News Analysis India

Tag: Madhya Pradesh High Court

  • Madhya Pradesh HC refuses to lift stay to ordinance which increased OBC quota

    By PTI

    JABALPUR: The Madhya Pradesh High Court has declined to vacate its stay to an ordinance which increased the reservation for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) from 14 per cent to 27 per cent in the state.

    The state government had moved the court seeking to vacate the stay, advocate general P K Kaurav said in a release here on Thursday.

    The stay order of March 19, 2019 affected admissions to post-graduate medical courses and also government recruitment, the state contended before the HC.

    A division bench of Chief Justice Mohammad Rafiq and Justice V K Shukla, however, said on Wednesday that it would hold a final hearing on the petitions opposing the ordinance from September 20 instead of issuing an order, Kaurav said.

    Advocate Aditya Sanghi, lawyer of the petitioners, said the ordinance increased the total reservation in education and government jobs in Madhya Pradesh to 63 per cent, much above the Supreme Court-mandated cap of 50 per cent.

  • School fees amid pandemic: SC asks MP education department to compile details of compliance of HC order

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court Thursday asked the Director of School Education of Madhya Pradesh to compile details regarding compliance of directions given by the state high court last year that schools can recover only tuition fees from students during the COVID-19 pandemic.

    The Madhya Pradesh High Court had also said in last year’s November 4 order that there shall not be increment in fee for academic session 2020-21.

    It had further stated that when the government declares pandemic is over and schools return to normal physical functioning, the district committee shall within 30 days from such declaration take decision on increment of fees for remaining period of the session.

    The apex court, which was hearing pleas against the high court order, said the details received from the respective district committees regarding compliance of directions given to the schools shall be displayed on the official website of the education department of the state.

    A bench of Justices A M Khanwilkar and Sanjiv Khanna said if the students of the academic year 2020-2021 have any grievance regarding non-compliance of directions given by the high court, they can make representation to the district level committee.

    “We direct the Director, school education, of state of Madhya Pradesh to compile the details from the respective district committees about compliances made by the concerned schools within the concerned district and display that information on the official website of education department of the state of Madhya Pradesh,” the bench said, adding the high court order pertained to academic session 2020-2021.

    It said if the data displayed by the education department on the official website is discrepant in any manner, it would be open for the schools to bring that to the notice of the concerned authority.

    During the arguments, advocate Mayank Kshirsagar, appearing for some of the petitioners who are parents, argued that the high court had said that schools can only charge tuition fee but there was no protection in case of non-payment of fee.

    Kshirsagar claimed that some of the schools have clubbed other charges in the tuition fees.

    “You have to ask your officers to ensure that order of the high court is implemented in letter and spirit,” the bench told the counsel appearing for the state.

    The high court had passed the order on a batch of petitions filed by parents, teachers or employees of unaided CBSE schools and others which emanated from the notifications issued last year by the Central Board of Secondary Education and school education department of Madhya Pradesh regarding payment of fee in private unaided schools amid the COVID-19 induced lockdown period during the pandemic.

    It had also directed that salaries of teaching and non-teaching staff shall be regularly paid on the due date.

    “In case if any reduced salary is paid, the reduction shall not be more than 20 per cent and arrears towards reduced amount shall be paid with the restoration of normalcy in six monthly equal installments,” the high court had said.

    It had said these directions were issued under the unprecedented situation and would be prevalent till the pandemic era and would not be treated as precedent in future with the restoration of normalcy.

  • MP: HC grants maternity leave benefit to contractual woman employee of state department

    By PTI

    JABALPUR: The Madhya Pradesh High Court has directed the public health engineering (PHE) department of the state to provide maternity leave benefit to a contractual woman employee.

    In its order passed on Thursday, a single bench of Justice Vishal Dhagat said, “In view of the circular of the state government, I do not see any reason not to extend the similar benefit to petitioner who is a woman employee appointed on contractual basis.”

    Petitioner Sushma Dwivedi, who is a contractual employee of the PHE department, had challenged the February 6, 2018 order of the executive engineer at the PHE office in Shahdol district’s Umaria, denying her the benefit of maternity leave, her counsel Ashish Trivedi said.

    The department had rejected her application for maternity leave from December 1, 2016 to May 31, 2017 on the ground that she was a contractual employee and there was no condition in the contract to give maternity leave to her, he added.

    Trivedi told the court that the Supreme Court, in a case of Municipal Corporation of Delhi vs Female Workers (Muster Roll) and another of year 2000, had held that maternity leave does not change with the nature of employment.

    It had held that the employer and the courts are bound under the constitutional scheme to guarantee right to life, right to live with dignity and protect the health of both mother and child, and after taking note of identical principles, he said.

    He said that the Madhya Pradesh High Court had in its March 2, 2017 order, in a case of Priyanka Gujarkar Shrivastava, had granted maternity leave on the basis of the apex court order, and therefore, the petitioner is also entitled to get maternity leave.

    The state government in its administrative directions of June 5, 2018 said that women appointed on contractual basis are entitled to get 90 days of maternity leave and women employees will be entitled to get benefits with riders, Trivedi said.

  • HC asks Centre to supply enough COVID-19 vaccine to inoculate MP’s entire adults by September-end

    By PTI
    JABALPUR: The Madhya Pradesh High Court has asked the Centre to supply enough COVID-19 vaccines to the state to ensure that the entire adult population in the region gets at least one dose by September-end.

    The division bench of Chief Justice Mohammed Rafiq and Justice Satyendra Kumar Singh made the observation on Monday while hearing in a suo motu case about the state government’s preparedness in tackling the COVID-19 pandemic, senior advocate Naman Nagrath told PTI on Thursday.

    “This court in this connection requires the Central government to ensure supply of vaccines in sufficient quantity to Madhya Pradesh, keeping in view the required demand of 1.5 crore vaccines per month regularly, so that the target of vaccination of first dose to all people in the 18 plus population in the state is achieved by the end of September,” the bench said.

    The second dose can also be administered as per the priorities fixed with reference to people already vaccinated with the first dose, it stated.

    The court’s observation came after the National Health Mission’s Madhya Pradesh managing director Chhavi Bhardwaj submitted that the Centre had supplied approximately 37 lakh vaccine doses in May, 54 lakh doses in June and by July 19, the state had received approximately 60 lakh doses, which is likely to increase to 70 lakh by the end of the month.

    Bhardwaj further stated that they are expecting the supply to increase to one crore by the end of August, as both vaccine makers – Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech Pvt Ltd – were progressively increasing their manufacturing capacity.

    The state will require 40 lakh vaccine doses per week on an average and 1.

    50 crore doses per month to achieve the target of 100 per cent vaccination of the entire adult population of the state by the end of September, she said.

    Senior counsel Nagrath said the case has been listed for next hearing on August 10.

  • Unimpressed over arguments, SC seeks answer sheet of judicial service aspirant

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: The apparent inability in putting forth the submissions efficiently compounded problems of a judicial services aspirant as the Supreme Court Tuesday ordered the Registry of Madhya Pradesh High Court to file in sealed cover his answer sheets along with the questions for its perusal.

    A lawyer, who was successful under the reserved category in the preliminary examination held by the Jabalpur Branch of the Madhya Pradesh High Court for the higher judicial services, has challenged the change in age criteria.

    A bench comprising Chief Justice N V Ramana and justices A S Bopanna and Hrishikesh Roy was of the prima facie view that the issue of changing age criteria for selection of a candidate as additional district and sessions judge was well within the rights of the high court.

    Duwarakya Sawale has challenged the decision of the high court to change the age from 48 years to 45 for selection of candidates in higher judicial services (HJS) in the state and sought relaxation for himself on the age count.

    “You are not clear at all. We are not happy with the way the party in person is arguing,” the visibly irked bench observed.

    “We are unable to understand your arguments. You want to become a District Judge but you do not know how to argue a case,” the bench said.

    As the petitioner lawyer kept arguing, the bench, which was unable to decipher the submissions, ordered the high court registry by saying, “Please produce his answer sheets along with the multiple choice question question papers in sealed cover.”

    The main examination for the HJS is scheduled to be held in the last week of August.

    The apex court has now posted his plea for hearing in the second week of August.

  • Juvenile Justice Act ‘inadequate’, gives ‘free hand’ to delinquents to commit heinous offences, says MP HC

    By PTI
    INDORE: Denying bail to a boy, who is accused of raping a girl, the Indore bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court has termed the Juvenile Justice Act as “totally inadequate and ill-equipped” to deal with such cases, and asked how many more Nirbhayas’ (rape victims’) sacrifices are required to shake the “conscious” of the country’s lawmakers.

    It also said that this Act gives a “free hand” to the delinquents under the age of 16 years to commit heinous offences.

    The bench of Justice Subodh Abhyankar made the observations while denying bail to the minor accused while hearing the case on June 15.

    The court order was posted on June 25, a government panel lawyer Poorva Mahajan said on Friday.

    “As a parting note, this court is also at pains to observe that the Legislature has still not learnt any lesson from the Nirbhaya case of Delhi. As the age of a child is still kept below 16 years in heinous offences under section 15 of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act 2015, giving a free hand to the delinquents under the age of 16 years to commit heinous offences,” the court said.

    Thus, apparently, despite committing a heinous offence, the petitioner would be tried as a juvenile only, because he is less than 16 years old as provided under section 15 of the Act, the court added.

    “Apparently, the present law to deal with such cases is totally inadequate and ill-equipped and this court really wonders as to how many more Nirbhayas’ sacrifices would be required to shake the conscious of the lawmakers of this country,” the court said in the judgement.

    The conduct of the petitioner clearly reveals that he committed this offence with full consciousness and it cannot be said that it was committed in ignorance, it said.

    “This court is unable to agree with the observation made by the probationary officer that an offence of rape can be committed due to ignorance. An offence of rape, being carnal in nature, cannot be committed unless a person has the specific knowledge of the same.

    “In such circumstances, in the considered opinion of this court, if the petitioner is again left to the care of his parents, considering their earlier negligence to harness him, it cannot be said that the girls of tender age around him would be safe and secure, especially when he is enjoying the protection of Juvenile Justice Act. Thus, his release, in the considered opinion of this court, would defeat the ends of justice,” the order said.

    Opposing the plea, Mahajan pointed out that rape cannot be considered as a “negligent act” as it requires all kind of knowledge and the person, even if a minor, cannot just commit it just out of ignorance.

    ” “Moreover, no one can commit such a heinous crime twice in ignorance as the accused had done it and the same was pointed out by the victim in her statement to the cops,” she said.

    The offence had been committed twice by the accused against the victim in January this year in Jhabua district of Madhya Pradesh.

    The counsel for the petitioner (accused), however, has submitted that the lower courts have erred in not allowing the petitioner’s application filed under section 12 of the Act, and not releasing him on bail.

  • Private hospitals can return vaccine doses to government, says Madhya Pradesh HC

    By PTI
    JABALPUR: The Madhya Pradesh High Court has allowed private hospitals to return COVID-19 vaccine doses to the government and the directed the latter to get chief medical and health officers to verify the returned stock and process refunds.

    A division bench of Chief Justice Mohammad Rafiq and Justice Sujoy Paul observed that vaccination has to be done free of cost now in view of a change in the Union government’s policy.

    “The hospitals referred (applicant private hospitals) may return the indicated number of vials/vaccine doses (anti-coronavirus vaccine) to concerned CMHOs of Jabalpur, Gwalior, Ujjain and Narsinghpur.

    The CMHO shall duly verify the same and the amount paid in-lieu thereof shall be refunded to the concerned hospital within a period of one month,” the HC order of Thursday said.

    As per the application filed by Indian Medical Association and Nursing Home Association, seven private hospitals of Jabalpur, as well as one private hospital each in Gwalior, Ujjain and Narsinghpur have shown willingness to return the number of vials/vaccine doses remaining with them to the government after change in the vaccination policy, amicus curiae and senior advocate Naman Nagrath said.

    The court issued the direction while hearing a bunch of petitions, including a suo motu one, on issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic and treatment provided to patients.

  • SC Collegium approves elevation of six judicial officers as judges of Madhya Pradesh High Court

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court Collegium has approved the proposal for elevation of six judicial officers as judges of the Madhya Pradesh High Court.

    The Collegium headed by Chief Justice N V Ramana in a meeting held on May 4, 2021, cleared the proposal and the statement was uploaded on the apex court website on Wednesday.

    The judicial officers who have been elevated to the high court are – – Anil Verma, Arun Kumar Sharma, Satyendra Kumar Singh, Sunita Yadav, Deepak Kumar Agarwal and Rajendra Kumar (Verma).

    The Collegium has also approved the proposal for elevation of Robin Phukan, Judicial Officer, as Judge of the Gauhati High Court.

    After retirement of Justice S A Bobde as Chief Justice of India on April 23, the three-member collegium now comprises Chief Justice N V Ramana and Justices R F Nariman and U U Lalit which takes decision with regard to the high court judges.

  • 12,379 fresh COVID-19 cases in MP; HC raps Shivraj government on oxygen supply

    By PTI
    JABALPUR: The Madhya Pradesh High Court expressed unhappiness with the state government’s submission on efforts to procure medical oxygen amid a surge in COVID-19 cases and asked the Centre to raise the supply quota for the state by 100 metric tons.

    The detailed order of Chief Justice Mohammad Rafiq and Justice Atul Sreedharan of Friday was made available on the HC website on Saturday.

    “There have been several incidents in the past two weeks in which people have lost their lives only because of sudden disruption or low-pressure in supply of oxygen or due to non-availability of oxygen, as per newspaper reports,” the HC said, adding that “oxygen and Remdesivir continue to be two major problems” for the state government.

    The state government had filed an action taken report (ATR) with respect to various directives issued on April 19 by HC.

    “We are constrained to record that most of the significant directions issued by this court in its order of April 19, mainly in respect of continuous and regular supply of oxygen and Remdesivir to the government as well as private hospitals, nursing homes have have not been fully complied,” the HC observed.

    It directed the MP government to consider increasing the RT-PCR test sample collection in four slots from two in a day.

    “What has been contended before us is that most of the private hospitals are refusing to admit corona patients for the reason of non-availability of oxygen, and now with every passing day, it is becoming difficult for COVID patients to get admission in either government or private hospitals,” it said.

    The HC asked the state government to have a re-look at its distribution policy of Remdesivir so that the medicine becomes available to the common man at a reasonable price.

    In response to a court’s query regarding 100 MT more oxygen for MP, Assistant Solicitor General JK Jain sought time to seek instructions from the government.

    The court is hearing a bunch of petitions, including a suo motu one, with respect to treatment of COVID-19 patients.

    Amicus curiae and senior advocate Naman Nagrath told court the state government had failed to manage continuous and regular supply of oxygen and Remdesivir injection, adding that the action plan submitted by it on availability of oxygen was far from reality.

    He said there is accumulation of medical waste like PPE kits, masks and other items in all major cities, including Bhopal, Indore, Gwalior and Jabalpur, and showed clippings of newspaper reports.

    The amicus curiae as well as counsels appearing for interveners said, despite specific direction by HC, private hospitals were refusing to admit and treat patients who are entitled to cashless treatment facility.

    The HC said hospitals approved for treatment of patients covered by cashless schemes of the government shall not refuse to provide treatment, and action must be taken in case complaints come in on this front.

    It also asked the state government and the MP State Pollution Control Board to undertake a special drive for disposal of bio-medical waste in accordance with provisions of the Bio-Medical Waste (Management & Handling) Rules, 1998 and submit a compliance report on it.

    The state on Saturday reported 12,379 fresh COVID-19 cases and 102 fatalities, taking the tally of infections to 5,75,706 and the toll to 5,718, the state health department said.

    The state is now left with 88,511 active cases.

    A total of 14,562 patients were discharged from hospitals in the last 24 hours, taking the count of recoveries in Madhya Pradesh to 4,81,477, the department said.

    With 1,832 new cases, Indore’s caseload went up to 1,12,672 while that of Bhopal rose to 91,456 with the addition of 1,683 cases.

    Indore reported eight deaths, taking the toll in the district to 1,147 while the count of fatalities in Bhopal rose to 742 with six more patients succumbing to the infection, officials said.

    Indore is now left with 11,992 active cases while Bhopal has 12,043 such cases.

    With 60,835 new tests, the total number of samples tested for coronavirus in Madhya Pradesh has crossed 78.08 lakh.

    In the month of April, Madhya Pradesh recorded 2,67,826 fresh cases including 1,630 fatalities, as per the data.

    Coronavirus figures in MP are as follows: Total cases 5,75,706, new cases 12,379, death toll 5,718, recovered 4,81,477, active cases 88,511, number of tests so far 78,08,547.

    State home minister Narottam Mishra said the cycle of oxygen tankers arriving from different places had set in properly and this would ensure availability of the vital gas in the coming days as well.

    “There was a huge oxygen crisis in the state eight days back. As of today, we are on the surplus side as far as availability of oxygen is concerned,” Mishra, also the state government spokesperson, told reporters.

    Earlier, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had tweeted that the state was getting a quota of 586 metric tons of oxygen.

    “On April30, there was supply of 465 MT oxygen, 489 MT on May 1 and supply of 503 MT is expected on May 2,” the CM had tweeted.

    He had informed that 58 oxygen plants were being set up at the district-level.

  • MP HC takes cognizance of oxygen tanker stuck in UP, directs to ensure such incidents aren’t repeated

    By Express News Service
    BHOPAL: In the wake of an Oxygen tanker bound to Sagar district of Madhya Pradesh reportedly getting stuck in adjoining UP throughout the entire day, the Madhya Pradesh High Court directed the central and MP governments on Monday to ensure unhindered supply of the life-saving gas is ensured at all cost.

    A double-judge bench of MP High Court in Jabalpur, comprising Chief Justice Mohammad Rafiq and Justice Atul Sreedharan reprimanded the central and MP government in the matter and directed that such incidents should be allowed to happen again in the future. The HC directed that an unhindered supply of oxygen should be maintained religiously.

    The matter was brought to the court’s notice by the state’s ex-advocate general Anand Mohan Mathur, while the double judge bench was hearing a bunch of petitions pertaining to the COVID-19 situation in the state. The HC subsequently posted the hearing on the bunch of petitions to April 28.

    Importantly, an oxygen tanker containing the liquid form of the life-saving gas was bound from Jharkhand’s Bokaro to MP’s Sagar district for supplying the oxygen to COVID-19 patients admitted at Sagar’s Bundelkhand Medical College and adjoining districts.

    However, the tanker got stuck once it entered Uttar Pradesh on Sunday. When in Fatehpur district of UP, it was allegedly diverted to Jhansi by local cops. Coming to know about it, senior officials of the MP government made a series of phone calls to their counterparts in UP, but it was after many hours that the additional chief secretary (ACS-Home) of UP finally cleared the tanker to travel to UP.

    The tanker which in normal course should have reached Sagar by Sunday evening, however, travelled from Jhansi (UP) to Sagar (MP) on Monday morning, causing major problems to COVID-19 patients in Sagar. 

    The HC, while hearing the bunch of petitions on COVID-19 situation in MP, also directed the state government to take stringent action against those indulging in hoarding and black-marketing of the anti-viral Remdesivir injections and other necessary medicines and equipment.

    The HC also directed the state government to submit on next hearing (April 28) a progress report on implementation of a set of instructions issued by the court during the previous hearing of the bunch of petitions.

    Meanwhile, the state reported 12,686 cases of COVID-19 infections and 88 deaths during the last 24 hours, taking the total active cases in the state to 92,534. The new cases which were reported at 23% positivity rate were less than previous day’s 13,601 cases. As many as 11,612 patients also recovered from the viral infection over the last 24 hours, which was more than 11,324 recoveries reported on the previous day.