Today’s Legal Updates

Monday, 17th January 2022

Legal Awareness :- CERTAIN POLICIES AND SCHEMES WORKING FOR THE WELFARE OF WOMEN

Priyadarshini

  • Priyadarshini, initiated in April 2011, is a programme that offers women in seven districts access to self-help groups.

Today’s Legal Updates:-

  1. Today the Supreme Court has issued a notice urging lawyers and in-person petitioners to join virtual hearing before the top court via laptop/ desktop with a stable internet and connection and to avoid using mobile phones for the same.
    • “All advocates and party-in-person are requested to join the cisco webex application for joining the court hearings through video conference (vc) via a desktop / laptop with a stable internet connectivity, preferably wired, to avoid any disruption in the court proceedings and inconvenience to the judges. Please avoid joining the vc hearings through a mobile phone,”
    • “Please also join through single device i.e. laptop / desktop. All advocates, part-in-person must also join the vc hearings, preferably using a headset enabled microphone and audio system,” 
    • “Lawyers are appearing from their mobile phones and are not visible. We may have to ban this mobile business…Mr counsel, you are now practicing in the Supreme Court and appear regularly. Can’t you afford to have a desktop to argue?”
  2. Today A Supreme Court Bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) NV Ramana expressed its frustration at advocates appearing for virtual hearings through their mobile phones.
  3. Today the Mumbai Police has told a Mumbai court that the three accused persons in the Bulli Bai case, had intentionally used Sikh names on their Twitter and other social media handles to create enmity between Sikhs and Muslims.
    • the Mumbai police stated in their affidavit opposing the bail plea filed by the three accused “This was done to create enmity and friction between two religious communities which could provoke breach of peace in the society,” 
    • the affidavit said “Preliminary probe has revealed that apart from Bulli Bai app, the arrested accused were also active in the Sulli deals app of July 2021 and further probe is required to be done with this regard,” 
  4. Today Malayalam cine actor Dileep, who is one of the accused in the 2017 case involving the abduction and assault of an actress, has approached the Kerala High Court seeking orders to restrain media from reporting on the trial of the case till the final verdict is pronounced.
  5. Today the Union government informed the Delhi High Court that it is yet to frame its stand on the issue of criminalisation of marital rape.  (RIT Foundation v Union of India)
  6. Today the Supreme Court upheld a judgment of the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) allowing winding up of Devas Multimedia Private Limited (Devas) following a winding-up petition preferred by Central government-owned Antrix Corporation.  (Devas Multimedia v Antrix Corporation)
  7. Today the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC) has issued certain directions to its registry for computation of limitation period in the light of the recent Supreme Court order relaxing the limitation period to file cases.
  8. Today the Delhi High Court has held that permitting illegally intercepted messages and audio conversations as evidence would lead to manifest arbitrariness and promote violation of the fundamental rights of citizens.  (Jatinder Pal Singh v CBI)
    • “…if the directions of the Hon’ble Supreme Court in PUCL (Supra) which are now re-enforced and approved by the Hon’ble Supreme Court in KS Puttaswamy (Supra) as also the mandatory rules in regard to the illegally intercepted messages/audio conversations pursuant to an order having no sanction of law, are permitted, it would lead to manifest arbitrariness and would promote the scant regard to the procedure and fundamental rights of the citizens, and law laid down by the Hon’ble Supreme Court,”.
  9. Two men arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in a bribery case, which also involves a National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) official, have been granted bail by a Special CBI Court which noted that they were COVID-19 positive, and that jails in Delhi were “already overcrowded” (CBI v. Akil Ahmad & Ors)
  10. Today the Kolkata Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (Commission) held that Restaurants cannot forcibly impose service charge on a customer, while directing a restaurant to hand back the service charge it collected from a customer along with a compensation amount.
  11. Today the Supreme Court has once again taken exception to a judgment by the Himachal Pradesh High Court for the incomprehensible language employed by the Court in the judgment.
  12. Today Former Mumbai Police officer Sachin Waze has approached the Delhi High Court challenging the sanction given for his prosecution under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) in relation to the Antilia bomb scare case.  (Sachin Hindurao Waze v Union of India and Ors)
  13. Today the Maharashtra government has approached the Supreme Court seeking recall of the top court’s order directing the State Election Commission (SEC) to renotify 27 percent seats reserved for Other Backward Classes (OBC) in the local body polls in the State, as general category seats.  (Rahul Ramesh Wagh v. State of Maharashtra)
  14. On Friday the Karnataka High Court found two accused guilty of contempt of court for filing multiple, frivolous cases against Wipro and its Chairman Azim Premji. (Hasham Investment and Trading Company Pvt Ltd v. India Awake for Transparency Pvt Ltd)
  15. Today the Bombay High Court dismissed the anticipatory bail filed by Member of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly Nitesh Rane and son of Union Minister Narayan Rane in an attempt to murder case.
  16. Today Advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay has moved the Supreme Court seeking directions to the Election Commission of India to de-register political parties which do not disclose the criminal antecedents of candidates they fields for elections.  (Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay vs Union of India)
  17. Today the Rohini Court Delhi rejected a man’s claim of being mentally ill and proceeded to convict him for killing his daughter and attempting to kill his wife.  (State v. Krishan Jambad)
  18. Today the Kerala High Court allowed the prosecution to summon 5 additional witnesses in the actress abduction and sexual assault case against Malayalam cine actor Dileep.  (State of Kerala v Sunil NS @ Pulsar Suni)
  19. Today the Gujarat High Court said that the enforcement of its orders on dealing with the cattle menace have not come through even with a legislation in place to tackle the problem.  (Mustak Hussain Mehndi Hussain Kadri vs. Jagdeep Narayan Singh, IAS & Anr.)
  20. Today the Supreme Court agreed to examine the question of whether the qualification acquired by a person after the date of submission of application can be considered for appointment of that person on compassionate grounds.  (Delhi Jal Board v. Nirmala Devi)
  21. The Central government has informed the Supreme Court that it has not issued any Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) that requires persons with disabilities to carry COVID-19 vaccination certificates for any purpose.
  22. Today the Delhi High Court agreed to examine the question of whether the National Commission for Scheduled Castes (Commission) has the power to order reinstatement of employees.  (Institute of Cost Accounts of India v. National Commission for Scheduled Castes and Another)

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