Top Legal Headlines - 26th February, 2021

NATIONAL NEWS SUMMARIES

1.    Centre opposes the plea for the recognition of same-sex marriages in India

•    Pleas had been made to the Delhi High Court requesting to grant recognition to same-sex marriages in India.
•    To the pleas, Centre replied by stating that the concept of a relationship between the same-sex individuals isn’t comparable with the concept of ‘Indian family unit’.
•    “Fundamental Right under Article 21 is subject to procedure established by law and the same cannot be expanded to include the fundamental right of a same sex marriage to be recognized under the laws of the country which in fact mandate the contrary”, was the response of the Centre.

2.    New social media regulations by Central Government

•    The Central Government has announced new rules and regulations for social media platforms, OTT platforms and online news websites by the Information Technology Rules 2021.
•    The new rules define ‘social media intermediaries’ and the requirements that they have to fulfill.
•    A Code of Ethics, a self-regulatory body, a grievance portal and provisions of self-classification of content have been provided under the new rules among other things.

3.    Allahabad HC denies bail to Aparna Purohit in case against ‘Tandav’

•    In the ongoing case against the web series – ‘Tandav’, Aparna Purohit, the Commercial Head of Amazon Prime Video has been denied anticipatory bail by the Allahabad HC.
•    Aparna Purohit has been alleged for offences under sections 66, 66F &67 of the IT Act and sections 153-A, 295, 505(1)(b), 505(2) & 469 of IPC.
•    “Such people make the revered figures of the religion of the majority community source of earning money in most brazen manner taking benefit of the liberal and tolerant tradition of country”, the Court opined.

4.    Ossification test of 55 yr old does not prove his juvenility: SC

•    In the case of Ram Vijay Singh v. State of Uttar Pradesh, the Supreme Court has held that the ossification test cannot be completely relied upon to determine the age of the person when the incident happened.
•    In this case, the accused had contended that he was a juvenile when the commission of offence had taken place.
•    “When the person is around 40- 55 years of age, the structure of bones cannot be helpful in determining the age”, held the Court.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS SUMMARIES

1.    Murder accused cooked victim’s heart: USA

•    In Oklahoma, USA,  a murder accused has been alleged for murdering his neighbor and removing the heart from the body of the victim to cook it later.
•    He cooked the victim’s heart and then served it with potatoes to two other persons who also got killed.
•     The accused then confessed the murders in Court.

2.    Nirav Modi’s challenge to India’s extradition plea rejected by UK Court

•    For the PNB scam of 14,000 Crore, the Government of India had requested the extradition of Nirav Modi.
•    However, Nirav Modi had challenged this plea of the Indian Government.
•    Nevertheless, the UK Court rejected all the grounds of his challenge to plea and ruled that he had destroyed witnesses and had links to the scam.
•    The Court forwarded the case to Secretary of State.