An Assessee Cannot Be Made To Suffer Two Levies of Sales Tax And Service Tax: Madras HC [Read Judgment]

The assessment orders passed under TN VAT Act against M/s SHV Energy Pvt.Ltd. were quashed by the Madras High Court observing that the petitioner cannot be made to suffer two levies of sales tax and service tax. SHV Energy Private Ltd. provides services of terminalling and storage of LPG at Tuticorin Port. The said company pays service tax for its services under the head ‘storage...

Bombay HC Strikes Down Govt Resolutions Making Quota For SC/STs During Promotion [Read Judgment]

In a significant development, the Bombay High Court has struck down two state Government Resolutions as ultra vires to Article 16 (4A) of the Constitution of India.The said GRs dated May 25, 2004, grant reservation at the promotion stage to government employees belonging to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and De-Notified Tribes, Nomadic Tribes, Special Backward Category and Other...

Clinical Legal Education – [Part III] The Harvard Law School Clinic Model

This piece is in continuation of the former two pieces on clinical legal education in India. The first piece provided a background to clinical legal education in India and the second piece looked into three different law school clinics to get an idea of how law school clinics operate in India. This piece looks at the Harvard Law School clinic model and compares it with its Indian counterpart.The Harvard Law School (HLS) Clinic Model What Is The Model?Harvard Law School (HLS) offers clinical...

Delhi HC Imposes 50k As Costs For “Forum Hunting” By Filing Writ Petition Against Order Flowing From Arbitral Appeal [Read Order]

The Delhi High Court on Monday levied costs of Rs. 50,000 on a private company which, it opined, indulged in “forum hunting” by filing a Writ Petition indirectly against an order delivered in an Appeal under Section 37 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act.Justice Vibhu Bakhru reiterated that a Petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India is not maintainable against any order...

Petition Filed In Hyderabad HC Challenging Law Clerks Recruitment Notification For Leaving Out 3-Year LLB Course Graduates [Read Petition]

A Petition has been filed before the Hyderabad High Court challenging a notification issued by the Registrar General of the High Court for recruitment of Law Clerks.The Petition, filed by Hyderabad based Advocate S.M. Saifulla, challenges the notification as being “discriminatory in nature and opposed to principles of natural justice”, as it makes eligible only those candidates who...

Even If Wife Leaves Husband, It Doesn’t Absolve Him Of Duty To Provide Maintenance To Minor Child: Bombay HC [Read Judgment]

Imposing a cost of Rs. 25,000 on one Nirajkumar Kapurchand Jain who has a 7-year-old son, the Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court has said a father cannot run away from the responsibility nor can he be allowed to skip his obligation to maintain his son or daughter and father is duty-bound to provide all facilities, including better facilities for education and health, for his minor...

Extra Detention! Early Release!! State Fights OP Gandhi & Stands by Sanjay Dutt

While the super-star Sanjay Dutt defended him from the prosecution with the support of battery of lawyers at every stage for every benefit of doubt and concession available in criminal justice system, poor convict Om Prakash Gandhi in Delhi struggled to get for every bit of information through Right to Information. What media & lawyers did for Sanjay Dutt, was done by RTI to the Om Prakash Gandhi.One is a celebrity and the other an unknown common man. Both are convicted and jailed. Common...

Centre Launches Electronic-Box (She-Box) For Registering Complaints Related To Sexual Harassment At Workplace

The Ministry of Women and Child Development, on Monday, launched the “SHe-box” – an online complaint box – that will be hosted at the Ministry’s website (www.wcd.nic.in), for Government employees who face sexual harassment or abuse at work.“This portal is an initiative to provide a platform to women working or visiting any office of Central Government (Central...

National Law Universities, Original Intent & Real Founders

“We have just few islands of excellence in the sea of mediocrity,” said Manmohan Singh, former Prime Minister in 2010 acknowledging the remarkable contribution made by National Law Schools. We have 20 such schools today with Maharashtra alone having as many as three. The admission to these schools through CLAT is in news yet again due to several errors in the question paper. It seems Bar council of India wants to take over admission test. The matter is in Supreme Court for last three years....

Kerala HC Denies Bail To Actor Dileep In Actress Molestation Case [Read Order]

Kerala High Court dismissed the bail application of Malayalam film star Dileep in the actress sexual assault case.Justice Sunil Thomas had reserved the order in the bail application on Friday.Senior Advocate K. Ramkumar had submitted that the investigation in the case is over and there is no need to keep the accused in further custody.Director General of Prosecution Manjeri Sreedharan...

Article 256 of the Constitution: An Explainer

In his recent judgment in Swaraj Abhiyan v Union of India and Others, indicting the Centre for its inaction and the states which defied the National Food Security Act, 2013, Supreme Court Justice Madan B Lokur, drew attention to Article 256 of the Constitution, calling it a “forgotten” provision.  The learned Justice may indeed be correct,  as it is not very often that one comes across...

Sunanda Pushkar’s Son Moves Delhi HC Saying Swamy’s PIL A ‘Publicity Petition’

Claiming that the PIL filed by BJP leader Subramanian Swamy and Ishkaran Bhandari seeking SIT probe into the death of his mother Sunanda Pushkar was a “publicity petition”, Shiv Menon on Saturday moved the Delhi High Court seeking impleadment in the PIL.Menon has challenged the locus standi of Swamy and Bhandari’s PIL.In the impleadment application, he said they had no locus in the...