Bombay high court

The deadline for filing the Bombay high court counter affidavit by Amarchand Mangaldas Mumbai managing partner Cyril Shroff to rebut his brother Shardul’s case has been extended for the second time to 20 February 2015.

The court-sanctioned mediation between the brothers has been extended too from its earlier closing date of 31 December 2014 to the end fo January, after a Bombay high court hearing yesterday.

The Congress’ Maharashtra unit Wednesday moved Bombay high court challenging the constitutional validity of the Devendra Fadnavis-led BJP government and seeking its dismissal.

Former minister M Naseem Khan filed a writ petition before the court questioning the constitutional validity of the nearly month-old government and terming it as “illegal”.

Justice VM Kanade has posted the matter for hearing Friday (Nov 28), he said.

After the Oct 15 elections, Maharashtra threw up a fractured verdict in which the Bharatiya Janata Party secured 123 seats (which came to 122 after a legislator’s death), the Shiv Sena got 63, the Congress 42 and the Nationalist Congress Party 41, with the remaining 18 going to independents and smaller parties.

“Fadnavis approached the Governor C V Rao to stake claim to form the government claiming it had the requisite majority in the 288-member assembly, and was asked to prove it (majority) within 15 days,” Khan, a legislator from Mumbai, told IANS

However, Khan said that the vote of confidence in the assembly Nov 12 was passed by a voice vote.

“Nobody knows how many MLAs (legislators) voted in favour of the government or against it in the voice vote. Our stand is that this remains a minority government which does not enjoy the confidence of the house and must be dismissed immediately,” he contended.

Later the Congress and Shiv Sena had led separate delegations to Governor Rao questioning the validity of the Nov 12 trust vote.

Khan also claimed that all the major decisions taken by this government are “illegal” and must be set aside.

Former additional solicitor-general of India B A Desai and former solicitor-general of India TR Andhyarujina will appear on behalf of Khan in the case.

Fadnavis was sworn-in as chief minister Oct 31 at the head of a 10-member ministry which is likely to be expanded shortly.

Senior counsel Iqbal Chagla told the Bombay high court in his closing remarks that his client Cyril Shroff would be filing an affidavit showing the “deep involvement” of his brother in the will.

Live from Bombay high court court room number 10 today, before Justice RD Dhanuka.

Several months ago a born-and-bred Mumbaikar advocate returned all of his Bombay high court briefs and literally drove his BMW to make Delhi and the Supreme Court his new home. Why?

Are you dreaming of becoming the next superstar Bombay counsel like Fali Nariman or Janak Dwarkadas?

The Bombay high court has served a show cause contempt notice on the Mumbai Mirror for reporting a litigant’s allegation made in court earlier this year that a judge hearing was corrupt.

The Bombay high court has ordered costs of Rs 40 lakh against 10 petitioners who filed a property matter that Justice Gautam Patel called a “sponsored” petition “without the faintest glimmer of merit. It is precisely the kind of litigation -- speculative, lacking in bonafides, sponsored, an abuse of process of law and of the court and perhaps even a fraud on the court -- that our Supreme Court has repeatedly decried and deprecated, even said should be visited with exemplary and penal costs".

The costs were to be paid to the respondent developer, who claimed that they had to spend significant costs defending themselves against the action, reported the PTI, though the court nevertheless intermittently stayed the development of land the petitioners had challenged so they could launch an appeal.

The Bombay high court has designated 11 new senior counsel, including three outside Mumbai, Economic Laws Practice (ELP) partner Vikram Nankani, and one woman.

Khaitan & Co won a copyright infringement suit in the Bombay high court for once-$7.6bn King.com, the creator of the hugely popular mobile device game Candy Crush Saga .

The Advocates’ Association of Western India (AAWI) has asked chief minister Prithviraj Chavan that an extension to the Bombay high court should be built in the Bandra Kurla Complex in the Mumbai suburbs, to allow for more courts, chambers and storage of documents DNA

Sessions court judge MT Gaikwad has been suspended in South Mumbai after a preliminary inquiry about a complaint from a female member of the court staff complained of his “inappropriate behaviour” - in particular, by staring at her in an offensive manner, reported the PTI. The preliminary inquiry was conducted by special judge SD Tulankar, with Gaikwad now facing a departmental inquiry.