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Delhi HC weekly round-up
1. [PMLA case- Accused gets permission to travel abroad for son's admission] While Observing that even if a person is an accused who is facing trial, he should not be denied to enjoy his special moments in life, the Delhi High Court has allowed an man accused of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) case to travel abroad for his son's admission.The bench said that the fact that admission of a child whether in school or in a college/University is a moment the parent and the child cherish forever.“It is a feeling of togetherness as well as support by the mere presence with each other, which is expected by each child and parent while achieving such a milestone. Even if a person is an accused and is facing trial, he should not ordinarily be denied these special moments of small pleasures in life", the court said in its order,
Bench: Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma
Case Title: Parvin Juneja v. Directorate of Enforcement & Anr.
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2. [Coal Scam case] The Delhi High Court has granted interim bail to former Coal Secretary HC Gupta and former joint-secretary in the Ministry of Coal (MoC), K S Kropha in a case related to irregularities in the allocation of a coal block in Chhattisgarh. While granting bail, the bench noted that Gupta and Kropha were sentenced to three and two years of imprisonment respectively, by the Trial Court earlier in August. Justice Sharma issued notice to the Central Bureau of Investigation in both Gupta and Kropha’s pleas. The court posted the matter for further consideration along with the appeals filed by the other convicts in the case. All the appeals will now together be heard on September 26, 2023.
Bench: Justice Dinesh Kumar Sharma
Case Title: KS Kropha v. CBI & H C Gupta v. CBI
3. [POCSO Act] The Delhi High Court has dismissed an appeal filed by a man against his conviction and sentence under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act for raping a 4-year-old minor. The court while dealing with one Ranjeet Kumar Yadav’s appeal seeking direction to set aside a judgment passed by the trial court, whereby he was convicted under Sections 342, 363, and 376 of IPC and Section 6 of the POCSO Act, said, “The trial court has correctly observed that injury on the private parts in cases of sexual offences depends on various factors such as depth of insertion, among others. It is not necessary that in every case there would be an injury caused. Therefore, mere absence of injuries cannot be a ground to hold that penetrative sexual assault did not take place”. While dismissing the appeal, the bench upheld the 12 years sentence awarded to the convict in 2021 for raping a minor. He was also awarded three years of rigorous imprisonment for kidnapping the minor. “I find no infirmity in the impugned judgment convicting the appellant for the offences under Sections 342/363/376 of the IPC and Section 6 of the POCSO Act. In view of the above, there is no merit in the appeal and the same is dismissed”, the court ordered.
Bench: Justice Amit Bansal
Case Title: Ranjeet Kumar Yadav v. State of NCT of Delhi
4. [Launch of Digital Platform for sharing trial court records] The Delhi High Court on the 77th Independence Day launched several new information and communication technology (ICT) projects. The several new projects include, “digital platform for sharing trial court record” and its “web accessibility complaint cause list” for visually impaired lawyers, litigants and public at large by using accessibility text to speech software. The projects were inaugurated by Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma, Justice Rajiv Shakdher, Chairman, Information Technology Committee, Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva, Justice Sanjeev Narula, Justice Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav, Member Information Technology Committee and the other companion judges.
5. [SDM Jyoti Maurya's plea against fake news & songs on her personal life] Sub-divisional Magistrate (SDM) Jyoti Maurya has moved the Delhi High Court seeking direction to take necessary action for deleting news, scenes, audio, video, fake news, ugly songs circulating on various social media platforms. The SDM has moved the court through Advocate Satyam Singh Rajput and has also sought directions to the News Channels to not share any content against her. She has further sought directions to the news channels to set up their “internal complaint redressal mechanism” and ensure prior consent from the person before releasing any content, news, song, video, image or views related to personal life in public domain or social media. The plea states, “The petitioner has a fundamental right to privacy, which includes the right to keep personal and intimate matters private and free from unwarranted intrusion. Publishing personal information, messages, and recordings on social media without the petitioner's consent violates this right and causes significant distress and harm to the petitioner”.
Case Title: Jyoti Maurya v. Union of India through Ministry of Information and Broadcasting & Ors.
6. [False allegations of illicit relationship ultimate kind of cruelty] The Delhi High Court has upheld a family court's order granting divorce to a man on the ground of "immense mental cruelty" by his wife. A division bench observed that “false allegations of illicit relationship” are the “ultimate kind of cruelty” as it reflects a complete breakdown of “trust and faith” amongst the spouses without which no matrimonial relationship can survive. The court made the observation while upholding a family court’s order of January 28, 2019 granting divorce to a man on the ground of “mental cruelty” by his wife. The bench said that any “denial of cohabitation” by other spouses amounts to severe cruelty. It noted that “no evidence” whatsoever had led to establish that the man ever had any illicit relationship. “This is almost like a final nail in the matrimonial relationship”, it observed. The court also said that there was “no reason” to disbelieve the man’s testimony that the appellant used to go away for a period of 15 days to 30 days at times without informing the respondent (husband) and that she also withheld herself from cohabitation. “This conduct was compounded by appellant’s (woman) frequently leaving the matrimonial home”, it added.
Bench: Justice Suresh Kumar Kait and Justice Neena Bansal Krishna
Case Title: Lata Kumari v. Om Prakash Mandal
7. [90-days parole to serial killer Chandrakant Jha] The Delhi High Court has granted 90-day parole to serial killer Chandrakant Jha who is serving a life term after being convicted in three murder cases.While granting parole to Jha, the bench noted that Jha had spent more than 15 years in jail and had not been released in the last 3 years while his conduct behind bars had been "satisfactory". The single-judge bench granted 90 days parole to Jha on furnishing a personal bond in the sum of Rs.25,000 with two sureties in the like amount to the satisfaction of the concerned Jail Superintendent. The court directed Jha not to leave the city without permission, to provide his mobile phone number to the jail authorities as well as the SHO concerned at the time of his release on parole and mark his presence at the local police station every third day. Counsel for Jha sought parole on the ground that he has four daughters and has to finalise a suitable groom for the eldest daughter and it is his duty being her father to find a suitable match for her and get her engaged as his wife alone shall not be able to handle everything on her own. It was submitted that there is no other male member in the family apart from him.
Bench: Justice Rajnish Bhatnagar
Case Title: Chandrakant Jha v. State of NCT of Delhi
8. [Plea challenging DU'S notification to consider CLAT 2023 instead of CUET 2023 for 5-yr law course] The Delhi High Court has questioned the Delhi University's decision to admit students to the five-year integrated law course solely on the basis of the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT-UG), 2023.The division bench said that when other central universities are taking admissions for the course on the basis of the Common University Entrance Test (CUET) UG 2023 introduced by the Ministry of Education (MoE), Delhi University is “not special”. “Under the National Education Policy, once the decision is taken by the Government of India, Ministry of Education that admissions are to be done in central universities only on the basis of CUET, then you are not special. Very sorry,” CJ Sharma remarked orally. The court directed DU’s counsel to file the counter affidavit and also granted time to the Centre to file its response in the plea. Accordingly, the court posted the matter for further consideration on August 25, 2023.
Bench: Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Sanjeev Narula
Case Title: Prince Singh v. Faculty of Law, University of Delhi & Ors.
9. [Plea against DU's delay in accepting PhD thesis] Ph.D. research scholar and National Students Union of India (NSUI) Secretary, Lokesh Chugh has submitted before the Delhi High Court that Delhi University has already awarded some of his batchmates their PhD thesis submission certificates. The court was hearing Chugh’s plea against alleged "inaction and delay" in processing his Ph.D. thesis, despite the court setting aside DU’s order debarring him from taking his exams for his alleged involvement in the screening of the banned BBC documentary on Prime Minister Narendra Modi- “India: the Modi Question” at the Faculty of Arts on January 27. “Learned counsel appearing on behalf of the respondent-university prays for some time to seek instructions and to file response qua the averments made by the petitioner. List this matter on 05.10.2023”, the court ordered.
Bench: Justice Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav
Case Title: Lokesh Chugh v. University of Delhi & Ors.
10. [Appeal against single-judge's order to restain streaming of movie ‘Nyay: The Justice] Late Bollywood Actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s father on Thursday moved the Delhi High Court against an order refusing to restrain the continued online streaming of the movie ‘Nyay: The Justice’, based on his son's life. The division bench issued notice to several people, including the filmmakers, against whom the late actor's father Krishna Kishore Singh has alleged that they are taking "unfair commercial advantage" of his deceased son's life. The court has posted the matter for further consideration on November 16, 2023. The movie was released on the OTT platform Lapalap in June 2021, a year after SSR's demise. SSR was found dead in his apartment in Mumbai's suburban Bandra on June 14, 2020.
Bench: Justices Yashwant Varma and Dharmesh Sharma
Case Title: Krishna Kishore Singh v. Sarla A Saraogi & Ors.
11. [Women's Safety] The Delhi Police has informed the Delhi High Court that 6630 CCTV cameras have been installed in vulnerable areas of the national capital as part of measures to strengthen the safety of women. “These CCTV cameras are monitored in five master control rooms”, the Delhi police told a division bench. The division bench granted Delhi Police time to consider the proposal of installing panic buttons on poles on which these cameras are installed for helping women in distress. The court was hearing a suo moto Public Interest Litigation (PIL) initiated by it in 2012 on the issue of the safety and security of women after the horrific December 16, 2012, gang-rape of a 23-year-old woman in a moving bus. She succumbed to her injuries days later.
Case Title: Court on its own Motion v. Union of India Thr. Secretary Ministry of Home Affairs and Anr.
12. [Plea challenging show cause notices issued in renovation of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's official residence] The Delhi High Court has sought the response of the Delhi government and others on a plea by six PWD officials challenging the show cause notices issued to them by the Directorate of Vigilance in connection with alleged "gross violations" of rules in the renovation of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's official residence. The plea challenged a June 19, 2023 show cause notice issued by Special Secretary (vigilance), Directorate of Vigilance in connection with “construction” work of a “bungalow” which is the official residence of the Delhi Chief Minister. The court issued notices to the Delhi government through the Directorate of Vigilance, Special Secretary (Vigilance) and Public Works Department on the petition and granted them four weeks to file the counter affidavit in response to the plea. The court posted the matter for further hearing on October 12, 2023.
Bench: Justice Chandra Dhari Singh
Case Title: Ashok Kumar Rajdev and Ors. v. Government of NCT of Delhi and Ors.
13. [Articles alleging sexual exploitation by Christian school principal of nuns & Hindu women] The Delhi High Court has ordered Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) weekly ‘Organiser’ and another website ‘The Commune’ to take down an article alleging that the principal of a Christian school was sexually exploiting nuns and Hindu women. The article was titled as ‘Indian Catholic Church Sex Scandal: Priest exploiting nuns and Hindu women exposed’. The article further claimed that the principal of the Christian school was also engaged in sexual activities with staff members, chefs, and students and had also been accused of financial wrongdoings. The bench ordered, “An ex parte ad-interim injunction is passed against the Defendants, directing the Defendants, their partners, directors, servants, agents and/or any other person acting on their behalf to remove the offending article available at the website of Defendant No. 1 (The Organizer) and from the website of Defendant No. 2 (The Commune)”. The court said that the reports were published in a “reckless manner without any factual verification” and were tarnishing the image and reputation of the plaintiff, who was a respectable citizen of the country and associated with several educational institutions.
Bench: Justice Jyoti Singh
Case Title: XYZ v. Bharat Prakashan (Delhi) Ltd. And Ors.
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