Dowry Death--Soon before death--Words "Soon before her death" occurring in section 304-B of Penal Code, are to be understood in relative and flexible sense--Those words cannot be construed as lying down a rigid period of time to be mechanically applied in each case--Whether or not the cruelty or harassment meted out to the victim for or in connection with the demand of dowry was soon before her death and the proximate cause of her death, under abnormal circumstances, would depend upon the facts of each case--There can be no fixed period of time in this regard--Penal Code, 1860, Section 304-B.

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Territorial Jurisdiction--Ouster clause--Agreement between parties that only Courts at Jaipur alone would have jurisdiction--Even though Courts at Calcutta would have jurisdiction but in view of ouster clause it would only the Courts at Jaipur which would have jurisdiction to entertain such proceeding.

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Accident--Owner of vehicle already dead--Vehicle not transferred in the name of his heirs--Insurance renewed in the name deceased owner--Accident took place and driver died--No witnesses examined by insurance company that they were not aware about death of original owner--Compensation rightly granted to wife of deceased driver.

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Cancellation of Bail--Complainant can always question the order granting bail if the said order is not validly passed--It is not as if once a bail is granted by any Court, the only way is to get it cancelled on account of its misuse--Bail order can be tested on merits also--Complainant could question the merits of order granting bail-- Penal Code, 1860, Section 302--Criminal Procedure Code, 1973, Section 439(2).

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Marriage--Nullity of--A Christian married to a Hindu in a temple and subsequently marriage was registered under Section 8 of Hindu Marriage Act--Marriage was a nullity and its registration could not validate the same. Marriage--Conditions for--Usage of expression "may" in the opening line of Section 5of Hindu Marriage Act does not make the provision optional.

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Dishonour of Cheque--Breach of trust--Loan advanced by appellant to respondent--Respondent issued cheques--Loan amount not repaid and cheques presented got bounced--Complaint under Section 138 by appellant against respondent pending--Respondent does not dispute issuance of cheques--Ingredients of section 406 IPC not made out against appellant.

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Dishonor of Cheque--Complaint filed by Govt. Company being represented by public servant--Defacto complainant a public servant--No need to examine complainant under Section 200 Cr.P.C.--Section 200 Proviso (a) will apply.

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Acquittal by High Court--Order of High Court utterly confusing and based on surmises and conjectures--Matter remitted to High Court for fresh hearing.

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Landlord and Tenant--Eviction--Provisional Rent-Arrears of Rent-It is mandatory to assess the provisional rent and without determination of rent no decree of eviction on the ground of arrears of rent can be passed--Rajasthan Premises (Control of Rent and Eviction) Act, 1950, S. 13.

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Civil Procedure Code, 1908, O.39 R.I & R.2 and O.41 R.23--Injunction- Temporary Injunction—Rejection of stay application—Remand of Case- Held; No adequate reason is given in the impugned order for not granting stay; and secondly, the reason given does not in itself justify the rejection having regard to the nature of controversy involved in the writ petition-­ Case remanded to be decided afresh.

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Arbitration Agreement—Arbitration clause has to be interpreted strictly-- the insurance company has completely denied their liability and repudiated the claim of respondents—Therefore, making the arbitration clause ineffective and incapable of being enforced—Reference to arbitration cannot be made—Directed accordingly.

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Agreement to Sell—Specific Performance—Where the factum of execution of the suit agreement in itself is doubted, no relief can be granted to plaintiff--The defendants have denied having signed any such agreement—No attempt was made by the appellant/plaintiff to confront the defendants and discharge the burden by examining any handwriting expert—The co-owner of the property was neither joined as party in the suit agreement, nor was his authority for execution of such agreement forthcoming—No proof was forthcoming regarding payment of earnest money

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Limitation—Bar of Limitation—In order to decide the question of limitation as to whether the suit is filed within time or not, the Court is mainly required to see the plaint allegations and how the plaintiff has pleaded the accrual of cause of action for filing the suit.

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Civil Procedure Code, 1908, O.41 R.23—Remand of Case—Suit was based on legality of compromise entered between the parties—Matter was remanded back to be decided afresh on merits-Held; This implied that the question of consideration of compromise petition was required to be decided first- -It is for the simple reason that if the compromise was held to be legal and proper, there was no need to decide the second appeal on merits—In other words, the need to decide the second appeal on merits would have arisen only if the compromise would have been held illegal and not binding on the parties concerned—Matter remanded again to be decided afresh accordingly.

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Criminal Procedure Code, 1973, S.300—Double Jeopardy—The whole basis of Section 300 (1) Cr.P.C. is that the person who was tried by a competent court, once acquitted or convicted, cannot be tried for the same offence—Where accused has not been tried nor was there a full fledged trial, then principles of'double jeopardy' would not apply to the accused though earlier discharged.

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Cheating—Quashing—Merely on the allegation that wife had not completed her M.C.A qualification at the time of marriage as claimed and she has completed M.C.A after the marriage, it cannot be said that the appellants had cheated husband at the time of marriage

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Public Premises—Eviction Notice—Where the public premises in question is situated, proceedings can be initiated at place within local limits specified in the notification issued under S.3 of the Act and not at any other place

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Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985, S.42--Secret Infor­ mation-Law summed up-An empowered officer under Section 42(1) is obli­ gated to reduce to writing the information received by him, only when an of­ fence punishable under the Act has been committed in any building, convey­ ance or an enclosed place, or when a document or an article is concealed in a building, conveyance or an enclosed place. Compliance with Section 42, in­ cluding recording of information received by the empowered officer, is not mandatory

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Writ Jurisdiction—Restoration of Possession—High Court not justified in issuing a writ of mandamus granting relief of restoration of the possession of flat and writ petition ought to be dismissed in limine as not maintainable Writ Jurisdiction—Scope of—High Court cannot allow its constitutional jurisdiction to be used for deciding disputes, for which remedies under the general law, civil or criminal are available

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Service Law—Penalty—Judicial Review—The imposition of a penalty in disciplinary proceeding lies in the sole domain of the employer—Unless the penalty is found to be shockingly disproportionate to the charges which are proved, the element of discretion which is attributed to the employer cannot be interfered with.

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Succession Act, 1963, S.63—Will-Suspicious Circumstance—Beneficiary of Will deposed that in lieu of services rendered by him testator had executed the Will in his favour-But as per evidence on record beneficiary was in Army service from year 1960-1979, where as the Will was executed in the year 1970—Apart from beneficiary no other family members gave statement in support of services rendered by them—Will though was registered but discarded -- Will—Proof of Execution—For proving the Will not only statutory requirements are to be satisfied but the Will should be ordinarily free from suspicious circumstances

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Criminal Law--Detention--Writ petition before High Court to quash the order of detention--Orders were restrained to be enforced--Became infructuous by lapse of time--Writ was allowed with the observation that the respondents will be at liberty to pass any fresh order if so required to take appropriate action thereafter in accordance with law--Order of High Court set aside--The proper order required to be passed was to call upon the respondent first to surrender pursuant to detention order

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Criminal Law--Principle of parity--There is no such law that when two accused persons are acquitted by giving benefit of doubt the third one must be given the same benefit of doubt--Penal Code, 1860, Section 302 r/w 34.

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Criminal Law--Five persons convicted and sentenced by Session Court--Four accused preferred Criminal appeals--High Court allowed the appeal of one but in respect of others confirmed the order of conviction and sentence--Appeal before Supreme Court--Contention that when the High Court acquitted one of the accused not believing the prosecution story and granted benefit of doubt to him, such benefit ought to have been to the appellant also when a part of the prosecution story was not believable and was not behaved by the High Court, on the same set of facts and circumstances, it ought not to have convicted the appellant--Contention repelled

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Arbitral award--Looking at the charitable cause for establishing a college dispute with construction company solved by ordering lump sum amount without going on merits of claims and counter claims.

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Backwages--Backwages are ordinarily to be granted, keeping in view the principles of grant of damages in mind--It cannot be claimed as a matter of right. Transfer of Employee--Ordinarily an employee who has been transferred should, subject to just exceptions, join at his transferred place--Ordinarily in an industrial undertaking indiscipline should not be encouraged.

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Dowry death--No evidence on record to show that the cruelty or harassment was meted out to her for brining insufficient dowry--Ingredient of section 304-B cannot be said to have been proved. Dowry--Meaning of--Giving or agreeing to give any property or valuable security in connection with marriage of the parties--Customary payment in connection with birth of a child and other ceremonies are not covered.

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Amendment of decree--Court may not have suo moto power to award a decree but same would not mean that court cannot rectify a mistake--If a property was subject matter of pleadings and court did not frame an issue which it ought to have done, it can, at later stage when pointed out may amend the decree -- Decree--When the parties have brought on records by way of pleadings and/or other material that apart from property mentioned by plaintiff in his plaint, there are other properties which could be a subject matter of partition, the court would be entitled to pass a decree even in relation thereto.

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Evidence Law--Extra Judicial confession--Circumstantial evidence--An extra judicial confession is, on the face of it, a weak piece of evidence and the Courts are reluctant in the absence of a chain of cogent circumstances to rely on this evidence for the purpose of recording a conviction--Evidence Act, 1872, Section 3 and 24.

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Cooperative Law--Revision--Recovery of dues--Recovery certificates issued against appellant for recovery of dues to cooperative bank--Petitioner filed application before Divisional Joint Registrar, who ordered to maintain status quo and set aside recovery certificate--High Court set aside impugned order--Appeal against--Order upheld by Supreme Court

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Land and Property Law--Acquisition of land--Lapsing of Reservation--Land reserved under development plan--Land not acquired within 10 years of final plan and no steps under Land Acquisition Act were commenced--After 10 years, land owner served notice under Section 127 of Act of 1966 to authorities to acquire land, within six months or take steps to acquire it--No action from authorities--Reservation lapsed and land has to be released in favour of the appellan

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Dishonour of cheque--Appeal against acquittal--Complaint dismissed by Trial Court--High Court without assigning reason refused to grant leave--On the plainest consideration of justice, the High Court ought to have set forth its reasons, howsoever brief, in its order indicative of an application of its mind, all the more when its order is amenable to further avenue of challenge

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Voluntarily causing hurt with dangerous weapons--The facts involved in a particular case, depending upon various factors like size, sharpness, would throw light on the question whether the weapon was a dangerous or deadly weapon or not--That would determine whether in the case Section 325 or Section 326 IPC would be applicable.

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Arbitration Agreement --Contract--Valid contract--In the absence of signed agreement between the parties, it would be possible to infer from various documents duly approved and signed by the parties in the form of exchange of e-mails, letter, telex, telegrams and other means of tele-communication.

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Civil Procedure Code, 1908, S. 11--Res judicata--"When the earlier decision declares valid a transaction which is prohibited by law" it does not operate as res judicata--Res judicata will not operate as a bar for entertaining a fresh cause of action

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Courts below held that the petitioners had knowledge of the concession made in favour of C and negated their contention that they were not aware of the same till they signed the compromise petition before this Court in another appeal--Order, upheld--No reason to interfere with the judgment and order of the High Court impugned in these proceedings-

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Medical Negligence--As long as the doctors have performed their duties and exercised an ordinary degree of professional skill and competence, they cannot be held guilty of medical negligence.

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Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, S. 13--Divorce--Mental Cruelty--To establish cruelty it is not necessary that physical violence should be used-However continued ill-treatment cessation of marital intercourse, studied neglect, indifference of one spouse to the other may lead to an inference of cruelty.

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Fraudulent decree--A fraud puts an end to everything--Settled position that such decree is nothing, but a nullity.

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Murder—Single blow—One injury was caused to the deceased by farsi blow on the head which indicates that the appellant has not taken undue advantage of the deceased—Conviction u/s 302IPC modified to be u/s 304 Part-IIPC

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Service Law—Annual Confidential Report—Uncommunicated adverse ACRs cannot be relied upon for the purpose of consideration of promotion.

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Advocates—For holding election of a member of Bar Council of India to be elected by State Bar Council, notice and agenda for the same has to be issued by the Secretary of the State Bar Council

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SARFAESI—Borrower/debtor can approach the Debts Recovery Tribunal under section 17 of the Act at the stage of the possession notice referred to in rule 8(1) and 8(2) of the 2002 Rules—Borrower need not to wait unless he loses actual (physical) possession of the secured assets.

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Revision—Scope of—An erroneous decision on a question of law reached by the subordinate court which has no relation to questions of jurisdiction of that court cannot be corrected by the High Court under Section 115 CPC.

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Arbitration Agreement—Need not to be signed in all circumstances to make it valid

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Cross Objection—First Appellate Court in an appeal by plaintiff cannot reverse the finding on an issue favour of plaintiff in absence of cross objection by defendant on that issue

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Workmen Compensation—Interest on Compensation—Relevant date for determination of the rate of compensation is the date of accident and not the date of adjudication of the claim by the Commissioner

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Accident—Personal Expenses—Even if deceased had low income deduction of one third of income towards his personal expenditure is proper.

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Service Law—Past Service—Seniority—Inter-Company transfer on personal request—The service rendered by him in old company can be and ought to be taken into account for all other purposes, other than for determination of his seniority in the new company

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Panchayat Law—No Confidence Motion—President ofpanchayat well knowingly participated in the meeting and the resolution was passed against her—After losing in the voting process, the challenge cannot be made to the procedure of calling the meeting

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Arbitration—Place of Arbitration—The word 'determination'requires a positive act to be done— The sittings at various places are relatable to venue—It cannot be equated with the seat of arbitration or place of arbitration which has a different connotation.

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