Armed Forces Tribunal: Jharkhand high court Chief Justice Prakash Tatia’s name has been proposed for heading the Armed Forces Tribunal to succeed former Supreme Court justice AK Mathur who retires as the tribunal’s head next week [PTI]

Intelligent safeguards: The Intelligence Bureau (IB), the RAW, and the NTRO – India’s intelligence agencies – may now have external oversight through inspector generals who will be appointed to check the legality of their intelligence operations – according to recommendations in a letter from the National Security Advisor to the telecom ministry and union home ministry. The proposal comes soon after the CBI in the course of its investigation of the Ishrat Jahan encounter case alleged that a senior IB official was part of a conspiracy to kill Ishrat and her companions in 2004 [DNA]

Euthanasia denied: A British court of appeal rejected the plea of petitioners’ asking for euthanasia yesterday, holding the practice illegal. The petitioners had claimed that in not being able to choose their time and manner of death their rights under the European Convention of Human Rights were being violated [TOI]

Whistleblower protection: The Supreme Court has asked the Central Vigilance Commission to report on the steps it has taken for the protection of whistleblowers – after the CVC was made the nodal agency for their safety after the year 2004 murder of an IIT Kanpur student. An NGO Parivartan had alleged in its PIL that the system for whistleblowers’ protection had failed [DNA]

SJ Berwin-King Woods exchange $1bn rings: UK firm SJ Berwin’s merger with Asia-Pacific giant King & Wood Mallesons - the first ever merger between a major UK and Asia-Pacific firm - has now been finalised after first speculation in November 2012. The merged firm will operate under separate financial books and boast combined annual revenues of more than $1bn, 550 partners and 2,200 lawyers [The Lawyer]

SEBI v Sahara: “The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) on Tuesday made a forceful plea to the Supreme Court to punish Sahara chief Subrata Roy, along with his two firms and their directors, for not complying with its order for refunding Rs 24,000 crore to investors,” reports [DNA]

NEET review: “Delhi based NGO Sankalp, which had represented the medical student community in the apex court in favour of National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Examination (NEET), has decided to file a review petition before Chief Justice of India through senior lawyer Prashant Bhushan,” reported [Indlaw]

Dewey eyes: A raft of firms including Allen & Overy (A&O), Linklaters and DLA Piper are facing legal action from Dewey & LeBoeuf’s estate over client matters they allegedly took on when recruiting former partners of the collapsed US law firm [Legal Week]

Lover’s tiff ends: The Delhi government settled the squabble between the Delhi bar and the bench by accepting the proposal to raise the district court’s pecuniary jurisdiction to Rs 2 crore from Rs 20 lakh [Indlaw]

Notarised demands: The Notaries Association of India met the law minister to ask for identity cards for notaries, hike in their fees, qualifying examination to become a notary and the higher judiciary to conduct interviews of persons qualifying in that examination [TOI]

Juridical contest: Former Karnataka High Court Justice Chandrashekharaiah has expressed his desire to contest elections on a Janata Da party ticket through the Mandya Lok Sabha constitutency [Deccan Chronicle]

Blame games: 21 Bombay civic law officers have challenged the Bombay Metro Corporation’s February circular making it a rule to fine its lawyers Rs 2,000 if they failed to get stays in its illegal construction and encroachment cases vacated [TOI]

CJI slams ex-CJI stay: Chief Justice of India (CJI) P Sathasivam said about an order of his predecessor Altmas Kabir, who had stayed a lower court’s Rs 100 crore penalty against builders Jaiprakash Associates. “We do not approve of the manner in which the interim orders came to be passed. We do not sit on appeal over orders passed by a coordinate bench. These orders should not have been passed,” said Sathasivam, sitting alongside Justice Ranjan Gogoi [TOI]

SA fixed matches in HC: The Delhi HC accepts charge sheet in 2000 South Africa-India cricket match fixing conspiracy against bookies who allegedly colluded with now-deceased South African captain Hansie Cronje, as Supreme Court rejects PIL asking for CBI inquiry into the more recent spot-fixing scandal [Indian Express]

Justice pleads v boycott: Madras HC Justice Paul Vasanthakumar asked the bar to stop boycotting courts, which was adding to pendency [TOI]

Kanimozhi wants stay lifted for fair trial: DMK party MP Kanimozhi has appealed to the SC to lift the stay on hearings in the 2G spectrum case because it violated her fundamental right to clear her name in court [Hindu]

FDA ignored J&J: Bombay HC queries FDA on why it waited for 18 months to serve a show-cause notice to Johnson & Johnson over allegedly carcinogenic baby talcum powder [Indian Express]

Dow in the dock? Dow Chemicals served fresh summons by district court [PTI]

Acid survivor attacks: “An Acid Attack Survivor Helps India Change Its Laws” [NYT India Inc]

Media friendlier new CJI? New CJI P Sathasivam said in a speech that he was in favour of self-regulation of the media rather than strict controls [Hindu] His remarks follow both his predecessors’ significant fall-outs with the media – SH Kapadia constituted a constitutional bench into media conduct, while his successor Altamas Kabir released a six-page statement slamming two newspapers yesterday.

Arbitrary CAG challenge heard: A Delhi high court bench headed by acting chief justice BD Ahmed said it would hear two PILs challenging the central government’s allegedly arbitrary appointment of Shashi Kant Sharma as Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG). Centre to respond by 8 August. [PTI]

OBC state college: The Delhi high court ruled that state-established or -affiliated universities can follow their own state’s Other Backward Classes (OBC) reservations and do not have to adhere to the Centre’s [DNA]

Sahara where art thou? The Supreme Court asked Sahara today by when it would pay refunds to its investors, following a contempt petition by Sebi over Sahara’s delays in obeying with the order [NDTV]

SC presumes against gang rape consent: Supreme Court bench of BS Chauhan and SA Bobde rule that in gang rape cases there is a presumption that there was no consent of the victim [Express / Md Iqbal & Anr. vs State of Jharkhand (Cr App 109-110 of 2011)]

Salman trial frenzy: Bollywood star Salman Khan’s culpable homicide trial started today in Mumbai sessions court. He pleaded not guilty. Turn on any TV set near you for wall-to-wall coverage [PTI]

Bear witness to Ambani: Reliance Telecom fields Mukul Rohatgi to argue before Supreme Court special 2G bench that Anil Ambani and his wife should not be called as witnesses in the 2G spectrum scam [PTI]

AP Shah for RTI: Ex Delhi HC CJ AP Shah and other high-powered signatories to a petition have urged MPs not to vote for a bill that excludes political parties from the RTI Act [PTI]

Delhi HC e-payments: Delhi HC introduces e-payment of court fees of up to Rs 20,000 at a time, less Rs 26 tax and charges [Moneycontrol]

CJI NEET exam: New CJI P Sathasivam would stop short of an investigation but “we have to inquire” whether the NEET judgment under his predecessor Altamas Kabir was leaked ahead of time, as suggested by a SC lawyer last week [Deccan Herald]

UB-Diageo hitches: Karnataka HC restrains UB from selling any assets after appeal from Kingfisher Airlines creditor bank BNP [Hindu / TOI], though the reports did not specify if this would affect the Diageo takeover. Meanwhile UK competition regulator looks at Diageo buy-out of the Vijay Mallya-promoted liquor giant [PTI]

Kerala GLC head for contempt: GLC Ernakulam principal hauled up for contempt before Kerala HC for not curbing student unions’ frequent strikes, against earlier judgment [New Indian Express]

Maha dance flout: Maha government to extend and appeal SC’s striking down of state’s ‘dance bar’ ban [Telegraph / NDTV]

NUJS faculty meet: NUJS to hold faculty meeting tomorrow to discuss complaints about slipping academic standards and opaque administration [TOI]

SC smokes out centre: SC bench headed by Justice GS Singhvi accuses Government from “conniving” with tobacco lobby by not enforcing tobacco advertising ban [PTI]

Parsi temple tax: Mumbai Parsi fire temple trustees file petition against capital value-based property tax [HT]

Altamas Kabir blasts collegium ‘gang’: Justice Altamas Kabir, who retired as the chief justice of India (CJI) yesterday, on 2 July requisitioned a meeting of the SC collegium – himself and justices P Sathasivam, GS Singhvi, RM Lodha and HL Dattu – to propose that they recommend the elevation of an unnamed high court chief justice to the Supreme Court. The collegium rejected Kabir’s proposal because it is not customary for exiting CJIs to be making appointments and since Sathasivam had already been formally named as the next CJI. Kabir accused the others of “ganging up” on him, reported the TOI

SC snakes & ladders: After the Supreme Court seven years ago took up adjudication of municipal matters in Delhi, which are normally under the jurisdiction of the high court, various district courts and municipal bodies, the apex court released an order passing those matters back to their respective jurisdiction. The Times of India reported on the game of snakes and ladders which spawned up 715 intervention applications

IT raids HNLU: HNLU Raipur owes taxes worth Rs 1.25 lakhs to the income tax department due to non payment of tax deducted at source, on advance payments given to a contractor. HNLU vice chancellor Prof SP Singh said that the law school had cooperated with the IT department and had defaulted by mistake [TOI]

Costly frivolous PILs: The Karnataka high court on Wednesday imposed costs of Rs 1.4 lakh on 14 peitioners for filing public interest litigations for “frivolous and personal reasons”. Dasapura villagers had asked the court for directions to the state government to clear encroachments on their land [NIE]

Food and/or nutrition: India’s first food security law – the Chhattisgarh’s Food Security Act 2012 – was amended to include “nutrition” in its short title to ensure “access to adequate quantity of food and other requirements of good nutrition to the people of the state, at affordable prices, at all times to live a life of dignity” [BS]

Altamas last goodbye: Chief Justice of India (CJI) Altamas Kabir retired today, giving a speech and usual shindig in the Supreme Court. He makes way for Justice P Sathasivam, who will serve until 26 April 2014 [Hindu]

Kabir quashes NEET: The Supreme Court (CJI Kabir, on his last day, prevailing in the two judge-majority over Justice AR Dave) has quashed as unconstitutional the medical and dental college common entrance test. The National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) held by the Medical Council of India (MCI) was opposed by private colleges [NDTV]

Married compense: Cabinet approves law to allow married women to claim husband’s ancestral property or compensation in case of divorce [Indian Express]

Pathetic retirement homes: The Supreme Court, never one to let a chance for criticism slip by, decried the “pathetic” state of tribunals such as the NGT and the Law Commission. Justices GS Singhvi and SJ Mukhopadhaya said, in a petition related to Kolkata NGT’s shoddy facilities: “One does not know what forces the judge to accept such assignments.” [Zeenews]

LL When? The two-year LLM of BR Ambedkar Government Law College may be disbanded, as its umbrella institution, Pondicherry University, has withdrawn affiliation because it is offering a similar course [New Indian Express]

Harry case: Sirius Black v Lily James Potter [1981] 1 WLR 33 [Reader blog]

Young Face(book) ban: The Delhi high court has asked Facebook to ban children below 13 years of age from creating an account. Facebook must now upload a disclaimer stating the age requirement [Hill Post]

Live-in domestic violence: The Domestic Violence Act is not only applicable to married women but also to women in live-in relationships, held the Kerala high court [Hindu BL]

Minor juveniles: The Supreme Court dismissed a plea to bring down the legal age of juveniles under criminal law from 18 to 16 years. Juveniles face lower sentences and imprisonment in a correction home instead of regular prisons for crimes they commit [Daily Bhaskar]

Cops n Lawyers, SIT probe: The Madras High Court has referred a petition seeking a Special Investigation Team probe into the 19 February 2009 violence between police and advocates to the acting Chief Justice to form a three-member bench to hear the case [BS]

CAG appointment: The Supreme Court dismissed former chief election commissioner N Gopalaswami’s plea to quash the appointment of former defence secretary Shashi Kant Sharma as the Comptroller and Auditor General of India [BS]

Officially Tamil: The Madras high court dismissed two cases after the acting advocate insisted on arguing in Tamil. While it has been a long-standing demand of the state to make Tamil as the official language, the bench told the advocate that constitutionally English is the official language of the Supreme Court and the high courts. High courts in Patna, Allahabad, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan have been permitted by the Central government to conduct proceedings in Hindi under Article 348 (2) of the Constitution and Section 7 of the Official Languages Act [TOI]

NLUO funding model: To raise funds, NLUO Cuttack will soon offer a one-year programmes in hospital administration, medical law and ethics for doctors, contract negotiation and management for engineers, skill development for lawyers, VC V Nagaraj told the New Indian Express. “This will help our faculty get additional resources and 20 to 25 per cent of it will go to the institution’s corpus because the projects would come through the institution,” he said.

Mahrashtra pendency: Pendency in crimes-against-women cases in Mumbai courts increased by 40 per cent since 2008 to 50,000 cases in May end this year. There was a 12 per cent rise in the pendency of corruption cases in Bombay to 3,008, and the pendency is highest in Motor Accident claims which are 90,000 – a 6 per cent drop since 2008 [TOI]

International porn: The Rajya Sabha’s Committee on Petitions was presented with a plea to amend the Information Technology Act to completely ban pornography since it is “distorting and distressing society”, but the committee claims it would find it difficult to ban international porn websites since they are hosted outside India and claim to operate under US laws [TOI]

Maha disobedient: “In Maharashtra, by and large, orders passed by state commissions and tribunals are either not implemented or taken note of only after contempt notices are issued against the bureaucrats concerned,” reports the [TOI]

Cut KAT? A petition in the Kerala High Court sought the abolition of the Kerala Administrative Tribunal (KAT) as an unnecessary expense on the state exchequer, even as various advocate organisations demanded additional bench of KAT in the state. The KAT has solved 1,816 out of 2,653 cases filed in 2012; 673 out of 1,429 cases filed in 2013; and 1,635 cases forwarded from the high court [TOI]

Judge retires: Madras high court justice Elipe Dharma Rao – the judge to whom North Chennai reportedly owes its dust-freeness after he banned Chennai airport from handling dusty cargo such as coal and iron ore – retired on 14 July. [TOI]

Telegram revival PILs: Two public interest petitions in the Madras HC have asked for restoration of the recently discontinued telegram service in India, for the benefit of the “rural masses, lawyers, litigants, armed force and police” [Hindu]

Separation of vision: The judiciary has the wisdom but not the support system to understand the “vision” of the government and therefore should not interfere in policy making, said law minister Kapil Sibal [BS]

P&H HC systemised: The Punjab & Haryana high court has now started posting daily orders of cases on its website, will hear cases of persons with disabilities on priority, and will set aside Thursday to take up long-pending cases [HT]

M&A guidelines: Details under the broad M&A guidelines announced by the telecom ministry in February are expected before the end of this month [Hindu]

Crooked precedent: The Supreme Court has adopted problematic reasoning and methodology in amending the Representation of People Act to disqualify convicted ministers from contesting elections, argues NLSIU Bangalore graduate researcher Manish [Firstpost]

Hot coals: Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Siddharth Luthra recused himself from acting for the Centreal Bureau of Investigations (CBI) in the Coalgate scam yesterday. CBI’s previous counsel was senior advocate Uday Lalit, who recused himself after he came under pressure for having represented mining companies owned by Naveen Jindal in the past [Zeenews]. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court slammed the government’s opaque allocation of mining rights after the CBI filed its third stats report in the case [Mint]

Bangalore dress-up: Karnataka state submits female bartender and waiter dress code proposal to high court, after petition by the Bangalore Ladies’ Working Bar and Restaurants Owners’ Association, which wants the dress code to prevent police shutting down bars on the grounds of female staff’s “indecent” dress. The proposed dress code includes full trousers and full shirt, or T-shirt with or without a blazer or a salwar kameez [Free Press Journal]

AP Shah for collegium reform: Former Delhi high court Chief Justice Ajit Prakash Shah calls for reform of judicial appointments to reflect merit and social diversity, but argues against the “reactionary move” of setting up a judicial appointments commission (JAC) [TOI]

Electric Jaising-Misra court: Additional solicitor general Indira Jaising appeared yesterday before justice Gyan Sudha Misra for the Union of India (UoI) in the Ishraat Jahaan fake encounter case. When Misra asked for Jaising’s authority to appear, Jaising said she was there for the UoI on the home ministry’s instructions, and added: “I am not here to show off myself”. “When we are asking you some questions, why is it that you are feeling some electric shocks?” retorted Misra, warning Jaising about contempt proceedings, at which point she apologised [Telegraph]

Jodhpur job score: NLU Jodhpur placed 61 out of a class of 90 students graduating this year, with Amarchand Mangaldas and Trilegal each hiring eight students. Majmudar & Partners hired six, JSA four, and legal process outsourcing (LPO) company Pangea3 picked up five. Gujarat State Petronet, Sebi and ONGC hired four each [Bar & Bench]

RMLNLU permanent #fail: RMLNLU Lucknow’s new VC Gurdip Singh has done away with repeat exams for students who fail, in order to improve ‘quality education and discipline’ [TOI]

What CJI tells PMO: Correspondence between the Chief Justice of India and the Prime Minister of India is not exempt from the purview of the Right to Information Act 2005, the Central Information Commission has held [BS]

Cal green tribunal wilts: Kolkata, the city where India’s first green tribunal was launched, is on the verge of losing its green tribunal to Guwahati or Ranchi [TOI]

Third degree on LPO: The Australian Law Students’ Association is calling for greater practicality and less theory in their law school curriculum so they can compete with legal process outsourcing (LPO) companies encroaching on what was traditionally the domain of lawyers [Lawyers Weekly]

BCI LLB age-limit challenged : A writ before the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad HC has challenged the BCI’s upper age limit to appear in law entrance tests. BCI has banned those 20 or older from sitting for the five-year degree, and those 30 or above for three-year LLB courses through Clause 28 of Schedule III to Legal Education Rules, 2008 [Parda phash]

Late litigation policy: The National Litigation Policy was first floated three years ago when Veerappa Moily was law minister. Now it has resurfaced as a draft policy under new law minister Kapil Sibal. Under the draft, in cases where the court imposes costs against the government as a condition to granting adjournment, the head of the government department will have to report on why and list the persons responsible. “Suitable action” will be taken against the persons, stated the draft [PTI]

Law firms advertise: Lawyers can’t solicit business in India, directly or indirectly, which means they can’t advertise their services. That hasn’t stopped Indian law firms from finding ways of creating a brand and gaining the attention of prospective clients, discusses [Mint]

Academic appreciation: NLU Jodhpur associate professor Prabhash Ranjan argues that the judiciary and the executive are ignoring the constitutional mandate to appoint distinguished jurists to the Supreme Court, while the Supreme Court is constitutionally bound to develop new legal principles and constitutional jurisprudence. Law professors would be perfect for the job [Hindu]

Placement trends: Out of an average batch of 110 law students, only 15 to 20 opt out of placements. Generally such graduates work as assistants to senior lawyer for four to five years before establishing their independent practice, writes the [Business Standard]

Abusive 498A: A Rajasthan HC writ challenging immediate arrests under section 498A (dowry harassment) and 407 (criminal breach of trust) of the IPC, alleges that 70 per cent of matrimonial disputes are converted into criminal cases by misuse of sections 498A and 406 [TOI]

DSK Legal promoted Munaf Virjee, Sagar Kadam and Maneesh Upadhyay as associate partners in its Mumbai office [Bar & Bench]

Permanent constitution bench: Chief Justice of India-designate P Sathasivam has advocated a permanent Constitution Bench for “authoritative pronouncements” on issues such as mercy pleas, to avoid conflicting views by smaller benches [NIE]

P&H Uncles: The Punjab and Haryana High Court has at least nine judges whose kin are appointed as law officers in Punjab and Haryana. The Haryana Lokpal and retired judges too have relatives in the offices of Punjab and Haryana Advocates-General [Tribune]

Hindu isn’t: The Supreme Court has asked the Centre to respond to a plea seeking deletion of a provision in the Constitution that treats Sikhs, Jains and Buddhists as Hindus for all legal purposes [BS]

CJI musical chairs: Sticking to the seniority rule has reduced the top judicial post in the country to a quick game of musical chairs, with one Chief Justice after another going through the motions without getting a chance to set their house in order, pendency mounts and allegations of corruption increase, argues the ET

GNLU court manag’t RTI: Kalpeshkumar Gupta, who is a GNLU Gandhinagar PhD student and an IIM Ahmedabad academic associate, has applied to the state RTI commissioner saying the Gujarat high court authorities have violated the Right to Information Act 2005, by barring information related to marks obtained by candidates in the screening test during the recruitment of court managers [DNA India]

Due indiligence: GLC Mumbai and New College Mumbai students could miss the 25 July Bar Exam because their law schools have not yet paid the Bar Council of India affiliation fee. GLC fixing problem at the moment… [Mumbai Mirror / Bar & Bench]

Judicial eviction: According to SC guidelines framed today, judges (and other high officials) will have to vacate their government accommodations within a month, or at most two months, from their retirement or they will be evicted with three months’ notice. They are also not allowed to leave behind “memorials” constructed on the accommodation premises [PTI]

Smart bars: The Kerala High Court Advocates Association has released an Android App called Kerala High Court Case Status. The application displays the court status of all the courts inside the Kerala HC on smart phones [Live Law/App]

Cash-for-judges scam proceeds: The SC has given the trial court a go-ahead to prosecute former Punjab & Haryana high court judge Nirmal Yadav in the cash-at-judges-door scam. Rs 15 lakh were delivered at the residence of P&H HC Justice Nirmaljit Kaur on 13 August 13 2008, following which she reported the matter to the Chandigarh Police. The money, allegedly meant for Yadav, was said to have been delivered to Kaur due to confusion over their names [Zee News]

NLSIU rape trial: The 13 October NLSIU Bangalore student’s rape will now be tried in-camera, every day, with 44 witnesses to be examined. The victim has discontinued her education at the law school and returned to her hometown [NIE]

Fresh bucks: Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has posted revenue increase of 7.2 per cent since last year to £1.221bn – the largest rise among all UK Magic Circle firms where revenues were stagnant [The Lawyer]