The Bench and the Bar

The Uttarakhand High Court (HC) on Monday began hearing a petition filed by the Congress against imposition of President’s Rule in the state on Sunday.

Justice UC Dhyani is hearing the petition. Senior Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi is representing his party in the case.

The union cabinet recommended imposition of President’s Rule in Uttarakhand on Sunday.

With this, the Uttarakhand assembly was kept in suspended animation after President Pranab Mukherjee signed a proclamation under Article 356, just a day before Chief Minister Harish Rawat was slated to face a floor test to prove the Congress government’s majority.

Congress leaders and Rawat have called the decision a “murder of democracy”.

The National Human Rights Commission today issued notice to the Chhattisgarh government in connection with the alleged wrongful detention and torture of a journalist , who is a human rights activist.

The state chief secretary and director general of police have been asked to submit a factual report in the matter within two weeks.

According to the commission, journalist Prabhat Singh was picked up by policemen in plainclothes from his shop without notice or warning on 21 March evening, and charged under Section 67 and 67(a) of the IT Act for disseminating allegedly obscene material over WhatsApp.

“He was taken to the Parpa police station, beaten up and tortured all night and even deprived of food and water,” a commission statement said.

Read more here .

Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) secretary Gaurav Bhatia rubbished a news report alleging he was removed today from the post of additional advocate general (AAG) of Uttar Pradesh, saying that he had filed his request to be relieved more than a month back.

A lawyer has been arrested for allegedly stealing law books and citations from Hyderabad High Court, police said today.

If the official minutes of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) Executive Committee meeting held on 18 March are any indication, its president, Dushyant Dave, who presided over that meeting, never ceased to be its president, despite his resignation earlier on 15 February.

The Supreme Court Bar Association’s (SCBA) former president Dushyant Dave called an SCBA executive committee (EC) meeting today to withdraw his resignation from the SCBA’s presidential post, effective today. The SCBA’s secretary Gaurav Bhatia called the meeting “illegal”.

The All India Bar Exam (AIBE) challenges will be heard by a Supreme Court constitution bench next month.

One of the petitioners in the All India Bar Exam (AIBE) constitutional mega-challenge currently in the Supreme Court, due to be heard on Friday (18 March), will raise the question of irregularities in the Bar Council of India’s (BCI) appointment of private contractor ITES Horizon Pvt Ltd to conduct the AIBE in 2010.

Just as his resignation as the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) president in February was an impulsive decision, Dushyant Dave’s withdrawal of his resignation today also proved to be similarly emotional.

The petition filed by V Vasanthakumar, advocate from Puducherry, seeking the court’s directions to the Government to consider setting up a National Court of Appeal to relieve the Supreme Court of its case burden, got a new lease of life with the two-judge bench comprising the Chief Justice of India (CJI) TS Thakur and Justice UU Lalit, deciding to refer the matter to a five-judge constitution bench to hear from 4 April.

Following last year’s revival of the collegium system of judicial appointments by the Supreme Court’s constitution bench, which quashed the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) last year, the government is all set to revise the existing Memorandum of Procedure for appointment of judges of the Supreme Court and high courts, as suggested by the same bench.