Prolawctor Daily Legal News Update| 4 September 2020

Daily Legal News Update

SC passes an interim order in Loan Moratorium Case.

A three judge bench of Justice Ashok Bhushan, Justice Subhash Reddy and Justice M.R. Shah of the Apex court is currently hearing the matters in relation to the extension of loan moratorium period and also to waive off the interest that will be charged on interest. In yesterday’s hearing the court adjourned the matter and Solicitor General Tushar Mehta had to made submissions.

In today’s hearing the court has passed an interim order in case where all the Accounts that were considered as NPAs (Non-Performing Assets) till 31/08/2020 would be further allowed to be considered as NPAs till the court passes further orders. While passing this interim order the court has granted relief to the borrowers.

During the hearing of the matter the court was faced with many petitions wherein issues have been raised regarding extension of the loan moratorium period but the accounts that were declared to be NPAs would cease to operate as NPAs till 01/09/2020 and when the question was raised yesterday in this matter and today the bench granted relief to the borrowers in respect of declaring accounts as NPAs till further orders. The Court was adjourned for today and the matter would be further heard on 10/09/2020.

48,000 Slums ordered to be removed near Delhi Railway Tracks & construction of smog towers in area – Supreme court

Supreme Court Three Judges bench of Justice Arun Mishra, Justice B.R.Gavai and Justice Krishna Murari have ordered 48,000 jhuggie jhopris/ Slum Dwellings near the Delhi Railway tracks to be removed by the concerned authorities within a period of 3 months and have also stated that any court permitting stay on the removal of the Slums would not be affective. This case was filed by the environment activist M.C.Mehta wherein slum dwellings near the Railway tracks are increasing which are the encroachments within the safety zones of the railways and the petitioner prayed that it be removed.

It was also mentioned before the court by the Environment Pollution Prevention and Control Authority (EPCA) that 140 km long belt near the railway tracks is affected by pollution as 48,000 slum dwellings cover upto 70 km area and the rest area is being dumped with waste; the court has therefore in this matter ordered that the authorities should construct smog towers in the areas with heavy pollutions within a period of 10 months as the place should be protected environmentally.

Sushant Singh Rajput Case Updates

The Bombay HC today was faced by Two PILs in relation to the matter of death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput. The death of the actor has taken a very controversial turn and the case is passed to CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) for further investigation. The media coverage in this case has reached certain boundaries which have disappointed the petitioners and the result is filing of PILs by 8 former Mumbai police officers and other by 3 activists.

On behalf of the Mumbai police officers the contentions are made that media reportage in this particular case has reached a certain point that it has been affected the neutral investigation carried out by the police officials, it has be pointed before court that the police officers are given names like co-conspirators behind the death of the actor.

On behalf of activists it has been contended that there is no fair trial by the media in this particular case, the press is not following any ethics which have been laid down by the press council, arguments were made by the petitioners that how unprofessional act was performed by the press wherein the photos of the corpse of the late actor were circulated all over social media and that how the news channels were twisting the matters before the public domain which was just for want of high TRP Ratings and the aspect of fair trial was missing.

After hearing all the contentions of the petitioners the court was adjourned for lunch since no news channels were present in the hearing and it was requested by the Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh that they should be given chance and since none of the parties appeared before the court the matter is adjourned till next week.

NLSIU 2020-2021 admissions based on NLAT Entrance test.

The National Law School of India University has issued a notification in relation to the new entrance test that would be conducted by it for the admissions of academic year 2020-21. In its official notice it has mentioned that the admissions to NLSIU for LLB Hons. and LLM  Programmes  will not be provided on basis of the CLAT Exam but student seeking for admissions in the university will have to opt for NLAT (National Law Aptitude Test).

The university has stated that the application for NLAT will commence from 3^rd September to 10^th September and exam will be conducted on 12^th September; this is an online entrance exam for which students can appear from their home. The university states that it follows the pattern of trimester which has 3 terms of 90 days and if the university fails to conduct the exam before September end it would land in trouble.

Further the notification states its rules regarding the test which includes:

• Exam will be conducted in English with duration of 45 minutes, it will be MCQs, and the max marks would be 80.
• NLSIU will not be responsible for internet connectivity issues on part of participants.
• Test will contain 5 subjects similar to CLAT – English Language, Current Affairs with General Knowledge, Legal Reasoning, Logical Reasoning and Quantitative Techniques
• Marking Scheme would be 2 marks for correct answer; -0.25 for unanswered questions and -0.50 foe wrong answers.
• The test is not open book exam and students cannot use any assistance for answers.
• After answering one question student cannot revisit the same question once the question is answered it is recorded and cannot be changed.

Abovementioned are the guidelines with respect to the new entrance Test NLAT 2020.

Criminal Complaint filed Against the Bloomsbury Publishing House

Advocate Monika Arora has filed a criminal complaint under sections 403,405,406,409,405,420,425,426 of IPC for criminal breach of trust, cheating, mischief and misappropriation of property against the Bloomsbury Publishing House Pvt. Ltd. In relation to her book named ‘Delhi Riots 2020: The Untold Story’ wherein the publishing house at the very end moment refused to publish the book by rescinding the contract from their part.

The Author also filed a complaint with the Delhi Police Commissioner against Arfa Sherwani, Aatish Taseer, William Dalrymple, Saket Gokhale, Nandini Sundar, Meena Kandasamy, The Quint and News Laundry on the grounds of criminal intimidation.

Advocate Arora states in her complaint that the book launch event was planned on 22^nd August 2020 which was to be live and at the very end moment the Publishing House rescinded the contract which was shocking for the author as the book was on Amazon website and was trending in the ‘political’ category. The complaint also mentioned that the book was taken down from the Amazon website and PDF version of the book was sold which would hamper the sale of book. Due to all the above mentioned grounds the author of the book has filed a criminal complaint.

Opening of Doongerwadi for the annual Parsi Prayer Day allowed by the Bombay HC.

A division bench of Justice R.D. Dhanuka and Justice Madhav Jamdar of Bombay High Court permitted to open the fire temple at Doongerwadi for the purpose of The Parsi Prayer day where the relatives of the deceased family members come to pray. Though the court has granted permission on the grounds that, strict SOPs in relation to the guidelines issued by government would be followed. The petitioner Viraf Mehta for Bombay Parsi Panchayat has assured that strict guidelines would be followed and has mentioned before the court rules relating strict physical distancing like:

• 5 pavilions would be setup which would be properly sanitized time to time.
• Only 6 persons will be allowed along with 2 priests in pavilion at a time.
• Body temperatures of the visitors would be recorded before entering the temple also their hands would be sanitized.
• 30 minutes time slots would be permitted for the visitors between 7 am to 430 pm.
• There would be no religious functions or congregations.

The bench after being satisfied by the strict rules submitted on behalf of the petitioners allowed reopening the fire temple for only the particular day and also emphasised on the usage of face masks and hand gloves [Pdf here].

Orissa HC asks lawyers to ‘Maintain Minimum Decorum’.

A single judge bench led by Justice Biswanath Rath of the Orissa High Court was hearing a matter where the advocate was presenting his matter from inside his vehicle, when judge questioned him about his surrounding he explained that he had a hearing at other court and was traveling for the court, the judge while expressing his disappointment stated that advocates appearing via video conferencing should maintain the courtroom decorum.

Judge also pointed out certain cases where there have been contempts on part of advocates like they argue from their lawn or they have their wife in the background or they eat during the hearing is going on. Judge has expressed that the lawyers should have certain decency in this matter regarding their surroundings, their attire and appearances, they should maintain the basic courtroom decorum even though the case hearing is via video conferencing. Judge has asked the Bar Council to frame strict laws regarding the courtroom decorum while the matters are scheduled through video conferencing.

Review petition filed by 6 ministers for postponement of JEE & NEET Exams will be heard tomorrow by Apex Court.

A review petition was filed by the ministers of 6 states namely Moloy Ghatak (Minister-in-Charge, Government of West Bengal); Dr Rameshwar Oraon (Cabinet Minister, Government of Jharkhand); Dr. Raghu Sharma (Cabinet Minister, Government of Rajasthan); Amarjeet Bhagat (Minister, Government of Chattisgharh); Balbir Singh Sidhu (Cabinet Minister, Government of Punjab); Uday Ravindra Samant (Minister, Government of Maharashtra) for postponement of JEE & NEET Exams as a result of on-going pandemic; wherein they had mentioned that the SC order to conduct JEE and NEET exams was not in good favour for the students.

The plea was filed by the ministers against the order of 17^th August were the apex court allowed the conduction of these exams. In the petition the petitioners have stated that there have been defaults on part of the ruling government as it has failed to take necessary steps. The petition also states that the court while quoting ‘Life Must Go On’ has not seen that it is in bad faith regarding student’s health. This review petition will be heard tomorrow by the Apex Court.