Shashi Tharoor submits private members bill to scrap S.377; Jaitley, Chidambaram and Bhushan opine SC must review Kaushal Judgment

Speaking at Times LitFest on Saturday, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and his predecessor P. Chidambaram have unanimously come out in support of the rainbow pride, saying that the 2013 judgment upholding Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code needs a relook.Clarifying that they were speaking in their individual capacity, the two top leaders from BJP and Congress were of the view that the Delhi...

Calcutta HC quashes WB Govt order scrapping Political Sufferers Scheme [Read Judgment]

Having sacrificed the best part of their lives for the sake of the country and its people, towards end of their lives they deserve to be looked after and nurtured by the State which takes pride in calling itself a welfare State, the court said quashing the WB Govt. order scrapping Political Sufferers Scheme.The Calcutta High Court has set aside the West Bengal Government order scrapping...

Include divorced daughter within definition of Family for Compassionate Appointments: Allahabad HC to Govt. [Read Judgment]

The Allahabad High Court has directed the Principal Secretary Law/Legal Remembrancer, U.P to take necessary steps with regard to the Uttar Pradesh Recruitment of Dependents of Government Servants (Dying-in-Harness) Rules, 1974 which do not include a divorced daughter within the definition of family, for the purpose of compassionate appointments in the event of death of a government employee...

Supreme Court Weekly Round-Up

Holy book names cannot be claimed as trademarksUpholding a decision rendered by the Intellectual Property Appellate Board, a Division Bench of the Supreme Court comprising Justice RanjanGogoi and Justice R.K. Agrawal recently held that names of holy or religious books cannot be claimed as trademark for goods or services.Relief for Law ministerSupreme Court of India set aside the judgment...

New Trademark regime: Proposes to double the fees while zero measure to improve efficiency

The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) released the  draft of the proposed new Trademark Rules without creating any new procedure or mechanisms to either tackle the immense backlog for present applications or the unpredictability in terms of processing time for the actual examination/opposition.  However, they do stipulate a hefty doubling of all fees.The new rules...

CJI Dattu may be offered the post of NHRC Chairperson; Ms. Indira Jaising says independence of judiciary undermined by post retirement benefits

The Post of Chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission is most likely to be offered to Chief Justice of India H.L. Dattu, who is scheduled to retire on December 2.The Government is reportedly waiting for CJI Dattu to demit office, before his consent is sought for consideration of his name by a high-level committee headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. A Senior Government official...

SC says Lawyers should not go on Strike; but Jethmalani defends Bar saying not to work also a “constitutional right”

Observing that  lawyers should not go on strike or give calls to boycott courts, the Supreme Court today  gave a months time to various bar bodies including the Bar Council of India to convene a meeting to solve the problem caused by frequent boycotts once and for all.A bench of Justices Kurian Joseph and Arun Mishra said : “Our view is that the lawyers should not go on strike. it's...

Relief for Law Minister Sadananda Gowda in Land Case; Supreme Court quashes Karnataka HC Judgment [Read Judgment]

In spite of the clout that Sadananda Gowda may have wielded in Karnataka, his actions relating to the construction of the building on his plot of land do not suggest any abuse, the Apex Court said while allowing the appeal by the Law Minister.Supreme Court of India has set aside the judgment of Karnataka High Court which had quashed the orders sanctioning the building construction plans in...

SC allows CBI to grill Maran for a week in illegal Telephone Exchange Case

The Supreme Court today ordered former Telecom Minister in the UPA regime Dayanidhi Maran to appear before CBI for six days, starting November 30, for questioning in the illegal telephone exchange case.A bench headed by Justice T S Thakur however rejected the CBI plea for his custodial interrogation. Appearing for CBI, Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi vehemently argued for it contending  it...

There is a form of apartheid existing in campuses which denies women social equality and dignity ; Committee on Gender Justice in Campuses, Kerala [Read Report]

The Committee set up by the Kerala State Higher Education Council (KSHEC) on Gender Justice in Campuses submitted its report on the subject last month, the same being nothing short of a milestone is the quest for achieving gender equality through effective policy intervention. Dr. Meenakshi Gopinath, Director, Women in Security Conflict Management and Peace (WISCOMP) was the Chairperson...

Karnataka HC strikes down Hindu Endowments Act, yet again [Read Judgment]

"Amended provisions of the Act, are more or less of the same tenor as were the unamended provisions - which were held to be unconstitutional by this Court in Shri Shasara Lingeshwara. There is essentially little difference between the unamended Act and the amended Acts in so far as the offending provisions are concerned", the Division bench said while striking down Karnataka...

“Rising insecurity”: MP HC takes suo motu cognizance of a lawyer murder in Mhow, asks state to explain its stance about formulating a Witness/Advocate Protection policy [Read Order]

The High Court of Madhya Pradesh has taken suo motu cognizance of the incident which led to murder of Advocate Yogesh Garg. A bench of Chief Justice A. M. Khanwilkar and Justice Sanjay Yadav asked the state to explain its position as to whether it is or it is not in favour of formulating a protection policy, for extending protection to witnesses in sensitive cases and also to deserving...