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The Supreme Court has held that an order of compulsory retirement is neither punitive nor stigmatic in character and does not cast any aspersion on the conduct of an employee, nor does it imply any finding of misconduct. A bench of Justices Manmohan and Shree Chandrashekhar, which upheld the Chhattisgarh government's order of compulsory retirement to five of its 14 employees, said it was based on subjective satisfaction of the competent authority that the employee's continued retention in service is no longer conducive to public interest. "...an order of compulsory retirement is neither punitive nor stigmatic in character. Such an order does not cast any aspersion upon the conduct of the employee nor does it imply any finding of misconduct," it said. "The ultimate assessment as to whether an officer has become dead wood or whether his continuance would be detrimental to administrative efficiency falls within the domain of the executive. However, such satisfaction cannot be found upo
Observing that independence of the judiciary is not a matter of "political convenience", the Supreme Court on Friday issued a contempt notice to all office bearers of the Keralam unit of the Congress over a social media post targeting Chief Justice of India Surya Kant. A bench of justices Aravind Kumar and Vipul M Pancholi said the Constitution is supreme and no individual or political organisation stands above it. "Judgements are always open to criticism. Freedom of expression can't be a shield of intimidation to interfere with the administration of justice. Howsoever high position a person occupies, any attempt to undermine the authority of the court needs to be dealt with an iron hand. "Authority of the court doesn't require political endorsement; it rests on the rule of law. Where administration of justice is established, the law must take its course," the bench said. Independence of judiciary is not a matter of political convenience, the court said, adding that judicial restra
The Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that the 24-hour constitutional deadline for producing an arrested person before a magistrate begins from the moment he is detained, and not from the time the police formally makes the arrest. Holding that there can be no artificial distinction between 'arrest' and 'detention' for the purpose of Article 22(2) of the Constitution, a bench of Justices Ujjal Bhuyan and Atul S Chandurkar said any interpretation allowing the police to exclude the period of pre-arrest detention would be contrary to the constitutional mandate. "The view that 24 hours begin only from the formal arrest is contrary to the constitutional mandate of Article 22(2) and Section 56 of the BNSS," the bench observed. The verdict that the only period that can be excluded while computing the 24-hour deadline is the time reasonably required to travel from the place of arrest to the magistrate's court. The time spent on inquiry, investigation, search or seizure before formal arrest ..
The Supreme Court on Wednesday said it would hear on November 19 concerns raised over the Election Commission's recent clarification allowing voters, whose names were omitted from the draft electoral rolls, to seek fresh enrolment through Form 6 during the special intensive revision of electoral rolls in Delhi. Observing that people need not be apprehensive as the court was hearing the matter, a bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana asked petitioners Anjali Bharadwaj and Amrita Johri to file an appropriate application placing the EC's November 3 clarification on record. The bench said the matter would be taken up for hearing on November 19. The CJI also indicated that the bench could consider asking the EC to extend the deadline, if necessary. The issue was brought to the court's notice by advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the petitioners. He said that the EC's November 3 clarification appeared to be contrary to the Supreme Court's ...
The Supreme Court on Wednesday held that a 1974 Constitution Bench ruling upholding states' power to impose additional sales tax or surcharge calculated as a percentage of the existing sales tax continues to hold the field, saying a reference on the issue had become academic. A seven-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant unanimously held that the legal question referred to it nearly 27 years ago no longer required adjudication, as the statutory provisions under challenge had since been replaced or amended and the Goods and Services Tax (GST) law had come into force. "The question referred to is of no practical significance and now academic. Consequently, the question referred to does not survive for adjudication by a seven-judge Bench, and the reference has to be answered accordingly," the CJI, who wrote the judgment on behalf of himself and five other judges, said. The bench also comprised Justices K V Viswanathan, S V N Bhatti, Joymalya Bagchi, N V .