Mentoassociates.com – Legal Articles

High Courts exercising the power under Article 226 of the Constitution can issue writs of Habeas Corpus. It is a writ in the nature of an order calling upon the person who has detained another to produce the latter before the court, in order to let the court know on what ground he has been confined and to set him free if there is no legal jurisdiction for the imprisonment. An application for Habeas Corpus can be filed by the near and dear of the individual detained or even by a stranger or a social worker.

Under Article 226, a petition for Habeas Corpus would lie not only when a person is detained by the state, but also when he is detained by another private individual. The custody of a minor child can be obtained by a rightful parent under a Habeas Corpus proceeding. Similarly, Habeas Corpus is available to a husband to regain the custody of his wife.

Where it is shown that the petitioner was arrested and imprisoned with mischievous and malicious intent, the court shall have the power to compensate the petitioner by awarding suitable monetary compensation or exemplary costs.

To decline to give effect to an order of release passed on an application for Habeas Corpus amounts to contempt of court punishable by imprisonment and attachment.

The Karnataka State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission is located at Basavabhavan, Bangalore. The commission consists of a president and two members. Any person who is aggrieved by an order made by the district forum may file an appeal against such order to the State Commission, within a period of 30 days from the date of the order.

Consumer complaints where the value of the goods or services and compensations, if any, claimed exceeds Rs. Twenty Lakhs but does not exceed Rs. One Crore, shall be filed directly to the State Commission.

The commission is empowered to call for the records and pass appropriate orders in any consumer disputes, which is pending before or has been decided by any District Forum within the State, where it appears to the State Commission, that such District Forum has exercised a Jurisdiction not vested in it by Law, or has failed to exercise a jurisdiction so vested, or has acted in exercise of its Jurisdiction illegally or with material irregularity.

The State commission may, at any stage of the proceedings, transfer any complaint pending before the District Forum to another District Forum within the state if the interests of justice so requires.

Every criminal case registered in a police station, will be treated as a state case and in the ordinary course, it will be the government which will take up the case on behalf of the complainant. The public prosecutors conduct such criminal cases in the courts on behalf of the Government and the Complainant.

For every high court there will be a Public prosecutor as well as Additional Public Prosecutors who will be appointed by the Central Government as well as the state Government to conduct their cases. For every district, the state Government shall appoint a Public prosecutor as well as Additional public prosecutors. Only an advocate with a practice of a minimum of seven years can be appointed as a Public prosecutor.

In sensational criminal cases, the State Government may appoint an advocate as a Special public Prosecutor. The said person shall have a minimum practice of 10 years as an advocate.

The State Government shall appoint in every district, one or more Assistant Public Prosecutors for conducting prosecutions in the Courts of Magistrates.

Any marriage solemnized under the Special Marriage Act shall be null and void and may on a petition presented by either party thereto against the other party, be so declared by a decree of nullity if-

(i)                any of the conditions of section 4 has not been fulfilled; or

(ii)              the respondent was impotent at the time of marriage and at the time of institution of the suit.

Any marriage solemnized under the Special Marriage Act, shall be voidable and may be annulled by a decree of nullity if

(i)                the marriage has not been consummated owing to the willful refusal of the respondent to consummate the marriage; or

(ii)              the respondent was at the time of marriage pregnant by some person other than the petitioner; or

(iii)            the consent of either party in the marriage was obtained by coercion or fraud, as defined in the Indian Contract Act, 1872:

Provided that, in the case specified in clause (ii), the court shall not grant, a decree unless it is satisfied-

(a)     that the petitioner was at the time of marriage ignorant of the facts alleged;

(b)    that proceedings were instituted within a year from the date of the marriage; and

(c)    that marital intercourse with the consent of the petitioner has not taken place since the discovery by the petitioner of the existence of the grounds for a decree;

Provided further that in the case specified in clause (iii), the court shall not grant a decree if-

(a)    Proceedings have not been instituted within one year after the coercion had ceased or, as the case may be, the fraud had been discovered; or

(b)   The petitioner has with his or her free consent lived with the other party to the marriage as husband and wife after the coercion had ceased or, as the case may be, the fraud had been discovered.