Weekly Legal Updates Mar Week 1

1. Justice S A Bobde is the new Executive Chairman of NALSA:

Justice S A Bobde has become the new Executive Chairman of National Legal Services Authority. He was
nominated for this by the President of India after Justice A K Sikri retired on 6 th March 2019. Till 6th MArch
2019 Justice A K Sikri was the EC of NALSA. The Chief Justice of India is the Patron – in- Chief of the
NALSA and the senior most judge of the Supreme Court after the CJI is the Executive Chairman of the
NALSA.

2. 1st National Lok Adalat of 2019: Over 10 Lakh Cases Settled

In the 1st national Lok Adalat of 2019 held on 9th March, more than 10 Lakh cases were settled throughout
the nation. Out of the total settled cases, around 5.45 lakh cases were pending in courts and around 4.7 lakh
cases were pre-litigation cases.

National Lok Adalat is organised throughout the nation under the aegis of National Legal Services Authority
(NALSA). NALSA has said that two more National Lok Adalats will be conducted in 2019. In 2018 nearly
50 Lakh cases were settled by national lok adalats.

3. Election Commission of India declares dates for General elections:

The Chief Election Commissioner of India Sunil Arora on behalf of the Election Commission of India
declared the dates for the General Elections on 10th March through a press conference. Article 324 of the
Constitution of India empowers the Election Commission of India to conduct the elections for Lok Sabha.
The Election Commission consists of 2 election Commissioners and 1 Chief Election Commissioner. The
Election Commission has to conduct the elections for Lok Sabha before the term of 5 years of Lok Sabha
expires. The term of present and 16th Lok Sabha is going to expire on June 2019 and would get dissolved.
According to the declared dates the members of 17th Lok Sabha would be elected by 23rd May 2019.

As soon as the Election Commission declares the dates of elections, the Model code of Conduct is applied
throughout the nation automatically.
 Weekly Legal Updates Mar Week 1

4. National Green Tribunal imposes Rs. 500 crore fine on Volkswagen:

The National Green tribunal’s principal bench at New Delhi has imposed a fine of Rs. 500 crore on German
car manufacturer/automobile giant Volkswagen for causing damages to the environment and installing cheat
devices in the cars. The bench led by NGT Chairman Justice A K Goel imposed this fine on a petition filed
by a Delhi based teacher Saloni Ailawadi. The cheat devices used by the company allowed the cars to pass
the emission tests but caused higher amount of pollution when on roads. These kind of orders/judgments can
be related to the polluter pays principle and public trust doctrine of the Environment Law.