Category: news

The Andhra Pradesh High Court (‘AHC’), stating “that there should be instigation or abetment on the part of the petitioners which compelled the deceased to commit suicide”, granted anticipatory bails to the spouses of two men who committed suicide and held that allegation of pressure or harassment will not be sufficient to attract of Section 306 of IPC.

Meta Platforms, Inc. (‘Meta’) has suspended the acquisition of Within Inc. (‘Within’), a Virtual Reality (‘VR’) experience & product developing company, due to a Federal Trade Commission (‘FTC’) lawsuit to block the $400 Million acquisition by Meta to expand Meta’s VR empire. In the past 10 years, Meta (previously Facebook Inc.) has acquired over 100 smaller firms. Deputy Director of FTC Bureau of Competition said “instead of competing on the merits, Meta is trying to buy its way to the top.”

European Commission (‘EC’), concerned of reduced competition in southern regions of Belgium, initiated an in-depth investigation into the planned acquisition of 75% of VOO S.A. (‘VOO’), for 1.8 Billion Euros, by Orange S.A. (‘Orange’). Both companies, VOO & Orange, offer broadband and mobile services. The acquisition will reduce the number of operators from 3 to 2 in the areas where they compete.

Vice-President of EC said “With our in-depth investigation, we want to make sure that the acquisition does not lead to higher prices or less quality for customers in Wallonia and parts of Brussels.”

The Supreme Court (‘SC’), allowing the plea of a husband, directed the wife to handover the custody of their son, a naturalised American citizen, to her NRI husband. The SC said, in matters involving the custody of a child it has to be borne in mind that ‘what is the wish of a child’ is different from ‘what is in the best interest of the child’, which has to be gathered from the fact and circumstances, and it is the best interest which should prevail

The Supreme Court (‘SC’) upheld the judgement of Jharkhand High Court which struck down a State Government notification giving 100% reservation to local teachers of 13 Scheduled Areas of the State. The SC stated “The quality of education of the school-­going children cannot be compromised by giving 100% reservation in favour of the teachers of the same/some districts and prohibiting the appointment to more meritorious teachers.”

The Central Government, on receiving 81 amendments and 12 major recommendations in a 99 Section bill, from Joint Committee of Parliament, has withdrawn the Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019 from the Parliament. However, a new legislation has been promised by the Government, very soon “without any dilution to broader privacy aspects of the original bill and without any compromise to the Right of Privacy.”

The Competition Commission of India (‘CCI’) has approved the Rs. 4500 Crores acquisition of IDFC Asset Management Company Ltd. (‘IDFC AMC’) & IDFC AMC Trustee Company Ltd. by Bandhan Financial Holding Ltd., a subsidiary of Bandhan Financial Services Ltd., led consortium. After the acquisition, the consortium will hold 99.96% stakes in IDFC AMC and 100% stakes in IDFC AMC Trustee.

The Supreme Court (‘SC’), hearing an important question of whether a charitable trust created by a Muslim automatically becomes a Waqf property to come under the purview of the board, reprimanded the Maharashtra Waqf board for disrespecting the Attorney General (‘AG’) by replacing him at the 11th hour. SC remarked “this is not the way to deal with the AG.”

AG, to remain a part of the proceedings, invoked Article 76(3) of the Constitution which gives him the Right of Audience. Right of Audience is the right of AG to walk into any case involving important questions and give his opinion to SC without the instruction of the advocate on record.

A petition for quashing maintenance petition under Section 125 Cr.P.C., 1973 on the ground that divorce petition was still pending and application for maintenance in the divorce petition was rejected was dismissed by the Delhi High Court (‘DHC’). The DHC further held “Pendency of a petition for divorce and rejection of an application for maintenance in such petition, would not disentitle the respondent to seek maintenance under Section 125 Cr.P.C. looking at its scope and ambit.”

While awarding a compensation of Rs. 5 lakh to a mother, in a writ filed for the negligence of the doctor and the hospital, the Madras High Court held that though there was no negligence on part of the doctor but the hospital was negligent in not shifting the patient to a better treatment facility. In this case, the petitioner, a mother, was forced to undergo 3 surgeries which kept her away from her newborn for 9 months.