The Bench and the Bar

Agencies reported that Satyam founder B Ramalina Raju, his two brothers and seven others were sentenced to seven years in jail by a special CBI court in Hyderabad today for their role in the Rs 7,000 crore Satyam accounting fraud.

Raju and his brother B Rama Raju were also fined Rs 5 crore, with fines of Rs 20 to 25 lakh on the other co-defendants.

SNG & Partners managing partner Rajesh Narain Gupta, who is not directly involved in the case, commented: “Satyam is an exemplary case where the Government of India through department of company affairs intervened and ensured that the Company did not fail and become bankrupt due to the fraud perpetuated by the promoters. The judgment given by the Court will have far reaching consequences in checking corporate frauds and shall also act as a severe deterrent.”

PTI reported that a Supreme Court bench headed by Justice AR Dave rejected the review of Yakub Abdul Razak Memon’s death penalty, after having stayed his execution on 2 June 2014 and upholding the sentence on 21 March 2013.

Memon had planted explosives in cars in Mumbai, with 10 of his accomplices having had their death sentences commuted to life terms.

Karnataka high court senior advocate Prabhuling Navadgi yesterday accepted his appointment to become additional solicitor general (ASG), taking up a post created for the first time ever in the state.

The proposed National Judicial Appointments Commission’s (NJAC) validity will now be examined by a Constitution bench in the Supreme Court after a three judge bench referred petitions challenging it to a five judge bench, reported//Mint.

The Supreme Court Advocates on Record Association, the Bar Association of India and several individual lawyers had challenged the NJAC Act on the ground that not only did it threaten the independence of the judiciary but also that the parliament was not competent to pass it because the constitutional amendment giving it such power had not come into effect.

Senior advocate Fali Nariman had argued before the bench of justices Anil R Dave, J Chelameswar and Madan B Lokur that there was a substantial question of law involved in the case, which could be considered only by a constitution bench.

PTI reported that:

The incident took place on March 30 when Justice M Jeyapaul, 60, of the Punjab and Haryana High Court dived into the Lake to save the 15-year-old girl after he noticed her drowning while he was on his routine morning walk, Sukhna Lake Police Post In-charge Mini Bhardwaj told PTI today.

The judge’s security officer apparently followed the judge into the lake and together they saved the girl, who had allegedly tried to commit suicide.

The Supreme Court has announced that its next advocate-on-record (AOR) examination will take place from 26 to 29 May 2015: Read SC notification and guidelines here (PDF).

Despite all the legal firepower involved, it was far from certain that the case would go the way it did.

After last week’s anthropological exploration of The Living Room Lawyer and the Eternal Junior, Delhi Barfly finds Mister Information and the Curious Onlooker.

Hot on the heels of the government getting ready to create special fast-track commercial divisions of all high courts, Delhi high court chief justice G Rohini has decided to redesignate four benches of the Delhi high court to exclusively handle commercial disputes, of which around 20,000 are currently pending.

“According to information released by the office of the Registrar General, Delhi high court, two benches hearing matters of Original jurisdiction, and two division benches, as Commercial Appellate courts, will start functioning from Thursday,” reported the Indian Express.

“Two of these will be e-courts and will function as paperless courts. Sitting judges with the appropriate experience and expertise have already been appointed,” reported The Hindu].

According to the Express, DHCBA secretary Abhijat said it was “alarming that the decision was taken without consulting the Bar” and said that it was a “prima facie meaningless order” since the issue of jurisdiction was to be finalised by the Parliament. “The decision is at best an administrative order which can’t override or supplant a bill which is still being drafted,” he said.

PTI reported:

The Supreme Court on Tuesday sought response from two advocates, representing the 16 December gangrape convicts, against whom a women lawyers body has sought action for allegedly making derogatory remarks against women in a BBC documentary on the case. “We have heard the argument, pleadings and grievances urged in the petition. The matter requires consideration in view of the factual and legal submissions,” a bench comprising justices V Gopala Gowda and C Nagappan said.

The bench issued notices to the two advocates, ML Sharma and AP Singh, and sought their response in two weeks. The Supreme Court Women Lawyers Association, in its petition, had sought restriction on the entry of the two advocates in the apex court premises, alleging that their remarks in the controversial BBC documentary were “inhumane, scandalous, unjustifiable, biased, outrageous, ill-minded” and are a “direct affront to and in violation of the dignity of women”, especially those practising in the Supreme Court.

The Delhi high court yesterday stayed until April 27 a decision of its single judge to bring the Attorney General of India’s (AGI) office under the RTI Act.

The Times of India reported that “a bench of Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice R S Endlaw said that the single judge’s findings “require consideration” and it will hear the appeal filed by the Centre against the ruling” that the AG is not a public authority.

A Supreme Court bench of justices Ranjan Gogoi and NV Ramana today stayed the 20 March Delhi high court order that restrained generic drug maker Glenmark Pharmaceuticals from manufacturing an anti-diabetes drug over which Merck allegedly held a patent, reported Mint.

Senior counsel Abhishek Manu Singhvi acted for Glenmark, with TR Andhyarujina acting for Merck. The next hearing will be on 28 April.

"New Delhi authorities on Wednesday asked India’s federal information technology ministry to block the taxi-hailing apps of US -based Uber and its local rival Ola in the city in a bid to enforce a ban on the companies’ services,” reported Reuters.

However, QZ reported last year that blocking of services such as Uber, which rent servers in the cloud, could prove to be “practically impossible without accidentally blocking other services”.

A seven-judge Allahabad high court bench led by chief justice DY Chandrachud served notices on the Bar Council of India (BCI), the Uttar Pradesh bar council and district bar associations about the strike by the local bar against the alleged murder of an advocate by a policeman on district court premises, reported the PTI:

The court said that besides taking stringent action against advocates found guilty of disrupting judicial work, it favored debarring from legal practice all those convicted in criminal cases for which the quantum of sentence was imprisonment for seven years or more.

The BCI had called for a national one-day strike following the killing, with local Allahabad lawyers continuing agitation.