ALLAHABAD HIGH COURT
Fact of consensual relationship should be taken into consideration while granting bail in POCSO cases: Allahabad HC
In a bail application for offences under Sections 363, 366 of the Penal Code, 1860 (‘IPC’) and Section 7 read with Section 8 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 (‘POCSO’), Krishan Pahal, J. while granting bail to the accused said that POCSO Act was never meant to criminalise consensual romantic relationships between adolescents. The fact of consensual relationship borne out of love should be taken into consideration while granting bail because it would amount to perversity of justice, if the statement of victim was ignored and accused was left to suffer behind jail. Read more
[UP Revenue Code] Plaint cannot be rejected in an Injunction suit not seeking demarcation of boundaries: Allahabad HC
In a matter under Article 227 of the Constitution of India, against the order dated 03-03-2023 passed by District Judge and order dated 17-05-2022 passed by the Civil Judge declining the Application for rejection of plaint under Order 7 Rule 11 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (‘CPC’), Jayant Banerji, J. while upholding the impugned orders, said that the respondent in the suit for injunction is not seeking correction of the boundaries but has sought a decree of permanent injunction. If the plot of the respondent is not demarcated, then she would not be entitled to injunction. However, it is a completely different thing to state that in the suit for injunction, the plaint is liable to be rejected on that ground. Thus, the Court found no error or illegality in the impugned orders. Read more
Wife residing in Australia cannot initiate divorce proceedings in India upon a casual visit; Allahabad HC interprets the word ‘residing’ in S.19 HMA
In an appeal filed by the wife under Section 19 of the Family Courts Act, 1984, arising from the order dated 11-08-2023 passed by the Additional Principal Judge, Family Court, filed under Section 13 of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, wherein the Court has dismissed the divorce proceedings instituted by her, due to lack of territorial jurisdiction, the division bench of Saumitra Dayal Singh and Syed Aftab Husain Rizvi, JJ. held that a casual visit to a place will not grant jurisdiction to the Court in that area to decide divorce proceedings. Read more
BOMBAY HIGH COURT
Bombay High Court refuses relief to Ankiti Bose, co-founder of e commerce start up Zilingo for want of jurisdiction
In a suit filed by Zilingo co-founder Ankiti Bose, the plaintiff seeking a declaration along with temporary and permanent injunction and mandatory injunction based on certain remarks made by the defendant tarnished the image of the petitioner, S M Modak, J., returned the plaint as there is variance in between the averments in the plaint and the petition and the manner of seeking amendment is not proper. Read more
CALCUTTA HIGH COURT
“No caprice or arbitrariness”; Calcutta High Court upholds notification for MR Distributorship vacancy
In an application under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, where the petitioner, Nandigram Cooperative Marketing Society Limited, sought for cancellation of a notification declaring a vacancy for an MR distributor, a single-judge bench comprising of Jay Sengupta,* J., rejected the petitioner’s request for the cancellation of the notification and found in favor of the State of West Bengal, upholding their actions and declarations related to MR distributorship vacancies. Read more
‘Permissive possession does not create possessory rights’; Calcutta High Court upholds KMDA’s right to cancel the land allotment
In a writ petition seeking the cancellation and setting aside of a letter of cancellation of land allotment, a single-judge bench comprising of Jay Sengupta,* J., dismissed the writ petition, concluding that the petitioners were in permissive possession, and the authorities had the right to cancel the land allotment due to the petitioners’ delay in adhering to the stipulated conditions. Read more
DELHI HIGH COURT
[Contempt of Court] Delhi High Court sentences a man to six months simple imprisonment for seeking death penalty for a High Court Judge
In the present case, three contempt petitions had been preferred pursuant to directions of Division Bench-I vide order dated 31-08-2023 whereby show cause notice was issued against respondent as to why criminal contempt proceedings under Section 2(c) read with Section 12 of the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971 be not initiated against him. The Division Bench of Suresh Kumar Kait* and Shalinder Kaur*, JJ., observed that respondent had used utter derogatory language for the Single Judge Bench to the extent of saying that the Single Judge was a ‘thief’ and he had full proof of the same. The Court opined that respondent had no repentance for his conduct and actions and thus, this Court held respondent guilty of the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971 and consequently, sentenced him to undergo simple imprisonment for a period of six months with fine of Rs. 2,000. Read more
Delhi High Court| Remedy under Section 13(10) of SARFAESI Act cannot be considered as a remedy independent of the RDB Act
A petition was filed impugning an order dated 20-06-2019 passed by the Debts Recovery Tribunal III, Delhi whereby, the petitioner’s application under Section 13(10) of the Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest Act, 2002 (‘SARFAESI Act’) read with Rule 11 of the Security Interest (Enforcement) Rules, 2002 (‘SIE Rules’) for the recovery of balance amount of Rs. 6,92,551.63 along with interest, was rejected on the ground that the same was less than Rs. 10,00,000 and was therefore, not within the pecuniary jurisdiction of the Debts Recovery Tribunal — III. A division bench of Vibhu Bakhru and Amit Mahajan, JJ., dismissed the petition by refusing the contentions put forth by the petitioner and held that an application under Section 13(10) of the SARFAESI Act is required to be made in a manner as prescribed in the form annexed as Appendix VI to the SIE Rules. Read more
‘Disabled persons compelled to run pillar to post by organisation like KVS’; Delhi High Court directs Social Justice Ministry to issue guidelines for the implementation of reservation policy
A PIL was filed based upon a letter dated 07-12-2022 of the National Association of Deaf (NAD) through its President Mr. A.S. Narayanan being aggrieved by advertisements issued by Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan (KVS) inviting applications for various posts of Principal, Vice Principal, Post-Graduate Teacher (PGT), Trained Graduate Teacher (TGT), Librarian, Primary Teacher (Music), Finance Officer, as well as other posts. A division bench of Satish Chandra Sharma, CJ., and Sanjeev Narula, JJ., held that the KVS in respect of the identified posts as per the notification dated 04-01-2021, shall issue an advertisement and shall clear the backlog of vacancies within six months from the date of receipt of certified copy of the judgment. Read more
‘INDIAN STAG’ deceptively similar to ‘ROYAL STAG’, but no case of passing off made out in favour of Pernod Ricard India: Delhi High Court
In a case wherein plaintiff manufactured and sold Indian Made Foreign Liquor (‘IMFL’) under marks “ROYAL STAG” and “ROYAL STAG BARREL SELECT” in conjunction with 
picture of a crowned stag and defendants also manufactured IMFL, under the mark “INDIAN STAG” and used its own 
Stag device, C. Hari Shankar, J.*, held that prima facie, on a plain comparison between plaintiff’s and defendants’ marks, defendant had necessarily to be found to have infringed plaintiff’s mark, but no case of passing off was made out against defendant and in favour of plaintiff. Thus, the Court confirmed the ad interim order dated 25-07-2019, pending disposal of the suit. Read more
[Dream11 v. Dreamz11] Delhi High Court grants permanent injunction in favour of Dream11 in trade mark dispute
In a suit filed by the plaintiffs for the grant of permanent injunction, C. Hari Shankar J.*, granted permanent injunction to the plaintiffs and restrained the defendants and others acting on their behalf from using the mark ‘dreamz11’ or any similar variant, as a trade mark, trade name, domain name, part of their e-mail ID or in any other manner. The Court also restrained Defendant 1 and 2 from using the domain name ‘dreamz11.com’ or operating the website www.dreamz11.com. The Court also directed Defendant 3 to not register the domain name ‘dreamz11.com’. Read more
Information Technology and Administrative Services provided by Singapore Entity to its Indian affiliate cannot be construed as Fees for Technical Services: Delhi HC
In a case wherein, the appeal was filed to challenge the order dated 30-12-2022, passed by the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (‘the Tribunal’), the Division Bench of Rajiv Shakdher and Girish Kathpalia, JJ.*, agreed with the analysis and conclusion arrived by the Tribunal, that the services offered by the respondent to its Indian affiliates did not come within the purview of the Fees for Technical Services (‘FTS’), as reflected in Article 12(4)(b) of the India-Singapore Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (‘India-Singapore DTAA’) and concluded that they did not fulfil the criteria of ‘make available’ principle. Read more
GUJARAT HIGH COURT
No mental stability examination in habeas corpus petition for mother daughter duo alleged of influence under black magic: Gujarat HC
In an application seeking writ of habeas corpus against the respondents to present the petitioner’s daughter and wife before the Court and seeking their medical examination, the Division Bench of A.S. Supehia and Gita Gopi, JJ. dismissed the application and held that that the corpus cannot be forcefully subjected to medical test to ascertain their mental stability that too in habeas corpus petition on vague allegations that they are practicing black magic. Read more
HIMACHAL PRADESH HIGH COURT
State is not expected to deprive lawful benefits of employees; Himachal Pradesh HC grants service benefits to employees from initial date of appointment on contract basis
In a petition filed by the petitioners for seeking various reliefs with respect to fixation, protection of pay, grant of grade pay, consequential benefits and seniority, the Division Bench of Vivek Singh Thakur* and Bipin Chander Negi, JJ., opined that in the present case, the petitioners were entitled for counting their services from the date of initial appointment on contract basis for the purpose of seniority and all consequential benefits as initial appointment of the petitioners on contract basis after following a procedure prescribed in the Recruitment and Promotional Rules (‘R&P Rules’). Further, the petitioners should also be entitled to count the said contract service for granting annual increments and pensionary benefits. The Court stated that all the benefits including seniority should be settled and extended to the petitioners on before 31-12-2023. Read more
Conviction can be based only on cogent, reliable and credible evidence of official witnesses: Himachal Pradesh High Court
In a case wherein the appeal was filed against the conviction of the appellant by the Special Judge, the Division Bench of Tarlok Singh Chauhan* and Ranjan Sharma, JJ., opined that evidence of official witnesses was not to be disbelieved merely because they were official witnesses. The Court opined that unless it had been proved contrary, the presumption is that every witness was impartial and independent. Statements of official witnesses could be the basis for the conviction of the accused, but before basing conviction on the evidence of an official witness, strict scrutiny with care and caution was required. Read more
KARNATAKA HIGH COURT
Merely because a person has been named in a suicide note, one can’t jump to conclusion that such person is the offender under S. 306, IPC: Karnataka HC
While considering the instant petition for quashment of FIR registered for offence under Section 306 r/w Section 149 of Penal Code, 1860, the Bench of Venkatesh Naik T., J.*, stated that merely because a person has been so named in a suicide note, one cannot immediately jump to conclusion that such a person is the offender under Section 306, IPC. The contents of the suicide note, and other attending circumstances have to be examined to find out whether it is abetment within the meaning of Section 306 r/w Section 107 of IPC. Read more
MADRAS HIGH COURT
Madras HC directs Customs Department to release apples imported from New Zealand on furnishing bank guarantee towards differential duty
In an appeal filed by Customs Department under Clause 15 of the Letters Patent against the interim order dated 17-08-2023, wherein the Court has granted an order of interim direction to Customs Department to assess and release of the goods covered under the bill dated 26-06-2023, R. Mahadevan, J. has directed the Customs Department to release the subject goods (fresh apples) on furnishing of bank guarantee to the tune of Rs. 2,25,000/- towards differential duty, by the respondent. Read more
