Observing that the petitioner was "making a mockery of the system", the court said, "Rs 50,000 costs on you. We will pass the order."
Right to protest and express dissent occupies a fundamental stature in a democratic polity and therefore the sole act of protesting should not be employed as a weapon to justify the incarceration of those exercising it, said the Delhi high court on Friday while granting bail to five accused including a woman in a north-east Delhi riots case.
"The girls are losing out on studies," lawyer Prashant Bhushan said.
The petition, likely to come up for hearing within next few days, sought to investigate if the illegal hacking into the phones using the Pegasus spyware represented an attempt by agencies and organisations to muzzle and chill the exercise of free speech and expression of dissent in India.
The Delhi Police on Thursday moved a court seeking permission to conduct the polygraph test of all six people arrested in connection with the Parliament security breach matter.
The Supreme Court on Monday said it would hear on February 3 a batch of pleas challenging controversial state laws regulating religious conversions due to interfaith marriages.
Amid the row over Congress leader Sam Pitroda's remarks, the party on Wednesday asserted that it has no plans whatsoever to introduce an inheritance tax and cited former Union minister Jayant Sinha's remarks to allege that it is the Modi government that wanted to do so.
The arrest of ICICI Bank's former Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Chanda Kochhar and her husband Deepak Kochhar by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in a loan fraud case was "without application of mind and due regard to the law", amounting to an "abuse of power", the Bombay high court has said. A division bench of Justices Anuja Prabhudessai and N R Borkar had on February 6 held the Kochhars' arrest as illegal and confirmed a January 2023 interim order passed by another bench granting them bail. In the order made available on Monday, the court said the CBI has been unable to demonstrate the existence of circumstances or supportive material based on which the decision to arrest was taken.
Such a charge sheet, if filed by an investigating authority without first completing the investigation, would not extinguish the right to default bail, it said.
Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh, appearing for the ED, sought time to file his affidavit.
The top court said in order to declare whether the exercise is academic or infructuous, it needs to examine the matter since both sides are not agreeable.
'If there is an artiste somewhere in India or in the world who wants to express her art, I hoped that this award would inspire them, and add meaning to their journey.'
Rehana Fathima, a woman's right activist, was facing charges under various provisions of the POCSO, Juvenile Justice and the Information Technology (IT) Acts for circulating a video in which she was seen posing semi-nude for her minor children, allowing them to paint on her body.
In its order, the court observed that the action of the authorities was a violation of Article 21 of the Constitution under which no person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to procedure established by law.
'This is an event where Indian forces are trying to liberate other countries from a genocide and liberate from a power to give them their freedom.'
'I've been illegally detained yet again. Since two days, J-K admin has refused to allow me to visit @parawahid's family in Pulwama. BJP Ministers and their puppets are allowed to move around in every corner of Kashmir but security is a problem only in my case,' Mufti tweeted in English and Urdu.
Asserting that hijab is the "identity" of Muslims, senior advocate Dushyant Dave told the Supreme Court on Monday that various acts of omission and commission like Karnataka's headscarf controversy showed a "pattern to marginalise the minority community".
The Supreme Court Friday granted the 'last opportunity' to the Centre to file its reply on a public interest litigation seeking directions for framing of guidelines identifying minorities at the state level as Hindus are in a minority in 10 states and are not able to avail the benefits of schemes meant for minorities.
Justice Chandrachud said unlike many countries, India's Constitution was forged by Indians here in New Delhi
A bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud said the submissions on the issue involve an interplay between constitutional rights on the one hand and special legislative enactments, including the Special Marriage Act, on the other.
Arrested in September 2019 by the Delhi police for making 'provocative statements' when Donald J Trump was on his visit to India, Dr Umar Khalid has now spent three years in jail without being convicted of an offence, points out Aakar Patel.
The Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister, of which he is chairman, has quickly sought to distance itself and the government from Dr Debroy's views.
Gag orders have a "chilling effect" on the freedom of speech, the apex court said while refusing to accept the submission of the counsel representing Uttar Pradesh that Zubair be barred from tweeting when he is on bail.
Heeramandi, a passion project that took off after years in development and planning, mirrors Sanjay Leela Bhansali's film-making's finest and frustrating features, observes Sukanya Verma.
'Shoma didn't have the luxury of time. She was already suffering from so many ailments.'
The Election Commission on Friday met the warring factions of the NCP led by Sharad Pawar and Ajit Pawar over their claims to the party name and poll symbol.
As many as 14 opposition MPs were suspended from Parliament for the remainder of the winter session for disrupting proceedings, as the Lok Sabha security breach incident snowballed into a major row on Thursday with the government asking the opposition not to "politicise" the "grave national issue" and the Congress, Trinamool Congress and others demanding a statement from Home Minister Amit Shah.
The Delhi high court on Thursday refused to grant Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal any protection from coercive action in an excise policy-linked money laundering case.
The victim has demanded a compensation of Rs 15 lakh.
The Centre has opposed in the Supreme Court a batch of pleas seeking legal validation of same sex marriage, saying it would cause a complete havoc with the delicate balance of personal laws and in accepted societal values.
The Supreme Court on Thursday said women, other than cisgender women, may also require access to safe medical termination of pregnancies, while expanding the scope of the MTP Act to include unmarried women with 20-24 weeks pregnancy for abortion.
The pleas, filed by advocate Vishal Thakre and others and an NGO 'Citizens for Justice and Peace', have challenged the Constitutional validity of the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Religious Conversion Ordinance, 2020 and the Uttarakhand Freedom of Religion Act, 2018 which regulate religious conversions of interfaith marriages.
The CJI said the higher judiciary is getting 'flooded' with bail matters because of the reluctance at the grassroots level to grant bail.
The court has also said it does not find the accusations against Teltumbde to be 'inherently improbable' or 'wholly unbelievable', and prima facie he was involved in furthering activities of a banned organisation.
'The Bills (Bharatiya Saksha, Bharatiya Nagarik Sanhita and Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita) are arbitrary, opaque and ambiguous and structurally quite violent.'
The HC had in its order last week said Bharadwaj was entitled to bail and its denial would be in breach of her fundamental right to life and personal liberty, guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution.
Upadhyay, in his plea, challenged the validity of section 2(f) alleging that it gives unbridled power to the Centre terming it "manifestly arbitrary, irrational, and offending".
'While I was performing it, I had a weird feeling that people would love it because it's so bizarre.'
The Supreme Court said on Tuesday it has to be alive to the fact that the concept of marriage has evolved and must accept the basic proposition that marriage itself is entitled to constitutional protection as it is not just a matter of statutory recognition.
