Legal briefs

IPS officer Param Bir Singh says he is in Chandigarh

• Former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh, who has been declared a proclaimed offender by a court in Mumbai, on Wednesday said he was in Chandigarh and would visit Mumbai soon.
• Asked by reporters if he would surrender (before the police or court), Singh said he had yet to decide his next course of action.
• The Supreme Court has now granted Singh protection from arrest. He was transferred after Mumbai police officer Sachin Waze was arrested in the case of a car with explosives found near industrialist Mukesh Ambani's house,

HC rejects Tejpal's plea for in-camera hearing

• The Bombay High Court in Goa on Wednesday rejected journalist Tarun Tejpal's application seeking an in-camera hearing of the proceedings challenging his acquittal in a 2013 rape case.
• The acquittal of ex-editor-in-chief of Tehelka magazine, who was accused of sexually assaulting his then woman colleague in a hotel in Goa in Nov 2013, by a sessions court in May this year, was challenged by the state govt.
• A bench rejected Tejpal's application for conducting an in-camera hearing of the proceedings under section 327 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC).
• Tejpal's lawyer said his client might have to say something which could expose certain facts which should not be published in the media. 

Finally, Anupama gets custody of her baby

• One year of waiting and weeks-long tough legal battle came to an end as Anupama S Chandran finally held her baby boy in her arms on Wednesday when she left the court complex in Thiruvananthapuram with her partner Ajith.
• She got custody of the baby whom she last saw when the infant was three days old after a family court ordered that the child be handed over to his biological parents.
• The child was under the care and protection of his adoptive parents in Andhra Pradesh till last Sunday.
• The development comes a day after the DNA tests on the baby, Anupama and Ajith at the Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology (RGCB), established the couple as the parents of the child. 

 SC to hear plea on quota in recruitment of faculty

• The Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to hear a plea seeking direction to the Centre and IITs to follow the reservation policies in admission in research degree programmes and recruitment of faculty members.
• During the brief hearing, the advocate appearing for the petitioner said the IITs are not following the reservation policies in the recruitment of faculty which opens up the window for non-deserving candidates.
• The IITs are completely violating the reservation policies that provide chances to socially and marginalised communities belonging to the SC,  ST and OBCs, the plea said. 

HC quashes order converting Jaya's residence into memorial

• The Madras High Court on Wednesday set aside an order of the previous AIADMK regime to convert the late Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa's Poes Garden residence Veda Nilayam in Chennai into a memorial.
• Justice N Seshasayee quashed the order while allowing a batch of writ petitions from J Deepa Jayakumar, niece of Jayalalithaa and J Deepak, her brother, challenging the order of the state govt.
• On Aug 17, 2017, the then Chief Minister K Palaniswami had announced Veda Nilayam would be converted into a memorial and opened to the public in remembrance of the AIADMK leader's achievements and services to the people.
• In Jan this year, Veda Nilayam, converted into a memorial, was declared open by Palaniswami.

UP man acquitted in arms case after 26 years

• Twenty-six years after a case was registered against a man under the Arms Act, a court in Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh has acquitted him.
• Chief Judicial Magistrate, Manoj Kumar Jatave, on Tuesday, acquitted Salahuddin, saying the prosecution has failed to prove its case and provide any witness.
• According to the prosecution, four cartridges were recovered from the possession of Salahuddin in 1995 and a case was registered against him under the Arms Act.

Malegaon blast case: Accused BJP MP appears in court

• BJP's Bhopal MP Pragya Singh Thakur, an accused in the 2008 Malegaon blast case, appeared before a special NIA court in Mumbai on Wednesday.
• She appeared before special judge P R Sitre, hearing cases related to the National Investigation Agency (NIA).
• Thakur's lawyer said that although the court had not summoned the MP, she appeared on her own as she was in Mumbai for her medical treatment.
• Six people were killed and over 100 injured when an explosive device strapped to a motorcycle went off near a mosque in Malegaon town in north Maharashtra, on Sept 29, 2008.
• According to police, the motorbike was registered in Thakur's name and that led to her arrest in 2008.