The Bench and the Bar

The Delhi High Court Bar Association (DHCBA) yesterday observed a strike against Delhi HC chief justice D Murugesan’s proposal to enhance the HC’s pecuniary jurisdiction from Rs 1 crore to Rs 2 crore. DHCBA members manned courtroom entry points and urged lawyers not to appear in their cases.

Litigants appeared before the courts without their lawyers, to take adjournments for their cases. [IANS]

All judges decided to support Murugesan’s proposal after a full court meeting, and issued a statement that “the full court further deprecated the tone and tenor of the notice [of DHCBA] and the intemperate language used. It resolved that the false assertions made were unfortunate and unbecoming of the president of the DHCBA who also happens to be a law officer of union of India".

12,000 lawyers affiliated to the DHCBA apprehend the loss of work to lower courts if the proposal is implemented. [IANS]

The DHCBA had on 22 November addressed a two page notice to the HC’s judges criticising the 21 November proposal of Murugesan, and had said that there was no way the proposal could have passed if the DHCBA was consulted before making it, reported Legally India.

Five out of ten Delhi Judicial Service (DJS) exam 2011 toppers collecting their appointment letters at the Delhi high court today are Delhi University (DU) law graduates.

The Supreme Court yesterday dismissed petitioner ML Sharma’s public interest litigation that had challenged the government’s decision to allow 51 per cent foreign direct investment (FDI) in multi-brand retail.

The bench, comprised of justices RM Lodha, Madan B Lokur, and Kurien Joseph, said that while there are enough examples of countries where small unorganised retailers have continued to co-exist with organised multinational retailers even after implementation of FDI, the risk is lower in India where the policy would be tried on only 13.3 per cent of the population.

The bench also said: “The middlemen are a curse to the country. They work like Shylocks and suckers. If they are sought to be thrown out of the system, what is wrong with the policy.” The SC said it would not interfere with a policy unless it is arbitrary, unconstitutional, contrary to statute, irrational, or an abuse of power [TOI/ET]

Additional solicitor general (ASG) Harin Raval has been asked to resign after he accused attorney general (AG) Goolam Vahanvati of trying to influence the CBI report on the coal blocks allocation scam and of misleading the Supreme Court, in a letter addressed to Vahanvati and marked to law minister Ashwini Kumar.

Senior advocate UU Lalit will replace Vahanvati in representing the centre in the SC, according to Zee News’s sources.

Raval, who is representing the CBI in court, wrote:

… on 6th March, 2013, while I was in Court, I received a message from your end, asking me to see the Law Minister at 12.30 with the Status Report. The message received by me was forwarded to the Joint Director, CBI by me. You were already present there when I reached slightly late. You would also kindly recall that at the said meeting, during the course of discussions, the draft of only one of Status Report of one of the preliminary inquiries was shown to the Hon'ble Law Minister and was perused by him as well as by you. Certain suggestions were made, including by you, to the CBI, some of which were accepted. No suggestions emanated from me

After Raval had earlier submitted in court that the CBI report had not been vetted by anyone in the political executive, CBI director submitted a personal affidavit asserting that the report had been shared with Kumar and prime minister Manmohan Singh.

Raval said he was being made a “scapegoat”.

Yesterday the Caravan in a feature dissected Vahanvati's allegedly politicised role as AG and whether he has succumbed to pressures from the top.

Read full letter via NDTV

Is Goolam Vahanvati, the Union Government’s top lawyer as attorney general, succumbing to pressures from the top and India Inc. in this increasingly politicised role, asked The Caravan in a typically thoroughly-reported feature.

Up to four bids have been received for the project, which was tendered for four days.

Former chief justice of India justice Jagdish Sharan Verma passed away yesterday at Medanta Hospital Gurgaon due to multiple organ failure, three months after laying the foundation for stronger laws on crimes against women in India.

Verma was the Chief Justice of India between March 1997 and January 1998 when he delivered the landmark Visakha judgement on sexual harassment of women at the workplace. He headed the panel on amendments to criminal law that was constituted after 23 December 2012's brutal gang-rape of a 23-year-old woman in Delhi.

On 23 January his panel submitted 630-page recommendations on the amendments, with Verma calling on the government to move parliament for a tougher law in its next session.

Verma was the first person to head the News broadcasters Association’s self-regulatory body News Broadcasting Standards Authority set up on 2 October 2008, and was also the chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC). [NDTV/DNA/Firstpost]

The amendment aimed to make forming co-operatives a fundamental right to limit state interference.

The Supreme Court yesterday stayed its September 2012 order that made it compulsory to appoint retired judges to central and state information commissions under the Right to Information (RTI) Act 2005.

Former Supreme Court Justice O Chinappa Reddy died at his Hyderabad residence on Saturday, 16 years after retiring from the apex court.

Reddy graduated from Madras Law College and enrolled with the Madras Bar in 1944, practicing at the Andhra Pradesh High Court (HC) for 23 years until his appointment as an additional judge of that HC. He was soon a permanent judge there.

He was transferred to the Punjab & Haryana HC in 1976 and back to the AP HC in 1977. In 1978 he was elevated to the SC and after his retirement in 1987 he served as the chairman of the Karnataka BC Commission.

He had delivered several remarkable human rights judgements and was described as pro poor according to the New Indian Express.

The Delhi High Court is slated to welcome Delhi Tis Hazari district judge Sunita Gupta and Delhi HC registrar general VP Vaish as additional judges after at least four senior advocates and one advocate are due to take seat at the bench.

The Allahabad High Court (HC) and a Lucknow district court cleared Supreme Court Cases (SCC) publisher EBC to publicise its earlier court win. 

24 CJs and 28 SC judges will converge on Delhi between April 4 and 7 with tall orders.

Madhya Pradesh High Court chief justice SA Bobde to be elevated to the Supreme Court. He will become the Chief Justice of India in 2019, after justice Ranjan Gogoi, and will preside for 18 months [Hindu] After the recent decision to elevate Justice AK Sikri, this would take the total bench strength to 30 out of 31 sanctioned places.

Politician LK Advani wants the executive’s say in Supreme Court judges appointment and transfer for “bringing in checks and balances”. He cited a 2008 report of the Law Commission in support [Rediff]