The Bench and the Bar

Breaking: Vodafone has been cleared by the Supreme Court of its $2.4bn tax case, according to authoritative Twitter and early news reports.

Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) president PH Parekh said today that he would continue in office because yesterday’s executive committee meeting, which accepted his verbal resignation and expelled three other members after Tuesday’s chaotic general meeting, was invalid because it was not quorate.

Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) president PH Parekh has verbally resigned over the ‘one bar one vote’ controversy in a packed SCBA meeting held in Supreme Court lawns this afternoon, according to authoritative sources.

The Central Information Commission (CIC) ruled that the government’s internal legal opinions should be made public under Right to Information (RTI) requests, which could result in Swan Telecom facing investigation by the ministry of corporate affairs in the 2G spectrum scandal, reported Mint today.

As expected after the winter court holidays, 2011’s Supreme Court case pendency closed with a spike, which could prove to be the final nail in the coffin of the project to reduce pending cases by the end of this financial year.

The Hindustan Times reported today that only 60 to 70 practising advocates in the Gurgaon district courts were women, compared to 1,200 men.

Legally India’s Pendency Project has made its debut in Mint today, after pending Supreme Court cases in November 2011 reached the highest number ever after increasing by more than 800.

Mint legal correspondent Nikhil Kanekal has surveyed leading Supreme Court counsel to compile a list of the year’s most impact-heavy cases heard by the apex court. Have your say and share your views.

Late last month a young Court Witness’ first special leave petition (SLP) was educated by The Eminent Senior Counsel and disciplined by a slightly less eminent senior counsel, leaving CW in a sweating mess. So, he waited, for the next day that his SLP would finally be heard. Little did he know what lay in store…

The hearing was over in a matter of seconds. The Court issued notice, stayed the High Court’s judgment and even granted us ‘dasti’.

Supreme Court Insider: Verbal explosives were hurled across the aisle during the Sohrabuddin fake encounter hearing in the Supreme Court of India today between additional solicitor general Indira Jaising, senior advocate Ram Jethmalani and former solicitor general Gopal Subramanium.

Mint has summarised the revolutionary case pendency stats prepared by the Supreme Court in a concise chart, while Legally India asked two academics researching case pendency for comment on Kapadia’s Law Day speech and the new figures.

Supreme Court Insider: From the start of the trial in the 2G spectrum scam case, the prime accused and main conspirator, former telecom minister A Raja, started a silent protest.

Exclusive: 71 advocates out of around 400 test takers have passed the June 2011 advocates-on-record (AOR) examination, making them part of the oligopoly of at least 1,000 advocates who can file petitions before the Supreme Court. However, the Delhi High Court has now taken up a writ challenging the AOR system and has approached the apex court for guidance.

More than two thirds of cases pending in the Supreme Court – nearly 40,000 – were stuck not because of judges but due to procedural delays, including unpaid fees, unserved notice or documents not filed by counsel, according to detailed data released for the first time by the court as a result of its exercise in cataloguing court delays.

Earlier this week, Court Witness thought he impressed his client by predicting the bench who would hear his treasured special leave petition (SLP), which learned to walk last week after having been nurtured since birth by CW.

CW and client then conspired to put together a winning team of eminent senior counsel and junior senior counsel (from the same state as the judge) to make sure the SLP had a good start to its life. Now the SLP is ready to go to school… Hopefully a good one.

In last month’s column, Court Witness described the labour pains of giving birth to a special leave petition (SLP). But after filing successfully with the goblin-like clerk Bakshi-ji the real work of raising an SLP was apparently only just beginning – now it needs to start taking its first steps...