- Dissenters are not ‘anti-national’, have a right to protest: SC judge
- Justice D.Y. Chandrachud said dissenting voices cannot be labelled ‘anti-national’ or ‘anti-democratic’.
- He stated that such assertions are an attack on the people’s commitment to protecting constitutional values.
- Will pay AGR dues, but continuation of biz depends upon SC relief: Voda Idea
- Vodafone Idea is ready to pay the government dues related to the Court’s AGR (Adjusted Gross Revenue) judgment.
- However, it said that its ability to remain a going concern hinges on a leniency in the payment schedule for the telecom department’s demand of over Rs. 53,000 crores.
- CJI: SC plans to set up judicial academy on lines of NDA
- The Supreme Court is actively considering setting up a judicial academy on the lines of National Defence Academy, said Chief Justice of India Sharad Bobde.
- He was addressing a gathering at the Nashik district court after inaugurating the two-day state lawyers’ conference organised by the Maharashtra and Goa Bar Council.
- “This proposed judicial academy would produce judges much like the NDA, where cadets become officers of the armed forces after passing out and not soldiers,” added Bobde.
- The judicial academy would admit students on merit after they complete higher secondary education.
- Voter ID is not conclusive proof of citizenship, says Gauhati High Court
- An electoral photo identity card cannot be treated in isolation as conclusive proof of citizenship in the context of the Assam Accord, the Gauhati HC has said.
- The court stated so while invoking a 2016 ruling to dismiss a petitioner’s claim to being Indian by virtue of his name being on a voters’ list.
- SC appoints mediators to get Shaheen protesters off road
- The Supreme Court asked senior advocates Sanjay Hegde, Sadhana Ramachandran and former chief information commissioner Wajahat Habibullah to hold consultations with the agitators.
- The court held that people have a fundamental right to protest even when the matter is pending in the court.
- However, it also disapproved the practice of blocking roads and public places during stir.
- Telcos pay govt Rs 14.7 k cr; DoT seeks legal view to recover dues
- Mobile operators made part-payment of Rs 14, 697 crores to the centre and promised to clear the dues by 17th March, 2020.
- The department of telecom has sought the opinion of Solicitor General Tushar Mehta and other top legal minds on invoking bank guarantees for “delays” in releasing “full dues” from the mobile operators.
- Women Army officers win long battle, can get command posts
- The Supreme Court ordered grant of permanent commission (PC) in 10 non-battlefield services in three months and held women to be eligible to hold command posts.
- The government had a little over a year ago granted PC to newly recruited women officers in these services, but not those short service commission (SSC) officers already in the force.
- The Supreme Court verdict extends it to all.
- The decision of the bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud and Ajay Rastogi to trash the Army’s “weaker sex” argument was a fitting finale to the 14-year-old litigation for equality doggedly fought by short service commission (SSC) women officers through senior advocates Meenakshi Lekhi and Aishwarya Bhati.
- The battle was first waged in the Delhi HC from 2006 to 2010 — which the women officers won — and then in the SC from 2010 till date.
- Importantly, it said those women officers who do not opt for permanent commission despite 14 years of service “will be entitled to continue in service until they attain 20 years of pensionable service”.
- 1951 cut-off year to define indigenous Assam people
- A home ministry-appointed committee is learnt to have proposed 1951 as the cut off year for determining indigenous people of Assam while also recommending introduction of Inner Line Permit (ILP) to control the influx of outsiders into the state.
- The committee has in its report also suggested reservation of 67% of seats in state assembly for indigenous people.
- The committee was set up to suggest ways to implement Clause 6 of the Assam Accord.
- The clause envisages constitutional, legislative and administrative safeguards to protect, preserve and promote cultural, social, linguistic identity and heritage of the Assamese people.
- The recommendations, if accepted, may help soothe frayed nerves in Assam over Citizenship (Amendment) Act, which the local population sees as contrary to provisions of Assam Accord.
- SP moves SC for Tata Sons board seat
- The Shapoorji Pallonji (SP) Group has moved the Supreme Court against the December 18 appellate tribunal order that reinstated scion Cyrus Mistry as the chairman of the Tata holding company.
- SP group holds 18% in Tata Sons.
- The group said while the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) had found the conduct of Tata Trusts to be prejudicial, it failed to provide vital reliefs that would have put an end to the oppressive conduct of the majority stakeholder.
- SC: Put power lines underground, save the Bustard
- The Supreme Court said overhead power transmission lines in the Desert National Park in Rajasthan’s Jaisalmer district and surrounding areas must go underground.
- This statement was issued in order to preserve the critically endangered Great Indian Bustard and Lesser Floricon.
- Cabinet okays bill to regulate Rs 3,000-crore fertility industry
- The Cabinet cleared the Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) Regulation Bill, 2020.
- It proposes a legal framework and code of conduct to keep a check on in vitro fertilisation, embryo transfers and sperm banks — a set of infertility related services and industry that is mushrooming rapidly.
- The bill proposes a fine of up to Rs 10 lakh for anyone indulging in sale of embryo or trafficking at the first instance, and jail term of up to 12 years after that.
- It seeks to establish a national registry and registration authority which will be applicable to all medical professionals and clinics operating or providing services in the field of ART.
- Court raps CBI for not conducting lie tests on Asthana
- A Delhi court pulled up the CBI for not conducting psychological and lie detector tests on its former special director Rakesh Asthana.
- His name was involved in a bribery case in which he was given a clean chit recently.
- SC: Can Gadkari come to court, explain EV policy
- The Supreme Court requested road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari to come to the court and explain the government’s policy vision on curbing vehicular pollution by gradual transition from fossil fuel-based vehicles to electric ones.
- SC says junior judges can’t use lawyers’ quota for higher posts
- The Supreme Court said the experience of a judge of the lower judiciary could not be treated at par with the service of a lawyer for recruitment as a judge for higher judiciary from the bar quota for which an advocate needed to have minimum seven years of continuous practice.
- A bench of Justices Arun Mishra, Vineet Saran and S Ravindra Bhat rejected the plea of lower judiciary judges who contended that their experience as judges be treated at par with the bar service of advocates and they be permitted to apply for higher judiciary.
- Can’t freeze assets of ex-MD of PNB in Nirav scam: SC
- The Supreme Court has ordered that the Union government could not have moved under company law for freezing the assets of ex-managing director of Punjab National Bank Usha Ananthasubramanian.
- She was chargesheeted by the CBI in the Rs 14,000 crore loan default scam allegedly engineered by Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi.
- A bench of Justices R F Nariman, S Ravindra Bhat and V Ramasubramanian said the powers under Sections 241, 337 and 339 of the Companies Act could not be utilised to attach assets of persons heading a bank or any organisation when the fraud was not committed by that particular organisation.
- Govt appoints CVC & CIC; Cong alleges anomaly in process
- The government has appointed former IAS officer and secretary to the President Sanjay Kothari as the central vigilance commissioner. Former information and broadcasting secretary and senior-most information commissioner Bimal Julka was named the central information commissioner.
- Srinivasan is chief judge at DC appeals court
- Indian-American Sri Srinivasan on Tuesday took over as chief judge of the influential appeals court in Washington DC, the first person of Indian origin to lead a federal court that is just one step short of the US Supreme Court.
- For clarity, NHRC asks govt to define ‘human rights offences’
- The national human rights commission and its autonomous counterparts in states have unanimously demanded that the government should define “human rights offences” in the NHRC legislation in order to give the commission greater clarity and teeth.
- They also dwelt on the need for clarity in the scope of offences being tried at the human rights courts established in the country.
- Karnataka rushes SC, saves top cop from arrest on HC order
- Karnataka’s DGP narrowly avoided arrest as the Supreme Court on Thursday stayed a high court order issuing non-bailable arrest warrant against him for failing to appear before the HC to explain why a deputy superintendent of police had been transferred 30 times in 24 years.
- Approach HC, says SC on minority tag for Hindus
- The Supreme Court refused to entertain a plea seeking minority status for Hindus in eight states and UTs where they are substantially fewer in number in comparison to other communities and allowed the petitioner to approach the HC.
- A bench of Justices R F Nariman and S Ravindra Bhat turned down BJP functionary Ashwini Upadhyay’s plea to lay down guidelines to grant minority status to a community on the basis of state-wise population.