Law

Teacher skirts jail after sex with pupil

Teacher skirts jail after sex with pupilSydney  - A Melbourne teacher found guilty Thursday of having sex with a 15-year-old pupil was sentenced to 150 hours of community work.

Noel McNamara of the Crime Victims Support Association decried the sentence handed to 25-year-old Nazira Rafei as too lenient.

"I think they seem to be mainly in most cases female judges who hand down these sentences and think that it is OK for female teachers to interfere with young boys," he said. "We don't know what the end result is going to be with this lad."

Irretrievable breakdown no ground for divorce, says SC

The Supreme Court rejected a man's divorce plea on Wednesday, as the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, does not recognise "irretrievable breakdown" as a ground for divorce.

A bench of justices Markandey Katju and VS Sirpurkar rejected the husband's divorce plea saying, no court, including SC, is empowered to issue a decree for divorce on this ground, as it would amount to amending the Hindu Marriage Act, a job that is vested with the legislature alone.

A law can be amended only by legislature and not by judicial verdict, judges said. Section 13 of the Hindu Marriage Act provides several grounds for granting divorce such as cruelty, adultery, desertion, but irretrievable breakdown of marriage is not one, the judges noted.

High Court relief for Bombay Dyeing

High Court relief for Bombay DyeingIn a major relief for Bombay Dyeing, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Wednesday told the Bombay High Court that the stop-work notices issued to the textile firm, which is redeveloping two mills, are premature. The HC disposed of the petition filed by Bombay Dyeing after BMC lawyer assured the court that the two notices would be withdrawn by the state-appointed monitoring committee in its next meeting on March 16.

As per Development Control Rules (DCR), when a mill is redeveloped, proportionate areas of land have to be handed over to BMC and Mhada.

Kheduts to move SC over land deal

The Gujarat Khedut Samaj has decided to approach the Supreme Court after Gujarat High Court dismissed its plea opposing sale of a large tract of land used for cotton research for a commercial project.

The land in question is a vast tract of land, measuring around 65,000 sq mt, in the heart of the city near Ghoddod Road. The land, belonging to Navsari Agricultural University, is in the possession of Cotton Agricultural Research Centre, and has been used for research for decades.

Lahore High Court disposes off Hafiz Saeed’s wife’s petition

Lahore High Court disposes off Hafiz Saeed’s wife’s petitionLahore, Mar. 5: The Lahore High Court (LHC) has disposed off a petition filed by Jamaat- ud- Dawa (JuD) chief Hafiz Saeed’s wife, Memoona Saeed, challenging the government’s decision to detain Saeed without valid reason.

Saeed’s wife said the government had detained her husband only to please the US and India without giving any valid reason.

Social security cell can file cases under PITA

The Act is meant to stop trafficking of girls and prostitution in city

The social security cell of the city crime branch has been delegated with the powers to file cases under stringent norms of Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956 (PITA), meant to stop prostitution and trafficking of females across the city.

Earlier, it was only the assistant commissioner of police of the crime branch who was vested with powers to file the cases. Under the new rule, the police inspector heading the social security cell will be able to file cases under the PITA.

Every year, the city police rescue around 400 women and minor girls forced into prostitution by the brothel keepers, massage centre operators and others under the special act.

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