The verdict is…

Dabwali fire incident:On November 10,a Division Bench headed by the former Chief Justice Tirath Singh Thakur awarded the biggest ever compensation of 50 crore to the kin of those injured and dead in the Dabwali fire incident. As many as 446 people had died and 200 were injured in the fire that broke out in a DAV school function in 1995.

Dead man walking:Five innocent persons,who were awarded life imprisonment by a lower court for “murdering” man,were acquitted — the man was found alive. The High Court awarded compensation of Rs 1 crore to kin of the five victims. Subsequently,the Punjab government,which was directed to pay the entire amount,moved the Supreme Court,challenging the order passed by a Division Bench headed by Justice Mehtab Singh Gill. But the Supreme Court dismissed the appeal. The compensation will be paid soon.

Relief for cricketer Harbhajan Singh:Slapping a penalty of Rs 10,000 on two people,who had dragged Harbhajan Singh in a legal battle for allegedly hurting religious sentiments,the High Court quashed the complaint. Justice Mahesh Grover had come down heavily on the lower court Judge for “entertaining such frivolous complaints”.

New Chief Justice takes over:Less than two weeks after Justice Mukul Mudgal took over as the new Chief Justice,seven lower court Judges were dismissed from service. G K Rai,District and Sessions Judge of Muktsar,whose name was recommended for High Court Judgeship was also sacked on account of adverse ACR reports against him. The decision was taken by the Full Court (attended by all High Court Judges),which was presided over by Justice Mudgal.

DISTRICT COURTS
Death penalty for sodomy,murder:In July,the court of Additional District and Sessions Judge Raj Rahul Garg awarded capital punishment to a man for murdering and sodomising a six-year-old child. The case was one of the fastest murder trials in the history of district courts — the incident took place in February this year.

Five sentenced to life for raping German national:In yet another speedy trial,the court sentenced five men to life imprisonment in the sensational rape of a German national in September. The accused,residents of Haryana,were convicted for gangrape. The woman had come here to attend a wedding. From the parking lot of the Taj Hotel,the accused took her to a farmouse in Samalakha and raped her.

Three sentenced to life for Sector-4 triple murders:Three years after the crime,the court sentenced Pawandeep and two others to life imprisonment for the gruesome murder of his parents and aunt. Announcing the verdict,the court of Additional District and Sessions Judge Raj Rahul Garg ruled that the circumstances and facts of the crime did not fall in the “rarest of the rare category”,and thus it was not a fit case of death penalty. In the case,a retired group captain T P Singh,his wife Shibani and sister Ajit Kaur were found murdered in February 2006.

Doctor gets life imprisonment for husband’s murder:A lady doctor was sentenced to life imprisonment for the brutal murder of her husband in Hotel Mountview in 2003. The deceased,Mandiv Sapra,was the executive director of Group 4 Securitas and Swapna Singh was a senior dentist with Apollo Hospital,New Delhi. The murder was executed with surgical precision in a room of the hotel. It was Swapna’s second and Mandiv’s third marriage.

Barnala acquitted:Three years after Gaganjit Singh Barnala,former Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) legislator from Dhuri,was booked for rape,the court of Additional District and Sessions Judge Ravi Kumar Sondhi acquitted him of all charges in February. Barnala,son of Tamil Nadu Governor Surjeet Singh Barnala,was accused of raping his middle-aged domestic help at his official residence in Sector 3 in August 2006. Later,the victim had turned hostile.

Former JMIC convicted,Judge acquitted:A former Judicial Magistrate was convicted on charges of corruption by a CBI court. The CBI Special Court of Jagdeep Jain convicted former UT Judicial Magistrate (First Class) Surinder Singh Bhardwaj in a case registered against him in 2003. Co-accused in the case,former District and Sessions Judge (Jalandhar) R M Gupta,was acquitted of all charges. In May 2003,the CBI had caught Bhardawaj,then posted in the UT district court,accepting bribe. The conviction was the first of its kind in the country,where a magistrate was convicted of graft charges.

Ruchika molestation case:Deciding a 19-year-old case,a CBI Special Magistrate convicted former Haryana DGP S P S Rathore for molesting Ruchika Girhotra in 1990.