Today’s Legal Updates

Friday, 7th January 2022

Legal Awareness:- Women and the Indian Constitution

Humane Conditions at Work

Article 42 directs the State to make provision for securing justice and humane conditions of work and for maternity relief.

Today Legal Updates :-

  1. Today the Supreme Court passed an interim order giving its green signal to proceed with the counselling for NEET postgraduate (PG) courses for the year 2021.  (Neil Aurelio Nunes v. Union of India)
  2. Today the Kerala High Court dismissed a plea by MBBS graduates who appeared in the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) for post-graduate (PG) medical courses, challenging a circular issued by the State government increasing reservation in such courses for Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (SEBC) from 9 per cent to 27 per cent.  (Dr. Sreeparvathy & Ors. v Commissioner of Entrance Examinations & Anr.)
    • The petitioners had approached the Court challenging a recent revision in the number of seats reserved to various categories for admission to PG medical courses in the State that, according to them, violated constitutional norms.
    • There are a total of 833 seats for PG courses out of which 427 seats are filled up from the rank list prepared by the Commissioner of Entrance Exams. Until last year, in Kerala, 9 per cent of these seats were reserved for SEBC candidates.
  3. Today the Supreme Court will deliver its order in the plea relating to NEET postgraduate (PG) admissions in which reservation for Other Backward Classes (OBC) and Economically Weaker Section (EWS) introduced by the Central government in the All-India Quota (AIQ) seats in State government medical institutions has been challenged.  (Neil Aurelio Nunes v. Union of India)
  4. Today the Delhi High Court granted bail to freelance journalist Rajeev Sharma in the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) case against him in relation to supply of sensitive documents to Chinese intelligence.  (Rajeev Sharma v Directorate of Enforcement)
  5. Today the Supreme Court called for the preservation of travel records pertaining to the recent Punjab visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during which a security lapse allegedly occurred.  (Lawyers Voice v. State of Punjab and Others)
  6. The Gujarat High Court has decided to hear cases through virtual mode from January 10, Monday in view of the rise in COVID cases.
  7. Today the Bombay High Court enquired with the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on whether the octogenarian poet ought to be sent to prison amidst the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, while hearing a plea by Bhima Koregaon accused Varavara Rao seeking extension of medical bail granted to him by the High Court in February 2021.
  8. Today the Kerala High Court observed that Courts cannot interfere with the artistic freedom of a filmmaker unless there is any violation of laws, while hearing plea to remove Malayalam movie “Churuli” from Over the Top (OTT) platforms for the use of abusive language in the movie. (Peggy Fen v Central Board of Film Certification & Ors.)
  9. Today the Supreme Court struck down a clause in the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) policy which mandated that the marks obtained in the improvement examination for class 12 exams shall be considered as final even if the marks obtained in the original exam were more than in the improvement exams.  (Sukriti & ors v Central Board of Secondary Education)
  10. Today the Bombay High Court observed while rejecting a petition to declare August 2 as a public holiday for celebrating the liberation/ independence of the Union Territory (UT) of Dadra & Nagar Haveli, Declaring public holidays is a matter of government policy and nobody has a fundamental right to public holiday.  (Kishnabhai Nathubhai Ghutia & Anr. v. The Hon’ble Administrator Union Territory & Ors.)
  11. Today A Delhi court has remanded Neeraj Bishnoi, the alleged “main conspirator” and creator of “Bulli Bai” on GitHub, to seven days of police custody.
    • Several Muslim women have again found themselves “listed” in an online “auction” as part of the “Bulli Deals” scandal, echoing the similarly despicable “Sulli Deals” that sparked a furore in July last year.
    • “During interrogation, Neeraj Bishnoi disclosed that the app was developed in Nov 2021 and updated in Dec’21. He said he created one more Twitter account to talk about the app. Using another account he has stated ‘You’ve arrested the wrong person,” 
  12. Yesterday the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry has written to the Tamil Nadu Director General of Police (DGP) seeking action against police officials who conducted illegal searches in the chambers and residences of two lawyers.
  13. Yesterday the Chairman of the Bar Council of Punjab and Haryana wrote a letter to the Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, urging him to take suo-moto cognisance of the security lapse related to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Punjab visit on 5th January 2022 when his convoy was stuck on a flyover at Hussainwala.
  14. Yesterday a Chennai court granted a retired police officer permanent custody of his name badge and cap which he was wearing while on the line of fire when former Indian Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated at Sriperumpadur.
  15. Today the Delhi High Court asked Trinamool Congress Member of Parliament Mahua Moitra to submit the video recording of the incident where she called Zee News a thief, based on which a defamation case was filed against her.  (Mahua Moitra v State of NCT of Delhi and Anr)
  16. Today the Gauhati High Court gave the State three weeks to file its reply in a writ petition challenging the constitutionality of Assam’s rules for appointment of Grade 1 judicial officers.  (Pooja Agarwal v. State of Assam and anr)
  17. On Wednesday the Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court issued fresh notice to the former Chief Minister of Maharashtra Devendra Fadnavis on a public interest litigation alleging irregularities in the transfer of bank accounts of police officials from a nationalised bank to a private one where Fadnavis’ wife occupied a senior position.  (Mohnish J. Jabalpure vs. The State of Maharashtra & others)
  18. Today the Delhi High Court said that Buying a bottle of sharbat may involve emotions, but not so deep that the word ‘Dil’ can be confused with ‘Rooh’, while dismissing an application filed by the manufacturers of Rooh Afza seeking an injunction on the sale of Dil Afza.  (Hamdard National Foundation (India) and Anr v. Sadar Laboratories Pvt Ltd)
  19. Today the Calcutta High Court allowed the West Bengal government to hold the annual Gangasagar Mela, which will be attended by about 5 lakh pilgrims this year, Even as the threat of a third wave of COVID-19 looms large. (Dr Avinandan Mondal v. State)
  20. Today A Mumbai court remanded Uttarakhand natives Shweta Singh and Mayank Rawat, accused in the BulliBai App case, to police custody till January 10, 2022.
    • The prosecution alleged that 18-year-old Singh was active on social media and would post extreme content and had created a fake account on Twitter which was used to post contents on the application which is under investigation.
  21. Today the Madras High Court has ruled that in a case of hate speech against a religious community, the aspect of “who gave the speech” is relevant to determine whether an offence is made out under Sections 153A and 295A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). (Fr. P. George Ponnaiah v. The Inspector of Police)
  22. Today A Pune court granted bail to Kalicharan Maharaj alias Abhijit Dhananjay Sarag over the alleged hate speech delivered by him in Pune in December 2021.
    • Kalicharan, a self-proclaimed god-man, has been accused of making comments against the Muslim and Christian communities during a programme organised in Shukrawar Peth in Pune in relation to celebration of killing of Adilshahi general Afzal Khan by Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj.
  23. Today the Central government has sought the dismissal of a writ petition filed by BJP spokesperson Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay seeking drafting of a Uniform Civil Code (UCC) within 3 months.  (Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay v. Union of India)
  24. Yesterday the Delhi Police vehemently opposed the release of the Ansal brothers, who were recently convicted for evidence tampering in connection with the 1997 Uphaar Cinema fire tragedy case.  (Sushil Ansal vs. State of NCT of Delhi)
  25. The Uttarakhand High Court and subordinate courts in several districts of the State will function only in virtual mode from Monday.

Legal Prudent Fraternity