Latest news with #HCs
Time of India
23-05-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
CJI-centric working of SC needs change to make it more democratic: Justice Abhay S Oka
NEW DELHI: Hailing just-demitted CJI Sanjiv Khanna's initiatives to bring transparency in Supreme Court, Justice Abhay S Oka, on his last working day as judge, said a shift away from CJI-centric functioning is needed to make it more democratic. He expressed hope that CJI B R Gavai would bring the change during his tenure. "In high courts, of course chief justice is the master of roster, but HCs function more democratically than the Supreme Court because there is an administrative committee in place of the first five judges. And that committee takes major important decisions regarding the administration. Somehow, I found, during my three years and more, that the Supreme Court is a Chief Justice-centric court. And I think we need to change that because SC is a court of 34 judges who come from different areas of our country," he said.
Time of India
19-05-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
'Judges also human': Justice Abhay S Oka admits error in judgment
NEW DELHI: Judges are also human and they can make mistakes while judging, Justice Abhay S Oka said Monday while admitting that he committed a mistake in deciding a case as a Bombay HC judge in 2016 relating to interpretation of the Domestic Violence Act and said it was a continuous learning process for judges. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now While holding that HCs have jurisdiction under Section 482 of CrPC to quash proceedings of an application filed under Section 12(1) of DV Act, which says an aggrieved woman may approach a magistrate for relief such as payment of compensation, Justice Oka, who penned the verdict for the bench comprising himself and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan, said as an HC judge, he had taken a contrary view on the issue. SC said that HCs must keep in mind that DV Act is a welfare legislation specially enacted to give justice to women who suffer from domestic violence. 'Even for judges, learning process always continues' Therefore, while exercising jurisdiction under Section 482 for quashing proceedings under Section 12(1), the high court should be very slow and circumspect. Interference can be made only when the case is clearly of gross illegality or gross abuse of the process of law, the bench said. Generally, the high court must adopt a hands-off approach while dealing with proceedings under Section 482 for quashing an application under Section 12(1). Unless high courts show restraint... the very object of enacting the Domestic Violence Act, 2005 will be defeated, the bench added. Justice Abhay S Oka, who penned the verdict for the bench, said: "Before we part with this judgment, we must mention here that one of us (Abhay S Oka) is a party to a judgment dated Oct 27, 2016, of Bombay high court (HC) in writ petition 2473 of 2016 in which the view taken is that remedy under Section 482 of Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) is not available for quashing the proceedings under Section 12(1) of DV Act, 2005." Tired of too many ads? go ad free now "This view was found to be incorrect by a full bench of the same high court. As judges, we are duty-bound to correct our mistakes in properly constituted proceedings. Even for judges, the learning process always continues," he said. "There are decisions of high courts taking a view that the jurisdiction under Section 482 of CrPC is not available to quash proceedings... under Section 12(1) of Domestic Violence Act. The decisions are primarily based on the premise that the proceedings.. . predominantly of a civil nature. The said view is not correct for the reasons set out earlier," Justice Oka said while correcting the orders of high courts and also correcting his stand taken as an HC judge nine years ago.
Time of India
14-05-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
BR Gavai sworn in as 52nd CJI; President's 14 posers his 1st test
Justice Bhushan Ramkrishna Gavai takes oath as 52nd Chief Justice of India (CJI) (ANI Photo) NEW DELHI: Justice Bhushan Ramakrishna Gavai began his tenure as Chief Justice of India (CJI) on Wednesday by seeking blessings from his mother in the presence of President Droupadi Murmu and PM Narendra Modi at Ganatantra Mandap of Rashtrapati Bhavan, and by paying tribute to Dr B R Ambedkar at Supreme Court . One of the first jobs at hand of the new CJI will be to deal with President Murmu's reference under Article 143(1) seeking SC's opinion on whether the apex court could fix deadlines for governors and the President for giving assent to Bills passed by assemblies. This appears to be the culmination of sharp reactions from the executive, articulated by Vice President Jagdeep Dhankar, to a timeline-fixing recent ruling by a two-judge bench led by Justice J B Pardiwala. CJI Gavai will have to constitute a Constitution bench comprising a minimum of five judges to give its opinion to the President's 14 queries. The oath administered in Hindi by the Prez at 10.05am was solemnly affirmed by Justice Gavai, departing from the general practice of swearing in in the name of God. Dhankar, LS Speaker Om Birla, defence minister Rajnath Singh, home minister Amit Shah and other Union ministers, along with ex-CJIs including Justice Sanjiv Khanna and judges of SC and HCs, were present. Justice Gavai is the first Buddhist and second Dalit to become CJI, the first being Justice K G Balakrishnan. The second Dalit President Ramnath Kovind, the first being K R Narayanan, was present at Justice Gavai's oath ceremony . When he took oath, President Murmu was to his right, a fifth century statue of Buddha in Abhay mudra was behind and a grand portrait of Mahatma Gandhi adorned the high wall on his left at Ganatantra Mandap, earlier known as Durbar Hall and as Throne Room during British reign. After being sworn in as 52nd CJI, Justice Gavai touched the feet of his octogenarian mother Kamaltai, who flew in from Amravati and was seated on the front row, to seek her blessings. She was instrumental in shifting Bhushan from a Marathi medium to an English medium school to ensure he did not lag behind siblings studying in a convent school in Mumbai. From Rashtrapati Bhavan, the CJI reached SC and went straight to Dr BR Ambedkar's statue to pay floral tributes. He also paid tributes at the statue of Mahatma Gandhi. 'The first day went well,' Justice Gavai told TOI. A contingent of nearly 400 lawyers from Maharashtra had arrived to felicitate him. Unprecedentedly, there were judges from across HCs who attended his swearing in.
Time of India
13-05-2025
- Time of India
Default bail not an option in drug cases: Calcutta HC
Kolkata: An accused in an NDPS (drug) case is not entitled to default bail if a charge sheet, even without a chemical report, is filed within time, the Calcutta High Court ruled while cancelling the interim bail granted to the legal point on whether the charge sheet without a chemical report in the NDPS case entitles the accused to statutory bail is pending before the Supreme Court. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now However, the division bench of justices Debangsu Basak and Md Shabbar Rashidi held that, as of today, the law is that a charge sheet is complete if the materials and evidence are before the court along with the charge sheet for the court to take cognisance. Filing a supplementary charge sheet to bring on the record the forensic laboratory test report is also permissible."Bombay and Guwahati HCs have held that a charge sheet without the chemical examination report does not entitle the accused to default bail. On the strength of the authorities presently subsisting, we are not in a position to return a finding that the charge sheet without the chemical examination report makes the investigation incomplete," the HC held. The four accused had applied for bail on March 26. The police had filed a charge sheet, and subsequently a supplementary charge sheet along with a chemical report. A commercial quantity of brown sugar was seized from the accused.
Time of India
23-04-2025
- Time of India
SC begins drive to ensure unclaimed payouts reach road accident victims
NEW DELHI: As hundreds of crores of rupees deposited with Motor Accident Claims Tribunals and labour courts remain unclaimed due to the whereabouts and bank details of claimants (road accident victims and workers) being unknown, Supreme Court on Tuesday issued a slew of directions to ensure that the money reaches the claimants and also directed HCs to launch a massive drive to reach out to them. As per figures submitted to SC by different high courts , Rs 282 crore is unclaimed and lying in tribunals in Gujarat, Rs 459 crore in Maharashtra, and Rs 239 in UP. The amount lying in labour courts is also high. "The issue is of great concern. The amounts represent the compensation granted to claimants in the claims filed under Motor Vehicles Act , 1988 and Workmen's Compensation Act, 1923. Though the claimants are held entitled to these amounts, they have not withdrawn the same. The fact that so many successful claimants have been deprived of compensation is very disturbing. It is necessary to find a solution," said a bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan.
