Today’s Legal Updates

Monday, 27th June 2022

Legal Awareness :- CONSTITUTION OF INDIA

Part – V THE UNION

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

Article – 52 The President of India.

There shall be a President of India

Today’s Legal Updates :-

  1. On Monday the Maharashtra government assured the Bombay High Court that it would not arrest actress Ketaki Chitale her in twenty-one First Information Reports (FIRs) lodged against her for allegedly reproducing a derogatory poem against Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) Chief Sharad Pawar on Facebook.
  2. On Monday a Special CBI court extended the judicial custody of jailed AAP minister Satyendar Jain till July 10 in a money laundering case being investigated by the Enforcement Directorate (ED). (ED v. Satyendar Jain)
  3. On Monday a Delhi court in Burari granted the Delhi Police one-day police custody of fact-checking website Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair, in an alleged case of promoting enmity among religious groups.
    • Zubair has been booked for offences under Sections 153A (promoting enmity between religious groups) and 295 (injuring or defiling place of worship, with intent to insult the religion of any class) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for a tweet he had put out in 2018.
    • a statement by Delhi Police said, Such tweets were getting retweeted and it appeared that there is a brigade of social media entities, who indulge in insult mongering thereby leading to a possible ramification on communal harmony and is overall against the maintenance of public tranquility.
    • In the month of June, 2022, when Delhi Police was alerted by a twitter handle that Mohammad Zubair had earlier made an objectionable tweet and his followers/social media entities had amplified and created a series of debates/hate mongering in the thread, he was examined in this case, i.e., FIR no. 172/22 under Sections 153A/295 IPC and his role was found objectionable. He was evasive on the questions and neither provided the necessary technical equipment for the purpose of the investigation nor cooperated in the investigation.
  4. On Monday the Delhi police arrested fact-checking website Alt News co-founder Mohammad Zubair in an alleged case of promoting enmity among religious groups.
  5. On Monday the Madras High Court called for a drastic change in the attitudes of authorities in order to minimise and eventually eradicate corruption on the part of public servants. (K Kumaradoss v. The Principal Secretary to Government)
    • Justice SM Subramaniam made the observation while directing the State government and the Director General of Police to take effective steps to eradicate the practice of police officers receiving mamool (bribe paid by shop vendors to police)
    • The order stated, There must be a drastic change in the attitude on the part of the competent Authorities and they are expected to work swiftly so as to minimise the corrupt practices currently and to eradicate in future. Debates after debates are conducted in many interesting subjects through medias and in public domain. However, negligible number of debates are being conducted regarding corruption in our great nation.
    • Corruption is a devil in the society. Corruption is an antidevelopment phenomena. Corruption is the blockage for the developmental activities of our great nation. Corruption causes greater injustice to the society at large, more specifically, to the poor and downtrodden.
    • Public servants are receiving the salary from the tax~payers- money. The responsibility and accountability is the constitutional mandate. Public servants are expected to perform their duties with utmost care and by maintaining absolute integrity and honesty. However, in reality, the state of affairs prevailing in our great nation is the worrying factor. People are frustrated with the large scale corrupt practices in public services.
    • However the size of the department and the number of officials functioning are not in commensuration with the large scale corrupt practices prevailing in many number of departments. The department of Vigilance and Anticorruption is to be strengthened to a greater extent, so as to ensure periodical surprise inspections and raids are conducted to deal with the corrupt practices in public services. Adequate number of men and women of integrity and honesty must be engaged for this purpose.
    • the Court ordered, Urgent and stringent measures are warranted and appropriate instructions/guidelines are to be issued to all the Government Offices.
  6. On Monday a single-judge of the Kerala High Court referred to a division bench the question of whether an application for anticipatory bail should be entertained by the court when the accused is outside India.  (Anu Mathew v State of Kerala)
    • ustice PV Kunhikrishnan opined that anticipatory bail pleas moved by persons outside the country, possibly absconding, need not be entertained by the Court under the discretionary powers conferred to it by Section 438 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC).
    • the Court said, I do not think that the direction not to entertain a bail application in a situation where the accused filed a bail application sitting in a foreign country and that also absconding after the registration of the case against him and further openly challenging the law of the land, with the knowledge of the registration of the case against him is against the dictum laid down in Sushila Aggarwal’s case In such situation, this Court has got ample powers to refuse bail because the power under Section 438 CrPC itself is a discretionary jurisdiction Such persons need not be invited to the country by a court of law invoking the powers of interim bail under section 438 CrPC is my considered opinion. It is the duty of the prosecuting agency to book him.
  7. On Monday outgoing Delhi High Court Acting Chief Justice Vipin Sanghi said the process of appointment of judges over the years has become more time consuming and uncertain which has dissuaded many meritorious Senior Advocates from giving their consent to be considered for elevation to the bench.
  8. Last Week the Bombay High Court held that merely because a girl is friendly with a boy, doesn’t allow him to take her for granted and construe it as a consent to establish sexual relationship with her. (Ashish Chakor vs State of Maharashtra)
  9. On Monday the Government of Kerala has issued an order mandating a monthly stipend of ₹3,000 for lawyers under the age of 30 years, with less than 3 years practice and an annual income of less that ₹1 lakh.
  10. Last Week the Madras High Court directed the State government and the Director General of Police to take effective steps to eradicate the practice of police officers receiving mamool (bribe paid by shop vendors to police). (K Kumaradoss v. The Principal Secretary to Government)
    • Therefore, receiving of mamool, which is commonly noticed in public domain at large must be effectively controlled by the Government, more specifically, by the Principal Secretary to Government, Home Department and the Director General of Police.
    • the Court said, For instance, receiving mamool, which is a corrupt activity, no criminal case has been registered against such police officials under the Prevention of Corruption Act ordinarily. Mostly the departmental actions alone are initiated and on some occasions, certain minor punishments are imposed.
    • the order stated, There must be a drastic change in the attitude on the part of the competent Authorities and they are expected to work swiftly so as to minimise the corrupt practices currently and to eradicate in future.
    • By receiving mamool, the police officials are allowing encroachments in footpath hawkers and allowing the traders to commit illegalities. That apart, even encroachments for running business are permitted by the police officials by receiving mamool.
  11. On Monday the Bombay High Court imposed costs of ₹5 lakh on Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Limited (Adani) while dismissing its plea challenging the disqualification of its bid in connection with the tender issued by the by the Board of Trustees of Jawaharlal Nehru Port Authority (JNPA) for upgradation of its container terminal in Navi Mumbai. (Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Limited v. Board of Trustees of Jawaharlal Nehru Port Authority & Ors.)
  12. On Monday the Supreme Court is set to hear two separate petitions filed by Eknath Shinde group challenging the appointment of Ajay Choudhari as Shiv Sena Legislature Party leader and the disqualification notices issued by the deputy speaker of Maharashtra Assembly to 16 rebel Members of Legislative Assembly (MLAs).
  13. On Monday the Supreme Court granted interim relief to Eknath Shinde and his rebel group of MLAs by extending the time to file response to the disqualification notice sent by the Deputy Speaker, in the ongoing Maharashtra political crisis, till July 12.
  14. On Monday the Supreme Court agreed to hear a challenge by the Central government to orders passed by the Tripura High Court while hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) moved against the grant of security to industrialist Mukesh Ambani and his family members. (Union of India v. Bikash Saha)
  15. On Monday the Bombay High Court dismissed a petition filed by a social worker challenging the validity of the revised guidelines which banned use of Plaster of Paris (PoP) for making idols which are used during Ganesh Chaturthi and Navratri.
  16. On Monday the Delhi High Court has sought responses from the Delhi Police and a Muslim man after his wife filed a petition challenging a Talaq-e-Hasan notice allegedly sent by him.
  17. On Monday Dr. Sanjeev Gemawat, who served as Group General Counsel of Dalmia Bharat Group for over six years, has quit to join Vedanta Resources as Group General Counsel.
  18. Last Week the Patna High Court held in a significant ruling that absence of physical resistance on the part of a rape survivor does not mean that she consented to the act.  (Islam Mian @Md Islam vs State of Bihar)
  19. On Monday a public interest litigation (PIL) petition has been filed before the Bombay High Court seeking a directive to rebel Shiv Sena MLAs and ministers led by Eknath Shinde to immediately return to the State from Guwahati where they are currently camped.  (Utpal Chandawar vs Eknath Shinde)

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