Systemic Gaps In POCSO Act Implementation, Including FIRs Against Minor Boys In Consensual Relationships

The Madras High Court has directed the Chief Secretary of Tamil Nadu to constitute committees comprising Secretaries from various departments to address the systematic gaps in the implementation of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act in the State. The bench of Justice GR Swaminathan and Justice V Lakshminarayanan noted that there were correctional...

Valmiki Corporation Scam: Karnataka High Court Allows Minister B Nagendra To Travel Across India, Retains Bar On Foreign Travel

The Karnataka High Court on August 20 (Thursday) allowed a petition filed by B. Nagendra, a Cabinet Minister in the Karnataka Government, permanently relaxing a bail condition imposed on him in a Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) case arising out of the alleged misappropriation of funds from the Valmiki Scheduled Castes Development Corporation. [2026 LiveLaw (Kar) 310]The single...

Rajasthan High Court Stays Termination Of Govt Employee For Concealing Stayed Conviction

The Rajasthan High Court has stayed the termination of a government employee whose services were terminated over allegations that he had suppressed and concealed information relating to his criminal conviction, which had already been stayed by a coordinate bench of the Court.The bench of Justice Anuroop Singhi took note of the earlier order staying the petitioner's conviction in a criminal...

Law Department Must Not Succumb To Pressure From Other Departments: Bombay High Court Rejects Delayed State Appeal

The Department of Law and Judiciary (DLJ) must act independently and not succumb to pressure mounted by any of the other departments of a State Government, held the Bombay High Court while refusing to condone a delay of 650 days in filing appeal against acquittal in a Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act case. Sitting at the Nagpur seat, a single-judge Justice Mahendra Nerlikar also imposed a...

Motor Accident Claim | Acquittal In Criminal Case Per Se Won't Prove Lack Of Negligence : Supreme Court Explains Principles

Acquittals in Criminal Court cannot control or dictate the outcome of MACT proceedings, the Supreme Court has held, reiterating that criminal proceedings and motor accident compensation claims operate in distinct legal spheres and are governed by different standards of proof."A subsequent acquittal in a criminal case does not affect the assessment of tortious liability under the MV Act......