Bar Council of India (BCI)
The Bar Council of India (BCI) has announced on the the official All India Bar Exam (AIBE) website that candidates can get their answer sheets rechecked for a Rs 200 fee until 26 March.
The Bar Council of India (BCI) has announced the sixth Qualifying Examination for the Indian Nationals holding Foreign Law Degrees to take place between 24 and 29 March 2014 in Delhi over six exam papers [BCI notice]
Only three candidates sat for the fourth edition of the exam in 2012, with only one passing [Legally India]
Supreme Court justice Dipak Misra asked the Bar Council of India (BCI) to not “please electoral politics”, in a BCI golden jubilee conference closing speech.
Prime ministerial hopeful Narendra Modi, Bar Council of India chairman Manan Kumar Mishra and legion of judges convened at a BCI function in Gandhinagar.
The results for the sixth All India Bar Exam (AIBE) are now accessible, according to Legally India reader reports.
The results for the sixth All India Bar Exam (AIBE) should have been published on the official website, having been scheduled to have been announced yesterday, 25 February, but candidates have reported no success in accessing their results so far.
Bar Council of India (BCI) chief Manan Kumar Mishra said in a conference hosted by the American Bar Association yesterday that the BCI, in the second week of March, would “pass a resolution to amend Rule 36 in Section IV of the BCI Rules to allow lawyers and law firms to have their own websites”, reported Bar & Bench.
In 2010 the Delhi bar council vowed to crack down on law firm websites but quickly backed down from the proposal. However, in 2008 the Delhi bar council had allowed law firms to have websites within the existing restrictions on advertising. The amendment stated that advocates would be allowed to furnish “website information as prescribed in the Schedule under intimation to and as approved by the Bar Council of India”, which permits little more than publishing advocates’ contact details, qualifications and areas of specialisation.
Research and a column published on Legally India in 2012 pointed out most law firms and their websites were in “blatant violation” of the BCI’s advertising rules.
Rajasthan HC judge accused of locking up daughter over ‘wrong’ caste boyfriend
Rajasthan high court Justice Raghvendra Singh Rathore has allegedly locked his 30-year-old daughter up at home to stop her marrying a man from another caste, who has now filed a Supreme Court petition against the illegal detention [IBN Live] Update: The Supreme Court has ordered the release of the daughter. “She is a major and has the liberty to make her choice in marriage,” said Justices HL Dattu and C Nagappan [AFP]
TN bar council locks horns with BCI over upper age-limit for LLBs
TN bar council Although the Bar Council of India (BCI) has abolished the controversial upper age limit of 35 years for students taking law degrees, the Tamil Nadu bar council has retained the age ceiling, and reinforced it in a resolution on Saturday (14 December). The conflict has left thousands of students in the state, who enrolled in law courses between 2008 and 2011, in limbo, said the BCI, which is looking into the matter [TOI]
CJI: Bench must understand new phenomenon of frivolous litigation
CJI Sathasivam said that long-pending mercy petitions and other frivolous litigations are a new challenged that the bench must learn to understand in order to tackle effectively [The Hindu]
NLS safe but BU campus isn’t one year after rape
NLSIU Bangalore campus now safe after curfew and more guards, one year after the rape of a student near the adjoining Bangalore University campus, where ‘fear still stalks varsity students’, reported the New Indian Express
Delhi HC confirmation of gang rape verdict likely in Jan
The Delhi high court’s verdict on whether the death sentence of the four rapists convicted in the December 2011 Delhi gang rape will likely be delivered in January [IANS]
BCI cozies up to NaMo
A delegation led by Bar Council of India (BCI) chief Manan Kumar Mishra met Narendra Modi on Saturday, inviting him to address the valedictory function of the Gujarat bar Council. According to a Gujarat state press release, the BCI respected Modi’s nationalism, while Modi called for better application of technology and faster disposal of criminal cases by improving forensic science education [TOI]
SC settles TDSAT-TRAI turf war: TRAI wins
Telecom tribunals’ TDSAT and TRAI’s three-and-a-half-year-long turf war has been finally put to rest by the Supreme Court which has held that the TDSAT has no business interfering in TRAI-made regulations. TDSAT can only hear and dispose of appeals against TRAI orders [Business Standard / SC judgment]
Crowds admire Kerala HC astrological garden
Kerala high court now has its very own astrological plant garden with 27 varieties of medicinal saplings that relate to the 27 constellations. Crowds thronged the HC complex on Friday in search of their medicinal star-sign flower pot [IANS]
AP HC allows lower courts to accept PILs
We haven’t succeeded in putting our finger on the legal provision Andhra HC chief justice KJ Sengupta has employed in reaching this conclusion: “The common man need not approach the high court for filing of PILs as it involves a cost factor. The filing of PILs can be done at munsiff magisterial courts also.” Can you? [PTI]
Madras HC asked for anti-sex harass cell: After the Allahabad HC is done constituting its anti-sexual harassment cell, the Madras HC is now also under the wave of demand for the cell after a PIL was filed in the HC asking for a mechanism to deal with the problem in all Tamil Nadu courts [TOI]
Bombay HC prioritises ‘younger’ senior citizens’ cases, lowers age limit
The “precedence age” – the age at which a litigant can get his case listed on priority in the Bombay HC – has reduced from 65 to 60. On 3 December the HC has issued a circular that if even one of the litigants party to a case have attained the age of 60, their case will be listed for final hearing and disposal on priority basis, on their request. In 1999, this age was fixed at 65 [PTI]
Madras HC lawyers against SC lawyers as their judges: Madras HC lawyers will have a 25 per cent empty roster rather than “importing a stranger” to fill judge seats in the HC, if their opposition to the appointment of three SC lawyers to the HC’s judgeship is anything to go by. The Advocates Association of the HC swears that the move will ‘'completely distort the present selection process”, because the appointment will not be made by the collegium’s recommendation but on the request of the SC’s Advocates-on-Record association [The Hindu]
Lawyer punches pesky customs officer for clients: A Madras HC lawyer has managed to make headlines for taking his solemn duty for his client a tad too seriously by roughing up the customs officer who held up his clients after their questioning at the unit was over [TOI]
The Bar Council of India (BCI) has postponed the All India Bar Exam (AIBE) scheduled for 22 December 2013, to 19 January 2014.
The Delhi bar council complaint against the December 16 rape convicts’ lawyer AP Singh was transferred to the BCI, which on Saturday issued a show-cause notice to Singh, reported the Hindu.
Singh had made sexist remarks to the media outside the Saket trial court that had convicted his clients, claiming that he would burn his daughter alive were she to be found having premarital sex or going out at night with a boyfriend. He later claimed that he was provoked into his remarks.
The BCI is examining whether his comments can attract the charge of “professional misconduct” under Section 35 of the Advocates Act.
August 2013 AIBE results now out.
The Bar Council of India (BCI) wants chartered accountants and auditors banned from advising on income tax matters of values below Rs 60 lakh, therefore leaving the domain exclusively to advocates, reported the New Indian Express.
The regulator has sent a communication dated 11 September to the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) in Delhi and the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) in Bangalore to delete clauses in Section 288(2) of the Income Tax Act 1995 that allow persons other than advocates from advising on tax matters, if the value of the matter is below Rs 60 lakh.
The BCI was acting on the report of its members S Prabakaran and Rameshchandra G Shah, which was considered at its 28 July meeting.
According to the report:
“Originally, under sec 44AB of IT Act, persons carrying on business having turn over exceeding Rs 60 lakh per year have to submit Tax Audit Report in Form 3CD duly signed only by CAs. The Act was redefined, and sec 44AD added to it in April, 2011, which included all business class assessees having a turn over `60 lakh and below within the ambit of tax audit. In view of the redefined clause, assessees approaching the CAs can declare less income and pay less tax. If they approach a legal professional, they have to declare fixed percentage of income and pay more tax, because of no authority to attach such Tax Audit Report. Then, nobody will approach the legal professionals and they will be indirectly threatened to extinction from income tax practice. This will amount to virtual withdrawal of the right conferred on legal professionals under Sec 288(2)(iii) of IT Act.”
Did you sit the fifth AIBE today (25 August 2013)? How was it for you? Did the questions make sense? Was there enough time? Did anyone cheat?
So, Legally India sometimes gets accidentally addressed mail making us privy to some of the less public proposals law firms receive.
NGT bans sand mining: The National Green Tribunal banned the practice of sand mining from riverbeds without the environment ministry’s clearance, complying with a 2012 order of the Supreme Court and responding to the suspension of young IAS officer Durga Shakti Nagpal who had conducted a drive against the sand mafia in Uttar Pradesh [Mint]
CJI overtaker, arrested: A man in Coimbatore was arrested after overtaking the wrong car – the one driving the chief justice of India (CJI) P Sathasivam around town, escorted by team of cops [NIE]
Sweeping new SEBI powers: Former SEBI executive director Pratip Kar discusses how SEBI’s July 18 ordinance giving it sweeping powers has provided it with the right machinery to play catch-up with errant companies who’re always ahead in the game [BS]
Parental marriage consent, precedent: Political party leader S Ramadoss used the Karnataka HC’s 2011 judgment requiring parental consent for love marriages by girls under 21 years of age, to buttress his argument for an amendment to that effect in the Hindu Marriage Act. Ramadoss said that the HC had explained the “untold misery and hardship” of parents of teenage girls falling in love, reported the [Hindu]
Political parties v RTI: Citizen groups in various parts of India are protesting against the government’s move to amend the RTI Act to exempt political parties from its purview. The other alternative available to the government was to file for a High Court stay on the Central Information Commission’s June order that had directed six national political parties to appoint a Central Public Information Officer (CPIO) under the Act [HT]
BCI enforces norms on university: After the Bar Council of India (BCI) reportedly found that only five full time faculty were available for 1,200 students at the Rajasthan University’s law college, instead of the UGC-devised 1:20 teacher-student ratio, it disallowed the university’s repeated pleas to begin the 2013 academic session, forcing admitted students to leave for other colleges [TOI]
The Bar Council of India (BCI), which is currently pushing for representation in Supreme Court and high court judges’ appointments, on Saturday staged a demonstration at Rajghat, Delhi demanding immediate withdrawal of the National Judicial Appointment Commission Bill terming it as an “affront on independence of judiciary”, reported the Hindustan Times.
The bill, which is up for introduction in the monsoon session of the parliament according to Deccan Chronicle, proposes to set up a six member Judicial Appointments Commission headed by the Chief Justice of India and including the law minister, a Rajya Sabha nominee, the leader of the opposition and two Supreme Court justices.
"We are totally against this National Judicial Appointment Commission Bill because of the fact that in the process of appointment of judges, we do not want any interference from any outsider, including the executive," BCI chairman Manan Kumar Mishra told Zee News.