The Bench and the Bar

Exclusive: A march by Lucknow lawyers petitioning for greater advocate welfare funds were cane-charged by police on Friday (25 February) leaving many injured. The leader of the protest Gaurav Bhatia, former FoxMandal partner and the co-founding partner of SRGR Law Offices, has vowed to file a writ petition next week challenging the action as the police filed 300 first information reports (FIRs) against them.

The Bombay High Court has upheld the trial court’s verdict imposing a death sentence on 26/11 convicted terrorist Ajmal Kasab, with an appeal before the Supreme Court and a plea for the President’s clemency now emerging as possible options to save him from execution.

The apex court yesterday rejected the second anticipatory bail application of Bar Council of India’s (BCI’s) vice-chairman and alleged co-accused R Dhanapal Raj in the CBI graft case, as defence counsel Ram Jethmalani’s assurances that appellants would not “tamper with evidence” failed to elicit positive response from the judges.

Goa lawyers have gone on strike protesting the suspension of a district judge, who they say was ousted for making an unpopular judgment.

The Delhi High Court has designated Delhi Bar Council Chairman Rakesh Tiku and nine other advocates, including two female lawyers, as senior counsels in a full court room meeting on 27 January.

Exclusive: Young Maharashtra and Goa bar council member Karan Bhosale has submitted a plan to tender a private service provider to kick-start the Bombay High Court and bar council into the digital information age.

Exclusive: Delhi Bar Council member Rajinder Singh Rana is understood to have withdrawn his bail plea in the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) of alleged law school accreditation bribes, as the Delhi High Court has now also denied anticipatory bail to the co-accused BCI vice-chairman R Dhanapal Raj after the end of four weeks of the Madras High Court-granted interim bail.

Exclusive: Vidhii Partners and senior advocate Rafiq Dada are representing Adarsh Cooperative Society in its Bombay High Court writ petition against the revocation of its occupation certificate by the Mumbai Metropolitan Regional Development Authority (MMRDA) after the 31-storied building’s construction was declared illegal last year following the unearthing of the multi-crore housing scam last year.

Exclusive: Senior advocate Anil Divan, whose public interest litigation (PIL) with Ram Jethmalani and others over the problem of black money stashed abroad, has slammed the government for equating the problem to mere tax evasion while commenting on the future of the case concerning up to Rs 70 lakh crore ($1.4trn) of wealth that is believed to be parked by Indians in foreign banks and tax havens.

Chennai advocate Elizabeth Seshadri has condemned the endemic exchange of votes in Tamil Nadu bar council elections for promises of cash and called for the Bar Council of India (BCI) to intervene following a Times of India report alleging that a bar council candidate had offered Rs 19 lakh to a lawyers’ association in the state’s southern district in exchange for 800 votes.

The Delhi High Court has rejected the third bail application of Bar Council of India (BCI) member Rajinder Singh Rana, who with two other lawyers is accused of taking a bribe to accredit a law college.

The court held that bar council members were “public servants” and the Prevention of Corruption Act would apply, also agreeing with the CBI’s argument that Rana’s influential status would hamper investigations if released on bail.

Read on for the full allegations, evidence and chronology of events, according to court documents.

Senior advocate Fali Nariman has written to former justice V R Krishna Iyer supporting his call for a judicial probe into allegations of unaccounted wealth accumulated by ex-CJI (Chief Justice of India) Balakrishnan’s relatives as another such case is being brought to fore.

Senior advocate and BJP (Bhartiya Janta Party) leader Ram Jethmalani and senior congress leader Digvijay Singhhas have offered to defend activist medical doctor Binayak Sen who was recently convicted of sedition against the Chhattisgarh state and sentenced to life imprisonment by a trial court there.

Former Chief Justice of India (CJI) KG Balakrishnan and his family have been accused of amassing wealth exceeding their declared sources, according to a number of media organisations.