Recap: Bombay HC on Mosque Dispute, SC on Activist Teesta Setalvad's Bail

Catch the top legal highlights of the day here!

Catch all the legal highlights from our courts on Monday, 19 June, here.

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Bombay HC Stays DM's Order Prohibiting Prayers in Mosque

The Bombay High Court has temporarily suspended the District Magistrate's order that prohibited prayers at a mosque in Jalgaon.

The court allowed prayers to continue until the next hearing in two weeks and ordered that the mosque keys be handed over to the Jumma Masjid Trust Committee, which is responsible for its maintenance.

A Hindu group called Pandavwada Sangharsh Samiti (PSS) had claimed that the mosque resembled a temple and accused the local muslim community of encroachment.

Following this, the trust responsible for overseeing the mosque, had said that they have records that could prove that the mosque existed since at least 1861.

The PSS then went on to file a complaint with the district magistrate on 18 may, although the hearing was scheduled for 27 June, it got postponed on account of the dm being busy.

Meanwhile, on 11 july, the DM issued a restraining order and directed the tahsildar to take control of the mosque.

The mosque’s trust, thus, moved the high court against this order.

'Gujarat HC Order Perverse': SC Grants Bail To Teesta Setalvad in Riots Case

The Supreme Court granted regular bail to activist Teesta Setalvad in a case connected to the 2002 Gujarat riots. Setalvad has been accused of allegedly fabricating documents to implicate government functionaries.

The top court quashed and set aside the Gujarat High Court order that had rejected her regular bail plea and ordered her to “surrender immediately.”

"If the observation of the learned judge (of the Gujarat High Court) are to be accepted, no application for bail can be accepted unless the accused files an application for quashing the procedings...To say the least, the findings are totally perverse," the bench said.

"On the other hand, the learned judge goes on to discuss the statements of some witnesses and finds that prima facie case is made out. The findings are totally contradictory, to say the least," the bench added.

For more, read this.

Karnataka HC Stays FIR Against Amit Malviya

The Karnataka High Court issued a stay order on the first information report (FIR) filed against Amit Malviya, the IT Cell chief of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Malviya had been accused of posting objectionable tweets regarding Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.

Justice M Nagaprasanna granted the stay order and also served notice to the defendants. Last month, Malviya had shared an animated video featuring Rahul Gandhi on Twitter.