The Lawmatics Bulletin – 2

(17-August-2020 to 23-August-2020)

HARYANA TO CONDUCT E-LOK ADALAT

Amid restricted Court’s functioning due to pandemic, Haryana State Legal Services Authority decided to conduct E-lok adalats across Haryana on August 29 to decide cases on the digital platform and to achieve the goal of access to ‘justice for all’. The e-lok adalats aim to facilitate an online platform for the litigants to decide their cases during this pandemic situation. One Whatsapp group will be created for each bench by the Nodal Officer for a particular bench. Jammu and Kashmir legal services authority also organised first e-lok adalats through video conference on 22 August.
The cases taken up include civil cases, criminal cases, labour disputes, cases concerning electricity bills, family matters, land acquisition etc.

SC TO STUDY CONTEXT OF CHARGES AGAINST JUDGES

The Supreme Court decided to take a detailed look into the issues related to Public allegations of corruption against the judiciary.
The three-judge bench led by Justice Arun Mishra also decided to hear arguments on laying down procedure to be adopted such statements of corruption are made in public against sitting as well as retired judges.
The bench referred to the majority judgement delivered by the then Justice J.S Verma for a constitution Bench in 1992 concerning the removal of Justice V. Ramaswami, SC judge. The judgement had laid down the procedure to deal with allegations against judges. According to Judgement, the judge had to be given a fair opportunity to be heard before an inquiry committee
formed under the Judges Inquiry Act 1968. The judgement was conferred in order to preserve the right, interest and dignity of the judge.

SC DISMISSES PLEA SEEKING POSTPONEMENT OF NEET/JEE 2020: ‘LIFE CANNOT BE STOPPED’

The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed pleas seeking postponement of JEE Main 2020 and NEET UG examinations — which are scheduled to be conducted in September amid the Covid-19 pandemic. The plea was heard by the SC Bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra. SC dismissed the petition, said the postponement of the NEET/JEE will put the ‘career of students
in peril’ and also said there is no ground to interfere with policy decisions.
According to ministry sources, the government is keen on sticking to the schedule. JEE(Main) is scheduled to be held over six days- from september 1 to september 6. NEET, meant for undergraduate medical programmes, is scheduled for september 13.
Apart from NEET and JEE, another set of entrance tests has also been flagged by students such as, the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT), the Integrated Programme in Management Admission Test(IPMAT) and Delhi University Entrance Test(DUET) are all scheduled on september 7. The National Testing Agency director general Vineet Joshi said that students’
interest will not be hurt and the matter of overlap of dates is under “active” consideration.

PM CARES FUND IS A PUBLIC CHARITABLE TRUST AND NO NEED TO AUDIT BY

CAG: SC
The Supreme Court rejected the plea for transfer of funds from the PM CARES Fund to the National Disaster Response Fund(NDRF). The court said that they “are two entirely different funds with different objectives and purposes” and “there is no occasion” for such a direction.
The court endorsed the PM CARES as “Public Charitable Trust” to which donors contribute voluntarily and there is no occasion for audit by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India.
The PM CARES Fund is a charitable trust registered under the Registration Act, 1908, as the trust does not receive any budgetary support or any Government money. It is “not open” for a PIL petitioner to question the “wisdom” that created the fund in an hour of need”
The bench said “the contributions made by individuals and institutions in the PM CARES Fund are to be released for the public purpose to fulfill the objective of the trust”.

SC REJECTS PLEA AGAINST JUSTICE(Retd) B.S. CHAUHAN-LED PANEL TO PROBE VIKAS DUBEY ENCOUNTER

The Supreme Court dismissed a plea seeking scrapping of a three-member judicial commission, headed by former apex court judge Justice B S Chauhan, to inquire into the encounter on alleged grounds of bias. As the SC last month approved the Uttar pradesh government’s choice of its former Judge B.S. Chauhan heads the commission to inquire into the gunning down of eight police officers and the “fake” encounter killings of their alleged assailants, history-sheeter Vikas dubey and his associates.

“SMELL OF MALICE” IN ACTION AGAINST TABLIGHI JAMAAT ATTENDEES:

BOMBAY HIGH COURT
The foreign nationals who attended a religious event at Delhi’s Nizamuddin in March were “virtually” persecuted and blamed for spreading coronavirus as part of a propaganda, the Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court observed on Friday, dismissing cases filed against 29 foreigners.The foreign nationals were booked under various provisions of the Indian Penal Code, the Epidemic Diseases Act, Disaster Management Act and Foreigner’s Act for allegedly violating their tourist visa conditions.
The Court observed that the Tablighi Jamaat activity has been going on for more than 50 years and that it has to be presumed that the central government was aware of it while granting visa to the foreigners to attend the conference at Nizamuddin Markaz at Delhi. The court also added
that they were made ‘scapegoats’ and that the present numbers of COVID 19 cases in India show that the action against tablighi jamaat attendees was unwarranted.