A woman’s husband and her brother-in-law appealed to the Supreme Court against their conviction after the woman committed suicide within four months of her marriage. The appellants argued that the father of the deceased came to know of the offence at 1 p.m. on September 8, 1990, but he lodged an FIR at 7.30 p.m. on September 9, 1990. This delay indicated false implication, they argued. The apex court rejected the contention and said that it was natural for a father to be disturbed at the sight of his daughter’s dead body. Simply because the FIR was lodged after some delay, the complaint could not be said to be unworthy of credence, the court ruled (Sahebrao vs State of Maharashtra).
A civil court passed a decree against a Central government employee for the recovery of a loan of Rs 57,000. The man failed to appear before the court at the time of the decree’s execution because he was out of station. The court then sentenced him to civil imprisonment under a provision of the Central Civil Services (Conduct) Rules that requires a government employee to maintain absolute integrity and avoid “habitual indebtedness”. Disciplinary proceedings were initiated against him and he was compulsorily retired. He appealed to the Kerala High Court, which quashed the order of compulsory retirement. It ruled that a single instance of absence didn’t mean that he was in habitual indebtedness and being imprisoned in the given circumstances didn’t justify disciplinary proceedings (Prisekutty vs Union of India).
The buyers of a property appealed against the property’s owners for refusing to honour the sale deed. A court upheld their plea. The owners then appealed before the Allahabad High Court that the buyers had no rights to two previously constructed rooms and trees on the land. The court rejected the contention because it was not mentioned in the sale agreement. The Transfer of Property Act provides that unless a different intention is implied when the property is being transferred, all legal incidents thereof and anything capable of being transferred passes on to the transferee, it ruled (Ram Chandra vs Kalyan Singh and others).
