The Supreme Court, the Bombay High Court, the City Civil and Sessions Court (CCSC) and the magistrate courts in Mumbai passed some significant orders and judgements in the year 2018. The judgements covered a wide range of issues including the 15-year-old Sohrabuddin Shaikh alleged fake encounter, high profile defamation case, and the implementation on the ban on use of plastic in the State, among others. The Hindu takes a snapshot at important cases that have redefined some laws.

April 13: The High Court upheld ban on use of plastic as per a State government directive on March 23, 2018. As per the order the State banned the sale, use, manufacture, transport, distribution and storage of plastic bags and thermocol.

June 12: The president of the Indian National Congress Rahul Gandhi pleaded, ‘not guilty’ in a defamation case filed against him by Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh on March 6, 2014 at the Bhiwandi magistrate court. Mr. Gandhi had made a speech in Bhiwandi holding the organisation responsible for the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi.

September 28: The Mazgaon magistrate court acquitted Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and acquitted former CEO of Bank of Scotland Meera Sanyal, activist Medha Patkar and five Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) members.

They had been booked for holding an “unscheduled” rally in Mankhurd without prior permissions from the Mumbai traffic police in 2014.

December 3: Ten years after a bomb blast killed six people in Malegaon, the National Investigation Agency court at the CCSC commenced trial against Lieutenant-Colonel Prasad Purohit, Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, Sameer Kulkarni, Retired Major Ramesh Upadhyay, Sudhakar Chaturvedi, Ajay Rahilkar and Sudhakar Chaturvedi.

December 20: The HC confirmed the death penalty of 28 year-old Chandrabhan Sanap who was convicted for raping, murdering, burning and disposing of the body of a 23-year-old software engineer from Andhra Pradesh in 2014.

December 21: Nearly 15 years after Sohrabuddin Shaikh, Kausar Bi and Tulsiram Prajapati were killed in Gujarat, the Central Bureau of Investigation court at the CCSC acquitted all 22 accused in a case that saw 92 witnesses turn hostile and the discharge of Amit Shah, former home minister of Gujarat among others.