Heena Sharma Blog

The Kerala government will bring an ordinance to defer up to 25 per cent salaries of its employees after the High Court order barred it from taking a tougher cost-cutting measure during the coronavirus outbreak , said a minister on Monday. Soon after the weekly cabinet meeting, State Finance Minister Thomas Issac told the media that the government has decided to come out with Disaster and Public Emergency Special Provisions Act which will give it the power to defer payment of salaries, up to 25 per cent of all state government employees. "This is not against yesterday's high court order, instead we have abided by it. We are not going to go in appeal against stay order. The State government is using the provisions in the Act. The provision in the Act is clear as it says this can be done when a health emergency or a disaster strikes. Read More

A gay couple has moved the Kerala High Court, seeking to strike down certain provisions under the Special Marriage Act , 1954, which do not permit to get their marriage registered. Considering the writ petition by the petitioners on Monday, the court has sought the views of Central and state governments on the matter. The petitioners, a business man and an IT professional had met each other in May 2018 and fallen in love. After being in a relationship for two months, they decided to get hitched. In September last year, they got married in a private ceremony. However, the religious authorities declined to solemnise the wedding and hence the couple decided to get their marriage registered under the Special Marriage Act, 1954, which does not recognise homosexual marriages. Read More

The Kerala High Court has said banks cannot be absolved of liability for unauthorised withdrawals from their customers' accounts. Justice P B Suresh Kumar also made it clear that banks are liable for unauthorised withdrawals even if customers did not respond to SMS alerts. SMS alerts cannot be the basis to determine the liability of a customer, for there would be account holders who may not be in the habit of checking SMS alerts regularly, the court said. It stated this while dismissing an appeal filed by the State Bank of India recently against a lower court order asking it to compensate a customer who lost Rs 2.4 lakh due to unauthorised withdrawals. The customer had sought a refund of the amount with interest. The bank had submitted that SMS alerts were sent to the customer about the disputed withdrawals and he should have requested that his account be blocked immediately. It contended that since the customer did not respond to the SMS alerts, the bank w