The Patna High Court dismissed a wife’s appeal against a Family Court divorce decree, holding that long separation and denial of conjugal relations amounted to cruelty, and left her free to seek permanent alimony under Section 25 of the Hindu Marriage Act.
Holding the Bihar Government and a stone-block bidder equally responsible for a nine-year delay in executing a mining lease in Sheikhpura, a Division Bench of the Patna High Court set aside forfeiture of the bidder’s Rs 2.90 crore deposit, ordered its refund with 12% interest, and laid down binding timelines for future mining tenders.
A Division Bench of the Patna High Court held that a 2018 notification appointing Divisional Commissioners as arbitrators under the National Highways Act operates prospectively and does not affect pending arbitrations, but set aside an award on Gaya land acquired for NH-82 and ordered compensation reassessed with solatium and interest under the 1894 Act.
A Division Bench of the Patna High Court has held that Rule 52(5) of the Bihar Minor Mineral Concession Rules, 1972 permits 24 per cent simple interest on a delayed instalment only up to two months, after which the Rule contemplates cancellation, and quashed the Mines and Geology Department’s demands for further interest on three Rajouli stone blocks in Nawadah.
The Patna High Court has acquitted five men convicted of a 1989 murder and dacoity, holding that the prosecution suppressed the genesis of the case by withholding an earlier written complaint that ought to have been treated as the FIR, and instead placing on record a later statement, which attracted an adverse inference and the bar under Section 162 CrPC. Coupled with material discrepancies between the two eye-witnesses, this cast a thick cloud of suspicion on the prosecution case.
Answering five questions referred by the Supreme Court, the Patna High Court has examined the remission and premature-release regime under the Bihar Prison Manual, 2012 and issued seventeen recommendations to make it transparent, time-bound and fair. It held the rules are not ‘absolutely selective’, but directed that every prisoner be given a duplicate History Ticket showing remission earned or forfeited, that no remission be seized without a hearing and reasons, and that an appeal and grievance mechanism be created, with safeguards for illiterate prisoners.
Reversing a family court that had dismissed a wife’s divorce petition for want of specific proof of cruelty, the Patna High Court granted her a decree, holding that a husband who kept his wife out of the matrimonial home for 13 years, and never contested her allegations, had by that very conduct inflicted cruelty. The Court held it could not grant divorce on irretrievable breakdown alone, but that the prolonged deprivation of married life amounted to cruelty.
The Patna High Court held that a Section 125 CrPC maintenance order and voter-list entries cannot prove a valid Hindu marriage absent proof of saptapadi and essential ceremonies. Patna: The Patna High Court has held that a woman failed to establish that she was the legally wedded wife of her late husband’s younger brother, ruling […]
The Patna High Court on 25th April fined lower court judges Rs 100 each for wrongly convicting a man in a dowry harassment case. Sunil Pandit appealed against his conviction and was acquitted by Justice Chaudhuri, who emphasized the duty of courts to carefully examine complaints before proceeding. The fines were to address the petitioner’s suffering due to the lower courts’ approach.