What Constitutes Substantial Foetal Abnormalities Under Medical Termination Of Pregnancy Act? Delhi High Court Explains

Overruling a medical board's opinion, the Delhi High Court on Tuesday allowed a 26-year-old woman to undergo termination of pregnancy at the stage of 33 weeks. While the first three ultrasounds of the woman had not shown any abnormalities in the foetus, the November 12 report revealed "significantly dilated left lateral ventricle of the brain". Despite the cerebral abnormality, a medical board...

Section 319 CrPC : 12 Guidelines Issued By Supreme Court's Constitution Bench To Summon Additional Accused During Trial

A Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court issued elaborate guidelines today regarding the excercise of powers under Section 319 of the Code of Criminal Procedure for summoning additional accused during trial.A bench comprising Justices S Abdul Nazeer, BR Gavai, AS Bopanna, V Ramasubramanian and BV Nagarathna issued the guidelines while answering certain issues referred to it.What are...

Explained | Shraddha Walker Case: Narco-Analysis Test And Legal Position

Aaftab Amin Poonawala, who is accused of the gruesome murder of his live-in partner Shraddha Walker, was taken to a hospital in Delhi's Rohini on Thursday for a narco-analysis test. The scientific technique is used to elicit concealed information from an accused in a criminal case for furtherance of investigation. But what are the implications of such investigative tools in criminal cases?...

When Can A Citizen's Right To Travel Abroad Be Restricted? Explained With Judgments

The Pulitzer-winning photojournalist Sana Irshad Mattoo on Tuesday said she was again stopped from travelling to New York. She was on her way to the US to receive the international award when she was stopped by the immigration authorities at New Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport. In a tweet, she said she was holding a valid US visa and travel ticket.The 28-year-old was also stopped...

Explained | UAPA Prosecution Sanction, Process and Interpretations

The Nagpur Bench of Bombay High Court Friday ordered release of former Delhi University Professor GN Saibaba and five others in a UAPA case that accused them of being members and sympathisers of the banned CPI (Maoist). A day later, the judgement was suspended by the Supreme Court.The high court in its decision on the appeals against the conviction held the trial to be "null and void"...

Explained| Kerala Human Sacrifice : Which States Have Laws Against Superstitions & Black Magic?

Three persons including a couple have been arrested in Pathanamthitta district of Kerala in a suspected case of human sacrifice. The couple is alleged to have killed two middle-aged women with the hope that their "sacrifice" will bring them financial prosperity. While the incident has shocked people in the state called God's own country, and elsewhere, the diabolical murder of the two women...

Explained | Nayanthara-Vignesh Shivan Controversy: What Does Surrogacy (Regulation) Act Say?

Actor Nayanthara and her husband filmmaker Vignesh Shivan on October 9 posted pictures of their twin babies on Instagram and other social media platforms. Within hours of the announcement about the newborns' birth, a controversy has erupted — questions are being raised whether surrogacy laws were followed by the couple. During a presser, the Tamil Nadu Health Minister was asked a...

Delayed Institution Of Police Report Does Not Threaten Assumption Of Cognizance U/S 468 CrPC: Punjab & Haryana High Court

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has made it clear that delay on part of investigating agency in filing the charge sheet does not attract Section 468 CrPC, which prescribes bar on taking cognizance after lapse of the period of limitation.The bench comprising Justice Sureshwar Thakur observed that if delays in investigations made into the FIR are construed to fall within the ambit of...

Foreign Direct Investment In India: Law And Procedure

1.1 What is FDI? Foreign Direct Investment is an investment when a foreign company or individual acquires the stakes in the ownership of a business situated in another country. In terms of Rule 2(r) of Foreign Exchange Management (Non-debt Instruments) Rules, 2019, "Foreign Direct Investment means investment through equity instruments by a person resident outside India in an...

S. 313 CrPC - All Adverse Evidences Should Be Put As Questions; Avoid Bundling Circumstances Together With Only Single Opportunity To Explain : Supreme Court

The Supreme Court observed that while examining an accused under Section 313 CrPC, all the adverse evidences has to put in the form of questions so as to give an opportunity to the accused to articulate his defence and give his explanation."If all the circumstances are bundled together and a single opportunity is provided to the accused to explain himself, he may not ...

Different Courts Different Orders On Use Of Nets In "Mosquito Prone" Taloja Prison

Just days after a special NIA court allowed an accused in the Antilia Terror Scare Case to use a mosquito net in the Taloja prison, another special court refused the same relief to Sagar Gorkhe and journalist Gautam Navlakha in the Bhima Koregaon – Elgar Parishad Case. Special NIA Judge Rajesh Katariya in the Elgar case, however, directed the Superintendent of Taloja prison to take...

Difference Between "Per Incurium" & "Sub Silentio" -Explainer

Those things which have been so often adjudged ought to rest in peace. This statement by the English jurist, Lord Coke succinctly summarizes the jurisprudential force of the doctrine of precedent. The doctrine of precedent occupies an important position in the organization of any judicial system. It implies that a decision by a court higher in the pyramid of judicial hierarchy, binds...