Delhi high court

The Delhi High Court on Monday agreed to hear a plea challenging the establishment and jurisdiction of the {National Green Tribunal (NGT)} and also the rules for appointment of its chairperson, judicial and expert members.

A bench of Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice Jayant Nath admitted the plea which has sought to declare NGT as illegal, invalid and ultra vires of the constitution.

Filed by advocate Ravinder Kumar, the plea challenged the constitutional validity of various provisions of of the NGT act relating to the establishment and composition of the tribunal and qualifications required for appointing the chairman and judicial and expert members.

The plea alleged that the fixation of the terms of office of the chairman and judicial members smacked of political intervention statutorily incorporated in the NGT Act to accommodate post retirement, re-employment extension and benefits to judges of the Supreme Court, high courts and bureaucracy.

A total of 2,273 cases were disposed of and a settlement amount of over Rs. 28.37 crore was awarded to claimants by various Delhi courts during the seventh monthly National Lok Adalat held on Saturday.

A Delhi State Legal Services Authority spokesperson said 40 benches were constituted in which 2,236 cases were disposed of pertaining to traffic challans, criminal compoundable cases and a settlement amount of Rs 16,28,18,058 was awarded to claimants.

It was the seventh monthly Lok Adalat organised in district court complexes -- Tis Hazari, Karkardooma, Patiala House, Saket, Rohini and Dwarka -- under the supervision of Delhi high court Chief Justice G Rohini.

Lok Adalats were organised in all the three debt recovery tribunals where 23 cases were disposed off and the settlement amount was approximately Rs 11,38,89,204.

Lok Adalats were also organised in district consumer forums in which three benches were constituted. Fourteen cases were settled and the settlement amount was Rs 69,30,025.

As Common Cause vs Abhijat & Others came up before Justices Kurian Joseph and Arun Mishra at court No.13 on Friday (September 11) morning, Justice Arun Mishra tried to persuade Prashant Bhushan, counsel for Common Cause, not to go ahead with the contempt petition, as it would not serve any purpose. Justice Mishra said the onus is on the bar, which has to control the striking lawyers. “You have to discipline yourself”, he told Bhushan.

The post colonial-era building with the red sandstone dome on Delhi’s Bhagwaan Dass Road is home to an elite class of lawyers, who are likely to be the most expensive in the world: they are typically paid between Rs 5 and 15 lakh per hearing.

Interviews by Legally India with more than 32 Delhi lawyers who brief seniors in the Supreme Court and Delhi high court reveal all…

In my experience of filing RTI requests with multiple public authorities, no government body comes close to the SC in terms of contempt towards RTI applications. This attitude seems to be pervasive in the higher judiciary. The summary denials, fighting ordinary applicants before the CIC, and even hauling them before the Delhi HC suggests that as far as India’s higher judiciary is concerned, transparency is good for others, not for itself.

writes Aniket Aga in The Wire.

The Delhi high court on Thursday said Ola cabs, an app-based taxi service, can run only on Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) fuel in the national capital.

Congress leader and senior lawyer P Chidambaram represented ANI technologies (Ola cabs) in the high court and promised that diesel-based vehicles of the taxi service will be taken off the roads within two weeks.

Respecting the court’s order, Ola Cabs on Thursday said: “We respect the orders and will continue to be committed to building mobility for a billion people.

“We have introduced a technology that will help distinguish CNG and diesel vehicles on its app, which will help the company keep track of the drivers’ compliance with the cleaner fuel norms in Delhi. It will also enable users to choose only CNG vehicles for usage within Delhi.

Meanwhile, another leading player, Meru Cab service has also introduced a new ride-sharing service, named “CarPool” for its customers across India.

In a release, Meru Cabs CEO Siddhartha Pahwa said the service will enable personal vehicle owners and city commuters to reduce their daily travel costs, get an opportunity to meet new people and simplify their commute in safe and secured environment.

The Delhi high court fined Ramgopal Varma and his production house a sum of Rs 10 lakh as punitive damages in a judgment in favour of Sholay Media and Entertainment by Justice Manmohan Singh on 24 August 2015, reported Asian Age and others.

Read judgment.

The suit was filed through Sascha Sippy, represented by Anand & Anand managing partner Pravin Anand and advocate Geetanjali Vishwanathan, while the defendants were not present and ex parte, according to the judgment.

It was held by the court that the Varma remake’s publicity material, movie, similar plot and characters along with the music, lyrics and background score and even dialogues from the original film Sholay, gave “an overall impression that it is a remake of the film Sholay” and, “amounts to infringement of copyright”.

The court held the defendants guilty of infringement which is, “a deliberate act to gain profits.” The court also said that, “the defendants have distorted and mutilated the original copyright work of the plaintiffs”.

The court passed the judgment which also barred the defendents permanently from manufacturing, selling, offering for sale or distributing any of materials involved with Sholay or the characters, music or the dialogues on top of the punitive damages and costs to be given to the plaintiff.

The Indian Express reported that the draft of the Law Commission report on the death penalty has recommended abolition of the death penalty immediately in all except terrorism cases, while hoping for a “swift and irreversible” “movement towards absolute abolition” of the death penalty.

Saikrishna & Associates managing partner Saikrishna Rajagopal won an order from the Delhi high court, modifying its earlier trademark injunction against German auto maker Audi from using the “TT” trademark, which was also used by Delhi-based garment maker TT Textiles.

A court here on Thursday held four December 16, 2012 gang rape convicts guilty in a robbery case that took place on the same night.

Additional Sessions Judge Reetesh Singh convicted them in the robbery case and posted the matter for September 2 for arguments on quantum of sentence.

The four gang rape convicts -- Vinay Sharma, Akshay Thakur, Mukesh and Pawan Gupta -- are being tried for allegedly beating up and robbing carpenter Ram Adhar, before raping and assaulting a 23-year-old physiotherapist in a moving bus here December 16, 2012.

They have been sentenced to death in the rape case by a trial court, which was confirmed by the Delhi high court. The matter is now pending in the Supreme Court.

A wide variance exists between how a case progresses through various high courts (HCs), according to a study by Bengaluru-based non-governmental organization (NGO) Daksh aimed at understanding how delays take place in the judicial system and how they affect the delivery of justice.

The Delhi high court on 21 August 2015 released the final merit result of candidates prepared by the selection committee after the selection process started in June 2014.