Today’s Legal Updates

Thursday, 7th June 2022

Legal Awareness :- CONSTITUTION OF INDIA

Part – V THE UNION

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

Article – 58   Qualifications for election as President

  1. No person shall be eligible for election as 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 House of the People.
  2. A person shall not be eligible for election as 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 of any State or is a Minister either for the Union or for any State

Today’s Legal Updates :-

  1. On Thursday the Supreme Court said that the case papers pertaining to Zee Hindustan anchor Rohit Ranjan’s case are with the Chief Justice of India (CJI) for assignment, and a vacation bench cannot direct its listing.
    • Zee Hindustan anchor Rohit Ranjan approached the Supreme Court against the Chhattisgarh Police’s action in relation the channel’s false broadcast against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.
    • The channel had broadcast a news show alleging that Rahul Gandhi had said that the murder of tailor Kanhaiya Lal Teji in Udaipur should be forgiven. Gandhi was, in fact, referring to those who had vandalised his office in Wayanad, Kerala, and not to the Udaipur killers.
  2. On Thursday the Gujarat High Court Advocates Association (GHCAA) has written to Gujarat High Court Chief Justice Aravind Kumar urging the Court to initiate suo motu proceedings and issue contempt proceedings against those misusing live-streamed videos of court proceedings.
    • the letter stated, I also suggest that the live-streaming of cases may contain the disclaimer regarding the applicability of the Live-Streaming Rules, 2021 so that public at large should know limitations and restrictions in making, circulating and uploading the clippings of the live-streamed cases. Moreover, I request you to pass necessary directions to all concerned to follow the Rule 4 of the Rules, 2021 in its true spirit and senses and not to live-stream cases which are enlisted as exceptions.
    • Still, they are being live-streamed and unauthorizedly used by various persons for various reasons. The live-streaming of such cases not only violates the Live-streaming Rules, 2021 but also violate fundamental rights including Right to Privacy and Right to be forgotten (which are not recognized as integral part of Right to life under Article 21) of various stake-holders such as Lawyer, Litigants, Relatives of Litigants etc.
    • One stray incident in court proceeding of an advocate being taken to task by court or any unsavory exchange of dialogue between an advocate and a judge or a comment made by a judge in a lighter sense against an advocate cannot be repeatedly allowed to be circulated in any form by visual representation out of context. This seriously violates the right to be forgotten.
  3. The 2021 batch of the West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences (WBNUJS), Kolkata received 64 placements in domestic law firms and in-house roles.
    • Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas was the biggest recruiter, hiring a total of 13 students. Trilegal and L&L Partners both recruited 8 students, while 7 graduates were hired by Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas. Khaitan & Co recruited 6 students, while Argus Partners, IndusLaw and Singh & Associates hired 3 students each. AZB & Partners, Talwar Thakore & Associates and Lakshmikumaran and Sridharan Associates hired 2 students each while Bharucha & Partners recruited 1 student.
    • 58 of these students were placed at leading domestic law firms. The average annual packages offered by domestic law firms ranged from ₹15-18 lakhs.
    • 6 students were placed with corporates such as Tata AIG, Gas Authority of India, ITC Limited and Cognizant. Students joining companies in the role of in-house counsel received packages ranging from ₹7-14 lakh per annum.
  4. On Wednesday the Delhi High Court rejected the argument by a Muslim man that he cannot be charged under the POCSO Act because the girl with whom he allegedly established sexual relations, had attained puberty and was, therefore, a major according to Muslim Personal Law.
    • The Court was dealing with a petition seeking quashing of a First Information Report (FIR) registered under Section 376 (rape), 377 (unnatural offences), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 406 (criminal breach of trust) of Indian Penal Code (IPC) read with Section 6 of the POCSO Act.
    • Justice Singh held, For the reasons above, I reject the contention of the petitioner that according to Muslim law since the victim has attained the age of puberty the rigours of POCSO Act will not be applicable.
    • the Punjab and Haryana High Court had held, The law, as laid down in various judgments cited above, is clear that the marriage of a Muslim girl is governed by the Muslim Personal Law. As per Article 195 from the book ‘Principles of Mohammedan Law by Sir Dinshah Fardunji Mulla’, the petitioner No.2 being over 16 years of age was competent to enter into a contract of marriage with a person of her choice.
  5. On Tuesday the Gwalior Bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court took serious exception to the investigation carried out by the police in a case relating to a missing 11 year-old-girl, who was eventually murdered. (Gajendra Singh Chandel v. The State Of Madhya Pradesh)
    • We take strong exception to the functioning of the Police force in the State particularly, in the Guna district relevant to the facts of this case.
    • The height of absurdity and stupidity on the part of the Police officials is writ large, as despite the said knowledge of demise of the corpus, subsequent reports are being submitted that the missing corpus is beings searched.
    • It is further surprising to note that so far, no FIR has been lodged to start the investigation on aforesaid disclosure of the fact of the death of the deceased corpus.
  6. On Thursday A local court in Uttar Pradesh rejected a bail application filed by Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair in a case registered against him by the Uttar Pradesh Police (UP Police) for hurting religious sentiments, and remanded him to judicial custody for 14 days.
    • Zubair was booked under Sections 295A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage reli­gious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or reli­gious beliefs), 153A (Promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence) of the Indian Penal Code(IPC) and Section 67 (publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form) of the Information Technology Act, 2000.
  7. On Thursday the Delhi High Court issued notice to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on an appeal by former Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala challenging his conviction and four-year jail term in a disproportionate assets case.
  8. On Thursday the Delhi High Court stayed an order of the Central Information Commission (CIC) directing the Income Tax department to provide information and copies of documents submitted by the PM Cares Fund while applying for exemption under the Income Tax Act.
    • the plea said, Additionally, there is a further bar which states that his decision will be final and shall not be called into question in any court of law.
    • The PM Cares Fund was granted approval under Section 80G of the IT Act. This allows taxpayers to claim deductions from various contributions made as donations to it.
    • he Commission held that the issue of Section 2(h) of the RTI Act has been unnecessarily dragged into the matter, since Mittal has not filed the RTI application before the PM Cares Fund, but with a public authority itself.
  9. On Thursday the Uttarakhand High Court allowed animal slaughter for Bakri Eid in Manglaur town in Uttarakhand’s Haridwar district.  (Ifatakhar & Others v. State of Uttarakhand & Others)
    • a government notification dated March 3, 2021 which had declared Hardiwar as a slaughter free area, was stayed by the Court with respect to its applicability to Manglaur on the day of Bakri Eid, which falls on July 10.
  10. On Thursday the Kerala High Court orally observed that relationship between a man and a woman turning sour cannot lead to rape charges against the man.  (Navaneeth N Nath v State of Kerala)
    • A relationship turning sour at a later point of time will not amount to rape. As you know, in the present social context, we have live-in relationships and open marriages. All these things are happening… In a practical sense, age of marriage has also changed now. Girls of 28 and 29 years are not ready to get married. They are enjoying their independence, financial independence. New generation children are completely different. They don’t always want to marry, they don’t want to have children, they adopt pets. There is a difficulty now, because allegations of rape surface after relationships turn sour.
    • the Court orally observed, Now we find young men and women living together, enjoying relationships and as in the foreign countries, it is only after they understand the physical and mental compatibility that they decide to get married. At a later stage if they realise that they are incompatible, they both may leave the relationship and be by themselves. There might be situations where once person may like to continue in the relationship but the other does not. But all of these are not situations which will amount to a case of rape. It may be a breach of promise but breach of promise is not rape.
    • the judge remarked, What the Supreme Court held in Pramod’s case is that the long period of a relationship is indicative of an absence obtaining consent by promising to marry. In your FIS (first information statement), no where is it indicated that you indulged in sex only with the belief that he is going to marry.
  11. On Thursday Alt News co-founder Mohammad Zubair told the Supreme Court, the new strategy of police in hate speech cases and communal crimes is to book the criminals as well as those who highlight and protest against such crimes.
    • Zubair contended, This is done with the intention of stifling freedom of speech of secular persons in society who stand up against communal elements and to put fear into them so that they no longer protest.
    • The facts of this case reveals that the petitioner, on the contrary, is speaking out against those insulting religion.
    • In order to attract Section 295A, there must be an insult with deliberate and malicious intention of outraging the religious feelings of any class of citizens of India which is absent in the present case.
    • This is not the first time when the petitioner has been harassed or intimidated for his fact check tweets.
  12. On Thursday the Delhi High Court issued notice to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on an appeal by former Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala challenging his conviction and four-year jail term in a disproportionate assets case.
  13. On Thursday A plea has been filed before the Bombay High Court seeking transfer of investigation into the murder of Communist Party of India politician Govind Pansare to the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS).
    • the plea said, Therefore, the applicants are constrained to file this application to for transferring of investigation to the ATS to find the mastermind of all the offences.
  14. On Thursday the Bombay High Court refused to accept the argument of a woman that her marriage to her husband was not consensual but was fraudulently done by spiking a ‘prasad’ that he offered her.  (Monika Sharma vs Mukesh Bhagal)
    • the bench said, We are afraid, we cannot believe such evidence of appellant (wife) as it is difficult to accept the same to be a truthful version of the incident. It is so because as to how she readily accepted ‘prasad’ and ate it despite having been forcibly taken away by respondent (husband)? She was literally abducted and again brought back to the office on the following day but neither any of her colleagues or friends have come forward to depose in her favour nor there appears to be any report lodged by her with Police. Strangely, appellant remained silent and passive despite undergoing such a trauma.
    • the Court opined, Such behaviour of appellant is quite strange and cannot be said to be a natural conduct of a woman who is not only major but qualified as a Master in Science from Singhania University and serving independently in a city like Mumbai. No sane man will believe and accept her statement.
    • I hail from rural background where womenfolk and their voices are stifled from birth as the slightest rumour can taint them for rest of their lives. Honour killings, rape and all kinds of crimes against women are a daily feature and families advise their daughters and womenfolk to silently face oppression. FIRs are rarely filed in cases of crimes against women, unless, there is a press coverage or political support where, Khap Panchayat’s rule and their diktat goes unquestioned, and whoever agitates, are either ex-communicated or liquidated.
    • the bench observed, Even there is no evidence of medical examination of appellant, who alleged to have been (sic) ravished, sexually exploited and subjected to unnatural intercourse by respondent. Overall evidence of appellant is improbable, unbelievable and unacceptable. No sane man would believe and accept her testimony as it is nothing but ipsedixitism. It is quite apparent from the evidence that it is a case of inflicted insight, meaning thereby, unsolicited revelation of aspects of one’s character, usually as a result of a deceitful experiment that has psychological dimensions, and especially where this results in emotional trauma.
  15. On Thursday the Delhi High Court dismissed a public interest litigation (PIL) petition seeking removal of Delhi minister Satyendar Jain from the cabinet.
    • the plea stated, Further, the preferential treatment for minister under custody strikes to Article 14 of the Constitution of India and several judicial pronouncements including the constitutional bench judgement where Hon’ble Supreme Court.
  16. On Thursday A Mumbai court order that had directed K Rustom & Co, owner of the iconic Rustom’s Ice Cream parlour at Churchgate, to hand over possession of its shop premises at the Brabourne Stadium to the Cricket Club of India (CCI), has been stayed by an appellate court.
    •  the Court directed, In view of this, we find that, as a stopgap arrangement, if the compensation of Rs. 2,50,000 per month is fixed on an ad­ interim basis, it would take care of justice.
    • Rustom in its appeal contended that it had high hopes of success in the appeal against the April 30 judgement and that it was their statutory right to argue the issue before the court, so the operation and execution of the judgement and decree could be stayed on ad-interim basis.
    • The CCI in its suit before the lower court had claimed that Rustom had been paying a monthly rent at the rate of ₹527­ which was far below the standard rent.
  17. On Thursday a Delhi Court observed while awarding a five-year jail term to a 40-year-old woman and her accomplice for dealing in fake Indian currency notes (FICN) in 2016, a  convict can’t claim preferential treatment on account of her gender.
    • Convict Neetu despite being a woman has voluntarily chosen to associate herself with nefarious criminal activities and now she cannot claim any preferential treatment on account of her gender. The partners in sin, who lay equal stakes in profit, cannot now disassociate themselves while reaping the harvest of their sins.
    • It is a matter of common knowledge that we Indians are very accommodative in nature and it is not uncommon for passengers travelling together to make adjustments with the fellow passengers. It is though difficult but not virtually impossible for 11 passengers to travel in a vehicle designed to carry only 7 passengers.
    • It is a matter of common knowledge that members of general public, for obvious reasons, these days are reluctant to come forward and testify.
  18. Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair has approached the Supreme Court seeking quashing of the first information report (FIR) registered against him by the Uttar Pradesh police (UP Police) in Sitapur in a case of hurting religious sentiments.
    • Senior Advocate Colin Gonsalves said, His job is to fact check news. There are death threats against him and people who deliver hate speech says that they might kill him.
    • My lady please list this matter today at 2 pm. He approached Allahabad HC too.
    • the bench directed, List the matter tomorrow subject to clearance by the Chief Justice of India.
  19. On Thursday Justice Anu Malhotra of the Delhi High Court transferred to a Division Bench the Delhi Police’s appeal against the bail granted to Congress councillor Ishrat Jahan in a case related to the Delhi Riots of 2020.
  20. On Wednesday A Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Mumbai Police informed the Bombay High Court that the Preliminary Enquiry (PE) initiated against businessman Jitendra Navlani based on a complaint by Shiv Sena member Arvind Bhosale had been closed for want of evidence.  (Jitendra Navlani v. Arvind Bhosale & Anr.)
    • the petition stated, This is a politically connected matter between the (then) ruling party and an ex-Commissioner of police who exposed the shallow and illegal dealing of the persons in power, a result of which there has been shaking up the entire state.
    • their reply, Timing of filing of the petition creates a suspicion on ED’s motive indicating that the agency is trying to protect its officers by not allowing any investigation.

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