The Karnataka High Court at Dharwad has refused to quash criminal proceedings against three factory owners accused under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, holding that delay in filing the complaint cannot, by itself, invalidate the case.

The case arose from a complaint filed by a factory worker belonging to a Scheduled Caste. He alleged that on 6 April 2024, the owners of the factory abused him and another worker using caste-based slurs and threatened them with dismissal.

In a significant ruling, the Supreme Court has upheld the conviction of a man accused of setting his wife on fire, reinforcing the evidentiary value of a dying declaration in criminal trials. The bench led by Justice Sanjay Karol dismissed the appeal, finding no legal error in the earlier judgments.

The woman had reportedly been facing abuse due to her husband’s alleged alcohol consumption and violent behavior. On the day of the incident, she was allegedly beaten, doused with kerosene, and set on fire inside their rented room.

At the Srinagar wing of the Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh High Court, a bench comprising Justice Sanjeev Kumar and Justice Sanjay Parihar on Thursday dismissed an appeal filed by National Insurance Company Limited. The insurer was seeking to overturn a compensation award granted to a family whose home was damaged during the devastating 2014 floods.

The case originates from a policy taken by late Shad Mohd Bashir, whose residential house at Sarai Payeen, Amira Kadal, Srinagar, had been insured since 2009. Though the policy was renewed annually, the company later claimed that it excluded flood and similar storm-related risks - referred to in technical jargon as “STFI” (Storm, Tempest, Flood, Inundation).