Today’s Legal Updates

Friday & Saturday, 19th & 20th August 2022

Legal Awareness :- CONSTITUTION OF INDIA

Part – V THE UNION

CHAPTER- II  PARLIAMENT  (General)

Article – 84 Qualification for membership of Parliament.

A person shall not be qualified to be chosen to fill a seat in Parliament unless he –
(a) is a citizen of India, and makes and subscribes before some person authorised in that behalf by the Election Commission an oath or affirmation according to the form set out for the purpose in the Third
Schedule;
(b) is, in the case of a seat in the Council of States, not less than thirty years of age and, in the case of a seat in the House of the People, not less than twenty-five years of age; and
(c) possesses such other qualifications as may be prescribed in that behalf by or under any law made by Parliament.

Today’s Legal Updates :-

  1. On Saturday the Rouse Avenue Court, Delhi acquitted Delhi Chief Minister (CM) Arvind Kejriwal, Deputy CM Manish Sisodia and former Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Yogender Yadav in a 2013 criminal defamation case filed by a lawyer named Surender Kumar Sharma.
    • Sharma had filed the defamation case against Kejriwal, Sisodia and Yadav stating that he was approached by some AAP volunteers who asked him to contest the Delhi assembly elections and that the senior leaders have agreed to his candidature.
    • He alleged that the three leaders made defamatory, unlawful and derogatory remarks against him which were published in national newspapers and this lowered his reputation in the bar and in society.
  2. The High Court of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh ruled that heated exchange of words between the judges and lawyer cannot be a ground for transfer of a case from one court to another.  (Latief Ahmad Rather and Ors V/s Shafeeqa Bhat)
    • the Court said, It is not a ground for transfer of a case if there is exchange of some hot words between the Court and the counsel. Thus the decision of the learned Chief Judicial Magistrate Srinagar to decline the transfer of the matter from the trial Magistrate, is legally correct and cannot be interfered with.
    • an application filed by the petitioners for transfer of case under Section 12 of the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act was turned down.
  3. Today State of Punjab has appointed five Supreme Court lawyers as Additional Advocate Generals to represent the State government before the top court.
    1. Aruna Tiku
    2. Sacchin Puri
    3. Sunil Fernandes
    4. Abhimanyu Bhandari
    5. Gaurav Dhama
  4. The Bombay High Court will assign to a special bench to hear the case raising grievance about potholes on roads in Maharashtra.
    • A bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice MS Karnik was approached by a lawyer, advocate Manoj Shirsat, in the capacity of the officer of court, seeking urgent hearing on the issue.
    • The lawyer pleaded that there had been loss of lives and property due to the potholes on roads and not repairing roads was in violation of the fundamental rights of the citizens.
  5. The Andhra Pradesh High Court imposed ₹50,000 costs on a petitioner who was found to have filed a false affidavit in a case. (Munagaala Ramesh v Vijayawada Municipal Corporation)
    • the single-judge said, The petitioner had tried to pollute the stream of justice and has filed false affidavit which is an evil and must be effectively curbed with a strong hand to preserve the purity of the judicial proceedings.
    • The petitioner had moved the Court claiming that the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation was making an attempt to demolish their property without following due process of law, and without issuance of a notice.
    • the plea was dismissed with costs which has to be deposited with the Andhra Pradesh State High Court Legal Services Authority within 15 days failing which, the Registrar has to initiate proceedings to recover the amount.
  6. On Thursday the Calcutta High Court witnessed unprecedented scenes as a sitting judge and the President of the Bar indulged in heated exchange of words with the judge cautioning the lawyer of contempt of court action and the Bar president refusing to back down by the threat.
    • the court of Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay after he allowed journalists to video record the proceedings in his court in the case relating to teacher recruitment scam. The judge said that the reporters cannot stream the proceedings live on any social media but they could record the proceedings using their phones.
  7. On Friday Bombay High Court judge Justice Revati Mohite Dere recused from hearing cases related to 2008 Malegaon blasts after counsel for one of the accused in the case pointed out that the judge, before her elevation to bench, had appeared as counsel for the National Investigation Agency (NIA) which is the prosecuting agency in the case.  (Sameer Sharad Kulkarni v. National Investigation Agency & Ors.)
    • The accused, Sameer Kulkarni, informed the division bench also comprising of Justice Sharmila Deshmukh, that Justice Dere had appeared as a counsel for NIA in 2011 when one the accused had approached the High Court with a petition.
  8. On Thursday the Supreme Court asked the special NIA court to decide on framing of charges against Bhima Koregaon accused Vernon Gonsalves within 3 months.  (Vernon Gonsalves vs State of Maharashtra and anr)
    • A Bench of Justices Uday Umesh Lalit and S Ravindra Bhat refused to grant interim relief for the time being but kept Gonsalves’ bail plea before the top court pending.
    • The Court also directed the special court to segregate Gonsalves’ trial from that of other accused who are absconding.
    • An elementary question is how are any of these documents related to me? Without any connection or independent witness it cannot be used against me. Statements don’t frame me at all. Only witness who said I was involved is protected. My respectful submission is, if UAPA had not been evoked I would have been granted bail even if the evidence was placed at a high pedestal.
    • There’s a charge of 120B, all this is evidence under Section 10 of the Evidence Act. Admissibility of evidence cannot be raised at the stage of bail. Look at the arms found. Judgments of acquittals not produced, maybe they were passed because no one came to depose … Witnesses must have turned hostile.
  9. On Friday former Bombay High Court judge, Justice UD Salvi said the decision of the Gujarat government to grant remission to the 11 convicts who gangraped Bilkis Bano and murdered her family members during the 2002 Godhra riots has set a bad precedent, who had as trial judge convicted the 11 men.
    • Justice Salvi said, A very bad precedent has been set. This is wrong, I would say. Now, convicts in other gang rape cases would seek similar reliefs.
    • the judge said, Certainly, this is an irony. Our PM spoke of women empowerment, and the State from where he comes, released these men, who gangraped a helpless woman.
    • the judge explained, There is no clarity if the State has made amendments to Section 376(2)g of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and its definition. Has the State changed the definition of gravity of this offence of gangrape? If there is a modification in its definition, then the 1992 policy would be applicable. But if the definition and gravity of gangrape continues to be the same without amendment, then the policy of 2014 would be applicable, which would mean they shouldn’t be given remission.
    • Punishment is given to ensure that it dawns upon the accused that he has done something wrong. The accused must be remorseful and express repentance. There isn’t any clarity if these men have expressed such remorse or repentance in the present case. Have they expressed that they feel sorry and have realised their guilt?
    • the judge concluded, This is bad in taste. I don’t know why people are welcoming them like this. I believe the people felicitating these convicts have political objectives and agenda. This shouldn’t happen at all.
  10. On Friday the Kerala High Court held that a Magistrate court exercising jurisdiction under the provisions of the Domestic Violation (DV) Act has the power to refer the same to mediation.  (Mathew Daniel v Leena Mathew)
  11. On Friday Lawyer and activist Arun Ferreira has moved the Bombay High Court seeking default bail in the Bhima Koregaon riots case of 2018.
  12. On Wednesday the Bombay High Court berated the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) as well as a builder who constructed a residential building in Mumbai and procured a part-occupancy certificate for it without having a water connection for the building.  (Subodh M Joshi vs Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai and Ors.)
  13. On Friday the Jodhpur Bench of the Rajasthan High Court upheld an order passed by a single-judge imposing costs of ₹10 lakh on a party for forum shopping. (Dhanwantri Institute of Medical Science v The State of Rajasthan)
  14. On Friday the Kerala High Court refused to quash the fresh first information reports (FIRs) registered against prime accused in the 2020 gold smuggling case, Swapna Suresh, alleging conspiracy behind her remarks against Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.  (Swapna Prabha Suresh v State of Kerala)
  15. On Friday Supreme Court judge Justice DY Chandrachud said Courts in India are overcrowded and mediation, therefore, is an important tool to resolve disputes in a non-adversarial manner.
  16. On Friday the Kerala government will move the Kerala High Court challenging the anticipatory bail granted to writer-activist Civic Chandran in two cases of sexual harassment.
  17. On Thursday the Delhi High Court allowed the release of Ranbir Kapoor starrer movie Shamshera on over-the-top (OTT) platforms subject to its producer, Yash Raj Films Private Limited depositing a sum of ₹1 crore with the court registry.  (Bikramjeet Singh Bhullar v Yash Raj Films Private Limited & Ors)
  18. On Friday the Allahabad High Court has deprecated the practice of counsel insisting on arguing for bail when a case is ready to be heard on its merits. (Umesh Gosai v. State of UP)
  19. On Friday the Supreme Court has observed that the legislative intent of incorporating Section 304­B of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) is to curb the menace of dowry death.  (Ajhola Devi and Another v. State of Jharkhand)
  20. The Bombay High Court granted bail to a man after finding that the voice sample used to establish his involvement in the crime was not properly recorded.  (Saurabh Raju @ Rajendra Dhage vs The State of Maharashtra)
  21. On Tuesday the Kerala High Court permitted a 14-year old rape survivor to terminate her 28-week-long pregnancy.
  22. The Madurai bench of the Madras High Court has ordered that the portrait of Dr. BR Ambedkar be installed in all government law colleges in Tamil Nadu.

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