The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the Centre as to on what basis Jammu & Kashmir Bar Association president Mian Abdul Qayoom (76) in custody in Delhi’s Tihar jail despite the expiry of his detention ordered under the J&K Public Safety Act.
A bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Ms Indu Malhotra was hearing a petition against the J&K High Court order upholding the order of detention under the J&K Public Safety Act. The SG Mehta sought 10 days’ time to respond. Ignoring the plea of senior advocate Dushyant Dave, appearing for Qayoom, to list the matter on Monday, the Bench allowed nine days to the SG to file his reply and posted the matter for the next hearing on July 23.
SC refuses to interfere in job reservation to only domiciles of J&K: The SC on Wednesday refused to interfere in reservation to only domiciles of Jammu and Kashmir in public employment and directed the Ladakh-based lawyer Najum ul Huda to approach the J&K High Court.
A bench of Justices L Nageswara Rao, Hemant Gupta and S Ravindra Bhat was hearing a petition challenging Section 5 of the J&K Civil Services (Decentralisation and Recruitment) Act reserving all class 4 posts for the domiciles through the J&K Reorganization (Adaptation of State Laws) Order issued in March.
Lawyers write to Patna HC CJ over treatment of gangrape survivor jailed for courtroom outburst: Over 300 lawyers in a letter to the CJ of the Patna HC calling for the “need for urgent and systemic changes in the treatment of survivors of sexual crimes in the Araria District Court.”
In the Araria District Court in Bihar, a magistrate reportedly remanded a survivor of a violent gangrape in 14-day judicial custody. The woman and two of her caregivers from NGO Jan Jagaran Shakti Sangathan were charged with contempt of court for obstructing proceedings, according to reports.
Kerala HC bans protests till July 31: A division bench of the Kerala HC on Wednesday ruled there should be no protests or demonstrations in the state till July 31 as it is in violation of the Covid-19 guidelines brought out by the Centre. The bench gave this direction based on two petitions seeking action against political parties violating the Covid guidelines.
Have not seen or relied on Sunanda’s tweets, police tells HC: The police on Wednesday told the Delhi HC it has not seen the tweets of deceased Sunanda Pushkar nor was it relying on them in the case related to her death in which her husband and Congress MP Shashi Tharoor is the sole accused. The agency said her tweets are not part of the record or the charge sheet filed in the case and if Tharoor wants to rely on them, they are in the public domain and he can access them.
Cannot lodge FIR against Patanjali, says Delhi Police: The Delhi Police on Wednesday told a district court an FIR could not be registered against Patanjali Ayurved Limited, Ramdev and others on the charge of cheating people by claiming a cure for Covid-19 due to jurisdictional and other issues. In the report, SI Pankaj Kumar said: "As the alleged press conference by Baba Ramdev was organised at Hardwar in Uttarakhand, which does not lie within the area or jurisdiction of Vasant Vihar police station, Delhi. Hence, no action can be initiated by police of Vasant Vihar PS.”
Goa disqualification case hearing on Aug 7: Goa Congress President Girish Chodankar's writ petition in the SC for disqualification of 10 Congress MLAs for defection to the ruling BJP in July 2019 is not coming up on Friday for hearing as scheduled since it has been further pushed to August 7.
—Our Bureau/Agencies/Bar & Bench
