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Land Acquisition and Development — Public Purpose De-reservation — Subject land originally earmarked for High School was de-reserved by competent authority due to insufficient area; subsequent sale to private individuals was upheld by civil courts and its finality was not challenged. Contempt of Courts Act, 1971 — Sections 2(c), 19 — Criminal Contempt — Scandalising the court — An advocate’s public allegations against a sitting judge, made via a press conference and repeated in court applications, can constitute criminal contempt by scandalising the court, lowering its authority, and interfering with judicial proceedings — Such conduct is unbecoming of a legal professional and undermines public confidence in the judiciary. Recruitment Rules and Advertisement — Essential Qualifications — Work Experience — In absence of a specific rule or advertisement provision, a recruiting agency cannot relax essential eligibility criteria by treating a higher qualification as a replacement for a mandatory essential qualification — A preference for a higher qualification operates only for eligible and meritorious candidates and does not override or supplant the primary requirement of essential eligibility. Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 — Section 10 — Relief of back wages and regularisation — Employee illegally terminated, ordered reinstatement with back wages by Labour Commissioner and Industrial Court — Employer challenged, but interim order for back wages deposit was made and employee reinstated as daily wager — Employee sought regularisation after completing 180 days of service, granted by Industrial Court from the date of 180 days completion as per settlement clause — Employer failed to comply timely, only regularising employee on a sanctioned post after many years, imposing new conditions contrary to prior orders — Supreme Court held that employer cannot impose new conditions limiting regularisation contrary to earlier unchallenged orders and settlement terms, and reversed High Court’s decision setting aside back wages order. Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 — Section 34 — Challenge to Arbitral Award — Legal Representatives — The Arbitration Act is a complete code for dispute resolution — Legal representatives of a deceased party are entitled to challenge an arbitral award under Section 34 of the Act, as the Act envisions continuity of proceedings after a party’s death and makes awards enforceable by or against legal representatives — Denying this right would render legal representatives remediless while making them liable to fulfill the award, contradicting the Act’s purpose.

Mandatory nature of the twin conditions has to be satisfied before an auction sale can be set aside under Order 21 Rule 90(3) – No sale could be set aside unless the Court is satisfied that the applicant has sustained substantial injury by reason of irregularity or fraud in completing or conducting the sale.

SUPREME COURT OF INDIA FULL BENCH M/S. JAGAN SINGH AND CO. — Appellant Vs. LUDHIANA IMPROVEMENT TRUST AND OTHERS — Respondent ( Before : Sanjay Kishan Kaul, S. Ravindra Bhat…

Maharashtra Regional Town Planning Act, 1966 HELD Respondent No. 2 validly exercised its powers under the MMC Act to direct the acquisition of the Appellants’ land. The argument by the Appellants that the MRTP Act maintains supremacy over the MMC Act is not the correct position of law, in our opinion, and the two statutes exist side-by-side with some degree of overlap. The powers under the MMC Act remain intact even in cases where they cover a subject that is also provided for in the MRTP Act.

SUPREME COURT OF INDIA DIVISON BENCH DR. ABRAHAM PATANI OF MUMBAI AND ANOTHER — Appellant Vs. THE STATE OF MAHARASHTRA AND OTHERS — Respondent ( Before : Surya Kant and…

Tamil Nadu Highways Act, 2001 HELD we are of the opinion that Rule 5 cannot be said to be inconsistent with Section 15(2) of the Act. However, on merits and for the reasons stated above, we are in complete agreement with the ultimate view taken by the learned Single Judge confirmed by the Division Bench of the High Court upholding the acquisition in question.

SUPREME COURT OF INDIA DIVISON BENCH M. MOHAN — Appellant Vs. THE STATE GOVERNMENT OF TAMIL NADU AND OTHERS — Respondent ( Before : M.R. Shah and B.V. Nagarathna, JJ.…

Service Matters

HELD reinstatement of an employee who was dismissed as a result of disciplinary proceedings, and was only reinstated in service because of his acquittal in criminal proceedings, but again the reasons which weighed with the Court in such cases were that in almost in all such cases, the acquittal was an honourable acquittal and not an acquittal on a technicality, or on acquittal given because of “benefit of doubt”.

SUPREME COURT OF INDIA DIVISON BENCH THE STATE OF RAJASTHAN AND OTHERS — Appellant Vs. PHOOL SINGH — Respondent ( Before : S. Ravindra Bhat and Sudhanshu Dhulia, JJ. )…

Service Matters

Payment of Gratuity (Amendment) Act, 2009 – The amendment with retrospective effect is to make the benevolent provisions equally applicable to teachers – The amendment seeks to bring equality and give fair treatment to the teachers – It can hardly be categorised as an arbitrary and high-handed exercise – Appeal Dismissed.

SUPREME COURT OF INDIA DIVISON BENCH INDEPENDENT SCHOOLS FEDERATION OF INDIA (REGD.) — Appellant Vs. UNION OF INDIA AND ANOTHER — Respondent ( Before : Sanjiv Khanna and Bela M.…

Service Matters

HJS – HELD board which conducted the viva­voce of the candidates who qualified in the written examination was different, there are hardly candidates who had qualified against the number of vacancies and it would be advisable that there should be one common board to evaluate the performance of all the candidates who may now qualify in the revised declaration of the result of written examination and that, would do justice to the candidates – Appeal Allowed.

SUPREME COURT OF INDIA DIVISON BENCH HARKIRAT SINGH GHUMAN — Appellant Vs. PUNJAB & HARYANA HIGH COURT AND OTHERS — Respondent ( Before : Ajay Rastogi and C.T. Ravikumar, JJ.…

Service Matters

Inter-departmental communication cannot be treated to be a letter of allotment – Even if it is considered to be a letter of allotment, the writ petitioner-wife of the ex-serviceman, who died in July 1998 could not claim possession on the basis of such communication after more than 30 years in terms of the Rules applicable for allotment of land to the disabled ex-servicemen.

SUPREME COURT OF INDIA DIVISON BENCH MAHADEO AND OTHERS — Appellant SMT. SOVAN DEVI AND OTHERS — Respondent ( Before : Hemant Gupta and Vikram Nath, JJ. ) Civil Appeal…

(NDPS) – Section 54 of the Act raises a presumption and the burden shifts on the accused to explain as to how he came into possession of the contraband – But to raise the presumption under Section 54 of the Act, it must first be established that a recovery was made from the accused.

SUPREME COURT OF INDIA DIVISON BENCH SANJEET KUMAR SINGH @ MUNNA KUMAR SINGH — Appellant Vs. STATE OF CHHATTISGARH — Respondent ( Before : Indira Banerjee and V. Ramasubramanian, JJ.…

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