Supreme Court agrees to hear Yakub Memon’s Plea against Death Warrant

Supreme Court of India has agreed to hear two petitions challenging the Death warrant issued against the Mumbai Blast Convict Yakub Memon. One is filed by Yakub Memon and one intervening application by The Centre on the Death Penalty at National Law University, Delhi. Senior Advocate Raju Ramachandran appeared for Memon and TR Andhyarujina appeared for Centre for Death Penalty. Chief...

116 new proposals for setting up New Law Colleges are pending; Union Law Minister

The Bar Council of India, a statutory body under the Advocates Act, 1961 (25 of 1961) has informed that they had received 116 new proposals (including three proposals from the State of Andhra Pradesh for fresh approval) for setting up new law colleges for the year 2015-16 in which 79 applications were considered for inspection since they submitted all required documents. So far 72 law...

Delhi HC grants permission to Red FM for participating in the ongoing mock FM auctions

On Wednesday, the Delhi High Court granted permission to the radio channel ‘Red FM’ owned by Digital Radio Broadcasting Ltd, to participate in mock auctions organised for the 3rd phase of the FM auction held yesterday (Wednesday) and the one going to be held on Thursday. This order was rendered by a Division Bench comprising Justices Badar Durrez Ahmed and Sanjeev Sachdeva.The order...

Net Neutrality

A DOT Committee, headed by Chairman A.K. Bhargava recently released its report titled ‘Net Neutrality’ where it analyzed the feasibility of adherence to the principle of net neutrality in the Indian scenario. Net neutrality simply put, promotes that all communication passing through the network should be treated equally irrespective of content, ap­plication, service, device, sender and receiver.The fierce debate surrounding net neutrality in India arose due to possibility of price...

Denial of Woman’s Right to wear her Religious Attire is not proper; Kerala HC allows Muslim girls to wear Hijab in AIPMT Exams [Read Order]

A Single Judge of Kerala High Court allowed two Muslim girl students to wear Hijab and full sleeve dress while appearing for the CBSE All-India Pre-Medical Entrance Test (AIPMT) on 25th July. The Students challenged the new dress code introduced by the CBSC for the AIPMT Examination.  Justice K. Vinod Chandran allowed the plea on the conditions that the girls shall be present before a...

Courts must ensure that criminal prosecution is not used as an instrument of harassment or for seeking private vendetta: SC [Read the Judgment]

Setting aside an order passed by the High Court, a Supreme Court Bench comprising of Justice Dipak Misra and Justice Prafulla C. Pant observed that the Courts must ensure that  criminal  prosecution  is  not  used  as  an instrument of  harassment  or  for  seeking  private  vendetta.The Court was hearing an appeal [Mr. Robert John D’Souza and Others vs. Mr. Stephen v. Gomes...

Taking Cognizance of an Offence - The Disillusionment Continues

The essential facts discernible from a nascent verdict of the Supreme Court of India in Crl. Appeal No. 844 of 2015 (S.R. Sukumar V/s S. Sunaad Raghuram) (Justice T.S.Thakur and Justice R.Banumathi- written by Justice Banumathi) handed down (as reportable) on 2-7-2015, are as follows:-                                     09-5-2007:A complaint was filed by one Sunaad Raghuram before the Addl. Chief  Metropolitan Magistrate against one Sukumar (A1) and his mother (A2)    alleging the commission of...

Family Court must settle the issue of jurisdiction before deciding on divorce: Bombay HC

A Bombay High Court Bench at Nagpur, comprising Justice Vasanti A. Naik and Justice Prasanna B. Varale recently mulled over the question whether a couple having their native place in particular city or state file for divorce in family court situated in another city or state. The Court ruled that when such a question is raised, the family court must first address the issue of jurisdiction,...

Better praxis in judicial appointments

The Supreme Court has on 15th July, 2015 reserved the petitions challenging the law related to the National Judicial Appointment Commission (NJAC) for judgment.    The finest part of the NJAC case is that it has succeeded in exposing the ‘strange creature’ of collegium system on the one hand and the equally unacceptable NJAC on the other.  The arguments in the case and the media reports on the Court proceedings have been enormously instructive from the public’s point of view.  The point,...

Burning effigy; not an Offence under IPC: Madras HC [Read the Judgment]

Madras High Court recently rendered in a judgment that burning effigies cannot be treated as an offence under any of the provisions of the Indian Penal Code.  Justice V Ramasubramanian said the Constitution protected the act of burning effigies, if no other mischief was associated with it, referring to former DGP V R Lakshminarayanan's reported statement.In the absence of a specific provision...

Bombay HC asks petitioner to deposit Rs. 50,000 as a pre-condition for hearing a PIL

The Bombay High Court considering on admission, a public interest litigation urging the constitution of a new managing committee to run the Shri Saibaba Sansthan Trust, has asked the petitioner to deposit Rs. 50,000 as security to hear the matter and test his bonafides.The order was passed recently by a bench of Justices SV Gangapurwala and VK Jadhav on a PIL filed by Sanjay Kale, a...

Out of turn hearing of appeals of celebrities: Petition filed in Bombay High Court

A Petition has been filed in the Bombay High Court by Ms. Shashikala Bhagwan Gangurde against out of turn hearing of appeals of celebrities, including film actors Shiney Ahuja and Salman Khan, against their conviction.The Petitioner has filed the petition on behalf of her incarcerated husband and many other convicts who eagerly wait in jails for many years to get bail and struggle hard to...