European Court of Human Rights Sees No Violation In Austrian Court Order That Fined Woman For Defaming Prophet Muhammad [Read Order]

“The Court endorses the Regional Court’s statement, that presenting objects of religious worship in a provocative way capable of hurting the feelings of the followers of that religion could be conceived as a malicious violation of the spirit of tolerance, which was one of the bases of a democratic society.”The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR)  agreed with the views adopted by...

Fragments From A Manuscript

It often falls on archaeologists and historians to reconstruct civilizations and their cultures from a shard of pottery or the remnants of parchment. In contrast, the tools of law require us to sift through the dross and distill the ratio of a decision.  We lawyers are trained to ignore distractions of what might have happened in court and focus on the eventual outcome and the principle laid. Nevertheless, at times of repose we often drift into imagining the theatre that played out in the...

Amit Shah Benefitted Politically And Financially From Sohrabuddin Encounter Case, Says Amitabh Thakur, Former Chief Investigating Officer

Amitabh Thakur, former Chief Investigating Officer in the alleged fake encounter case of Sohrabuddin Shaikh, Tulsiram Prajapati and the death of Kausar Bi has told the Special CBI Court on Monday that BJP national president Amit Shah and four others benefitted politically as well as financially from the fake encounter case.Amit Shah allegedly benefitted financially as he was paid Rs 70 lakh...

PMO & RBI Should Reveal Information On Willful Defaulters & Raghuram Rajan's Letter : CIC [Read Order]

The Central Information Commission has directed the Reserve Bank of India and the Prime Minister's Office to disclose information on list of willful defaulters and action taken on  the ‘alerting letter’ written by former Governor of RBI Raghuram Rajan on February 5, 2015"If the letter of Sri Raghuram Rajan is acted upon, PMO should have explained the same, if not acted upon, should...

Police Excess Cannot Be Permitted In Sabarimala, Observes Kerala HC

The High Court of Kerala observed that police excess cannot be permitted in Sabarimala in the guise of implementing the SC judgment on women entry. The special bench for consideration of Devaswom Matters orally remarked that police arrangements were causing hardships to genuine devotees.Justice P R Ramachandra Menon, who heads the bench, asked the State Attorney under what authority police...

An Overview On The Prevention Of Corruption (Amendment) Act 16 of 2018 [Part-1] Section 7

New Section 7 substituted by Amending Act 16/2018 7-Offence relating to public servant being bribed.commits an offence under this section.The punishment is imprisonment for not less than 3 years but upto 7 years AND fine. While fixing the fine the matters under new Section 16 will have to be taken into consideration. Eventhough new Section 9 (4) does not specify that the offence is cognizable, going by Part II of Schedule 1 of Cr.P.C the offence is cognizable and non-bailable. The ingredient of...

Probe ‘Motive’ Of Sexual Harassment Complaints Filed Against Public Servants Before Registering Cases Against Them, Says MP HC [Read Order]

‘It is the duty of the Investigating Officer to investigate thoroughly and reach to the motive for which the complaint has been filed against the public servant’While quashing a ‘sexual harassment’ complaint made against a public servant, the Madhya Pradesh High Court has observed that harassment of the public servant on pretext of false complaint at the instance of or in hands of...

Mere Pleading That Husband Was Attempting Sodomy Sufficient To Grant Divorce To The Wife On The Ground Of Cruelty: Uttarakhand HC [Read Judgment]

‘It will amount to be a cruelty, the reason being that no wife will ever in defence plead such an act to determine cruelty.’The Uttaranchal High Court recently observed that mere pleading by the wife in the divorce petition that husband was making an attempt to have an unnatural sexual relationship (sodomy) is sufficient to grant divorce on the ground of ‘cruelty’.The wife had come...

Rejection/Acceptance Of Anticipatory Bail Not Relevant While Considering Regular Bail Application: Delhi HC [Read Judgment]

The Delhi High Court has ruled that the rejection or acceptance of anticipatory bail of an accused by the High Court is not relevant for consideration of the regular bail of the accused under Section 437(1) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973.The Bench comprising Justice Vipin Sanghi and Justice IS Mehta ruled, “While considering the regular bail application of the accused under...

Allahabad HC Gets 28 New Judges [Read Notifications]

The President has notified the appointment of 28 additional judges in Allahabad High Court. The notifications are issued separately in batches of 15 and 13.The first notification pertains to 15 advocates, who have been elevated as additional judges. They are:- Prakash Padia Alok Mathur Pankaj Bhatia Saurabh Lavania Vivek Varma Sanjay Kumar Singh Piyush Agarwal Saurabh Shyam Shamshery...

Kerala HC Refuses Anticipatory Bail To Activist Rehna Fathima Who Attempted Entry To Sabarimala [Read Order]

The Kerala High Court today dismissed the anticipatory bail plea of activist Rehana Fathima, who had made an attempt to enter into Sabarimala when the temple was opened for monthly puja in October after the Supreme Court order allowing entry of women in the age group of 10 and 50 into the Lord Ayyappa shrine.She was named accused in an FIR registered by  Pathanamthitta Police for offence...

Bombay HC Sentences Film Producer Gaurang Doshi To Six Months In Jail For Contempt Of Court [Read Judgment]

The Bombay High Court recently sentenced film producer Gaurang Doshi to six months’ imprisonment after he was found guilty of wilful breach of an earlier order directing him to deposit a sum of Rs 1.25 crore in court.Justice SJ Kathawalla observed that Doshi had repeatedly made false statements in court and has always disobeyed the directions of the court. Therefore, Doshi was held guilty...