Author: kkslawoffices

Holding that the liability of the Group Admin is coextensive with that of the member sending message, Allahabad High Court (‘AHC’) refused relief to Imran Malik, the Group Admin, for circulation of message, showing the head of PM as that of a pig, from one Najam Alam.

Thus, in contrast to the judgements of Kerala, Delhi, Madras and Bombay High Courts where the Group Admin was not held vicariously liable for an act of a member of the group, who posted objectionable content, AHC quashed a Section 482 CrPC application and denied relief to the Group Admin for the offensive message sent by a member.

While criticising the conduct of Apple with the Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (‘ACM’), where Apple had been fined for 5th consecutive week for non compliance with ACM’s order, the EC Commissioner for Competition, Margrethe Vestager, said “Apple’s conduct in the Netherlands these days may be an example. As we understand it, Apple essentially prefers paying periodic fines, rather than comply with a decision of the Dutch Competition Authority on the terms and conditions for third parties to access its App Store.”

A writ petition filed before the Calcutta HC by mother of victim girl, who was trafficked to Bangladesh, was disposed of with the reunion of victim with her parents in India. The HC appreciated the efforts of all the person and institutions in helping with the recovery of the victim girl. The HC while emphasising on the writ jurisdiction said, “This Court under Article 226 is thus bound by an indispensable duty to exercise all the powers vested on it to ensure the exercise of all possible efforts to protect the Fundamental Rights of citizens.”

In the serial blasts in Ahmedabad targeted at VIPs, including the present PM, Narendra Modi, carried out by Indian Mujahideen, a militant outfit, stating it to be a ‘rarest of rare’ case, the Special Court awarded death penalty to 38 convicts and life imprisonment to 11 convicts.

Media reports termed it as an instance of highest number of death penalties in a single case- the next highest being 26 in Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.

The Supreme Court, observing that “High Court has not given sufficient reasons for staying the legislation“, has set aside the Punjab & Haryana HC order staying the Haryana State Employment of Local Candidates Act, 2020, which granted 75% reservation in private sector jobs, paying less than Rs. 30,000 p.m., to persons domiciled in Haryana.

Taking a dim view of a judicial magistrate not taking cognisance of a complaint, for rash driving and grievous hurt, merely because it was filed by not the victim, who could not move out, but his wife, the Kerala HC quashed the order returning the complaint to the complainant (wife) and directed that the magistrate to pass order on the complaint in seven days.

Having found safeguards, for compliance of interim order against exchanging commercially sensitive information during phase 2 investigation, initiated after CAT order, of a previously blocked merger, seriously deficient, CMA imposed a total fine of £ 4.7m on JD Sports & Footasylum. Frustration on concealment of information was expressed by Kip Meek, Chair of the inquiry group investigating the merger, who said, “There is a black hole when it comes to the meetings held between Footasylum and JD Sports.”

The stressful conflict between the existing statutory frameworks and economic tools to assess acquisitions/ mergers and the galloping reality, riding piggyback on technology, was underlined in bold relief in the press note of Bundeskartellamt, clearing the acquisition of Kustomer by Meta, in which the president stated “it is with unease that we ultimately had to acknowledge that the effects of the acquisition would not have warranted a prohibition under existing competition law. We took account of the findings of the EU Commission’s proceeding in our assessment.” The acquisition was earlier approved, conditionally, by the European Commission at the end of January.

Kustomer is a U.S. based company which sells Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software to businesses helping them communicate with their customers.

Scrutinizing gaze of police, by installing CCTVs in a club, conflicts with right to privacy ruled Madras HC while allowing writ filed by a club/recreational centre, in whose premises police wanted to install CCTV for suspicion of betting or wagering. However, the HC directed the club/recreation centre owners to install CCTVs on entry, exit and the gaming area of the clubs.

Tripura HC ruled that while married son is eligible beneficiary, the exclusion of married daughter from ‘Die-in-Harness’ Scheme, 2015 of Government of Tripura is unconstitutional. Dismissing the appeal of State Government against the single judge bench, Hon’ble Tripura HC held that “die-in-harness policy inasmuch as it operates as a disqualification in the case of a married woman, as against a married man must be held to be discriminatory and such policy, tested on the touchstone of Articles 14 to 16 of the Constitution, cannot be held to be valid.”

Die-in-Harness scheme, 2015 of Government of Tripura, is the grant of appointment on compassionate grounds to a dependent family member of a Government servant who died during the tenure of his service or who retired on medical grounds, thereby leaving his family in penury and without any means of livelihood, to relieve the family of the Government servant concerned from financial destitution and to help it get over the emergency.