The Week That Was: The Supreme Court of India

The week before the Apex Court shut down for the Dusshera vacations proved why judges too need a break. With a number of important judgments being passed, and the Court taking on the Centre in various cases, the week turned out to be more stressful than usual..Read the highlights of the week below..Monday, October 3.Nitish Katara murder case reaches closure.The case relating to the honour killing of Delhi based businessman Nitish Katara finally came to an end. The Apex Court awarded a sentence of 25 years Rigorous Imprisonment to prime accused Vishal and Vikas Yadav, and 20 years to Sukhdev Pehelwan..Bangalore’s ‘Jack the Ripper’ to be hanged.A bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi, Prafulla C Pant and UU Lalit dismissed the review petition filed by the BA Umesh Reddy. Hailing from Karnataka, his list of crimes include murder, rape, robbery and jumping lawful custody..Surgical Strike incites counter war.The website of the National Green Tribunal was hacked, in what is being presumed to be an ‘act of revenge’ for the surgical strikes being carried out across the border. However, only the home page displayed the message filled with profanities. Other pages seemed to load as usual..Tuesday, October 4.Bar Council of India to frame guidelines for State Bar Council elections.The Bar Council of India (BCI) was asked to frame guidelines for holding elections to the various state bar councils. The direction was issued by a Bench of Justices Pinaki Chandra Ghose and Amitava Roy in a batch of petitions challenging the BCI (Certificate of Practice) Rules..Wednesday, October 5.Court berates Centre for delayed response to drought.Hearing a PIL on the plight of farmers in 12 drought-affected states, the court came down heavily on the Centre for a “callous” and “irresponsible” attitude in dealing with the drought situation..Additional Solicitor General PS Narasimha, appearing for the Union government, tried to pacify the Court by saying that the Centre was revising their drought manual as per suggestions and recommendations made by experts and other bodies. The Bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and NV Ramana and cautioned the Centre that their past mistakes must not be repeated..Thursday, October 6.Women as ‘abettors’ no longer excluded from the purview of Domestic Violence Act.Not only men, but women too can be prosecuted under the Protection of Women against Domestic Violence (DV) Act. The Supreme Court has struck down the words “adult male” from the pertinent provision in the DV Act to lay down that a woman can also file a complaint against another woman, accusing her of domestic violence..Justices Kurian Joseph and Rohinton F Nariman ruled that this provision frustrated the objective of the legislation since “perpetrators and abettors of domestic violence” could be women as well..Delhi High Courts Registrar summoned.The Supreme Court was none too pleased with the Delhi High Court’s Registry..In a case pertaining to the grading given to the judicial officer, the High Court was unable to produce any materials on the basis of which the grading had been given..A Bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi and PC Pant then expressed their shock and dismay at the administrative lapses of the High Court. The Court was also critical of the court’s treatment of the judges of the lower judiciary remarking that “it was no way to treat judges”..Friday, October 7.BCCI rapped for “defiant attitude”.The BCCI invoked the Supreme Court’s wrath for its “defiant attitude” in implementing the directions of the Justice RM Lodha committee to reform cricket in the country and “hurriedly” disbursing around Rs 400 crore to state bodies. The Supreme Court has barred the BCCI from releasing any more funds to its state associations without compliance..Separating husband from old parents ground for divorce.It is a “pious obligation” of a son to maintain parents said the Supreme Court. Therefore, continuous efforts to coax a man to be separated from his family constitutes an act of ‘cruelty’ enabling him to get divorce..A bench of Justices Anil R Dave and L Nageshwara Rao made the observations while confirming the decree of divorce sought by a native of Karnataka, confirming that the act would constitute ‘cruelty’ to the husband..Haji Ali Ban under scanner, even as Board promises ‘secular solution’.The ruling came after a public interest litigation had urged lifting restriction on women inside the inner sanctum which houses the mazaar or tomb of the saint..The Apex Court on Friday stayed the high court order after the Haji Ali dargah management said that it will come out with a progressive stand in two weeks..Release of Genetically Modified Mustard stayed.The Supreme Court has stayed the release of genetically modified (GM) mustard for the next 10 days on an application seeking prohibition of open field trials and commercial release of GM mustard, on account of it causing irreversible damage to the domestic non-GM variants of mustard. The Court also directed the Centre to take into account public mandate, before taking a final decision..Prashant Bhushan told the court that the Centre had failed to make public the bio-safety dossier and only a summary of the same had been submitted till now..Review of Soumya rapists’s death penalty underway.The Supreme Court is also in the midst of hearing the review for the controversial Soumya case. The Apex Court had awarded life sentence to her killer, holding that the charge under Section 302 had not been proved. This week, it criticised the counsel for the State of Kerala, Senior Advocate KTS Tulsi, for being unprepared in a case of such importance.