Weekly Legal Updates January Week 11. If an advocate crossed the ‘Lakshman Rekha’ and indulged in wrong doings, the courts cannot show

indulgence, the Madras High Court has observed and refused to grant anticipatory bail to an advocate and 19 other accused. Justice P N Prakash said an advocate had an arduous duty to fight for the cause of his clients and only such advocates deserved to be protected at all costs to save democracy.

2. A man has been acquitted of charges of raping an 11-year-old differently abled child after kidnapping her by a Delhi court which refused to rely on the girl’s testimony as she was suffering from mental retardation and seizure disorder. Additional Sessions Judge Illa Rawat absolved UP native Arvind Kumar of the charges of kidnapping and raping the girl while saying “her testimony alone cannot be relied upon to convict Kumar especially in view of the report given by a medical board that she was suffering from mental retardation and seizure disorder.”

3. A consumer forum has asked the Railways to display in each coach the mechanism to redress the issue of theft as well as the duty of TTE and railway police personnel to facilitate the passengers. New Delhi District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum, presided by C K Chaturvedi, passed the directions while asking the Railways to redress an issue of theft during journey on a complaint filed by one S M Prasad.

4. A Pune civil court today ruled that it had jurisdiction to hear a suit seeking a ban on Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha’s film ‘Desh Bhakt Nathuram Godse’, which is slated for release in January. The ruling was delivered by Civil Judge S S Nair after advocate Wajid Khan for the plaintiff Hemant Patil submitted case laws to show that the civil court had the jurisdiction to hear the suit.

5. Seven persons accused of disrupting the 1997 MCD elections by tearing ballot papers and rioting at various polling booths have been acquitted by a Delhi court after the complainant and other prosecution witnesses failed to identify them. Metropolitan Magistrate Sheetal Chaudhary Pradhan absolved Delhi residents Asif Namberdar, Asif Chaudhary, Yusuf, Naseem, Soech Danish, Owaish Mohammad Khan and Mohamad Jahangir of the charges including rioting and unlawful assembly under the IPC and provisions of Delhi Municipal Corporation Act, 1957.

6. The Crime Branch of Jammu and Kashmir Police filed a charge sheet in a court against three persons in connection with a bid to fraudulently grab prime land in Jammu city. Crime Branch, Jammu, filed challan (charge sheet) in the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate against a group of three persons for allegedly grabbing the land fraudulently in Jammu city, a CB official said.

7. The Bombay High Court has set aside orders by Maharashtra authorities suspending the licenses of 47 restaurants for allegedly violating fire safety norms, saying proper procedure was not followed. Contending that they had complied with the provisions of fire saftey, the petitioners had alleged that action was taken only against those restaurants in which waitresses were employed and termed it as moral policing by officials.

8. Three new judges were sworn in at the Bombay High Court. Chief Justice Mohit Shah administered the oath of office to Kalidas Laxmanrao Wadane, Indira K. Jain and Shalini Phansalkar Joshi. With this, the strength of judges at the court has gone up to 67.

9. Giving women security prime importance, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh launched a mobile phone application “Himmat” in New Delhi.

10. The finance ministry asked banks and the state-run Life Insurance Corp (LIC) to make available LIC for the Rs.30,000 life cover available under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY). The LIC has also been asked to settle claims within 15 days of the receipt of the claim form.