High Courts Weekly Round-Up

Allahabad High Court

The Allahabad High Court quashed the demotion of two professors of Lucknow’s Integral University while criticising its Vice-Chancellor for throwing the principles of natural justice to winds.

Bombay High Court

The Bombay High Court recently refused to grant any relief to a final year law student from Govind Ramnath Kare College of Law with low attendance. A bench of Justice NM Jamdar and Justice Prithviraj K Chavan was hearing the writ petition filed by the student himself.

Nagpur Bench of the High Court recently dismissed an appeal filed by a rape convict, upholding the lower Court’s decision to reject attempts to tarnish the rape survivor’s character.

The High Court on Monday questioned the shutdown of Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT) following a fire in the said building premises over a month ago and expressed surprise at this development. Is the Finance Ministry sleeping, asked Justice Abhay Oka.

The High Court recently allowed a criminal appeal filed by a married woman and granted her protection from arrest in a case filed by her lesbian partner (complainant) for offences under Sections 354, 504, 506, 509 of the Indian Penal Code and under Sections 66(E) and 67 of the Information and Technology Act as well as under Sections 3(1)(r)(s)(w)(i)(ii) of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.

The High Court refused relief to a medical student who filed a petition seeking writ of mandamus to the State of Maharashtra allowing the petitioner to be transferred to a medical college of his choice in Mumbai and not the one he had already been allotted in Mumbai.

The High Court held that a convict confined to open prison can be released on furlough by the sanctioning authority by doing away with the requirement of execution of bond by the relatives of the convict.

The High Court on Thursday dismissed plea of Advocate Mathews J Nedumpara seeking compensation of Re 1 from Justice SJ Kathawalla for making some prejudicial and defamatory observations about him in an order disposing a case, in which he had appeared for a party.

The High Court recently made some sharp observations while hearing a case of medical negligence wherein a doctor couple, Deepa and Sanjeev Pawaskar were booked under Section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, after a woman died within a few days of being discharged from their hospital.

Calcutta High Court

Calcutta High Court reduces sentence of rape accused as he married the victim. ‘The fact that the prosecutrix and the appellant are married (to each other) and have settled in life with their children appears to be “adequate and special reason” for imposing lesser sentence’, the court held.

Chhattisgarh High Court

The Chhattisgarh High Court in Post Master vs. Rajesh Nag held that post office is not liable to pay damages for delay in delivery of speed post, postal articles in light of Section 6 of the Indian Post Office Act, 1898.

Delhi High Court

Applying the legal principle that a suit for recovery of possession was not maintainable at the instance of a co-owner alone when other co-owners object to it, the Delhi High Court has dismissed an appeal filed against dismissal of suit.

The High Court on Friday upheld the disqualification of Rocky Tuseed’s candidature by the varsity, a month before his tenure as the Delhi University Students Union (DUSU) President ends.

The High Court issued notice to the Centre and the Election Commission of India on a PIL pleading that Section 77 of the Representation of People Act, 1951, be struck down as it distinguishes arbitrarily between a person contesting from a political party and an Independent when it comes to expenditure on campaigning.

Former Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram was on Wednesday granted interim protection by the High Court from arrest in the INX media money laundering case registered by the Enforcement Directorate.

Justice Valmiki J Mehta recently observed that the facts of a property dispute case between a mother and her son is ‘is nothing else but a copy of the Movie ‘102 Not Out’. The Delhi High Court, dismissing an appeal filed by a son against his mother in a property dispute matter, observed that it is a classic case of aged parent/mother being harassed by her children for properties.

Gujarat High Court

The Gujarat High Court said candidates qualified for recruitment to post of Additional Public Prosecutors, Class II, have no enforceable right to be recommended for appointment since the state government is the authority to determine the number of vacancies while also considering the fact that the number of vacancies had come down after the high court had surrendered 275 ad-hoc posts in the cadre of Civil Judge created under the Swarnim Gujarat Scheme.

Jammu and Kashmir High Court

The Jammu and Kashmir High Court directed owners of multiplexes/cinema halls of the state not to prohibit cinemagoers from carrying their own food articles and water inside the theatre.

Kerala High Court

Quashing an order passed by the Women’s Commission asking a man to pay three-fourths of his salary to wife and children, the Kerala High Court in Sreekumar v. Kerala Women’s Commission held that such a power is not conferred on it.

By allowing a Review Petition, the High Court of Kerala recalled the judgment which had dismissed a PIL seeking inquiry into the alleged non-utilization of funds by Kerala Union of Working Journalists(KUWJ).

With the hallowed intention to prevent the ecological deterioration of Sabarimala, where the iconic temple of Lord Ayyappa is situated, the High Court of Kerala passed a categorical order, preventing the use of all forms of plastic there, including plastic materials like sachets and covers wrapping the offerings customarily carried by devotees in their travel pouch called “irumudikkettu”

Upholding the amendment to the Kerala Cooperative Societies Act which does not provide voting rights to primary societies in the District Cooperative Bank and admits them as nominal members only, the High Court held that the government was well within its powers to exclude cooperative societies other than Primary Agricultural Credit Societies and Urban Co-operative Banks from the management control of District Co-operative Banks as otherwise the volume of agricultural lending was reduced to 10 percent of total lending by the involvement of other co-operative societies.

Madras High Court

The Madras High Court on Monday quashed a lookout circular (LOC) issued by the CBI against Karti Chidambaram, son of former Union Minister P. Chidambaram, in connection with the INX Media case.

The High Court recently imposed fine on a police officer for dragging an accused who had surrendered before the Magistrate’s Court from court hall to outside.

The High Court recently upheld the dismissal from service of a district judge accused of corruption.

Former Union Minister Dayanidhi Maran, his brother Kalanithi Maran and five others will now face trial in the BSNL illegal telephone exchange case with the Madras High Court setting aside the order of Special CBI court which had discharged them in March.

Punjab and Haryana High Court

The Punjab and Haryana High Court suggested to the State of Haryana to suitably modify and simplify the Court Marriage Check List (CMCL) to bring it in line with the Special Marriage Act by minimal executive interference. The court observed that some of those conditions largely violate the rights to privacy and are particularly offensive and excessive executive action beyond the purview of the Special Marriage Act.

Tripura High Court

Taking note of the gravity and precarious situation of illegal drug trafficking in the state, the Tripura High Court directed the Chief Secretary and Director General of Police in the state to take active steps to destroy the cultivation of grown grown-up cannabis (ganja) and also to prevent further cultivation of cannabis in any of the parts of the state.

Uttarakhand High Court

The Uttarakhand High Court recently issued a slew of directions for improving the functioning of Government Medical College, Haldwani and its associate hospitals. The bench comprising Justice Rajiv Sharma and Justice Lok Pal Singh asserted, “Every citizen has a fundamental right to health. The State has the obligation to provide best medical services to its citizens. The poorest of poor cannot go to the private hospitals.”

The Uttarakhand High Court recently increased the amount of maintenance awarded to a woman, noting that she had to take care of her major son as well since he was unemployed.

 The Uttarakhand High Court on Thursday lamented the hampering of legal proceedings caused by the delay on the State’s part to file its replies and affidavits and issued directions to mend the situation.