Ashwini Kumar
Telecom minister Kapil Sibal is the fifth law minister in less than five years after Ashwini Kumar resigned from the post on Friday.
New lawmin? Law minister Ashwini Kumar may soon be replaced through either a minor cabinet reshuffle or a senior minister taking the additional charge of the law ministry, according to CNN-IBN’s sources [CNN-IBN]
Dutt jail confirmed: SC today dismissed Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt’s review petition against the SC’s confirmation of his five-year jail term under the Arms Act in the 1993 Mumbai blasts case [IE]
Unholy holidays: The SC doesn’t need 50 days of vacation, the Delhi HC doesn’t need 30, the Bombay HC 25, and the Madras HC 32-days of summer holidays, when faced with “nationally important” issues such as the coal scam, SEBI v Sahara, and an apex court pendency of 67,320 cases among other things, asserts R Jagannathan [Firstpost]
Nalsar voyeur action: Nalsar Hyderabad executive council has vowed to set up a committee to take short and long term action against the victimisation of women by voyeuristic media. This follows Friday’s incident where TV channels aired and uploaded distorted news segments of an altercation involving party-going female Nalsar students outside a city pub [Hindu / Firstpost]
Hack to check Katju: Markandey Katju “hungry for cheap popularity, “would cause much more harm to Indian society in his remaining term” if not “checked” says journalist Arvind Pansare’s petition in the Bombay HC challenging the Press Council Act 1978 for not providing a process for removal of the PCI chairman [TOI]
Lawbreaker lawmin? Lawmin Ashwini Kumar does not deny charges of vetting the CBI’s status report on the coal blocks allocation controversy, along with other PMO officials. BJP demands his resignation for misuse of the CBI [IE]
Tackling school suicides: Nalsar organises 21 April meet to discuss student suicides in universities; two-judge bench of the Andhra Pradesh HC orders all state universities to attend [TOI]
Pondering porn: SC’s chief justice bench admits PIL on making watching pornography a non-bailable offence. Senior advocate MN Krishnamani appearing for the petitioner asserts that porn is affecting “peace of mind, health and wellness, happiness and human potential” [TOI]
India’s first woman additional solicitor general Indira Jaising wrote to the law minister Ashwini Kumar criticising the government’s decision to drop several “competent” woman lawyers from the panel of advocates for handling government litigation in the Supreme Court.
She also wrote to chief justice of India Altamas Kabir requesting for the provision of crèche facilities in the Supreme Court for the toddlers of practicing women lawyers.
Excerpts from Jaising’s letter to Kumar:
This can only send a very wrong message to the (legal) profession as a whole and to women in particular that there is no place for them in the profession. Even otherwise, the perception among people is that only those with powerful godfathers or godmothers (of which there may be very few) can progress in the profession
Several women I know who have assisted me competently have been dropped from the panels with no notice or appreciable reason
I recognize that 'merit' and 'competence' must be the guiding principles in making appointments and selection, but it is a matter of common knowledge that 'merit' itself is not a neutral word but a social construct, which tends to entrench the privilege of the privileged. [TOI]
A heated exchange between Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) president PH Parekh and suspended secretary KC Kaushik at the SC’s Law Day celebrations yesterday caused dignitaries including law minister Ashwini Kumar and chief justice of India Altamas Kabir to temporarily leave the venue.
Kaushik and Parekh were arguing over who will be in charge of the function, after Kaushik insisted he preside over it as SCBA secretary. [PTI]
Legally India had reported on Friday that Kaushik had accused Parekh and SCBA vice president and Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Rakesh Khanna of conspiring against him, and had in October end demanded that they sit for a polygraph test.
Kaushik was suspended from the post of secretary last year after he allegedly advertised his son’s law practice in the SCBA member diaries. He remains suspended pending the final report of the SCBA inquiry against him.
Kaushik who was on the podium announced the arrival of the Chief Justice and asked the SCBA president and vice-president to escort him to the dais. At this point, Parekh rushed to the podium, pushed Kaushik aside and announced that he (Kaushik) had been suspended and was no longer the secretary.
Kaushik then grabbed the microphone from the podium and told Parekh to stick to his job and let him conduct the proceedings. [India Today pictures of altercation]
Law minister Ashwini Kumar was presented with five complaints against sitting Supreme Court judges on the first day he assumed office last week. Refusing to name the judges, the former senior advocate said all complaints were “in bad taste”.
His predecessor in the law ministry, Salman Khursheed, had received 98 "representations or complaints", according to Khursheed’s statement in the parliament. [DNA India]