Bench says it runs counter to constitutional law and ultra vires Constitution The Supreme Court on Wednesday declared unconstitutional Section 27 (3) of the Arms Act, which provides for mandatory death sentence to an accused charged with an offence under this provision. Section 27(3) says: “Whoever uses any prohibited arms or prohibited ammunition or does any act in contravention of Section 7 and such use or act results in the death of...

After a perilous wait of eleven years and four days for justice, 40 residents of Sangemarmar Apartments, which collapsed during the earthquake 2001, received their due from the builders responsible for the tragedy. Gujarat State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission ordered the builders of Sangemarmar Apartments, to pay varying amounts of compensations for the building collapse - around Rs 35 lakh each to residents of the flats who complained that the building...

-The Times of India The Gujarat High Court will not direct the Nanavati-Mehta commission to summon chief minister Narendra Modi and question him about the 2002 Gujarat riots. Civil rights organization Jan Sangharsh Manch (JSM) had filed an application demanding that Modi be called by the commission for cross-examination.  A bench of Justices Akil Kureshi and Sonia Gokani rejected the application and upheld the November 2009 order by a single judge. The...

More than 80 per cent complaints filed under the seven-year-old domestic violence act have been declared too trivial for such a law to address, raising fears that it is being used to settle scores while graver atrocities go unreported. However, the nature of many complaints also suggests that women are no longer willing to play a subservient role in marital life. The highest number of complaints related to charges that the husband...

Canada-based software consultant Nitin Mandlaus survived the Delhi High Court blast of September 7, 2011 despite 822 pieces of shrapnel piercing his body. After four long operations, the 37-year-old still walks about with 600-odd metal pieces inside his body. Apart from the pain these are causing him, the tiny objects are also preventing his return home to his wife and son in Toronto. It's a shocking tale. Mandlaus can't catch a...