Courts 2024: Amended IT rules on fake news quashed; Dharavi project relief for Adani group

Mumbai: As courts in Maharashtra remained busy with several high-profile cases in 2024, the raging issue of false content got addressed with the Bombay High Court striking down the amended IT rules against fake news on social media.

In another significant judgement this year, the HC upheld a tender awarded to Adani Properties Private Limited by the Maharashtra government for the crucial project of Dharavi slum redevelopment in Mumbai.

Also significant was the HC's Nagpur bench order in March acquitting former Delhi University professor G N Saibaba in an alleged Maoist links case, noting the prosecution had failed to establish its case. The court also set aside his life sentence.

Saibaba died in October due to health-related complications.

On January 31, a division bench of Justices G S Patel (now retired) and Neela Gokhale gave a split verdict on the amended Information Technology Rules against fake news on social media.

A bunch of petitions had been filed by stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra, Editors Guild of India, News Broadcast and Digital Association and Association of Indian Magazines challenging the new regulations.

While Justice Patel said the rules amounted to censorship and quashed it, Justice Gokhale upheld the rules, noting it did not have any chilling effect on free speech.

The matter was then referred to a third judge, Justice A S Chandurkar, who in September, struck down the Rules terming it as unconstitutional.

This year, actor and BJP MP Kangana Ranaut had to knock court’s doors seeking censor board's clearance for her movie ‘Emergency’, a political drama in which she played the role of former prime minister Indira Gandhi.

Following the HC's order, the Central Board of Film Certification suggested certain cuts after which the film was okayed for release.

However, Ranaut's legal battle continued with lyricist Javed Akhtar, who had filed a defamation complaint against her over comments following actor Sushant Singh Rajput's death in 2020.

Akhtar, meanwhile, was acquitted in a defamation case filed by a lawyer over his comments against the RSS.

In February, the HC quashed the Look Out Circulars issued against actor Rhea Chakraborty in connection with a probe into Rajput's death.

Mere registration of FIR can't be a reason to issue LOC, the HC noted.

This year, the Mumbai police's Economic Offences Wing and the Enforcement Directorate were also seen at loggerheads in the alleged Rs 25,000 crore Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank scam, allegedly involving state deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar.

The EOW filed a closure report in the scam. But the ED, which has already filed prosecution complaints and supplementary chargesheets in the case, sought to intervene, emphasising the interconnected nature of the investigations.

The police have opposed the ED's plea, contending its similar plea was rejected earlier by a court.

In another case involving politicians, a special court in September rejected a plea of Shiv Sena (UBT) leaders Uddhav Thackeray and Sanjay Raut challenging a magistrate's order refusing to discharge them in a defamation case filed by former Lok Sabha MP Rahul Shewale.

The court said “it found no illegality or mistake” in the magistrate's order. The trial continues against them in the magistrate court.

Rajya Sabha member Raut, meanwhile, in October was convicted in another defamation case filed by BJP leader Kirit Somaiya’s wife, but the sentence is suspended and he is out on bail.

In March, the HC convicted controversial encounter specialist, former cop Pradeep Sharma, and sentenced him to life imprisonment in a 2006 fake encounter of Ramnarayan Gupta, an alleged close aide of gangster Chhota Rajan.

In April, the HC dismissed a 2014 suit challenging the position and appointment of Syedna Mufaddal Saifuddin as the leader of the Dawoodi Bohra community. The suit was filed initially by Khuzaima Qutbuddin soon after his brother and then Syedna Mohammed Burhanuddin passed away in January 2014 at the age of 102.

The murder of NCP politician Baba Siddique and firing outside Bollywood actor Salman Khan’s residence also dominated courts' headlines, while trials in cases like the 2008 Malegaon blast and Sheena Bora killing continued at a sluggish pace.

Almost 16 years after a bomb blast at Malegaon in Nashik claimed six lives and left over 100 injured, the trial proceedings have entered the final phase, with a special NIA court hearing the final argument of the accused.

There has been no movement in the trial of the Sheena Bora murder case, where her mother Indrani Mukerjea is the prime accused, since the past one-and-half months.

The reason being the special CBI court, presiding over the matter, is vacant following the judge's transfer to the Supreme Court.

The HC, meanwhile, refused to stay release of a docu-series on Indrani. It also overturned a special CBI court order that allowed her to travel to Spain and the UK.

The HC this year also granted medical bail to Jet Airways founder Naresh Goyal in a money laundering case.

In June, the HC ordered immediate release of a 17-year-old boy allegedly involved in a Porsche car incident in Pune, noting the orders remanding him to an observation home in Pune were illegal.

The police claimed the teen was drunk and driving the luxury car when it hit a two-wheeler killing two techies.