Gujarat High Court

Treat anganwadi workers at par with permanent civil employees: Gujarat HC

In a significant judgment that will benefit lakhs of anganwadi workers and helpers across the country, the Gujarat High Court has directed the state and Union governments to treat them at par with regularly selected permanent employees holding civil posts. Observing that the discrimination of AWWs (anganwadi workers) and AWHs (anganwadi helpers) with respect to government employees "is writ large", the court of Justice Nikhil S Kariel directed the state and Central governments to jointly formulate a policy for absorption of the posts of AWWs and AWHs in government service and to confer them consequential benefit of regularisation. The court passed its judgment on a batch of petitions filed by AWWs and AWHs appointed under the Centre's Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) scheme between 1983 and 2010. The IDCS scheme envisaged creation of 'anganwadi centres' to be run by AWWs and AWHs for children below the age of six as well as pregnant women and lactating mothers. Despite .

Morbi bridge tragedy: Gujarat HC rejects demand to transfer case to CBI

The Gujarat High Court has refused to hand over the investigation into the 2022 Morbi bridge collapse tragedy to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) as sought by the kin of the victims. The court can not look into the correctness of the ongoing investigation, said a division bench of Chief Justice Sunita Agarwal and Justice Pranav Trivedi. The court was hearing a suo motu public interest litigation (PIL) initiated after the October 30, 2022, incident at Morbi in Gujarat in which 135 persons lost their lives when a British-era suspension bridge on the Machchhu river collapsed. Some of the victims and kin of the deceased sought reinvestigation of the entire case through the CBI, accusing Gujarat Police of not carrying out a proper investigation and not making any civic official accused despite a Special Investigation Team holding some of them responsible. In a separate application submitted last month seeking a CBI probe, the victims argued that the then district collector was

Gujarat High Court quashes GST orders on cotton seed oil cakes

They argued that the petitioner failed to establish that the supply of the cakes was for cattle feed, and as such, short-paid GST

SC stays Gujarat HC order reinstating anti-dumping duty on imported PTA

PTA is used to make products containing polyester such as sportswear, swimsuits, jackets, sofas, curtains, and car seat covers

Fisheries scam: Gujarat HC rejects discharge pleas of two ex-BJP ministers

The Gujarat High Court has rejected the pleas filed by former BJP ministers Parshottam Solanki and Dileep Sanghani seeking their discharge in an alleged Rs 400-crore fisheries scam. The court of Justice Hemant Prachchhak on Friday dismissed the petitions moved by Solanki, Sanghani and one Arjun Suthariya challenging a March 12, 2021, order of a special Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) court rejecting their discharge applications in the case. Earlier, the HC had stayed criminal proceedings against the ex-ministers. While rejecting their pleas, the court on Friday extended its stay on criminal proceedings against the former ministers for another four weeks. The alleged scam is from 2008 when Solanki was the minister of state for fisheries and Sanghani was the cabinet minister for agriculture in Gujarat. At that time, a Palanpur-based businessman, Ishaq Maradia, moved the HC alleging that Solanki flouted rules by allotting fishing contracts without following the tendering process. Marad

SC stays Guj HC order to take back 108 ha of land given to Adani Group

APSEZ had challenged the Gujarat High Court's Friday order to return 108 hectares of 'gauchar' (grazing) land to farmers

Supreme Court stays Gujarat HC order on recovering land from Adani Ports

On July 5, the Additional Chief Secretary notified the court that the state administration had opted to reclaim 108 hectares of 'gauchar' land previously allocated to APSEZ

Rajkot game zone fire: 2 cops, civic staff among 6 suspended for negligence

The Gujarat government on Monday ordered the suspension of five officials, including two police inspectors and civic staff, with immediate effect for negligence in connection with the Rajkot game zone fire which claimed 27 lives. The officials have been held responsible "for their gross negligence in allowing this game zone to operate without necessary approvals," stated a government release. Notably, it has emerged the facility, where the blaze erupted on Saturday, was operated without the fire NOC (no objection certificate). "The game zone had received permissions from the roads and buildings department. It had also submitted a proof of fire safety equipment to obtain the fire NOC which was under process and not yet completed," Rajkot Police Commissioner Raju Bhargava told reporters on Sunday. The government's action of suspending five officials comes a day after Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel inspected the site where the fire erupted on Saturday and instructed the departments ..

Rajkot fire case: HC takes suo moto cognisance, calls it man-made disaster

A special bench of the Gujarat High Court on Sunday took suo motu cognizance of the fire incident at a game zone in Rajkot which left 27 persons dead and said it was prima facie a "man-made disaster". Such gaming zones and recreational facilities have come up without the necessary approvals from competent authorities, the bench of Justices Biren Vaishnav and Devan Desai observed. The bench directed advocates of the Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat and Rajkot municipal corporations to appear before it on Monday with instructions as to under what provisions of law the authorities led these units to be set up or continue to operate under their jurisdiction. Four children under the age of 12 were among the 27 persons killed and three others injured in the massive fire that swept through the game zone in Rajkot teeming with people enjoying a summer vacation outing on Saturday evening, as per the officials. Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel visited the incident site at Nana-Mava road on Sunday ..

Gujarat High Court rules mango pulp attracts 12% GST since July 2017

The court said that the item is covered by the category-mangoes other than sliced and dried

PM Modi degree row: SC rejects Sanjay Singh's plea against Gujarat HC order

AAP MP Singh had challenged an order of the Gujarat HC, which refused to quash summons issued against him in a defamation case for comments made on Prime Minister Modi's educational qualification

Don't make us probe agency: Gujarat HC over attack on foreign students

The Gujarat High Court on Monday said it should not be made a probe agency and every incident is not a matter of PIL, in reference to an attack on students hailing from foreign countries at a university hostel in Ahmedabad. A division bench of Chief Justice Sunita Agarwal and Justice Aniruddha P Mayee refused to take suo motu (on its own) cognisance of the incident and said police will look into it. The court made the remarks after a lawyer requested it to take up the issue as a suo motu PIL (public interest litigation). "Our effort is that justice be done, but don't make us an investigating agency. We are not doing that. We still want to remind ourselves that we are constitutional courts. We will definitely take into cognisance if such matter comes in, but this is not one of those," Chief Justice Agrawal said. She said every incident in the city is not a matter of PIL. "Don't substitute this court with inspectors of police. Don't make us the inspector of police. We are not ...

HC notice to Google for blocking account for uploading nude childhood photo

Uploading a nude childhood photo on Google Drive cost a man access to his email account for nearly a year and forced him to knock on the doors of the Gujarat High Court. The high court has issued a notice to Google India Pvt Limited for blocking the email account of the petitioner for "explicit child abuse" after he uploaded on Google Drive a photo of his grandmother bathing him when he was two years old. The court of Justice Vaibhavi D Nanavati on March 15 issued notices to Google, the Central and state governments returnable on March 26. The petitioner, Neel Shukla, a computer engineer, uploaded childhood photographs on Google Drive, including a picture of him being bathed by his grandmother as a toddler. The tech giant blocked Shukla's account in April last year for violating its policy regarding such contents showing "explicit child abuse", his counsel Dipen Desai told the court. Shukla moved the high court on March 12 after the company failed to resolve the issue through its

PM Modi's degree row: HC rejects pleas by Kejriwal, Singh to quash summons

The Gujarat High Court on Friday dismissed pleas by Aam Aadmi Party leaders Arvind Kejriwal and Sanjay Singh to quash the summons issued against them in a criminal defamation case over their comments on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's educational qualification. Through their pleas, Delhi Chief Minister Kejriwal and AAP's Rajya Sabha member Singh had challenged the summons by a trial court in the case filed by Gujarat University and the subsequent order of the sessions court dismissing their revision applications against the summons. Rejecting their applications, Justice Hasmukh Suthar directed the two AAP leaders to make their submissions before the trial court. Seeking the quashing of the summons, the two leaders had said that Gujarat University (GU) cannot file a defamation case before a magistrate court and rather should move the sessions court. The metropolitan court had summoned Kejriwal and Singh on April 15 last year in the defamation case filed by GU over their sarcastic and

Five held for stealing 199 gold coins while demolishing house in Gujarat

Five persons were arrested for allegedly stealing 199 gold coins they found while demolishing a house in Bilimora in Gujarat's Navsari district, a police official said on Monday. The coins have the image of King George V engraved on them and the house, on Bazaar Street, belongs to NRI Hawaben Balia, who currently resides in Leicester in the United Kingdom, he said. Balia filed a complaint against contractor Sarfaraz Karadiya, who was hired to raze the house, and four labourers hailing from Alirajpur in neighbouring Madhya Pradesh who carried out the demolition, the official said. "A case of theft of gold coins from a heritage house was registered and five persons were named as accused. There was no clarity on the number of gold coins that had been stolen. The FIR was lodged by Balia on October 21," Navsari Superintendent of Police Sushil Agrawal said. The five accused were charged under Indian Penal Code sections 406 (criminal breach of trust) and 114 (abettor present at spot when

Cadila Pharma CMD booked for alleged rape, assault on Bulgarian woman

In its order dated December 22, the HC had directed the chief judicial magistrate to pass an order of investigation by a competent police official into the complaint

Morbi bridge collapse: HC rejects bail plea of Oreva Group CMD Patel

The Gujarat High Court on Tuesday rejected the regular bail plea of Oreva Group CMD Jaysukh Patel, the main accused in the October 2022 Morbi suspension bridge collapse which claimed 135 lives. "The application is dismissed," Justice Divyesh Joshi said while denying bail to Patel, who has been behind bars since his surrender in January this year after being named as the main accused in the case. His regular bail pleas were earlier rejected by lower courts. Patel's firm was responsible for the operation and maintenance of the British-era suspension bridge on the Machchhu river in Gujarat's Morbi town which collapsed on October 30 last year, killing 135 people, including children, and injuring 56 others. Patel and nine others have been charged under Indian Penal Code sections 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 308 (attempt to commit culpable homicide), 336 (act which endangers human life), 337 (causing hurt to any person by doing any rash or negligent act) and 338 (caus

Marital rape no less henious, silence on sexual violence must end: Guj HC

A rape is a rape, even when it is committed by a man on his wife, the Gujarat High Court has observed, citing that the silence shrouding sexual violence against women in India needs to be broken. In an order passed recently, Justice Divyesh Joshi observed that the actual incidences of violence against women in India are probably much higher than what the data suggests, and women may continue to face hostility and remain in environments where they are subject to violence. Social attitude typically characterises certain behaviours such as stalking, eve-teasing, shades of verbal and physical assault, and harassment as "minor" offences, which are "regrettably" not only trivialised or normalised but even romanticised and promoted in popular lore such as cinema, the order stated. The attitudes which view sexual crimes through the prism of "boys will be boys" and condone them, nevertheless, "have a lasting and pernicious effect on the survivors", it said. The court made these observations

HC allows to end 27-week pregnancy of 12-year-old girl raped by her father

The concerned police station at Dediapada was also directed to take the victim for medical termination of pregnancy at the Vadodara hospital

Insolvency proceedings: Gujarat High Court stays NCLT order against Rasna

In a major relief for Rasna, the Gujarat High Court on Monday stayed the NCLT order directing the initiation of insolvency proceedings against the homegrown beverage brand. Last week, the Ahmedabad bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) directed initiation of the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP) against Rasna over a default of Rs 71.27 lakh and had appointed an interim resolution professional suspending the board. The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) order was challenged by the promoters of Rasna Industries before the high court, which stayed the verdict till an appeal filed against it before the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal is listed. "Considering the aforesaid, by way of ad-interim relief, the said order dated 01.09.2023 is directed not to be acted upon till the statutory appeal which is filed before the NCLAT is listed for hearing in the peculiar facts of the present case," an order passed by Justice V D Nanavati stated on Monday. NCLT had