•  •  Dark Mode

Your Interests & Preferences

I am a...

law firm lawyer
in-house company lawyer
litigation lawyer
law student
aspiring student
other

Website Look & Feel

 •  •  Dark Mode
Blog Layout

Save preferences

Supreme Court

19 May 2014

Retired Supreme Court judge Justice KS Radhakrishnan, in a brief interview in the Indian Express, talked about some of his landmark cases and challenges facing the judiciary. [Indian Express]

15 May 2014

Supreme Court Justice Jagdish Singh Khehar told the Supreme Court registry on 6 May, the evening after passing its scathing judgment against Sahara chief Subrata Roy and his lawyers, that he did not want to be on the new bench that would hear the Sahara matter after the bench headed by retiring Justice KS Radhakrishnan would be reconstituted after the holidays, reported the Indian Express.

According to the paper, Khehar also said that he did not want to be on any bench hearing any matters related to a Sahara group company in future. Justice Radhakrishnan had made comments last week that he had faced "pressure, tension and strain" over the Sahara hearings, which found voice in an unprecedented written judicial diatribe against lawyers abusing the system and trying to manipulate the justice system.

14 May 2014

Swatanter Kumar A former intern, who had alleged that ex-Supreme Court judge Swatanter Kumar has sexually harassed her in 2011, has applied to the Supreme Court to transfer Kumar’s defamation case.

14 May 2014

Gopal Subramanium Facing a long string of retirements during his term, Chief Justice of India (CJI) RM Lodha has recommended the elevation of two former solicitor generals to the apex court.

08 May 2014

A Supreme Court bench of justices KS Radhakrishnan and Vikramajit Sen gave the green light to the Tamil Nadu-based Kudankulam nuclear power plant, after being satisfied with the safety measures and compliance of the central government and responsible authorities.

Activist G Sudarrajan represented by Prashant Bhushan had filed a petition seeking an injunction on commissioning of the plant, alleging that the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) had hurriedly granted a clearance and that sub-standard equipment was in used.

Story to be updated with judgment when available [Indian Express]

08 May 2014

The sexual harassment case against NUJS Kolkata assistant registrar Siddhartha Guha, who was arrested late last year after a female staff member accused him of sexual harassment and violent threats, has climbed to the apex court over cancellation of his bail.

The woman, represented by advocates Siddharth Dave and Phiroze Edulji appealed to the Supreme Court for Guha's bail to be cancelled, after the trial court granted him bail after 14 days in jail, but Guha had filed a caveat petition in the apex court alerting him to the challenge.

The bench of justices Ranjana Prakash Desai and NV Ramana asked Guha's lawyer and the West Bengal government for arguments after the court vacations on why his bail should not be cancelled. [Times of India]

07 May 2014

Supreme Court justices KS Radhakrishnan and Pinaki Chandra Ghose have banned Tamil Nadu bull fighting at the Jallikattu festival, which "severely harmed" the bulls and was illegal under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act (PCA) BBC.

The judges wrote: "Bulls cannot be used as performing animals, either for the Jallikattu events or Bullock-cart Races in the State of Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra or elsewhere in the country. We, therefore, make the following declarations and directions: 1) We declare that the rights guaranteed to the Bulls under Sections 3 and 11 of PCA Act read with Articles 51A(g) & (h) are cannot be taken away or curtailed, except under Sections 11(3) and 28 of PCA Act." Judgment

07 May 2014

A five-judge constitution bench of CJI RM Lodha and justices HL Dattu, Chandramauli KR Prasad, Madan B Lokur and MY Eqbal ruled in favour of the Tamil Nadu government that the Kerala government must not restrict the water levels in the Mullaperiyar dam.

The bench said that the Kerala law from 2006 was unconstitutional because it violated the doctrine of separation of powers and interfered with the judiciary, which before the law was passed had ordered to raise the dam's water level, reported the Indian Express and The Hindu.

The Supreme Court has now set up a supervisory committee to oversee the raising of the water levels. [Judgment (PDF 158 pages)]

06 May 2014

The alleged victim of snooping by the Gujarat government has approached Supreme Court justices Ranjana Prakash Desai and NV Ramana with her father to restrain the central and state governments from launching an inquiry into the alleged abuse of surveillance powers, claiming that any probe would be violation of their Constitutional right to private life.

In their petition they pleaded: "The constitution of commission by the state government is wholly unwarranted and unjustified. The attempt being made by the central government to constitute a similar commission which would necessarily infringe upon and encroach upon right to privacy of the petitioners and their family which would clearly be unwarranted and unjustified and would be violative of the fundamental rights of the petitioners and their family members as guaranteed under Article 21 of the constitution...

"Such sinister campaign by vested groups under the guise protecting the privacy of petitioners has resulted into tarnishing the reputation and infringing upon the petitioners and their family members right to privacy, causing them immense anguish and suffering." [PTI]

06 May 2014

The Supreme Court has upheld the validity of the Right to Education Act under Article 15(5) and 21-A of the Constitution about compulsory education to six to 14-year-olds.

Sitting in two related cases, the constitution bench of CJI RM Lodha and justices AK Patnaik, Dipak Misra, SJ Mukhopadhaya and Ibrahim Kalifulla also ruled as valid the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act 2009, and the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Rules 2010, reported The Hindu.

See RTE Judgment: Pramati Educational and Cultural Trust judgment.

In a second education case, the bench decided that the Karnataka government could not force non-Kannada native speakers to use Kannada as the main medium of instruction in primary schools, reported the Hindu.

See: State of Karnataka Associated Management of Primary and Secondary Schools judgment.

05 May 2014

A Supreme Court bench told the residents of the society that had been built illegally that they would have to vacate the building by 31 May, despite an earlier order staying their eviction in the midst of a media circus seven months ago. [Hindustan Times]

05 May 2014

The Supreme Court has dismissed a petition by ex-Maharashstra chief minister Ashok Chavan into whether the Election Commission can probe "paid news" allegations in cases where the expense was not accounted for in candidates' election returns.

The bench of justices Surinder Singh Nijjar and Justice Fakkir Mohamed Ibrahim Kalifulla said that the Election Commission would hear the complaint for 45 days daily. A rival had alleged in 2009 that Chavan had paid for a supplement in a Marathi daily but had not disclosed the expense in the returns, which Chavan and the paper deny, with Chavan having approached the Delhi high court for a stay of the EC case in 2010, which was declined [IANS]

02 May 2014

The Bombay Lawyers Association wrote to Chief Justice of India RM Lodha about an incident alleged by senior counsel Dushyant Dave in March about Supreme Court Justice CK Prasad hearing and deciding on a property matter listed before another bench himself: "We expected some response to our letter but unfortunately our expectations were belied. It is possible that at the end of his tenure, Chief Justice Sathasivam was hard-pressed for time and could not give the necessary attention to our request." [DNA]

30 April 2014

"The temperature has soared up and the gentleman is not well," senior advocate Rajiv Dhawan told justices KS Radhakrishnan and JS Khehar, appearing for the Sahara group and its boss Subrata Roy, who has been jailed for failing to turn up to Supreme Court hearings and not repaying amounts owed to investors. [PTI]

30 April 2014

SathasivamRights lawyer Monalisa argues that the former Chief Justice of India (CJI) P Sathasivam introduced a seldom-seen sensitivity into the Supreme Court’s jurisprudence and culture, though one major opportunity was clearly missed.

29 April 2014

The Supreme Court of India has appointed ex Australian high court judge Michael Hudson McHugh to preside over the $1.8bn arbitration between the government and Reliance Industries (RIL) relating to the KG basin.

Supreme Court Justice SS Nijjar had originally picked ex-Australian Supreme Court judge James Spigelman in late March but several days later withdrew his suggestion because Spigelman was on a list of preferred arbitrators of Reliance.

Reliance counsel Harish Salve had requested a foreign arbitrator, while the oil ministry was rooting for an Indian head arbitrator. [PTI] [2 April: SC U-turns]