• National news

Anticipatory bail law abused in India

The pre-arrest bail provision in the Criminal Procedure Code, inserted to save the innocent from harassment at the hands of the police, is the most abused Its anguish stemmed from the fact that a discretionary power vested with the high courts and sessions courts was being repeatedly invoked by persons accused of heinous offences, which was not the intent of the relief-giving provision.

TCS white paper unveils nationwide e-governance plans

Calling for a greater collaborative effort between IT companies and the government, a White Paper released here today by Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) highlights the huge potential of e-governance benefiting citizens and maximizing the returns on public investments. The Paper spells out as to how taking recourse to e-governance could improve governance, a key weakness affecting the efficiency of government programmes and schemes.

High Court Appointments

New judges for Gujarat High Court

President appointed justice harshvardhan binduprasad antani and justice bankim nikhilbhai mehta as permanent judges of Gujarat high court while exercising power under article 217 of the constitution.

Jharkhand High Court gets Additional Judge

President appointed shri Ajit Kumar Sinha as the additional judge of jharkhand high court for a period of two years while exercising its powers under article 224(1) of the constitution.

SC: Individual riches no condition to get child's custody

Supreme court in its judgment ruled that custody of the child would no longer depend upon the individual wealth of the estranged parents. It further said that welfare of the child would be of paramount consideration as no amount of luxury or riches can compensate the love and affection of parents.

SC: Hindu marriage act should be more stringent

While addressing one of the divorce petition the Supreme Court remarked that the Hindu marriage act has done more harm to the society where people are opting for divorce on petty issues. The Act needs to be amended as it is breaking more families than uniting them in turn polluting the society

Gujjars get 5% special quota

Rajasthan government was successful in pacifying gujjars to call off their 26 daylong agitations over quota after promising them 5% special reservation over and above OBC quota. It's a historic win for gujjars as now the total reservation in rajasthan is 54% as against 50% rule mentioned in the constitution.

Motors Vehicles Amendment Bill due in monsoon session

The proposed bill calls payment of an interim compensation amount of Rs 1,00,000 in case of death or permanent disablement and Rs 50,000 in case of permanent partial disablement within three months from the date of filing the application in MCAT.

SC: judges not to be accused of bias

While giving out a judgment Supreme Court pointed out that it would not tolerate allegations against the judicial officers for bias merely because there has been a delay in giving judgment. This came through when a litigant sought transfer of case and accused a judge of bulandshahr court of having friendly relation with the accused.

Bombay high court: non-maharashtrians should not be targeted

The High Court while delivering judgment reminded that ours is a secular country and migrants from other states should not discriminated against because if they are it would be against constitutional guarantee of free movement of citizens throughout India.

Bilateral security issues reviewed by India and Bulgaria

Both sides of India and Bulgaria agreed on most of the issues that included matters related to security, organized crime, international terrorism and illicit drug trafficking. The talks were mainly aimed towards reviewing the 1994 agreement between the two countries for developing newer areas of cooperation on issues of mutual concern.

HC reminds govt.: press fourth estate

Gujarat high court provided protection to times of India till 23rd June in view of the 5 fir's filed against it on charges of sedition. While giving out the judgment the court emphasized that our's is a democratic country and therefore freedom of expression should be protected.

After US, its India's take on judicial impact assessment

After the order passed by Supreme Court in Salem advocate's case last year the taskforce gave a set of recommendations, a part of which also included judicial impact assessment. According to this concept every new law will have to calculate the increase in workload of courts in implementing new legislation and also provide financial support to the judiciary for the same. India will be the second country after US to implement this.

India and Syria sign DTAA

India and Syria revised their earlier double taxation avoidance agreement which would cover total income or on elements of income, including taxes on gains from alienation of movable or immovable property, taxes on the total amounts of wages or salaries paid by enterprises. It would also include anti-abuse provisions and provide for source-based taxation of capital gains from alienation of shares.

SC/ST/OBC to be bifurcated under new reservation bill

The centre has uncoupled the dalits and the OBC's under the new reservation bill. It is believed that because of judicial intervention in the OBC quota, which was operated through a common Dalit-backward law, might lead the SC/ST reservation into a controversy. Also there has always been a difference between the two like Dalits and tribals get reservation in promotions while it is limited to appointments for OBCs and the age-relaxation for recruitment for SC/STs is five years against three years for OBCs.

• International news

Rules eased by the US SC for the foreigners

The supreme court of unites states made it easy for a person staying illegally to withdraw voluntary agreement to depart in a case which involved two contradictory provisions of immigration laws, one of which allowed people to avoid deportation by leaving voluntarily and the other which allowed the people staying illegally to make their case to immigration authorities while still being in the country.

US SC upheld the ban on horse slaughter

Appeal by The last horse slaughterhouse in the United Nations was rejected. The appeal challenged the Illinois law prohibiting the killing of horses for human consumption.

Limits off FOIA lawsuits

In a unanimous ruling by the Supreme Court in Washington limits on freedom of information act where more than one suit seek same information as previous legal actions was rejected.

Turkish high court upheld ban on college head scarf

Turkish Islamic oriented government faced fire from the court as it tried to allow scarves as a matter of religious and personal freedom. The court said that it couldn't be allowed at universities as it violated the secular principles of the constitution.

NJ SC: cohabitation not necessary for palimony cases

Judge held in the case of devaney v. l'esperance that a marital type relation needs to be proved for a successful claim for palimony. The court while delivering the judgement took into consideration the couples who have been separated due to their respective employment and don't cohabit.

Benefits for lesbian couple's children

The defence of marriage act 1996 bars the federal government from recognizing or granting benefits to any kind of same-sex relationship, whether it be a marriage, civil union or domestic partnership. The justice department's office of legal counsel (OLC) opined that federal law would not prohibit the social security administration from paying insurance benefits to the children of lesbian couples.

Mexico's judicial system revamped

President Felipe Calderon of Mexico signed a constitutional amendment whereby the guilt or innocence of a person will not be decided by a judge behind closed doors or mere written evidence i.e. a system of public trial will be followed whereby lawyers would be allowed to present their case and judges would have to explain their decision in length in front of general public. Also there would be presumption of innocence before the trial concludes.

O2 loses trademark case

European court of justice ruled that "3" could use O2's signature bubbles in a comparative advertisement as long as it did not create consumer confusion about the product's identity. Which means a company cannot be sued for trademark infringement if it uses its competitor's trademarks for a comparative advertisement.