Prof. (Dr.) Tahir Mahmood Bags N.R. Madhava Menon Best Law Teacher Award 2017

Eminent jurist Prof. (Dr.) Tahir Mahmood has been awarded the prestigious Prof. N.R. Madhava Menon Best Law Teacher Award – 2017.Honouring law teachers and law schools in India, Society of Indian Law Firms (SILF) and Menon Institute of Legal Advocacy Training (MILAT) have been observing Law Teachers’ Day in September since 2009. Celebrating Law Teachers’ Day this year, SILF and MILAT announced the recipients of this year’s awards last week.Professor Dr Tahir Mahmood is currently the...

Ex-Parte Decree On Being Set Aside Becomes Non-Est And Cannot Be Regarded As Decree Passed By Court Of First Instance [Read Judgment]

Answering the issue as to whether, in a suit for pre-emption, an ex parte decree which is later set aside, can be termed to be the decree of the court of first instance, the Supreme Court has said that ex-parte decree, once set aside, will cease to exist and cannot be regarded as decree of the court of first instance.The suit in question was filed by a co-sharer of property seeking to set...

Delhi State Legal Services Authority Organises National Lok Adalat; Settles More Than 16,000 Cases

The National Lok Adalats were organized by the Delhi State Legal Services Authority on 9 September, under the guidance of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal.Pursuant to the initiative, Lok Adalats were organized in all 11 District Courts of Delhi, and 16, 114 cases with settlement amount of Rs. 46 crore were disposed of. Besides, the Lok Adalats organised in Delhi High Court disposed of 33...

Gauhati HC Chief Drives Sri Sri Ravi Shankar To Airport, HC Lawyers Say CJ Violates Rules

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, who was in Guwahati for the North East Indigenous People’s conference on 5 September, was driven to the airport by Chief Justice of Gauhati High Court Ajit Singh himself.[See the Video Here]The act has sparked outrage among some Gauhati High Court lawyers, claiming that the Chief Justice has violated High Court rules.In fact, the members of the Gauhati High Court...

Delhi HC Orders Major Reshuffle In DJS, Many Courts Abolished [Read List]

In yet another step towards judicial reforms ensuring efficient administration of subordinate judiciary, Delhi High Court Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal has transferred 87 judicial officers and abolished 15 courts, besides 13 traffic courts.Many courts have been re-designated.In an order issued on September 7, Justice Mittal announced the transfers/ postings in Delhi Judicial...

The Supreme Court’s Right to Privacy Judgment – V: Privacy and Decisional Autonomy

The Supreme Court changes its mind frequently, often holding that its own previous judgments are no longer good law. It is rare, however, for the Court to reverse itself in a case where the correctness of a prior judgment was not at issue, and was not argued by counsel. For that reason, the Puttaswamy plurality’s castigation of the Supreme Court’s 2013 judgment in Koushal vs NazFoundation – which recriminalised homosexuality – is particularly important. It is important because, in singling...

Delhi HC Directs Delhi Govt. To File Status Report On Alleged Molestation Of Blind Children And Ensure Their Safety [Read Petition]

The incident of molestation of blind children at the National Association for the Blind, New Delhi, allegedly by a visiting British national, Murray Ward, was brought to the notice of the Delhi High Court through a Public Interest Litigation, which sought its directions, to ensure the safety and security of the children.The Delhi High Court bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice...

PIL In Bombay HC Challenging State Amendment To CrPC Mandating Prior Sanction For FIR Against Public Servants

A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) has been filed before the Bombay High Court, challenging the Maharashtra Government’s amendment to Section 156(3) of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC). As a result of this amendment, a Magistrate cannot direct registration of an FIR against public servants sans prior sanction of the Government.The Petition, filed by Advocate and social activist Abha...

Delhi HC Restrains Baba Ramdev's Patanjali Ayurved From Airing Ad Offending Dettol's Goodwill [Read Order]

The Delhi High Court has directed Baba Ramdev's Patanjali Ayurved from airing a commercial for its soap which it prima facie found to be disparaging to the goodwill of Dettol being manufactured by Reckitt and Colman.Justice SP Garg granted the interim injunction to Reckitt, which had come to the court claiming the ad was damaging to the goodwill of its product.The company has also claimed...

Gender, Language And The Law

Is there equality of sexes in India? More than 225 years after Mary Wallstonecraft’s Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), where she championed the cause of equality of sexes, and more than 75 years of the existence of the Indian Constitution, which guarantees, equality before law and equal protection of law, the Indian legislations or atleast their language tell a different tale. What’s in language, one may ask? What’s more apt than to turn to Chomsky, the intellectual giant of our times...

PIL In Bombay HC Seeks Removal Of Links To Blue Whale Challenge From Social Media, Seeks 24-Hr Helpline To Prevent Further Deaths [Read Petition]

In a PIL filed before the Bombay High Court, a Mumbai-based NGO called Citizen Circle for Social Welfare and Education has sought directions to Google, Yahoo and Facebook to ensure that links of deadly online game Blue Whale Challenge are removed.The Blue Whale Challenge is said to have 50 different tasks spread over 50 days and the final task leads to suicide.Directions were sought to the...

“Preliminary inquiry”, An Unnecessary Judge-Made Conundrum And It’s Scope Misapplied In “Lalita Kumari”

I propose to confine this article only with regard to the preliminary inquiry conducted in anti-corruptions cases, though the Apex Court of this country has enlarged the need for preliminary inquiry in other categories of cases as well. The first part of this article is devoted for convincing the readers about the illegality in the police conducting a preliminary inquiry before registering an FIR against a public servant in anti-corruption cases and the necessity to discontinue the preliminary...