Daily Legal Current Affairs: Case Laws & News [30th June]

DAILY LEGAL CURRENT AFFAIRS

30^th June 2020

Supreme Court:

Plea is moved before SC by AOR Om Prakash Parihar & Adovocate Dushyant Tiwari against the nation-wide Protest conducted by the Indian National Congress on 29^th June. The protest was against the increase in price of diesel and petrol. The petition stated that members of gathering were not wearing mask, which was against the provisions of Article 21, and other provisions of CrPC & IPC.
The PIL has been filed before SC by Parents Association in 9 states seeking waiver of pvt. School fees for a period of 3 months starting from 1st April till 1st July 2020. Plea also seeks directions to the Governments to direct all pvt. Schools to only charge the “tuition fees” with no hidden charges and not to strike out any students from the school due to non-payment of school fees. Further, Plea states that consolidation of guidelines/directions/orders are need of the hour & apex intervention is required to issue guidelines.
The SC Bar Clerk’s Association has moved a petition before the SC seeking direction to pay a monthly amount of Rs. 15,000 to each member, on account of difficulty faced during last three months. The petition said it is the violation of their Right to life under Article 21.
In the case of United India Insurance Co. Ltd. vs. Satinder Kaur, the bench of Justices S. Abdul Nazeer, Indu Malhotra & Aniruddha Bose has observed that loss of love & affection is included in loss of consortium, i.e., there is no justification to award compensation towards love & affection as a separate head, in addition to awarding compensation for loss of consortium. [Consortium means the right of association and companionship with one’s husband or wife]

High Courts & Other legal developments:

The single bench of Justice Nirmaljit Kaur of P&H HC was dealing with challenging of the 14^th May notification issued by the Director, School Education which imposed curbs on the charging of fees such as complete waiver of fees by pvt. Unaided schools which are not conducting online classes during lock down period, not to increase fees during 2020-21 and few other guidelines. The P& H HC issued the list of directions and held that all schools, irrespective of whether they offered online classes during the lock-down or not, are entitled to collect the tuition fee. [Independent Schools’ Association Chandigarh (Regd) & others vs. State of Punjab & Others]
The Appellate Authority of the PMO has upheld the refusal of the Central Public Information Officer to disclose information related to PM CARES Fund. The Appellate Authority of the PMO held that PM CARES Fund is not a Public Authority under Right to Information Act, 2005.
Plea in for seeking direction to Bar Council of India & State Bar Councils to permit use of advertisements for lawyers till March 2021 and to allow to work in other profession to earn money.
A division bench of Bombay HC on tuesday stayed FIRs against Journalist Arnab Goswami. The bench said there is no Prima Facie Against him. The Bombay HC also made important observations that “We cannot have the spectacle of a Damocles sword hanging over the head of a journalist while conduction public debate”. [Arnab Goswami vs. State of Maharastra]
The Delhi HC has extended the deadline for filing objections to the draft Environment Impact Assessment Notification till 11th August 2020. Earlier, the Central Govt. has fixed Date to file objection till 30th June but due to lock down HC has extended the deadline.
The Karnataka HC on Tuesday decided to cancel physical hearing at the Principal Bench of HC at Bengaluru, in wake of increase in number of Covid-19 cases in the city.
The Delhi HC has noted that there is a urgent need for creating a system/mechanism for registration of migrant workers in Delhi. The HC also directed the Central Government to submit a affidavit highlighting the kind of portal it is proposing to create for the registration of migrant workers in Delhi.
The Madras HC has suo motu took cognizance in highlighting custodial death case and observed that the Sathankulam police was trying to destroy the evidence related to custodial deaths of Jayaraj and Bennix, and therefore Court ordered the Deputy Superintendent of Police, CB-CID, Tamil Nadu Police to take charge of the probe. [Jayaraj-Bennix Custodial Death]
The Division Bench of Delhi HC has taken suo motu cognizance of the grievance raised by the government teachers that their salaries have not been paid since the month of March and directed the North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) to file a status report indicating the amounts that is required to disburse in the year 2021 towards its share of the salaries payable to teachers engaged by it.
Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi and HaperCollins Publishers India has ammicably settled their dispute arising out of the publication of Sarosh Zaiwalla’s book titled “Honour Bound: Adventures of an Indian Lawyer in English Court”. Earlier, the Senior Advocate has filed a suit against the HaperCollins Publishers India for injunction and claimed that the book contains defamatory remarks related to his late father LM Singhvi in relation to the Bofors deal. [Dr Abhishek Singhvi v. Sarosh Zaiwalla & others- HarperCollins]