Legal News for Judiciary (2 -8 February, 2020)

• Kunal Kamra slaps notice on IndiGo, demands apology
  • Stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra served a legal notice on IndiGo airlines.
  • It sought an unconditional apology from the airline along with Rs 25 lakh in compensation.
  • It also sought revocation of the “arbitrary” six-month ban imposed on him from flying.
• Nirbhaya case convict’s plea rejected
  • President Ram Nath Kovind rejected the mercy petition of the second 2012 Nirbhaya gang rape convict Vinay Kumar Sharma.
• Nirbhaya case: Centre seeks nod for executions
  • The Centre sought to remove the stay on the execution of the four convicts.
  • The Centre sought so while asserting that the credibility of the judiciary and its ability to execute death sentences were at stake.
• SC to frame issues for 9 judge-Bench hearing religious rights
  • Senior Advocate Fali Nariman objected the manner in which the apex court turned a review of the Sabarimala case into an opportunity to set up a nine-judge Bench and examine whether certain essential religious practices of various faiths, including Islam and Zoroastrianism, should be constitutionally protected.
  • CJI acknowledges objection to wider review post-Sabarimala is a ‘formidable point’.
• UK to review terrorism laws
  • British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the government would announce fundamental changes in dealing with people convicted of terrorism offences.
  • He said that he had come to the end of his patience with freeing offenders before they had completed their sentences and without any scrutiny.
  • This statement came after an Islamist attacker, Sudesh Amman, stabbed two people days after he was set free half way through his prison term.

• If tap water meets BIS norms, RO systems will be banned
  • The Union Environment Ministry has published a draft notification.
  • It effectively prohibits users from installing membrane-based water purification systems in their homes if the water has been sourced from a supply that meets the Bureau of Indian Standards’ (BIS) drinking water norms.
  • The Ministry had issued this order to comply with an order of the National Green Tribunal (NGT).
  • NGT order has prohibited the use of reverse osmosis (RO) purifiers in places where total dissolved solids (TDS) in the supplied water are below 500 mg per litre.
  • The Water Quality Association of Indiahad moved the Supreme Court for a stay of the NGT’s order.
  • The SC declined to intervene and the NGT had directed the Environment Ministry to issue a notification that restricted the use of water filters.
  • The NGT had ordered a ban on RO filters on the grounds that they wasted water and that, in the process of removing salts, they often deprived drinking water of essential salts.

• Borewell deaths: SC seeks response from Centre, States
  • The Supreme Court sought a response from the Centre and States on measures taken to prevent children from falling into abandoned or open borewells.
  • The bench issued notice on a petition seeking the court to ask the governments at the State and Central levels to file a report on the action taken against errant officials whose neglect led to the tragic deaths of children trapped in borewells.

• Five sentenced to life in Ayanavaram abuse case
  • A special court sentenced five sexual offenders to life imprisonment after they were convicted on charges of grave offences on an 11-year-old girl with hearing impairment at an apartment complex in Ayanavaram in 2018 in Chennai.
• Inquiry into Disha encounter case begins
  • The three-member commission constituted by the Supreme Court to probe the Disha case started its inquiry.
  • The commission comprises former Supreme Court judge V.S. Sirpurkar, Bombay HC retired judge Rekha Baldota and former CBI director Kartikeyan.
  • The committee was formed to probe the circumstances that led to the killing of the four accused in the rape and murder of veterinarian Disha by the Cyberabad police.
• Chinmayanand granted bail in Shahjahanpur case
  • Former BJP Minister Swami Chinmayanandwas granted bail by the Allahabad High Court in the alleged sexual exploitation case of a law student studying in his college in Shahjahanpur district of Uttar Pradesh.
  • Chinmayanand is accused of misusing his authority to seduce or induce the law student to have sexual intercourse with him, among other offences.

• HC dismisses plea against MPs of erstwhile J&K State
  • The Delhi High Court dismissed a plea which alleged that MPs from erstwhile State of Jammu and Kashmir were continuing to hold their seats illegally after the bifurcation of the State into Union territories and sought to prevent them from entering Parliament.
  • Petition, filed by a retired professor, was rejected.
  • The Centre told the court that the plea was not maintainable and the petitioner did not have the locus to move such a petition.

• Jamia firing: U.P. man arrested for supplying gun to juvenile
  • Delhi’s police crime branch has arrested a wrestler for supplying a weapon to the juvenile who had opened fire on anti-CAA protesters outside Jamia Milia Islamia (JMI) on January 30.

• Pak Parliament passes resolution on Kashmir
  • Pakistan’s Parliament unanimously passed a resolution expressing “unflinching and unwavering support” to the Kashmiri people.
  • It demanded a reversal ofIndia’s decision to revoke the special status of Jammu and Kashmir.
  • The National Assembly or lower house passed the resolution on the eve of what Pakistan observes as the Kashmir’s Solidarity Day on February 5 annually.

• SC to hear Zakia’s plea on April 14
  • The Supreme Court adjourned to April 14 the hearing of a petition filed by Zakia Jafri.
  • She is the widow of slain Congress MP Ehsan Jafri.
  • The petition was against the Special Investigation Team’s clean chit to the then Gujarat Chief Minister, Narendra Modi, in the 2002 Godhra riots.

• CJI has to take final call on live-streaming
  • A three-judge bench of the Supreme Court refused to direct the court’s administrative side to frame rules and implement a September 26, 2018 judgment to live-stream courtroom proceedings, especially in nationally important cases.
  • The bench said that “there cannot be any mandamus from the judicial side of the Court. The decision has to come from the administrative side alone”.
  • It said that the CJI, as the administrative head of the Supreme Court, had to take the final call on live-streaming of proceedings and the bench cannot “compel” him.
• #MeToo: Instagram account holder seeks time from HC
  • Instagram account handle ‘Herdsceneand’ told the Delhi High Court that an amicable settlement of the dispute was being explored and sought a week’s time for it.
  • The account handle had posted sexual harassment allegations by a woman against artist Subodh Gupta.
  • The court has posted Mr. Gupta’s defamation case against ‘Herdsceneand’ on February 11.
• Why no action on pleas on T.N. MLA’s disqualification, asks SC
  • The Supreme Court gave Tamil Nadu Speaker P. Dhanapal a week’s time to inform when he will take cognisance of the disqualification petitions.
  • They were filed under the Tenth Schedule (anti-defection law) against Deputy Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam and 10 other AIADMK MLAs.
  • They were filed against them for voting against the confidence motion moved by Chief Minister EdappadiPalaniswami in February 2017.
• PM announces Trust for building Ram temple in Ayodhya, it gets 67 acres
  • The Union Cabinet approved the setting up of a trust for the construction of a Ram temple in Ayodhya.
  • The trust will take decisions independently on the construction of a Ram temple and related issues.
  • The trust is named as Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Tirtha Kshetra.
  • On November 9, 2019, the apex court had ruled that the entire dispute land be handed over to a trust to be constituted for construction of a Ram temple.
  • It gave the Centre three months to “formulate a scheme pursuant to the powers vested in it under Sections 6 and 7 of the Acquisition of Certain Area at Ayodhya Act 1993”.
• Parasaran first trustee, 15-member trust office has his home address
  • Parasaran will host the Ram Janmabhoomi Tirtha Kshetra Trust which was approved by the Union Cabinet.
  • He was the Attorney General of India during the Congress government.
  • He was the lead lawyer of the Hindu side in the Ram Janmabhoomi case.
• Haryana Govt clears Lavasa’s family in stamp duty case
  • Election Commissioner Ashok Lavasa and his family members were given clean chit by the Haryana government.
  • There was a case of an alleged stamp duty evasion referred to the Haryana government by the Income Tax department.
• Govt moves Bill, Oppn questions its name
  • The Direct Tax Vivad se Vishwas Bill, 2020 was introduced in Lok Sabha.
  • The Bill aims to provide for resolution of disputed tax cases involving Rs. 9.32 lakh crore.
  • The Opposition criticised the Bill’s name saying it was a bid to impose Hindi.
• Let any ‘willing’ woman become surrogate mother: Rajya Sabha panel
  • The recommendations given by a Rajya Sabha Select Committee on the Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill 2019 are:
    • Allow any “willing” woman to become a surrogate mother if all norms are followed.
    • Do not limit “altruistic” surrogacy to close relatives.
    • Permit divorced and widowed women between 35 and 45 years of age to be a single commissioning parent.
    • Waive the five-year waiting period for a childless married couple if it is medically certified that the woman cannot conceive.
• The panel strongly backed the ban on commercial surrogacy.
• BJP MP Bhupendra Yadav was the chairman of the Select Committee.
• Detained since Aug, Omar, Mehbooba hit with stringent PSA
  • The J&K administration has invoked Public Safety Act (PSA) against Mehbooba Mufti and Omar Abdullah.
  • This comes after placing them under preventive detention for six months following the abrogation of Article 370.
  • Both of them are former chief ministers of Jammu and Kashmir.
  • Omar’s father, Farooq Abdullah is already in detention under the PSA.
• MCA shifts stance, says onus of probing if JSW Steel complies with IBC is on NCLT, agencies
  • The Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) has said the onus of checking whether the resolution plan for Bhushan Power & Steel, submitted by JSW Steel, passes all Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) checks, lies with the adjudicating authority and investigating agencies, and not the central government.

 American President Trump acquitted of all charges

• • A divided US Senate acquitted Donald Trump of charges that he abused his power and obstructed Congress to aid his own re-election.
  • This brought an acrimonious impeachment trial to its expected end.

• Sanjeev Chawla’s plea to stop extradition to India blocked by European court
  • The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) rejected an application by alleged bookie Sanjeev Chawla.
  • It was for an interim measure on human rights grounds to block his extradition from the UK to face match-fixing charges in India.
  • The legal paperwork process for his extradition will now go ahead through the UK Central Authority, for Scotland yard officers to hand Chawla over to the Delhi police to be flown back to India within few days.
• UK court asks Anil Ambani to pay $100 million
  • A UK court directed Reliance group chairman Anil Ambani to pay $100 million.
  • He was ordered to pay within six weeks towards a conditional order granted to three Chinese banks pursuing the recovery of over $680 million owed to them as part of a loan agreement.
• Pak Parliament for public hanging of child molesters
  • Pakistan’s parliament passed a resolution calling for the public hanging of convicted child killers and rapists.
  • It drew a quick backlash from human rights organisations.
• Centre opposes release of Rajiv case convicts
  • The Centre stoutly opposed the plea of S. Nalini, 52, convicted in former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination case.
  • The plea sought to release her forthwith from prison on the ground that she had been kept in illegal detention since September 9, 2018.
• SC stays JJB proceedings against ‘minor’ in Kathua case
  • The Supreme Court stayed the proceedings before the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) against a ‘minor’ allegedly involved in the gang-rape and murder of an eight-year-old nomadic girl in Kathua.
  • The bench stayed the proceedings after the Jammu and Kashmir administration claimed that the Jammu and Kashmir High Court had erroneously affirmed the order of a trial court holding him as the juvenile at the time of offence in 2018.
• SC not in a hurry to hear govt pleas on execution
  • The Supreme Court conveyed that it is no hurry to hear the appeals filed by the Centre and the NCT of Delhi for permission to separately execute Nirbhaya convicts.

 Nirbhaya: plea for fresh execution date rejected

• • A Delhi court dismissed the Tihar jail’s plea seeking fresh date for execution of the four death row convicts in the December 16, 2012, Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case, taking note of the Delhi High Court order giving them a week’s time to exercise their legal remedies.
  • “It is criminally sinful to execute the convicts when law permits them to live”, the court said.

• Court orders inventory of Sabarimala deity’s ornaments
  • The apex court appointed retired Kerala High Court judge C.N. Ramachandran Nair to prepare a detailed inventory of the Sabarimala temple deity, Lord Ayyappa.
  • A Bench led by Justice N.V. Ramana said the Justice Nair committee may use an expert appraiser.
  • The detailed list would be handed over to the court in a sealed cover.
  • The court listed the case for hearing in four weeks.