HL Dattu
The Gujarat government on Wednesday told the Supreme Court that sacked state cadre IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt, accused of hacking the email of its former law officer, could not ask which agency would undertake an investigation and how it would do so.
The All India Judges Association’s (AIJA) petition in the Supreme Court for a separate pay commission for lower court judge is up for response by the central government, reported Mint.
A bench of chief justice HL Dattu and justices Shiva Kirti Singh and Amitava Roy issued notice to the centre, in the case, yesterday.
AIJA’s petition states that there is no provision for increasing the pay scale of lower court judges in the seventh pay commission, thus neglecting 18,000 Indian judges.
The AIJA has prayed for directions to set up an independent pay commission - the All India Judicial Commission - to review the service conditions of the lower judiciary, which includes pay scale, pension and retirement age.
The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed, without giving any reason, a PIL seeking direction for the FTII students to end their three-month-long agitation against naming Gajendra Chauhan as the institute’s direction and for transparent policies for the appointment.
A bench headed by Chief Justice HL Dattu dismissed the PIL after letting advocate JP Dhanda argue for about 10 minutes without seeking any clarification.
The petition said various parties were trying to gain political mileage by exploiting the sentiments of students of the Pune-based Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) without any concern for their career.
It also sought a directive to the central government to frame transparent policies for the appointment of chairpersons of such institutions and the students to end their strike.
The government has rejected the students’ demand for replacing Chauhan with a prominent personality as FTII chief.
The bench also dismissed another PIL for ensuring smooth and orderly functioning of parliament.
Chief Justice of India HL Dattu and Justice Amitava Roy yesterday (31 August) granted a stay on the Rajasthan high court’s judgment delivered on August 10 criminalising the Jain community’s practice of Santhara – meaning abstinence from food and water by a person, who awaits death – and issued notice to the respondents in the case.
The Supreme Court today dismissed a petition seeking cancellation of bail of film star Salman Khan who was convicted and sentenced in a hit and run case.
The apex court bench headed by Chief Justice HL Dattu declined the plea by one of the alleged victims associated with the case and belonging to Mumbai Police.
The petitioner had challenged the Bombay high court order granting bail to Salman.
Salman was granted bail by the Bombay high court on the very day he was convicted and sentenced by the sessions court.
On May 6, Khan was found guilty in the September 28, 2002 hit and run case and sentenced to five years’ jail for various charges, including ‘culpable homicide not amounting to murder’.
One person was killed and four injured when the actor’s car ran over them while they were sleeping on a pavement.
The Supreme Court’s social justice bench comprising justices Madan B Lokur and UU Lalit heard seven cases between 2 and 4.15 p.m on Friday, August 28 but has failed to dispose of a single petition since it was set up in 2014.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday stayed the Gauhati High Court order directing a CBI probe against Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Nabam Tuki for alleged corruption in awarding state contracts to his family members.
An apex court bench headed by Chief Justice HL Dattu also issued notice to the Arunachal government and the private party on whose PIL the high court had directed the Central Bureau of Investigation probe.
The court’s order came as senior counsel Harish Salve, appearing for Tuki, sought to question the high court’s August 20 order.
It has been alleged that Tuki awarded contracts without inviting tenders when he was the minister for works.
Debate around the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) has often been emotive rather than dispassionate, with the discourse ranging from senior lawyer Ram Jethmalani calling it an “evil absurdity” to attorney general Mukul Rohatgi pointing to judges who habitually turned up late in court as a reason to ditch the existing collegium system to select judges.
In the wake of the bar’s stand-off with the Supreme Court bench, the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) of the “committee to oversee implementation of suggestions by SCBA” and a letter by SCBA president Dushyant Dave.
After in August 2013 banning interns from its premises on Mondays and Fridays - miscellaneous days - in order to fight overcrowding, the Supreme Court now plans to ban interns from entering the “high security” zone inside the court for security reasons.
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.
On yesterday’s penultimate day of hearing of Union of India vs V Sriharan @ Murugan, the battle lines were clearly drawn between the Central Government and the State Governments, most of whom are listed as respondents in this case.
The Financial Express and others reported:
The Supreme Court on Monday stayed the Bombay high court’s judgment that upheld the levy of service tax on services provided by lawyers and law firms to business clients with turnover of Rs 10 lakh and more.
A bench headed by Chief Justice HL Dattu while issuing notice to the ministry of finance, the Director General of Service Tax, Central Board of Excise and Customs, and others stayed the HC judgment on the petition filed by the Bombay Bar Association challenging the levy of service tax on lawyers, which was imposed with effect from May 1, 2011, and was changed to reverse charge (obligation was shifted to business entities from July 1, 2012). The issue pertains to the 14-month period between May 1, 2011, and July 1, 2012.
Service tax has been a long-running dispute between lawyers and the tax man after the 2011 budget hit advocates with service tax.