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The Supreme Court on Monday ruled that it can invoke its special powers under Article 142 of the Constitution of India to grant divorce on the ground of irretrievable breakdown of marriage, which was not yet a statutorily recognised ground. The verdict was pronounced by the Constitution Bench of Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Justice Sanjiv Khanna, Justice A.S. Oka, Justice Vikram Nath and Justice J.K. Maheshwari. Reading out the operative portion of the judgment, Justice Khanna said that a marriage can now be dissolved on the grounds of its irretrievable breakdown, adding that the decision will not contravene the specific or fundamental principles of public policy.  The Apex Court said it has specified the factors on the basis of which a marriage could be held to be irretrievably broken down. The top court of the country further held that the mandatory waiting period of six months for divorce by mutual consent can be dispensed with, subject to the requirements and conditions laid do

A petition was filed in the Supreme Court by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) on Saturday, seeking an extension of six months to complete investigation into the controversy surrounding the Hindenburg Research report on Adani Group of companies and the allegations surrounding it. As per SEBI, the 12 suspicious transactions cited in the Hindenburg report would need a rigorous probe since the complex transactions were having many sub-transactions. Earlier on March 2, the Apex Court had directed the market regulator to finish the probe by May 2. This was in addition to the investigation ordered by the Apex Court, to be conducted by an expert committee headed by retired apex court judge, Justice AM Sapre. SEBI submitted on Saturday that it would need another six months to complete the probe. It apprised the expert committee of the status, steps taken and interim findings in respect of the examinations and investigations carried out by it. In its application, the mark

Lead Visual: Shantanu Mitra The post May 8, 2023 appeared first on India Legal . from India Legal https://ift.tt/scKnaWG

By Sanjay Raman Sinha In a new initiative, 250 members of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) have become mediators. This is the largest number in recent history. The initiative was conducted in five phases and 10 batches, out of which one was all-women. To celebrate the success of these newly appointed mediators and freshly passed out Advocate-on-Records (AoRs), SCBA vice president and senior advocate Pradeep Rai recently organised a get-together party in Delhi, where former Chief Justice of India NV Ramana was also honoured for making mediation efforts a reality. Justice Ramana said: “The world has moved from the traditional court system to alternative dispute resolution (ADR) or arbitration; but now the trend is towards mediation. People, the world over, are fed up with arbitration as the process is long drawn and awards are not accepted by the parties. The benefits of mediation are manifold. Both parties willingly participate, there are no winners or losers and the awards

An MP/MLA court in Ghazipur district of Uttar Pradesh today convicted and sentenced former MLA Mukhtar Ansari to 10-year imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs five lakh in two separate cases under the Gangster Act. The Ghazipur court convicted Ansari for his alleged involvement in the kidnapping of Vishwa Hindu Parishad office-bearer Nandkishore Rungta in 1996 and in the murder of Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Krishnanand Rai in 2005. Earlier in December 2022, a local court in Ghazipur had convicted Ansari and his aide (Bhim Singh) in a 26-year-old case registered under the Gangster Act. This was the third case in which he has been convicted in 2023. He has been sentenced to 10 years in jail. The post Former MLA Mukhtar Ansari sentenced to 10-year imprisonment in 2 cases under Gangster Act appeared first on India Legal . from India Legal https://ift.tt/ew3YLWF

Supreme Court directs Patna High Court to decide plea seeking stay on casre census in Bihar on merits The Supreme Court has directed the Patna High Court to decide on merits a petition seeking stay on the ongoing caste census in Bihar. The Bench of Justice MR Shah and Justice JB Pardiwala on Friday, while noting that casteism was rampant in every field in Bihar, be it bureaucracy, service or politics, refused to grant any interim relief in the matter. The petitioner had moved the Apex Court after the High Court denied interim relief in the matter. The Bench observed that the High Court ought to have heard the matter on merits before deciding on whether or not to grant interim relief. It directed that a Division Bench of the High Court should hear the matter expeditiously. Noting that it was not saying anything on merits, the Bench directed the High Court to ‘take a call’ on the same.   A petition was moved by Youth for Equality, an organisation working against caste-based polic

The Gujarat High Court Justice Hemant Prachchhak will hear the appeal filed by the Congress leader Rahul Gandhi who has asked for stay on his conviction in a criminal defamation case against him by a Magistrate court. The justice has agreed to hear the case on April 29. On April 26, when the counsel for Rahul Gandhi named Pankaj Champaneri mentioned the matter in court seeking an urgent hearing,Justice Gita Gopi recused herself from hearing the appeals. Justice Gopi had said that the papers should be presented before Acting Chief Justice for assigning a new bench. Gujarat High Court website reads that Justice Prachchhak is likely to take up this appeal for hearing on Saturday, April 29. On April 20,a sessions court in Surat had dismissed the plea by Gandhi seeking suspension of his conviction by the Magistrate court. The sessions court had held that Gandhi disqualification would not amount to be an irreparable or an irreversible loss to him and refused interim relief to him. Ra

By Rajeshwar Singh Gangster Atiq Ahmed and his brother Ashraf were killed in front of TV cameras, while in police custody in Prayagraj on 15th of April. The killings have captured the national interest and brought to the forefront the issue of organised crime in the state of Uttar Pradesh and the country in general. People on all sides of the political spectrum have opined on the issue. In fact, there have also been several opinion pieces in leading English newspapers country-wide which have criticised the state authorities and sympathised with Ahmed. However, these seem to be misdirected attacks which do not address the actual underlying issues.  Most discussions surrounding the incident have been limited to criticism of extra judicial killings, i.e. police encounters. This ignores the vital fact that Atiq Ahmed was not gunned down by the police. In fact, he was killed by three young men who, presumably, were also involved in organised crime in UP, much like Ahmed. Hence, it is vi

A list of over 10,000 judgements from January 1,2014 to March 31,2023 have been released by the Supreme Court. The judgements are proposed with neutral citations to facilitate crowdsourced checking. The exercise is to check for any missing or incorrect items that can be addressed with the help of legal professionals and publishers. As per the notice, the inputs on the same should be sent to the Registrar of the top court’s Library and Editorial Section within 15 days. The notice read that it looks for invaluable suggestions on the proposed list of cases and the referral neutral citations. One may compare the list of cases and neutral citations with their own database and accordingly make suggestions regarding any missing or incorrect data, if any, in the list of judgements. A final list of judgments with neutral citation will be published by the Registry after the suggestions are received and recorded. Suggestions, if any, may be forwarded to the Registrar, Library and Editorial

The Supreme Court on Friday gave clean chit to former Chief Minister of Punjab Parkash Singh Badal, his son and Shiromani Akali Dal President Sukhbir Singh Badal, along with SAD vice-president Daljit Singh Cheema in an alleged forgery case over the political party’s dual constitutions Quashing summoning orders issued by the Punjab and Haryana High Court, the Bench of Justice M.R. Shah and Justice C.T. Ravikumar noted that the accused had been summoned to face the trial but none of the ingredients of the offences (cheating and forgery) were made out against them. It said the summoning order was nothing, but an ‘abuse of law’. The Apex Court further set aside the High Court verdict and observed that the High Court should have quashed the proceedings then and there.  The Bench further clarified that it had not expressed anything on the Constitution of the Shiromani Akali Dal and hence, the pending proceedings before the Election Commission of India (ECI) should not be influenced by t

The Supreme Court has ruled that irretrievable breakdown of a marriage can be read as a ground of cruelty under Section 13 (1)(ia) of the Hindu Marriage Act for the dissolution of marriage. The order was passed recently by the Bench of Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia and Justice J.B. Pardiwala, while considering the appeal of a husband, who has been living separately from his wife for the past 25 years.  As per the petition, the couple lived together as husband and wife for around four years and then went their separate ways. Both the husband and wife have filed numerous cases against each other.  In 2009, the Family Court had allowed the husband’s petition for dissolution of marriage on the ground of cruelty. However, the decree of divorce was reversed by the High Court of Delhi in 2011. Irretrievable breakdown of a marriage was not yet a ground for dissolution of marriage, though a recommendation to that effect was made by the Supreme Court in Naveen Kohli vs Neelu Kohli in 2006, said

The Central government has notified transfer of Justice Sanjeev Prakash Sharma of the Patna High Court to the Punjab & Haryana High Court. The Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju via his Twitter account. The recommendation for the transfer was made by the Supreme Court Collegium on March 29. Justice Sharma, has High Court is the Rajasthan High Court has his parent court but he had informally sought to be repatriated owing to health grounds, citing the inadequate medical facilities in Patna. Considering difficulties that might obstruct his repatriation, he had given an option for transfer to the Punjab & Haryana High Court, as Chandigarh has the necessary medical facilities. The Collegium allowed the second option stating that it is not possible to repatriate Mr Justice Sanjeev Prakash Sharma to his parent High Court. Bearing in mind the health reasons which have led the Judge to seek a transfer out of the High Court where he is posted at present, the Collegium resolves that

The Calcutta High Court disposed of a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by a practicing Advocate of the High Court seeking a direction to prevent the implementation of “Bandh” called on 10th March, 2023 and 6th April, 2023. The petitioner appearing in person submitted that on account of strike called by the 4th respondent/ Federation of employees the innocent public are put to serious prejudice and has caused great economic loss to the State which cannot be compensated. The 4th respondent/Federation has given a call for conducting a cease work on the aforementioned dates highlighting the main issue with regard to the dearness allowance. On 6th April, 2023 when the matter was heard, the Court suggested to the Advocate General that the State Government can consider inviting the office bearers of the 4th respondent/Federation for a dialogue. However, on account of no staff members reporting for duty on the said date, the Court was unable to pen down an order on 6th April, 2023. Ho

The Union government on Thursday apprised the Bombay High Court that the fact-checking unit under the amended IT Rules will not be notified till July 5. Appearing for the Centre, Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh told the Division Bench of Justice G.S. Patel and Justice Neela Gokhale that he had instructions to make a statement that FCU will not be notified till July 5. The High Court was hearing a petition filed by stand-up comic Kunal Kamra, challenging the recent amendments to the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021. Kamra said in the plea that change in the rule would empower the Central government to identify ‘Fake News’ about itself in the social media. He said the change in Rules were manifestly arbitrary, for they made the Central government the judge and prosecutor in its own cause, thus violating a fundamental principle of natural justice. Taking note of Kamra’s plea that the amended rule even without the FCU

The Gauhati High Court has refused to grant interim bail to the Youth Congress National president Srinivas BV who has been charged for outraging modesty of former party leader. In his plea, the  leader had requested the court to quash an FIR filed against him by an expelled party leader accusing him of outraging her modesty and heckling her. Justice Ajit Borthakur found that the statement of the victim (woman) under Section 164 Cr.P.C. was needed for a correct decision before the interim prayer of the petitioner was considered. The Court while refusing to grant interim prayer to stay the FIR said that only after receipt of the scanned copy of the case diary and service of notice on the complainant is submitted, a decision can be taken in this regard. The former President of the Assam Youth Congress, inter-alia, stating that Srinivas persistently harassed her mentally by way of sexist and slang words and also threatened her with dire consequences if she disclosed the same before th

The Central government on Wednesday told the Supreme Court that despite its 2017 verdict declaring the practice of triple talaq as unconstitutional, reports showed that it was still being practised in different parts of the country.  Filing an affidavit in response to the petitions challenging the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Act 2019, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said the verdict in Shayara Bano case did not lead to any decrease in the instances of triple talaq, since it very much existed in different parts of the country. The SG stressed on the need for state intervention to help victims of such divorces, stating that despite the Constitution Bench judgment in Shayara Bano case and assurance of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board, there have been reports of divorce by way of talaq-e-bidat from different parts of the country.  The SG apprised the Apex Court that Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Act 2019 was introduced to protect the rights o

The Supreme Court on Wednesday granted anticipatory bail to Dr Mirza Moziz Beg, an assistant professor at Indore’s New Government Law College, in relation to a First Information Report (FIR) registered against him over allegations of promoting Hinduphobia and anti-India propaganda. A bench of Justice  AS Bopanna  and  Dipankar Datta  passed the order granting anticipatory bail to Dr Beg. According to a  report  in  ThePrint,  Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student wing of the Rashtriya Syayamsevak Sangh (RSS), had been protesting since December 1, 2022 over what they claimed was a “Hinduphobic” book in the library of the Shasakiya Navin Vidhi Mahavidyalaya (New Government Law College) in Indore. The allegations led to faculty suspensions, the Principal, Prof Inamur Rehman’s resignation and a police case. It involved two books written by Dr Farhat Khan titled  ‘Collective Violence and Criminal Justice System’  and  ‘Women and Criminal Law’. The former has a passage

The Supreme Court was apprised about the need for a preliminary inquiry before registering first information report (FIR) over the sexual harassment allegations which were raised by women wrestlers against Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) president and BJP MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh. The bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud along with Justice S Ravindra Bhat and  Justice PS Narasimha were informed by the Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, on the need of preliminary inquiry as he appeared on behalf of Delhi Police. The mentioning was made in a plea filed by the wrestlers seeking registration of FIR against Singh. The SG has submitted that there should be some preliminary enquiry on which an FIR can be registered. CJI Chandrachud however told the SG thaty they can not do anything unless they are furnished with some material. The CJI asked for furnishing the material by Friday. Senior Counsel Kapil Sibal who represented wrestlers said that they have an additional

The Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that an Investigating Agency could not file a complaint without completing investigation of a case, charge sheet or prosecution, just to deprive an accused of his right to default bail under Section 167 of CrPC. The order was passed by the Bench of Justice Krishna Murari and Justice C.T. Ravikumar on a writ petition filed by Ritu Chhabaria of the Radius Group.  The Bench, while making Ritu’s interim bail order absolute, took in view the history of CrPC and the reason why amendments have been brought in for Section 167 CrPC for default bail. It said if an investigating agency had filed a charge sheet without completing the investigation, the same would not extinguish the right of the accused to get default bail.  The Apex Court further directed the Trial Court that while dealing with such cases, it should not continue to remand the arrested person beyond the maximum stipulated time without considering to grant default bail to the arrested person

All the police stations of different States and Union territories along with offices of investigative agencies, such as the CBI, ED and NIA, that conduct investigations and have the power of arrest have been given three months by the Supreme Court to comply with its December, 2020 order to install CCTV cameras. Stating that though the Court is “not inclined to take a stricter action at this stage”, the Court directed all the state governments/union territories and Union of India to file their respective affidavits prior to 18.07.2023 stating therein that the compliance, in effect, has been made. The Court, however, made it clear that the Chief Secretary/Administrator of such of the state government/union territory which fails to comply with the directions and not file the required affidavit prior to 18.07.2023, shall personally remain present in the Court on the next date of hearing, to show cause as to why an action for committing contempt should not be taken against them The Cour

The petition challenging the decision of Karnataka government to scrap an almost three-decade-old four per cent reservation provided to Muslims in the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category in the state was adjourned by the Supreme Court till May 9. As per the reports, the State of Karnataka told the Apex Court that reservation on the basis of religion is not permissible, while defending its decision to scrap the 4 percent reservation for Muslims in the State under the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category ahead of the State’s assembly elections. As per the government order, the Muslim community will be now eligible for reservation under the 10 percent Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) category.  The earlier 4 percent is now to be distributed equally among the Veerashaiva-Lingayats and Vokkaligas. The Solicitor-General for India, Tushar Mehta, assured the bench that the earlier regime relating to the Muslim quota would continue to ‘hold the field’ till the next date of hearing. I

The Punjab and Haryana High Court disposed of a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed  regarding the grievance of the constitution of the Mental Health Review Boards under the provisions of the Mental Healthcare Act, 2017. The PIL has been filed by one  Anshul Mangla. Petitioner appearing in person apprised the Court  that he has filed a fresh representation before the competent authority . Deepak Balyan, Additional  AG Haryana, submits that in case any such representation is pending, the same shall be considered and decided by the authority, in accordance with law.  He further submits that the matter is within the knowledge and cognizance of the authority, which is taking appropriate steps to implement the provisions of the said Act.  Taking the statements made by the counsel for the parties on record, the petition stands disposed of in terms thereof by the Division Bench of Chief Justice Ravi Shanker Jha and Justice Arun Palli . The post Punjab and Haryana High Court disposes

The Supreme Court on Tuesday resumed hearing in the 19 petitions seeking legal recognition for same-sex marriages in India on the grounds that the right to marry a person of one’s choice should be extended to the members of LGBTQIA+ community also. The Constitution Bench of Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Justice S. Ravindra Bhat, Justice P.S. Narasimha and Justice Hima Kohli had started hearing the petitions on April 18. While the CJI, Justice Narasimha and Justice Kohli sat for hearing in physical mode, Justice Kaul and Justice Bhatt joined the Constitution Bench through video-conferencing. Appearing for one of the petitioners, Advocate Geeta Luthra said this was the only petitioner couple in the case, who have been legally married for six years. Their marriage was registered in Texas, US. They also have a daughter, said the lawyer, adding that this was an important secular work. Luthra said that today, 34 countries have accepted the same-sex m

A plea was filed and mentioned in the Supreme Court seeking directions to Amazon for putting a hold on the telecast and distribution of the webseries Dancing on the Grave. The plea was filed by Murali Manohar Mishra (Swami Shraddhanand) who wanted a stay on the streaming of Prime Video’s recent documentary series named Dancing on the Grave claiming that it has adverse effects on his legal rights. Seeking a stay on the new true crime documentary series Dancing On The Grave, Murali Manohar Mishra said that the docuseries adversely affects his legal rights. Murali Manohar was awarded life imprisonment for murder and is currently at Central Jail in Sagar, Madhya Pradesh. Promoted as the first local true-crime docu-series on Prime Video,the series has written and directed by Patrick Graham. The series comprises four-episodes which has started to stream on April 21. The series is based on the murder of Shakereh Namazi, who belonged to the erstwhile royal family of Mysore in Karnataka, i