The Bench and the Bar

Publisher Lexis Nexis has obtained an injunction in the Lucknow District Court against Eastern Book Company (EBC) to prevent it from publicising that it was granted an interim injunction in the same court last month against Lexis Nexis for alleged plagiarism.

SC justices P Sathasivam and Ranjan Gogoi are currently examining whether life-term convicts should undergo simple or rigorous imprisonment.

A man convicted for murdering his wife, whom he suspected of adultery, was sentenced to the life-term by a Maharashtra sessions court and the sentence was reaffirmed by Bombay high court.

In his appeal through the Supreme Court Legal Services Centre, senior counsel Parmanand Katara argued on his behalf that since the Indian Penal Code (IPC) does not define rigorous imprisonment, the lifer should be subjected to only simple imprisonment entailing simple instead of hard labour during his life term.

The Maharashtra government has to file its reply in the matter [BS]

Bombay high court judge S A Bobde will be sworn in as chief justice of Madhya Pradesh high court on Tuesday. Bobde was designated as a senior advocate in 1998, after 20 years of practice, and was appointed as additional judge in the Bombay high court in 2000.

He heard the Adarsh PIL until August when he recused himself from the matter without giving reasons [Express]

Allahbad high court, which is the country’s biggest court in terms of judge-posts (160), leads the way in case-pendency. Out of the 43 lakh cases pending in India’s high courts, 10 lakh are in Allahbad alone. Madras with 4.6 lakh, Bombay with 3.6 lakh and Calcutta with 3.4 lakh follow Allahbad.

Of the 160 judge-posts in Allahbad HC, 75 lie vacant, while 28 out of the 85 sitting judges are only additional judges.

21 high courts across the country recommend names of judges to be appointed, and the Supreme Court collegium finally decides whether those names can be sent to the government for appointment.

The collegium headed by the recently retired chief justice of India SH Kapadia rejected seven of 15 names recommended this year for Allahbad HC, before his retirement on 28 September. [HT]

Former senior advocate RK Anand offers free legal service to the families of rioters arrested during the Azad Maidan riots, as reported by several websites and a staff reporter at the Hindu.

The renowned criminal lawyer had, ten days ago, submitted an affidavit to the Supreme Court undertaking to provide only free legal aid and voluntarily take up pro bono matters for a year in order to be cleared of charges under the Contempt of Courts Act. [The Hindu]

Senior advocate Raju Ramachandran and advocate-on-record Gaurav Agrawal who were friends of the court in terrorist Ajmal Kasab’s Supreme Court appeal against the death penalty, donated their fee in the case, totalling Rs 15 lakh, to the Legal Services Authority.

A bench of justices Aftab Alam and CK Prasad asked the Maharashtra government to proportionately distribute the amount among the families of the 18 policemen who were killed in the anti-terror operations following Kasab’s 26/11 terror attack [PTI]

Newly appointed CJI Altamas Kabir has restored the practice of “oral mentioning” of matters in the Supreme Court, and applications for early hearing of matters, which his predecessor Kapadia had abolished when he had assumed office in May 2010 [The Hindu]

The Hindu has compiled a handy (but non-exhaustive list) of judicial and quasi-judicial bodies headed by retired SC judges, after Arun Jaitley’s and others’ comments criticising the existing rules about ex-judges’ appointments.

1. The National Human Rights Commission: Chairperson Justice K.G. Balakrishnan, former Chief Justice of India. Member Justice G.P. Mathur.

The Law Commission of India: Chairperson Justice P.V. Reddy.

3. The National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission: President Justice Ashok Bhan.

4. The Press Council of India: Chairperson Justice Markandey Katju.

5. The Competition Appellate Tribunal of India: Chairman Justice V.S. Sirpurkar.

6. Justice Lokeshwar Singh Panta, who was appointed Chairperson of the National Green Tribunal, resigned to become the Lokayukta of Himachal Pradesh. A sitting Supreme Court judge, Justice Swatanter Kumar, is to be appointed Chairperson.

7. The Armed Forces Tribunal: Chairperson Justice A.K. Mathur.

8. The Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal: Chairperson Justice S.B. Sinha.

9. The Uttar Pradesh Human Rights Commission: Chairperson Justice H.K. Sema.

10. The West Bengal Human Rights Commission: Chairperson Justice Asok Kumar Ganguly.

11. The Madhya Pradesh Lokayukta: Justice P. P. Naolekar.

[And more at The Hindu and Express]

A Mumbai law college student was caught recording court proceedings on his mobile phone in the Bombay high court and was served with a contempt notice. The student had recorded his brother – an advocate arguing a property dispute opposite senior advocate Venkatesh Dhond and in the court of justice Kathawala.

He had recorded for 18 minutes before his phone was confiscated by a court-officer. Following the incident, only advocates will be allowed to carry phones inside courtrooms. Previously everyone was allowed to carry phones inside, but a Rs 500 fine could be administered on anyone caught using the phones inside courtrooms.

In January the Bombay HC confiscated the phone of a holidaying Illinois circuit court judge who was caught taking pictures of court proceedings [Mid-Day]

Delhi HC registrar general proposes to charge public ex-chequer more than Rs 88 lakhs for maintaining orderlies for retired judges of the HC.

He asks for 55 orderlies to be provided at the residences of the retired judges. The orderlies will be appointed at the monthly basic pay of Rs 11,880, while the monthly basic pay of a court attendant is only Rs 7,200 [Daily Pioneer]

Supreme Court Cases (SCC) case reports publisher Eastern Book Company (EBC) won a temporary injunction in a Lucknow district court against Reed Elsevier India which owns publishers Lexis Nexis and Butterworths on 22 September.

The injunction restraining Reed Elsevier from selling its allegedly copyright violating products follows last month’s temporary injunction granted by the court to EBC against Thomson Reuters from selling certain texts of Westlaw and Indlaw.

EBC had the same cause of action against both companies, which was infringement of EBC’s copyright in SCC. Lexis Nexis, Butterworths, Westlaw and Indlaw had allegedly identically reproduced SCC’s editorial notes in their materials.

Like Thomson Reuters, Westlaw and Indlaw last month, the district judge restrained Reed Elsevier India, Lexis Nexis and Butterworths from infringing EBC’s copyright in SCC and from selling, distributing or publishing the allegedly copyright-violating texts in any other form online or offline, while the suit for infringement was pending.

22 October has been fixed as the next date of hearing. [The order]

“How dare you?” she demanded, at which point he apparently retorted by saying: “I can do it again.” He followed that up by demonstrating his words — reaching out in the court office and touching her breast in front of an audience of 30-odd lawyers. The lady lawyer, feeling outraged, slapped him. The male lawyer slapped her back.

This exchange was behind-the-scenes for this petition to the SC by a group of female lawyers for implementing the Visakha judgement in courts. The male lawyer was punished with seven days imprisonment and was prohibited from entering the courts for a few months, “but no one could confirm that the punishment was carried out”, reports columnist Sunetra Choudhury.

A young female lawyer found herself at the receiving end of some unwarranted attention. He asked her to marry him, which she dismissed as a joke… He’d crossed over to a stalker. When he sent her a message that said,”I want to play with your blood”, she realized she had to report him before it was too late. But how was she to complain?

It took some persuasion by the junior lawyer for the Bar Council to help her with her reported complaint. They organised a hearing face-to-face with her harasser and concluded with: “madam we have discussed, ab theek hai na? (is it okay now?)”.

And then there’s the Sexual Harassment Bill providing to impose a fine on women who make false complaints. Not the best for junior lawyers harassed by seniors with established reputation. [Firstpost via MeghaA_11]

BJP suggests a two-year gap between retirement of judges and their assuming positions on various tribunals, to avoid the “clamour” for post retirement positions among judges. Of the 21 judges who retired from the SC since 2008, 18 joined various commissions and tribunals.

Former law minister Arun Jaitley says:

This clamour for post-retirement jobs is adversely affecting the impartiality of the judiciary... When I was a minister, I would be wary of meeting retiring judges for the fear that he would hand me his bio-data.

Now through judicial verdicts post-retirement jobs are being created... We are the only country in the world where judges appoint judges [Express with PTI]

Bangalore-based financial expert challenges SEBI chairman UK Sinha’s appointment to the SEBI chair in the Supreme Court through advocate Prashant Bhushan

In the petition he has questioned Sinha’s integrity, denial of extension to the previous chairman, and his alleged leniency toward corporate lobbyists facing action. The petition alleges that Sinha committed fraud on the Search and Selection Committee and the parliamentary Appointment Committee. Sinha allegedly concealed emoluments of over Rs 4 crore received as CMD of UTI Asset management.

The petitioner has asked for his removal from the SEBI chair and for a criminal investigation into his appointment at the asset management company.

Secretary to the president Omita Paul, the central government, SEBI, the chief vigilance commissioner, and the CBI have also been made respondents in the petition.

Two previous petitions in the Supreme Court challenging the appointment process behind instating Sinha were dismissed by a bench headed by the Chief Justice [Business Standard]

Today, blogging live from 2pm on the presidential reference about Supreme Court Justice GS Singhvi’s 2 February judgment that cancelled all awarded 2G licences and said that all natural resources should be allocated by the government by auction.

The Supreme Court lifts stay on Delhi high court’s court fee hike after Solicitor General Rohinton Nariman tells the court that the stay would cause irreparable harm to the state.

He said that the state was losing an average sum of Rs 1.5 crore every day due to the stay, and it would be impossible to recover this amount even if the constitutional validity of the Act prescribing the fee hike is later upheld. [Express]

The Delhi high court bar association had filed a public interest litigation in the high court against the Court Fee (Amendment) Act 2012 by which the present court fee was increased tenfold.