Amendment to Employees’ Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions (EPF & MP) Act

A proposal for comprehensive amendment to the Employees’ Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions (EPF & MP) Act, 1952 is under consideration of the Government which, inter alia, includes reducing threshold limit for coverage from 20 to 10 employees under the Act.This was stated by Shri Bandaru Dattatreya, MoS (IC) Labour and Employment in written reply to a question in Lok Sabha...

High Courts Weekly Round-Up

Allahabad High CourtAllahabad High Court has quashed the resolution of Banaras Hindu University terminating the contract of Magsaysay award winner Prof. Sandeep Pandey as Visiting Professor alleging activities against National Interest. Allowing the Petition preferred by him, a Division Bench comprising of Justices Mahesh Chandra Tripathi and V.K. Shukla said that the decision by the...

Partial Deposit before DRAT is neither a secured asset, nor a secured debt; It is refundable to the appellant after disposal of Appeal: SC [Read Judgment]

The Supreme Court in Axis bank vs. SBS Organics Private Limited has held that the partial deposit before the Debt Recovery Appellate Tribunal (DRAT) as a pre-condition for considering the appeal on merits in terms of Section 18 of the Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest Act, 2002 (SARFAESI Act), is neither a secured asset, nor a...

Allahabad HC upholds validity of Representation of People’s Act 2013 Amendment allowing Jailed persons to contest Election [Read Order]

Allahabad High Court has upheld the validity of 2013 amendment to Representation of People Act. A writ petition by LOK PRAHARI, which had sought a declaration that the Representation of the People (Amendment and Validation) Act, 2013 is ultra vires and unconstitutional, got dismissed by a division bench comprising of the Chief Justice Dr D Y Chandrachud and Justice Rajan Roy.In order...

Banker cannot exercise any general lien over the property owned by the husband, for the liability incurred by the wife: Kerala HC [Read Judgment]

A single Judge of the Kerala High Court in Lonankutty Antony@ T.V.Antony v The Joint Registrar of Co operative Societies and others [W.P(C )No:2527/2015] has ruled that a banker cannot exercise a general lien over the property owned by the husband, for the liability incurred by the wife, in the absence of any express or implied consent thereto.The petitioner husband had availed himself of a...

Joint Conference of Chief Ministers of States and Chief Justices of High Courts on 24th April

A Joint Conference of Chief Justices of High Courts and Chief Ministers of States is being held on coming Sunday i.e. 24th April, 2016 at Vigyan Bhawan, here in New Delhi . This will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi in the august presence of Justice Shri T.S.Thakur, Chief Justice, Supreme Court and Shri D.V. Sadananda Gowda, Union Law and Justice Minister. This conference...

CIC directs IB to disclose report on IFS Officer Sanjiv Chaturvedi [Read Order]

The Central Information Commission on Thursday directed the Intelligence Bureau to provide its report in relation to the false cases filed against IFoS Officer Sanjiv Chaturvedi by corrupt officers exposed by him during his term as DFO in Haryana , ruling that the report does not contain information excluded from the purview of the Right to Information Act by Section 24 which exempts...

Good Samaritans; Govt. issues Notification and SoP in compliance with Save Foundation Judgment

Supreme Court of India in Savelife Foundation & Anr Vs. Union of India & Anr has approved the Centre’s guidelines to protect Good Samaritans, who help road accident victims, from being hassled or harassed at hospitals, police stations or courts.In this regard, Notification dated 12-05-2015 for protection of Good Samaritan issued by Ministry of Road Transport & Highways (MoRTH)...

Delhi HC stays warrant and PCI proceedings against I&B Ministry Secretary Sunil Arora [Read Order]

Delhi High Court on Tuesday stayed the summons, warrants and resolutions passed by the Press Council of India against I & B Ministry Secretary Sunil Arora. Staying the proceedings, Justice Manmohan ordered notice to be issued to the Press Council of India.PCI had reportedly initiated a suo motu inquiry into the “continued apathy” of the Ministry towards the activities of the Council....

Lack of adequate attendance not to be read as exclusive circumstance for debarring a student from taking his exams: Patna HC (DB) [Read Judgment]

In no circumstances, it would mean that those students, who fail to attend the minimum required 75% classes, a necessary inference can or must be drawn that they are not seriously undertaking their studies, the Bench observed.The Patna High Court in All India Students Federation vs. State of Bihar, has observed that lack of adequate attendance must not be read as exclusive circumstance...

Jharkhand HC takes suo motu cognizance of non-availability of drinking water in prisoners’ ward of Medical Institute [Read Order]

The High Court of Jharkhand on Thursday ordered a detailed report to be filed by the Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences, Ranchi, regarding the availability of drinking water in the Prisoners’ Ward at RIMS.The Bench, comprising Chief Justice Virender Singh and Justice Shree Chandrashekhar made reference to a news report in the newspaper “Prabhat Khabar” dated April 20, 2016,...

Bombay High Court Full Bench summarizes law on Land acquisition awards [Read Judgment]

Full Bench of Bombay High Court has held that if the possession is taken before the Section 4(1)of the Land Acquisition Act is published and/or before the award is passed, the land­ owner would been titled for interest as per Section 34 necessarily from the date of passing of the award under Section 11 of the said Act, except in cases where the possession is taken in accordance with Section...