Constitutional Law - Minority Rights – Scope of Article 30(1) – Clarification Sought – Eleven-Judge Bench Formulated Questions – The Full Bench was constituted to reconsider and clarify issues arising out of earlier rulings in St. Stephen’s College and Unni Krishnan cases – The Bench framed eleven comprehensive questions involving the definition of minorities, t...
Criminal Law - Conviction under TADA – Bomb Blast in Train – Life Sentence – Appeal Dismissed – The appellant was convicted for multiple offences including under Sections 3 and 4 of TADA, Section 302 read with Section 34 IPC, and Section 3 of the Explosive Substances Act in relation to a bomb blast in a Mumbai local train causing 12 deaths and injuries to 65 persons –...
Criminal Law - Murder – Sections 300 Exception 4, 304 Part I, 149 IPC – Article 136 – The High Court set aside the co-accuseds’ convictions under Sections 302/149 etc., finding no common object, and maintained the appellant Sukhbir Singh’s conviction under Section 302 – Held by Supreme Court: No common object under Section 149 was proved – Occurrence...
Essential Commodities – Delegated Legislation – Validity of Gujarat State Order of 1981 – Appellants challenged the State Order of 1981 and subsequent notification restricting stock limits for edible oilseeds and edible oils, contending repugnancy with Central Order of 1977 which had deleted those items in 1997. Held: State Order of 1981 was validly issued under Section 3 read wi...
Criminal Law – Duty of Appellate Court – Sections 325, 326, 34 IPC – Appeal Allowed; Remand Ordered – Appellants convicted under Sections 326, 325 read with Section 34 IPC – High Court dismissed their criminal appeal with a brief order stating that there was no error in trial court findings, without discussing prosecution or defence evidence – Held: In a crimina...
Section 27 Evidence Act – Discovery of a fact – Pulukuri Kottaya re-affirmed – Division Bench of Bombay High Court’s departure disapproved – “Fact discovered” not synonymous with “object recovered” – What is discovered is the fact that the object was concealed at a place to the accused’s knowledge – Recovery is merely a step t...
Criminal Law - Sentence for Rash and Negligent Driving – Sections 304A, 279, 337, 338 IPC – Appeal by State Allowed – Respondent convicted for rash and negligent driving causing death of four persons and injury to one – Trial Magistrate awarded six months’ imprisonment under Section 304A IPC – High Court modified sentence to fine of ₹5,000 – Held: High C...
Murder – Sudden Quarrel – Exception 4 to Section 300 IPC – Applicability – The incident arose out of a sudden quarrel without prior enmity – Both the trial court and High Court found that the occurrence was without premeditation and fell within Exception 4 to Section 300 – Conviction altered from Section 302 to Section 304 Part I IPC – Sentence reduced to ...
Juvenile Justice – Determination of juvenility - Murder case – Accused Pranjal Tiwari apprehended on 27.2.1997 for offence under Section 302/34 IPC – Claimed juvenility as date of birth 30.9.1981 – Trial court and Sessions Judge rejected claim citing doubts in documents and variation in ossification test – High Court in revision accepted documentary evidence and held ...
Criminal Writ - Police Surveillance – History-Sheet – Single Case Registered in 2016 – History-Sheet Quashed – Petitioner had only one criminal case registered in 2016 under the Cow Slaughter Act – No further offence, complaint, or FIR registered – Despite this, history-sheet under Category 18-A was opened and representation for closure rejected – Held: No...