News
SCOI Reports
So, how did today’s much expected hearing on the Cauvery case go in the Supreme Court?
Bar, Bench & Litigation
The posts of chairman, secretary and Bar Council of India (BCI) member at the Punjab and Haryana bar council (PHBC) remain ambiguously occupied after turf wars resulted in a police complaint, an allegedly forged resignation letter, rebukes and intervention by the BCI, an allegedly improper election and allegations of goons attacking the state bar council office.
Law firms
Lakshmikumaran & Sridharan (LKS) has been accused by service tax authorities of forum shopping and misleading the the Customs, Excise & Service Tax Appellate Tribunal (CESTAT) by allegedly not disclosing the existence of a live Supreme Court case for the same client on the same issues.
In-house counsel
Sequoia Capital legal counsel Tanmay Amar will join as India general counsel (GC) Omidyar Networks, the “philanthropic investment firm” started by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar in 2004, according to sources with knowledge of his move.
Law schools
GNLU Gandhinagar director Bimal Patel will face a review committee that has been constituted by the Chief Justice of India (CJI) to look into allegations of Patel’s opaque faculty recruitments.
Law schools
A request by the West Bengal state government saw a last minute addition to today’s agenda of the NUJS Kolkata executive council (EC) meeting that extended the tenure of vice chancellor (VC) Ishwara Bhat by five years. The proposal by the state government would see NUJS having to double its intake of students from 125 to 250 students and to open up two new branches in the state.
Bar, Bench & Litigation
At an NUJS Kolkata executive committee meeting today (24 September), the term of vice chancellor (VC) Ishwara Bhat was extended for five years, according to several authoritative sources.
Law schools
The controversial and possibly unconstitutional NUJS Kolkata draft service rules were drafted by a retired judge for Rs 75,000, after two faculty members – associate professor Anirban Mazumdar and assistant professor Ruchira Goswami – failed to make any significant progress for six months on creating new rules, according to authoritative campus sources.
Bar, Bench & Litigation
Gujarat high court advocates Tirth Bhatt, Nimit Shukla and Sairica Raju acting for four gamers and gaming enthusiasts have asked to intervene in the public interest litigation against augmented virtual reality game Pokemon Go, which is being heard in the Gujarat high court. Bhatt and Shukla are GNLU Gandhinagar alumni.
Corporate M&A
Universal Legal advised Carlyle-backed Newgen KnowledgeWorks on acquiring a majority stake in Pune-based digital learning and software company Exult Infosolutions which was advised by LegaLogic Consulting.
Bar, Bench & Litigation
The Huffington Post India has published intellectual property lawyer Shwetasree Majumder’s account of incidents of sexual harassment and assault when she was aged 11 by a stranger on a bus, two years later by a family acquaintance’s brother, by two professors at university, and later, when she became a lawyer, by a client and by a colleague.
Law schools
NUJS Kolkata lifted most provisions of its draft service rules directly from the service rules of nine other Indian institutes, published on the institutes’ websites. The draft service rules limiting constitutional freedoms of its employees and their families, did not bother its faculty members, reported the Indian Express.
Law schools
Prof Subash Chander Raina, who was part of Delhi University (DU) law faculty and its dean and former professor-in-charge of DU’s Campus Law Centre (CLC), has been appointed as vice chancellor (VC) of NLU Shimla, which will open gates on 1 October after having begun taking admissions this month.
Law firms
Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom has hired 2005-ILS Pune graduate Parveet Singh Gandoak to the firm as a counsel in Singapore from Debevoise & Plimpton, where he had worked between 2011 and 2016 as an associate.
Bar, Bench & Litigation
The Bar Council of India (BCI) delayed a lawyer’s practice certificate by four years, and has now been ordered by the Madras high court to make it available to the lawyer as soon as possible, as first reported by Live Law.
Law schools
NUJS Kolkata’s illegal interior decoration tender, which caused the university major financial losses and resulted in the dismissal of its registrar after an expensive inquiry into the affair, still exists in its original form and has not been cancelled or renegotiated despite outstanding work.