Courts Financial News

A former SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. executive has been sentenced to three and a half years in prison in connection with a bribery scheme for a bridge repair contract in Montreal, the RCMP say.

According to a regulatory filing, JEMA is one of a range of JP Morgan entities that have been named as defendants in civil proceedings brought by VTB in Russian courts, which were commenced on 17 April. The claim relates to $439m held in a correspondent bank account with JP Morgan Chase Bank's New York branch, which has been blocked due to sanctions. The board of JEMA stated it was unaware of any connection between the trust and «amounts owing to VTB». Smaller board and new manager for reformed JPM Russia portfolio A Russian court granted VTB a freezing order in support of its c...

Go First’s revival prospects, the Delhi High Court on Friday asked the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to deregister all the 54 leased aircraft to the airline and process the lessors' applications for deregistration within five working days. Justice Tara Vitasta Ganju while restraining the carrier’s resolution professional (RP) from operating, accessing or flying these planes handed over the maintenance work of the aircraft back to the lessors. It also restrained the RP from replacing, taking out any accessories, spare parts, documents or any material from the aircraft while directing him to provide up to date information and documentation related to the aircraft to the lessors. The HC also quashed the aviation regulator’s communication against processing the applications of lessors to deregister their leased planes due to a moratorium imposed by the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) on the airline's assets.

Delhi High Court has observed that the situation of the district courts' record rooms where case documents are kept, is «grim» and the process of weeding out the records needs to be done expeditiously besides being monitored on a regular basis. The high court directed the principal district and sessions judges of all the district courts in Delhi to monitor the progress of weeding out of case records in their respective districts and take effective steps in this regard. Regarding weeding out of the record, a bench of Acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Manmeet P S Arora was informed by the counsel for the Delhi High Court administration that necessary amendments have been already carried out, criterion for petty cases and cases for historical importance have been decided, committees to monitor weeding out have been constituted in each district court and around 52,000 files have already been weeded out. According to the quarterly report from January to March 2024, a total of 1,91,512 files have been identified for weeding out from all district courts and till now 52,167 filed have been weeded out.

Delhi High Court on Friday allowed the lessors' plea which sought deregistration of the company's 54 aircraft. The court ordered deregistration of Go First's 54 planes in five working days which were subject matter of the case. The court has also restrained Go First from flying these planes. Indian civil aviation regulator DGCA has been asked to facilitate the export of aircraft and provide certificate of airworthiness.

Supreme Court's decision on Friday rejecting pleas seeking complete cross-verification of votes cast using EVMs with a Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) has brought the focus back on the paper trail machines. To enhance transparency and verifiability in the poll process, the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961 were amended in 2013 to introduce the use of VVPAT machines. They were first used in the by-election to the Noksen assembly seat in Nagaland. At least one ballot unit, one control unit and one VVPAT make up for an EVM. The tentative cost of an EVM comprised Rs 7,900 per ballot unit, Rs 9,800 per control unit and Rs 16,000 per VVPAT.

Harvey Weinstein's accusers and their advocates were shocked and angered by an appellate court’s decision to overturn the ex-movie mogul’s 2020 rape conviction

CBI seized arms and ammunition, including foreign-made pistols, during its searches at multiple locations in West Bengal's Sandeshkhali on Friday in connection with an attack on an Enforcement Directorate team by a mob allegedly instigated by local TMC leader Shajahan Sheikh, officials said. The team was attacked in Sandeshkhali — a riverine delta bordering the Sundarbans — on January 5 when it had gone to raid the premises of Sheikh in connection with an alleged ration scam. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) during its probe got inputs of a large cache of arms hidden in Sandeshkhali. On Friday morning, a CBI team started a search operation during which the arms, including foreign-made pistols, were seized, the officials said. On the orders of the Calcutta High Court, the central agency had registered three FIRs related to the incidents on January 5.

Supreme Court rejected petitions seeking cross-verifications of votes cast using EVMs with VVPAT, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the decision shattered dreams of the INDIA bloc that «sought to mislead the nation». «Ever politician in INDIA coalition sinned by trying to create doubts in the hearts of the nation's citizens,» PM Modi said at an election rally in Araria Lok Sabha constituency in Bihar.

Bombay High Court has said that issuance of a Look Out Circular (LOC) at the instance of public sector banks against alleged default borrowers in the absence of a statute or law is violative of a person's fundamental rights. The court made the observation on April 23 while quashing the Centre's decision empowering such banks to seek issuance of LOCs. A division bench of Justices Gautam Patel and Madhav Jamdar had on April 23 held as unconstitutional the clause of an Office Memorandum issued by the Central government empowering the Chairman, Managing Directors and Chief Executive Officers of public sector banks to seek issuance of LOCs against default borrowers or even persons who stood guarantee for such borrowers. In its 289-page judgment made available on Friday, the bench said an executive function cannot substitute a statute and the executive cannot in any event contravene the Constitution.

Supreme Court to give publicity of NOTA as a «fictional candidate» and to frame rules to conduct re-election in the parliamentary seats where NOTA gets a majority. A bench headed by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud issued notice to the Election Commission of India on Shiv Khera's plea seeking direction to frame rules to the effect that if NOTA gets a majority, the election held in the particular constituency shall be declared null and void and a fresh election shall be conducted to the constituency. Shiv Khera, in his plea, also sought to frame rules stating that the candidates who poll fewer votes than NOTA shall stand debarred from contesting all elections for a period of five years and to ensure proper and efficient reporting/publicity of NOTA as a «Fictional Candidate».

Mint delves into the case and explains how the Supreme Court judgement allows creditors to take high-profile personal guarantors into insolvency, leading to a rise in such litigations. In 2016, Indiabulls Housing Finance (IHF) entered into four loan agreements totaling ₹726 crore with Vivek Infracon and other entities. Chandra assumed the role of personal guarantor on 5 December 2018, committing to repay the lender ₹726 crore in case the borrowers defaulted.

‘Vague & baseless…’: SC rejects pleas for 100% EVM-VVPAT verification Bhushan on the X platform added, "We had asked the SC to either: Go back to paper ballots, or Give VVPAT slip to the voter to put in a ballot box & then count VVPAT slips, or keep the light on in the VVPAT machine & count all the slips. Today only 2% of VVPAT slips are matched with EVM. SC today rejected our demands".

rejected the pleas seeking 100% cross-verification of votes cast on Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) with paper slips generated by the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT). The verdict comes in the middle of the Lok Sabha Elections 2024, and on a day, 88 seats go for voting in the second phase of polling. The two judges on the bench, Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta, authored separate yet concurring judgments in the matter.

Supreme Court on Friday dismissed petitions that called for comprehensive cross-verification of votes cast using Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) with Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT). A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta delivered two separate but concurring judgments on the matter. Here are the key takeaways from the hearing: 1.

Elon Musk's social media platform X defended publishing posts showing a bishop in Australia being stabbed during a sermon as «part of public discussion», rejecting a regulator's order to take down the content on grounds it is offensive and violent. In a post overnight, X's «global government affairs» account said the video taken by an «innocent bystander» should not have been banned under Australian law, which «permits content that can be reasonably considered as part of public discussion or debate».

Supreme Court on Friday told the Delhi government that it would consider listing its plea challenging the central government's law establishing pre-eminence of the lieutenant governor over the elected dispensation in controlling services in the national capital. A bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra was urged by senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, appearing for the AAP government, that the whole administration has come to a standstill and the matter needed to be heard. The CJI said presently a nine-judge bench matter is going on and he will consider the submission. Presently, the nine-judge bench headed by the CJI is hearing petitions raising a vexed legal question whether private properties can be considered «material resources of the community» under Article 39(b) of the Constitution, which is a part of the Directive Principles of State Policy.

Election Commission of India (ECI) to immediately establish a mechanism enabling arrested political party leaders or candidates to continue campaigning during elections. According to the plea, politicians could potentially campaign via video conferencing. The PIL was lodged by a final-year law student from Jamia Millia Islamia, following the arrest of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal due to alleged irregularities in a liquor policy case.

Will cease to function if forced to break encryption, WhatsApp tells Delhi High Court WhatsApp and its parent firm have challenged Information Technology Rule 4(2) of the 2021 IT (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) that compels "significant social media intermediaries" to "enable the identification of the first originator of the information" which may be required by a court order or other competent authority. WhatsApp has unequivocally said it would not break its end-to-end encryption as it argues it would violate users' privacy.

Imran Khan and his wife, Bushra Bibi, from making public statements that criticize or defame state institutions and officials. According to a report by The Express Tribune, Judge Basir Javed Rana ordered the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder and his spouse from speaking against state institutions in the courtroom during the hearing of a petition seeking a fair trial.

A South Korean prosecutor was jailed for leaking sensitive information in a high-profile crypto fraud case, domestic media outlets reported on April 25.