Today’s Legal Updates

Tuesday, 19th June 2022

Legal Awareness :- CONSTITUTION OF INDIA

Part – V THE UNION

CHAPTER- I THE EXECUTIVE (The President and Vice-President)

Article – 66 Election of Vice-President.

  1. The Vice-President shall be elected by the [members of an electoral college consisting of the members of both Houses of Parliament] in accordance with the system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote and the voting at such election shall be by secret ballot.
  2. The Vice-President shall not be a member of either House of Parliament or of a House of the Legislature of any State, and if a member of either House of Parliament or of a House of the Legislature of any State be elected Vice-President, he shall be deemed to have vacated his seat in that House on the date on which he enters upon his office as Vice-President.
  3. No person shall be eligible for election as Vice-President unless he :—
    1. is a citizen of India;
    2. has completed the age of thirty-five years; and
    3. is qualified for election as a member of the Council of States.
  4. A person shall not be eligible for election as Vice-President if he holds any office of profit under the Government of India or the Government of any State or under any local or other authority subject to the control of any of the said Governments.

Explanation.—For the purposes of this article, a person shall not be deemed to hold any office of profit by reason only that he is the President or Vice-President of the Union or the Governor 1*** of any State or is a Minister either for the Union or for any State.

Today’s Legal Updates :-

  1. On Tuesday the Enforcement Directorate (ED) told the Mumbai Court in its reply opposing Malik’s bail application in the money laundering offence involving underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, former Maharashtra cabinet minister Nawab Malik should be taken back to jail from hospital since he no longer requires medical treatment.
  2. On Tuesday the Delhi High Court has held that allocation of coal blocks per se cannot be viewed or recognised as proceeds of crime under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).  (Prakash Industries Ltd and Anr v Directorate of Enforcement)
  3. On Tuesday the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court initiated suo moto contempt of court proceedings against YouTuber and blogger Savukku Shankar for Tweets making personal attacks on Justice GR Swaminathan.
  4. On Monday the Kerala High Court imposed ₹10,000 costs on litigants who had obtained a judgment in their favour by producing a fake memo showing service of notice to the counsel of the opposing side.  (N Vanaja & Ors. v Bhanumathy & Ors.)
  5. On Tuesday the one-member committee constituted by the Supreme Court to enquire into illegal construction of the now-razed Maradu flats in Kerala, has held that liability to pay compensation to the flat owners is not only on the builders, but also on the State government, and the concerned Municipality and Panchayat.
  6. On Tuesday the Patiala House court Delhi sentenced Gopal and Sushil Ansal to the period undergone and ordered their release, after dismissing appeals against their conviction in the evidence tampering case connected to the Uphaar fire tragedy.   (Gopal Ansal, Sushil Ansal v State)
  7. On Tuesday Union Minister Narayan Rane has moved the Bombay High Court seeking directions to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to consider the new application seeking regularisation of his bungalow at Juhu in Mumbai.
    • The petition was filed through Kaalkaa Real Estates, a company owned by Rane’s family. The company filed the fresh regularisation application before BMC under Section 342 of the MMC Act which stipulates notifying the Commissioner for making any alteration or addition to an existing building.
    • With the new application, the company claimed benefit of the Floor Space Index (FSI) upto 4 FSI on the proposed land component as per the Development Control and Promotion Regulation (DCPR).
    • The petitioner sought directions so that the planning department within BMC decides the new application uninfluenced by the orders passed by BMC including the rejection of the retention application.
  8. On Tuesday the Supreme Court dismissed a plea seeking rescheduling of three State judicial services exams whose dates were clashing with each other.  (Amit Kumar Kohli v. Rajasthan High Court and ors)
  9. On Monday the Kerala High Court directed the State police to submit by July 22, the final report in the further investigation into the 2017 actress assault case, in which Malayalam cine actor Dileep is a prime accused.  (State of Kerala v P Gopalakrishnan alias Dileep & Anr.)
  10. On Tuesday A single-judge of the Bombay High Court has referred to larger bench the issue of whether all offences under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS Act) are non-bailable.  (Karishma Prakash v. Union of India and Ors)
    • Justice Bharati Dangre was hearing an anticipatory bail application filed by cine actor Deepika Padukone’s former manager Karishma Prakash, who apprehended her arrest in the drugs case related to actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s death. The application was rejected.
    • Whether all offences under the NDPS Act, 1985 are non-bailable, irrespective of the punishment prescribed and irrespective of the fact that many offences do not even mandate imprisonment as a punishment?
    • Justice Dangre explained, When the decision of the Constitution Bench in case of Baldev Singh is read in its entirety, it can be seen that while delivering the said judgment, the Constitution Bench was confronted with an issue about the imperative nature of Section 50 of the NDPS Act and whether compliance with the said section is mandatory and if it is so, what is the effect of its breach.
    • Had the legislature intended to make every offence, non-bailable, it could have explicitly made it so, like when it intended to make every offence cognizable, it worded itself specifically.
  11. On Tuesday the Supreme Court stayed a recent Delhi High Court order directing the State government to ensure that unfilled seats for Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) have to be filled up within the next five years in a phased manner.  (Venkateshwar Global School and ors vs Justice for All and ors)
    • A Bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and MM Sundresh took note of counsel’s submissions that the High Court’s interim order came to be passed a challenge which was limited to the cut-off date for EWS admissions.
    • The Court noted that under the EWS category: (i) the private schools on private land have to admit 25 per cent students in the EWS category for which the re- payment of fees, etc. is done on the basis of expenses incurred for a student of a government school; (ii) private schools on government land too have to admit 25 per cent EWS category students at the entry level.
    • the appeal said, In fact, the order refers to backlog of unfilled seats, which in reality does not exist and on notional basis of EWS admissions being on the basis of declared strength, the same is being conjured for the past 10 years or so and is to be filled in a phased manner over the next 5 years @ 20% each year. These directions are dehors the provisions of Act of 2009.
    •  it was contended, DoE is pushing the populist agenda of local government and is forcing the schools to take admissions beyond the mandate of 25% of the strength of that class under S.12(1)(c) of RTE Act, 2009, by giving its own fanciful interpretation to the plain unambiguous provisions of the Act and insisting that 25% of the EWS/DG category seats have to be filled by the private unaided recognised schools as per the declared strength of entry level class.
  12. On Tuesday the Supreme Court observed that statements made to Police under Section 161 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) may not be admissible in evidence, but are relevant for determining whether or not a prima facie case is made out against the accused during his bail plea hearing.  (Indresh Kumar v. State of Uttar Pradesh and Another)
  13. The Supreme Court is hearing a plea by former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson Nupur Sharma seeking to reinstate her earlier petition in which she had prayed that the first information reports (FIRs) registered against her in different parts of the country for her remarks on Prophet Muhammad, be transferred to Delhi.
  14. On Tuesday the Supreme Court granted interim protection from arrest to former BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma in various first information reports (FIRs) registered against her in different parts of the country for her remarks about Prophet Muhammad.  (NV Sharma v. Union of India)
  15. On Friday A National Investigation Agency (NIA) court in Chhattisgarh’s Dantewada acquitted 121 Adivasis and released them from jail in a case alleging their involvement in the 2017 Burkapal Naxal attack which resulted in the death of 25 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) jawans.
  16. On Monday the Supreme Court extended the temporary bail granted by Bombay High Court to 82-year-old Telugu poet Varavara Rao, who is an accused in the Bhima Koregaon case.  (P Varavara Rao vs National Investigation Agency and anr)
  17. On Tuesday the Kerala High Court held that every Muslim, regardless of which sect he belongs to, is entitled to offer prayers in any mosque or bury the dead in a public kabaristan.  (Elappully Eranchery Jama-ath Palli v Mohammed Haneef & Ors.)
  18. On Tuesday Director of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Subodh Jaiswal has told the Bombay High Court that the petition filed before the Court by retired Assistant Commissioner of Maharashtra Police (ACP), Rajendrakumar Trivedi seeking Jaiswal’s removal from the post of CBI Director has been filed out out of vendetta and vengeance.
  19. On Tuesday a public interest litigation (PIL) petition has been filed before the Delhi High Court seeking directions to the Central government to resume all recruitment processes in the defence forces which were cancelled due to the introduction of the Agnipath scheme.  (Rahul v Union of India and Ors)
  20. On Tuesday the Supreme Court called for the transfer of the petitions challenging the Central government’s Agnipath Scheme, pending before itself and various High Court, to the Delhi High Court.
  21. On Tuesday Birdman of Mumbai, Pradeep D’Souza, has moved the Bombay High Court seeking quashing of a first information report (FIR) lodged by the city forest department accusing him of hunting and purchasing wild animals and for other alleged violations of the Wildlife (Protection) Act (WPA).
  22. On Tuesday the Supreme Court reiterated that a High Court cannot conduct a ‘mini trial’ at the stage of deciding an application under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC).  (State of Uttar Pradesh and Another v. Akhil Sharda and Others)
  23. On Tuesday Nine lawyers took oath as ‘additional judges’ of the Bombay High Court taking the working strength of the Court to 62.
  24. On Tuesday the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT), Delhi held that the date of filing of an application is the date when the application is placed before the Registry, and not the date when the Registry allocates a number to the application.  (Dinesh Kumar Basia v. State Bank of India)
  25. On Monday the Delhi High Court has observed that denying maintenance to an estranged wife and child is one of the worst offences from a humanitarian perspective and it does not behove a husband.  (Pradeep Kumar v Smt Bhawana and Anr)
  26. On Monday the Bombay High Court at Aurangabad said that a son cannot avoid his responsibility to maintain his old and ailing father and also cannot dictate the father to live with him as a condition to pay maintenance.  (Jagannath Bedke vs Haribhau Bedke)

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