Justice Bharati Dangre, Justice Ashish Chavan and Justice Sarang Kotwal have recused from hearing the NIA’s appeal against the special court’s bail to dismissed police officer Sachin Waze in the Antilia bomb scare case, leaving the appeal to be placed before another Bench.
The Bombay High Court has quashed an FIR in a commercial cheating dispute that the parties had fully settled, but imposed costs of Rs 25,000 on the applicant, holding that criminal law cannot be used as a bargaining chip or a recovery mechanism for private settlements. Setting the criminal machinery in motion, only to seek consent quashing later, wastes public and judicial resources, the Court said, and costs in such ‘consent quashing’ matters serve as a deterrent.
A writ petition before the Bombay High Court seeks to quash 14 actions of the Election Commission of India and Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, allegedly taken over the past ten months despite recorded objections by the two other Election Commissioners, raising questions about the collective functioning of the poll body. Mumbai: A writ petition […]
The Bombay High Court, in a suo motu PIL on festival noise and pollution, has directed a total ban on the bursting of firecrackers during festivities, and issued a detailed set of measures to control loudspeaker noise, decibel-measurement meters at every venue and procession, undertakings and forfeitable security deposits from organisers, ward-wise assessment before permissions are granted, and seizure of equipment on violation. The directions are to be enforced during the current festive season.
A Maharashtra Magistrate has issued a show-cause contempt notice to the Divisional Railway Manager, Nanded Division, over the failure to replace bed-bug-infested sofas in the VIP room at the Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar railway station and to carry out pest control, despite an earlier direction. The Judge noted that High Court judges who wait in the room had been sitting in their cars instead, and directed the officer to appear in person on September 30.
The Bombay High Court has quashed the remand and granted bail to a man arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in a money-laundering case, holding that the arrest under Section 19 of the PMLA was illegal for non-compliance with the statutory safeguards. The Court held that the power to arrest under Section 19 carries exacting conditions, and that a court can judicially review the legality of an arrest and the ‘reasons to believe’ on which it rests.
The Bombay High Court has quashed the compulsory retirement of a Tata Institute of Social Sciences professor, holding that the punishment was grossly disproportionate to the misconduct found, which centred on his starting a WhatsApp group without the Institute’s permission and without any personal gain being established. Applying the doctrine of proportionality, the Court held that a penalty out of proportion to the gravity of the misconduct violates Article 14, found the inquiry findings perverse, and reinstated the professor with 50% back wages.