Legal News & Views

The Madras High Court today ruled that a school management could not be compelled to admit a student if it is not satisfied with the pupil's character and discipline even though he or she is meritorious. Dismissing a petition filed by the father of a girl who scored 489 out of 500 in the class X examination, seeking a direction to the school management to admit his daughter in class XI, Justice S Vaidhyanathan said the school authorities were right in denying admission for her girl, who was allegedly" disobedient and disrespectful". "Teachers are the best judges" to evaluate the character of a student and not parents, the judge said. "Education was the panacea for all the evils in the world, but education without moral values and behaviour will definitely vouchsafe reversal attitude. Knowledge was not given but earned and character was not granted but cultivated over the years," the court observed. The court could not compel the management to a...

Pawan Chandra, 43, filed an application under the RTI Act seeking certain information relating to the passport issued to his wife by the Regional Passport Officer. The officer informed him that the info cannot be furnished. Such information is not liable to be disclosed in view of the provision of Section 8(1)(j) of the RTI Act which prohibits it, he was told by the High Court of Karnataka. After his appeal was rejected by the first appellate authority, the Joint Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs, Chandra had appealed the Central Information Commissioner, and had approached the High Court. The HC in its order noted that even if that issue of appeal before the CIC is kept aside, the Passport Officer was right in his stand. "The reasons indicated are justified in view of the provisions contained in the RTI Act. Hence, the same does not call for interference." Chandra's advocate said he was seeking personal details of his wife as "there are certain matrimonial d...

To avoid any confusion, appoint the intended beneficiary as nominee A few weeks ago, the Bombay High Court (Mr. Justice G.S. Patel, the Bombay High Court in Jayanand Jayant Salgaonkar vs. Jayashree Jayant Salgaonkar) overturned an earlier judgment that had declared that nominees, and not legal heirs, will get the ownership rights of share certificates. The ruling has once again thrown open the debate on the ownership of an investor’s assets once s/he dies. Who is the legitimate owner of the assets — the nominee or the legal heir/s? In general, the nominee is deemed to be a trustee or a custodian under the law and must distribute the assets to the legal heirs named in a will, or according to the country's succession laws. This is true for all financial instruments, except shares and debentures. What’s also interesting is that the new Insurance Laws (Amendment) Act, 2015, makes nominees — restricted to immediate family members such as spouse, parents and children — the beneficia...

The state consumer disputes redressal commission has held that a builder or property developer cannot unilaterally terminate a registered agreement between him and the buyer of a flat. Dismissing an appeal by a Pune-based builder, a two-member bench of the commission, headed by S A Kulkarni, also held on June 12 that lopsided agreements favouring the builder more and going against the provisions of the Maharashtra Flat Ownership Act cannot be legally sustained. The matter is related to a community housing scheme developed at Dhanori along the Vishrantwandi Road by Sankalpa Constructions, a partnership firm headed by Prabhakar Bhosale and Vandana Bhosale. The company entered into the position of service provider by undertaking construction activity of small tenements for distribution among members of a particular community. It signed agreements with individual members of the scheme and registered the same.  One of the members, Haribhau J Ghode of Bhairavinagar, who filed a com...

In its prima facia order the SEBI has directed Goldmine Agro Limited (GAL) that the company shall not mobilize funds from investors. Further, the company and its present and past directors are prohibited from issuing prospectus or any offer document or issue advertisement for soliciting money from the public for the issue of securities, in any manner whatsoever, either directly or indirectly. The GAL Company is found guilty of issuing Non–Convertible Secured Redeemable Debentures ("NCDs") to the public in the guise of private placement. It is found that by mobilizing fund through Offer to Issue NCDs, GAL has violated the provisions of the Companies Act, 1956 (Section 56, Section 60 read with Section 2(36), Section 73, Sections 117B–117C) read with the Debt Securities Regulations. The SEBI relying on the Sahara case [Sahara India Real Estate Corporation Limited v. SEBI, (2013) 1 SCC 1 ] ruled that the Offer of NCDs  is  prima facie  a public issue in accordance with th...

In a ruling that might come as a shocker to police officers and solace to victims of crime, the Madras High Court Bench here has held that the State government is liable to pay compensation to the victims even in cases which remain unsolved for years together and recover the money from the criminals after the police succeed in nabbing them. Passing interim orders on a petition filed by the father of a 15-year-old girl who was murdered for gain in Pudukottai district in March 2011, Justice S. Nagamuthu said: “When a citizen’s right is infringed by an unscrupulous criminal and when the crime could not be even detected by the State agencies, then the State government is liable to pay compensation.” The judge agreed with petitioner’s counsel G. Karuppasamy Pandian that neither the Crime Branch-Criminal Investigation Department (CB-CID) nor the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had been able to crack the murder case despite having dealt with it for nearly two years and 20 months res...

Showing concern over a very serious issue of infringement of right to privacy in cases where the lawyers produce very personal documents of the parties as an evidence before the Court, a division bench of S. Muralidhar and I.S. Mehta JJ., issued directions to the lower courts with respect to the steps which should be taken into care while producing documents before the court which is of a ‘sensitive nature’. In the instant case, the appellant is seeking the permanent custody of his minor children, and for that he produced the ‘personal diary’ maintained by one of his child before the Court to show that he desires to stay with his father even after his vacations are over. The Court stated that contents of the document reflect inter alia the very private and personal feelings and opinions of a young child about his parents, sibling, friends and relatives, and it is not something which should be casually placed in the public domain to violate the right of privacy of the author of the di...