The Bench and the Bar

Argus Partners advised electric goods maker Crompton Greaves on its Rs 400m buyout out of joint venture (JV) CG Lucy Switchgear by JV partner W Lucy & Co. W Lucy was advised by AZB & Partners.

Argus partner Adity Chaudhury and senior associate Megha Saraf acted for Crompton Greaves.

AZB partner Nilanjana Singh acted for W Lucy.

Economic Times quoted Compton Greaves Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director Laurent Demortier as saying, “We believe that W Lucy is the best potential owner for ensuring a long term future for CG-Lucy. Combining the CG Lucy Indian operations and Lucy Electric business will allow CG-Lucy to focus on developing products specifically for the Indian market and expand its offering within the MV sector”.

After a telecom company whose phone users are suffering from frequent call drops complained to the Delhi high court that the call drops were because 130 of its mobile towers had been “wrongly” sealed, the court has ordered that mobile towers erected after valid cellular licenses be de-sealed, reported The Times of India.

A bench of justices Badar Durrez Ahmed and Siddharth Mridul was hearing the telecom company and Cellular Operators Association of India, who claimed that they faced a range of problems, including call-drops, because three municipal corporations sealed towers despite payment of licence fee.

The high court issued notice to the corporations and sought their replies by 6 November reported TOI. “Meanwhile, we direct the three municipal corporations of Delhi to follow directions given by us on 17 October, 2014, 13 March, 2015 and 1 May, 2015, in letter and spirit,” the court said.

The corporations claimed that they sealed the towers only after sending show-cause notices to telecom companies who didn’t reply to them. They also claimed that installation and operation of some towers were done without obtaining valid clearances from corporation.

The operators on the other hand claim high-handedness by corporations and said that show-cause notices were not issued on time and that more than 70 towers have been sealed since the date filing the application, even after reminding the corporations that the matter is seized by the high court.

South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) on Sunday announced its decision to withdraw the country’s membership from the International Criminal Court (ICC).

The decision was made at a meeting of the ruling party’s National General Council (NGC), Xinhua news agency quoted Obed Bapela, head of ANC’s international relations commission, as saying.

“The NGC has just resolved that South Africa should withdraw from the International Criminal Court,” he told reporters.

The decision was made due to the fact that ICC has lost its direction and is no longer pursuing its guiding principle, Bapela said.

The Bar Council of India (BCI) will appeal the 6 October Madras high court order that suggested disbanding the BCI and replacing it with a body of experts as well as doing away with the three-year LLB degree.

The Supreme Court on Friday sought a response from the central and Kerala governments on a public interest suit seeking immediate halt to the killing of street dog by Thiruvananthapuram Municipal Corporation.

Notice has also been issued to Thiruvananthapuram Municipal Corporation.

A bench of Justice Dipak Misra and Justice Prafulla C Pant sought the response of the governments and the civic body as as public interest petitioner Anupam Tripathi described as illegal and cruel the killing of the street and stray dogs.

Having issued notice returnable in two weeks, the court asked senior counsel Dushyant Dave to assist the court in the matter as it directed next hearing of the matter on 26 October.

Tripathi told the court that the decision to cull the stray dogs was against the provisions of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, the Animal Birth Control Rules and the other penal provisions.

The culling of the stray dogs is being carried out following an all-party meeting 9 July, with Chief Minister Oommen Chandy in the chair, where it was decided eliminate more than 2.5 lakh street dogs.

The urban development ministry on Friday launched e-publishing of the government’s gazette notifications, putting an end to the long wait for the printed version.

The ministry, which holds administrative control of the government’s printing presses, also said it had stopped physical printing of gazette notifications.

The gazette notification is an important legal requirement to validate, authenticate and to make effective various kinds of laws, acts, rules, orders and government decisions.

“The shift to e-publishing came at the behest of Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu from the first of this month,” the ministry said in a statement.

User groups and citizens can now download and print all gazette notifications free of charge.

“Under the provisions of the Information Technology Act, 2000, downloaded and printed gazette copies are sufficient for all official and legal purposes,” the statement said.

The e-publishing does away with the need for printing pages for such notifications while saving publication cost of Rs 40 crore per year, it added.

The Maharashtra government will have to figure out its stance on the legality of casinos in the state, within six months, after the Bombay high court today ordered it to take a decision on the yet-not-notified Maharashtra Casinos (Control & Tax) Act 1976.

Hariani & Co solicitor Anirudh Hariani briefed senior counsel Mihir Desai and instructed advocate Gaurav Mehta on the petition of Jay Sayta seeking directions to take a conclusive step about the 38-year-old law.

A bench of justices VM Kanade and Shalini Phansalkar today disposed of Sayta’s petition which was filed in February, as reported by Legally India.

Sayta today told Legally India in an email that the bench directed the state government to take a reasoned decision on what it intends to do with the Act. He said that this decision is consistent with the Supreme Court’s year 1988 decision in Aeltemesh Rein V Union of India.

The court has also allowed Sayta to file a fresh petition if he is not satisfied with the Maharashtra government’s course of action on this order.

Arguments in Rajbala vs State of Haryana] began in Court No.6 before justices J Chelameswar and AM Sapre on Wednesday, 7 October with petitioners’ counsel, Kirti Singh making her submissions first. She was followed by senior advocates, Sanjay Parikh and Indira Jaising on 8 October. Indira Jaising, who began her arguments at 2 p.m. was on her legs, when the Court rose for the day at 4 p.m.

The Supreme Court on Thursday sought response from the central and Delhi governments on a plea filed by three lawyers seeking ban on the sale and bursting of firecrackers during the festival of Dussehra and Diwali because it further aggravates the already dangerous level of air pollution.