02 March, 2016

Legal News:2 March 2016

TERI boss R.K Pachauri was charged with sexually harassing and outraging the modesty of an ex woman colleague
More than a year after an FIR was registered against him, Delhi Police has formally charged former Teri boss R K Pachauri with sexually harassing and outraging the modesty of an exwoman colleague.
Filing a 100-page chargesheet in a trial court with annexures running into 1,250 pages -police said Pachauri not just sexually harassed the woman, he also stalked and intimidated her. Metropolitan magistrate Shivani Chauhan will hear the case on April 23.
Pachauri has denied the allegations. If convicted, he faces imprisonment of up to seven years.Police have prima facie found no sub stance in Pachauri's claims that his computer and email account were hacked although the forensic reports in this connection are awaited. Police will file a supplementary chargesheet with these reports.
Pachauri has been chargesheeted for offences punishable under sections 354 (assaultcriminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 354 A (sexual harassment), 354 D (stalking), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) of the IPC.
Special team comprising doctors and forensic scientists to examine the medical reports and evidence in the Sunanda Pushkar case
Delhi Police has written to the director general of health services (DGHS) to form a special team comprising doctors and forensic scientists to examine the medical reports and evidence in the Sunanda Pushkar case. The move comes in the wake of the differences between Delhi Police and the AIIMS medical team over this case.
The cops and the AIIMS team have had a number of exchanges for nearly a year but they are not on the same page over a number of aspects. The move, however, is just another formality which will not make any difference to the case, said a police officer.
While the SIT is on the verge of winding up its probe, the economic offences wing has already completed its investigation. The cops will soon file a status report in the court and seek a lie detector test on Shashi Tharoor. How ever, senior officers maintain that the probe may reach a dead end if the exact cause of Sunanda's death is not established. The FBI report on her viscera samples has revealed she died of poisoning but has ruled out any radioactive substance.
The police and the AIIMS team had discussed two probabilities apart from the obvious one: murder. While one was suicide, the other was of an overdose of Alprax.
The AAP government has formally asked CBI to probe the distribution of auto permits
The AAP government has formally asked CBI to probe the distribution of auto permits in the city . In December last year, the government had suspended three officials of the transport department for allegedly colluding with intermediaries over distribution of auto permits. It went on to cancel all 932 letters of intent (LoI) issued in December.
Air pollution: NGT notice to 13 cement firms for violation
National Green Tribunal issued notices to 13 cement manufacturers in Delhi and the rest of NCR for allegedly violating its order on overloading of vehicles. It also pulled up the companies for allegedly flouting provisions of the Motor Vehicles Act and causing air pollution.
Petitioner Neena Pradeep, in her application, said the companies have been overloading their trucks with cement and clinkers in order to save toll tax. Despite having their own private independent railway siding, the cement manufacturers have been transporting cement by road, the plea said.
Court again drops case for bid to kill self against Irom
Human rights crusader Irom Sharmila Chanu, who has been fast ng for over 15 years demanding the repeal of the Armed Forces (Special Po wers) Act in Manipur, was on Monday released by an Imphal court which acquited her of charges levelled against her under Section 309 IPC (attempt to suicide).
Sharmila was last arrested on January 23, 2015. For he last 15 years, police have been arresting her every year, charging her with the same crime attempt to suicide every time. Interestingly , for the last few years, courts have been acquitting her every year.
Enforcement Directorate gets court nod, will seek to extradite Lalit Modi from UK                                                                                                                                      
A special court in Mumbai allowed the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to initiate extradition proceedings against former IPL chairman Lalit Modi, who is wanted in several cases of tax evasion and violation of the Foreign Exchange Management Act and the PMLA Act.
The ED will now seek Modi's extradition from the UK through the ministry of external affairs. Modi has been living outside India since 2010 and has refused to join the probe. The income tax department, the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence and the ED have cases pending against him.
The former IPL chairman came on the radar of investigating agencies for the first time in 2009 when an income tax search on his premises revealed huge financial irregularities in the conduct of IPL tournaments.
Army under High Court glare for stripping youths at job test                                    
The Patna high court took suo motu cognizance of pictures published in a newspaper showing candidates taking an Army recruitment exam in Bihar's Muzaffarpur on Sunday in undergarments.
Altogether 1,159 candidates wrote the test, which the Army Regional Office (ARO) in Muzaffarpur conducted for recruitment of clerks.
After advocate Dinu Kumar mentioned the pictures in the court, a division bench of acting Chief Justice Iqbal Ahmed Ansari and Justice Chakradhari Saran Singh treated it as a PIL. The bench directed ministry of defence secretary to file his reply explaining why the candidates had to remove their clothes to prevent cheating.
New bill to `settle' surrogacy issues
The government has devised provisions in an upcoming bill to bring transparency in dealing with issues related to the parentage of surrogate children.
In a written reply in the Rajya Sabha, minister of state for health Shripad Yesso Naik said, “Yes, to make issues of parentage of children born out of surrogacy , legal and transparent, provisions have been made in the draft surrogacy (regulations) bill, 2016.”
However, by defining a couple as a married man and woman, the proposed bill shuts the door on homosexuals and people in live-in relationships.
Currently, the surrogacy business is estimated at around Rs. 900 crore in the country and is a growing industry.
NHRC notice to govt for scrapping relief on key drugs                                                
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has sent notices to finance ministry and health ministry for the recent withdrawal of customs duty exemption on a host of life-saving drugs, including some for cancer and kidney stones.
The government's move was criticised as it would lead to a rise in prices of essential medicines. Taking suo motu cognizance of the matter, the commission has sought responses from the ministries within four weeks.
Court: Apple can't be forced to hack iPhone in NY drug probe
A federal magistrate judge has denied the United States government's request that Apple extract data from an iPhone in a drug case in New York, giving the company's pro privacy stance a boost as it battles law enforcement officials over unlocking the device in other cases.
Judge James Orenstein took particular aim at a 1789 statute called the All Writs Act that underlies many government requests for extracting data from tech companies. The act says courts can require actions to comply with their orders when not covered by existing law. The All Writs Acts also being invoked in the light over an iPhone in the San Bernardino shooting, which has pitted Apple against government. Both the FBI and Apple have called for Congress to step in to help settle the question of when law enforcement should get access to citizens private data.
Sikh sues US Defence Department for religious bias
A Sikh combat soldier sued the US defense department  saying his beard and turban had made him the subject of religious discrimination because the army was putting him through arduous helmet and gas mask tests that no other soldier goes through.
The complaint, filed in federal district court in Washington by Captain Simratpal Singh, a decorated West Point graduate, said unlike other soldiers he had been ordered to undergo three days of performance tests that “target him solely because of his religious beliefs.”Singh was ordered on Friday to begin three days of tests to determine if his helmet would fit over his hair and if his gas mask could seal to his face. He passed the gas mask test .
Singh, 28, grew up in an observant Sikh family in Seattle and was awarded the Bronze Star for exemplary service in Afghanistan.
Court rejects application for Bhatt's remand
The sessions court rejected Gujarat government's demand for seven-day police custody of sacked IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt more than four years after his arrest in connection with an FIR accusing him of coercing his subordinate to swear on a false affidavit.
Police sought his custody on the ground that the investigator wanted to seize his laptop to find out the communications he made with regard to the affidavit he had tendered before the Supreme Court appointed amicus curiae Raju Ramachandran. This was after Bhatt had filed an affidavit in the SC accusing then chief minister Narendra Modi of asking officials to allow the Hindus to vent their anger in the aftermath of Godhra train carnage. Principal district judge PR Patel turned down the remand plea mainly because of the lapse in time and that a chargesheet was also filed in this case.
Bhatt was arrested in September 2011 after his subordinate KD Panth filed an FIR accusing him of forcing him to swear an affidavit supporting his claims of being present in the meeting at Modi's residence on February 27, 2002 evening.

Supreme Court notice to Centre over petition challenging talaq

The Supreme Court  sought the response of the Centre on a petition filed by a Muslim woman challenging the triple talaq provision in the Muslim personal law for grant of divorce.
A bench of Justices Anil R. Dave and A.K. Goel issued a notice after hearing senior counsel Amit Singh and counsel Balaji Srinivasan questioning the legality of the provision.
The petitioner, Shayara Banu, is a female Muslim citizen who was divorced by her husband as her family was unable to meet the demands for additional dowry. The divorce was by way of triple-talaq (talaq-e-bidat) which was confirmed by a divorce, she said and prayed for quashing the provision. The petitioner wishes to secure a life of dignity, unmarred by discrimination on the basis of gender or religion. She, therefore, seeks a writ or order or direction declaring the practices of talaq-e-bidat (instantaneous triple-talaq), nikah halala (bar against remarriage with divorced husband without an intervening marriage with another man), and polygamy under Muslim personal laws as illegal, unconstitutional and violative of Articles 14, 15, 21 and 25 of the Constitution.
The practices under challenge, which practically treat women like chattel belonging to men, are neither harmonious with the modern principles of human rights and gender equality (as enshrined in the Constitution as well as various international treaties and covenants), nor an integral part of Islamic faith. Various noted scholars have also expressed the view that talaq-e-bidat has no foundation in the holy Quran.
In fact, many Islamic nations, including Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Iraq, have banned or restricted such practices, while they continue to vex not only Indian Muslim women like the Petitioner but also the society at large, notwithstanding that the Muslim community of India has itself been clamouring for reform and ban of oppressive practices that have no basis in Islam or the Holy Quran.The Petitioner has been divorced by her husband as her family was unable to meet the demands for additional dowry. The divorce was by way of triple-talaq (talaq-e-bidat) which was confirmed by a divorce, she said and prayed for quashing the provision.

Lady Shri Ram College has started a special law course on women's issues

Lady Shri Ram College For Women has started a certificate course titled 'Women and Law' to give legal literacy to girls and educate them about the practical application of laws pertaining to women's issues. The course started with an interactive session attended by around 50 students.
The sessions are being organised by Women's Development Cell and the internal complaints committee at LSR in collaboration with Delhi State Legal Services Authority. The course consists of six sessions of two hours twice a week and a field trip to Saket district court and the high court.

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