Category: LEGAL NEWS

The Supreme Court today agreed to hear the Centre’s plea seeking clarification on the February 16 verdict regarding setting up of a Cauvery management scheme in the decades-old river water sharing dispute. A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud kept for hearing on April 9 the Central government’s plea after its counsel referred to divergent views of the concerned states on the issue of setting up of the scheme. “We will take this matter on April 9 along with the plea…

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The Delhi High Court today closed the Rs 10 crore defamation suit filed by Union minister Arun Jaitley after Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal apologised to him. Jaitley had filed this second defamation suit after Kejriwal’s former lawyer Ram Jethmalani allegedly “abused” him in open court during the proceedings of the original defamation suit against the Aam Aadmi Party chief and five other party functionaries. Justice Manmohan allowed the settlement application jointly filed by Jaitley and Kejriwal and disposed of the suit following the AAP chief’s apology, which was accepted…

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The Supreme Court today agreed to hear a contempt plea of the Tamil Nadu government against the Centre for not constituting the Cauvery Management Board (CMB). A bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud posted the matter for April 9. “We understand Tamil Nadu’s difficulty of not getting water. We will resolve the issue. List the matter for April 9,” the bench said. Tamil Nadu had sought contempt action against the Centre for “failure” to frame the scheme for constitution of the…

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The Supreme Court has taken note of a woman’s plea that her husband, an Army man, has been languishing in jail for 27 years without a final decision on the death penalty awarded by a Court Martial for killing two of his colleagues. A bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justice A M Khanwilkar took note of the plea of Mithilesh Rai, wife of the jailed Army man Lance Naik Devendra Nath Rai and issued notice to the Ministry of Defence, the Chief of Army Staff and others and…

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The Supreme Court has sought response from Director General of Police (Prisons) of ten states on the issue of alleged violation of human rights of prisoners awarded death sentence. The DGPs (Prisons) have been also asked to reply on the issue of solitary confinement, legal representation, visitation rights of prisoners’ families and psychiatric consultation of death row convicts. A bench of Justices M B Lokur and Deepak Gupta asked DGP (prisons) of ten states to reply to the letter of Amicus Curiae advocate Gaurav Agarwal, who has raised the issue…

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In an interim relief to 40 students pursuing a course in optometry, the Bombay High Court has directed the University Grants Commission (UGC) to declare their second semester results pending since last year. A bench of Justices R M Sawant and S V Kotwal was earlier this week hearing a petition filed by Lotus College of Optometry, which had admitted the 40 students as the first batch of its four-year BSc degree in Optometry (health specialists in eye care) in 2016. The course was affiliated to an open university. However,…

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A Delhi court has set aside the jail term of a man convicted of rash driving and killing a person on the DND flyway here, while blaming the victim for negligently crossing the busy road, which is a pedestrian-free zone. Additional Sessions Judge S K Gupta acquitted the man, who was driving a Scorpio car on the Delhi-Noida-Delhi expressway at high speed in 2014 and hit a pedestrian while he was crossing the road after using a public toilet there. “The DND Road is a busy road which connects Delhi…

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The Supreme Court today agreed to examine the constitutional validity of the prevalent practices of polygamy and ‘nikah halala’ among Muslims and sought responses from the Centre and the Law Commission. A bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra considered the submission that the previous five-judge constitution bench, in its 2017 verdict, had kept open the issue of polygamy and ‘nikah halala’ while quashing triple talaq. Today, the bench, which also comprised Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud, said a fresh five-judge constitution bench would be set up…

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A day after securing bail from the Delhi High Court in INX Media case, Karti Chidambaram today got another relief from a city court which granted him protection from arrest till April 16 in Aircel-Maxis matter arising out of the 2G spectrum cases lodged by the CBI and Enforcement Directorate (ED). Special Judge O P Saini granted the relief to him considering that both the investigative agencies sought three weeks to file their responses on the anticipatory bail plea moved by Karti, son of former union minister P Chidambaram. The…

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The Supreme Court today asked the chief secretaries of 12 states to specify why they have not appointed a Lokayukta. A bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi and R Banumathi also asked the chief secretary of Odisha to apprise the court about the status of the Lokayukta in state and said the apex court has no information whether it has an anti-corruption ombudsman or not. The 12 states which have been asked to give reasons for not appointing a Lokayukta are Jammu and Kashmir, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu,…

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