Tag Archives: #FundamentalRights

Legal News

Allahabad HC orders Dr Kafeel Khan’s release, sets aside detention order under NSA

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The Allahabad High Court on Tuesday dropped charges under National Security Act against Dr Kafeel Khan, the pediatrician directing his immediate release. Dr Kafeel Khan has been incarcerated in Mathura jail for the last six months. 

The HC bench comprising Chief Justice Govind Marhur and Justice Saumitra Dayal Singh cancelled his detention in a habeaus corpus petition filed by a Kafeel’s mother. The Uttar Pradesh government had earlier extended his detention by three months till November 13.

In its last hearing, the HC bench adjourned the matter as parties prayed to file additional documents and the court wanted to pursue original records of the proceedings under the NSA, resulting in the detention of Khan and further extension of the same.

According to the plea, Khan was earlier granted bail by a court and he was supposed to be released. However, the NSA was imposed against him. Hence, his detention was illegal, the plea said.

Under the NSA, people can be detained without a charge for up to 12 months if authorities are satisfied that they are a threat to the national security or law and order. Khan is currently lodged in a Mathura jail.

The Gorakhpur doctor was arrested on January 29 by Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (STF) for an alleged provocative speech against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) at Aligarh Muslim University in December 2019.

Case Summary

Hadiya Marriage Case

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Facts:-

The petitioner (father )filed a case on the ground that Hadiya (originally Akhila Ashokan) was deceived into marrying her husband, Mr. Shafin Jahan and forcibly converted to Islam. I.e, He alleged that Hadiya had been misled and forced to become a Muslim.

Question of law:- 

  • Does the High Court have the power to annul the marriage of an adult under Article 226?
  • Does marriage being the most crucial decision of life, can be taken only with the active involvement of her parents, and no legal adult consent is necessary?

Held:- 

  • The writ of habeas corpus is ‘a great constitutional privilege’ or ‘the first security of civil liberty.’ It is a remedy against illegal detention, which affects the liberty and freedom of the detainee. In this case, the High Court misused the habeas corpus. When Hadiya appeared before the High Court, she stated that she was not under illegal confinement. The High Court has no power to decide the ‘just’ way of life or ‘correct’ course of living for Hadiya. 
  • Parens patriae is the power of the State to intervene against an abusive or negligent parent or guardian. The State acts as the parent of such an individual. The courts can invoke this role only in exceptional cases where the individual is either mentally incompetent, underage, or has either no parent/legal guardian or abusive one.
  •  The right to marry a person of one’s choice is integral to Article 21. The High Court was wrong in using its powers under Article 226 to annul Hadiya’s marriage with Shafin Jahan.

Submitted By: Priya Singh

https://lawmentor.in/2022/03/13/hadiya-marriage-case/

Legal News

‘Sheer Violation of Student’s Fundamental Right’: Law students write to CJI against MHA order permitting to conduct of university exams.

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A letter petition has been sent to the CJI, stating that the Government order directing Universities to compulsorily conduct the examination of final year students is in “sheer violation of the fundamental enshrined in the Constitution of India, as it fails to consider the principles of health, safety, fairness, and opportunity for the students.

The representation has been made by Yash Dubey, a final year law student at the Bhopal University, also the Circle Head at the Youth Bar Association of India (Student Wing). He has urged the Apex Court to take suo-moto of the issue and to put the Academic Calendar for the Universities “in abeyance,” till the situation of Covid-19 normalizes.

Dubey has challenged the compulsory conduct of examination of the final year students, inter alia, on the following grounds:

• The Revised Guidelines are in sheer violation of the fundamental rights enshrined under Article 14 (Right to Equality) and Article 21 (Right to Life and Personal Liberty) of the Constitution of India, as it fails to consider the principles of health, safety, fair and equal opportunity for the students;

• In view of rising numbers of the Covid-19 cases in the country, the conduct of examination (either online/offline/blended) will expose both the examiners and examinees to great health risks:

The conduct of offline exams will entail students (who have already traveled to their hometown) to migrate from one place to another, in order to attend the examination. This will also involve the risk of staying in shared accommodation as various colleges and hostels have been converted into quarantine centers;

• It will be absolutely unjust to neglect the problems that will be faced by thousands of students, who will sit for the online examination as the same will indubitably work against the interest of students whose access to the internet is precarious and who do not have personal computers or laptops in their house, which are imperative to conduct online examination;

He has, therefore, urged the Sc to take steps for the formulation of an ” alternative system of evaluation”, so as to do complete, equal, and fair justice to the students and to exclude the possibility of discrimination, disadvantage, and risk of life.

Source – Live law