Adoption by couple with one foreign parent would be termed ‘in-country’; Bombay High Court lays down detailed guidelines

In a landmark ruling, a Bombay High Court Bench comprising Justice V.M. Kanade and Justice B.P. Colabawalla has held that in cases where a married couple, of which one is an Indian and the other is a foreign national, desires to adopt a child, the adoption will be treated as an in-country adoption and not a foreign adoption.The Court was hearing a petition filed by an American woman living...

Centre’s drug pricing policy “unreasonable and irrational”; SC urges re-examination

A Supreme Court bench comprising Justice T.S. Thakur, Justice C. Gopala Gowda and Justice R. Banumathi on Wednesday asked the Centre to re-examine its drug pricing policy for essential medicines. The current drug policy was termed as “unreasonable and irrational” by the Bench as the prices of some medicines is at around 4000% higher than what has been fixed by some state governments.The...

PIL filed in SC alleging involvement of Chattisgarh CM in PDS scam; CBI probe sought

A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) has been filed in the Supreme Court by a social activist and ex-MLA from Chattisgarh, Virendra Pandey, seeking a direction from the Court to transfer the investigation of the PDS Scam in the State of Chhattisgarh to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).The petitioner has averred in his writ petition filed under Article 32 of the Constitution that...

Justice Katju questions SC decision to outsource its powers of punishment to Lodha Committee in IPL spot fixing issue; Fali agrees with Katju, Shanthi Bhushan differs[Updated]

Former judge of the Supreme Court Justice (retd)Markandey Katju on Wednesday questioned the Supreme Court’s decision to appoint the Lodha Commission to decide punishments to be imposed on people and cricket bodies accused of spot fixing in the IPL controversy.A bench of the Supreme Court led by Justice TS Thakur in January this year had constituted a three-member committee headed by...

Rajiv Gandhi Assassination case: Remission plea deferred to July 21 by Constitution Bench

The Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court yesterday deferred to July 21 the hearing on the question of power of remission by the Centre and States, which had arisen after Tamil Nadu government had decided to remit the sentences and set free seven convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.The Bench comprising Chief Justice H.L. Dattu, Justice F.M.I. Kalifulla, Justice P.C. Ghose,...

SC reserves judgment in NJAC case

The Supreme Court on Wednesday reserved its judgment in the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) case and stated that the interim order would continue to be in effect till the verdict is finally given."The arguments and counter arguments were heard by the Supreme Court for more than 30 hearings. After Hearing the arguments, the five judges bench has reserved the ordered and...

1993 Bombay blasts : Yakub Memon set to be hanged on July 30

Unless the Supreme Court stays on July 21 the execution of Yakub Memon who was convicted and sentenced to death in the sensational 1993 Bombay blasts case, he is all set to be hanged till death at 7 am on July 30 in Nagpur Central Jail. It is learnt that a TADA court has issued a warrant to carry out the death sentence against convict Yakub Memon, 53, by hanging him till death at 7 am on July...

Violation of SC guidelines on Govt. Advertisements: CPIL moves contempt petition against Chief Secretaries of Delhi and Tamil Nadu

The Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL) has moved a contempt petition before the Supreme Court alleging that the Governments of Delhi and Tamil Nadu have willfully disobeyed its judgment passed in a writ petition filed by the NGO’s - CPIL and Common Cause in which the Apex Court had issued certain guidelines to prevent misuse of public funds by government advertisements.In the...

Supreme Court dismisses Petition seeking remote SC Bench in Chennai

A Supreme Court bench comprising Chief Justice H.L. Dattu, Justice A.K. Mishra and Justice Amitava Roy on Monday dismissed a petition for setting up of a separate bench at Chennai for easy accessibility of justice for citizens of the southern states.The Bench however acknowledged the thought as a ‘progressive’ one.The Court was hearing a petition filed by Advocate A.M. Krishna, who had...

IPL spot fixing: Lodha Panel suspends Meiyappan and Kundra for life; CSK, RR suspended for 2 years

In a major set-back to the cricket fraternity, the Lodha Committee has proposed suspension of the Chennai Super Kings and the Rajasthan Royals' franchise for a period of two years, apart from banning Gurunath Meiyappan and Raj Kundra for life from being involved with BCCI. Meiyappan was also declared ineligible for participation in any cricket activities for 5 years by the panel.The...

SC extends marine's stay in Italy by 6 months on medical grounds

A bench headed by honourable Justice A R Dave yesterday allowed Italian marine Massimiliano Latorre, who along with a colleague is accused of killing two Indian fishermen three years ago, to stay in Italy for six more months on medical grounds. This happened in the absence of any objection raised by the government. The case against marines relates to the killing of two Indian fishermen...

SC rejects Vijay Mallya’s plea in FERA violation case, imposes 10 lakh fine for abuse of process of law

A Supreme Court bench comprising Justice J. Chelameswar and Justice A.K. Goel has paved the way for Enforcement Directorate to pursue criminal proceedings against liquor tycoon Vijay Mallya over violation of provisions of the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act (FERA).The Court also imposed exemplary costs because the approach adopted by Mr. Mallya amounted to an “abuse of process of law”....