Review of Death Penalty XXV

Even when we find no reason to consider interference in concurrent findings of fact leading to conviction, question still remains about correctness of Death Sentence. Principles of Penology have evolved. This has led to evolution of ‘rarest of rare’. High Court though has made rather intense comments has, thereafter, proceeded to confirm Death Sentence with […]

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Banker’s Protection, The NI Act

Elucidation on aspect of ‘care’ required to seek statutory protection under Section 131 is to be found in Indian Overseas Bank v. Industrial Chain Concern, (1990) 1 SCC 484. We must be realistic and pragmatic not to narrow down Banker’s protection under Section 131 to make Banker’s position vulnerable. Officers of Banks are not required […]

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Compulsory Retirement II

Three-Judge Bench in Posts and Telegraphs Board v. C.S.N. Murthy, (1992) 2 SCC 317, after Baikuntha Nath v. Chief District Medical Officer, Baripada, (1992) 2 SCC 299, held, Courts would not interfere with exercise of power of compulsory retirement if arrived bona fide-ly and on basis of material available on record. Three-Judge Bench in Union […]

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Disciplinary Proceedings V

Learned Counsel, Kunal Chatterji relied on Sher Bahadur v. Union of India, (2002) 7 SCC 141 and Narinder Mohan Arya v. United India Insurance Co. Ltd., (2006) 4 SCC 713 to urge, High Court could interfere with findings of an enquiry which were not based on any evidence. Union of India v. H.C. Goel, (1964) […]

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Mitigating Death Sentences

Supreme Court of India (SC) held in Deena v. UoI, (1983) 4 SCC 645, hanging by neck is scientific and least painful. SC has also held, only ‘rarest of rare’ issues, literally meaning rarest even in rare, allow passing of a death sentence. A punishment of death is imposed when life imprisonment is absolutely inadequate. […]

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Action Against Gross Disorder

Raja Ram Pal v. Hon’ble Speaker, Lok Sabha, (2007) 3 SCC 184 delineated principles. These principles have been restated in Amarinder Singh v. Special Committee, Punjab Vidhan Sabha, (2010) 6 SCC 113. It is open to demonstrate, ‘action’ of Legislature is manifestly arbitrary. As expounded in Amarinder Singh, important consideration for scrutinizing exercise of legislative […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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Readiness and Willingness I

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 […]

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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 […]

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The Rules of The Game Principle IV

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) 11 […]

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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 […]

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Section 34(4) of The Arbitration Act

To differentiate between ‘findings’ and ‘reasons’, Mr. K.V. Viswanathan 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 […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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