Bombay high court

Angry exchanges between senior advocate Kapil Sibal, representing the social activist Teesta Setalvad and her husband, Javed Anand, and the Solicitor General, Ranjit Kumar, marked the hearing before Court No 3 at 2pm before justices Anil R Dave, Fakkir Mohammed Ibrahim Kalifulla and V Gopala Gowda.£££para£££

The Maharashtra government will have to figure out its stance on the legality of casinos in the state, within six months, after the Bombay high court today ordered it to take a decision on the yet-not-notified Maharashtra Casinos (Control & Tax) Act 1976.

Hariani & Co solicitor Anirudh Hariani briefed senior counsel Mihir Desai and instructed advocate Gaurav Mehta on the petition of Jay Sayta seeking directions to take a conclusive step about the 38-year-old law.

A bench of justices VM Kanade and Shalini Phansalkar today disposed of Sayta’s petition which was filed in February, as reported by Legally India.

Sayta today told Legally India in an email that the bench directed the state government to take a reasoned decision on what it intends to do with the Act. He said that this decision is consistent with the Supreme Court’s year 1988 decision in Aeltemesh Rein V Union of India.

The court has also allowed Sayta to file a fresh petition if he is not satisfied with the Maharashtra government’s course of action on this order.

Moneylife Journalists Debashis Basu and Sucheta Dalal may not be compensated with Rs 1.5 lakh each by the National Stock Exchange (NSE), after the Bombay high court stayed its own order that had fined the NSE to pay them, reported DNA.

The NSE had filed a Rs 100 crore defamation claim against the journalists for reporting, on 8 July, that some NSE employees were allegedly guilty of insider-trading, according to Mint.

Bombay high court justice Gautam Patel had fined the NSE to pay Basu and Dalal instead, as he reportedly found the NSE’s defamation suit and conduct to be “attempts at deflection and evasion”. However the division bench of justices VM Kanade and Shalini Joshi have stayed justice Patel’s order.

The Supreme Court bench comprising justices TS Thakur and Kurian Joseph, in their order first granted permission to file the SLP in the appeal against Bombay high court order staying the Maharashtra government’s ban on sale of meat on some days of Paryurshan, an annual holy festival of Jain community. The ban was to be effective on September 10 and 17.

The Indian judiciary has been grappling with the question of whether to permit foreign lawyers to practice in India for more than two decades. After yesterday’s hearing in the Supreme Court, it doesn’t look like any end is in sight.

Verus won an order lifting the city-wide Mumbai ban on the sale of meat that was imposed by the government in solidarity with the Jain fasting period.

Cannabis remains contraband in India, after the Bombay high court dismissed a petition filed in April to decriminalise its use, on the ground that the legislature, and not the court, was the appropriate forum for the challenge.

Bombay high court chief justice Mohit Shah retired on Tuesday, a fter presiding over the court for over five years, reported The Indian Express.

Shah had started practising in the Gujarat high court in 1976 and was elevated as a judge on the bench of the same court in 1995. He is known for his judgments related to social causes and was even praised by prime minister Narendra Modi for preserving the Bombay high court’s history in the form of a museum, according to the Express report.

Shah was quoted as observing,

From my experience I feel the people here (Mumbai) have a better sense of social responsibility and civic sense. We should test the efficacy of a law from the point of view of a common man and not only lawyers. It should meet the expectations of the common man and not judges and lawyers.

I feel that we should test the efficacy of a law from a common man’s point of view. It should meet the expectations of the common man and not judges and lawyers.

Justice VK Tahilramani has been appointed as the acting Chief Justice of Bombay high court until a regular appointment is made.

The Bombay high court on Monday directed its registry to prepare a fresh paper-book -- a compilation of documentary evidence in the 2002 accident case and conviction of Bollywood superstar Salman Khan -- by Friday as it was not made properly as per rules.

At a hearing before Justice AR Joshi, Salman’s counsel Amit Desai said certain documents, which were not required, have been included and pointed out other discrepancies in the paper-book that was submitted on Monday.

This was the second time after August 26 that the high court directed the registry to file a fresh paper-book in the case in the actor’s appeal challenging his five-year sentence by a lower court.

The high court is hearing Salman’s appeal against the sessions court verdict of May 6 which found him guilty in the accident case in Bandra on September 28, 2002 in which one person was killed and four people were injured.

At the previous hearing, Justice Joshi had ruled that the paper-book must be prepared afresh in keeping with the high court manual and, if required, assistance could be taken from the judge who had conducted the trial.

Yesterday (September 1) in Court No 8 of the Supreme Court, before justices Ranjan Gogoi and NV Ramana, a case of civil contempt against the Central Government was argued unsuccessfully by the petitioner in the main case of National Federation of the Blind vs Sanjay Kothari, Secy Deptt Of Personnel and Training.

The Supreme Court today dismissed a petition seeking cancellation of bail of film star Salman Khan who was convicted and sentenced in a hit and run case.

The apex court bench headed by Chief Justice HL Dattu declined the plea by one of the alleged victims associated with the case and belonging to Mumbai Police.

The petitioner had challenged the Bombay high court order granting bail to Salman.

Salman was granted bail by the Bombay high court on the very day he was convicted and sentenced by the sessions court.

On May 6, Khan was found guilty in the September 28, 2002 hit and run case and sentenced to five years’ jail for various charges, including ‘culpable homicide not amounting to murder’.

One person was killed and four injured when the actor’s car ran over them while they were sleeping on a pavement.