Kasab trial,Shiney rape case,Adarsh hog limelight in 2010

On May 3,a trial court convicted Kasab for his role in the 26/11 attacks. Three days later,he was awarded death penalty. Kasab challenged the sentence in the Bombay High Court. The state also filed an appeal against acquittal of two Indian co-accused Faheem Ansari and Sabauddin Ahmed. The court is currently hearing the arguments and would soon give its verdict on both the appeals and confirmation of death penalty awarded to Kasab.

A special MCOCA court commenced trial in the July 11 serial train blasts case against 13 suspected members of SIMI and LeT. The Supreme Court had in February 2008 stayed the trial after accused Kamal Ansari challenged constitutional validity of a section pertaining to insurgency in MCOCA.

On April 25,the apex court dismissed the petition and vacated stay on trial. On July 11,2006,RDX bombs ripped the first class compartments of seven local trains in Western railway within a span of ten minutes.

In the case against Shiney,facing charges of raping his domestic maid,the victim turned hostile in the court on September 7. She said the incident of rape never occurred and the police had registered a false case.

The girl,in 2009,had lodged a police complaint alleging that she was raped by Shiney at his residence in suburban Oshiwara. Shiney was arrested on June 14 and was released on bail three months later. Trial is still on and prosecution witnesses are being examined.

In another such case,six youths,who were accused of gangraping a US national and student of TISS,were acquitted by a sessions court due to lack of evidence. The case dates back to April 12,2009 when six friends – Vinamra Soni,Harshvardharn Yadav,Jaskaran Singh Bullar,Anish Borkatki,Dev Colabawala,Kundanraj Bodgohai – allegedly took the 23-year-old TISS student to accused Kundan’s house in Andheri and allegedly gangraped her.

The court,however,observed that the victim’s statement is not credible and the prosecution had failed to provide evidence against the accused.

In an accident case,John Abraham was sentenced to undergo 15 days simple imprisonment for rash and negligent driving and injuring two persons. The incident dates back to April 8,2006,when John had rammed his Yamaha Hayabusa bike into a bicycle with two youngsters on it in suburban Bandra.

After the accident John had taken the victims – Shyam Kasbe (22) and Tanmay Majhi (19),both working at a Wine shop at Pali Naka – to nearby Bhabha Hospital. John,who was also injured,later got himself admitted to Lilavati Hospital. The court had granted bail to John after convicting him. He has approached the sessions court challenging the conviction.

Another case which stole the limelight during the year gone by was the Malegaon 2008 blast trial after Bombay High Court on July 20 reinstated the stringent provisions of Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA).

A special MCOCA court had in 2009 dropped MCOCA charges against the accused following which the case was transferred to a sessions court in Nashik. Eleven persons,including Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur and Lt Col Prasad Purohit,are facing charges.

Six people were killed in a bomb blast on September 29,2008,at Malegaon,a communally-sensitive textile town in Nasik district of North Maharashtra,bringing into focus some right-wing Hindu groups.

As Adarsh society housing scam rocked the state,a PIL urged the High Court to order a CBI probe into the alleged irregularities. The State informed the Court on December 20 that it will set up a commission of inquiry to probe the scam while CBI said it had already taken over the probe but FIR had not yet been filed.

The petitioner Simpreet Singh had earlier filed a complaint with Anti-Corruption Bureau,accusing former chief minister Sushilkumar Shinde and others of “falsifying documents”. He said ACB had so far not registered an FIR.

“As per rules,ACB is supposed to register FIR within 48 hours (of receiving a complaint),” Petitioner’s advocate Y P Singh told the High Court. Advocate General Ravi Kadam argued that the petition did not seek registration of FIR by ACB. However,Singh argued that ACB could first register a case and then the state could hand over the case to CBI.

Since both CBI and state sought time to file affidavits on progress of the probe,the court adjourned hearing to January 18.

In another public interest case,the Bombay High Court on December 27 allowed the telecast of popular reality TV show “Bigg Boss” at prime time following an undertaking from the Colors Channel that it will self-censor the contents of the programme. While permitting to air the show at 9 pm,the court granted liberty to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to move the court without giving a show cause notice to the channel in case there was violation of the undertaking given by them.

Colors gave an undertaking in which they agreed not to violate the rules,self-censor “objectionable scenes and dialogues” and also not to provide clippings of the programme to any news channels henceforth.

Viacom18 Media Pvt Ltd had moved the Court after the I&B Ministry once again directed them to shift the show timings from 9 pm to 11 pm as its contents were objectionable and not fit for children.

The cricket board suffered a setback as the High Court on December 27 refused to stay its single bench order which had stalled till January 10 the proceedings of Disciplinary Committee probing allegations of financial irregularities against former IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi.

The BCCI had sought a stay on that order and prayed that the meeting of Disciplinary Committee comprising Arun Jaitley,Jyotiraditya Scindia and Chirayu Amin should be allowed to be held on December 27 and 28. However,the High Court turned down its plea.

In a major reprieve to IPL franchisee Rajasthan Royals,the High Court on December 14 upheld the order passed by an independent arbitrator granting stay to the termination of its contract by BCCI.

The court dismissed BCCI’s appeal challenging the stay granted by the arbitrator and permitted RR to participate in the IPL 4 auction slated to be held on January 8 and 9. The Court,however,imposed a condition on Rajasthan Royals directing them to file an affidavit before it by January 3 specifying full details of its ownership pattern and mode of control.

Similarly,the court also upheld on December 15 the order of its single bench to stay the termination of another IPL franchise Kings XI Punjab. The court ruled that entire basis of the letter of termination issued by BCCI to the Mohali franchise was “erroneous and flawed”.

In another important public interest matter,the High Court decided to monitor the probe by various agencies into assets of Congress leader Kripashankar Singh allegedly disproportionate to known sources of income. Reports by Income Tax department and various agencies were given to the court in a sealed cover in December and they were perused by judges.

In yet another important public interest case,the Supreme Court on November 15 asked telecom major Vodafone to deposit Rs 2,500 crore within two weeks and a bank guarantee of Rs 8,500 crore within eight weeks in its ongoing case in which the UK-based company has challenged capital gains tax of Rs 11,000 crore from its acquisition of Hutchison shares.

On December 29,properties of actor Sanjay Dutt were attached on the orders of Bombay High Court after film maker Shakeel Noorani obtained a decree to recover Rs 2.03 crore. Dutt’s lawyer said he would challenge the attachment of assets in the High Court.