High Courts Weekly Round-Up

Bombay High Court

The Bombay High Court in Sham Kumbhakarna vs. Yogita  held that no ‘permanent custody’ orders can be made in proceedings under the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005.

Giving the benefit of doubt to the accused, the High Court recently acquitted a man convicted under Sections 302 and 376(f) of the Indian Penal Code. Gaikwad was found sleeping over a foot away from the victim girl aged 6 years, who was found in an unconscious state with injuries to her private parts.

On Thursday, the High Court granted relief to the wife of a sitting MLA from Aldona constituency in Goa by allowing her application for transfer of matrimonial petition filed by her husband before a civil court in Mapusa, North Goa, to the Family Court in Bandra, Mumbai.

The High Court directed the State of Maharashtra to deposit Rs.60 lakh after concluding that the state has failed in discharging its responsibility in finding Gangadhar Patil, a man missing for the last 13 years.

In a move that will be a positive step in digitisation of daily workings of both Higher as well as the lower judiciary, the Committee of Administrative Judges of the High Court granted permission to supply digital copies of notes of  evidence in PDF format to parties or their advocates free of cost.

Calcutta High Court

A judge has to ensure that judicial process is insulated from scheming parties trying to circumvent the process by belated pleas of recusal, said a Calcutta High Court bench which was forced to undertake the “unsavoury” exercise of deciding a plea of its own bias stemming from its use of expression “ progress of trial ”

Chhattisgarh High Court

The Chhattisgarh High Court in Pramod Ranjankar vs. Arunashankar, held that a senior citizen can ask for ejectment as an interim measure under the Maintenance and Welfare of the Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007.

Delhi High Court

The Delhi High Court on Monday said actors cannot be held responsible for dialogues or enacting their character while seeking to know if a plea seeking deletion of certain scenes from Netflix show ‘Sacred Games ’ for being derogatory to former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi could be heard as a PIL.

The High Court drew a distinction between cases of infringement by use of ‘trade name’ under Section 29(5) of the Trade Marks Act, and the cases of infringement by use of ‘trademark’ under sub-sections (1) to (4) of Section 29. The Court held that to make out a case of infringement by use of ‘trade name’ under Section 29(5), mere similarity or deceptive similarity with the registered trademark was not sufficient, and that there has to be exact use of registered trademark or part of it as the trade name of the business.

Hearing petitions demanding criminalisation of marital rape, the Delhi High Court on Tuesday reportedly asserted that marriage does not mean that the wife should always be willing to consent to have physical relations with her husband.

On Friday. The High Court set aside Jawaharlal Nehru University’s order imposing fine of Rs. 10,000 on its former student union president Kanhaiya Kumar. It opined that the impugned order was “illegal, irrational and irregular”, and directed JNU to conduct the proceedings afresh.

Directing the immigration authorities to reconsider the decision to ‘blacklist’ an OCI cardholder, the High Court observed that every violation of visa norm cannot possibly lead to banning a person from entering into the country unless there is material to show that the person concerned acted in a manner which was inimical to our national interest.

Gujarat High Court

The Gujarat High Court issued notices to the Centre and the GST council on a petition challenging the constitutional validity and vires of Rule 117 of the Central Goods and Services Tax Rules-2017 on the ground that it restricts the time limit for filing and revising of GST TRAN-1 to the extent of only 180 days from the appointed day even though there is no such limitation under Section 140(5) of the Central GST Act which provides for both substantive as well as procedural conditions to avail of Cenvat credit of goods and services in transit on the appointed day.

Himachal Pradesh High court

The Himachal Pradesh High Court on Friday enlisted the Eco-Task Force set up by the Indian Army based at Kufri (Shimla) for removing encroachments over forests or public land in the Jalatha, Chaithla, Pungrish, Pandali and Kalemu villages in Kotkhai tehsil in Shimla district.

Kerala High Court

While denying pre-arrest bail of a person accused of committing offence under POCSO Act, the High Court of Kerala reiterated the legal position that consent given by a minor girl for the sexual act is of no legal validity.

In a case of its own kind where a man was being prosecuted for consuming liquor in public on the basis of smell of alcohol while the alco meter gave a “strange result” of 12,777.3 mg per 100 ml, the Kerala High Court said that a person cannot be prosecuted on the basis of mere smell of alcohol.

While considering a public interest litigation seeking to ban campus politics, filed in the wake of the recent murder of Abhimanyu, a student of Maharaja’s College, Ernakulam, the High Court of Kerala observed that the Kerala Government had failed to adhere to the commitments made by it before the Court that it would frame rules to regulate campus politics.

The High Court of Kerala held that the employers’ failure to make contributions and file returns in time cannot be a ground for denial of certificate of “ward of insured employee” to the insured employees by the Employees State Insurance Corporation. The said certificate is necessary to admission of wards of insured employees in the quota in medical colleges run by ESI Corporation.

In a significant judgment, the High Court of Kerala quashed the decision of a college to expel two students for their love affair and subsequent elopement.

Madhya Pradesh High Court

The Madhya Pradesh High Court in Mahesh Pahade vs. State of MP held that a victim of crime has a right to seek cancellation of bail/order of suspension of sentence. A bench of Chief Justice Hemant Gupta and Justice Vijay Kumar Shukla held thus while considering the maintainability of an application seeking cancellation of an order of suspension of sentence filed by the victim in the criminal appeal preferred by the convict.

Madras High Court

The Madras High Court last week recommended that the extra Rs. 200 paid to police officers who work during their day offs be restricted to just once every month, so that policemen get to relax and spend time with their families.

Allowing the plea of an LLB aspirant who was denied admission to three-year LLB course, the Madras High Court  held that prosecution of a regular course is mandatory only for the immediately previous qualifying certificate and/or degree.

Punjab and Haryana High Court

The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Tuesday confirmed the death sentence awarded to a Haryana woman and her boyfriend for poisoning and strangulating seven members of her family, including four children, in September 2009.

Rajasthan High Court

The Rajasthan High Court has held that in a patent suit where huge stakes are being claimed by the parties, if the right to file written statement is forfeited at the outset, it will lead to the party whose right is forfeited to first suffer temporary injunction and then a final decree to be able to persuade the court to reverse it by allowing it to file written statement followed by a de-novo trial leading to travesty of justice.

 Uttarakhand High Court

The Uttarakhand High Court on Friday issued a slew of directions for improvement of medical facilities in the State.  It is the centre’s duty to provide special health packages to all hilly states the court held.