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Tag: Bombay HC
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Ola, Uber, 10 other cab aggregators granted provisional license, Maharashtra government tells Bombay HC
By PTI
MUMBAI: The Maharashtra government on Monday told Bombay High Court it has granted provisional license to 12 cab aggregators, including Ola and Uber, for a period of one month.
The state government submitted a report to a division bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice M S Karnik, which is hearing a petition filed by advocate Savina Crasto against transport aggregators alleging lack of a consumer grievance redressal mechanism to resolve complaints against Uber.
As per the report submitted by the government, the Regional Transport Authority (RTA) has been empowered to act as Licensing Authority to grant license to aggregators.
The RTA, till date, has received 29 applications from cab aggregators across the state, of which 12, including Ola and Uber, have been granted provisional license, while the rest of the applications are under scrutiny, the report said.
The HC said it would peruse the report and hear the matter further on Tuesday.
It had, last month, noted that cab aggregator companies cannot be allowed to ply without license and had directed them to apply for it with the Maharashtra government.
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Bombay HC asks Maharashtra authorities to issue caste certificate to adopted boy on basis of mother’s caste
By PTI
MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court has allowed the plea filed by a woman from the city, who had sought that her adopted son be granted a valid caste certificate based on her own such document.
A bench of Justices SB Shukre and GA Sanap on Tuesday allowed the plea and directed the concerned deputy collector in the city to issue a caste certificate to the boy within two weeks of the receipt of the court order.
The bench was hearing the plea filed by the woman, who is unmarried and had adopted her son in 2009.
She had challenged the state government’s decision denying her adopted son a caste certificate based on her caste.
The state government had previously told the high court that there was no provision to issue a caste certificate to a child adopted by a single mother, as such certificate required one’s documents from one’s paternal side.
The petitioner told the court that there was no father’s name on the child’s birth certificate and it just had his biological mother’s name.
And after his adoption, the boy had been using the petitioner’s middle name and her surname.
Therefore, she had applied for a caste certificate for her son on the basis of her own caste certificate, the petitioner had told the high court.
On Tuesday, the HC allowed the plea and said that the boy’s caste certificate must be issued based on the petitioner’s caste certificate and all relevant scrutiny and procedures must be followed in accordance with the Rules of the state caste scrutiny committee.
“For the reasons separately recorded, the petition is allowed. Respondent No.1 (district collector) is directed to issue caste certificate to the minor son of the Petitioner as belonging to “Hindu Mahyavanshi” within a period of two weeks from the date of receipt of the order,” the HC said.
“We further direct that the said certificate which will be issued by Respondent No.1 shall be subject to its being validated in accordance with law by the Scrutiny Committee from the date of receipt of the order,” it said.
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Bombay HC grants interim protection to IPS officer Rashmi Shukla till March 25 in phone tapping case
By PTI
MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court on Friday restrained the Pune police from taking any coercive action against IPS officer Rashmi Shukla till March 25 in connection with the FIR registered against her recently in an alleged phone tapping case.
A bench of Justices S S Shinde and Nitin Borkar said that Shukla deserved to be granted protection from arrest in the case until further orders, since prima facie it appeared that she had been “singled out” in the present FIR registered against her last week by the Bund Garden police station in Pune.
The bench also noted in its order that the said FIR had been registered against Shukla after a considerable delay.
It took note of Shukla’s counsel and senior advocate Mahesh Jethmalani that though the alleged incident of illegal phone tapping had taken place over three years ago, the Pune police’s FIR was registered against Shukla only on February 25 this year.
Jethmalani further said that while several other officers of the Maharashtra police had been involved in obtaining the sanction for putting certain phone numbers under surveillance, the FIR had been registered only against Shukla.
The Maharashtra government’s counsel Y P Yagnik, however, opposed Shukla’s request for interim protection from arrest.
He further sought some time to file a reply to her plea saying that a copy of the petition had been served to him only on Thursday.
Yagnik urged the high court not to pass any interim orders on the plea.
The bench, however, said that Shukla had made a case fit for ad-interim relief and that in passing its order, the high court was merely following the mandate of the Supreme Court.
“We will pass appropriate orders. As per the petitioner’s submissions, you (state police) are filing the FIR after three-and-a-half years of the alleged cause of action,” the HC said.
“Is it not a case of malafide action that while apparently several officers are involved, the FIR is filed against only one officer? She is a serving IPS officer, holding a responsible post in Andhra Pradesh. Where is the scope of her absconding?” it said.
While Yagnik argued that the court was considering “only one side of the case,” Jethmalani argued that Shukla had been singled out and therefore, prayers in the petition deserved consideration.
Jethmalani further said that though a number of officers were involved in the process of alleged surveillance and phone interception on the basis that the said phone holders were supplying narcotics to college students, nobody else had been named in the said FIR.
The senior lawyer also told the HC that none of the phone numbers allegedly intercepted were registered in the name of any politicians.
The HC then said that prima facie, it was “convinced” that Shukla deserved to be granted protection until further orders.
“First of all, there is a delay in registering the FIR. Secondly though other officers were involved in obtaining sanction for the surveillance of certain phone numbers, FIR is only against the petitioner,” the high court said in its order.
“Thirdly, the petitioner is a high-ranking officer and is occupying a responsible post of ADG with the CRPF, Hyderabad. It is unlikely that she will abscond. Therefore, she needs to be given protection,” it said.
The HC bench also recorded in its order that Jethmalani, on the instructions from Shukla, said that she was willing to extend “full cooperation” to the police in its probe in the case.
The HC granted two weeks to the Pune police to file its reply to Shukla’s plea.
It posted the matter for further hearing on March 25 and said that no coercive action must be taken against Shukla in the case until then.
Shukla, who was posted as Pune police commissioner between March 2016 and July 2018, is presently on central deputation and posted as additional director general of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) in Hyderabad.
The FIR was filed against Shukla under relevant sections of the Indian Telegraph Act for alleged illegal tapping of phones of politicians between 2015 and 2019 during her tenure as the Pune police commissioner.
Seeking to quash the FIR, the IPS officer has said in her plea that she was being “falsely implicated” in the case and that she was a victim of “political vendetta”.
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Dismissed cop Sachin Waze withdraws plea in Bombay High Court against judicial panel orders
By PTI
MUMBAI: Dismissed policeman Sachin Waze on Wednesday unconditionally withdrew his petition in the Bombay High Court challenging two orders of the panel set up to probe into the corruption allegations against former Maharashtra minister Anil Deshmukh.
Waze, who is presently in jail after his arrest in the Antilia bomb scare and murder case of businessman Mansukh Hiran, withdrew his plea after the High Court on Tuesday said it was not inclined to grant any relief.
A division bench of Justices Gautam Patel and Madhav Jamdar had on Tuesday expressed its displeasure with the former policeman for suppressing facts and not submitting all the documents in his petition.
The bench had noted that Waze’s petition did not annex the affidavit submitted by him to the Chandiwal commission along with his application seeking to retract an earlier statement made by him on Deshmukh.
The court had then asked Waze’s advocate Anil Anturkar to take instructions on whether he was willing to withdraw the petition.
“If he (Waze) does not wish to withdraw then, we will dismiss it with strictures,” Justice Patel had said on Tuesday.
When the matter came up for hearing on Wednesday, Anturkar informed the court that Waze was withdrawing the petition unconditionally.
The court accepted the same.
Waze, in his petition, challenged the legality, validity and propriety of the two orders passed by the one-member commission of retired Justice K U Chandiwal and sought to quash the same.
The first order of the panel refused Waze’s application seeking to summon the Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Milind Bharambe for examination, while in the second order, the commission denied him permission to retract his earlier statement against Deshmukh.
Waze had filed an application before the Chandiwal Commission on January 21 this year, seeking to summon the then joint commissioner of police (Crime) Bharambe for examination before the Commission.
Bharambe had written a letter and later authored a report on March 25, 2021.
Former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh had presented a copy of this secret letter along with Bharambe’s report on March 30, 2021 before the commission.
Waze had sought to call Bharambe before the Commission claiming that the latter’s report is prejudicial to his interest.
However, the Commission dismissed his application on January 24.
On February 9, Waze had made an application seeking to retract his statement with regard to Deshmukh.
He had said that neither the former minister nor his associates or people related to him have ever made any monetary demand or instructed him to extort Rs 100 crore from the city’s bar owners.
According to Waze’s plea before the court, he had filed an affidavit before the Commission along with his application for retraction of his statement.
The former policeman had claimed that he was under immense and tremendous pressure due to his arrest by the Mumbai crime branch.
Waze has alleged that he was mentally harassed and victimised so as to affect his psyche and his state of mind, and claimed that he was subjected to severe mental torture and harassment apparently by Deshmukh and it continued even after his resignation.
Consequently, when the petitioner was put to certain questions at the time of his cross examination before the committee, he gave incorrect answers, the plea stated.
Waze, in his petition, claimed that he is a whistleblower and has been falsely implicated in a series of criminal cases consequent to political vendetta arising out of the shocking revelations disclosed by him in the public domain through his senior officer.
The former policeman has claimed that he had confided in his senior officer about a series of demands made by Deshmukh, and based on this, the senior officer had written to the state government on March 20, 2021, following which a one-member committee headed by retired Justice K U Chandiwal was formed.
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HC directs Maharashtra BJP member to deposit Rs 2 lakh before it hears his PIL on minister’s ‘illegal’ flight use
By PTI
MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court on Monday directed BJP’s media cell head for Maharashtra, Vishwas Pathak, to deposit Rs two lakh as security to prove his “bonafide” before the court decides to hear the public interest litigation (PIL) filed by him against state energy minister Nitin Raut for allegedly using chartered flights during the pandemic lockdown.
In his plea filed last April, Pathak had sought a direction to the Maharashtra State Electricity Board (MSEB) and three other state power utilities to recover amounts allegedly spent illegally on the chartered flights for cabinet minister Nitin Raut.
On Monday, Raut’s advocates told the HC that Pathak’s petition was not maintainable.
A division bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice M S Karnik then directed Pathak to deposit Rs two lakh as security to prove his bonafide.
“If the sum is deposited within a period of ten days, then the petition shall be listed for hearing two weeks thereafter. If the deposit is not made then the petition stands dismissed,” the bench said.
In his PIL, Pathak had said that another person had obtained information under the Right to Information (RTI) from power generation and distribution companies, based on which he alleged that during the COVID-19 lockdown period, the concerned minister had used chartered flights on numerous occasions for ‘administrative work’ and had made the power companies pay the bills.
The PIL alleged that Raut used chartered flights for several trips between Mumbai, Nagpur, Hyderabad and Delhi, for which the debt-ridden power companies were made to pay over Rs 40 lakh during the lockdown.
The plea also said that the RTI queries made to MSEB revealed that the minister had used chartered flights at the cost of Rs 14.45 lakh for two trips to Nagpur in June and July 2020, for ‘important administrative work.”
“While most of the country’s highest officials were performing their duties from remote and virtual setups, Raut flouted the existing norms on multiple occasions and took the liberty to travel around the country during the lockdown period for personal reasons under the pretext of administrative work,” the PIL alleged.
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ED opposes in Bombay HC plea of Anil Deshmukh’s wife Aarti against attachment of assets
By PTI
MUMBAI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday opposed in the Bombay High Court a plea filed by former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh’s wife, Aarti, challenging the provisional attachment of assets in a money laundering case.
The ED, in an affidavit, said the petition was not maintainable as the issues raised in it could be put forward before an adjudicating authority which is seized of the matter pertaining to the attachment of assets under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
The affidavit further said the Act provides for statutory mechanisms to raise the issue before the adjudicating authority.
Further, the adjudicating authority has concluded the hearing and closed the matter for order, said the ED.
A division bench headed by Justice G S Patel on Monday took the affidavit on record and posted the matter for further hearing on January 19.
In December 2021, the bench had permitted the adjudicating authority to hear and pass final orders on the provisional attachment of assets belong to Anil Deshmukh and his wife Aarti, but restrained it from taking any coercive action pending hearing of her plea in the HC.
Aarti Deshmukh, in the petition, had contended that the authority is supposed to include a chairperson and two members, one of whom has to be compulsorily from law background, but this rule is not being followed.
The authority is a quasi-judicial body established under the PMLA that adjudicates on matters connected with attachment of properties.
Anil Deshmukh, a senior NCP leader, is currently in jail under judicial custody in the case.
Earlier last year, the ED had provisionally attached assets worth over Rs 4 crore belonging to Anil Deshmukh (71) and his family.
The ED had initiated a probe after the Central Bureau of Investigation filed an FIR against Anil Deshmukh following a preliminary inquiry into the allegations of corruption and official misconduct levelled against him by former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh.
The NCP leader, who resigned from the state cabinet in April 2021, has denied any wrongdoing.
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HC allows 12-year-old rape victim to abort foetus; Says forcing pregnancy will breach her fundamental rights
By PTI
MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court on Monday permitted a 12-year-old victim of rape and sexual assault to undergo medical termination of her pregnancy, which was a result of this assault, despite the pregnancy being beyond the permissible 20-week limit and the foetus having only minor abnormalities.
A vacation bench of Justices SJ Kathawalla and Abhay Ahuja took note of the mental anguish and trauma the minor girl would have to undergo if forced to carry the pregnancy to full term.
It also cited an April 2019 order passed by another Bombay HC bench, which had held that if a pregnancy posed injury to a woman’s mental health, then forcing her to continue with such pregnancy would be in breach of her fundamental right to life.
It said the 2019 order had “correctly held that in a situation where continuation of pregnancy poses grave injury to the physical and mental health of the mother, the pregnant mother could not be forced to continue with the pregnancy merely because it had extended beyond the ceiling of 20 weeks”.
“The same would be a serious afront to fundamental rights of such mother to privacy, to exercise reproductive choices, and even to her bodily integrity as also dignity,” Justice Kathawalla’s bench quoted from the 2019 order.
The vacation bench was presiding over a plea filed by the victim’s father.
It noted the victim was currently admitted in the state-run JJ hospital in the city, and a panel of doctors there had examined her and concluded that while “only minor anomaly is detected in the foetus of the pregnant minor mother”, she “is anguished with the pregnancy.”
The JJ hospital panel had also told HC that the continuation of the pregnancy was likely to have an adverse psychological impact on the minor.
The HC vacation bench further noted, in the present case, the medical board had also clearly opined that the minor was anguished with the pregnancy and its continuation may lead to complications during labour.
“It is further opined the continuation of such an unwanted pregnancy will have physical and mental stress to minor as well as have a psychological impact,” HC said.
It directed JJ hospital authorities to provide counselling and requisite medical aid to the victim and to perform the MTP procedure.
The bench also directed the Maharashtra government to immediately place the FIR registered in the rape case, the victim’s medical report and other related documents before the District Legal Services Authority (DLSA) to ensure the victim is provided compensation and aid promised under the state’s ‘Manodhairya] scheme.
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Kangana Ranaut moves Bombay High Court seeking to quash FIR over ‘anti-Sikh’ comment
By PTI
MUMBAI: Bollywood actor Kangana Ranaut has approached the Bombay High Court seeking to quash a First Information Report (FIR) registered against her last month by Mumbai Police following a complaint by a Sikh organization.
Ranaut portrayed the farmers’ protest on Delhi borders against the controversial farm laws as a Khalistani movement in an Instagram post on November 21, the complainants had alleged.
Following which, a case for ‘hurting religious sentiments’ was registered against her by police here.
In her post, the actor had referred to “Khalistani terrorists” and invoked former prime minister late Indira Gandhi who “crushed” them.
The actor’s petition, filed last month through advocate Rizwan Siddiquee, contended that her post was misconstrued and she had no intention of hurting the Sikh community’s sentiments.
The post was not against farmers but against a banned organization, and it was within her fundamental right to free speech, the actor, known for making controversial statements, said in the plea.
The HC should “protect her legitimate rights and liberties by quashing the FIR,” said the petition, which is yet to be listed for hearing.
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Anil Deshmukh case: Police force not part of some ‘zamindari system’, CBI tells Bombay High Court
By PTI
MUMBAI: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) told the Bombay High Court on Monday that a state’s police force was an independent institution, supposed to be free of the executive’s control and not part of some “zamindari system’ as it opposed the Maharashtra government’s move to seek quashing of summons issued to two top bureaucrats in the Anil Deshmukh case.
The Maharashtra government had no right to approach the court and seek that the summons issued by the central agency to state chief secretary Sitaram Kunte and current DGP Sanjay Pandey, related to its extortion probe against former home minister Anil Deshmukh, be quashed, the CBI told a bench of Justices Nitin Jamdar and SV Kotwal.
Additional Solicitor General Aman Lekhi, who appeared for the CBI, told the bench that as per law, the police force was institutionalized and was not part of some “zamindari system” that the Maharashtra government could approach the HC claiming it was doing so on behalf of its entire police establishment since the CBI’s summons to its DGP was demoralising the force.
Lekhi said the state’s petition was wholly misconceived and an attempt to interfere with the CBI’s probe against Deshmukh.
The Maharashtra government’s counsel, senior advocate Darius Khambata, had earlier told the bench that the state was justified in approaching the HC in the case since the CBI’s summons to the chief secretary and its senior most police officer was demoralising its entire police force.
Khambata had said that the state had approached the HC by invoking its “parens patriae jurisdiction”- a provision of law that allows the next of kin, a legal guardian, or a friend to approach court on behalf of someone who is a minor, disabled, or, not in a position to approach the court.
Lekhi, however, said, “The question of parens patriae doesn’t arise. We are dealing with delinquency in a criminal case and in criminal law, the doctrine of parens patriae cannot be invoked to stall a central agency’s investigation.”
“This shows the desperation of the state. In which category do the DGP and chief secretary come – minor, insane, disabled?” he asked.
Lekhi further said in the present case, no fundamental right of the state government was being violated.
He claimed the state government’s real intent was to interfere in the CBI’s probe into the allegations of extortion made against Deshmukh by former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh.
“The police force is not a part of some zamindari system. Therefore, the executive can’t lay a claim to be a proprietor of its police force and come to court saying the entire force is being affected carrying the mindset that these are our officers,” Lekhi said.
Lekhi opposed the state government’s submission that the ongoing probe was compromised since the present CBI director Subodh Jaiswal was the state DGP when Deshmukh was the home minister and had hence been part of several meetings in which transfers and postings of police officials had been discussed.
The state government had said that since the CBI was probing Deshmukh’s interference in transfers and postings, Jaiswal, who took charge as director of the CBI in May this year, himself should be a potential subject of Investigation.
Lekhi, however, said, “Jaiswal is a member of the (Police Establishment) board, the board had meetings, so obviously he attended those. The question though is, has what has happened because of his participation in those meetings, or because of the home minister’s conduct?”
“The involvement of Deshmukh and Deshmukh putting his men out for extortion is under scrutiny,” he said.
Following an order of the Bombay high court issued on April 5 this year, the CBI conducted a preliminary inquiry into the allegations made by Singh against Deshmukh (71).
The central agency subsequently registered an FIR against the NCP leader.
In September this year, the CBI summoned chief secretary Kunte and DGP Pandey, asking them to report to the central agency’s office in Delhi for answering questions related to Deshmukh.
The Maharashtra government, however, approached HC challenging the summons.
The HC will hear the plea further on November 23.