Legal Sarcasm

Failing to Protect Bengaluru Lakes from Contamination AZRA RIZVI  Background The Principal Bench, New Delhi has issued a warning to the Additional Chief Secretary (Urban Development), Karnataka, Commissioner, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), Commissioner, Bengaluru Development Authority (BDA), Chairman, BWSSB and the Member Secretary, State Pollution Control Board (PCB) after the National Green Tribunal (NGT) surveyed that there is failing to Protect Bengaluru Lakes from Contamination. A huge amount of untreated sewage and effluents are discharged in water bodies at Bengaluru - Bellandur lake, Agara lake and Varthur lake from residential, commercial and industrial buildings which has led to severe pollution of these water bodies. The water bodies are not only polluted by untreated sewage but also due to the inefficient management of solid waste in violation to the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974, particularly Section 25. The B...

POCSO: Accused convicted within a month of filing charge sheet RISHI KHANDELWAL BACKGROUND POCSO or The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO Act) 2012 was established to protect the children against offences like sexual abuse, sexual harassment and pornography. It was formed to provide a child-friendly system for trial underneath which the perpetrators could be punished. The Act defines a child as any person below eighteen years of age. It also makes provisions for avoiding the re-victimization of the child at the hands of the judicial system. Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 received the President’s assent on June 19, 2012. It was notified in the Gazette of India on June 20, in the same year. The Act also makes it mandatory to report such cases. It makes it the legal duty of a person aware of the offence to report the sexual abuse. In case he fails to do so, the person can be punished with six months’ imprisonment or fine. The A...

A Child Of Tender Age Should Be Handled Very Carefully: Delhi HC AZRA RIZVI  Background The Delhi High Court refused to grant pre-arrest bail filed by a teacher who was accused of abetment to suicide of a 6 th standard student and gave the judgement that A Child Of Tender Age Should Be Handled Very Carefully. The complainant’s daughter had not only asked the complainant to change her school but had also stated that “ the atmosphere in the school is not good ”. The complainant had assured her daughter that her school would be changed after the end of the session. The suicide letter written by the girl mentions the name of her biology teacher Ritika as well as her class teacher, Aarti Singh. In the evening of 1st December of 2018, the complainant returned back home only to discover her daughter hanging by the ceiling fan. The petitioner, Ritika, has thus been charged with abetment to suicide which is punishable under Section 305 of the Indian Penal Court. Section 30...

ASSAM RIFLES DO NOT FALL UNDER THE SCOPE OF RTI SHANIKA SHUKLA  BACKGROUND Right to information is an act of parliament under which an Indian can seek or request information from a public authority (a body of government) which is responsible to reply within 30 days. An appellant filed an application under right to information before the central public information officer( CPIO), Assam Rifles, Shillong. The appellant again filed an application when he was denied the information by the commission on the ground that the organization was exempted by section 24 of the Right to information act 2005. Section 24 of the right to information act 2005 clear specify that the provision of the RTI Act will not apply to intelligence and security organization except in cases of alleged human rights violation or corruption. The intellectual and security organization include organization like special frontier forces(SFF), National security guard(NSG), director of revenue inte...

GOVERNMENT MUST ENSURE PORTABLE DRINKING WATER: NGT ISHA TRIPATHI  BACKGROUND: The steps to deal with the problem of contamination of groundwater due to Arsenic and availability of clean drinking water in Bahraich, Ballia, Balrampur, Bareilly, Basti, Bijnor, Chandauli, Ghazipur, Gonda, Gorakhpur, Lakhimpur Kheri, Meerut, Mirzapur, Moradabad, Rai Bareilly, Santkabirnagar, Shahjahanpur, Siddharthnagar, Sant Ravidas Nagar and Unnao and certain other districts in Uttar Pradesh and other similarly affected areas in the country including in Assam, Bihar, 2 Jharkhand, Karnataka, Punjab and West Bengal is the issue for consideration. The government must ensure portable drinking water. After considering the matter for more than three years, vide order dated 25.10.2018, this Tribunal undertook an extensive review on the subject and noted the gravity of situation shown by high arsenic content leading to serious diseases and environmental damage in several districts of Utt...

INTERIM PROTECTION FROM ARREST TO SHEHLA RASHID ISHA TRIPATHI  BACKGROUND: Shehla Rashid a political activist from Jammu and Kashmir tweeted on August 17 against the Indian Army and Government of India regarding the situation in Jammu and Kashmir after the revocation of Article 370 (which gave special status to the state of Jammu and Kashmir). Rashid who is a leader of the Jammu and Kashmir People’s Movement had criticized the military mobilization in the valley following the abrogation of the special status of Jammu and Kashmir and have alleged that armed forces have been violating their Fundamental Rights. The complaint to the Delhi Police Special Cell was made by an Advocate Alakh Alok Srivastava and subsequently, an FIR was registered under  Sections 124A/153A/153/504/505  of Indian Penal Code on September 3. CURRENT ISSUE (INTERIM PROTECTION FROM ARREST TO SHEHLA RASHID) : The FIR against Rashid was launched by the Delhi Police on...

Delhi Govt. proposal for free metro rides for women- observes SC DEEPAKSHI BHALLA  Background   The Delhi Metro is an urban passenger transportation system running in Delhi and in its neighbouring cities of Gurgaon, Noida etc. The concept of urban passenger transportation emerged from a traffic and travel character study which was held in the capital in 1964. By far it is the largest and the most occupied metro in India. Its headquarters are in Metro Bhawan, Barakhamba Road, New Delhi. It began its operation on 24th December 2002. In total it has 250 stations. The system has a min of underground, at-grade and elevated stations. Delhi Metro conducts over 2700 trips per day with the first round starting at 5 am and the last round ending at 11:30 pm. It was set up jointly by Government of India and Government of Delhi in 1995. The first line of Delhi Metro, the Red Line was inaugurated by former Prime Minister Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Delhi Govt. proposal for free...

BCI ASKS COURTS TO BAR OVER 4700 ADVOCATES  NITISH SHUKLA  BACKGROUND The resolution for All India Bar Examination was adopted in 2010 by Bar Council of India at its meeting held on 30 April to amend Part VI, Chapter III of the Bar Council of India Rules (Conditions for Right to Practise). And it was inserted into Part VI of Bar Council of India rule that No advocate enrolled under section 24 of the Advocates Act, 1961 shall be entitled to practice under Chapter IV of the Advocates Act, 1961 unless such advocate successfully passes the All India Bar Examination conducted by the Bar Council of India. It is clarified that the Bar Examination shall be mandatory for all law students graduating from the academic year 2009-2010 onwards and enrolled as advocates under Section 24 of the Advocates Act, 1961. Section 24 of the Advocates Act specifies the qualification required to be enrolled into the Bar which makes it mandatory to pass the All India Bar Examination in o...

NCLAT DISMISSES PLEA FOR RECOVERY FROM VIDEOCON  JAYA SINGH  BACKGROUND- Videocon Industries was admitted by the National Company Law Tribunal ( NCLT ) for insolvency proceedings. The first homegrown consumer durables company in India owes a consortium of banks led by the State Bank of India around Rs 20,000 crore. In three consecutive financial years until September 2008, Videocon's India business had registered standalone profits of over Rs800 crore with a focused approach in the consumer electronics business. Videocon's debt surged because of its failed telecom services business - it lost about Rs 7,000 crore in telecom - and the picture tube plant modernization in Gujarat that cost Rs 4,000 crore. Meanwhile, the flagship consumer durables business also slowed down due to competition against global rivals like LG and Samsung. Over time, the market value of the fridge-to-phone company tumbled way down to Rs 600 crore. The decline started with Dena Bank cl...

MADRAS HC ON FALSE SEXUAL ASSAULT CASE BY WIFE VIDHI GUPTA  BACKGROUND In order to effectively address the heinous crimes of sexual abuse and sexual exploitation of children through less ambiguous and more stringent legal provisions, the Ministry of Women and Child Development championed the introduction of the PROTECTION OF CHILD FROM SEXUAL OFFENCES (POCSO) Act, 2012. Section 6 of POCSO states that Aggravated Penetrative Sexual Assault – not less than ten years which may extend to imprisonment for life and fine. Section 482 of Cr.P.C. states that saving of inherent of High Court. Nothing in this code shall be deemed to limit or affect the inherent powers of the high court to make such orders as may be necessary to give effect to any order under this code, or to prevent abuse of the process of any court or otherwise to secure the ends of justice. Section 164 of Cr.P.C states that subsection (1) authorizes the Magistrate to record the statement of a p...

Can Inter-Religious Couples be forced to Register Under Special Marriage Act? GARVIT TRIPATHI  Background: The special marriage act, 1954 is an act of the parliament of India enacted to provide a special form of marriage for people India and all Indian nationals in foreign countries, irrespective of the religion or faith followed by either party. The Act originated from a piece of legislation proposed during the late 19 th century. Marriages solemnized under special marriage Act are not governed by any personal law. But can Inter-Religious Couples be forced to Register Under Special Marriage Act? The special marriage act, 1954 replaced the old Act III, 1872.  The new enactment has 3 major objectives 1. To provide a special form of marriage in certain cases.                                2. To pr...

SUSPENSION CANNOT BE A FORM OF PUNISHMENT RAHUL AGARWAL  BACKGROUND The government had suspended Jacob Thomas IPS, former Vigilance Director on allegations of corruption in the procurement of cutter suction dredger when he was the Director of Ports (DoP) during the 2010-11 period. He was placed under suspension in December 2017 on a different charge, and a year after its expiry, the suspension order impugned in the application was issued. KEY ISSUE (SUSPENSION CANNOT BE A FORM OF PUNISHMENT) In a set back to the LDF government in Kerala, the Central Administrative Tribunal, Ernakulam bench on Monday set aside the suspension of Jacob Thomas IPS, former Vigilance Director and ordered his reinstatement. If the Government does not find him fit to work in police force due to the nature of allegations against him, he should be accommodated in any other post of the rank equivalent to Director General of Police, ordered the bench. Jacob Thomas, who has positi...