CCI imposes Penalty on Kerala Film Exhibitors Federation (‘KFEF’) and its two office Bearers for contravening Competition Law

Competition Commission of India (CCI) found Kerala Film Exhibitors Federation (‘KFEF’), an association of theatre owners, to be conducting their activities in contravention of Section 3 of the Competition Act, 2002 (‘the Act’). The Informant, M/s Crown Theatre, had approached CCI alleging anti-competitive conduct by KFEF in not allowing screening of Malayalam and Tamil films...

Bombay HC seeks Govt's response to PIL challenging Circular on Sedition

The Bombay High Court today sought the Maharashtra government's reply  to a PIL challenging its circular providing guidelines to be issued to the police regarding invocation of IPC Section 14-A related to sedition.The petition, filed by Narendra Sharma, sought the high court's direction to quash and set aside the government's circular dated August 27 saying it amounts to violation of...

Two SDMs penalised by CIC

The Central Information Commissioner Prof M Sridhar Acharyulu imposed penalty of Rs 2500 on past and present PIOs of office of SDM Civil Lines GNCTD for adamant attitude refusing RTI application, not responding to complaint, not complying with first and second appeal orders.It all began with refusal to accept the RTI application of Harish Kumar Tyagi. Then he filed a complaint. There was...

Amazon & University of Pennsylvania sued over an Indian origin Girl’s suicide

Amazon and the University of Pennsylvania have been dragged to court  by the mother of an Indian-origin girl student who committed suicide over two years ago by consuming cyanide purchased from the retailer. The 20-year-old nursing student at the university, had reported an alleged sexual assault by a male student in 2011, but no charges were filed and he remained on campus, leading to...

No Supreme Court intervention in FTII matter

The Supreme Court of India today refused to entertain a PIL seeking the court's intervention on the deadlock over the appointment of Gajendra Chauhan as the Chairman of the Film and Television Institute of India at Pune. The advocate for the petitioner Vineet Dhanda argued that the reputed institute is paralysed by a students' strike and the government is doing nothing to find a...

AP High Court upholds deletion of 26 castes from BC list

The action of the Telangana government in deleting 26 castes from the list of Backward Classes has been upheld by the division bench of Andhra Pradesh High Court.A batch of petitions moved by several students and parents challenging the deletion of 26 castes including Kalinga, Toorpu Kapu, Gavara, Setti Balija , Nagavaddilu and other castes, from the list through GO Ms No 3 and 16 on the...

US Court approved $415m settlement in tech wage case

A federal judge approved a $415 million settlement case that extended from a period of 2005 to 2009 and revolved around allegations that Apple, Google and several other Silicon Valley companies illegally conspired to prevent their workers from getting better job offers.“No poaching” pact was agreed upon where Apple, Google and other major employers cant recruit each other's workers...

Government stops JANNE KA HAQ, the only RTI related TV Programme

The DD program  JANNE KA HAQ is the only Television program in India,- or perhaps in the world,- which is working for over nine years on RTI and transparency related issues from January 2006.  It has been taking up various issues relating to Right to Information every weekend. Despite it being a DD program, it had consistently championed the cause of transparency. Its popularity was...

State directed by the Bombay High Court to decide on Casino Act

The state government was directed by the Bombay High Court to decide whether it planned to implement the law aimed at legalizing casinos in the state. The decision was asked to be made within a reasonable time.Practicing lawyer, Jay Satya filed a petition seeking that the state government be directed to take a time-bound decision for implementation of the Maharashtra Casinos (Control and...

Unsafe to base convictions on ‘Last seen theory’ when time gap is considerably long : Supreme Court [Read the Judgment]

Supreme Court on Friday, in Nizam vs State of Rajasthan, held that the if  the gap between the time of occurrence and the time when the accused was last seen, is considerably long,  it would be unsafe to base the conviction on the “last seen theory”.  Setting aside the conviction which was confirmed by High Court, the Apex Court said “In the absence of definite evidence that...

Delhi HC seeks response from centre in Aurangzeb road renaming PIL matter

The Delhi High Court has sought reply from the Centre on a PIL seeking to restrain civic body New Delhi Municipal Council(NDMC) from renaming Aurangzeb Road after APJ Abdul Kalam.A bench of Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice Jayant Nath asked Additional Solicitor General Sanjay Jain to inform it whether any guidelines are to be followed for renaming roads. "We only need information with regard...

Treat all paramilitary forces as “organized services”, Group-A Officers to get Non-Functional Financial Upgradation: Delhi High Court

A Delhi High Court Bench comprising Justice Kailash Gambhir and Justice Najmi Waziri has directed the central Government to consider all paramilitary forces, the CRPF, BSF, ITBP, CISF and SSB, as “organized services”.The order, that would benefit about 10, 000 Group A Officers, said that Group-A Officers of paramilitary forces should be given all benefits, including non-functional...