High Courts Weekly Round-Up

Allahabad High Court

Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court on Thursday upheld the death penalty awarded to a 31-year-old man convicted of raping and murdering a 12-year-old girl. The judgment was delivered by a Bench comprising Justice RR Awasthi and Justice Mahendra Dayal.

 Bombay High Court

The Bombay High Court recently came to the rescue of an elderly couple residing with their son and his family at a flat in Khar, Mumbai. Justice Shalini Phansalkar Joshi ordered the elderly couple’s daughter-in-law, Simran to leave the said flat after noting that she could not be allowed to harass her in-laws in the twilight of their lives and directed her to find an alternate accommodation for herself.

On Tuesday, the High Court quashed a notice issued by the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply & Transport Undertaking (BEST) terminating a contract with a private company for 40 electric buses.

The High Court allowed a petition filed by Ness Wadia seeking quashing of a FIR registered with Marine Drive Police Station for an offence punishable under sections 354, 504, 506 and 509 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 at the instance of actress and former fiancée Preity Zinta.

The High Court on Wednesday refused to grant bail to two accused arrested last year after a video showing two nine-year-old Dalit boys being beaten up and paraded naked for allegedly trying to pilfer a snack item went viral.

The High Court on Friday directed the Pune Police to abstain from taking any coercive action against activist Gautam Navlakha and professor Anand Teltumbde—both arrested in relation to the Bhima-Koregaon case—till next week.

The High Court said Friday the #MeToo campaign was only for the victims, and it should not be misused by anyone to manipulate a victim to level allegations of sexual harassment against anybody to settle “their own scores”.

Calcutta High Court

The Calcutta High Court held that lottery can be taxed under the Central and State Goods and Services Tax Act. Justice Debangsu Basak dismissed a writ petition that sought a declaration that lotteries are exempt from tax under Sl. No. 6 of Schedule III read with Section 72 of the Central Goods and Service Tax Act, 2017 and Sl. No. 6 of Schedule III read with Section 72 of the State Goods and Service Tax Act, 2017.

Delhi High Court

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday convicted a 21-year-old man of raping an 11-year-old girl, while rapping the Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) for showing “complete lack of sensitivity to human feelings and limitations”

Abhinav Pandey would get a gold medal for his remarkable academic performance in the five year B.A.LL.B. (Hons.) course as the division bench of the Delhi high court dismissed the writ appeal filed by Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University.

The High Court held that National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) is empowered to decide the issues relating to allotment of share capital, alteration and rectification of the register of members and a civil suit before the High court would not be maintainable.

The High Court asked the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDAI) to “explain the reasonableness” of not granting insurance cover to people suffering from congenital anomalies.

The Delhi High Court recently acquitted three men, accused of kidnapping and raping a visually challenged pregnant woman, opining that there existed no medical or forensic evidence to connect the three to the crime.

Karnataka High Court

The Karnataka High Court held that no judge other than a judge of the high court is empowered to delegate the duty of examining and impounding any instrument under Section 33 of the Karnataka Stamp Act, 1957 to any other person or officer.

The High Court recently dismissed a petition for doing away with the collegium system of appointments and recruiting to the judiciary through public advertisements/notifications.

Kerala High Court

The Kerala High Court on Monday acquitted the accused who was convicted by the trial court in Chekannur Maulavi ‘murder’ case.

Rejecting a ‘corruption’ complaint against former Home Minister of Kerala Ramesh Chennithala, the High Court of Kerala emphasised the need of a law to prevent vexatious litigations and also issued guidelines in the matter of investigations by Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau and Police Department in corruption matters.

A Full Bench of the High Court of Kerala comprising five judges has held that absence of fitness certificate for a transport vehicle amounts to fundamental breach of third party insurance policy. It was held that the insurer will get ‘pay and recover’ option in compensation cases arising out of accidents caused by transport vehicles without fitness certificate.

The High Court set aside Employee’s Pension (Amendment) Scheme, 2014 that capped maximum pensionable salary to Rs.15, 000 per month, observing that it is absolutely unrealistic and would deprive most of the employees of a decent pension in their old age.

The High Court, on Wednesday, stayed a recent communication by the Bar Council of India (BCI) restraining Advocate General of the State of Kerala Mr. CP Sudhakara Prasad from acting as the Ex officio Chairman of the Trustee Committee of the Kerala Advocates’ Welfare Fund.

On Wednesday, the High Court also issued a notice to the Association of Malayalam Movie Artistes (AMMA), the state government and the Department of Women and Child Development on the petition moved by Women in Cinema Collective (WCC) demanding the establishment of a grievance redressal mechanism in the AMMA to deal with cases of sexual harassment.

The High Court  observed that State or University can prescribe higher standards of eligibility admission to LL.B. Courses, than that prescribed by Bar Council of India.

Weeks after the Supreme Court decriminalised homosexuality, the Kerala High Court has allowed a plea of the lesbian live-in couple to live together. A division bench of Justice CK Abdul Rehim and Justice R. Narayana Pisharadi observed that such live-in relationship between lesbian couple is neither a crime nor illegal.

Madhya Pradesh High Court

The Madhya Pradesh High Court commuted death penalty awarded to a man accused of raping aseven-year-oldd.

While considering plea of ‘guest teachers’, the High Court observed that right of education under the Right to Education Act is not to protect the teachers, but to grant education to the students.

The Indore Bench of the High Court directed an inquiry to be conducted against all those involved, including a lower court judge, in the passing of an order by the judge after the case had already been transferred to another court.

 Madras High Court

The Madras High Court recently dismissed a public interest litigation seeking uniform rates of food items (vegetarian and non-vegetarian) in different hotels, restaurants, fast foods and graded hotels.

The High Court dismissed plea by a lady named Amrutha seeking to conduct a DNA Test to ascertain that she is the daughter of former Chief Minister, Late J. Jayalalithaa.

Patna High Court

The Patna High Court last week quashed a press communique issued by the State government, prescribing that admissions to Ayurvedic, Yoga & Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy (AYUSH) courses shall only be allowed through National Eligibility-cum- Entrance Test (NEET).

 Punjab & Haryana High Court

The Punjab and Haryana High Court granted bail to Naresh Kumar, the main accused in the case concerning the brutal lynching of a 16-year-old boy, Junaid Khan, in June last year.