Legal

Six former Congress MLAs on Friday withdrew their plea from the Supreme Court against the Himachal Pradesh Assembly Speaker's decision to disqualify them from the House.

A Bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta was told by senior advocate Abhinav Mukherjee, appearing for the former MLAs, that they want to withdraw the petition.

“We knew this was going to happen due to the elections,” the Bench observed while allowing them to withdraw their plea. The six former MLAs are now contesting Assembly bypolls, which were necessitated after their disqualification, as BJP candidates.

On March 18, the top court had refused to stay the Himachal Pradesh Assembly Speaker’s order disqualifying the former MLAs who had cross-voted in the Rajya Sabha polls in the state.

The six former Congress MLAs - Sudhir Sharma, Ravi Thakur, Rajinder Rana, Inder Dutt Lakhanpal, Chetanya Sharma and Devinder Kumar Bhutto - were disqualified on February 29, for defying a Congress whip to be present in the House and vote in favour of the Himachal Pradesh government during the cut motion and budget.

The Supreme Court on Friday gave Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal interim bail till June 1 for campaigning in the ongoing Lok Sabha elections.

A Bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta said Kejriwal, arrested in a money laundering case linked to the alleged excise policy scam, will have to surrender and return to jail on June 2. The Bench refused the request of senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, appearing for Kejriwal, that the interim bail be granted till June 5 - a day after the votes are counted on June 4.

The apex court is hearing Kejriwal's plea challenging Delhi High Court’s last month verdict upholding his arrest in the case.

The Supreme Court on Friday disposed of a plea filed by former Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren seeking a direction to the high court to deliver its verdict on his petition challenging his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate in a money laundering case.

A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta observed that the petition has become infructuous as the high court has delivered its judgement on May 3 and Soren has already challenged the same in the apex court. Soren had also sought interim bail for campaigning in the Lok Sabha elections till the high court delivers its verdict on his plea against arrest.

"This has become infructuous," the bench told senior advocates Kapil Sibal and Arunabh Chowdhury, who were appearing for Soren.

Sibal said Soren's special leave petition (SLP) challenging the last week's verdict of the high court is coming up for hearing before the top court on May 13. He said both the petitions be heard together on May 13.

The bench, however, said Soren's counsel can raise all the contentions in the SLP which will come up for hearing on May 13.

"Forget that he is a former chief minister. I (Soren) have a right as a citizen to be dealt with fairly by the high court," Sibal said. "You have challenged the high court order in another petition. You argue there," the bench said, while disposing of his plea.

On April 29, the apex court had said it would be open for the high court to pronounce its verdict on Soren's plea challenging his arrest in the case. The order was reserved by the high court on February 28.

In this case, the Enforcement Directorate is probing the alleged "huge amounts of proceeds of crime generated by manipulation of official records by showing dummy sellers and purchasers in the guise of forged/bogus documents to acquire huge parcels of land having value in crores''. Soren, in his plea filed through advocate Pragya Baghel, had said there has been a pattern that has emerged and it is reflected in the actions of the ED for prosecuting and targeting individuals, especially political leaders belonging to the opposition, on the basis of "cooked-up allegations".

"Knowing that the elections are around the corner and with a malafide intent of paralysing the leaders of opposition political parties, of which Hemant Soren being the leader of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) was arrested on January 31, 2024," his plea said.

Soren was arrested on January 31 in the case after he resigned as Jharkhand chief minister, and party loyalist and state transport minister Champai Soren was named as his successor.

The Delhi High Court on Friday sought the stand of the Enforcement Directorate on bail plea by BRS leader K Kavitha in a money laundering case related to the alleged excise policy scam.

Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma listed the matter for further hearing on May 24.

Kavitha has challenged the trial court's dismissal of her bail application in the money laundering case. The trial court also rejected her bail plea in the corruption case lodged by the CBI.

A special court for UAPA cases in Maharashtra’s Pune on Friday convicted and sentenced two men to life imprisonment and acquitted three, including key accused Virendrasinh Tawde, in the murder of well-known rationalist Dr Narendra Dabholkar.

Dabholkar (67), an anti-superstition crusader, was shot dead while on a morning walk on Omkareshwar Bridge here on August 20, 2013. Reading out the order in a packed courtroom, Additional Sessions Judge (Special Court) P P Jadhav said that the prosecution had proved the charges of murder and conspiracy against Sachin Andure and Sharad Kalaskar and they have been awarded life imprisonment and a fine of Rs 5 lakh.

According to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Andure and Kalaskar had shot Dabholkar.

The court acquitted accused ENT surgeon Tawde, Sanjeev Punalekar and Vikram Bhave for want of evidence. The prosecution examined 20 witnesses while the defence examined two witnesses during the trial. The accused were opposed to Dabholkar's crusade against superstition, it had stated in its final arguments.

Pune police initially probed the case. The CBI took over the probe in 2014 following a Bombay High Court order and arrested Tawde linked to the Hindu right-wing organisation Sanatan Sanstha, in June 2016.

According to the prosecution, Tawde was one of the masterminds of the murder. Sanatan Sanstha, to which Tawde and some of the other accused were linked, was opposed to the work carried out by Dabholkar's organisation, the Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti (committee for eradication of superstition, Maharashtra), it claimed.

The CBI first named fugitives Sarang Akolkar and Vinay Pawar as the shooters in its charge sheet. But later it arrested Sachin Andure and Sharad Kalaskar, and claimed in a supplementary charge sheet that they had shot Dabholkar. Subsequently, the central agency arrested advocate Sanjeev Punalekar and Vikram Bhave as alleged co-conspirators.

During the trial, advocate Virendra Ichalkaranjikar, one of the defence lawyers, had questioned the CBI's flip-flop over the shooters' identity.

The accused were booked under Indian Penal Code sections 120 B (conspiracy ), 302 (murder), relevant sections of the Arms Act, and section 16 (Punishment for terrorist act ) of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act or UAPA. While Tawde, Andure and Kalaskar are in jail, Punalekar and Bhave are out on bail.

Dabholkar's murder was followed by the murders of three other rationalists/activists in the next four years: communist leader Govind Pansare (Kolhapur, February 2015), Kannada scholar and writer M M Kalburgi (Dharwad, August 2015) and journalist Gauri Lankesh (Bengaluru, September 2017).

It was suspected that the culprits in these four cases were linked to each other.

The Bombay High Court issued notices to the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) following a plea by a journalist alleging irregularities by NCB DDG Gyaneshwar Singh.

The Bombay HC kept the matter for hearing on June 11.

Gyaneshwar Singh was the head of the SIT probing allegations against former NCB zonal director Sameer Wankhede. In February, the Enforcement Directorate registered a case against Wankhede in an alleged Rs 25-crore bribe demand from actor Shah Rukh Khan's family to spare his son in a drug case.

The CBI booked Wankhede in the drugs-on-cruise case, stating that the deal was closed for Rs 18 crore and that assets owned by Wankhede were not proportionate to his known sources of income.

A special court for UAPA cases in Maharashtra’s Pune is likely to pronounce today the verdict in the murder case of anti-superstition crusader Dr Narendra Dabholkar.

Dabholkar (67), a well-known rationalist, was shot dead while on a morning walk on Omkareshwar Bridge here on August 20, 2013. Five persons have been named as accused in the case. Additional sessions judge A A Jadhav of the special court for cases under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act is likely to pronounce the judgement on Friday, said special public prosecutor Prakash Suryawanshi on Thursday.

The prosecution examined 20 witnesses while the defence examined two witnesses during the trial.

The accused were opposed to Dabholkar's crusade against superstition, the prosecution had stated in its final arguments. Pune police initially probed the case. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) took over the probe in 2014 following a Bombay High Court order and arrested Dr Virendrasinh Tawade, an ENT surgeon linked to the Hindu right-wing organisation Sanatan Sanstha, in June 2016.

According to the prosecution, Tawade was one of the masterminds of the murder. Sanatan Sanstha, to which Tawade and some of the other accused were linked, was opposed to the work carried out by Dabholkar's organisation, the Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti (committee for eradication of superstition, Maharashtra), it claimed.

The CBI first named fugitives Sarang Akolkar and Vinay Pawar as the shooters in its charge sheet.

But later it arrested Sachin Andure and Sharad Kalaskar, and claimed in a supplementary charge sheet that they had shot Dabholkar. Subsequently, the central agency arrested advocate Sanjeev Punalekar and Vikram Bhave as alleged co-conspirators.

During the trial, advocate Virendra Ichalkaranjikar, one of the defence lawyers, had questioned the CBI's flip-flop over the shooters' identity.

The accused were booked under Indian Penal Code sections 120 B (conspiracy ), 302 (murder), relevant sections of the Arms Act, and section 16 (Punishment for terrorist act ) of the UAPA. While Tawade, Andure and Kalaskar are in jail, Punalekar and Bhave are out on bail.

Dabholkar's murder was followed by the murders of three other rationalists/activists in the next four years: communist leader Govind Pansare (Kolhapur, February 2015), Kannada scholar and writer M M Kalburgi (Dharwad, August 2015) and journalist Gauri Lankesh (Bengaluru, September 2017).

It was suspected that the culprits in these four cases were linked to each other.

The legal team of Delhi Chief Minister and AAP National Convener Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday raised an objection to the affidavit filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) opposing his interim bail in the Supreme Court.

The team issued a press release revealing that a formal complaint in this regard has been lodged with the Supreme Court's registry.

Denouncing the ED's affidavit as a blatant disregard of legal procedures, the release said the affidavit was submitted without taking the SC's approval and issued at a time when the matter is already slated for a final decision in the top court today.  The right to campaign in an election is neither a fundamental nor a constitutional right, the Enforcement Directorate submitted to the apex court on Thursday, a day ahead of the scheduled pronouncement of the court's order on grant of interim bail to Kejriwal in an alleged money laundering case.

In a fresh affidavit filed in the top court to thwart the release of the embattled Aam Aadmi Party national convenor, the central probe agency said there were numerous examples where politicians contested elections while in judicial custody, and some even won, but were never granted interim bail for campaigning.

The Supreme Court on Thursday adjourned till after summer vacations a petition challenging the constitutional validity of a provision of passport law and a notification providing for issuance of passport for only a year to an accused on receipt of a 'no objection certificate' from a court.

A bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Ujjal Bhyan deferred the matter after it was informed that senior advocate Jayant Bhushan, appearing for the petitioner, was not available. The summer vacations of the top court will commence on May 20 and the court will resume its sitting on July 8.

The apex court had earlier issued notices to the Centre and Regional Passport Office at Ghaziabad on the plea filed by lawyer Prashant Bhushan, who gets passport for a period of only one year on account of some FIRs lodged against him for allegedly taking part in protests and 'dharna'. Bhushan has filed an appeal in the top court against the Delhi High Court's January 2016 verdict which had rejected his plea against the provision of the Passport Act.

"Petitioner had challenged the constitutional validity of section 6(2)(f) of the Passports Act, 1967 which states that passport shall not be issued/reissued to a person accused of committing any offence," the plea has said. "The blanket prohibition in section 6(2)(f) has been partially lifted vide a notification issued in 1993 which states that passport may be issued/reissued if the applicant produces an NOC from the court concerned and if no period is mentioned in the NOC, then the passport shall be issued/reissued for only one year.

The petitioner had also challenged the constitutional validity of this notification," it said.

Bhushan's counsel had told the top court that the provision concerned does not make distinction between serious and not so serious offences and puts equal restriction on accused in getting new or renewed passport and it is violative of the right to equality.

The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court on Wednesday said that Muslims cannot claim rights in a live-in relationship when they have a living spouse, as such a relationship is not permitted under the tenets of Islam.

The court made the observations while hearing a writ petition by Sneha Devi and Mohd Shadab Khan, who were seeking protection from police action after the woman's parents filed a kidnapping case against Khan, and directed that Sneha Devi be sent to her parents under security. The petitioners claimed that they were in a live-in relationship but the woman's parents lodged a police complaint accusing Khan of kidnapping and inducing her to marry him.

They also sought protection of their lives and liberty, saying they were adults and as per the apex court, they were free to reside together in a live-in relationship. On an inquiry, the bench came to know that Khan was married to Farida Khatoon in 2020 and the couple had a baby.

The court observed that constitutional morality and social morality in the matter of marriage institutions required to be balanced, failing which social coherence for achieving the object of peace and tranquillity in the society would fade and disappear.