Parliamentary Standing Committee on law recommends constitutional status to proposed Judicial Appointments Commission

A suggestion has been given by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on law, to render constitutional status to the proposed Judicial Appointments Commission for appointments to the higher judiciary. The recommendations by the standing committee were submitted to Parliament on the Judicial Appointments Commission (JAC) Bill which also seeks to scrap the present collegium system under which...

Bring uniformity in tenure or else appointment for tribunals to be stayed, says Supreme Court

Blaming the Centre's inactivity in answering to the court's repeated propositions to bring uniformity in their appointment process and service conditions, a Supreme Court bench of Justices G S Singhvi and C Nagappan threatened to stay appointment of retired judges to hundreds of tribunals across the country.The bench stressed on the egregious inequality in the appointment process, tenure...

Intern Sexual Harassment: Section 354 or Section 354A IPC?

The Times of India has carried a news item “If booked under Sec 354A, Ganguly may get 3 years in jail”. No doubt, under the amended Indian Penal Code, any man who commits the offence specified in section 354 A i.e. Sexual harassment, shall be punished with rigorous imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years, or with fine, or with both. However, the fact is, the amendments...

Supreme Court says "no use of red beacon light on vehicles, allowed only for constitutional authorities"

A Supreme Court bench led by Justice G S Singhvi ruled that vehicles fitted with red beacons will be allowed only for constitutional authorities and limited classes of high functionary, thus restricting the unrestrained use of red beacons as a symbol of VIP culture. The apex court bench while delivering its judgment asked the government to make appropriate amendments in the Motor...

No anticipatory bail to absconder/proclaimed offender: Supreme Court

While setting aside the order of the Madhya Pradesh High Court which had granted bail to two accused who had absconded from the very date when they had allegedly poisoned a man to death, a Supreme Court bench of Chief Justice P Sathasivam and Justice Ranjan Gogoi held that an accused who has been declared as an absconder/proclaimed offender in terms of Section 82 of the Criminal...

Government clarifies that juvenile not to be awarded life term, death sentence

According to a proposed amendment of the Juvenile Justice Act, ensuring that the government steers clear of violating the United Nations Convention on Rights of Child (UNCRC), life imprisonment or capital punishment will not be awarded to juveniles above 16 years of age who are guilty of murder, rape, acid attack or gang rape.The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR)...

CBI plea against Gauhati High Court order to be heard by Supreme Court

A Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice P Sathasivam, agreeing to hear CBI's plea challenging the Gauhati high court order declaring the agency as "unconstitutional", has issued notice on CBI's plea to the petitioner on whose plea the high court had delivered the verdict and asked him to file his response within four weeks.The petition along with a plea which was earlier filed by...

Supreme Court Committee says statements discloses "an act of unwelcome" verbal and non-verbal "conduct of a sexual nature" by retired Justice Asok Kumar Ganguly; No action can be taken by Supreme Court

Chief Justice of India Justice P Sathasivam who constituted the three-judge panel in the wake of the allegations leveled against a retired Supreme Court judge by a NUJS graduate, who was interning under this retired judge, to inquire into the young lawyer's sexual harassment complaint against its former judge A K Ganguly has accused him prima facie of unwelcome behavior relating to conduct...

Supreme Court to State Governments: Make milk adulteration punishable with life imprisonment

While hearing a public suit which said samples collected by the Food Safety and Standards Act in 2011 disclosed large-scale sale of adulterated milk across the country, a Supreme Court bench of Justice KS Radhakrishnan and Justice AK Sikri urged the state governments to make necessary amendments to their laws to make production and marketing of adulterated milk, which is injurious to...

Bill to raise retirement age of high court judges to 65, to be tabled in winter session of Parliament

The winter session of Parliament will see the Law Ministry move a Constitution Amendment Bill to increase the retirement age of high court judges to 65 years from 62 years. If the bill is passed, the retirement age of high court judges will be at par with that of Supreme Court judges.At a recent meeting of the advisory council of the national mission for justice delivery, Law Minister Kapil...

Dismissed employee after acquittal cannot seek re-employment, rules SC

A Supreme Court bench of Justices K S Radhakrishnan and A K Sikri while setting aside the decisions of the Calcutta High Court and the West Bengal Administrative Tribunal which had asked the Kolkata police to reinstate dismissed cop Sankar Ghosh after his acquittal by a criminal court in a case of dacoity, ruled that an employee, sacked following disciplinary proceedings, cannot...

Regulate the sale of Acid: SC’s ultimatum to States and UTs

Supreme Court today set a deadline of March 31, 2014 for all the States and Union Territories to put in place a regulator regime that will contain the menace of acid attacks.The Court had given a direction as earlier as on 6.2.2013 to the Union Home Secretary and the Secretary, Ministry of Chemical & Fertilizers to convene a meeting of the Chief Secretaries/concerned Secretaries of the...