Heena Sharma Blog

  The Bombay High Court on Thursday refused to hear a PIL seeking a direction to the Serum Institute of India and the Bharat Biotech to sell their COVID-19 vaccines at a uniform rate of Rs 150 (plus GST) per dose. The public interest litigation (PIL), filed last week by Mumbai-based advocate Fayzan Khan and three law students, had challenged the different rates of COVID-19 vaccines for the Centre and state governments. The plea was mentioned on Thursday by the petitioner's advocate, Vivek Shukla, before a division bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice G S Kulkarni, seeking urgent hearing. The HC, however, said the petition should have been filed before the Supreme Court which, while taking up suo motu (on its own) cognisance of matters pertaining to COVID-19, had said it would hear all pan-India issues. "The Supreme Court has said issues that have pan-India effect will be dealt with by them and pricing is a phenomenon applicable all over India. We are no...

  A public interest litigation (PIL) has been filed in the Bombay High Court challenging the different rates for COVID-19 vaccines for the Centre and state governments and requesting direction to the Serum Institute of India (SSI) and Bharat Biotech to sell their vaccines at a uniform rate of Rs 150 per dose. The PIL, filed on April 24 by advocate Fayzan Khan and three law students, said the vaccine is presumed to be an essential commodity and hence its management and distribution cannot be left in the hands of private companies. "These pharma giants are milking the fear psychosis of the increased death rates due to COVID-19 ," it said. Under the third phase of the national vaccination drive commencing next month, the vaccine manufacturers would supply 50 per cent of their monthly Central Drugs Laboratory (CDL) released doses to the central government and would be free to supply the remaining 50 per cent doses to state governments and in the open market, the government...

  The Supreme Court on Wednesday questioned the Maharashtra government over the 2018 abetment to suicide case against journalist Arnab Goswami and said that it would be a travesty of justice if personal liberty of a person is curtailed like this. A vacation bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud and Indira Banerjee asked the state whether there was any need for custodial interrogation of Goswami as the issue pertains to personal liberty.   The bench observed that Indian democracy is extraordinarily resilient and the Maharashtra government must ignore all this (Arnab's taunt on TV). Whatever be his ideology, least I don't even watch his channel but if in this case constitutional court's do not interfere today, we are travelling the path of destruction undeniably, Justice Chandrachud said, adding, the point is can you deny personal liberty of a person on these allegations. Read More

The Bombay High Court (HC) on Wednesday declined interim relief to the Anil Ambani group’s promoter entities, which had moved a petition asking the court to restrain Edelweiss Financial Services from selling its pledged shares. The court has, however, admitted the petition. Anil Ambani promoter entities — Reliance Wind Turbine Installations Industries and Reliance Project Ventures and Management — sought damages of Rs 2,700 crore from Edelweiss for selling its shares “illegally”. On February 8, 2019, the group said L&T Finance and certain entities of Edelweiss Group, invoked pledge of listed shares of Reliance Group and made open-market sales of the value of approximately Rs 400 crore in early February. The group had said the “illegal, motivated and wholly unjustified action” by the two groups has precipitated a fall of Rs 13,000 crore, an unprecedented 55 per cent, in market capitalisation of the Reliance Group over four days, causing substantial losses to its shareho...

One of the most challenging projects in the world is being attempted beneath one of its most densely packed cities. If it works, Mumbai will become the planet’s most crowded metropolis to build an underground subway . More than 8,000 workers and a fleet of 360-foot-long boring machines are working 24 hours a day—even through monsoon rains—to finish the 27-station, 21-mile subway through some of the world’s most densely populated neighborhoods, around the edge of one of Asia’s biggest slums, below an airport and under temples and colonial buildings to end at a green edge of forest where leopards still roam. The train is also cutting a path through the country’s religious traditions, legal system and every layer of its society, with challenges at each stop. The Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Ltd .—a joint venture between the state and central government, which is building the subway—has had to negotiate with thousands of families and businesses to get them to move and ...