Legal Updates

The government introduced the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill 2019 in the Lok Sabha. The bill makes a departure from the one that was tabled in the Parliament last year by doing away with the requirement of appearing before a screening committee to be declared a transgender and by decriminalizing beggary (by transgenders). The bill was first introduced in the Parliament in 2016 in light of the Supreme Court judgment in National Legal Service Authority v. Union of India recognizing people’s right to self-perceived gender identity. However, the draft bill fell short of the expectations of the stakeholders involved, and hence it was referred to the standing committee on Social Justice and Empowerment. The committee suggested changes such as broadening the definition of “transgender person”, making provisions for their civil rights of marriage, divorce and adoption, decriminalizing beggary by them etc. In light of the committee’s report, an amended bill was passed by the Lok Sabha in 2018. However, the 2018 bill again faced widespread criticism, resulting in the introduction of the present bill.

The Supreme Court extended the deadline for publishing the final draft of Assam National Register of Citizens (NRC) till August 31, 2019. This is the seventh time the deadline has been extended. The first notification by the Centre in 2013 fixed March 31, 2017 as the deadline, but after a series of extensions, the deadline was finally set at July 31, 2019 until the recent order by the Supreme Court extended it further by a month. However, the court rejected the joint plea of Centre and Assam government for reverification of 20% of the draft NRC as it felt that the same was not needed.  A report by the NRC state coordinator Prateek Hajela indicated that 27% of the draft has already been reverified. Assam is the only state having an NRC. It was first prepared in 1951, and is being updated now to identify illegal immigrants from neighbouring countries, especially Bangladesh. Those who are not included in the NRC may face deportation or jail.

A division bench of the Bombay High Court comprising Chief Justice Pradeep Nandrajog and Justice N.M. Jamdar invalidated a host of Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) clearances given to an INR 14,000 crore coastal road project. Clearances were granted by three bodies – the Maharashtra Coastal Zone Management Authority (MCZMA), Expert Assessment Committee (EAC) under the Ministry of Environment and Forest, and the Ministry of Environment and Forest. The proposed project sought to connect Marine Drive in south Mumbai to Borivali in north Mumbai through a coastal road which would have shortened travel from two hours to forty minutes. The Court, after exhaustively examining the record, held that approvals were granted without the backing of scientific studies detailing the impacts of the project and hence should be quashed. Furthermore, the Supreme Court refused to stay the order of the Bombay High Court.

The European Court of Justice ruled that companies embedding Facebook’s ‘like’ option to increase visibility of the companies’ goods on Facebook are bound to seek user consent before transferring user’s personal data to Facebook. Under data protection regulations of the European Union, any information of a user (data subject) such as name, location and identities of the user cannot be processed until consent has been obtained from the user. The Court held that operators of websites with Facebook’s like button must obtain prior consent of its visitors with respect to the collection and transmission of data.