Prolawctor Daily Legal News|19 August 2020

0

Daily Legal News

  • Final Year Exams to be conducted or not? – Apex court reserves its judgement in case of UGC Final Year Exams.

Today the Apex court has reserved its judgement in case of conduction of Final Year Exams. A three Judge bench of Justice Ashok Bhushan, Justice R. Subhash Reddy and Justice M.R. Shah has asked the parties to the case to file their written submissions, if any within a period of 3 days.

University Grants Commission (UGC) circular dated 6th July has been challenged by many students and petitions have been filed in that regard in Apex Court seeking to cancel the exams of final year students due to this pandemic scenario. UGC mentions that cancelling exams is not correct as they are degree courses which are very important for admissions to PG courses.

Solicitor General, Tushar Mehta on behalf of UGC has stated that setting a deadline is not a diktat but is in interest of students. UGC has mentioned that the guidelines issued by them were made after consulting the expert committees and keeping the health safety measures in mind.

Hearing all this the apex court has reserved its judgement and asked the parties to file written statements within 3 days.

  • Headmistress of a school in Calcutta accused for consenting to a textbook with racially insensitive image moves to High Court of Calcutta contending the suspension.

A school headmistress who has been suspended for allowing images that are racially insensitive in the textbook has challenged her suspension in Calcutta HC. The state while arguing in the case of “Shrabani Mallick v. The State of West Bengal & Ors” urged the court to hold off on quashing the suspension of the headmistress, asserting that upon being granted a permission by the headmistress such racially insensitive images were used. Consequently, the bench will hear the case tomorrow

  • The apex court delivers a notice to ICSE in a plea filed to apply the reassessment method adopted by CBSE for the students who failed 9th and 11th standard.

In a plea which has been moved by a minor by means of an advocate Alakh Alok Srivastava. Stating in the plea that if ICSE refuses to apply a similar resolution which has been adopted by CBSE to reevaluate the 9th and 11th graders it will lead to deprivation of right to equality granted by the constitution under the article 14. The plea further added that “at such a difficult time, all stakeholders will have to make joint efforts to relieve students from stress and to help them to mitigate their anxiety.”

Due to the multiple requests made by the parents, CBSE recently agreed upon providing the 9th and 11th graders a chance to appear in the school based test again. In this plea the ICSE students urge the court to adopt the same reassessment technique.

  • Karnataka HC questions government in interstate travel issues

A PIL has been filed by the residents of Karnataka and Kerala villagers to allow people to move freely in boarder villages by opening the sardar border check post in Karnataka. The court on Tuesday informed that on August 15 the Karnataka govt. had allowed to open the boarder to facilitate travelling for interstate. The Karnataka govt. had made a mandatory registration at seva sindhu portal and a medical check-up for all the interstate travellers. However, the court questioned the government that whether the restrictions of unlock 3 are applicable to interstate travellers or not and can the government impose restrictions which are not under the central if so under which legality can the government do? The next hearing would be on August 28.

  •  UGC reiterates the affidavit filed by the Odisha government in SC

The Odisha government has filed an affidavit in SC. The affidavit says that the Odisha government is not going to conduct final / terminal semester exams in the state of all educational institutions as the number of COVID cases have been increasing. Instead of exams they would take alternative methods for now as it affects the lives of many students, teachers and staff. Responding to the affidavit, UGC says that the state government has no authority to deviate the UGC guidelines under the UGC act which is traced to entry 66 of schedule VII of list I of Indian constitution. And also says that it already mentioned the need of conducting exams in the guidelines only. It also given flexibility to conduct exams and quality of examination process is not compromised.

  • Damage will be paid by the rioters for the Bengaluru violence:

In the Bengaluru violence, Karnataka government has ordered that the rioters of the violence have to pay for the damages caused to the property (public and private). In this case, BS Yediyurappa government is banking on a Supreme Court order which would allow the high court to set up investigation and on award compensation.

They also mentioned that they will approach the Honourable high court for appointment of claim commissioner as the honourable Supreme Court order. A special investigation team is also formed to look into the case.

  • Refusal of supreme court for the transfer of the contribution made by pm care fund for fighting against covid-19:

An NGO filed a petition seeking the transfer of the contributions in PM CARES Fund for fighting against the corona pandemic situation.

However, the Supreme Court of India rejected the petition by the NGO saying that individual organisations are free to contribute of their own and there is no prevention on it but in case of PM CARE fund it is different matter.

It also added that PM CARE fund is there for the public welfare trust and no direction can be issued to transfer funds.

  • AGR payments due, must be paid – Supreme Court on AGR case.

On Tuesday, Supreme Court heard the matter in relation to the AGR (Adjusted Gross Revenue) dues. A three judge bench comprising of Justice Arun Mishra, Justice Abdul Nazeer and Justice M.R. Shah is currently hearing the AGR case, wherein the Court Today stated that AGR payments which are due should be paid as soon as possible.

On this, Senior Counsel Harish Salve on behalf of Reliance Jio has mentioned that Reliance Joi has made all its payments which were due, Salve submitted that Reliance Jio has paid an amount of Rs. 195 crore AGR Dues and also assured the bench that they will continue to pay further but only on behalf Reliance Jio and not for others.

The court further questioned  that can spectrum under IBC (Insolvency and bankruptcy Code)  be sold to which Salve answered  that it can be used as an asset and as per the provisions of IBC spectrum can be shared and sharing usage charges have to be paid, which in this case is fully paid by Reliance Jio.

The Court was not satisfied with the arguments and raised the point that there are way too many dues which are pending to be paid and that the court cannot let it go so easily and decided to hear the matter conclusively. And then the hearing was adjourned and is scheduled to be held tomorrow.

Leave a Reply

error: Content is protected !!
%d bloggers like this: