MN Krishnamani
In the ongoing hearing of petitions seeking the right to worship for women devotees of the Sabarimala temple before a Justice Dipak Misra-led three-judge bench this afternoon at Court No.4, senior counsel KK Venugopal, while arguing for the temple board, said women could not be recruited to be fielded in the frontline of armed forces, because they lack courage.
The Bar Council of India (BCI) told the Supreme Court today that it unanimously agreed that advocates’ alleged assault of journalists and senior advocates outside of Patiala House district court last week was “really shameful” and a “very unfortunate... incident” that should not be tolerated, according to its affidavit published by Live Law, but that those attacks should be dealt with separately from the alleged attacks on the ‘unlawful assembly’ of JNU students who “need[ed] to be opposed strongly” and “strongly condemned”.
In the ongoing hearing of the challenges to imposition of President’s rule Arunachal Pradesh, the SC constitution bench recalled its notice issued to the state Governor, Jyoti Prasad Rajkhowa, when the AG, Mukul Rohatgi, pointed out that the Governor enjoys immunity under the Constitution.
The Indian judiciary has been grappling with the question of whether to permit foreign lawyers to practice in India for more than two decades. After yesterday’s hearing in the Supreme Court, it doesn’t look like any end is in sight.
Ex-Medical Council of India (MCI) president Dr Ketan Desai is facing a Supreme Court probe into all manner of allegations into the future of the profession’s regulator.
The Bar Council of India’s (BCI) appeal opposing entry of foreign law firms into India today inched forward in the Supreme Court, as the respondents finished filing their written submissions 32 months after the first hearing in the case.
SEBI, UPSC appealed more CIC orders than they answered RTIs. UPSC hides civil service mains papers most, while SEBI doesn’t like disclosing insider trading orders and chairman’s assets and liabilities [Express]
Punjab and Haryana HC gives back government job benefit of Leave Travel Concession (LTC) to Haryana subordinate judiciary. The government had denied LTC to 400 judges holding them as a “separate class” of government employees [TOI]
Kerala high court judge Pius C Kuriakose, presiding in that HC since 2002, has been recommended for the position of Sikkim high court’s chief justice [New Indian Express]
Dismissing Sahara’s request for extension of deadline to deposit the court-ordered Rs 24,000 crore with SEBI, Chief Justice of India (CJI) Altamas Kabir yesterday rebuked SCBA president MN Krishnamani for interfering in the SEBI V Sahara matter [NDTV]
Calling erroneous his own judgement sentencing the Rajiv Gandhi assassins to death 13 years ago, former SC judge KT Thomas said in an interview that it would be “constitutionally incorrect” to hang them now [TOI]
Recently-elected Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) president and senior advocate MN Krishnamani has vowed to file cases for his digital-artist son Anirudh Krishnamani against the Karnataka state government and a Bangalore art gallery, which withdrew the son’s exhibited paintings on the direction of the city police.
The police had taken cognisance of an oral complaint by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state media coordinator A.L. Shivakumar about the paintings depicting goddesses Kali, Mohini and Shiva-Sati in the nude.
Krishnamani Jr said:
This action of the police is completely against the fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution. [Kali] is called Digambara, which means clad in space or, in other words, naked. [Mohini] is the goddess of seduction. She is supposed to look seductive.
He said the painting depicting Shiva-Sati kissing in each other’s embrace, “was inspired by Kalidasa’s Kumarasambhava. Anybody who has read this text will know that it is far more graphic in its description of the Shiva-Parvathi union than [the painting]”. [The Hindu]
Senior advocate MN Krishnamani defeated senior advocate Rupinder Singh Suri by 136 votes to be elected the president of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) until May 2013 in yesterday’s first-of-its-kind SCBA members-only poll, in which 1340 advocates voted. 547 members voted with Krishnamani.
Breaking: Senior advocates Ram Jethmalani and PK Jain today withdrew their candidature for Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) president just before today’s 4:30pm deadline by which nominations for the 2013 elections could be withdrawn. Their withdrawals from the race follow senior advocate Adish Aggarwala yesterday, reducing the race for the SCBA president’s office to one between only three candidates after the incumbent PH Parekh did not run again for the post.