The Bench and the Bar

Law Minister DV Sadananda Gowda has written a letter to the Delhi high court chief justice on 18 June after having received allegations of “corruption, favouritism and nepotism” in the long-controversial Delhi Judicial Services (DJS) exam, reported the Indian Express’ Utkarsh Anand.

As reported by Legally India on 5 May, only 15 out of 659 candidates or 2 per cent passed the exam this year.

Gowda noted that allegedly Delhi high court judges’ children were very successful in the exam - two out of the 15 who passed - while the majority of other candidates failed spectacularly, as the “the Department of Justice has received many grievances alleging corruption, favouritism and nepotism in the recently concluded Delhi Judicial Services Examination, 2014”.

A petition on change.org signed by 310 supporters and aggrieved students complained that the the DJS should recruit more than just 15 candidates, as it still had 570 vacancies remaining that were unfilled.

Click here to read more about the DJS exams.

Wherever the legal system is perceived as being unable to deal with something speedily or fairly, the media can and will step into the breach, for better or for worse, argues Kian Ganz.

The bail hearing of Reliance Industries in-house counsel Janhavi Gadkar, who is accused of driven while drunk and killing two men, was adjourned in the Kurla metropolitan magistrate’s court yesterday to 25 June amidst arguments between counsel.

Advocate Dimple Shah, representing Gadkar, had argued that they needed access to the treatment records Gadkar had received in hospital for a fractured hand to ascertain whether she had received the correct medical care, reported Mid Day. Her bail application would rely on the medical report, Shah told the court.

Public prosecutor Prahlad Mahajan told the defence to argue for bail immediately, rather than asking for another adjournment.

The Mumbai Mirror reported that after examination in prison by an orthopaedic surgeon on 15 June, where she complained of pain in “upper left abdomen, left hand, rib region and drowsiness”, Gadkar was taken to JJ Hospital on 17 June, where she was diagnosed with a fractured wrist without normal chest X-Ray and ECG results.

Mahajan said that the defence should file a written application asking for adjournment, and that the medical care she had received was sufficient.

The Karnataka government today moved the Supreme Court challenging the state high court's verdict acquitting Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, her aide Sasikala Natrajan and two others in a case of disproportionate assets.

The Karnataka government has urged the apex court to stay the operation of the May 11 verdict.

"Pass an ex-parte ad-interim order of stay, staying the operation of impugned final judgment and order of May 11," a petition by the Karnataka government said in its prayer for interim relief.

The Karnataka government contended that the high court committed a "grave mistake" in arriving at a figure of Rs 24,17,31,274 while a total of 10 loans taken by Jayalalithaa and others and the companies they were associated with was Rs 10,67,31,274.

It is because of this "grave mistake" in the calculation that the high court erroneously concluded that the disproportionate assets were only to the extent of 8.12 percent of the income whereas it was 76.7 percent.

Contending that the reversal by the high court of the trial court verdict convicting Jayalalithaa had resulted in "miscarriage of justice", the Karnataka government said that apart from other infirmities, the "grave mistake" had led to the acquittal of Jayalalithaa and others including VN. Sudhakaran and J Elavarasi.

The Karnataka government has questioned whether Jayalalithaa's appeal against the trial court order convicting her and others was maintainable without making Karnataka a respondent.

The state has contended that because Jayalalithaa and the others did not make the Karnataka government a party to the case, it could not appoint a public prosecutor to pursue it.

The trial court in Bengaluru on Sep 27 convicted Jayalalithaa of possessing assets disproportionate to her known sources of income and awarded four jail terms and fined her Rs 100 crore.

The case dates to the period from 1991 to 1996 when Jayalalithaa was the chief minister of Tamil Nadu.

The Karnataka government had earlier this month decided to appeal the acquittal, after special public prosecutor BV Acharya had recommended that it was a case fit for appeal in May.

The politico’s acquittal by the Karnataka high court was widely criticised for dubious maths and reasoning.

A Delhi court today dismissed the bail application of Delhi's former law minister Jitender Singh Tomar in the fake degree case, saying that allegations against him were serious in nature as he is a legislator.

Dismissing the plea, Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Tarun Yogesh extended his judicial custody till July 6.

Tomar has sought bail on the ground that he has to attend Delhi's assembly sessions commencing from Tuesday.

The court, while refusing bail to Tomar, said it considered "the gravity of allegation against him as a public representative being an elected MLA, who is accused for using alleged false document for getting enrolled as an advocate".

Delhi Police opposed the bail plea, with Public Prosecutor Atul Shrivastava contending that he is an influential person and might tamper with the evidence in the case if he will released.

Tomar's counsel and senior advocate Ramesh Gupta however said that the case is based on documentary evidence, and hence there is no possibility of influencing witnesses as well as investigation.

He contended that Tomar has become victim of tussle between the central and state governments.

The magistrate observed that as a general citizen, he observed that how the legislators using fake documents can fool the common people and opined that Supreme Court was right in introducing none of the above (NOTA) option in the voting system.

Tomar was in police custody for the past 12 days after he was arrested on June 9. Police have slapped a case of cheating, forgery and conspiracy against him. Sent to a day's judicial custody on Sunday, he was presented before court after its expiry.