Keeping Pace with Legal Change
Allahabad high court happened to be the centre stage of a major human rights drama recently. One of the young men made a petition in the court, frantically requesting to release his partner. The two were of diverse religious beliefs which had been forcibly separated.
The case was taken to the top court following a series of tragic events in which after giving the children who had taken over the counter cough syrups, they developed acute kidney failure which led to their deaths.
The meaning of the statement made by justice Syam Kumar did not imply alarm and was a deep-seated appeal to hard work in the judiciary. His phrases demonstrate that he has a great concern with the rule of law and preservation of the property rights of all citizens. This was observed in one of the cases referred to which a judge stressed that the legal process should be followed with care and integrity.
The recent decision by the Supreme Court has to be viewed in the background of the tough line adopted by the court in the past against firecrackers in the National Capital Region. The court had temporarily banned all conventional firecrackers through the sale, purchase and bursting of firecrackers over a number of years.
The case came to the highest court, when a team of petitioners appealed the conditions of service and privacy policy of WhatsApp that is owned by the international technology giant Meta. The petitioners claimed that today WhatsApp has become a necessary and indispensable service in India that can be used to communicate with others every day, both about personal and professional matters
The core of the problem is that it was alleged that Asian Paints, in its mighty position in the market, was able to suppress competition. The complaint was initially filed by a relatively new entrant into the paint industry with the allegation being that Asian Paints was committing anti-competitive behavior.
The problem came into the limelight when one of the advocates visited a Wow! Momo outlet for a meal. He had eaten his food in the restaurant premises and was surprised to get his final bill.
Hiba is the Arabic word of a gift, and under the Law of Mohammedans, this means the transfer of property between two persons without any consideration in return.
The legal battle started when Reliance industries found that a number of cab aggregators and individual taxi drivers were operating under a name JIO Cabs. These operators had extensively painted the ‘JIO’ branding and logo on their cars giving the impression that their taxi service was an official project of the JIO platform of Reliance. Such an unlicensed use made Reliance act fast and legally in order to defend its valuable brand name.
The tragedy took several weeks before it started being reported to parents around Chennai and the surrounding districts that there was something to be feared in respect of illnesses in their children. The over-the-counter Coldrif syrup was administered to the children most of whom were undergoing the symptoms of common cold.
