Yesterday (20 August), the petitioners in the ongoing Kerala Bar Hotels Association’s appeal against the Kerala high court’s decision approving the Kerala Government’s controversial liquor policy favouring the five-star hotels, concluded their arguments at Court No.11.

DK Aruna vs Union of India (WP (c) 512/2015) was dismissed by a three-Judge Bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI), HL Dattu on Friday, 7 August, after spirited arguments in the court for 15 minutes.

In Maru Ram vs Union of India in 1980, the Supreme Court’s five-Judge Constitution Bench heard the first challenge to section 433A Cr.P.C. and upheld its constitutionality.

Now, the issue has turned full circle.

The hearing of this case continued yesterday with Rakesh Dwivedi, counsel for both Tamil Nadu and West Bengal in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, arguing the whole day that state governments should have the power to suspend or remit sentences or exercise mercy by using their own discretion.

“Hope died, man died, justice lived,” commented Rishabh Sancheti, one of Yakub Memon's advocates, about the early-morning, eleventh hour Supreme Court hearing that ultimately failed to save his client from the noose. “Have you (heard) it happen in any other country?”

SCOI Report, Wednesday 29 July 2015: Yakub Abdul Razak Memon vs State of Maharashtra Through the Secretary, Home Department, and Others

SCOI Reports 28 July 2015: Yakub Abdul Razak Memon vs State of Maharashtra Through the Secretary, Home Department, and Others.

SCOI Report, Monday 27 July 2015: Yakub Abdul Razak Memon vs State of Maharashtra Through the Secretary, Home Department, and Others

One of the many things that lawyers practising at the supreme and high courts hate most about the filing process is curing defects in the paperbooks.

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.

A Chief Justice of India for 153 days is unlikely to leave a legacy behind. Somehow, this one did, explains Court Witness.

Advocate Abhik Chimni argues that CJI RM Lodha, who retires today, was a remarkable CJI made of the right idealistic stuff at the right time.

Rights lawyer Monalisa argues that the former Chief Justice of India (CJI) P Sathasivam introduced a seldom-seen sensitivity into the Supreme Court’s jurisprudence and culture, though one major opportunity was clearly missed.

Court Witness does former Chief Justice of India (CJI) P Sathasivam and asks, was he great? Or merely safe?

Supreme Court postcard writer and anonymous legal Twitter celebrity Court Witness returns, this time, full of hate (hate, hate. Hate).