Latest news with #PunjabandHaryanaHighCourt
Indian Express
6 hours ago
- Politics
- Indian Express
Punjab and Haryana HC disposes of PIL seeking commission for defence personnel, expresses hope for Centre's consideration
The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Tuesday disposed of a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking the constitution of a national commission for serving and retired defence personnel and their dependents. The court expressed hope that the Central Government would consider the grievance and pass appropriate orders, if necessary. The petition filed by Tamanna Swami, a 20-year-old law student at the Army Institute of Law, Mohali, had sought a writ of mandamus directing the Ministries of Defence and Home Affairs to establish a National Commission for Defence Personnel, with statutory powers similar to other commissions such as National Commission for Women and National Commissions for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and Backward Classes, to address grievances, recommend reforms, and provide redress to affected families. The Union of India was represented by Additional Solicitor General Satya Pal Jain. The Division Bench of Chief Justice Sheel Nagu and Justice Sanjiv Berry recorded that the grievance was that defence personnel lacked an equivalent redressal mechanism despite facing unique service-related hardships and systemic vulnerabilities. The Bench observed that there was 'no enabling statutory provision' under the current legal framework of the Central or State Governments to constitute such a commission. However, taking note of the representations already submitted by the petitioner to the authorities in 2022, the court said, 'Without commenting on the merits of the petition, we dispose of the present petition with the hope and expectation that the grievance raised by the petitioner shall be looked into by the Central Government and that appropriate orders, if necessary, shall be passed in this regard.' Swami, daughter of serving Army officer Colonel Anil Dev Swami (VSM), had filed the PIL invoking Articles 226 and 227 of the Constitution. Her petition stated that India's 41 lakh-strong defence community, including 15 lakh serving and 26 lakh retired personnel, faced a host of administrative, legal, financial, and social issues without a dedicated forum to address them. Among the key incidents cited in her plea was the alleged harassment faced by her mother, Uma Berwal Swami, a senior manager with the Central Bank of India. According to the petition, Uma invested ₹60 lakh in a Chandigarh real estate project, but the builder repeatedly delayed handover of the allotted plot. When she pursued the matter, she was allegedly coerced into signing revised terms under pressure and was humiliated in front of the builder's staff and security personnel. The family's inability to pursue the matter effectively was attributed to her husband's posting in Leh and the absence of a statutory body to safeguard the rights of defence families. Swami also cited the custodial violence case involving Colonel Pushpinder Singh Baath in Patiala in March 2025 as a recent example of the institutional vulnerability of serving personnel and the lack of systemic safeguards. The petition was listed multiple times over the last four months. On April 4, 2025, the petitioner sought an adjournment. On April 9, she again requested more time to prepare, which was granted. On April 30, the court directed her to file an affidavit with supporting material. On May 28, her counsel informed the bench that she was facing personal difficulty, leading to another deferment. The case was finally disposed of on July 29.
Indian Express
20 hours ago
- Politics
- Indian Express
HC orders five-week probe into NEET fraud in BAMS admissions
The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Tuesday directed Guru Ravi Dass Ayurved University to complete within five weeks its inquiry into allegations that 15 students of Shiv Shakti Ayurvedic Medical College and Hospital, Moga, were admitted to the Bachelor of Ayurvedic Medicine and Surgery (BAMS) course on the basis of manipulated NEET details. The division bench of Chief Justice Sheel Nagu and Justice Sanjiv Berry, while disposing of the students' petition, kept their results in abeyance and made their continuation in classes and internships strictly provisional. The 15 petitioners, admitted across the 2020 21 and 2021 22 academic sessions, had approached the court against show-cause notices issued by the university threatening cancellation of their admissions. The notices alleged that during the admission process, the petitioners' NEET ranking details were 'incorrectly furnished and deliberately suppressed,' giving an impression that they had qualified the national entrance test. The students had been given five days to explain why their admissions should not be cancelled. During hearings, the university informed the bench that the admissions were facilitated by two admission agents, Tarsem Kumar and Raj Kumar, who had filled the candidates' forms using doctored NEET data. A complaint from Rajbir Singh, a Patiala resident, had led the Vice-Chancellor of Guru Ravi Dass Ayurved University to order a probe. The inquiry was entrusted to Justice Rajiv Narain Raina, a retired judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, who is presently seized of the matter. On June 16, 2025, the court had allowed the students to appear in their ongoing examinations provisionally. In Tuesday's order, the bench underscored that it would not examine the merits of the allegations to avoid prejudicing the inquiry but found it appropriate to issue directions to balance the interests of the petitioners and the integrity of the ongoing probe. 'The enquiry shall be completed within five weeks; results of the examinations taken under interim orders shall not be declared but will remain subject to the probe's outcome; all petitioners except the two final-year students may attend next semester classes provisionally, and the two final-year students who completed their last-semester exams may start their one-year internship from July 30, also provisionally, all directions being subject to the enquiry's outcome,' the court said in its order . The petitioners' counsel had urged that without declaration of results and permission to progress academically, their careers would be jeopardized, especially for the two senior-most students who had completed their final semester and were required to commence a one-year internship starting July 30. The bench acceded to a limited relief, clarifying that no equity could be claimed by the petitioners if the inquiry ultimately confirmed irregularities. The ruling comes amid heightened scrutiny of irregular admissions in professional courses, particularly where admission agents have been accused of gaming centralised counselling by supplying false NEET data.
Indian Express
21 hours ago
- Health
- Indian Express
HC flags lack of awareness on mental health legal aid, seeks early framing of rules
The Punjab and Haryana High Court has expressed concern over the lack of awareness among judicial officers, police, and custodial institutions about their statutory duty to inform persons with mental illness of their right to free legal aid, as guaranteed under the Mental Healthcare Act, 2017. A bench of Chief Justice Sheel Nagu and Justice Sanjiv Berry, hearing a public interest litigation filed by Pushpanjali Trust, noted that Section 27 of the 2017 Act makes it mandatory for magistrates, police officers, custodial authorities, and medical professionals incharge of mental health establishments to inform such persons about their entitlement to free legal services under the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987. 'It is also informed that no orientation programme for making judicial officers aware of this statutory duty is undertaken by the Chandigarh Judicial Academy or any other institution, including the legal aid institutions,' the court recorded. It directed its registry to inform the Chandigarh Judicial Academy, the State Legal Services Authorities of Punjab and Haryana, UT Chandigarh, and the High Court Legal Services Committee to take appropriate steps to address the gap. The court also impleaded the central government through the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare as a respondent in the case, directing service of notice to Additional Solicitor General Satya Pal Jain. The ministry has been asked to file its reply within four weeks, specifically clarifying why a Medical Health Review Board has not been constituted under Section 73 of the Act for Chandigarh. During the hearing, counsel for the states of Punjab and Haryana informed the court that the process of framing rules under the Mental Healthcare Act, 2017, was underway, and sought four weeks to finalise and notify them. The bench granted time and posted the matter for further hearing on September 4. In compliance with an earlier order, the Punjab government assured the court that documentary proof of deposit of Rs 5,000 in costs would be filed before the next date. Managing trustee of the petitioner trust, Aditya Rametra, who appeared in person, had emphasised that failure to inform mentally ill persons of their legal rights amounted to denial of statutory protection.
Indian Express
a day ago
- Politics
- Indian Express
‘One family, one house': HC dismisses plea for second tenement
The Punjab and Haryana High Court has upheld the Chandigarh Administration's policy restricting allotment of tenements to one member of a family, dismissing a petition by Kuldeep Singh who had challenged the rejection of his application under the 1979 Licensing of Tenements and Sites and Services Scheme. A division bench of Justice Anupinder Singh Grewal and Justice Deepak Manchanda noted that Kuldeep's plea for a separate allotment was untenable as his father, Nand Singh, had already been allotted a site in Palsora in 2000. The court relied on voter rolls and ration card records of December 1996, which listed Kuldeep as residing with his father and other family members in Jhuggi No. C-366 at the time of application. 'The rationale behind limiting the allotment to a single member of a family is to ensure equitable distribution of the tenements,' the bench observed, underlining that the city faces a shortage of affordable housing. The scheme defines 'family' to include a person, their spouse, children and dependents, covering even earning sons and daughters. Kuldeep's claim that he had a separate ration card was also dismissed after verification revealed that the card number he cited was issued in the name of another person, Raj Kumar. The court further noted that despite the petitioner's argument that his father had not taken possession of the allotted site, any grievance on that count ought to have been pursued by the father himself. Upholding the Chandigarh Housing Board's stand, the bench stressed that the one-tenement-per-family rule was 'based on sound rationale and does not suffer from the vice of arbitrariness or discrimination.' The verdict comes amid recurring instances where multiple members of a single family attempt to secure separate allotments under the 1979 housing scheme, designed to rehabilitate slum dwellers by providing them affordable tenements.
Time of India
a day ago
- Politics
- Time of India
Punjab govt's move to acquire land under land pooling policy under HC lens
Representative Image CHANDIGARH: The Punjab government's land pooling policy, under which the state planned to acquire thousands of acres of land from across the state for developing residential and industrial zones, was challenged before the Punjab and Haryana High Court. The petitioners in this case submitted to the HC that the move to acquire such a large chunk of land would have widespread negative effects on the agrarian economy of Punjab, which is a major contributor to the nation's food grain supply. During the hearing of the matter on Tuesday, the HC was informed that the said policy is directly contrary to the spirit and mandate of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 (LARR Act), which is a central legislation. It was also submitted that the land pooling policy is being used as a tool to acquire fertile agricultural land across the state of Punjab while circumventing the mandatory procedures laid down under the LARR Act 2013, such as conducting a Social Impact Assessment (Section 4) and Environmental Impact Assessment. The LARR Act 2013 (Section 10) categorically bars the acquisition of fertile agricultural land in the ordinary course and only as a last resort. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like My Brows Look Fuller Looking Now [See Results] NULASTIN Learn More Undo The case was heard for around half and hour by the division bench headed by Chief Justice Sheel Nagu. Responding to the plea, the counsel for the Punjab govt contended that the land pooling policy was notified under the 2025 policy, not under the LARR Act 2013, as argued by the petitioner. On this, the Chief Justice's bench advised the counsel for the petitioner to amend the petition accordingly to challenge the acquisition of land as per the 2025 policy. The matter was adjourned for August 19 for further hearing. 'Now we will amend the petition challenging the land pooling policy 2025. Although we tried to convince the court that there is not much difference, on the advice of the bench, we will amend our petition accordingly. The matter has now been fixed for August 19 for further hearing,' counsel for the petitioner, Advocate Sahir Singh Virk, told TOI. The matter reached the HC in the wake of Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by Naveender P K Singh of Mohali and Samita Kaur of Ludhiana. The petitioners have mainly prayed for quashing the impugned notifications dated July 4 and to restrain the state of Punjab from proceeding with the land pooling policy without adhering to the due process of law under the LARR Act, especially when such fertile agricultural land is at stake.
