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Supreme Court refuses to interfere with Punjab and Haryana High Court order staying WFI polls
The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to interfere with the Punjab and Haryana High Court order staying the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) elections.
The development came days after UWW, the world governing body for wrestling, suspended the WFI for not conducting its elections on time. As a result of the global wrestling body’s decision, the country’s grapplers will not be able to compete at the upcoming World Championships under the Indian flag.
A bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Pankaj Mithal asked the petitioner, Andhra Pradesh Amateur Wrestling Association, to approach the high court with its grievances.
“Why should we entertain this? You go to the high court… Instead of applying for vacating the interim stay, the petitioner has chosen to approach the Supreme Court. We, therefore, decline to entertain this special leave petition,” the bench said and granted the petitioner liberty to seek impleadment as a party in the high court.
The apex court also asked the high court to give necessary priority to the case, if the petitioner files a plea for impleadment.
During the hearing, the counsel appearing for the petitioner told the bench that WFI has now been de-recognised by United World Wrestling (UWW), a development which is an embarrassment for the country.
“The election process should not be stopped. We have no axe to grind,” the lawyer for the association said.
Attorney General R Venkataramani, appearing for the Centre, contended the petitioner has bypassed the high court and jumped directly to the top court.
The top court was hearing a plea by the Andhra Pradesh Amateur Wrestling Association against the August 11 order of the high court staying the election.
The Indian Olympic Association-appointed ad-hoc panel governing the WFI had initially scheduled the elections for July 6 but was forced to reschedule the polls to July 11 after disaffiliated state bodies from Maharashtra, Haryana, Telangana, Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh approached it for a hearing, claiming their dismissal was not appropriate.
The panel heard the aggrieved representatives of the state bodies but the polls could not go ahead even on July 11, with the Gauhati High Court staying the elections after the Assam Wrestling Association (AWA) sought the right to participate in the poll process.
(Courtesy:- The Telegraph Online, 29 August 2023)
Supreme Court Bar Association condemns ‘inhuman’ police lathi-charge on men and women lawyers
The Supreme Court Bar Association on Wednesday condemned the “inhuman” police lathi-charge on men and women lawyers at Hapur, Uttar Pradesh, on Tuesday.
Members of the Hapur Bar Association were beaten up while protesting on the roads, accusing the police of filing a false case against a woman advocate under sections dealing with assault and obstructing a policeman from discharging his duties.
In a statement issued here, SCBA honorary secretary Rohit Pandey urged the Bar Council of India and the state bar councils to take steps to ensure that lawyers can function without “intimidation or harassment”.
“The Supreme Court Bar Association strongly condemns the inhumane and violent act of police on advocates in Hapur, Uttar Pradesh, where the women advocates were also not spared from the brutality,” the statement said.
The statement said the SCBA “will not tolerate any attack on the prestige of advocates” and demanded that the Uttar Pradesh government take “immediate steps to”:
Investigate the incident and punish the guilty police officers.
Censure the police officers responsible for the lathi-charge.
Pay compensation to the injured advocates.
Introduce and implement the Advocates Protection Act to shield advocates and their families from such brutality.
Improve law and order and ensure that the police are accountable for their actions.
(Courtesy:- The Telegraph Online, 31 August 2023)
Stop fighting against Marathi signboards: Supreme Court nudges Mumbai trade body
Shops in Mumbai can’t be exempted from putting up signboards in Marathi because it is a cosmopolitan city, the Supreme Court observed on Friday, nudging traders from the city to comply with the 2022 law that requires Marathi signboards outside all shops, big and small, in Maharashtra.
“How is it going to prejudice you by putting a board in Marathi? Rather than spending so much money on litigation in court, you buy a signboard and put it,” a bench of justices BV Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan said,
The Federation of Retail Traders Welfare Association, which has for years resisted strong-arm tactics by political groups to force shopkeepers to prominently put up signboards in Marathi, told the bench that they were on a larger point. Lawyer Mohini Priya, appearing for the federation, said their petition raises constitutional questions of law on whether a state can mandate the use of a language in matters of trade and business.
“We are not against the promotion of the Marathi language. The rules require it to be prominently displayed above any other language on the signboard. Such a rule may be mandatory for official purposes but not for shops. Mumbai is a cosmopolitan and people from all states come here,” she said.
The bench said Mumbai was also the capital of Maharashtra and Marathi was the official language. “You should not be fighting over this. You are doing business in the state. If you put up a board in Marathi, you will get more customers. It is all about your ego.”
The court asked Mohini Priya to convince her clients and indicated that the petitioner may be asked to approach the Bombay high court where arguing a matter of this nature will be difficult.
Mohini Priya told the court that they had moved the high court earlier and one of the two pleas before the Supreme Court was an appeal challenging the high court’s February order.
The Maharashtra government, which was represented by advocate Siddharth Dharmadhikari, said the state was well within its right to introduce an amendment in Section 36-A of the Maharashtra Shops and Establishments (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act last year. He pointed out that the petitioners have claimed that changing the signboard will entail a huge cost but this could not be a ground to argue that the amendment was unconstitutional.
In its affidavit filed last month, the state government underlined that the use of Marathi on signboards was already part of the rules before the amendment came into force and the new provision only extended it to shops with less than 10 employees for the sake of uniformity.
The change has been made “purely for the benefit of the Marathi-speaking population of Maharashtra, thereby making it more accessible and recognisable and to further inculcate the feeling of belongingness to the native land,” the state government said.
The state government estimated that the state’s Marathi-speaking population accounted for 69% of the Maharashtra’s population and that the mandate did not prevent shopkeepers from using other languages.
The petitioners had also argued that imposing Marathi on signboards will dilute their brand value, affecting their fundamental right under Article 19(1)(g) providing freedom to practice any trade or profession.
(Courtesy:- Hindustan Times, 1 September 2023)
Children Of “Invalid Marriages” To Get Share In Parents’ Property: Supreme Court
Children from “invalid marriages” are entitled to a share of their parents’ property, the Supreme Court said Friday, explaining such children had been statutorily conferred with legitimacy. They can, however, claim rights as per Hindu Succession law alone, the court said. Significantly, this overturns earlier findings of the court, which said children from “invalid marriages” could only have rights to their parents’ self-acquired and not ancestral property.
A three-judge bench led by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud was hearing a plea against the judgement of a two-judge bench in a 2011 case, which said children from “invalid marriages” are entitled to inherit their parents’ properties, whether self-acquired or ancestral.
“A child born of void or voidable marriage is not entitled to claim inheritance in ancestral copercenary property but is entitled only to claim share in self-acquired properties, if any,” the court had said then as it quashed a Madras High Court judgement which took the view that children born out of live-in relationships were entitled to a share in ancestral property.
The court had then also said that provisions in question make it clear a child of a “void or voidable marriage” could only claim rights to the property of his parents, and no one else.
(Courtesy:- NDTV, 1 September 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
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