Weekly Legal Updates main objective is to update the legal knowledge of law students, lawyers, academicians and other professionals. If we do not update our legal knowledge regularly, our knowledge become redundant.
Fill vacancy in National Commission for Scheduled Castes expeditiously: Supreme Court
The Supreme Court has directed the Centre to ensure that vacancy in the National Commission for Scheduled Castes is filled on an expeditious basis.
A bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices P S Narasimha and J B Pardiwala noted the submission of the Centre that there is one vacancy in the Commission.
“The Union of India shall take appropriate steps to ensure that the composition of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes is completed on an expeditious basis,” the bench said.
The top court was hearing a plea filed by Ambedkar Association for Development seeking to fill appointments to the post of Chairperson/Vice-Chairperson and Member of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes within a stipulated period.
BJP leader and former Union minister Vijay Sampla is the chairperson of the Commission.
The National Commission for Scheduled Castes is an Indian constitutional body established with a view to provide safeguards against the exploitation of Scheduled Castes and Anglo Indian communities to promote and protect their social, educational, economic and cultural interests. (Courtesy:- The Times of India, 16 April 2023)
Supreme Court Notice To Delhi Lt Governor Over Teachers Training In Finland
A bench of Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and Justice JB Pardiwala sought a response from the office of LG on the Delhi government’s plea.
The Supreme Court today issued notice to the office of Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena on a plea of the Delhi government against LG’s approval with riders to send government school teachers to Finland for training and prohibiting teachers from receiving foreign training in the future.
A bench of Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and Justice JB Pardiwala sought a response from the office of LG on the Delhi government’s plea.
Advocate Shadan Farasat, appearing for the Delhi government, told the bench that it is clear that LG cannot take an independent decision in this regard and he can’t say that no such Finland training will be there in future.
In wake of the LG prohibiting government school teachers from receiving foreign training in the future and approving riders to send them to Finland for training, the Delhi government has approached the top court seeking direction to the LG to act on the aid and advice of the Council of Ministers.
On March 4, LG cleared some of the teachers for the Finland programme but was mandated against such exercises in future.
The plea sought direction for affirmation of the proposal sent by the Delhi government’s State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) to send primary in-charge teachers at government schools in the national capital for training to Finland in the months of December 2022 and March 2023.
It further sought the quashing of LG’s order dated March 4, 2023, which was passed after an inordinate delay, thereby rendering the proposal completely infructuous.
The plea sought direction to “Set aside the order passed by LG on March 4, 2023, and affirm the proposal of the SCERT, Delhi government October 18, 2022.” (Courtesy:- NDTV, 17 April 2023)
Supreme Court bench recuses from hearing plea challenging appointment of Arun Goel as EC
A Supreme Court bench headed by Justice KM Joseph on Monday recused from hearing a plea challenging appointment of Arun Goel as Election Commissioner.
A bench of Justices Joseph and BV Nagarathna said, “List the matter before another bench”.
Before the bench recused from hearing, the top court questioned NGO ‘Association for Democratic Reforms’ for challenging Goel’s appointment and asked it to show which rules were violated. It said after the appointment of a person to a constitutional post, presumptions cannot be made that he will act unfairly, arbitrarily or will be “yes man”.
The bench said the petition has relied on a March 2 verdict of the apex court which had ruled that the appointment of the Chief Election Commissioner and ECs will be done by the President on the recommendation of a committee, comprising the prime minister, Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha and the CJI, to maintain the “purity of election”.
In the lengthy verdict, the five-judge bench had said it was mystified as to how bureaucrat Goel applied for voluntary retirement on November 18 last year if he was not aware about the proposal to appoint him as an Election Commissioner.
During the hearing, advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the NGO, said the appointment process of Goel was malafide and arbitrary and four officers were selected out of a pool of 160 across the country and many of them were younger to Goel. He said the selection process adopted by the government was questionable. (Courtesy:- The Indian Express, 17 April 2023)
Supreme Court Cancels Ex Professor GN Saibaba’s Acquittal In Maoist Links Case
The Supreme Court today set aside a Bombay High Court order acquitting former Delhi University Professor GN Saibaba in a Maoist links case and remanded it back to the high court for fresh consideration on merits within four months.
A bench of top court Justices MR Shah and CT Ravikumar directed the Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court to place GN Saibaba’s appeal and that of other accused not before the same bench which had discharged them and the case be heard by another bench.
It said that question of law, including sanction under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), is to remain open for adjudication by the high court. The top court had on October 15 suspended the Bombay High Court order acquitting GN Saibaba and others in the case.
Advocate Abhikalp Pratap Singh appeared for the Maharashtra government and senior advocate R Basant represented Saibaba in the case in the Supreme Court.
More than eight years after his arrest in 2014, the Bombay High Court on October 14 last year acquitted GN Saibaba and ordered his release from jail, noting that the sanction order issued to prosecute the accused in the case under the stringent provisions of the UAPA was “bad in law and invalid”.
The Nagpur bench of the high court allowed the appeal filed by GN Saibaba challenging a 2017 order of the trial court convicting and sentencing him to life imprisonment for offences under provisions of UAPA and the Indian Penal Code.
Apart from GN Saibaba, the Bombay high court had acquitted Mahesh Kariman Tirki, Pandu Pora Narote (both farmers), Hem Keshavdatta Mishra (student) and Prashant Sanglikar (journalist), who were sentenced to life imprisonment, and Vijay Tirki (labourer), who was sentenced to 10 years in jail. Narote died during the pendency of the appeal. (Courtesy:- NDTV, 19 April 2023)
Tree felling in Aarey forest: SC pulls up Mumbai Metro for ‘overreach’, imposes Rs 10 lakh fine
The Supreme Court Monday pulled up the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (MMRCL) for trying to “overreach” its earlier order that allowed the corporation to seek the felling of 84 trees in Aarey forest for a Metro car shed project. The court directed the corporation to pay Rs 10 lakh as penalty.
The top court had allowed MMRCL to approach the tree authority for the felling of the trees in a November 29, 2022 order. But MMRCL, in its application before the authority, sought the felling of more trees than was permitted by the SC order. This application was cleared.
On Monday, a three-judge bench, presided by Chief Justice of India Dy Chandrachud and comprising Justices P S Narasimha and J B Pardiwala, termed MMRCL’s action “improper” and added that “if circumstances had transpired which led to a variation in the number of trees to be cut, the only correct course of action would have been to move this court”.
The bench, however, refused to stay the March 15, 2023 order by the tree authorities that allowed the felling of 124 trees and transplanting of 53 trees (a total of 177 trees).
The top court said: “Any such direction will have the consequence of bringing the public project to a standstill. Such a course of action would not be desirable. As the court noticed in its previous order, substantial steps have already been taken by felling over 2000 trees for the purpose of the project. In this backdrop we modify the previous order by permitting the MMRCL to act in compliance with the order dated March 15, 2023”. It said: “We are hence of the view that it would be necessary for the court to penalsie MMRCL for its conduct.”
The bench clarified that this will be subject to the corporation fulfilling certain conditions. (Courtesy:- The Indian Express, 18 April, 2023)
US Supreme Court rebuffs Novartis bid to revive MS drug Gilenya patent
The justices turned away an appeal by Novartis of a lower court’s decision to cancel the patent, a ruling that paved the way for some generic versions of Gilenya. Novartis sold $1. billion worth of Gilenya in the US last year, a 19 per cent per cent drop from 2021 that was caused in part by generic competition.
The US Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp’s bid to revive a key patent on its blockbuster multiple sclerosis drug Gilenya that was invalidated amid a legal dispute with China’s HEC Pharm Co Ltd. The justices turned away an appeal by Novartis of a lower court’s decision to cancel the patent, a ruling that paved the way for some generic versions of Gilenya.
Novartis sold $1.1 billion worth of Gilenya in the US last year, a 19 per cent per cent drop from 2021 that was caused in part by generic competition, according to a company report. The US Food and Drug Administration in 2010 approved Gilenya to treat relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis, a chronic disease that affects the central nervous system.
Novartis sued HEC and more than a dozen other generic drugmakers for patent infringement in Delaware federal court after they applied for FDA approval of Gilenya generics. Novartis settled with some of the drugmakers, allowing for some Gilenya generics before a key patent’s 2027 expiration.
The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit determined last year that the patent was invalid, in a 2-1 reversal of its own previous split decision to uphold the patent. The Supreme Court in October rejected a Novartis emergency bid to pause the decision.
Novartis argued that the ruling would greenlight at least a dozen generics and harm it in ways that could be “impossible to calculate at an after-the-fact damages trial.” (Courtesy:- ET Healthworld.com, 18 April, 2023)
Google wins appeal of $20 mln US patent verdict over Chrome technology
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit said that Alfonso Cioffi and Allen Rozman’s patents were invalid because they contained inventions that were not included in an earlier version of the patent.
Alphabet’s Google LLC on Tuesday convinced a U.S. appeals court to cancel three anti-malware patents at the heart of a Texas jury’s $20 million infringement verdict against the company.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit said that Alfonso Cioffi and Allen Rozman’s patents were invalid because they contained inventions that were not included in an earlier version of the patent.
Cioffi and the late Rozman’s daughters sued Google in East Texas federal court in 2013, alleging anti-malware functions in Google’s Chrome web browser infringed their patents for technology that prevents malware from accessing critical files on a computer.
A jury decided in 2017 that Google infringed the patents and awarded the plaintiffs $20 million plus ongoing royalties, which their attorney said at the time were expected to total about $7 million per year for the next nine years.
But the Federal Circuit said Tuesday that all of the patents were invalid. The three patents were reissued from an earlier anti-malware patent, and federal law required the new patents to cover the same invention as the first, the unanimous three-judge panel concluded.
The appeals court said the new patents outlined technology specific to web browsers that the first patent did not mention.
The case is Cioffi v. Google LLC, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, No. 18-1049. (Courtesy:- Business Today, 19 April 2023)
*Disclaimer: – Always check with the original copy of judgment from the Court website.
Legal News in this Weekly Legal Update are compiled by Team www.deepakmiglani.com
Also Read Weekly Legal Updates (1 January 2023 to 7 January 2023)
Also Read Weekly Legal Updates (8 January 2023 to 14 January 2023)
Also Read Weekly Legal Updates (22 January 2023 to 28 January 2023)
Also Read Weekly Legal Updates (29 January 2023 to 4 February 2023)
Also Read Weekly Legal Updates (5 February 2023 to 11 February 2023)
Also Read Weekly Legal Updates (12 February 2023 to 18 February 2023)
Also Read Weekly Legal Updates (19 February to 25 February 2023)
Also Read Weekly Legal Updates (26 February to 4 March 2023)
Also Read Weekly Legal Updates (5 March to 11 March 2023)
Also Read Weekly Legal Updates (12 March to 18 March 2023)
Also Read Weekly Legal Updates (19 March to 25 March 2023)
Also Read Weekly Legal Updates (26 March to 1 April 2023)
Also Read Weekly Legal Updates (2 April to 8 April 2023)
Also Read Weekly Legal Updates (9 April to 15 April 2023)