Weekly Legal Updates January Week 1

1. If an advocate crossed the Lakshman Rekha and indulged in wrong doings, the
courts cannot show indulgence, the Madras High Court has observed and refused to
grant anticipatory bail to an advocate and 19 other accused. Justice P N Prakash said
an advocate had an arduous duty to fight for the cause of his clients and only such
advocates deserved to be protected at all costs to save democracy.
2. A man has been acquitted of charges of raping an 11-year-old differently abled child
after kidnapping her by a Delhi court which refused to rely on the girls testimony as
she was suffering from mental retardation and seizure disorder. Additional Sessions
Judge Illa Rawat absolved UP native Arvind Kumar of the charges of kidnapping and
raping the girl while saying her testimony alone cannot be relied upon to convict
Kumar especially in view of the report given by a medical board that she was
suffering from mental retardation and seizure disorder.
3. A consumer forum has asked the Railways to display in each coach the mechanism to
redress the issue of theft as well as the duty of TTE and railway police personnel to
facilitate the passengers. New Delhi District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum,
presided by C K Chaturvedi, passed the directions while asking the Railways to
redress an issue of theft during journey on a complaint filed by one S M Prasad.
4. A Pune civil court today ruled that it had jurisdiction to hear a suit seeking a ban on
Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabhas film Desh Bhakt Nathuram Godse, which is
slated for release in January. The ruling was delivered by Civil Judge S S Nair after
advocate Wajid Khan for the plaintiff Hemant Patil submitted case laws to show that
the civil court had the jurisdiction to hear the suit.
5. Seven persons accused of disrupting the 1997 MCD elections by tearing ballot papers
and rioting at various polling booths have been acquitted by a Delhi court after the
complainant and other prosecution witnesses failed to identify them. Metropolitan
Magistrate Sheetal Chaudhary Pradhan absolved Delhi residents Asif Namberdar, Asif
Chaudhary, Yusuf, Naseem, Soech Danish, Owaish Mohammad Khan and Mohamad
Jahangir of the charges including rioting and unlawful assembly under the IPC and
provisions of Delhi Municipal Corporation Act, 1957.
6. The Crime Branch of Jammu and Kashmir Police filed a charge sheet in a court
against three persons in connection with a bid to fraudulently grab prime land in
Jammu city. Crime Branch, Jammu, filed challan (charge sheet) in the court of Chief
Judicial Magistrate against a group of three persons for allegedly grabbing the land
fraudulently in Jammu city, a CB official said.
7. The Bombay High Court has set aside orders by Maharashtra authorities suspending
the licenses of 47 restaurants for allegedly violating fire safety norms, saying proper
procedure was not followed. Contending that they had complied with the provisions
of fire saftey, the petitioners had alleged that action was taken only against those
restaurants in which waitresses were employed and termed it as moral policing by
officials.
8. Three new judges were sworn in at the Bombay High Court. Chief Justice Mohit Shah
administered the oath of office to Kalidas Laxmanrao Wadane, Indira K. Jain and
Shalini Phansalkar Joshi. With this, the strength of judges at the court has gone up to
67.
9. Giving women security prime importance, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh
launched a mobile phone application Himmat in New Delhi.
10. The finance ministry asked banks and the state-run Life Insurance Corp (LIC) to make
available LIC for the Rs.30,000 life cover available under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan

Weekly Legal Updates January Week 1

Yojana (PMJDY). The LIC has also been asked to settle claims within 15 days of the
receipt of the claim form.