Page 13 - Bombay High Court

Won't arrest Wankhede in money laundering case till March 1: ED to HC

The Enforcement Directorate on Tuesday told the Bombay High Court that it will extend till March 1 its previous statement that it would not arrest Sameer Wankhede, the former zonal director of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), in a money laundering case. A division bench of Justices P D Naik and N R Borkar accepted the statement and posted Wankhede's petition against the case on March 1. The bench directed the probe agency to produce a copy of the ECIR (complaint) on that day. The ED registered a money laundering case against Wankhede after taking cognisance of a first information report (FIR) by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in an alleged Rs 25-crore bribe demand from superstar Shah Rukh Khan's family to spare his son in a drugs case. Earlier this month, Wankhede filed a petition in the high court seeking to quash the ED's case and, through an interim order, sought protection from any coercive action and a stay on the probe. The probe agency had last week said it wo

Arrest of Chanda Kochhar, her husband amounted to abuse of power by CBI: HC

The arrest of ICICI Bank's former Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Chanda Kochhar and her husband Deepak Kochhar by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in a loan fraud case was "without application of mind and due regard to the law", amounting to an "abuse of power", the Bombay High Court has said. A division bench of Justices Anuja Prabhudessai and N R Borkar had on February 6 held the Kochhars' arrest as illegal and confirmed a January 2023 interim order passed by another bench granting them bail. In the order made available on Monday, the court said the CBI has been unable to demonstrate the existence of circumstances or supportive material based on which the decision to arrest was taken. The absence of such circumstances renders the arrest illegal, it said. "Such routine arrest without application of mind and due regard to the law amounts to an abuse of power," the court said. The court also refused to accept the probe agency's contention that the arre

HC asks Goa to stop operations of 175 commercial set-ups at Anjuna beach

The High Court of Bombay at Goa has ordered a panchayat to stop operations of 175 commercial establishments, including many restaurants and lodges, along the popular Anjuna beach over lack of permissions from various authorities. The division bench of Justices Valmiki Menezes and Mahesh Sonak on Tuesday directed the Anjuna-Caisua panchayat to stop the commercial operations of the structures immediately. The reason for the stoppage of commercial activities through the above 175 structures is that any permissions or clearances from the Town and Country Planning authorities back none of these structures, the Judges said. None of these structures have any completion or occupancy certificate. None of these structures are cleared from the perspective of fire safety, discharge of sewerage, etc, the Bench said. Of these commercial set-ups, the court observed, 45 have some sort of clearance from the Goa Coastal Zone Management Authority (GCZMA). Similarly, about 130 of these 175 structures

Ex-NCB officer Sameer Wankhede moves HC against ED's money laundering case

Former Mumbai NCB zonal director Sameer Wankhede has moved the Bombay High Court challenging the Enforcement Directorate's money laundering case against him, claiming that it was a "counter blast" to a complaint filed by him against the anti-drug agency's senior official. The ED registered the money laundering case against Wankhede after taking cognisance of a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) FIR in an alleged Rs 25 crore bribe demand from Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan's family to spare his son Aryan Khan in a drugs case. Wankhede, a 2008-batch Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer of the Customs and Indirect Taxes cadre, in his plea said the ED's case "smacks of malice and vendetta". The petition filed on February 6 through advocates Karan Jain, Sneha Sanap and Aditya Targe sought for the ED case to be quashed and an interim order to be passed granting him protection from any coercive action. Wankhede also sought for the probe being carried out by the ED to be stayed till

Bombay HC gives split verdict in case challenging FCUs under IT Rules

Justice Patel ruled in favour of the petitioners, striking down the rule and Justice Gokhale dismissed the petitions, and upheld the rule

PIL in HC against Maha govt's move to grant Kunbi caste status to Marathas

A public interest litigation (PIL) has been filed in the Bombay High Court challenging the Maharashtra government's move to grant Kunbi caste certificates to the Maratha community members in the state. The PIL, filed on Tuesday by one Mangesh Sasane, who claims to be the chairman of the 'OBC Welfare Foundation', said the state government by granting Kunbi certificates to the Maratha community was "eating into" the reservation of the Other Backward Classes (OBCs). The petition is likely to come up for hearing on February 6, as per the HC's website. The plea challenges five government resolutions issued from 2004 permitting the Marathas to seek Kunbi caste certificates. "Earlier, the process of granting Kunbi certificates to Marathas was difficult but with every agitation, the process was made easier. This was just to facilitate the Marathas (for reservation)," the petitioner's advocate Ashish Mishra claimed. The petition said that in 2021, the Supreme Court declared the Maharashtra

MLA disqualification: Notice issued to Maha Speaker on Shinde faction pleas

The Bombay High Court on Wednesday issued notice to Maharashtra Speaker Rahul Narwekar and the 14 MLAs of the Uddhav Thackeray group on petitions filed by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena challenging Narwekar's order to not disqualify the lawmakers. A division bench of Justices Girish Kulkarni and Firdosh Pooniwalla also issued notice to the Maharashtra Legislature Secretariat and directed all the respondents to file their affidavits to the petition. The bench posted the matter for hearing on February 8. The petitions filed by Bharat Gogavale, the chief whip of Shinde-led Shiv Sena, against the 14 MLAs said it was challenging the legality, propriety and correctness of the January 10 order passed by Speaker Narwekar dismissing the disqualification petitions filed by him against the lawmakers from the rival camp. Gogavale has sought HC to declare the speaker's order as bad in law, quash it and disqualify all the 14 MLAs from the Thackeray group Sena (UBT). Issue notice to

Public authorities can't claim relaxation in aviation safety: Bombay HC

Civil aviation safety norms cannot be relaxed even for a project by a public authority, the Bombay High Court held while dismissing the MHADA's petition against an order passed by the Union Ministry denying it permission to construct a 40-storey building near the airport here. A division bench of Justices Gautam Patel and Kamal Khata on January 10 dismissed the petition filed by the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) against a decision taken by the appellate authority of the Ministry of Civil Aviation in December 2021 setting a height restriction for a residential building proposed near the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport. The court, in its order, said the MHADA certainly cannot claim a legal, let alone constitutional, right to a taller building. "It cannot contend that civil aviation safety standards should not apply to it. It cannot contend that merely because this is an MHADA project, it exceeding a mandated height poses no danger to civi

SC extends stay imposed by Bombay HC on order granting bail to Navlakha

The Supreme Court on Friday extended the stay imposed by the Bombay High Court on the operation of its order granting bail to activist Gautam Navlakha in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case. A bench of Justices M M Sundresh and S V N Bhatti also directed the top court's Registry to place before Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud the National Investigation Agency's (NIA) plea to decide on tagging the petition with cases of other accused. The Supreme Court said it was not inclined to say anything on the merits of the case. The Bombay High Court had on December 19 last year granted bail to Navlakha but stayed its order for three weeks after the NIA sought time to file an appeal in the top court. Navlakha, who was arrested in August 2018, was in November last year permitted by the Supreme Court to be placed under house arrest. He is currently residing in Navi Mumbai. The case relates to alleged inflammatory speeches made at the Elgar Parishad conclave held in Pune on December 31,

Gautam Navlakha granted bail: who is he? What are charges against him?

Navlakha is a journalist and a human rights activist, who was formerly an editorial consultant with EPW. The NIA took over his case from the police In January 2020

Bombay HC grants bail to activist Gautam Navlakha in Elgar Parishad case

The Bombay High Court on Tuesday granted bail to activist Gautam Navlakha, arrested in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case. A division bench headed by Justice A S Gadkari said Navlakha's plea seeking bail was "allowed". The National Investigation Agency (NIA) urged the court to stay operation of the order for a period of six weeks so that it could file an appeal in the Supreme Court. The bench stayed the order for three weeks. Navlakha, who was arrested in August 2018, was in November last year permitted by the Supreme Court to be placed under house arrest. He is residing in Navi Mumbai at present. The high court granted Navlakha bail on a surety of Rs 1 lakh. He is the seventh accused in the case to be granted bail. In April this year, a special court had refused to grant bail to Navlakha, noting that there was prima facie evidence to show that the activist was an active member of banned outfit CPI (Maoist). In his appeal filed in the high court, Navlakha said the special court

Bombay HC: Can't deny maintenance to 2nd wife, while still married to first

Husband allegedly lied about legally separating from his first wife when marrying his second wife in 1989 and attempted to evade support based on this technicality

SC says unstamped agreements enforceable, overrules its April judgment

Stamping means when a stamp duty is paid on the value of the agreement as per the Stamps Act

Freedom of speech & expression can't go beyond limits of reasonableness: HC

Freedom of speech and expression cannot be allowed to go beyond the limits of reasonableness otherwise it could lead to disastrous consequences, the Bombay High Court has said. A single bench of Justice Milind Jadhav made the observation on Tuesday while upholding the termination of service of an employee with Hitachi Astemo Fie, an auto parts manufacturing company. The employee was terminated after he uploaded two posts of Facebook against the company. The company had approached the HC challenging an order of a labour court reversing the termination of the employee for putting provocative posts against Hitachi. Justice Jadhav in the order said the posts were directed against the company with a clear intent to incite hatred and were provocative. "A strong message needs to be sent out against such acts," the court said adding such acts should be nipped in the bud. "Freedom of speech and expression cannot be allowed to be transgressed beyond reasonableness. If that is allowed, it c

Maharashtra govt woke up only after court order: HC on fire safety rules

The Maharashtra government did not take any step and woke up only after the court issued an order, the Bombay High Court censured it on Friday, after it was informed that the notification for fire safety rules and regulations would be issued by May 2024. The high court earlier this week came down heavily on the state government for dragging its feet on the implementation of fire safety rules and regulations despite a report submitted by an expert committee in February this year. The court had sought to know from the Principal Secretary of the State Urban Development Department a timeline by when the notification would be issued. On Friday, additional government pleader Jyoti Chavan submitted to a division bench of Chief Justice D K Upadhyaya and Justice Arif Doctor that by May 2024 the mandated procedure would be completed and the final notification would be issued. The bench, while accepting this statement, remarked that had the government acted on the committee's report in ...

HC raps Maharashtra govt for letting budgetary allocation for drugs lapse

The Bombay High Court on Friday pulled up the Maharashtra government for not releasing or spending the entire budgetary allocation for procurement of drugs and medical equipment, citing that it was letting the amount lapse at the cost of the healthcare system. A division bench of Chief Justice D K Upadhyaya and Justice Arif Doctor sought to know from the government what steps have been taken to spend the budgetary allocation, the reasons for not releasing the amount entirely in the past and for not using the released sum. The court was hearing a bunch of petitions, including one initiated suo motu (on its own), raising concerns over the high number of deaths at government hospitals in Nanded and Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar districts. Advocate General Birendra Saraf informed the bench that as per earlier orders, the government has now appointed a chief executive officer for the Maharashtra Medicines Procurement Authority, and the process of issuing tenders to procure drugs and equipmen

Sebi must act in public interest: HC raps body order non-compliance

The Securities and Exchange Board of India is required to act in the public interest, the Bombay High Court said on Friday castigating the regulatory body for not complying with an order passed by the court in October. A division bench of Justices G S Kulkarni and Jitendra Jain said such an approach by the SEBI would cause a dent in the confidence reposed in the public body by investors. The HC had in October directed the SEBI to provide certain probe documents to the minority shareholders of a company. The company and the SEBI challenged this order in the Supreme Court, which dismissed the appeals in November. The petitioners are minority shareholders of Bharat Nidhi Limited and had made various complaints to SEBI accusing the company of violation of securities laws. The SEBI had then initiated investigations into the same, issued a show cause notice to the company and later passed a settlement order, which has now been revoked. The petitioners' case is that neither the investiga

Undertrial prisoners should be produced via video-conferencing : Bombay HC

The Bombay High Court has said undertrial prisoners should be produced before courts via video-conferencing (VC) whenever permissible, as bringing them physically to courts for every hearing was a cumbersome procedure. A single bench of Bharati Dangre directed the Maharashtra government to make necessary funds available to ensure that every court is provided screens and other video-conferencing facilities. The court order dated November 10 was made available on Friday. The issue was raised in a bail plea filed by one Tribhuvansing Yadav, who had claimed that his application for bail in the lower court was adjourned on 23 occasions, as he was not produced before the court physically or through video-conferencing. The bench noted that as per a report submitted by the inspector of prisons and correctional services in September, 39 prisons in Maharashtra have 329 sanctioned video-conferencing units, of which 291 were functional. The court, in its order, stated that if the facility is

Info gathered from social media cannot be part of pleadings in PIL: HC

Information gathered from social media cannot be part of the pleadings in a public interest litigation, the Bombay High Court said on Tuesday while hearing a petition claiming that 1,500 to 2,000 people lose their lives in unsafe water bodies in Maharashtra every year. A division bench of Chief Justice D K Upadhyaya and Justice Arif Doctor refused to hear a PIL filed by advocate Ajitsingh Ghorpade seeking a direction to the Maharashtra government to take measures to safeguard waterfalls and water bodies in the state. Ghorpade's lawyer Manindra Pandey claimed that around 1,500 to 2000 persons lose their lives at such unsafe waterfalls and water bodies every year, and the bench sought to know from where the petitioner had got the information on the deaths. Pandey then said they had procured the information from newspapers and social media posts. The court then said that the petition was vague and did not contain many details. "Information gathered from social media cannot be part of

Don't be so narrow-minded: SC dismisses plea seeking ban on Pak artists

The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed a plea seeking a complete ban on artistes from Pakistan to perform or work in India, and asked the petitioner not to be "so narrow-minded". A bench of justices Sanjiv Khanna and SVN Bhatti said it was not inclined to interfere with the Bombay High Court order which junked the plea filed by Faaiz Anwar Qureshi, who claims to be a cine worker and artiste. "You should not press this appeal. Do not be so narrow-minded," the bench said. The top court also refused the submission to expunge certain remarks made by the high court against the petitioner. The petition had sought the court's direction to the central government to impose a complete ban on Indian citizens, companies, firms and associations from employing or soliciting any work or performance, taking of any services, or entering into any association and so on with any Pakistani artiste, including its cine workers, singers, musicians, lyricists and technicians. The Bombay High Court had ...