Thorat & Associate's

The Uttarakhand High Court directed the respondents to disclose the name and particulars of the District Mines Officer, who was posted in the District Bageshwar at the relevant point of time when the illegal mining was undertaken, and detected. The Court further directed the respondents should also disclose as to what action has been taken against the concerned officer found to be in dereliction of his duty. The Division Bench of Chief Justice Vipin Sanghi and Justice Rakesh Thapliyal heard a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed bringing to light the illegal mining of khariya (shop stone), undertaken by the private respondent in Village Dapti, P.O. Dapti, Tehsil Kanda, District Bageshwar, Uttarakhand. The petitioner has placed on record photographs showing carrying out of illegal mining. The Respondent had been granted a mining lease in respect of khariya stone. However, it appears to the Court from the counter-affidavit of respondent that a joint inspection was carried out on 11.

The Jharkhand High Court dismissed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed challenging the order issued by the Respondents barring the Petitioner from participating in future tenders for a period of two years. By filing the PIL , the petitioner has prayed for the following reliefs: – a) For the issuance of an appropriate writ declaring that the order, contained in the letter dated 09.11.2021 (signed by the Respondent on 06.11.2021) issued by the Respondents debarring the Petitioner from participating in future tenders for a period of two years, is illegal, arbitrary and void ab initio since the same has been passed without any specific show cause notice or adequate opportunity of hearing to the petitioner for debarment of the Petitioner. b) For the issuance of an appropriate writ or writ in the nature of Certiorari for quashing the order, contained in the letter dated 09.11.2021 (signed by the Respondent on 06.11.2021) issued by the Respondents debarring the Petitioner from partic

The High Court of Calcutta has directed the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to remove Assistant Director Mithilesh Kumar Mishra from the Special Investigating Team (SIT) probing the teacher recruitment scam case in West Bengal. The single-judge Bench of Justice Amrita Sinha ordered the Director of ED to immediately remove Mishra from the SIT on the grounds that he appeared not to have the competence to handle a case of such huge magnitude. The High Court further directed the national agency on Friday to entrust the work of Mishra to some other ‘responsible’ officer. The directions followed the personal appearance of Mishra before the Bench last week, wherein he gave ‘unsatisfactory’ answers to the questions asked by the Bench, especially, with regard to the assets of Trinamool Congress (AITC) leader Abhishek Banerjee, an accused in the case. The judge, therefore, ordered the ED Director to remove him immediately from the SIT, adding that the said officer should not be entrusted to in

The Law Commission of India has rejected the suggestion to reduce the age of consent to 16 years under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. The Commission observed in its 283rd report on the ‘Age of Consent under the POCSO Act that after a careful review of existing child protection laws, various judgements and considering the maladies of child abuse, child trafficking and child prostitution that plague the Indian society, it had come to the conclusion that it was not advisable to tinker with the existing age of consent under the POCSO Act. The report said reducing the age of consent would not be advisable as a child was not capable of giving consent. Noting that protecting the children from any sexual abuse or exploitation was of paramount consideration, the report said reducing the age of consent would be detrimental to fulfilling the objective of the Act. Taking in view the observations made by the Supreme Court as well as the Parliamentary discussions t

The High Court of Delhi has stayed the election of office bearers and members of the executive committee of Gymnastics Federation of India (GFI) till October 12. The single-judge Bench of Justice Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav on Wednesday directed the sports body not to conduct any fresh election till the next date of hearing on October 12. The High Court further stayed the impugned notice dated September 7, 2022 regarding the election of office bearers and members of the executive committee of respondent no. 2 (GFI), expressing ‘serious doubt’ over compliance of the mandate of the Sports Code and the directions passed by the Court.  The single-judge Bench passed the order on a petition filed by Padmaja Garikipati, who argued that the proposed polling on September 29 would be in violation of the binding directions passed by the High Court on various occasions with respect to strict compliance with the Sports Code. The petitioner contended that she was an ophthalmologist and has been t

By Dilip Bobb The Hosannas and hype surrounding the success of the G-20 meeting in Delhi has taken a beating after one its participants, Justin Trudeau of Canada, made the shocking claim that India may have been involved in the killing of a Sikh Canadian citizen in a Vancouver suburb in June. Trudeau said there were “credible allegations” of links to New Delhi,  which India angrily rejected  as absurd. It has been a free fall since: Each expelled a diplomat,  India suspended visas for Canadians , and Ottawa said it may reduce consulate staff over safety concerns. Delhi has confiscated houses and land belonging to those it terms as Canada-based Khalistani “terrorists”. Ties between the two once-close countries have  sunk to their lowest point in years . Trudeau skipped an official dinner hosted by the Indian president, and local media reported he was snubbed by Modi when he got a quick “pull aside” instead of a bilateral meeting. To make things worse, a flight snag saw him stranded

The Supreme Court has extended the disability pension claim of a veteran who served in the Indian Army for 15 years and was discharged in 1987 after experiencing cardiac discomfort. The Bench of Justice S Ravindra Bhat and Justice Aravind Kumar recently observed that the Medical Board which assessed the appellant clearly was of the opinion that there was no negligence on part of the individual and the record was shown to be exemplary. It said the only prejudicial factor which weighed with the Board in forming the opinion that the disability was not attributable to service was the unwillingness of the appellant to undergo surgery. The record further mentioned that the appellant’s permanent disablement was the cause of his discharge, noted the Apex Court, adding that the Armed Forces Appellate Tribunal’s decision to confine the disability benefit to one year did not appear logical. The top court of the country ruled that the disability pension be disbursed to the appellant in terms

The Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court has allowed the anticipatory bail to the Vice President of the Hygia Educational Group, Syed Ishrat Hussain Jafri, who is an accused in the UP’s ₹500 crore post-matriculation scholarship scam. A Single Bench of Justice Subhash Vidyarthi passed this order while hearing a Criminal Misc Anticipatory Bail Application filed by Syed Ishrat Hussain Jafri. The application has been filed seeking anticipatory bail for the applicant in Sessions Case under sections 409, 420, 467, 468, 471, 120-B I.P.C, P.S-Hazratganj, District Lucknow. The aforesaid case has been registered on the basis of an F.I.R lodged on 30.07.2023, against 18 persons, including the applicant, who is a member of Oregon Educational Society and Hygia Group, and some unknown persons, alleging that embezzlement of amount meant for being distributed amongst students as post matriculation scholarship. On the same allegation, the Directorate of Enforcement had registered under sectio

A mega legal awareness camp was organised by the Leh District Legal Services Authority at the district’s Central Institute of Buddhist Studies, Choglamsar. Supreme Court judge Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul, who is the Chairman of NALSA, while speaking at the inaugural session, said that legal awareness gives the ability to use and draw conclusions from legal words and concepts. The justice said that the authorities should try to achieve the constitutional objective of access to justice for all. The Justice added that the margisalised and vulnerable sections of society should be given more important Chief Justice of Jammu and Kashmir & Ladakh High Court N Kotiswar Singh put light on the history of legal service authorities and the spirit of collaboration that binds them towards their goals. Justice Atul Sreedharan of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court was also present on the occasion. He thanked all the stakeholders for their cooperation. The post Leh District Legal Services Autho

The Allahabad High Court has granted Bail to Madan Gopal@ Madan Gopal Gaur, who is accused of cheating, on the ground of delay in framing charges. A Single Bench of Justice Vikram D Chauhan passed this order while hearing a Criminal Misc Bail Application filed by Madan Gopal@ Madan Gopal Gaur. This is the second bail application filed by the applicant. The first bail application was rejected by the Court by order dated 2.1.2023. A perusal of the order sheet would go to show that since 13.9.2022 the applicant is regularly appearing before the trial court. However, till date charge has not been framed and general dates are being fixed. Counsel for the applicant has relied upon the judgment passed by Apex Court in R.D Upadhyay Vs State of A.P and others, 1996 (3) SCC 422. As per the counsel for the applicant the applicant is aged about 59 years. It is submitted by the counsel for the applicant that the trial is not proceedings in the matter and the applicant is entitled to be enlarg

The High Court of Delhi has suspended the four-year sentence awarded to former Rajya Sabha MP Vijay Darda, his son Devender Darda and Director of JLD Yavatmal Energy Pvt Ltd Manoj Kumar Jayaswal for their alleged involvement in the Chhattisgarh coal block allocation scam. The single-judge Bench of Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma suspended the sentence till the pendency of appeals filed by the accused against their conviction and sentence in the case. Justice Sharma directed the appellants not to leave the country without prior permission of the court concerned and not to directly or indirectly make any inducement, threat or promise to any person acquainted with the facts of the case. The High Court directed Vijay Darda, his son and businessman Jayaswal to furnish a personal bond of Rs one lakh with two sureties of the like amount. Earlier on July 28, the High Court had granted interim bail to Vijay Darda, Devender and Jayaswal. The order was passed by the Single-Judge Bench of Justi

The Supreme Court has stayed the trial court proceedings against Union Minister L Murugan, which were initiated against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader for stating during a press meet that operations of Murasoli Trust were being carried out from the land meant for Dalits in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. The Bench of Justice BR Gavai and Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra further issued notice to Murasoli Trust, the mouthpiece publication of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), on Wednesday. Murugan had moved the Apex Court against the September 5 order of the Madras High Court, which refused to quash the criminal defamation case filed against him and also directed the trial court to complete the trial within three months. Filed by Advocate Geet Ahuja, Murugan’s plea termed the defamation complaint as an abuse of the criminal justice process. It further questioned the maintainability of the complaint on the grounds that Murugan’s statement did not amount to defamation. Murugan was repres

The Union government has apprised the Bombay High Court that amendments to the Information Technology Rules in 2023 did not prohibit any expression of opinion or critical analysis against the government, but were introduced solely with the intention to rein in false news. Appearing for the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said on Tuesday that humour or satire against any democratically-elected government, whether liked by the dispensation or not, was always welcome. Stating that humour or satire could not be proscribed, the SG contended that the government was only concerned with false facts going around, coupled with the fact that it was dealing with anonymous media.  He ruled out even the ‘remotest possibility’ of any humour, comedy or satire coming under this regulation, unless the same contained abuse, obscenity or pornography.  The SG told the Division Bench of Justice G.S. Patel and Justice Neela Gokhale that the Rule

The Bombay High Court issued notice on a Public Interest litigation (PIL) filed inviting attention of the High Court to the side effects and consequences of online gaming. The petitioner, a lawyer  seeks regulation of such activities by the concerned respondents. A copy of the Tamilnadu Pohibition of Online Gambling and Regulation of Online Games Act, 2022 is placed on record.  From the preamble to the said Act , the Bench noted that on the basis of surveys conducted, various effects of online gaming on school students were noticed requiring such steps to be taken by the said State Government.   The Nagpur Division Bench of Justice AS Chandurkar and Justice Vrushali V. Joshin granted leave to correct the description of the respondents and directed that thereafter, issue notice to the respondents. The post Bombay High Court issues notice on PIL inviting attention to consequences of online gaming appeared first on India Legal . from India Legal https://ift.tt/cTY61n4

Supreme Court judge Justice S.V.N. Bhatti on Wednesday recused himself from hearing a petition filed by former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu challenging an Andhra Pradesh High Court verdict, which refused to quash the criminal proceedings against him in connection with a multi-crore skill development scam. As soon as the matter came up for hearing before the Bench of Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice S.V.N. Bhatti (who hails from Andhra Pradesh), Justice Khanna told Senior Advocate Harish Salve, appearing for Naidu, that Justice Bhatti had some reservations about hearing the matter. The counsel urged the Apex Court to list the matter as early as possible.  Senior Advocate Sidharth Luthra, also representing Naidu, sought permission to mention the matter before the Chief Justice of India. Justice Khanna allowed Naidu’s lawyers to mention the case before the CJI for an early listing and recorded in the order that subject to the orders of the Chief Justice, the p

The Bombay High Court at Goa disposed of a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed highlighting the issues of road safety, including increased accidents in the Sancoale village near a particular location, that is Simpal in Sancoale village. The petitioner has pointed out how this area is prone to accidents by placing some photographs on record. The petitioner seeks a mandamus to the respondent to take some road safety measures at this spot, including, inter alia, placing speed breakers. Considering the issues raised in the petition, the Division Bench of Chief Justice MS Sonak and Justice Bharat P. Deshpande think that this petition could itself be considered as a representation to the District Magistrate, South Goa, who is the competent authority under the Motor Vehicles Act and the Rules for directing the placement of speed breakers. The Advocate General pointed out that the District Magistrate has to act in consultation with the Superintendent of Police (respondent no.3). “Acco

The Supreme Court has extended the stay imposed by the Bombay High Court on its order granting bail to Mahesh Raut, one of the accused in the 2018 Bhima Koregaon violence case till October 5 . The order was passed by a bench comprising of Justice Aniruddha Bose and Justice Bela M Trivedi on the National Investigation Agency’s appeal challenging the High Court’s bail order. Earlier this month, the Bombay High Court had granted bail to Raut but had stayed its order for a week after the NIA sought time to file appeal before the Supreme Court. The Apex Court has decided to hear the matter on October 5 however adding that the stay on bail will continue till then. The accused Raut has been in custody since 2018, when he was arrested. The Bombay High court was approached by the accused after his bail plea was rejected in November 2021 by the NIA special court. Raut in his plea mentioned that he is not involved and claimed himself as a forest rights activist and a former fellow of the p

The Allahabad High Court has rejected the bail to Azad Singh, brother of Sanjay Kumar the Senior Engineer of Power Grid Corporation, Saharanpur. A Single Bench of Justice Samit Gopal passed this order while hearing a Criminal Misc Bail Application filed by Azad Singh. The second bail application under Section 439 of Code of Criminal Procedure has been filed by the applicant Azad Singh, seeking enlargement on bail during trial in connection for offences under Section 120-B IPC read with Sections 409, 420, 468, 471, 477-A IPC and Section 13(2) read with 13(1)(a) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 (as amended 2018), registered at Police Station CBI, ACB, Ghaziabad, District Ghaziabad by Ajay Kumar Meena, Sub Inspector, CBI, ACB, Ghaziabad against Sanjay Kumar, Azad, Ankit Kumar, Anuj Kumar, Sushil, Suresh, Sudhir and other unknown persons with the allegation that a preliminary enquiry was registered on 28.03.2018 on the basis of a written complaint dated 27.03.2018 of the Chief

The Central government has apprised the High Court of Bombay Tuesday during the hearing of the petitions challenging amendments to the Information Technology Rules of 2023. The Central government said that humour or satire in any manner against any government is always welcome as long as it is not abusive or includes obscenity. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta appearing for the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) said that the rules do not prohibit any express of opinion or critical analysis against government but is only intended to rein in false news. Mehta said that any humour or satire against the political government whether we like it or not, has nothing to do with this regulation. Unless the humour doesn’t cross boundaries like abuse or pornography. Humour satire is always welcome in any manner. It cannot be proscribed. The government is only concerned with false facts going around coupled with the fact that we are dealing with anonymous media. There is

The Supreme Court on Tuesday once again came down heavily on the Central government for not clearing 70 recommendations made by the Supreme Court Collegium on appointment and transfer of various High Court judges. The Bench of Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia, while hearing a petition filed by the Advocates Association of Bengaluru, noted that 70 recommendations made by the Supreme Court Collegium from November 11, 2022 were pending with the Union government.  The Apex Court directed Attorney General K. Venkataramani, appearing for the Central government, to take instructions from the Union of India with respect to the High Court recommendations made at least until the end of April this year.  It further sought Centre’s reply on why the Union government was sitting on the nine new recommendations, along with seven other names, which had been reiterated by the Collegium for judgeship in constitutional courts. These included appointment of one Chief Justice of

The Allahabad High Court has granted the bail application of Mukhtar Ansari in the gangster case and also stayed the fine of Rs 5 lakh imposed on him. A Single Bench of Justice Raj Beer Singh passed this order while hearing a Criminal Appeal filed by Mukhtar Ansari. The application has been filed by the appellant under section 389(1) Code of Criminal Procedure, seeking following prayer:- “It is, therefore, Most Respectfully Prayed that the Court may graciously be pleased to allow the application and suspend the sentence awarded by the order dated 29.04.2023 passed by Additional Sessions Judge/Special Judge, M.P/M.L.A Court, Ghazipur in Special S.T No 90 of 2012, (State Vs Mukhtar Ansari), under Section 3(1) of The Uttar Pradesh Gangsters & Anti Social Activities (Prevention) Act, 1986, arising out of case under Section 3(1) of The Uttar Pradesh Gangsters & Anti Social Activities (Prevention) Act, 1986, Police Station Mohammadabad, District Ghazipur and further be pleased to