The Delhi high court which was established on 31 October 1966 turns 50 years . Housing a total of 36 courtrooms and dealing in both civil and criminal proceedings, the Delhi high court has witnessed some of the most challenging cases from the time of its inception.
As it completes 50 glorious years of establishment today, the Delhi high court can be seen as one that has constantly striven for efficiency in disposal of cases and in the process embraced technology in its day-to-day working. In order to commemorate its 50 years, a function will take place at Vigyan Bhavan later in the day. The function will be presided over by the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi and attended by the Chief Justice of India, T.S Thakur and other Hon’ble judges of the Supreme Court and high court.
On the occasion of its Golden Jubilee, Mint takes a look at 10 landmark judgements passed by the Delhi high court:
1. Centre-state row over distribution of powers
Putting an end to the constant tussle between the Centre and state government over distribution and exercise of powers in the national capital, the Delhi high court on 4 August, 2016 upheld the administrative powers of the Lieutenant-Governor (L-G) in matters of public order, land, police and services—including the power to appoint civil servants.
The high court emphasized the administrative capacity of the L-G while ruling that Delhi continues to be a Union territory under the Transaction of Business Rules despite Article 239 AA of the Constitution making some special provisions with respect to the national capital. Read More
In accordance with this, a batch of cases where an inquiry was initiated by the AAP government without the concurrence of the L-G was dismissed and held illegal. All notifications initiating such inquiries were struck down under the court’s orders.
2. National Herald misappropriation case
The case involved allegations of cheating, fraud, misappropriation of funds and breach of trust against Congress president Sonia Gandhi, party vice-president Rahul Gandhi, party general secretary Oscar Fernandes, journalist Suman Dubey, technocrat Sam Pitroda and party treasurer Motilal Vora, in a bid to take control of the National Herald newspaper.
3. Delhi University Photocopy case
Setting a precedent in copyright law for education purposes, the Delhi high court dismissed a plea by a group of international publishers seeking to restrain a shop in Delhi University (DU) from selling photocopies of textbooks and course material.
4. Call drop
The Delhi high court upheld the telecom regulator’s decision to make it mandatory for service providers to compensate subscribers for call drops from 1 January 2016.
A batch of petitions filed by Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) and 21 telecom operators, including Bharti Airtel Ltd, Aircel Ltd, Vodafone India Ltd and Idea Cellular Ltd. had opposed a Trai notification imposing mandatory compensation on the telcos.
5. Judgment on WhatsApp’s privacy policy
6. National policy to govern app-based taxi services
7. Delhi government’s audit of discoms
8. Release of juvenile convict in gang rape case
9. Hoffman-La Roche and Cipla’s drug patent case
10. Recognition of rights of the third gender
