The Bench and the Bar

This is a short story and video of how LI tried and failed getting the BCI chairman to be more transparent.

The recently constituted social justice bench of the Supreme Court, to be presided over by Justices Madan B Lokur and UU Lalit, will sit today at 2pm for the first time.

Today will kick off what is intended as a weekly session, reported India TV News According to a statement from the Supreme Court:

In Supreme Court several cases relating to the domain of ‘social justice’ are pending for several years. Hon’ble the Chief Justice of India is of the view that these cases shall be given a specialized approach for their early disposal so that the masses will realize the fruits of the rights provided to them by the constitutional text.

Reliance Industries has replaced its ex-CJI SP Bharucha, who resigned last week as its arbitrator, with former UK appeals judge Bernard Rix as the third arbitrator in its dispute with the government over the KG-D6 basin, reported PTI.

Bharucha had reportedly recused himself after the government had objected to him because he had allegedly not disclosed his previous links to Reliance, after the parties had tussled for months to find mutually satisfactory arbitrators in the dispute.

SpicyIP reported that the Delhi high court yesterday banned the import of mobile phones by Chinese company Xiaomi, for infringing Ericsson’s patents, after Xiaomi did not respond to six communications from Ericsson.

Justice GP Mittal directed the customs authorities to ban the import of the phones and restrained Flipkart from selling the phones, reported PTI, saying: “I am satisfied that plaintiff has made out a prima facie case for grant of ad interim injunction in its favour. The balance of convenience also lies in favour of plaintiff and in the absence of an injunction order, plaintiff will suffer irreparable loss and injury.”

Xiaomi India head Manu Jain told Medianama: “While we haven’t received an official notice from the Delhi high court, our legal team is currently evaluating the situation based on the information we have.”

Ericsson had earlier used the same Standard Essential Patents (SEP) subject to FRAND (Fair, Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory) usage against Micromax, Gionee and Intex, with mixed success.

The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday approved the creation of five new posts of additional solicitors general, one in each of the high courts of Punjab and Haryana, Patna, Jharkhand, Karnataka and Gujarat.

According to an official release, the decision will strengthen the litigation machinery to represent the central government as a whole and specifically in these courts: “This will also help in conduct of litigation on behalf of Union of India efficiently and effectively.”

“The creation of these posts will also facilitate transaction of business in accordance with procedures and enable assigning of functions to legally trained persons. It will result in greater accountability of government departments to curb frivolous litigation and lessen the burden of government cases in these Courts.”

It won’t be long after you start practice in the Supreme Court of India that you come across the figure of Prashant Bhushan striding purposefully between the courtrooms.