Direction To Give Compassionate Appointment Several Years After Employee’s Death Unjustified: SC [Read Judgment]

In a two page order, the Supreme Court has set aside a high court and Central Administrative Tribunal order, observing that a direction to give compassionate appointment several years after death was not justified.A widow applied for compassionate appointment on the death of her husband, which was rejected on the ground of non-availability of vacancy. She moved the Central...

SC Seeks Mallya’s Response On “Transfer” Of USD 40 Million

The Supreme Court today asked liquor baron Vijay Mallya to file within three weeks his response to an allegation raised by a consortium of banks led by State Bank of India that he had transferred USD 40 million to his children in brazen violation of judicial orders.A bench headed by Justice Kurian Joseph sought the affidavit from Mallya by February 2.Senior Advocate Shyam Divan, appearing for...

SC Dismisses Plea For Probe Into Sahara-Birla Documents After A Day-Long Hearing [Read Order]

The Supreme Court bench of Justices Arun Mishra and Amitava Roy today heard the counsel for Common Cause, Prashant Bhushan and the Attorney-General, Mukul Rohatgi, at length, before coming to the conclusion that the Sahara-Birla documents indicating an alleged pay-off to the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, and other named public servants, are not cogent enough to accept the plea for...

Mumbai Dance Bar License Fee Hiked 100 Times; SC Says Will Not Intervene [Read Order]

The Association of Mumbai dance bar owners and hotels today complained before the Supreme Court that the government had hiked the fee for grant of licenses ordered by the apex court from the earlier 2000 to the two lakh and asked for interventionBut a bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra said “these are pecuniary decisions and we shall not intervene”.Senior Advocate Jayant Bhushan...

SC Dismisses PIL Against IT Exemption To Political Parties On Voluntary Donations

"Government can choose how and on what grounds it can repudiate tax and it also has absolute authority to decide under what circumstance it is done".The Supreme Court today dismissed a PIL which sought quashing of a provision of the Income Tax (IT) Act which gave tax exemption to political parties on receiving voluntary contributions.A bench headed by Chief Justice J S khehar said the...

New SC Bench Without CJI Khehar To Hear Sahara-Birla Payoffs Case

Going by the Supreme Court cause list of today, a new bench comprising of justice Arun Mishra and justice Amitava Roy will be hearing the sensational Sahara-Birla payoffs case. Chief Justice of India J S Khehar will not be part of the bench.It is listed as item number 2 in court number 10 for todayThe Supreme Court had on December 16 termed as "unfair" the plea of noted lawyer Prashant Bhushan...

Law Commission Engages A Law Firm To Examine Lodha Committee’s Recommendations On BCCI

[The Law Commission of India has vide a release in the Press Information Bureau denied hiring of Law Firm for assisting it in the BCCI/RTI matter. Read the report Here ]The Law Commission of India headed by Justice B.S.Chauhan has reportedly sought assistance of a Delhi based Law Firm to deal with the recommendation made by the Justice Lodha Committee to bring Board of Cricket Control of...

SC Orders Auditing Of All NGOs; Directs Action Against Defaulters [Read Order]

Questioning the transparency in their functioning, the Supreme Court today ordered compulsory audit by March 31, 2017 of nearly 30 lakh NGOs, most of them who receive funds worth crores of rupees from the government and abroad.Passing detailed orders on a Public Interest Litigation filed by Advocate M L Sharma in 2011 seeking a tab on functioning of NGOs,  a bench headed by Chief Justice J...

Jehovah’s Witnesses To Challenge Supreme Court’s National Anthem Order

Jehovah’s Witnesses in India are reportedly gearing up to challenge the recent Supreme Court ruling making it mandatory for movie theatres to play the country’s national anthem before every film, and audience members to stand for the anthem.The singing of national anthems, they believe, constitutes an act of unfaithfulness towards their God, Jehovah. Representatives of the sect, including...

SC Dismisses Challenge To NHRC Selection As BJP Vice President Avinash Rai Khanna Withdraws His Candidature [Read Order]

The Supreme Court bench of Justices Pinaki Chandra Ghose and Rohinton Fali Nariman today dismissed as infructuous the writ petition filed by a NOIDA student, Anupriya Nagori, against the selection of the BJP Vice-President Avinash Rai Khanna as Member, National Human Rights Commission, by the Selection Committee.Today, the Additional Solicitor General, Atmaram Nandkarni, appearing for...

Prevention Of Custodial Torture: SC Appoints Sr Adv. Collin Gonsalves As Amicus Curiae [Read Order]

The Supreme Court on Monday appointed Senior Advocate Collin Gonsalves to assist the court as amicus curiae in a PIL filed by former Union Law Minister Ashwani Kumar seeking the court’s intervention to ensure an effective and purposeful legislative framework/ laws and its enforcement to fulfil the constitutional promise of human dignity and prevention of custodial torture at all...

Justice AP Shah Writes To CBDT Seeking Probe In Sahara-Birla Case

A letter has been sent to the CBDT Chairman by Justice AP Shah, on behalf of the Citizens’ Whistleblowers Forum (CWF), seeking investigation into the Sahara-Birla payoff papers. The forum also asked the CBDT to challenge the order passed by the Settlement Commission granting immunity to Sahara.Justice Shah is the CWF Chairperson. Other founder members of CWF are Justice Santosh Hegde (former...