The Week That Was: The Delhi High Court

Even during a comparatively slow week, the Delhi High Court did witness some interesting matters in the past seven days. Here is a recap of the interesting cases Bar & Bench tracked this week..Monday, September 5.Arbitrary implementation of attendance regulations in law schools.Triggered by the suicide of third-year law student Sushant Rohilla, an Amity Law School alum filed a PIL against the allegedly arbitrary implementation of attendance regulations. When the matter came up before a division bench, Amity Law School not only challenged the petition’s maintainability, but also requested the bench not to issue notice in the matter. Time was granted to the respondents to file counters, with the matter to be heard on September 14..On the same day, the Supreme Court of India took suo moto cognizance of Rohilla’s suicide, after Rohilla’s friend wrote a letter to the Chief Justice of India, TS Thakur..Breaking: Fali Nariman to assist Supreme Court in suo motu petition over Sushant Rohilla suicide.Tuesday, September 6.Justice Muralidhar grants injunction to ITC against market leader Britannia.In a passing off suit between ITC and Britannia regarding packaging of biscuits, Justice Muralidhar granted an injunction to Britannia to phase out their stock in the market within four weeks. Subsequently, Britannia filed a counter suit against ITC in the same court..Wednesday, September 7.Are Delhi buildings earthquake-proof?.A PIL was brought before Badar Durrez Ahmed and Ashutosh Kumar, JJ. regarding the safety of the buildings in Delhi in case of natural disasters. The High Court had earlier observed that Delhi falls in a high risk seismic zone IV and directed the authorities to make an action plan to ensure that the buildings in Delhi survived an earthquake..On Wednesday, the Court was informed that the plan on making buildings compliant with the National Building Code 2005 was awaited from the three municipal corporations. A meeting was to be held the next day to discuss and draft an action plan..Friday, September 9.The Biscuit Battle Continues: Britannia’s appeal against ITC.On Friday, the division bench of Court room no. 3 heard the appeal against the injunction order passed against Britannia by Justice Muralidhar earlier this week. In the course of dramatic arguments made by Senior Counsels Sudhir Chandra and Rajiv Nayar for Britannia and ITC respectively, the bench observed that their prima facie opinion was against ITC, however, they had an open mind to hear further arguments and did not grant stay on the injunction. The case will be heard on the coming Wednesday..The Biscuit Battle: All that happened in the Delhi HC in ITC v Britannia (Round 2)