Author: Anvita Dwivedi
The Supreme Court has brought into sharper focus the constitutional principle of cooperative federalism while resolving a long-running dispute over the use of purse-seine nets by fishermen from Tamil Nadu seeking to access India’s Exclusive Economic Zone. A Bench comprising Justice Pamidighantam Sri Narasimha and Justice Alok Aradhe, in Fisherman Care v. Government of India, Department of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries, has held that the Union and State regulatory regimes governing different maritime zones operate within their respective spheres and must be implemented in coordination rather than confrontation. The judgment is significant because the dispute was not ultimately about…
Saraf and Partners has strengthened its Delhi-based Real Estate practice with the appointment of Nitin Saluja as a Partner, marking a significant lateral movement within India’s leading corporate law-firm ecosystem. Saluja joins the firm from AZB & Partners, where he spent more than a decade and rose from Associate to Partner in the Real Estate practice. His move is noteworthy not merely as an individual partner transition, but as part of the broader competition among Indian law firms to build specialised transactional teams capable of handling increasingly sophisticated real estate investments, financing structures, development arrangements and regulatory issues. Saluja’s professional…
The insolvency proceedings concerning Essel Group founder Subhash Chandra have entered a new procedural phase before the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal, with Chandra questioning the very constitution of the five-member National Company Law Tribunal Bench that has now taken over consideration of his personal insolvency case. During the hearing, his counsel argued that Chandra had been publicly portrayed as having secured a settlement of merely ₹6.5 crore against creditor claims exceeding ₹22,000 crore, despite there being no operative final order approving such a repayment plan at the time the controversy intensified. The proceedings before the NCLAT therefore brought into…
A Bengaluru Sessions Court has upheld the dismissal of a criminal complaint against Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah arising from remarks made by him in the Legislative Assembly concerning the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and Bajrang Dal. Additional City Civil and Sessions Judge Shivaprasad K.B., while deciding a criminal revision petition filed by advocate Kiran N., declined to interfere with the order of the trial court which had refused to take cognizance of the allegations. The decision is legally significant because it brings together two important questions in criminal law and constitutional jurisprudence: the limits of criminal defamation and the protection afforded…
The Bombay High Court has ordered a fresh investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation into the death of Disha Salian, the former manager of actor Sushant Singh Rajput, bringing back into judicial focus a case that has remained surrounded by competing narratives, public speculation and questions concerning the adequacy of the original police inquiry. A Division Bench comprising Justice Sarang V. Kotwal and Justice Ranjitsinha Bhonsale directed the CBI to register a First Information Report, record the statement of Salian’s father Satish Salian and appoint a senior and experienced investigating officer to examine the circumstances surrounding her death. At…
The Supreme Court has intervened to accelerate the constitution of a new Bar Council of India, holding that the most effective way of addressing questions surrounding the prolonged continuation of the present BCI leadership is to ensure that the representative bodies from which the BCI is constituted are themselves reconstituted without further delay. A Bench comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice V. Mohana, while hearing challenges concerning the continuation of Senior Advocate Manan Kumar Mishra as Chairman of the Bar Council of India, chose not to immediately enter into the larger controversy surrounding his…
The Supreme Court has delivered a strong reminder that allegations of corruption, conspiracy and fraudulent sanction of bank loans cannot substitute for legally admissible evidence establishing the individual culpability of an accused. In a significant judgment in V. Balakrishnan v. State, a Bench comprising Justice J.B. Pardiwala and Justice K. Vinod Chandran set aside the conviction of a former Branch Manager of Indian Bank, holding that the prosecution had failed to establish the alleged conspiracy or any fraudulent conduct attributable to him. Going beyond a routine acquittal, the Court described the prosecution case as “fabricated” and observed that the investigating…
The Supreme Court has delivered an important ruling on the interpretation of fiscal penalty provisions, holding that a delayed deposit of tax cannot automatically be treated as a complete failure to pay tax. In a judgment concerning Foreign Travel Tax collected by Saudi Arabian Airlines from international passengers, a Bench of Justice J.B. Pardiwala and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan held that the expression “fails to pay” occurring in Section 38(3) of the Finance Act, 1979, refers to non-payment and cannot ordinarily be expanded to include a situation where the tax has ultimately been deposited, albeit beyond the prescribed deadline. The Court…
The Supreme Court has brought a significant legal conclusion to the criminal proceedings arising from the student protests held across the country between July 20 and July 25, directing that the FIRs registered in connection with those protests shall not be pursued or investigated and shall be treated as closed for all purposes. Going beyond the FIRs specifically placed before it by the Centre and the States of Bihar, West Bengal, Maharashtra and Assam, the Court extended the protective direction across all States and Union Territories. The Bench comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice…
The Supreme Court has delivered an important reminder that access to justice is not satisfied merely by placing a lawyer’s name on the record. In a judgment arising from a criminal appeal against acquittal in a dowry-death case, a Bench comprising Justice J.B. Pardiwala and Justice K. Vinod Chandran held that constitutional courts must remain sensitive to the difficulties faced by litigants and, where legal assistance is inadequate, must take affirmative steps to ensure that the litigant receives meaningful and competent representation. The Court accordingly set aside a Rajasthan High Court order that had dismissed an appeal because it was…