The Patna High Court today scrapped the appointment of six vice-chancellors and four pro--vice-chancellors appointed by Governor of Bihar, in his capacity as the Chancellor of the Universities.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice Rekha M Doshit and Justice A Amanullah passed the order scrapping the appointment .The court further directed the Chancellor to make a fresh list of candidates for appointment of the six VCs and four Pro-VCs within a week and asked the state government to make appointment against these posts within 30 days.

The Rajasthan High Court today declared the election to Nathdwara Assembly seat, null and void. In the election held on this seat in December, 2008, the then Congress candidate and presently, Union Minister for Surface Transport, Dr. C.P. Joshi was defeated by his rival Kalyan Singh, by merely one vote. Dr. Joshi filed a writ against the election in the Rajasthan High Court in January 2009. Delivering the judgement in Jodhpur today, Justice Dinesh Maheshwari found Kalyan Singh, his wife and two others guilty of violating the election rules. This decision is being seen as a major relief to Dr. C.P. Joshi.

 he West Bengal Government has moved the Supreme Court against the Calcutta High Court order, which struck down the Singur Land Act. The Act allowed the state to reclaim 400-acre land given to Tata Motors.

In its appeal, the state said the High Court had erred in quashing the Act.

In a blow to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, the High Court had on June 22 ruled that the legislation enacted by her Government to recover the land leased to Tata Motors in Singur for its small car project was constitutionally invalid.

The Singur Land Rehabilitation and Development Act, 2011, sought to empower the State Government to take back 400 acre land, given to Tata Motors for its Nano small car project.

On an appeal by Tata Motors Ltd, the Court observed that President's assent had not been taken for the Act and as such it was void and unconstitutional. It also observed that what was done in Singur was acquisition of land by the said Act and as such it was void.


The implementation of the order was, however, stayed for two months by the division bench to allow the aggrieved party to appeal to the Supreme Court.


The Division Bench had set aside the order of single Bench, which had held the Act to be constitutional.

The Delhi High Court today modified a Company Law Board (CLB) order and allowed Uninor to receive till August 8, the expressions of interest from bidders interested in purchasing the telecom major

Uninor is a joint venture of Norwegian firm Telenor and Unitech Group. 

The Court on August 3 stayed the operation of Uninor's August 1 auction notice for sale of its assets, saying the proposed auction process appeared to be very clever one.

the single-judge bench has adopted a shortcut to decide the suit and it would cause grave injustice to him. Citing the Supreme Court's May 24 order, Tiwari said that the single judge failed to appreciate that in a civil dispute, where the undisputed position of the parties is that no criminality is involved, the appellant's right to reputation has to be protected. He further said that Rohit Shekhar, the petitioner in paternity suit and his mother are leaving no stone unturned
to get the report unsealed and make it public to attract undue media attraction without completion of the trial. A former Andhra Pradesh Governor, Tiwari earlier had filed an application before the single judge for keeping the DNA report confidential and holding in-camera proceedings in the case. He said that the Supreme Court had given such a direction on May 24.

elhi High Court has set aside a Central Information Commission's order to the Centre to reveal to it the communication between the former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and the then President K R Narayanan over the 2002 Gujarat riots. Justice Anil Kumar gave the order allowing the Centre's appeal against the CIC's directions . A full bench of CIC on 8th August 2006 had called for correspondences (पत्र व्यवहार)sought by a person .


The Centre had approached the Delhi High Court against the CIC order claim in that such disclosures would affect the sovereignty and integrity of the country.

The Government has asked the judiciary to undertake another drive to reduce pending cases before them. In a communication sent to the Chief Justices of High Courts, the Law and Justice Minister Salman Khurshid suggested that the target during their drive between July to December this year, should be on the disposal of all cases which are over five years old. Mr Khurshid has urged the Chief Justices that focus on disposal of cases of the marginalised sections of the society and under-trials should continue as before. He has also pointed out that substantial funds are available at the disposal of the state governments out of the grants sanctioned under the 13th Finance Commission. He said, these can be utilised for creation of special courts and Alternate Dispute Resolution (ADR) Centres for achieving the reduction in pendency. According to an official release, Mr Khurshid is scheduled to formally launch this year's drive from Karnataka High Court tomorrow followed by another drive from Bombay High Court.

AIR Correspondent reports that Mr Khurshid's communication to the High Court was in response to the success of the first pendency reduction drive undertaken between July and December last year. There has been a net reduction of six lakh cases in sub-ordinate courts at the end of 2011, reversing the earlier trend of increase in pendency by about five lakh cases from the end of 2009 to the end of 2010. More importantly, there is a significant reduction of nearly one and a half lakh pending cases relating to senior citizens, minors, disabled and marginalised sections of the society, who are more vulnerable in case of a prolonged litigation.

The West Bengal Government has announced hike in the monthly allowance to the unwilling farmers of Singur who have not yet got their land returned. Announcing this in Kolkata on Wednesday afternoon, the Chief Minister, Ms. Mamata Banerjee said that the unwilling farmers will get two thousand rupees per month from the 1st of next month till their land is returned. Ms. Banerjee said that the Government has taken the decision in view of the price rise of essential commodities. 

Earlier, the State Government announced one thousand rupees monthly allowance to the unwilling farmers. Besides, the Government will also give rice to each family of the farmers at two rupees per kilogram every week. 

AIR Kolkata Correspondent reports that the state government's decision came after the recent verdict of the Division Bench of the Calcutta High Court declaring the Singur Land Rehabilitation and Development Act 2011 as unconstitutional. The State Government has decided to move the higher court to challenge the verdict of the High Court. 

The Delhi High Court has asked the Centre to have a relook on amendments made in the Aircraft Rules which bar pilots aged 65 years and above from flying private aircraft for non-commercial purposes. A bench of Acting Chief Justice A K Sikri and Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw sought for proper examination of the issue.


The court's decision came on a petition of some retired pilots who had airline transport pilot licences of Indian Air Force. Petitioners have challenged the amendments made in the Aircraft Rules, 1937. The amendments in the Act barred pilots, who have attained the age of 65 years or more, from flying private aircrafts for non-commercial purposes.

The Supreme Court has chided the Allahabad High Court and its Lucknow bench for conducting parallel proceedings in a single case. The apex court hoped that judicial enthusiasm should not obliterate the profound responsibility that is expected from the Judges. A bench of justices Dalveer Bhandari and Dipak Mishra also faulted the two-judge Lucknow bench for passing a judgement overruling another two-bench judgement.It said, this is contrary to established judicial norms as ideally such a conflicting view should have been referred to a larger bench.

he Delhi High Court today said that veteran Congress leader N D Tiwari can be compelled to give blood sample for DNA test in the paternity suit filed by a youth claiming to be his biological son.

The court set aside a single judge bench's September 2011 order that 86-year-old Tiwari cannot be compelled to give his blood sample.

A bench of acting Chief Justice A K Sikri and Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw said that police force can also be used if he continues to defy orders to undergo DNA test.

Allowing the plea of 32-year-old Rohit Shekhar, the bench disagreed with the single judge order that the court can draw adverse inference if Tiwari refused to give his blood sample.

The bench said adverse inference from non-compliance cannot be a substitute to the enforceability of a direction for DNA testing