The Rules of The Game Principle V / The Revival of Ray LXXIX

Judgments cited on changing ‘rules of game midway’ referred to changes in selection criteria or procedure for selection. Those cases are distinguishable from case before us. _____ An examination can only reflect current competence of an individual but not gamut of their potential, capabilities or excellence, which are also shaped by lived experiences, subsequent training […]

The Revival of Ray LXXVIII

The Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (Medical Teaching Faculty Posts) Recruitment Regulations, 2008 and The Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (Medical Teaching Faculty Posts) Recruitment Regulations, 2015 have statutory effect by virtue of Section 97(3) of The Employees’ State Insurance Act, 1948. It is settled law, regulations framed by statutory authorities have force of enacted law. Constitution […]

Readiness and Willingness

Two-Judge Bench in JP Builders v. A. Ramadas Rao, (2011) 1 SCC 429 observed, Section 16(c) of The Specific Relief Act, 1963 mandates ‘readiness and willingness’ of plaintiff and is a condition precedent to obtain relief of specific performance. Court further observed, ‘readiness’ refers to financial capacity and ‘willingness’ refers to conduct of plaintiff wanting […]

Competition in Lottery

State of Mizoram issued an invitation for ‘Expression of Interest’, through Institutional Finance and State Lottery, inviting bids for appointment of lottery distributors and selling agents for Mizoram State Lottery to be organized by Government of Mizoram in terms of The Mizoram Lotteries (Regulation) Rules, 2011 framed under The Lotteries (Regulation) Act, 1998. A purchaser […]

An Identical Trademark

The Trade Marks Act, 1999 came into force on 15th September, 2003. When a trade mark is identical with a registered trade mark and goods or services are identical too, Court shall presume it is likely to cause confusion on public. Court has pointed out, essentials of a passing off action cannot be equated […]

The Doctrine of Lis Pendens

It is well settled, Doctrine of Lis Pendens is based on ground, decision of a Court in a suit should be binding not only on litigating parties but also on those who derive title pendente lite. _____ Doctrine of Lis Pendens is based on maxim ‘pendente lite nihil innovetur’ which means ‘pending litigation, nothing new […]

Fraud II

The main departure of The Companies Act, 2013 from statutory regime of The Companies Act, 1956 is specific inclusion of fraud ‘directly’ as a circumstance in which a Company could be wound up [See, Section 271 of 2013 Act, as it now stands after 2016]. Section 271(c) of The Companies Act, 2013 covers three circumstances […]

Safety and Security of Prime Minister

Lawyer’s Voice v. State of Punjab, Writ Petition (Civil) No. 13 of 2022 arises out of an incident, dated 05/01/2022, wherein, on a visit to Hussainiwala, District Firozpur, State of Punjab, convoy of Prime Minister was stuck. We have studied provisions of The Special Protection Group Act, 1988 along with relevant contents of The Blue […]

The Plea of Limitation XVII: Continuing Wrong

Section 22 of The Limitation Act, 1963 provides for computation of limitation in case of a continuing breach of contract or tort. Constitution Bench in M. Siddiq v. Suresh Das, (2020) 1 SCC 1 examined precedents and observed, “a ‘continuing wrong’ arises where there is an obligation imposed by law, agreement or otherwise to continue […]

152.8 Grams of Heroin

Shaikh Istiyaq Ahmed was convicted by Supreme Court of Mauritius for possession of 152.8 grams of heroin and was sentenced to imprisonment for 26 years. He was transferred to India as per The Repatriation of Prisoners Act, 2003 on 04/03/2016. Incompatibility with Indian law is with reference to enforcement of sentence, imposed by Supreme Court […]

The Rules of The Game Principle IV

The number of candidates was not quite large. 4270 in U.P. Public Service Commission v. Subhash Chandra Dixit, (2003) 12 SCC 70. 51524 and 5748 in preliminary and main examinations respectively in Sanjay Singh v. U.P. Public Service Commission, Allahabad, (2007) 3 SCC 720. 3000 in Mahinder Kumar v. High Court of Madhya Pradesh, (2013) […]

Section 31(7) of The Arbitration Act VIII

Hyder Consulting (UK) Ltd. v. Governor, State of Orissa, (2015) 2 SCC 189 overruled State of Haryana v. S.L. Arora, (2010) 3 SCC 690. While giving a concurring opinion, Justice Sapre made pertinent observations: “Section 31(7)(b) uses words ‘Arbitral Award’ and not ‘Arbitral Tribunal’. ‘Arbitral Award’ as held, is made in respect of a ‘sum’ […]

Act of God

As many as 35,642 cases of Indian Made Foreign Liquor of different brands got destroyed in fire on 10/04/2003. We need not delve, for present purpose, on classification or various other jurisprudential features of ‘liability’. We are primarily concerned with question of ‘liability’ arising out of ‘negligence’. Without multiplying case law, sufficient it would be […]

Section 12(5) of The Arbitration Act IV

Therefore, as per Amendment Act, 2015 [Sub-Section (5) of Section 12 read with Seventh Schedule], all of them have become ineligible to become Arbitrators and to continue as Arbitrators. Section 12 has been amended by Amendment Act, 2015 based on recommendations of Law Commission, which specifically dealt with issue of ‘Neutrality of Arbitrators’. An identical […]

Section 34(4) of The Arbitration Act

To differentiate between ‘findings’ and ‘reasons’, Mr. K.V. Vishwanathan relied on Income Tax Officer, A-Ward, Sitapur v. Murlidhar Bhagwan Das, AIR 1965 SC 342. It is clear, “finding is a decision on an issue”. J. Ashoka v. University of Agricultural Sciences, (2017) 2 SCC 609 held, “reasons are the links between the materials on which […]

The Nature of Judicial Power: Article No. 1101

The question had been floating for a while. It was January 1, 2019 when I wondered who amongst then Chief Justices of HCs, if elevated, could be our 51st CJI. January 18, 2019 – we finally received an answer. CJI No. 51 would be Hon’ble Justice Sanjiv Khanna who wasn’t ever a Chief Justice of […]

Class Action, Consumer Disputes II

We cannot read, a word in singular, namely, ‘consumer’, will not include plural. If vowel ‘a’ and word ‘consumer’ appearing in Section 2(5)(i) of The Consumer Protection Act, 2019 are to be understood to exclude more than one person, it will result in a disastrous consequence while reading Section 2(5)(vi). A way of interpreting Section […]

Compassionate Appointment IV

Learned Senior Counsel made a request to wait for a decision. “We do not consider it necessary to do so.” Only after Reference to Larger Bench in State Bank of India v. Sheo Shankar Tewari, (2019) 5 SCC 600 this Court decided Indian Bank v. Promila, (2020) 2 SCC 729; N.C. Santhosh v. State of […]

Review of Death Penalty XXIV

In our opinion, it is a sound and well-established rule of law, Court is concerned with quality and not with quantity of evidence necessary for proving or disproving a fact. Generally speaking, oral testimony in this context may be classified into three categories, namely: (1) wholly reliable; (2) wholly unreliable; (3) neither wholly reliable nor […]

Review of Death Penalty XXIII

It is clear, for resting a conviction in case of circumstantial evidence, circumstances from which conclusion of guilt is to be drawn should be fully established and all facts so established should be consistent only with hypothesis of guilt. There must be a chain of evidence so complete as not to leave any reasonable ground […]

The Last Word

A Diversion for Lawyers and Others