Madras HC pendency down 50K! Madras high court case pendency has reduced by 50,000 cases to 5.57 lakh cases since 2012 year-end [Hindu]

Six out of 12 clear Kerala DJS: Six candidates cleared the Kerala district judicial service exam, still leaving 50 per cent judges vacancy at the service in the Rs 51,550 to Rs 63,070 pay scale [Zee News]

Ex-SC Justice AK Mathur to head 7th Pay Comm: Former Supreme Court judge and retired armed forces tribunal chairman AK Mathur will head the seventh commission, which will recommend on revising the salaries and pensions of five million current (and three million retired) government employees from 1 January 2016 [Business Standard]

Every HC bench strength to grow by 25%: The central government has decided to increase the judges’ strength of each high court in India by 25 per cent and has invited proposals from all chief justices on additional facilities concerning courtroom, quarters and support staff for the enhanced number of judges [TOI]

SC to consider banning red beacons outright: After its ban on the widespread ‘misuse’ of red beacon lights on cars, the Supreme Court has yesterday agreed to look into the meaning and constitutional validity of the term “high dignitaries”, as only allowing them to use the lights could be contrary to the “democratic ethos” and reflective of “Raj mentality”. Justices RM Lodha and Shiva Kirti Singh, with amicus curiae Harish Salve, will examine the arguments [Express]

Mysore DCs to become more efficient with self-service kiosks: Mysore becomes the second city in India after Bangalore to have kiosks around its district court campus, where case details can be retrieved by punching in the case number. Three kiosks were inaugurated on Sunday [TOI]. The city aims to reduce over 63 per cent of its case pendency in its ongoing Lok Adalats [Deccan Herald]

Krishna Iyer’s disdain for recusing judges: Jurisprudential luminary and retired Supreme Court justice VR Krishna Iyer commented on the rampant practice of judges recusing themselves from cases. In letters to the Kerala high court chief justice and governor he said: “Vast powers have been vested in judges under the Constitution and they are bound to adjudicate every case posted before them. That is a great duty from which they cannot retreat. Not hearing cases or declining to do justice is breach of the solemn obligation vested in them. To default or decline to exercise this sublime power is to invite impeachment by Parliament or dismissal by the President.” [TOI]

Karntaka SLSA appointment: Karnataka high court justice NK Patil has been appointed executive chairman of the Karnataka State Legal Services Authority [TOI]

Aadhar facility in Gujarat jails: Gujarat high court has asked the state government to facilitate issuing Aadhar cards in prison, after a prisoner’s wife applied for his bail for the purpose of enabling him to apply for his Aadhar card [TOI]

PIL vs Kejriwal: The closing up of several public roads and metro stations in Delhi thanks to protests and demonstrations carried out by the newly elected Arvind Kejriwal government, has spurred a second petitioner to file a public interest litigation against the government [Mizo News]

12 new Allahabad HC judges: Four Allahabad high court lawyers and eight higher judicial service officers have taken oath as Allahabad HC additional judges [TOI]

AK Ganguly SC report private info: Rejecting a Right to Information (RTI) request for the Supreme Court’s report on its recent sexual harassment complaint proceedings against its former justice AK Ganguly, the SC said: “The disclosure of information and reports emanating out of a self-evolved mechanism which is in the nature of an In-House Procedure by the judiciary is expressly prohibited.” [PTI]

Verma J’s family declines Padma Bhushan: Refusing to accept the Padma Bhushan national honour on behalf of late justice JS Verma, his wife Pushpa Verma has written to the president stating that her husband “never hankered or lobbied for any acclaim, reward or favour” and that he “will be satisfied with being remembered as one of India’s most pre-eminent jurists […]”. Verma’s family was upset that they were not informed or “consulted” about the award through official communication but only came to know about it through media reports, and that they feel that the issue has been dealt with in a “bureaucratic manner” reported [IBN Live] Former Delhi high court chief justice Rajinder Sachar said that the ex-CJI at least deserved the higher honour of a Padma Vibhushan [Express]

RamJet set for BJP expulsion damages: The Delhi high court has fixed 2 May as the date for hearing veteran criminal lawyer Ram Jethmalani’s plea against expulsion from political party BJP on charges of “breach of discipline”. Jethmalani has asked the court for Rs 50 lakh in damages from the party’s parliamentary board members and a direction to the board to declare the order of his expulsion as "null and void" [IBN Live]

FDI U-turn vs national security: The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion has revised its policy for 100 per cent foreign direct investment in Indian railways, after security concerns over Chinese firms prospectively setting up projects near the international border [Mint]

Suicide a crime or not?: The Mental Health Bill, approved yesterday by the cabinet, stands at odds with the Indian Penal Code which makes suicide a criminal offence. The bill decriminalises suicide [Scroll]

Del, Mad HC CJs for SC elevation: The names of Madras HC chief justice RK Agrawal and Delhi HC chief justice MV Ramana have been cleared for elevation to the Supreme Court. Agrawal will be the seventh judge in the SC “having a strong and direct Chennai link” reported [TOI]

Definition of “Juvenile”: The Supreme Court yesterday reserved orders in petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act on the point that the act interprets the term “juvenile” in a straightjacket formula [Hindu]

New TN law commission: Tamil Nadu chief minister Jayalalitha yesterday ordered the reconstitution of the state law commission and to appoint former Madras HC judge N Dinakar as its head [TOI]

GNLU gets Microsoft IPR chair: GNLU Gandhinagar will soon become the sixth national law university with an intellectual property rights (IPR) chair after NLSIU Bangalore, Nalsar Hyderabad, NLU Jodhpur, NLIU Bhopal and NUJS Kolkata. While each of its five predecessors have IPR chairs set up by the Ministry of Human Resource and Development (MHRD), GNLU’s IPR chair will be funded by Microsoft India. At GNLU’s IPR chair, in addition to a chair professor there will be two assistant professors. The MHRD has 18 IPR chairs in various universities and IITs across India [TOI]

Singapore law firm regulators to merge: Singapore’s dual regulation – different regulators for domestic and foreign law firms – could merge into a single body following the recommendations of a committee headed by Singapore’s chief justice [Channel New Asia]

US bench changed over Facebook request: A judge in the US was taken off a marital dispute he was judging, after the litigating wife’s lawyer alleged that the judge had saddled his client with “most of the marital debt” and had given the husband a “disproportionately excessive alimony award” after his client did not accept the judge’s Facebook friend request [WSJ Blogs]

Aligarh law professor jailed over sex harassment: The suspended chairman of department of law Aligarh Muslim University, Professor M Shabbir, was sent to jail after his bail plea was rejected in a case of alleged sexual harassment by a female law student [TOI]

Madurai opposes MHAA protest: The Madurai bench of the Madras High Court Advocates Association (MHAA) is opposed to the MHAA’s protest for recall of the list of 12 names recommended for judgeships at the Madras HC, because four names in the list were from Madurai – giving the Madurai bench “a proper share for the first time” reported [TOI]

Delhi lacking prosecutors: Delhi’s Saket fast-track court special public prosecutor AT Ansari said: “Our department (prosecution) has asked us to attend two courts at one time. We (prosecutors) are not able to reach there on time as the concerned judges do not allow us to go. in case we reach to the next court room on time, we do not get much time to go through the files.The cases before sessions court are mainly of criminal and civil in nature. Most of them are very important, so how can we deal with such case, until unless we do not get time to understand the background of the file,” explaining the problem of paucity of public prosecutors in the capital [PTI]

CCI and sectoral regulators: Competition Commission of India chairman Ashok Chawla stresses on the need for proper communication and coordination between the CCI and sectoral regulators so as to avoid duplication of work and conflict of orders, however the level of such communication presently is below the required standard [Economic Times]

2,648 new legal aid clinics: CJI P Sathasivam has inaugurated 2,648 legal aid clinics, each to be manned by two volunteers and a lawyer, in villages across India to assist villagers in getting BPL card, Election ID, Aadhaar Card, Gas connection and government welfare schemes [IBNLive]

Lowly paid consumer forum members: Bombay HC has directed Maharashtra to increase the remuneration of its district consumer forum members. Right now a full-time member gets paid Rs 800 per day while a part time members gets paid half of that. 19 out of 40 district forums in the state are dysfunctional due to vacant posts of members [DNA]

Delhi HC illegal heritage renovation: 500 Delhi high court advocates have made a representation to the chief justice of the HC to look into the allegedly illegal construction and renovation work of the Sher Shah Suri mosque located within the HC’s premises [PTI]

Delhi HC public prosecutor axed: Delhi HC’s chief public prosecutor Pawan Sharma has been continuing illegally in his post since the expiry of his three-year term on 21 December 2012, but will now be removed. The irregularity was discovered after Delhi’s Lt governor wrote to chief minister Arvind Kejriwal asking for an explanation on why the government was losing many cases over the past few years. Sharma maintained that his remaining in the post was not illegal in the absence of a notification formally ending his tenure, and that he had been attending meetings and taking files of cases from the new government as well [Mail Today]

Lawyers boycott supporting boycott to force judicial transfer: The Allahabad High Court Bar Association boycotted work today in support of the boycott of work by the Awadh Bar Association of Lucknow. In fact Allahabad outdid Awadh and added an extra half-day of boycott after lunch yesterday. The boycotts attempt to force the transfer of Allahabad high court judge Satish Chandra to the “remotest HC of the country” [TOI]

Chhatisgarh HC gets 2 judges: The Chhatisgarh high court today got two new additional judges in Inder Singh Uboweja and Chandra Bhushan Bajpai, taking its total strength to 13 [PTI]

1,400 criminal cases pending v TN lawyers: 1,200 lawyers in Tamil Nadu have criminal backgrounds and 1,424 cases are pending against them, the director general of police told the Madras high court in a petition filed in the HC. The DG seeks to prohibit advocates who qualify in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka from practicing in Tamil Nadu [New Indian Express]

MM moves HC against DU study leave: A Delhi metropolitan magistrate has moved the Delhi high court against the Delhi University’s condition to obtain a two-year study leave from her employer – the Delhi high court – in order to obtain her PhD from the university, calling the condition (arbitrary and unreasonable) [PTI]

SC/ST advocates entitled to held-up grants: Advocates belonging to scheduled communities are eligible for upto Rs 1 lakh of municipal grants annually in Karnataka, for the purpose of buying books. 450 advocates have alleged before the Karnataka high court that the grants have not been released since 1977 [New Indian Express]

Salve challenges CAG audit order: Senior advocate Harish Salve called the Delhi government order, which wanted a CAG audit on power companies, a “Sheikh Chilli” order that gave the CAG the power to audit every private citizen because all taxes go to the consolidated fund of India. He was representing the power companies appealing against the HC’s decision but the HC declined them a stay on its earlier order [Indian Express]

RamJet liplock “controversy”: A photograph has surfaced showing veteran Bollywood actor Dharmendra apparently in a “lip-lock” with politician and senior advocate Ram Jethmalani at the venerable advocate's recent birthday bash. The photo has “caused a stir in social media” as a sight that was both “shocking and unbelievable”, gasped the Times of India

Karnan opposes own transfer: Madras HC justice CS Karnan, who had complained against the HC’s chief justice and the Chief Justice of India for collegium interference and caste bias, opposed his transfer to another high court on the ground that his presence was needed in the Madras HC until he had proven his allegations against the two senior brother judges [TOI]

JS Verma’s ‘flawed’ & unloved Hindutva verdict: Supreme Court advocate and political commentator AG Noorani points out how the 18-year-old flawed verdict of former Supreme Court justice JS Verma on Hindutva is pending a reference by a constitutional bench, which none of the successive Chief Justices of India have bothered to constitute yet [Frontline]

Govt advocate alleges unfair dismissal: An additional government advocate has challenged his premature removal from his post on the ground that the removal was spurred by the chief minister’s underhand attempt to appoint someone from his own community to the post, and has alleged that the same unfairness has happened to 50 other government advocates in the state [TOI]

Consumer courts clogged, empty in Karnataka: 9,660 cases are pending in Karnataka’s consumer courts after 32 member posts lie vacant across the state [Bangalore Mirror]

Delhi lower judiciary gloom: The Delhi HC’s administrative department has said that vacancies in the city’s lower judiciary cannot be filled because there are not enough courtrooms [Business Standard]

Sesquicentennial bar anniversary: The Advocates Association of Western India will tomorrow begin celebrating its 150th year, with unveiling a portrait of former Chief Justice of India, the late YV Chandrachud, who was once a member of the association [TOI]

SEZ Act 2005 under final examination: Seven years after farmers’ groups, politicians and corporates filed petitions under the SEZ Act against forcible land acquisitions and other issues around setting up of Special Economic Zones in the country, the Supreme Court has begun final hearings for the clubbed bunch of petitions [DNA]

Why HC judges decline SC judgeship: Abhinav Chandrachud, Stanford Law doctoral student and son of the current Allahabad HC chief justice, illustrates that an obsession with hierarchy and seniority weren’t always the defining characteristics of India’s judiciary, and perhaps shouldn’t be, in a percipient history lesson starring former Bombay high court chief justice MC Chagla, who declined the Supreme Court judgeship [Frontline]

Justice Karnan accuses CJI: Madras HC judge CS Karnan yesterday accused Chief Justice of India P Sathasivam of having “usurped” the powers of the collegium in declining the 12 names recommended for the HC’s judgeships, which have been the cause of recent controversy. So far Karnan has barged into the middle of court proceedings on the issue, barged into the HC’s chief justice’s chambers accusing him of bias and shot off a complaint against the chief justice to the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes [PTI]

Delhi law min closet skeletons: “Law minister Somnath Bharti is also a ‘spammer’” read a Hindustan Times headline today reporting how Bharti’s relatives ran a company sued for spamming. Over the fortnight Bharti’s career went from newly appointed law minister to professional misconduct accused, criminal-assault accused spammer who is presently under the Bar Council of Delhi’s scanner [Via “OMG.. A Law Breaker & Spammer becomes The Law Minister under the Swaraj of Kejriwal.. Really, its a systemic change.. Dr. Manish Kumar (@DrManishKumar1)”]

NLU Nagpur almost done: The National Law University Nagpur cleared another hurdle with the Maharashtra government taking the ordinance route to set it up and the cabinet approving the ordinance. Once the draft of the ordinance is sent to the governor for promulgation, the way would be clear to appoint a vice chancellor and other statutory officers for the university [TOI]

Bar council may suspend Delhi law min: The Bar Council of Delhi yesterday issued a notice to Delhi law minister Somnath Bharti asking him to show cause on 7 February, why his name should not be removed from advocate rolls for allegedly tampering with evidence while representing a client before a CBI special court in August [PTI]

ML Sharma vs Kejriwal: The Supreme Court has admitted advocate ML Sharma’s petition against Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and law minister Somnath Bharti for “creating chaos in the heart of the capital by going on in an unprecedented 10-day sit-in protest” [India Today]

MHAA strikes some more: The Madras High Court Advocates Association continues working on the demand for recall of the list of judgeship recommendations at the HC, by shunning work yet again – courts were boycotted again today and additionally a “day long hunger strike” from 10am to 4pm was launched. The MHAA also resolved to urge dropping of the ten-year old Supreme Court contempt proceedings against Tamil Nadu Advocates Association president S Prabhakaran [New Indian Express]

Kejri for president’s rule? Former Delhi high court judge RS Sodhi said he sees AAP leader and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s protest as a face-saving tactic to bring about president’s rule and quit from his post as a “gullible martyr” as the party has realised it is beyond its power to govern the city [Telegraph India]

Delhi HC CAG audit order appealed: The Association of Uniform Telecom Service Providers of India has moved the Supreme Court against the Delhi high court verdict allowing the Comptroller and Auditor General the power to audit their accounts [The Hindu Businessline]

Delhi law min under bar council lens: The Delhi Bar Council decided to meet today to discuss disciplinary action against Delhi law minister Somnath Bharti against whom reports of “tampering with evidence” as an advocate last year, emerged last week. Bharti meanwhile also faces an FIR relating to an alleged assault of a Ugandan women by unnamed persons in a Delhi basti, and the National Human Rights Council has also taken cognisance of the matter [Zee News]

AAP vs Delhi police: Delhi may see the arrest of its chief minister (CM) as newly elected CM Arvind Kejriwal and his AAP party stage protests at the home ministry today to press for the suspension of five policemen who disobeyed Delhi law minister Somnath Bharti’s orders to arrest Ugandan women suspected of drug trafficking. AAP has demanded that the Delhi police be brought under the Delhi government [IBN Live / NDTV’s live blog]

Delayed MP bar council polls: The delayed Madhya Pradesh state bar council elections pushed a contestant – advocate Dwarkadhish Chowdhary – to write to the Bar Council of India (BCI) requesting for a special committee to to take charge of the elections in the state bar “to save and maintain fairness” [Free Press Journal]

Additional judges in Kerala HC: Justices Alexander Thomas, Muhamed Mustaque Ayumantakath, Ala Kunnil Jayasankaran Nambiar and Anil Kalavampara Narendran were appointed additional judges of the Kerala high court on Friday [PTI]

Editors Guild on Swatanter gag: The Editors Guild has taken exception to the Delhi high court’s “gag order” restricting media reporting news of the sexual harassment case against former SC justice Swatanter Kumar, calling it “a mockery of the rule of law” [TOI]

Indira Jaising, by Outlook: Outlook profiles Additional Solicitor General Indira Jaising as the staunch supporter of women’s rights who is due to retire in April. “I’d rather be remembered as a woman who raised the issue of integrity in the highest court of the land,” says Jaising

Swatanter wins media blackout: The Delhi HC has provided former SC judge Swatanter Kumar interim relief in the defamation suit he had filed against three media houses. The HC prohibited the media from publishing anything beyond the court’s orders in his ex-intern’s sexual harassment PIL against him, including his photographs [Hindustan Times]

Bar boycott of Swatanter’s NGT: The All India Bar Association has asked its over 10,000 Delhi members to boycott the National Green Tribunal’s Delhi bench until its current head Swatanter Kumar quits the post. Kumar is accused of sexual harassment by his former intern from NUJS Kolkata [PTI]

Judges immune from sex harassment complaints: The Supreme Court was yesterday stuck on the question of absence of mechanism to deal with sexual misconduct cases against its sitting and retired judges, while hearing the ex-intern’s sexual harassment case against Swatanter Kumar. The matter has been posted to 14 February for further hearing [DNA India]

CBI to get more autonomy: CBI on the road to autonomy has gained central government secretary-rank status for its chief and power to approve spending up to Rs 15 crore, as opposed to earlier when it infamously waited 100 days for government approval on a laptop’s purchase and three months for a mobile phone [TOI]

Publicity shy CJI: The Chief Justice of India P Sathasivam refused permission to publish his photograph in a September advertisement for the release of India’s first customised PIN code for the apex court, an RTI has revealed [PTI]

Lower court jurisdiction enhancement: The Delhi government is giving final shape to a proposal to enhance Delhi’s lower courts’ pecuniary jurisdiction from Rs 20 lakh to Rs 2 crore, to reduce burden on the Delhi HC [PTI]

Prosecutorial vacancies ad inept: Prosecutors decried the Delhi government advertisement for 20 prosecutorial vacancies as an ad-hoc measure that is bound to fail. The ad, which comes a month after the Delhi HC’s direction to the government to fill prosecutorial vaclawyerancies, stated that only retired prosecuting officers and assistant public prosecutors with at least 2 years in the post could apply [Indian Express]

Delhi law min bad PR salvage: Delhi law minister Somnath Bharti attempted to rebut bad press that followed yesterday’s reports by a an ex-judge accusing him of professional misconduct, while he was practising as a lawyer. Bharti released a press statement saying that he “had let go of [his] disagreement with lower court and then HC’s orders/judgements” because after his then-client already got bail, there was no reason left to challenge the order [TOI]

Pendency spiral: MJ Antony takes a look at arrears and incidental matters: All Indian courts: 32 million pending cases; SC – 66,349; Delhi HC – over 1,20,000 cases. Another commentator bemoans that the SC has stopped publishing its quarterly review Court News regularly after 2009. Also adds that 10 out of 29 current judges are retiring in the next few months, this year will see three chief justices, the Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2013 will be shelved and tribunal vacancies are a different tale altogether [Business Standard]

Delhi law min tarnished personal record: Delhi law minister Somnath Bharti has, to his name, observations by a former CBI special judge in August for tampering with evidence during a trial. The judge observed in her order: “The conduct of accused Pawan Kumar and his advocate (Bharti) is not only highly objectionable, unethical but also amounts to tampering with evidence.” [TOI]

Bharat Ratna sought for Krishna Iyer: Former SC judge Krishna Iyer, who is hailed as one of India’s leading jurists and who celebrated his 99th birthday recently, must be conferred with a Bharat Ratna, the Bar Council of India has urged to the President of India, supported by Fali S Nariman, PP Rao, Soli Sorabjee, Ashok Desai, KK Venugopal, RKP Shankardass, Dispankar Gupta, KN Bhat, Surendra G Desai, Mukul Rohatgi and Lalit Bhasin [Deccan Chronicle]

Murugesan chairing KHRC protested: Former Delhi HC chief justice D Murugesan has expressed reluctance to chair the Karnataka State Human Rights Commission, after protests by Kannada organisations over his selection ostensibly due to his inability to communicate in the local language. The state government is trying to convince Murugesan to take the post which lies vacant since July 2012 [The Hindu]

Sibal’s fresh stab on JAB: Union law minister Kapil Sibal has given a fresh push to the Judicial Accountability Bill, with a new provision covering even former judges heading various tribunals and other statutory bodies who do not face the possibility of legal action other than a presidential reference [TOI]

Manu Singhvi telecom diaries: The Economic Times profiles senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi’s tryst with shaping the course of India’s telecom sector, including setting up of telecom regulator TRAI, through his advisory roles for the biggest telecom players since 1993. “His fees sometimes border on extortion, but the results of his cases are seldom undesired," a junior lawyer told the ET about the senior who became the highest tax-paying Indian advocate last year with earnings crossing Rs 70 crore

Datar laments woeful corp fraud justice: Senior advocate Arvind P Datar who argued for the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) in its 5-year long battle with Sahara, laments the flimsy conviction rate and sluggish trials that corporate frauds face in India, as compared to other jurisdictions [Money Life]

Swatanter Kumar lashes back: Former SC judge and National Green Tribunal head Swatanter Kumar – who was accused of sexual harassment by an ex-intern from NUJS Kolkata according to Friday’s media reports – sent a legal notice to three media houses demanding an apology from them within 24 hours for publishing “incredulous and false” allegations against him [PTI]

Clifford Chance now CV-blind to nix Oxbridge bias: UK-magic circle firm Clifford Chance has introduced the “CV-blind” policy for graduate recruitment, giving no information of a candidate’s institutional affiliation to final interviewers at the firm, to reduce the Oxbridge bias in its intake. In its first year of operation the scheme saw 100 recruits from 41 different educational institutes – a 30 per cent rise in the number representation from last year [Independent]

Delhi judiciary transfer lists released: The transfer lists for the Delhi lower and higher judiciary have been released. All six joint registrars of the Delhi HC have now been replaced, and two new registrars have also been added with creation of two new courts for them. 49 judges from the lower judiciary have been promoted to the higher judiciary with the creation of 39 new courts in he higher judiciary for them [DK Mahant]

Bombay HC pendency busting judge: Bombay HC justice Gautam S Patel has, targeting pendency reduction, realigned his case schedule according to urgency of matters. He has also drawn a weekly working schedule for the court and categorised all pending cases [New Indian Express]

Himachal HC judges retire: Himachal Pradesh HC judtices Kuldip Singh and DD Sud will retire, respectively, on 17 January and 18 February [Hindustan Times]