In a significant ruling, the Delhi High Court has held that private media organisations can be subjected to writ jurisdiction under Article 226 of the Constitution if they perform public functions and are accused of violating fundamental rights. The Court observed that although a media house may be privately owned, its role in informing the…
The Supreme Court has clarified that the provisions of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 (RPA), cannot be applied to elections held for municipal bodies, as the law is specifically meant to govern elections to Parliament and State Legislatures. The ruling came in a case involving a woman candidate who contested the 2015 municipal…
The Tamil Nadu government has moved the Supreme Court challenging a Madras High Court order that imposed a statewide blanket ban on the slaughter of cows and calves. The Division Bench of Justice GR Swaminathan and Justice V Lakshminarayanan passed the order on May 27 on a Public Interest Litigation filed by K Surya Prasanth,…
The Madras High Court has held that an American woman who embraced Hinduism cannot be denied temple entry or any associated rights of a Hindu devotee merely on the basis of her foreign nationality or non-Hindu name, emphasising that religious identity under Hindu law is determined by faith, belief and conduct rather than birth, citizenship…
The Delhi High Court on Wednesday refused to vacate the interim injunction granted in favour of Saregama India Limited in its ongoing dispute with veteran music composer Ilaiyaraaja over copyright in sound recordings and the underlying literary and musical works forming part of 134 cinematograph films. The single-judge Bench of Justice Tushar Rao Gedela declined…
In a landmark constitutional ruling, the US Supreme Court has held that the Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment guarantees birthright citizenship to children born on US soil, irrespective of whether their parents are unlawfully present in the country or hold only temporary immigration status. By a 5-4 majority, the Court struck down President Donald…
The Attorney General has rejected media reports claiming that the Union Government informed the Supreme Court that its E20 ethanol-blended petrol initiative was an “ongoing experiment.” In an official statement, the Attorney General’s Office said such reports are factually incorrect and clarified that no submission describing the E20 programme as an experiment was made during…
The Delhi High Court has observed that criticism directed at a politician over a political decision cannot automatically be treated as a violation of personality rights. While hearing BJP MP Raghav Chadha’s plea seeking the removal of allegedly defamatory online content, the single-judge Bench of Justice Subramonium Prasad distinguished between political commentary and unlawful commercial…
The Chhattisgarh High Court has held that in cases where two consenting adults remain in a long-standing live-in relationship, the law raises a presumption that their physical relationship was consensual and, therefore, a subsequent refusal to marry cannot attract criminal liability for the offence of rape on the grounds of a false promise of marriage….
The Gujarat High Court has held that a Hindu marriage cannot be treated as legally valid merely because a marriage certificate has been issued if the mandatory Hindu rites and ceremonies required under the Hindu Marriage Act (HMA), 1955, such as Saptapadi, have not been performed. The Division Bench of Justice Ilesh J Vora and…