NIA Court Awards Death Penalty To Yaseen Bhatkal, 4 Other IM Operatives

The NIA Court of Hyderabad has awarded death penalty to Yaseen Bhatkal and four other Indian Mujahideen operators, who were accused of perpetrating two consecutive bomb explosions that took place at Dilsukhnagar market in 2013 in Hyderabad.The bomb blast had resulted in the death of 18 persons, including one unborn child, and injuries to 131 persons.NIA judge T. Srinivasa Rao termed the crime...

Karnataka HC Upholds Denial Of LLB Seats To Students From Open/Unrecognised Schools [Read Judgment]

The Karnataka High Court has dismissed a group of petitions by students challenging their rejection for admission to law course on account of their ineligibility caused by qualifying degrees obtained through open universities or 10+2 certificates directly without foundation courses.The court affirmed the BCI’s authority for deciding qualification for admission to LLB, 3 years and...

Madras HC Directs Govt To Crack Down On Shariat Courts [Read Order]

“If a place of worship – whether it be temple, mosque or church, is used for purposes other than prayers and more specifically to create extra-judicial forums, certainly the authorities are duty-bound to take action against the same,” it said. The Madras High Court has recently directed the government to take necessary action to stop the activities of ‘shariat’ courts in the...

Karnataka HC Ends Mysuru Royal Land Drama [Read Judgment]

The Karnataka High Court recently dismissed petitions regarding tracts of land in Vijayshreepura, Mysuru. Moreover, the bench declared people who had constructed houses there to be encroachers.Refusing to go against the order of the Apex Court, the High Court bench dismissed the Writ petition filed under Art 226 of the Constitution.The bone of contention among the parties was the disputed land...

Promotions Shall Be Made Strictly According To The Seniority List: Jharkhand HC [Read Order]

Calling for scrupulous adherence to the Bihar.Taken over Elementary School Teachers Promotion Rules, 1993, the Jharkhand High Court has held that promotions on the vacancies which have arisen shall be made strictly according to the seniority list. The court also directed the authorities to upload the provisional seniority list on the department’s website to enable online submission...

Jharkhand HC Pulls Up Forest Secretary For Wilful Violation Of Court's Order [Read Order]

Put out by the ‘wilful violation’ of the court's order to produce file on the government's decision to withdraw the provision for accelerated promotion of Forest guards, the Jharkhand High Court has pulled up the Secretary (Forest, Environment and Climate Change) of the Government of Jharkhand. He has been issued a show cause notice, asking why contempt proceedings should not...

Centre Urges States/UTs To Implement SC Order On National Anthem

In a written advisory issued to the Chief Secretaries of all State Governments and Chief Secretaries/Administrators of all Union Territories, the Central government has called for strict adherence with the Supreme Court directives issued in regard to the National Anthem.The Centre urged the authorities to take necessary action in this regard.The Supreme Court, in its order dated 30th...

Deposit All Your Old Rs.500, 1,000 Notes At One Go, Tell Banks Why You Didn’t Deposit Earlier: RBI

If they go and deposit once, no questions are going to be asked to them, ‘clarifies’ FM.With 10 days more to go for the deadline to deposit the demonetised Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 notes, the Reserve Bank of India has issued yet another notification stating that the deposit in demonetised currency in excess of ₹ 5,000 into a bank account will be received for credit only once during...

True Import Of Movie Censorship Is To Render It Viewable, Not To Condemn It Without A Fair Process: Kerala HC [Read Judgment]

The division bench observed: “We are in affirmation that the true import of censorship and examination of films under the Act and Rules is to render the film, so far as possible, viewable by attuning it to be in conformity with the statutory guidelines and not to condemn it without a fair process.”A division bench of the High Court of Kerala has ruled that under the guise of censorship,...

Don’t Charge Customers For Smaller ‘Digital’ Transactions Till March End: RBI To Banks

To support the ‘digital banking’ push by the Central government, the Reserve Bank of India has directed banks not to levy any charges on customers for transactions up to ₹1,000 settled on Immediate Payment Service (IMPS), USSD-based *99# and Unified Payment Interface (UPI) systems from January 1, 2017, to  March 31, 2017.The apex bank has clarified that this is a ‘temporary measure’...

Malayalam Writer Booked For Sedition For ‘Insulting’ National Anthem

Kamal C Chavara, a Malayalam writer and theatre artiste, has been arrested by the Kerala Police for allegedly disrespecting the national anthem. Reportedly, charges of sedition were slapped on him.Yuvamorcha, the youth wing of the Bharatiya Janata Party, activists had lodged complained against him for posting some excerpts from his novel "Smasanangulude Nottupusthakam" on Facebook, which...

EC Seeks Law To Ban Anonymous Contributions Above Rs.2,000 To Political Parties

The Election Commission of India has pressed for amendment of laws to ban anonymous contributions of Rs.2,000 and above made to political parties.It also proposed that exemption of Income Tax should only be extended to political parties that contest elections and win seats in the Lok Sabha or Assembly polls.Presently, Section 29(C) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, requires...