The Bench and the Bar

The chief justice of India Altamas Kabir yesterday told off senior advocate Arvind Dattar who, in the matter of SEBI V Sahara, had objected to his passing an order contradictory to an order passed by a two judge bench of the court - before which bench the matter is still pending.

A bench of justices KS Radhakrishnan and JS Khehar had on 31 August ordered two Sahara group companies to refund the Rs 24,000 crore they had collected through optional fully convertible debentures, to SEBI with 15 per cent interest by 30 November, because Sahara had violated regulatory norms.

Yesterday Kabir’s bench, also comprising justices SS Nijjar and J Chelameswar, allowed the Sahara group to complete the payment of refund to SEBI in two months’ time, ending in the first week of February, contrary to the 31 August order.

The bench reasoned that it was allowing Sahara’s application to protect the interest of investors. The investors, however, were not given a hearing before this order.

Dattar, appearing for SEBI, insisted that propriety called for the matter to be heard by the bench before which it was pending, and that Kabir must record this submission in the court’s order.

"We will record what we feel to record. We cannot record what you say,” shot back Kabir.

Senior advocate Vikas Singh insisted that the investors’ and Sahara’s application should not be disposed of without hearing the investors, which suggestion was again dismissed by Kabir in, reportedly, an “angry tone”. [Hindustan Times]

Singh was appearing for the Universal Investors Association, and wanted the court to take up a writ petition filed on behalf of the investors. Kabir’s bench rejected the plea saying that the investors had no rights since they were not party to the main petition. [The Hindu]

Legally India Supreme Court postcard writer Court Witness tweeted: “Would completely understand if both or one of Radhakrishnan & Khehar are supremely upset with Kabir for undermining them in this way.”

Three high court chief justices - MY Eqbal from Madras, Vikramajit Sen from Karnataka and V Gopalagowda from the Orissa high court - will be elevated to the apex court soon, according to The Hindu.

Citing law ministry sources, the paper reported that the recommendations made on Wednesday’s would be notified within a fortnight.

The Hindu wrote:

Justice Eqbal (61), who hails from Jharkhand, will have a tenure of a little over three and half years; Justice Sen (62), who hails from Delhi, three years and Justice Gowda (61), who hails from Karnataka, a little over four years.

Read the full article for more about the religions and regional demographics among the apex court judges.

Breaking: Senior advocates Ram Jethmalani and PK Jain today withdrew their candidature for Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) president just before today’s 4:30pm deadline by which nominations for the 2013 elections could be withdrawn. Their withdrawals from the race follow senior advocate Adish Aggarwala yesterday, reducing the race for the SCBA president’s office to one between only three candidates after the incumbent PH Parekh did not run again for the post.

Exclusive: Senior advocate Adish Aggarwala, who was contesting for the office of the Supreme Court Bar Assocation’s (SCBA) president in the SCBA elections next Thursday, withdrew his candidature yesterday. He cited the removal of his name from the SCBA’s voter list, blaming SCBA president PH Parekh.

Exclusive: The Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) elections for 2013 will be held on 13 December, months behind the conventional schedule of polling in May and with the compact voter list of 1372 bar members, after the Supreme Court (SC) ruled that those voting in other bar association elections cannot vote in the SCBA elections.

21-year old law aspirant Shreya Singhal, a graduate in astrophysics from the UK’s Bristol University, daughter of Supreme Court advocate Manali Singhal and grand daughter of the late Delhi high court judge Justice Sunanda Bhandare, challenged section 66A of the Information Technology Act in the Supreme Court today under which two women were booked for a comment critical of Bal Thackeray on Facebook 10 days ago.

Former Supreme Court chief justice AH Ahmadi’s son advocate Huzefa Ahmadi, and former additional advocate general of Tamil Nadu Guru Krishnakumar were designated senior advocates by the Supreme Court of India with effect from 21 November.

Following convention, 15 judges from various high courts were also designated seniors.

Out of the high courts, four judges from Allahabad, three from Kerala, two from Patna, and one each from Andhra Pradesh, Punjab & Haryana, Bombay, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat were designated.

Legally India Supreme Court postcard writer Court Witness said that if retired high court judges applied for the senior counsel designation, usually they would automatically be granted the title. [List of new senior advocates]

Bar Council of India (BCI) chairman Manan Kumar Mishra in an insightful interview with legal website Bar & Bench reiterated his strong opposition to the entry of foreign law firms, noted that the BCI had been cancelling licenses for around 10 law schools per meeting, expressed a grouse against law teachers and promised to bring law firm misconduct under the BCI’s scanner with the Society of Indian Law Firms (SILF).

The magistrate who had ordered two women, who criticised Mumbai’s shut-down on Facebook after the death of Bal Thackeray last week, to be taken into judicial custody and later released on Rs 30,000 bail, has been transferred to Jalgaon in the far North of Maharashtra.

The Bombay High Court has ordered first class judicial magistrate Ramchandra Bagade to move immediately to Jalgaon from Palghar, which is in the Thane district near Mumbai, reported NDTV.

An inquiry into the incident has so far indicted the policemen involved in the action that was taken under the IPC and the IT Act and the Maharashtra home minister RR Patil may publicly comment on this later today [NDTV]

The Bar Council of India’s (BCI) homepage domain name registration lapsed yesterday (26 November) making the legal regulator’s site temporarily inaccessible. However, the regulator’s website should now be online again throughout the day as this morning's re-registration of the domain by the BCI is being propagated across of the world.

The BCI’s website also went offline in 2010, after the domain name registration had lapsed. Last week the All India Bar Exam (AIBE) website was inaccessible for three days.

A heated exchange between Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) president PH Parekh and suspended secretary KC Kaushik at the SC’s Law Day celebrations yesterday caused dignitaries including law minister Ashwini Kumar and chief justice of India Altamas Kabir to temporarily leave the venue.

Kaushik and Parekh were arguing over who will be in charge of the function, after Kaushik insisted he preside over it as SCBA secretary. [PTI]

Legally India had reported on Friday that Kaushik had accused Parekh and SCBA vice president and Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Rakesh Khanna of conspiring against him, and had in October end demanded that they sit for a polygraph test.

Kaushik was suspended from the post of secretary last year after he allegedly advertised his son’s law practice in the SCBA member diaries. He remains suspended pending the final report of the SCBA inquiry against him.

Kaushik who was on the podium announced the arrival of the Chief Justice and asked the SCBA president and vice-president to escort him to the dais. At this point, Parekh rushed to the podium, pushed Kaushik aside and announced that he (Kaushik) had been suspended and was no longer the secretary.
Kaushik then grabbed the microphone from the podium and told Parekh to stick to his job and let him conduct the proceedings. [India Today pictures of altercation]

The new law minister Ashwani Kumar has asked the new Chief Justice of India (CJI) Altamas Kabir to look again at ex-CJI SH Kapadia’s nomination of sitting Supreme Court judge Swatanter Kumar for chairperson of the National Green Tribunal (NGT).

Kabir faces the choice of either confirming Kapadia’s decision or to put forward a new name to head the potentially powerful tribunal, which is currently headed up by acting chairperson Justice AS Naidu. Swatanter Kumar’s nomination had attracted media attention, as well as contempt of court proceedings of two newspapers [Economic Times]

The Delhi High Court Bar Association (DHCBA) yesterday resisted the proposal of the Delhi high court to increase its original jurisdiction from Rs 20 lakh to Rs 2 crore, noting that it would inconvenience the litigant public, “affect the quality of the judgements” and decrease the opportunity for young lawyers to get “groomed” on the original side.

Exclusive: Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) secretary KC Kaushik, who was censured by the body for allegedly advertising his son’s practice in the SCBA member directories, has accused additional solicitor general and SCBA vice president Rakesh Khanna and SCBA president PH Parekh of using their SCBA executive offices for personal gains.

The Delhi district court’s pecuniary jurisdiction may increase from Rs 20 lakh to Rs 2 crore after the proposal was considered in a meeting of judges of the Delhi high court yesterday, according to two independent sources.

Today rumours have been spreading in Delhi courts’ corridors via text messages that the change has been made.

The pecuniary jurisdiction was enhanced previously in 2002 from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 20 lakh. [DK Mahant]

Update: Formal confirmation from the Delhi High Court Bar Association (DHCBA) has arrived, that they have “made a representation” to the Delhi high court’s chief justice and other judges, taking “all steps necessary to safeguard the interest of the members” of the DHCBA. [DHCBA letter via DK Mahant]

The Delhi high court has launched an online payment system for litigants and lawyers to pay court fees.

The system will allow court fee stamps to be bought online.

The high court’s computer committee will now examine also rolling it out to Delhi’s district courts. [The Hindu]