Finally, SC steps in to bar criminals' entry into legislatures

After the utter failure of all successive governments to devise effective measures to prevent the entry of criminal elements in the law-making bodies, the saviour of the Constitutional democracy, the Supreme Court of India, has finally taken the bold judicial initiative to put a stop to this nonsensical situation.

It is, indeed, a sad commentary on the state of affairs in our country that the lawbreakers are allowed to become the lawmakers! And, see, in our successive Parliaments over the years, the number of criminals as M.Ps and M.L.As, including those facing charges or already convicted for heinous crimes such as, murder, dacoity, rape, loot etc; has shown a substantial increase! No political party is an exception to the practice of giving tickets to the criminals who obviously in return, provide the parties much needed man, muscle and money power to emerge victorious in the electoral battle.

Thus, there being a common interest in allowing the criminal elements within their folds, all political parties were hoodwinking the gullible voters all through since Independence. Now, the apex court has taken upon itself to tighten the noose around criminal aspirants of elective posts. It augurs well for a healthy democracy.

However, it remains to be seen how much honest and faithful compliance to the guidelines issued by the apex court would be adhered to by all the political parties who have obviously an axe to grind in fielding the criminal elements into the electoral fray.

Though the Supreme Court initiative is just a small step towards a future giant move, it deserves to be welcomed by all the right- thinking people. For, the survival of true democracy in consonance with the vision contained in the Constitution, Parliament and State Assemblies have to be free from the criminal rodents.

SC on maintenance u/s 125 CrPC

The supreme court in its judgment on February 7 held that a petition filed by wife u/s. 125 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) who was earlier granted permanent alimony u/s.125 of the Hindu Marriage Act (HMA) cannot be entertained.

The bench comprising Justices Uday Umesh Lalit and Vineet Saran observed that Sec 25(1) of the HMA empowers the court, while passing any decree, to consider the status of the parties and whether any arrangement needs to be made in favour of the wife or the husband, and by way of permanent alimony, an order granting maintenance can also be passed by the court.

Dealing with the appeal in Rakesh Malhotra vs Krishna Malhotra the bench observed that at the of passing a decree for dissolution of marriage, the court considers not only the earning capacity of the respective parties, the status of the parties but also various other issues. The order of modification/variation can also be passed by the concerned court exercising power u/s. 125(2) or 25(3) of the HMA.

"In the present case, the matter that was considered by the High Court was one which was filed in the year 2005 when the matrimonial dispute between the parties was yet to be adjudicated upon while the decree for dissolution and direction for permanent alimony came to be passed in the year 2013 against which the first appeal is pending in the High Court.", the Apex court observed.

Lawyer's chamber in residential property

In an important judgment, the Calcutta High Court has held that legal profession is not a commercial activity and hence, the chambers of a lawyer in a residential property cannot be categorised as for commercial use of the property.

Relying on the judgment of the Supreme Court in Kanubhai Shantilal Pandya and others vs Vadodara Municipal Corporation, in the case of Arup Sarkar vs CESC Limited, Justice Shekhar B Saraf clarified, "…a professional activity involves a certain amount of skill as against commercial activity which in a matter of business is paramount.

These two were held to be distinct concepts. While in a commercial activity one works for a gain or profit, as against this, in profession, one works for his livelihood.

Accordingly, there is a fundamental distinction between a professional activity and an activity of a commercial character, and therefore, it is crystal clear that the legal profession would not fall under the category of "commercial (urban)."

No anticipatory bail for Bhima Koregaon accused

The journalist Gautam Navlakha and scholar Anand Teltumbde have been denied anticipatory bail in the Bhima Koregaon case by the Bombay High Court. However, Justice P D Naik extended the interim protection from arrest for four weeks in order to enable the accused to appeal before a higher court.

According to the police, both the accused have Maoist links and had a role to play in the caste - based violence that took place at Bhima Koregaon in Pune on January 1, 2018.

Police also claimed that Navlakha was in touch with Kashmiri separatists and terrorist organizations, while Teltumbde was working for front organizations of the banned CPI (Maoist) and indulged in creating an anti-government atmosphere amongst the public.

Judicial concern for public land grabbing

A division bench of Madras High Court comprising Justices N Kirubakaran and R Pongiappan has taken suo motu notice of the issue of encroachment of public land and observed that the government land is being "knocked away" by private parties "in collusion with the government officials", by using political influence, money power and muscle power.

Taking a stern view of the situation, the High Court while staying all further proceedings in a title suit said that if the Judgment was allowed to be pronounced, valuable property of the government will be knocked away.

Accordingly, it suo motu impleaded the State government as a party and directed it to answer 10 pertinent questions related to the public land.

Kudos to the judiciary of Tamilnadu for taking suo motu notice of the wide-spread menace of grabbing of the public land and thereby trying to curtail its further growth. Hope, other States too, would pick a leaf from this initiative by the Madras High Court.

MP lawyers to get pension

The lawyers of Madhya Pradesh have a reason to celebrate, for the State government has decided to introduce a scheme for granting pension to them.

Accordingly, all advocates who attain the retirement age and are unable to carry on legal practice would be granted the old age pension by the government. The decision has been hailed by the legal fraternity as a welcome welfare measure for lawyers.

Numaish period extended

The Telangana High Court has permitted the All India Industrial Exhibition Society to extend the ongoing annual event, popularly known as, the Numaish (Exhibition) for three more days from February 15 to18 subject to the approval by other authorities.

The division bench comprising the Chief Justice Raghavendra Singh Chauhan and Justice Abhishek Reddy in its order observed, "…as artisans from all over the country bring their goods to be sold on the Exhibition Ground, and since the sales have been rather slow, the society proposes to extend the functioning of the exhibition till February 18."