Today’s Legal Updates:

Friday, 24th December 2021

  1. Today the Karnataka High Court has dismissed a plea seeking quashing of a detention order of a person resulting from misdeclaring the description and value of goods for export to fraudulently claim duty drawback and IGST refund benefits. (Asses Punjee Kaur Kochhar vs Union of India)
  2. Today the Delhi High Court observed while hearing a tenancy matter, Dishonest litigants cannot be allowed to abuse the process of court.  (Ahuja Trading Company v. Ramesh Chander Aggarwal)
  3. In 2022 eight sitting judges of the Supreme Court of India will retire, causing a major makeover in the composition of the top court.
    • Justice R Subhash Reddy – January 4
    • Justice Vineet Saran – May 10
    • Justice L Nageswara Rao – June 7
    • Justice AM Khanwilkar – July 29
    • CJI NV Ramana – August 26
    • Justice Indira Banerjee – September 23
    • Justice Hemant Gupta – October 16
    • Justice UU Lalit – November 8 (will retire as CJI)
  4. Justice Chandrachud will have one of the longest tenures of any CJI in the recent past and will hold the post till November 10, 2024, for a tenure that will last more than 2 years.
  5. Today a Mumbai court observed while convicting an 18-year-old boy for rape of a 13-year-old girl, Friendship cannot be misunderstood for love and having a friend of the opposite sex does not mean that she is available for satisfying his sexual desire.  (State of Maharashtra vs. Satish Jalindar Shinde)
    • the observations were made by Special Judge under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO Act), Priti Kumar in response to an argument by the accused showing a photograph of him standing with the victim on the day of Holi to claim that he and the victim were in love.
      • the Court said “Girls and boys of vicinity do play Holi together, talk to each other. This friendliness is common but accused exceed his limit by thrusting himself sexually on the victim. The accused is young boy of 18 years. He is adult has understanding that a friend is not available for sexual intercourse. Friendliness do not mean right to engage in sexual intercourse against the desire of other person,” 
        • Friendship cannot be misunderstood for love to rape a woman and having a friend of opposite sex does not mean that she is available for satisfying his sexual desire
  6. Today the Delhi High Court directed the State government to initiate the process of amending its bylaws to increase fines that can be imposed on people who enable mosquitoes to breed in their premises by not keeping the surroundings clean and allowing water to stagnate.  (Court on its own motion v Government of NCT of Delhi and Ors.)
  7. Today the Karnataka High Court observed while denying interim custody of a child to the father on the ground that he had remarried, Stepmothers would not ordinarily be able to take care of and show affection to children which biological mothers instinctively would.  (Mohammed Mushtaq GK v. Ayesha Banu)
  8. Today the Allahabad High Court directed the clubbing of three different chargesheets filed by the Uttar Pradesh Police in cases lodged against a person who took part in the protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in 2019.  (Shamshad Ahmad and others v. State of Uttar Pradesh).
  9. Today the Delhi High Court held while annulling a marriage solemnized 16 years ago, Failure to disclose mental disorder before marriage constitutes fraud.
    • the bench said in its judgment “The failure on the part of the respondent (wife) to disclose her mental disorder before her marriage with the appellant (husband) – as alleged by him, constituted a fraud perpetrated upon the appellant.” 
  10. Today the Delhi High Court termed the situation after a viral video of a stampede-like situation at the Sarojini Nagar market was brought to its notice ‘frightening’ and threatened government officials with suspension in case of any untoward incident.  (Kuldeep Singh Sahani & Ors v. Govt of NCT of Delhi and Ors.)
    • the Bench asked “The state of affairs is such that Covid or no Covid, it is frightening. There can be a stampede. Even if a small bomb were to go off how many people would die in the area.” 
  11. Advani & Co., one of the oldest firms in the country specializing in arbitration law, has rebranded as Advani Law. the firm has also released its new logo to mark its new identity.
  12. The National Company Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) this week stayed an order passed by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) imposing a ₹751 crore penalty on United Breweries (UB) for indulging in cartelisation.
  13. Today the Kerala High Court ordered that the investigation into a scam involving misappropriation of over ₹7.5 crores from the Kerala Advocates Welfare Fund be handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation. (Adv Khalid NA & Ors. v Union of India & Ors.)
  14. Today the Delhi High Court has rejected a suit seeking ban on Waseem Rizvi’s self-published book titled “Muhammad”, on the grounds of maintainability.  (Qamar Hasnain v Syed Waseem Rizvi and Ors)
  15. Today the Calcutta High Court has upheld a conviction under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act despite minor discrepancies in the evidence of the minor girl, reasoning that a survivor is the best judge of the incident. (Prabir Bhuian Alias Prabir Bhuinyan vs. State of West Bengal)
    • Justice Bibek Chaudhuri while hearing an appeal from an order where a Special Judge had convicted the stepfather of a minor girl under Section 8 (sexual assault of a minor) of the Act said that “the Court must always be alive to consider the incident of sexual act from victim’s perspective.”
      • the Court said “In order to apprise the cases under the POCSO Act the robustness of masculine judicial system must give way to the feminine feeling of the embodiment of lady Justice.”
  16. Today the Bombay High Court has sought constitution of Lok Adalats across various zones of the Railway Claims Tribunal (RCT) to clear the huge pendency of cases before those tribunals with a view that “Justice in real sense is imparted to helpless and hapless litigants.”
  17. Today the Delhi High Court has called for a uniform practice to be followed by the Labour Courts in respect of deciding the inquiry related issue as a preliminary issue.
  18. Today the Punjab and Haryana High Court has sought details of Court Complex Security Measures in place across the States of Punjab, Haryana and UT Chandigarh.
  19. The vacation bench of the Delhi High Court will hear only extremely urgent cases on 27th, 29th and 31st of December, 2021. Vacation bench will be constituted by Chief Justice DN Patel.
  20. Today the Allahabad High Court observed that while dealing with a plea that alleged that the affairs of the Lucknow Christian College, Lucknow are wholly mismanaged, the affairs of the educational institutions, particularly, run by the charitable/religious organizations, such as the church and the society, should be conducted in a proper and transparent manner.
  21. A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) plea has been moved before the Gauhati High Court seeking an independent probe into the alleged fake encounters of the Assam Police.
  22. The Pharmacy Council of India, within a week of the judgment of the Chhattisgarh High Court granting Interim Relief to Pharmacy Colleges, has moved a Special Leave Plea before the Supreme Court.

Legal Prudent Fraternity