Weekly Legal Updates

We bring you the updates for last week. Hope it updates you with all the news from legal world.

8^th December 2014:

The division bench of Supreme Court has struck down the legality of provisions in certain circulars which banned hookah smoking and sale of cigarettes in designated smoking areas. With this three High Court (Bombay, Gujarat and Madras) decisions is overturned. The illegality of circulars was found on the basis of it being violative of COTPA Act, 2003 and Rules.

The Supreme Court agreed to hear a plea challenging the recent ordinance on Coal Block Allocations which is to be heard on 6^th December. The Court had earlier declined a batch of petition by private companies seeking that it re-look its September 24 order cancelling 214 coal blocks allocated from 1993 to 2011.

9^th December 2014:

A Delhi Court has held fourmen guilty for murdering L.N. Mishra, the then Railway Minster in a bomb blast on January 2, 1975. This trial is one of the longest drawn trials in India. Over 200 witnesses were examined in the case. Though the charge-sheet was filed in 1977 in a CBI court in Patna, the conviction has come only after about 40 years of the murder. Earlier in 2012, the accused approached the Supreme Court for quashing the trial against them as the case has not been concluded even after 37 years, which was not accepted by the apex court and was returned to the Delhi Court. The quantum of sentence would be pronounced on 15th December.

10^th December 2014:

The Central Government announced that section 309, attempt to commit suicide, will be deleted from Indian Penal Code (IPC) which will decriminalize the act of commitment of suicide. The decision is based on the request by 18 states and 44 Union territories to implement the Recommendations made in this regard by the Law Commission of India in its 210^th Report. The report made reference to P. Rathinam v. Union of India, where the Supreme Court of India held that Section 309 of IPC is violative of Article 21 of the Constitution of India. The same was overruled in Gian Kaur v. State of Punjab, however The Mental Health Bill of 2013 did attempt to decriminalize the same by putting presumption of mental illness on the persons attempting to commit suicide.

The Kerala High Court has concluded that the DLF violated the Coastal Regulation Zone Notification (CRZ Notification) and therefore ordered the demolition of the construction under DLF project in Kochi. The Court held that:

“Authorities are constituted under various enactments to see that the environment is protected and to see that the present topography which keeps the ecological balance is not disturbed. The purpose of these laws is to preserve nature for posterity. If the violation of these laws is allowed to become the order of the day, the existence of life would be at peril. Right to life guaranteed by our Constitution takes in innumerable rights, including the right to enjoy nature in the present form. Indiscriminate invasion of nature to the detriment of others is an invasion of right to life. Nature which is the property of the nation cannot be allowed to be scrambled by a minority violating all laws.”

11^th December 2014:

The Delhi High Court injuncted Xiaomi, a Chinese phone manufacturer, from selling, advertising, manufacturing or importing devices that infringe the Standard Essential Patents (SEPs) in question. The same SEPs are also a subject matter of a pending litigation between Ericsson and Micromax, Gionee, Intex.  In an ex-parte order passed against Xiaomi, the court also directed Customs Department to stop import of such products as per the IPR Rules, 2007. It is worth noting that Xiaomi managed to sell out its 50,000 handset in just 6 seconds on 8^th December.

12^th December:

Hearing an appeal filed by the Department of Ex-Servicemen Welfare (DESW) against a judgment of the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT), the Supreme Court had to decide the question of benefits of an extra amount in pensions on account of disability due to service conditions of the ex-servicemen of the Army. The Bench headed by HL Dattu, CJI, said:

“They are in the line of fire. They sacrifice their life for you and for us. This is the least you could do for them. The government can have at least this much of budget for its soldiers who are dying for the people of this country everyday. What is the point of having these memorials and placards saluting our defence personnel if you litigate against the disabled soldiers till the Supreme Court. You should pay them,”

The Government agreed to comply with the order. The Supreme Court dismissed the matter, as a result disposing 880 appeals on the issue. It has also been reported that around 15,000 retired soldiers will be benefited due to the order.

The Social Justice Bench constituted to hear cases pertaining to “Social Justice” matters began with the division bench of Justice Madan B Lokur and Justice UU Lalit. The bench will take up fresh matters alongside the pending matters and will sit every Friday at 2PM at the Supreme Court. The bench was constituted to achieve the Constitutional goal of securing social justice for the citizens of the country.

The Supreme Court has dismissed Bayer’s Special Leave Petition (SLP) against the decision of the Bombay High Court. This dismissal will continue the effectiveness of grant of compulsory license to Natco for Bayer’s anticancer drug Nexavar. This has continued the Indian Courts’ stand to ensure the access to medicine across the country.

We hope that this summarizes the last week's News. Your comments and suggestions are welcomed.

Until next post of weekly News updates.

Manish Kumar, (3rd Year student of IIT Kharagpur Law School)

For 'OFF Court.'

Disclaimer: This blog or any post thereof is not to be considered to be in any way associated with the official stand of IIT kharagpur or RGSOIPL on the issues being discussed in the said post. The opinions on the blog are the authors own and should not be considered as legal advice.

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Legal News Updates

We bring you the updates for last week. Hope it updates you with all the news from legal world.

Updates: 03rd November to 22nd November 2014.

In an interim order passed by the Delhi High Court, Micromax has to pay a royalty that amounts up to 1% of the selling price of its devices to Ericsson. Ericsson had alleged that Micromax had refused to enter into a licensing agreement covering its patented innovations across several wireless technology standards such as GSM, EDGE and third generation (3G). The patents in question are a part of what are called “standards-essential” patents and holders are expected to license them on Free Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory (FRAND) terms. Micromax was said to have keen on negotiating a FRAND license with Ericsson but the companies could not come to a suitable conclusion.

The E-Committee of the Supreme Court has rejected the Government’s proposal to record the Court proceedings in a subordinate court.  The E-Committee rejected the proposal saying it was not acceptable at present. The proposal to record court proceedings was made by the government after an advisory council meeting of the Law Ministry held in August this year. This was as a part of the E-court project under which the government had sought to initiate recording of the proceedings in lower courts and subsequently bring the High Courts and the Supreme Court under its ambit.

The Supreme Court is facing an interesting case of murder where the accused was tried as an adult though the accused was a juvenile at the time of commission of offence.  Since, the accused was a juvenile when the offence was committed, the criminal trial stands vitiated and a fresh trial will have to be held before the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB).  The Court has sought the assistance of the Attorney General to resolve the issue.

In a letter to the High Courts, Chief Justice of India H.L. Dattu has asked for the judgments delivered by the Judges of the High Courts, in order to “ascertain quantitative as well as qualitative disposal of cases”. So far Reported Judgments have been accepted as one of the parameters for ascertaining “qualitative disposal”. Now as per this letter, the details of all judgments will have to be provided. The letter also demands resumes of the Chief Justices and the Judges in a specified format. It also demands details of total and reported judgments.

In Criminal writ petition before the Bombay High Court, the Petitioner was seeking criminal prosecution of a Judge in respect of acts discharged during judicial functions. It was held no Court shall entertain or continue any civil or criminal proceeding against a Judge for any act, thing or word committed, done or spoken by him, when, or in the course of, acting or purporting to act in the discharge of his official or judicial duty or function. The Court also held that no Judge can be prosecuted without a prior sanction, whether the alleged offence is punishable under the provisions of Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 or under the Indian Penal Code or under any other law.

The Central Information Commission has held that refusing to give details of foreign tours by ministers and officers, and staff particulars of AG without hearing the appellant was wrong.  It set aside the order of First Appellate Authority of Department of Legal Affairs as it was given without hearing the appellant.  CIC also recommended action against the officer for this ‘illegal’ order.

The Bar Council of India has recently notified the Certificate of Practice and Renewal Rules of 2014. Under these rules, a lawyer must practice for two years in a trial court and three in a high court before being allowed to practice before the apex court. The new rules also mandate the renewal of licenses every five years, in an attempt to “weed out” those lawyers who are no longer practicing.

In accordance with the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, the Ministry of Law and Justice has decided on the formation of a separate High Court for Andhra Pradesh. According to section 30 of the A.P. Reorganisation Act, 2014 the High Court of Judicature at Hyderabad shall be the common High Court for the State of Telangana and the State of Andhra Pradesh till a separate High Court for the State of Andhra Pradesh is constituted under Article 214 of the Constitution of India and other provisions of the Act.

The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) is all set to slash the prices of popular medicines for stress, hypertension, HIV, pain and pneumonia. The move seeks to cover as many as 100 new drugs and would apply to drugs of varying strengths. This is the second time that NPPA has proposed regulating the price of drugs outside the National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM), 2011. The announcement by NPPA comes in light of its findings that certain “anomalies or discrepancies” exist in the description/specification of drugs in NLEM.

We hope that this summarizes the last week's News. Your comments and suggestions are welcomed.

Until next post of weekly News updates.

Anjana Srinivasan, (2nd Year student of IIT Kharagpur Law School)

For 'OFF Court.'

Disclaimer: This blog or any post thereof is not to be considered to be in any way associated with the official stand of IIT kharagpur or RGSOIPL on the issues being discussed in the said post. The opinions on the blog are the authors own and should not be considered as legal advice.

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