Bombay High Court Appoints Retired Justices Amjad Sayed, Anuja Prabhudesai To Monitor Mumbai Air Pollution

Observing that despite clear orders the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and also the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) have failed to contain the rising levels of air pollution in Mumbai, the Bombay High Court recently constituted a High Power committee (HPC) comprising retired Justice Amjad Sayed and retired Justice Anuja Prabhudesai.While Justice Sayed is the former Chief Justice of Himachal Pradesh High Court, Justice Prabhudesai is a former judge of the Bombay...

Govt Employee Furnishing False Medical Certificate To Justify Absence Is Grave Misconduct Warranting Dismissal: Delhi High Court

The Delhi High Court has held that a government employee who furnishes a false medical certificate to justify unauthorised absence commits grave misconduct, warranting the penalty of dismissal from service.A division bench of Justices Anil Kshetarpal and Amit Mahajan was hearing a writ petition filed by the CAG office challenging an order of the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT), which had interfered with the punishment of dismissal imposed on a government employee for submitting fabricated...

Delhi High Court Refuses To Extend Deadline For Bollywood Actor Rajpal Yadav To Surrender In Cheque Bounce Cases

The Delhi High Court today refused to extend the deadline granted to Bollywood actor Rajpal Naurang Yadav to surrender before the concerned Jail Superintendent in relation to his conviction in cheque dishonour cases.Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma rejected Yadav's application for extension of time to surrender, stating that the actor must surrender today by 4 PM. “I rejected these submissions on that day itself and granted you two more days to surrender. I don't think there is any ground. You were...

Allahabad High Court Awards ₹1 Lakh Compensation To Man Wrongfully Arrested By Police Without 'Credible Information'

The Allahabad High Court recently awarded a compensation of Rs 1 Lakh to a man who was wrongfully arrested and detained by the Uttar Pradesh police in 2017 without proper investigation or credible evidence against him. A bench of Justice Arindam Sinha and Justice Satya Veer Singh noted that the fundamental right of the petitioner under Article 21 had been infringed by an arbitrary and capricious action on the part of the arresting police personnel and that he was a...

Solitary Incident Of Assaulting Child Is Not 'Child Abuse' Under Goa Children's Act: Bombay High Court

The Bombay High Court on Tuesday (February 3), while acquitting two women convicted for hitting their relative's child with an iron rod on his head leading to bleeding injury, held that mere solitary instance of an assault on a child cannot amount to the offence of 'child abuse' under the Goa Children's Act, 2003 Sitting at the Goa bench, single-judge Justice Sreeram Shirsat dealt with the...

Jharkhand High Court Refuses To Interfere In 25-Year-Old Lecturer Appointments, Cites Long-Standing Service and Equities

The Jharkhand High Court has declined to interfere with the appointments of three lecturers made more than two decades ago, holding that it would be unjust to unsettle appointments that have remained in place for nearly 25 years, particularly when one possible and plausible view had already been acted upon by the competent authorities.A Single Judge Bench of Justice Sanjay Kumar Dwivedi was hearing a writ petition challenging the appointment of three persons and seeking quashing of the...

Once Cessation Of Threat Is Admitted By Detaining Authority, Preventive Detention Becomes Arbitrary: J&K&L High Court

Emphasising a cardinal constitutional safeguard, the Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh High Court has recently reiterated that without a current or proximate threat to security, preventive detention becomes arbitrary and legally unsustainable.A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Arun Palli and Justice Rajnesh Oswal observed that once the detaining authority itself acknowledges that the detenue has remained inactive and there is a total cessation of alleged prejudicial activity, the very...

Equal Pay For Equal Work Not Automatic: Delhi High Court Rejects MCD Lab Technicians' Plea For Pay Parity With Central Govt Staff

The Delhi High Court has held that the principle of “equal pay for equal work” is not automatic and cannot be invoked merely on the basis of similarity in job designation or duties, particularly when educational qualifications and recruitment rules differ.A division bench of Justices Anil Kshetarpal and Amit Mahajan thus dismissed a plea filed by an Association of Laboratory Technicians employed with the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) seeking pay parity with Laboratory Technicians working...

Madhya Pradesh High Court Holds Senior Govt Official Guilty Of Contempt For Re-imposing TET Condition, Violating Court's Earlier Directions

The Madhya Pradesh High Court has held a senior education department official guilty of willful and deliberate contempt for re-imposing a Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) requirement on a woman appointed on compassionate grounds, despite a categorical judicial finding that such qualification was not mandatory in her case.Justice Pranay Verma, while deciding a batch of contempt petitions, observed that the respondent authority had acted in “gross violation and willful breach” of the Court's earlier...

Don't Disclose Sexual Assault Victim's Name, Address In Status Reports Or Documents: Delhi High Court To Police

The Delhi High Court has directed the Delhi Police to ensure that name, parentage or address of victim of sexual assault are not disclosed in the status reports or documents filed in the Court. Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma requested the Commissioner of Police to reiterate appropriate instructions to all SHOs and Investigating Officers, in strict compliance with law.While dealing with a POCSO case where the name of the prosecutrix was mentioned in the status report filed by the IO, the...

Custodial Death Compensation: Kerala High Court Closes Suo Motu Case As State Finalises SOP For Collection Of Prisoners' Legal Heirs Data

The Kerala High Court on Wednesday (04 February) disposed of the suo motu proceedings on custodial deaths and compensation to the legal heirs of the deceased inmates as the State informed that the Standard operating Procedure (SOP) for collection of data has been finalised.The division bench comprising Chief Justice Soumen Sen and Justice Syam Kumar V M disposed of the petition. The Court had previously directed the State government to develop a database on the legal heirs of prison...

'Benefit Derived Prior To Election': Karnataka High Court Overturns Disqualification Of Councillors On Ground Of Wives Winning Land Auction

The Karnataka High Court overturned the disqualification of two Belagavi Municipal Corporation Councillors who were disqualified on the ground that they had failed to disclose that their wives had succeeded in an auction of leasehold rights in respect of properties constructed by Public Works Department.In doing so the court observed that the leasehold auction had happened prior to when the petitioners were elected as Councillors, and thus the alleged benefit was not derived after the...