Today’s Legal Updates :

Wednesday, 8th December 2021

  1. Today  eighth day of the 2021 Winter Session of Parliament saw responses on issues ranging from human rights violations, police reforms, blocked social media accounts and more.
    • Human Rights Violations
      • Q. DMK MP M Shanmugam on the incidents of human rights violations and the amount of monetary relief disbursed to victims.
      • A. Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai said that as per the data received by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), no increase of human rights violations has been noticed.
    • Consumer complaints
      • Q. a question posed by three Members of Parliament on the number of cases of violation of consumer rights and measures taken to create awareness among consumers to protect their interests.
      • A. Ashwini Kumar Choubey, Minister of State Consumer Affairs and Food and Public Distribution showcased a tabular representation of State-wise complaints received by consumer forums during the last three years.
    • Reforms in police administration
      • Q. AIADMK MP A Vijayakumar on police reforms being brought by the government at the Centre/state level.
      • A. Nityanand Rai responded to the question and mentioned that it is primarily the responsibility of the state governments/union territory administrations to implement police reforms. Advisories are also issued by the Centre to bring in requisite reforms.
    • Introduction of 5G network
      • Q. YSR Congress MP Avinash Reddy asked a question on the introduction of 5G network and whether India has a conducive environment for accommodating the same.
      • A. Minister of State for Communications Devusinh Chauhan responded in the affirmative, and stated that the government is taking several measures to create a favourable environment for launching 5G in the country.
    • Blocked Social Media accounts
      • A. In response to a question in the Lok Sabha, it was stated that 9,848 social media accounts and URLs were blocked on the request of the nodal officers of various ministries and states.
  2. Today Former Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi said that he did not meet Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi even once during his tenure as the CJI.
  3. Today the Delhi High Court emphasised on the need for it to closely monitor the menace of vector-borne diseases like Dengue and Malaria, so that the authorities could deal with them on a more permanent basis.  (South Delhi Municipal Corporation vs. Government of NCT of Delhi)
  4. Today the Delhi High Court called for a meeting of all the major stakeholders including municipal corporations, the Delhi Cantonment Board and the Delhi government, to devise a process for the proper implementation of the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014.  (New Delhi Traders Association v. NDMC)
  5. Today the Kerala High Court issued notice to the State government on a plea seeking to restrain the government from conducting a sample survey to ascertain economic backwardness among forward communities.
  6. Today Ranjan Gogoi Former Chief Justice of India was defiant as ever at the launch of his book ‘Justice for the Judge,’ an autobiography detailing among other things, his tumultuous tenure as Chief Justice of India.
    • The autobiography of former Chief Justice of India (CJI) and sitting Member of Parliament, Ranjan Gogoi is set to be released today.
  7. Today Former Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi said that it would have been ideal if he had not been part of the Bench which heard the suo motu case which came to be registered by the top court in the wake of sexual harassment allegations levelled against him.
  8. Today the Kerala High Court directed them to give “genuine reasons” for its decision to keep petroleum products outside the ambit of GST, the Central government and the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council have defended the decision to not include petrol and diesel within the ambit of the tax, stating that it was a conscious decision as these products yield significant revenues for the Central and State governments.
  9. Today the Bombay High Court ruled, while emphasising that such administrative decision of the Chief Justice cannot be subject to judicial review, No Bench can take up matters outside its roster without specific assignment by the Chief Justice (CJ) of the High Court.
  10. Today the Delhi High Court issued notice in a petition seeking directions to take legal action against Delhi Police officers for violating COVID-19 guidelines while on duty.  (Shalen Bhardwaj v. Ministry of Home affairs & Ors)
  11. Today Minister of State (Electronics and Information Technology) Rajeev Chandrasekhar revealed in Parliament, in 2020, the Central government directed the blocking of 9,849 social media accounts/URLs under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act.
  12. Today a Delhi court noted while framing charges against one Shahrukh Pathan and others in connection with a rioting case connected to north-east Delhi violence, the Delhi Riots of 2020 could perhaps be the first such riots since the anti-Sikh riots of 1984.  (State v. Shahrukh Pathan & Ors)
  13. Today the Supreme Court set aside the order passed by the Speaker of the Manipur Assembly disqualifying three Members of Legislative Assembly (MLAs) for allegedly defecting to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
  14. Today the Central government has informed the Supreme Court that there is no proposal under consideration to make the Law Commission of India a statutory body.
  15. On Monday the Kerala High Court pulled up the Kerala State Commission for Protection of Child Rights for its decision to order psychiatric evaluation and treatment of a woman on an application by her husband, with whom she is involved in a custody battle for their two children.  (Balakrishnan v Deputy Inspector of Police & Ors.)
  16. Today the Delhi High Court observed it has the power to restrain a person from appearing in proceedings as an advocate, if it feel that such appearance would be illegal, improper, not in keeping with the standards expected of the legal profession and is likely to prejudice a fair espousal and prosecution.  (Sandeep Kapur v Janak Kapur and Ors)
  17. Today the Bombay High Court held that a Sessions Court cannot stay its own order after granting bail. The Court thus quashed the stay granted by a Special NIA Court on the bail granted to Naresh Gaur, the first bail recipient in the Antilia bomb scare case.
  18. Yesterday the Madhya Pradesh High Court granted bail Taslim Ali, a bangle seller who was assaulted by a mob at Indore and later charged by the police for offences of sexual harassment and outraging modesty of woman. (Golu @ Tasneem @ Taslim vs. State of Madhya Pradesh)
  19. Worldwide launch of the book, March to Justice: Global Military Law Landmarks, edited by Navdeep Singh and Franklin D Rosenblatt will take place on December 10, Friday, followed by a panel discussion and question and answer session on the subject, “Global Trends in Military Justice”.
  20. The recent increase in the territorial jurisdiction of Border Security Force (BSF) from 15 kilometres to 50 kilometres will better equip the organisation to curb the menace of cattle smuggling and guard against new technology used by ‘anti-national’ forces, the Union Home Ministry said in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday.
  21. Today the Madras High Court has opined that the act of passport authority in impounding the passport of filmmaker Leena Manimekalai appeared to be very strange, since she was accused only of criminal defamation based on a private complaint.  (Leena Manimekalai vs. The Regional Passport Officer)
  22. Today the Supreme Court held that the offence of criminal conspiracy cannot be proved by mere confessional statements in the absence of corroborative evidence. (Praveen @ Sonu v. State of Haryana)
  23. Today the Delhi High Court stayed proceedings before a Delhi Court which issued summons to several Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders in a criminal defamation case filed by Aam Aadmi Party leader Raghav Chadha.  (Ramvir Singh Bidhuri v. Delhi Jal Board and Ors)
  24. Today the special court under National Investigation Agency (NIA) Act framed the bail conditions to be followed by Bhima Koregaon case accused Sudha Bharadwaj for her release on default bail.
  25. Yesterday the Kerala High Court directed the Kerala State government and the Travancore Devaswom Board to widely publicise the facilities available to pilgrims so that more devotees can have darshan at the Sabarimala during the two month mandala-pooja season.
  26. Today the Madras High Court has granted SpiceJet a stay order for three weeks against its direction allowing the airline’s winding up.  (Credit Suisse AG v. SpiceJet Limited)
  27. Today the Supreme Court stayed all criminal proceedings against HW News Network and its journalists, Samriddhi Sakunia and Swarnja Jha who were booked by the Tripura Police for their reports on the recent communal violence in the State.  (Theo Connect Private Ltd v. State of Tripura)
  28. Today the Supreme Court judge Justice DY Chandrachud opined that the process of ‘othering’ and excluding persons belonging to marginalised communities must be put to an end.
  29. Today the Supreme Court reiterated that the conviction of accused can be based on sole testimony of the prosecutrix when the deposition of the prosecutrix is found to be trustworthy, unblemished, credible and her evidence is of sterling quality.  (Phool Singh v. State of Madhya Pradesh)

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