The Bench and the Bar

JNU student leader Kanhaiya Kumar, arrested on sedition charges, was today sent to judicial custody till 2 March.

Metropolitan Magistrate Lovleen gave the ruling after Delhi Police said it did not need the president of the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union (JNUSU) any more for interrogation.

Kanhaiya Kumar, from the CPI-affiliated All India Students Federation (AISF), was arrested on 12 February on charges of raising anti-India slogans during a meeting on Kashmir in the campus.

The Supreme Court today appointed a team of six senior lawyers to go to Patiala House court to observe the situation there and report back.

Former Delhi University (DU) professor SAR Geelani was arrested on Tuesday charged with sedition for allegedly organising an event at the Press Club of India (PCI) to mark the death anniversary of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru, police said.

“Geelani has been arrested on charges of sedition and criminal conspiracy. He is being questioned at the Parliament Street Police station,” a police officer said.

The officer said that they detained Geelani on Monday evening.

“After a brief questioning, we arrested him today (Tuesday),” the officer said.

Police registered a First Information Report (FIR) on 10 February under sections dealing with sedition and criminal conspiracy over raising slogans by Kashmiri students in the Press Club of India premises the same day to protest Afzal Guru’s execution.

The FIR was filed on the basis of complaint made by the PCI

India said it may seize Vodafone Group Plc’s assets in the country if the company doesn’t pay a disputed 142-billion-rupee ($2.1 billion) tax bill that’s still undergoing international arbitration proceedings, according to a copy of the notice that was sent to the company this month.

Anil Sant, deputy commissioner of income tax, informed the company’s Vodafone International Holdings BV Dutch unit of its dues in a letter dated Feb. 4, according to the document, a copy of which was seen by Bloomberg News. Spokesman Ben Padovan at Vodafone and a representative at India’s tax department declined to comment.

reported Bloomberg.com.

The Supreme Court on Monday directed the government to consider the matter of passive euthanasia and made it clear that pendency in the apex court should not come in the way of authorities to take a decision on the matter.

The Bar Council of India (BCI) would conduct an inquiry into yesterday’s alleged assaults on journalists and others by lawyers outside the Patiala House district court.

Adding to his list of failed litigations, Supreme Court of India has dismissed a public interest litigation filed by advocate Manohar Lal Sharma, in which Sharma had urged the Court to take judicial note of a statement made by actor Salman Khan’s father Salim Khan that the Khan family had spent Rs 25 crore on the litigation involving 2002-hit and run case.

The president of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA), Dushyant Dave, has quit in disgust after his differences with SCBA secretary Gaurav Bhatia and the SCBA executive committee became unresolvable.

Four journalists, including one from IANS, and some JNU students were assaulted at a court here on Monday by a section of lawyers.

The Supreme Court has rendered Madras high court judge Justice CS Karnan judicially impotent, ordering that he should not be allocated any cases and even if he did pass any orders suo motu, those should be ignored