Civil Law – Injunction Suit Without Declaration – Maintainability – Plaintiff sought injunction against defendant (her brother) on the basis of a Will executed by their father – Admitted that defendant was in possession – No prayer for recovery of possession or declaration of title made – Held: Where possession is with defendant and ownership is disputed, suit f...
Environment Law – Wetland Protection – Futala Lake – Construction Activities – Public Interest Litigation – Dismissal of Appeal – Supreme Court upholds Bombay High Court’s refusal to interfere in beautification projects near Futala Lake – Held: Futala Lake is a man-made waterbody, originally constructed for irrigation and drinking water purposes, hen...
Taxation – Works Contract – Transfer of Property in Goods – Printing of Lottery Tickets – Appellant engaged in printing lottery tickets using ink and chemicals procured by itself while paper was supplied by contractee – Assessing Authority levied tax under Section 3F(1)(b) of U.P. Trade Tax Act on ink and chemicals – Appellate Authority and Tribunal deleted levy...
Constitutional Law – Office of Profit – Articles 101 to 104 – Retrospective Exemption – Validity of Parliament (Prevention of Disqualification) Amendment Act, 2006 – Challenge to retrospective removal of disqualification under Article 102(1)(a) on ground that it sought to re-induct Members of Parliament whose seats had allegedly fallen vacant – Held: Parliament ...
Service Law – Departmental Enquiry – Scope of Judicial Review – Standard of Proof – Held, High Court justified in interfering where findings of disciplinary authority were perverse, unsupported by evidence and based on conjecture – Judicial review permissible when enquiry suffers from violation of natural justice or statutory provisions – Findings must rest on l...
Civil Writ – PIL - Right to Education – Safe Learning Environment – Article 21A – Enforceability – In light of the Kumbakonam school fire tragedy which killed 93 children due to lack of fire safety and building code compliance, the Court emphasized that the right to education under Article 21A includes the right to study in a safe and secure environment – Held: ...
Arbitration – Appointment of Arbitrator – Deviation from Contractual Clause – Clause 64 of the railway contract provided for a three-member Arbitral Tribunal consisting of serving Gazetted Railway officers – Respondent sought arbitration in 1999 but arbitration proceedings were repeatedly stalled due to resignations and non-cooperation from Railways – High Court appoi...
Senior Citizens Act, 2007 – Section 23(1) – Void Transfer – Gift Deed executed by senior citizen in favour of son and grandson declared void – Tribunal found that donees failed to maintain and provide necessities to the transferor – Held, express recital in gift deed that transferee shall maintain transferor not necessary – Such expectation is implicit when tran...
Army Service – Discharge – Rule 13(3) of the Army Rules, 1954 – Validity of discharge for inefficiency – Respondent, a recruit, was discharged from service for having failed twice in the clerks’ proficiency and aptitude tests – Learned Single Judge upheld the discharge under Rule 13(3) holding that the competent authority was entitled to discharge a recruit cons...
Service Law – Compassionate Appointment – Fraudulent claim of adoption – Burden of proof – Respondent claimed appointment on compassionate grounds as the adopted son of deceased Head Master – Produced an unregistered deed of adoption and a joint succession certificate with his natural father – Application for compassionate appointment initially rejected by compe...