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Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 — Section 168 — Notional income of skilled worker — Carpenter — Assessment — The appellant, a carpenter aged 38 years, suffered amputation of his right leg below the knee in a road accident in November 2004 — The Claims Tribunal assessed his monthly income at Rs. 3,000/- and the High Court enhanced it to Rs. 5,000/- relying on minimum wages. Held — A carpenter is a skilled artisan who works with precision and manual dexterity — His income cannot be equated with that of an unskilled worker — Where the appellant’s unrefuted evidence showed earnings of Rs. 8,000/- to Rs. 10,000/- per month, and a skilled job always has the potentiality to fetch higher income, the High Court erred in restricting the figure to Rs. 5,000/- — Considering the date of accident, decisions in comparable cases and the fact of the appellant being a skilled worker, his notional monthly income is assessed at Rs. 9,000/- per month. Criminal Procedure Code, 1973 (CrPC) — Penal Code, 1860 (IPC) — Section 304 Part II — Culpable Homicide not Amounting to Murder — Conviction and sentence — Appeal against — Abatement of appeal due to death of co-accused — Death of two appellants during pendency of appeal — Appeal survives only for the third appellant. Uttar Pradesh Zamindari Abolition and Land Reforms Act, 1950 — Section 154 — Transfer of land in contravention of ceiling limit — Not void ipso facto — Capable of ratification — Legality of transfer to be judged by law on date of execution — Sale deed executed on 04.06.1957 — Ceiling limit then was 30 acres, subsequently amended to 12.5 acres retrospectively from 01.07.1952 — Transfer in contravention of Section 154 not void but voidable at instance of Gaon Sabha coupled with liability for ejectment of transferee under Section 163 — No suit filed for ejectment within limitation period. Specific Relief Act, 1963 — Section 16(c) — “Readiness and Willingness” — Relief of specific performance is equitable and discretionary — Plaintiff must specifically aver and prove continuous readiness and willingness to perform obligations — Failure to do so disentitles plaintiff to relief — “Readiness” refers to financial capacity, “Willingness” to conduct and intention — Both cumulatively must be seen — Conduct of plaintiff prior and subsequent to suit, along with attending circumstances, must be considered — Availability of funds must be proved with reference to relevant time, not by documents created much later. Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 — Section 166 and 140 — Compensation for death in motor vehicular accident — Negligence — Truck stationed on road at night without warning lights or indicators — Wagon-R car collided from behind — Held, truck driver was negligent in leaving the vehicle unattended on the road without adequate precautionary measures, which was the proximate cause of the accident.
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.…

Central Excise Act, 1944 – Section 11A – HELD We do not accept the contention that recovery of excise duty cannot be made pursuant to an appeal filed after invoking the provisions of Section 35-E, if the timelimit provided in Section 11-A has expired. To so read the provisions, would be to render Section 35-E virtually ineffective, which would be impermissible

SUPREME COURT OF INDIA DIVISION BENCH COMMISSIONER OF CENTRAL EXCISE, MUMBAI – 1 — Appellant Vs. M/S. MORARJEE GOKULDAS SPG. & WVG. CO. LIMITED — Respondent ( Before : M.R.…

(CrPC) – Section 482 – Quashing of criminal proceedings – Family dispute — looking to the relationship between the appellants and the original complainant of son, grandson and the mother/grandmother – Criminal proceedings against the appellants would not be in the larger interest of the parties – Criminal proceedings quashed – Appeal allowed.

SUPREME COURT OF INDIA DIVISION BENCH HEMANTBHAI BALVANTBHAI PATEL AND ANOTHER — Appellant Vs. THE STATE OF GUJARAT AND ANOTHER — Respondent ( Before : M.R. Shah and Krishna Murari,…

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