The Supreme Court has granted bail to a 30-year-old security guard accused over allegedly obscene and derogatory Facebook posts about Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren’s wife and MLA Kalpana Soren, noting that he has been in custody for over a year, that the maximum sentence is three years and that custodial interrogation is not required.
The Jharkhand High Court has upheld the dismissal of a husband’s divorce petition, holding that a wife’s mere wish that her husband live as a ‘gharjamai’ at her parents’ home, without any compulsion, does not amount to cruelty under Section 13(1)(ia) of the Hindu Marriage Act. The Court also held that a wife’s frequent visits to her parental home cannot be termed cruelty, and that the husband had led no evidence to substantiate his allegations.
The Jharkhand High Court has quashed a notice by the Bihar State Financial Corporation directing tenants of an auctioned property to vacate merely because the premises had been sold. The Court held that the sale of a property is not a ground to evict a tenant, that eviction can proceed only on the grounds specified in the Jharkhand rent-control law, and that the corporation, having taken possession, steps into the landlord’s shoes, with the tenants liable to pay it rent until the property is transferred onward.
The Jharkhand High Court has rejected a second plea by a convict, serving life imprisonment for offences including murder and a sexual offence against a child, seeking suspension of his sentence on the ground that he had completed over ten years in custody. The Court held that period of incarceration alone cannot justify suspension of a life sentence for a serious offence, that merit must also be assessed, and that a rejected plea cannot be renewed without a fresh ground.
A railway parcel clerk caught in a 1995 trap accepting a Rs 100 bribe to book a motorcycle, and convicted in 2004, has had his conviction upheld by the Jharkhand High Court, which found the demand and acceptance of illegal gratification proved on the Neeraj Dutta standard. But given that the case had run for three decades, the appellant is now over 75 and ailing, it was his first offence and he had already lost his job, the Court reduced his sentence to the statutory minimum.
The Jharkhand High Court held that a husband’s unwillingness to live with his wife or emotional distance alone does not amount to cruelty under Section 498A IPC. The Court said normal matrimonial discord, lack of communication, or reluctance to perform conjugal obligations cannot by themselves constitute the offence.
