Latest Post

Service Law — Recruitment and Appointment — Suppression of Criminal Antecedents — Candor and Integrity — Application forms (Attestation and Verification Forms) required disclosure of pending criminal cases — Applicant answered in the negative despite two criminal cases pending against him (Case Crime Nos. 198/2019 and 215/2018) — Non-disclosure was repeated (in both forms) and therefore held to reflect deliberate concealment/mal-intent, striking at the core of trust required for public service — Suppression was a violation of clear stipulations/disclaimers in the forms making concealment a disqualification/render applicant unfit for government service — Subsequent voluntary disclosure (via affidavit) or later acquittal/dropping of proceedings do not nullify the fact that candidate provided incorrect and false information at the time of filling the forms — High Court erred in overlooking the repeated concealment and calling the undisclosed information ‘of trivial nature’ — Cancellation of appointment upheld. (Paras 3, 6, 8, 9) Consumer Protection Act, 2019 — Section 71 — Execution of Order — Judgment Debtor Company — Liability of Directors/Promoters — Execution must strictly conform to the decree; it cannot be employed to shift or enlarge liability to bind persons who were neither parties to the decree nor otherwise legally liable thereunder — Where consumer complaints were consciously proceeded against the Company alone (Corporate Debtor), and directors/promoters were dropped as parties during admission/pre-adjudication stage (order unchallenged), the final order binds the Company exclusively, not the directors/promoters. (Paras 9, 10, 11, 12, 15, 23) Civil Procedure Code, 1908 (CPC) — Order 21 Rules 97 to 102 — Resistance and Obstruction to Execution of Decree for Possession — Adjudication of rights of obstructionists — Where transferees pendente lite obstruct execution of a decree for possession, the Executing Court must adjudicate the claim; if the obstructionist is found to be a transferee pendente lite, the scope of adjudication is limited to this fact, and such a transferee has no right to resist execution of the decree — The remedy for removal of obstruction is by application under Order 21 Rule 97 by the decree holder, followed by adjudication under Rule 98-101 (Maharashtra Amendment) which bars a separate suit. (Paras 53, 54, 55, 59, 65) Administrative Law — Competence of authorities — State Governments lack legislative competence to prescribe additional experience as an essential qualification for Drug Inspectors when the Central Government has already occupied the field. Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 (RTE Act) — Section 12 — Constitutional Mandate — Free and Compulsory Education — Admission of children from weaker and disadvantaged sections — Obligation of “neighbourhood school” to admit twenty-five percent of class strength from weaker and disadvantaged sections (Section 12(1)(c)) is transformative, securing the preambular objective of ‘equality of status’ and the constitutional right under Article 21A, requiring effective implementation. (Para 1)

Service Law — Recruitment and Appointment — Suppression of Criminal Antecedents — Candor and Integrity — Application forms (Attestation and Verification Forms) required disclosure of pending criminal cases — Applicant answered in the negative despite two criminal cases pending against him (Case Crime Nos. 198/2019 and 215/2018) — Non-disclosure was repeated (in both forms) and therefore held to reflect deliberate concealment/mal-intent, striking at the core of trust required for public service — Suppression was a violation of clear stipulations/disclaimers in the forms making concealment a disqualification/render applicant unfit for government service — Subsequent voluntary disclosure (via affidavit) or later acquittal/dropping of proceedings do not nullify the fact that candidate provided incorrect and false information at the time of filling the forms — High Court erred in overlooking the repeated concealment and calling the undisclosed information ‘of trivial nature’ — Cancellation of appointment upheld. (Paras 3, 6, 8, 9)

Consumer Protection Act, 2019 — Section 71 — Execution of Order — Judgment Debtor Company — Liability of Directors/Promoters — Execution must strictly conform to the decree; it cannot be employed to shift or enlarge liability to bind persons who were neither parties to the decree nor otherwise legally liable thereunder — Where consumer complaints were consciously proceeded against the Company alone (Corporate Debtor), and directors/promoters were dropped as parties during admission/pre-adjudication stage (order unchallenged), the final order binds the Company exclusively, not the directors/promoters. (Paras 9, 10, 11, 12, 15, 23)

(IPC) – Ss 279 and 304A – Causing death by negligence – driving the Scorpio in rash and negligent manner due to which one innocent person lost his life and two persons who were travelling in the ambulance sustained the injuries – Orders passed by the H C reducing the sentence while maintaining the conviction for the offence under Section 304A of IPC from two years RI to eight months SI quashed and set aside – Appeal allowed.

SUPREME COURT OF INDIA DIVISION BENCH STATE OF PUNJAB — Appellant Vs. DIL BAHADUR — Respondent ( Before : M.R. Shah and C.T. Ravikumar, JJ. ) Criminal Appeal No. 844…

(NDPS) – Ss 8, 20, 27-A, 29, 32 and 37 – Recovery of ganja – no person accused of an offence involving trade in commercial quantity of narcotics is liable to be released on bail unless the court is satisfied that there are reasonable grounds for believing that he is not guilty of such an offence and that he is not likely to commit any offence while on bail – Bail cancelled.

SUPREME COURT OF INDIA DIVISION BENCH UNION OF INDIA — Appellant Vs. AJAY KUMAR SINGH @ PAPPU — Respondent ( Before : V. Ramasubramanian and Pankaj Mithal, JJ. ) Criminal…

Rape and Murder – where capital punishment is not imposed or is not proposed, the Constitutional Courts can always exercise the power of imposing a modified or fixed­term sentence by directing that a life sentence, as contemplated by “secondly” in Section 53 of the IPC, shall be of a fixed period of more than fourteen years, for example, of twenty years, thirty years and so on

SUPREME COURT OF INDIA DIVISION BENCH SHIVA KUMAR @ SHIVA @ SHIVAMURTHY — Appellant Vs. STATE OF KARNATAKA — Respondent ( Before : Abhay S. Oka and Rajesh Bindal, JJ.…

Service Matters

General Reserve Engineer Force Group ‘C’ and Group ‘D’ Recruitment Rules, 1982 – Promotion to post of Superintendent BR Grade-I and Assistant Engineer -denial of promotion is on the ground that candidates do not possess the prescribed requisite qualification namely “Diploma in Civil Engineering” and “Diploma in DED” possessed by them is not as prescribed under the Rules – Appeal dismissed

SUPREME COURT OF INDIA FULL BENCH UNNIKRISHNAN CV AND OTHERS — Appellant Vs. UNION OF INDIA AND OTHERS — Respondent ( Before : Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Manoj Misra and Aravind…

Service Matters

Jammu and Kashmir Subordinate Services Recruitment Rules, 1992 – Rule 9 – Appointment of drug inspectors – A doctor by profession with a Post Graduate degree (MD) and Ph.D. in Pharmacology was in any way cannot underqualified or unsuitable for her role on the Selection Board – But, a pharmacologist is more appropriate to interview the candidates for the post of drug inspector

SUPREME COURT OF INDIA DIVISION BENCH TAJVIR SINGH SODHI AND OTHERS — Appellant Vs. THE STATE OF JAMMU AND KASHMIR AND OTHERS — Respondent ( Before : K.M. Joseph and…

(CrPC) – Ss 436A and 439 – NDPS S 20, 25, 29 and 37 – Bail – Possession of 180 kilograms of ganja – Grant of bail on ground of undue delay in trial, cannot be said to be fettered by Section 37 of the Act, given the imperative of Section 436A which is applicable to offences under the NDPS Act too – Where the accused belongs to the weakest economic strata

SUPREME COURT OF INDIA DIVISION BENCH MOHD MUSLIM @ HUSSAIN — Appellant Vs. STATE (NCT OF DELHI) — Respondent ( Before : S. Ravindra Bhat and Dipankar Datta, JJ. )…

Consumer Protection Act, 1986 – Section 2(i)(g) – proceedings before the Commission being summary in nature, the complaints involving highly disputed questions of facts or the cases involving tortious acts or criminality like fraud or cheating, could not be decided by the Forum/Commission HELD burden of proving the deficiency in service would always be upon the person alleging it.

SUPREME COURT OF INDIA DIVISION BENCH THE CHAIRMAN & MANAGING DIRECTOR, CITY UNION BANK LIMITED AND ANOTHER — Appellant Vs. R. CHANDRAMOHAN — Respondent ( Before : Ajay Rastogi and…

Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 – Section 9 (2) – a casual or cavalier approach should not be taken in determining the age of the accused or convict on his plea of juvenility, but a decision against determination of juvenility ought not to be taken solely for the reason that offence involved is heinous or grave HELD Going by that certificate, his age at the time of commission of offence was 12 years and 6 months. Thus, he was a child/juvenile on the date of commission of offence for which he has been convicted

SUPREME COURT OF INDIA FULL BENCH NARAYAN CHETANRAM CHAUDHARY @APPLELLANT Vs. THE STATE OF MAHARASHTRA — Respondent ( Before : K.M. Joseph, Aniruddha Bose and Hrishikesh Roy, JJ. ) Criminal…

Classification of account as fraud – Borrowers have the right to be heard before classify their accounts as fraud – Principles of natural justice demand that the borrowers must be served a notice, given an opportunity to explain the conclusions of the forensic audit report, and be allowed to represent by the banks/ JLF before their account is classified as fraud under the Master Directions on Frauds

SUPREME COURT OF INDIA DIVISION BENCH STATE BANK OF INDIA AND OTHERS — Appellant Vs. RAJESH AGARWAL AND OTHERS — Respondent ( Before : Dr. Dhananjaya Y. Chandrachud, CJI. and…

Tripura Sales Tax Rules, 1976 – Rule 3A(2) – the submissions on behalf of the respondents – suppliers/transferers that as there is no sale or transfer of the goods and that they are not registered with the TST Act and therefore, the liability to pay the tax at 4% does not arise cannot be accepted.

SUPREME COURT OF INDIA DIVISION BENCH THE STATE OF TRIPURA AND ANOTHER — Appellant Vs. CHANDAN DEB AND OTHERS — Respondent ( Before : M.R. Shah and Krishna Murari, JJ.…

You missed