The judiciary cannot place itself beyond scrutiny, and fair, informed criticism of judicial functioning is a legitimate and necessary feature of a constitutional democracy, Chief Justice of India Surya Kant said, adding that public trust is “the only currency that authority is ever paid in.” New Delhi: Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant has […]
The Allahabad High Court accepted that conversion does not automatically extinguish Scheduled Tribe status, which remains a question of fact, but dismissed a woman’s petitions after finding she had not produced material showing continuing Bhuiyan customs, community participation and acceptance on the dates of three land purchases.
An independent MLA in Haryana switching sides three times gave Indian politics a phrase in 1967. Nearly sixty years, two failed Bills, one constitutional amendment and one repeal later, the same question is back before the Supreme Court. A look at how the Tenth Schedule was built and why each reform produced the next workaround.
The Bombay High Court declined to hand interim custody of a girl to her biological parents from a neighbour couple who had raised her since infancy, holding that the welfare of the child, not the rights of the rival claimants, is paramount, and that uprooting a settled ten-year-old from the only home she has known […]
The Supreme Court quashed a POCSO case against a schoolteacher accused of hitting inattentive girl students, holding that corporal punishment, however inappropriate, does not amount to “aggravated sexual assault” without sexual intent, and warning that a wrongful POCSO accusation can be a “death knell” for a teacher. New Delhi: The Supreme Court has quashed criminal […]
The Supreme Court reduced a man’s 20-year POCSO sentence to 10 years, holding that the victim’s age was not proved to the strict standard the law requires, so the child-specific offence could not stand, but confirming that the rape itself was conclusively established and convicting him under Section 376 IPC instead. New Delhi: The Supreme […]
The Supreme Court has dismissed an electricity distribution company’s appeal over a Rs 57.74 lakh minimum-consumption demand raised in 2007 for a 1998 period, holding the claim time-barred, and reaffirming that a power utility cannot recover dues by disconnection beyond the two-year limitation under Section 56(2) of the Electricity Act. New Delhi: The Supreme Court […]
The Patna High Court has quashed the State Bank of India’s decision treating a long-serving officer as having “voluntarily resigned” for staying away on medical grounds, holding that absence compelled by illness is not wilful abandonment and that the Bank acted arbitrarily and in breach of natural justice. Patna: The Patna High Court has set […]