Procedural and Evidentiary liberties under S. 34 of the Arbitration Act: An application under Section 34 is meant only for examining the legality and/or enforceability of an award. But award-debtors, having lost in the arbitration, started treating the Section 34 application like an original suit. However, since the last few years the liberty and laxity with which the applicants had started approaching the matter of challenge under Section 34 has been severely restricted and curtailed by the Supreme Court. Supreme Court tightens screws on procedural and Evidentiary liberties under section 34 of the Arbitration Act by [Sunil Gupta and Manavendra Gupta, (2020) 8 SCC (J-1)]
Role Of The High Courts Post The Constitution: The purpose of this article is to state that the Supreme Court is not alone in its duty as a sentinel on the qui vive but is ably supported and assisted by the High Courts — as constitutional co-equals and how a recent judgment of the Supreme Court has inadvertently restricted the power of the High Courts. High Courts — Co-Sentinels On the Qui Vive by [V. Lakshminarayanan, (2020) 8 SCC (J-8)]
Arbitrability of Fraud: The issue discussed under this article is the arbitrability of fraud: i.e. should serious cases of fraud be referred to arbitration? In this Article, the decisions of Indian courts (various High Courts and the Supreme Court) rendered under three statutes that have governed arbitration in India since the 19th century are being discussed. Then an exercise has been undertaken in comparative international law with English and American jurisprudence on the subject, with the objective of arriving at a sustainable solution for Indian law. The Arbitrability of Fraud in Indian Law by [Aditya Shiralkar, (2020) 8 SCC (J-23)]
Constitution of India — Arts. 341, 342, 342-A, 338, 338-A & 366(24), (25) & (26-C) and Arts. 14, 15, 16 and Pt. XVI — Sub-division/Subclassification of Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes: Issue regarding permissibility of preferential treatment to some castes/tribes contained in List of Scheduled Castes or Scheduled Tribes under Arts. 341/342, without denying the benefit in question to remaining such castes/tribes, directed to be referred to larger Bench of seven Judges or more. [State of Punjab v. Davinder Singh, (2020) 8 SCC 1]
Service Law — Recruitment Process — Invalid/Wrong/Illegal/Irregular selection: Persons affected by judgment setting aside invalid/wrong/illegal/irregular selection who were not parties either before High Court or Supreme Court, are bound thereby. [Ajoy Debbarma v. State of Tripura, (2020) 8 SCC 67]
Companies Act, 2013 — Ss. 241, 242 and 244 r/w S. 72 — Oppression and mismanagement: Jurisdiction of NCLT in respect of oppression and mismanagement, held, does not extend to determination of disputes as to succession or ownership of shares, proper forum for which is civil court. Jurisdiction under Ss. 241 to 244 must be exercised strictly in terms of provisions of 2013 Act. [Aruna Oswal v. Pankaj Oswal, (2020) 8 SCC 79]
Service Law — Reservation/Concession/Exemption/Relaxation and Affirmative Action — Reservation: In this case, 1% reservation was granted for Hindu Nadar community belonging to OBC provided vide Gazette Noti. dt. 3-8-2010 with retrospective effect from 21-11-2009 and Kerala State and Subordinate Services Rules, 1958. The 1958 Rules were accordingly amended and there was shortfall in reservation. The Supreme Court held that posts falling vacant after amendment of the 1958 Rules are required to be filled up in accordance with amended Rules. Rank list is merit list having validity period of three years and is source of making appointment as and when vacancy arises. Vacancies must be determined in terms of applicable Rules. [Aswathy R.S. Karthika v. Archana M., (2020) 8 SCC 98]
Service Law — Pension — Qualifying period/service: Entitlement to reckoning of service rendered as CLR (casual labour roll) prior to recruitment against regular post, for purposes of computation of pension, to be determined in accordance with applicable Rules. But, benefits should not be unreasonably denied to employees, more so on technicalities since basis of grant of pension is to provide succour to retired government employee. [V. Sukumaran v. State of Kerala, (2020) 8 SCC 106]
Criminal Procedure Code, 1973 — Ss. 389 and 374 — Suspension of sentence pending appeal and release of convict on bail: In this case, there was conviction of appellant-husband under Ss. 304-B and 498-A IPC with sentence of life imprisonment under S. 304-B and period of 3 yrs under S. 498-A IPC. Considering submissions of accused and other material placed on record, and taking into account, that accused was in jail for more than 3½ yrs, sentence imposed on him stood suspended, and he was enlarged on conditional bail, pending appeal before High Court. [M. Radha Hari Seshu v. State of Telangana, (2020) 8 SCC 114]
Constitution of India — Art. 21: Directions issued regarding criminal cases against foreigners for violating visa norms and COVID-19 Guidelines. [Maulana Ala Hadrami v. Union of India, (2020) 8 SCC 118]
Prevention of Food Adulteration Rules, 1955 — R. 32 — Requirements of label on package of food as prescribed under — Whether complied with: When the bar code on package is having relevant information regarding lot/code/batch identification, which can be decoded by bar code scanner, it is sufficient compliance with R. 32(e). [Raghav Gupta v. State (NCT of Delhi), (2020) 8 SCC 120]
Penal Code, 1860 — Ss. 323/149 and 325/149 and Ss. 147, 323 & 325: In this case considering factors like young age of accused at incident time, incident taking place all of a sudden for plucking a fruit, severity of injuries suffered by injured persons, and period of sentence already undergone by accused, substantive sentence reduced and fine/compensation enhanced. [Karthick v. State, (2020) 8 SCC 122]
