Legal News at Vakilno1.com

No political influence in commutation of death: Apex Court

New Delhi,  The Supreme Court Wednesday said it will decide on pleas for commuting death sentences to life imprisonment on the grounds of delay purely on the basis of law without being influenced by politics.

“If there are 20 people sentenced to death, then … some must have the support of some group or other… some have no godfather. How do we deal with this?” Justice G.S. Singhvi and Justice S.J. Mukhopadhaya said while hearing a petition by Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar, who is on death row, and his wife Navneet Kaur.

Bhullar’s hearing seeking commutation of his death sentence to life term on the grounds of inordinate delay in deciding on his mercy plea will now come up for hearing Oct 18.
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Gujarat minister headed ‘crime syndicate’, apex court told

New Delhi,  The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Tuesday told the Supreme Court that former Gujarat minister Amit Shah was the “commander of crime syndicate with some officials of state police as its foot soldiers” who would eliminate crucial witnesses in the 2005 Sohrabuddin Sheikh staged shootout.

The apex court bench of Justice Aftab Alam and Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai was told that at every stage of the investigation, either the witness was made to retract his statement or was eliminated.

Additional Solicitor General Vivek Tankha referred to the instance of prosecution witness Azam Khan retracting his statement and the alleged staged shootout killing of witness Tulsiram Prajapati to buttress his argument.
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Apex court relief for Himachal on power sharing

New Delhi,  The Supreme Court Tuesday said that Himachal Pradesh was entitled to 7.19 percent of the power from the Bhakra-Nangal and Beas hydropower projects and awarded compensation to the hill state.

The compensation, which will be calculated by the central government, would be paid by Punjab and Haryana as the two states were the beneficiaries of the denial of power to Himachal Pradesh over the last few decades.

Himachal Pradesh had sought 12 percent of the power generated by the Bhakra Beas Management Board hydropower projects in the state.
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Portuguese Supreme Court cancels Abu Salem’s extradition, CBI to appeal

New Delhi,  The Portuguese Supreme Court has cancelled the extradition of alleged mobster Abu Salem to India but the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) said it would challenge the verdict.

Salem had contended before the Portuguese court that his extradition should be cancelled as the conditions for this had not been met. However, this plea “has been rejected by the Supreme Court. Therefore, CBI is on a secure wicket,” CBI spokesperson Dharini Mishra told reporters.

She said the agency would approach the external affairs ministry on filing an appeal in Portugal’s Supreme Court challenging the decision.
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N. D. Tiwari gets contempt of court notice

New Delhi,  The Delhi High Court Tuesday issued a contempt notice to veteran Congress leader N.D. Tiwari for defying its order directing him to give his blood sample in a paternity suit filed by 32-year-old man claiming to be his son.

Justice Geeta Mittal, referring to her Sep 23 judgment in which she had termed Tiwari’s refusal to submit the blood sample “wilful, malicious, unreasonable and unjustified”, issued the notice, returnable for Feb 14.
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Court stops probe against Chandy in palmoil case

Kochi,  The Kerala High Court Tuesday asked the vigilance court investigating if Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, then finance minister, had any role in the 1992 palmoil import case to stop any further probe.

A single bench of Justice K.T.Shankaran gave the order on a petition from senior bureaucrat and an accused in the case Jiji Thompson, who pleaded that his promotions have been hampered in the case going on for years.

The judge asked for all the records of the vigilance probe and posted the next hearing in the case for Oct 17.
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Kulkarni appears before court in cash-for-vote scam

New Delhi,  Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader L.K. Advani’s former aide Sudheendra Kulkarni Tuesday appeared before a Delhi court, in response to a summons, for his alleged role in the 2008 cash-for-vote scam.

Kulkarni appeared before Special Judge Sangita Dhingra Sehgal after failing to do so Sep 6 and Sep 19 as he was in the US.

He has applied for an interim bail.
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Supreme court questions government on endosulfan exports

New Delhi,  The Supreme Court Monday asked the central government to state its position on the export of the endosulfan insecticide stocks lying in production units.

The court was hearing a plea seeking a complete ban on production, sale, distribution and use of the farm insecticide blamed for causing ailments in humans.

An apex court bench of Chief Justice S.H. Kapadia, Justice K.S. Radhakrishnan and Justice Swatanter Kumar said: “On Friday we will hear (the centre) and pass the order.”

The court’s direction to the centre came after the joint expert committee (JEC) set up by it said that the “manufacturers and formulators have export orders of 1,734 MT of endosulfan technical and 292.5 KL of formulation. Hence, these amounts can be exported.”
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Apex court sets terms for bar election

New Delhi,  The Supreme Court Monday said that members of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) whose names do not figure in the final list of regular practitioners would not be entitled to either vote or contest the election for the office bearers of the apex body of lawyers.

“The members of the SCBA, whose names do not figure in the final list of regular practitioners, shall not be entitled to either vote for election of the office bearers of the SCBA or to contest any of the posts for which elections would be held by,” said an apex court bench of Justice J.M. Panchal and Justice H.L. Gokhale.

After preparation of the final list of the regular practitioners, each member shall give a written intimation to the association whether he was a member of another court annexed bar, the judgment read.
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Lalit Modi’s plea for independent probe rejected

New Delhi,  The Supreme Court Monday dismissed a petition by former Indian Premier League (IPL) commissioner Lalit Modi seeking an independent inquiry into the allegations of financial irregularities against him.

An apex court bench of Justice J.M. Panchal and Justice H.L. Gokhale said that “a mere apprehension of bias cannot be a ground for interference. There must exist a real danger of bias”.

Justice Gokhale said that Modi may have an apprehension but it was not possible to say from the material on record that “he was facing a real danger of bias”.

The court said that “though such domestic inquiries have undoubtedly to be fair, a member of a society cannot stretch the principle of fairness to the extent of demanding a tribunal consisting of outsiders, on the basis that the society members are biased against him”.

Modi had challenged the composition of the Board of Control for Cricket in India’s (BCCI) disciplinary committee set up to probe allegations against him.
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