Category: news

The Andhra Pradesh High Court (AP HC), in a petition challenging auction proceedings for the collection of market fees in the Pedana Municipality of Andhra Pradesh, held that publication in newspaper about an auction should not be an empty formality. Further, “a reasonable time gap is must to enable the public to apply by completing the requisite formalities.”

The Kerala High Court (HC) heavily criticised the Family Court, Alappuzha for giving custody of children to the father merely because the mother was found in the company of another man and concluding that she went for pleasure with someone else. Stating that such moral judgment defeats the purpose of inquiry, the HC granted custody of the children to the parents alternately. It further observed, “In a matter related to the child’s custody, the welfare aspect alone has to be considered first…. A mother may be morally bad in the societal sense, but that mother may be good for the child as far as the welfare of the child is concerned.”

The antitrust regulator in Germany, Bundeskartellamt, issued statement of objections to Alphabet Inc., Mountain View and Google Germany GmbH against Google’s practices, connected to Google Automotive Services (GAS). GAS is a bundle of services licensed to vehicle manufacturers that includes Google Maps, Google Assistant and runs on Android Automotive Operating Systems; providing a complete infotainment system for vehicles. Bundeskartellamt is concerned that the bundling of services may pose significant risk to competition “as this reduces its competitors’ chances to sell their competing services as individual services.”

The Supreme Court, while allowing an appeal assailing the order of the High Court of Madhya Pradesh, reiterated the established principle that, “In a case of circumstantial evidence, the chain has to be complete in all respects so as to indicate the guilt of the accused and also exclude any other theory of the crime.” The High Court had confirmed the conviction of the accused even though it opined that the recovery of assault weapon did not indicate that the accused committed the offence.

The Turkish competition regulator has commenced probe into the conduct of Alphabet Inc., Google LLC and the Turkish Google advertising unit to assess whether there has been a breach of competition law. Initial investigation by the regulator revealed that Google may have abused its dominant market position in the advertising market by providing preferential treatment to its own online video advertising and ad technology services.

The Meghalaya High Court (Meghalaya HC), in an appeal filed by a person convicted under POCSO Act, 2012, upheld the Trial Court’s judgment on the ground that there has been no specific denial by the accused on the survivor being at the place of occurrence of crime at the relevant period of time thus, the testimonies by the defence witnesses appears to be a concocted story. The Meghalaya HC further observed that “unless Indian judges get serious with litigants and witnesses, the present trend of false affidavits being filed and false evidence being given may one day render the judiciary irrelevant.”

The Supreme Court (SC), in an appeal filed by the Indian Railways against the order of National Consumer forum which had directed the Railways to pay Rs.1 Lakh as compensation on account of theft of money happened during victim’s train journey, noted that theft during a train journey cannot be termed as ‘deficiency in service’ as per the Consumer Protection Act, 1986. The SC further stated that “we fail to understand as to how the theft could be said to be deficiency of service by the Railways when the passenger was not able to safe keep his belongings.”

The Supreme Court (SC), holding Coal India Limited (CIL) an enterprise under section 2(h) of the Competition Act, 2002 (Act), observed that State Monopolies, Government Companies and Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) are not excluded from the definition of ‘enterprise’ under the Act and cannot be allowed to indulge in anti-competitive practices in violation of the Act. The SC, further, noted that while determining dominant position of an enterprise, dominance acquired as a result of the Statute or by virtue of being a Government Company or being a PSU or otherwise is a relevant factor. Therefore, “the lawgiver has evinced its intention to include government companies, public sector companies and bodies acquired under a Statute within the ambit of the Act.”

The European Commission (EC) through its statement of objections has informed Google of its abusive practices in the ad-tech industry. Google’s main source of revenue is through online advertising, in which, it either sells advertising space on its own websites and apps; or intermediates between advertiser and publishers (third party websites). EC preliminary found Google to be dominant in the publisher ad-servers market and ad-buying tools through which, since 2014, it has been abusing its dominant position by favouring its own Ad-Exchange (AdX). According to the EC, this conduct may have foreclosed rival ad-exchanges further reinforcing Google AdX’s role in the ad-tech supply chain and its ability to charge high commission rates.

The Calcutta High Court (Calcutta HC), while hearing a partition suit wherein it has been contended that the property in question, brought by husband in his wife’s name, is out of a benami transaction, has held that the “source of money is, no doubt, an important factor but not a decisive one. The intention of the supplier of the consideration money is the vital fact to be proved by the party who asserts benami.”