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  Karnataka Motor Vehicles Taxation Act. An officer not below the rank of an Inspector of Motor Vehicles possesses the statutory authority to seize and detain a motor vehicle for tax evasion. Transport authorities can cancel a vehicle’s registration upon detecting that registration was obtained through fabricated or fraudulent documents. Karnataka High Court.

  • 01-August-2026
  • Daksha Legal
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  Payment of Gratuity Act. Gratuity payable on the death of an employee does not form part of the deceased employee's estate and, therefore, is not liable to attachment in execution proceedings. Karnataka High Court.

  • 01-August-2026
  • Daksha Legal
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  SARFAESI Act. Courts exercising writ jurisdiction cannot rewrite contractual terms or impose a One-Time Settlement (OTS) contract upon a financial institution. Where a borrower fails to pay the OTS amount within the agreed or reasonable timeframe, the Bank cannot be legally compelled to accept delayed or defaulted OTS installments. Karnataka High Court.

  • 01-August-2026
  • Daksha Legal
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  NICE Project. Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Act. Even in the absence of an express ‘lapsing’ provision, the admitted failure on the part of the authorities to pass the awards for many decades coupled with the absence of any satisfactory explanation for such an inordinate delay renders the land acquisition proceedings unsustainable. Karnataka High Court.

  • 01-August-2026
  • Daksha Legal
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  Motor Vehicles Act. A claimant must establish at least one of the statutory criteria—place of accident, or the residence/place of business of the claimant or respondent. A mere assertion of temporary residence, unsupported by evidence, is insufficient. Where the accident occurred outside the jurisdiction, all parties reside outside it, and the insurer has no branch office there, the MACT lacks territorial jurisdiction, rendering its award void ab initio and non est in law. Karnataka High Court.

  • 31-July-2026
  • Daksha Legal
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  Mysore Hindu Law Women's Rights Act, 1933. When joint family property devolves upon a sole surviving male coparcener prior to the commencement of the Hindu Succession Act 1956, the female heirs would also acquire right over the joint family property. Karnataka High Court.

  • 30-July-2026
  • Daksha Legal
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  Code of Criminal Procedure. Section 319. While the power under Section 319 Cr.P.C. requires a higher degree of satisfaction than a mere prima facie case, the trial court has the discretion to decide the application with or without waiting for cross-examination based on the cogency of the examination in chief. Unsubstantiated defenses such as a plea of alibi raised by proposed accused cannot be used to defeat a Section 319 application at the threshold, as the burden of proving an alibi rests entirely on the accused during the course of the trial. Karnataka High Court.

  • 30-July-2026
  • Daksha Legal
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  Motor Vehicles Act. Where a fatal accident is caused by the rash and negligent driving of an uninsured/unlicensed owner of the vehicle and who is also the father of the claimants and husband of the deceased, the equitable principle of ‘Pay and Recover’ cannot be invoked against the insurance company. Consequently, for policy condition breaches involving intra-familial tortfeasors, the insurer is completely exonerated. Karnataka High Court.

  • 30-July-2026
  • Daksha Legal
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  Though a Lokayukta report is not a decree, it becomes binding on statutory authorities once affirmed by the High Court and the Supreme Court. Karnataka High Court deprecates the BDA for violating the rules and depriving a landowner of his right of way to benefit a real estate developer, in disregard of the affirmed Lokayukta report.

  • 30-July-2026
  • Daksha Legal
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  Hindu Succession Act. A daughter is entitled to an equal share in coparcenary/joint ancestral property irrespective of whether she was born before or after 1956. Denying coparcenary rights to a daughter born prior to 1956 violates the mandate of equality under Article 14 of the Constitution of India. Karnataka High Court.

  • 29-July-2026
  • Daksha Legal
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  A mere subsequent failure to repay a loan or perform a contractual obligation, even after a long-standing relationship involving multiple transactions, does not retrospectively convert a civil dispute into a criminal offence. Where the complaint contains no specific averment of deception or dishonest inducement at the outset, the essential ingredients of cheating are not made out and the criminal proceedings are liable to be quashed. Karnataka High Court.

  • 29-July-2026
  • Daksha Legal
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  Karnataka Land Reforms Act. Occupancy rights cannot be granted on the basis of oral evidence when official revenue records unequivocally establish that the land was Beelu (fallow) or otherwise uncultivated on the appointed day. In such circumstances, the statutory requirement of cultivation is not satisfied. Karnataka High Court.

  • 29-July-2026
  • Daksha Legal