Legally Wired

BCI v Tamil Nadu police: The Bar Council of India (BCI) has written to the chief justice of the Madras HC requesting action against cops who registered a case against 20 advocates in Tamil Nadu who had visited the state police headquarters to lodge a complaint against the Kanyakumari district police [TOI]

Cross-border judicial training: India has offered to train Maldivian judges and judicial officers through linkages between the National Judicial Academy in Bhopal and the Judicial Training Academy in Villingili [BS]

Modi scoffs at lawmin: Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi takes a dig at law minister Kapil Sibal. Modi says: “We have a law minister here, who all his life made rounds of the Supreme court wearing a black coat, and when a scandal took place in IPL, he jumped to say he would draft a law on it, without realising that the centre did not have the capacity to do so. He did not know it is a state subject. He first went ahead to say he will make a law, then said he cannot make a law, what is this law minister who does not know the legal system.” [Parda Phash]

Billing high-low: After telco lawsuits coincided with an FDI drop from $2bn to $304m in one year in the Indian telecom market, which is the world’s second largest, communications minister Kapil Sibal, who is also now in charge of the law ministry, vows to resolve the lawsuits after discussion with the telcos [Bloomberg]

I-spy emulator: The UK Guardian’s expose of American eavesdropping program PRISM which sends user information from Gmail, Skype, Facebook and others to American spies, has dangerous analogies in India and its right to privacy [Firstpost] Meanwhile, the PRISM whistleblower has gone public after seeking shelter in Hong Kong [Guardian]

Late star: Rs 1,000 cr Operation Blue Star challenge over Golden Temple attack, mired for 29 years in Delhi high court over Rs 10 crore court deposit, lurches ahead again after Sikh shrine committee pays court fee [The Hindu]

Bench pressed: North- and Hyderabad-Karnataka region circuit benches in Dharwad and Gulbarga converted into permanent benches after bar’s long lobbying efforts [Business Standard]

Playing patience: 65-year-old files writ in Madras HC for Rs 3,000 government pension and Rs 5 lakh compensation after waiting for 42 years for employment exchange job in vain [New Indian Express]

Glivec dissected: Must-read (long) feature in the Caravan delving into the history, background and repercussions on the Novartis Supreme Court patent judgment and the future of IP laws in India and globally [Caravan]

Public interest injections: Serial PIL lawyer ML Sharma filed in the SC yesterday seeking cancellation of generic drugs maker Ranbaxy’s manufacturing license on the grounds that it fudged data and sold adulterated products in the US [ET]

Taskmaster SEBI: SEBI has taken action against 105 companies that have flouted its minimum public shareholding norms and have missed the 3 June deadline to dilute promoter stakes. It has suspended 33 companies [Hindu BL/order]

Free speech SLAPPed: The Centre for Internet & Society (CIS) discusses the increasing incidence of SLAPP suits (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation) and how they target free speech by holding a gun to the head of commentators and authors of academic opinion [CIS-India]

NHPC deal auction: 15 law firms including Luthra & Luthra and AZB & Partners will bid this month for a role on the divestment of 11.36 per cent stake in the National Hydropower Corporation for over Rs 2,200 crore [PTI]

CCI penance delays: The Competition Commission of India (CCI) is yet to realise a majority of the Rs 8,000 crore it has imposed in penalties since its inception, since all defaulters have appealed before the judiciary [SME Times]

Release thy neighbour: Supreme Court justice AK Ganguly is in Pakistan with SC lawyers Colin Gonsalves, Prashant Bhushan, Mukul SInha and Nijhari Sinha to attend an Indo-Pak conference on judicial activism, PIL, and human rights. The delegation will invite the Chief Justice of Pakistan to India to discuss the release of Pakistan’s prisoners in Indian jails [Pakistan Today]

Fat packets: Clifford Chance hikes newly-qualified associate pay up to £76,200 (Rs 67 lakh) with maximum bonus [The Lawyer]

Not sitting pretty: West Bengal advocate general Bimal Chatterjee sparked off courtroom drama in the Calcutta HC with his comments on state election commissioner Meera Pandey’s demand for extra security cover, which he called “arbitrary” and “whimsical”. He said: “Every day, new demands are being made one after another like a beautiful lady.” [NDTV]

Pfizer fires IP: Pfizer’s chief IP counsel told the Indian Pharma Alliance that “the parlous environment for patent rights in India has set the ground to render each and every one of those cited Pfizer patents without meaning in the Indian legal environment” [ET]

Katju probity for IPL probe? Ex-IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi's counsel Mehmood Abdi suggested PCI chairman Markandey Katju's name to conduct probe into the IPL spot-fixing scandal. He said: “Justice Katju is known for his professed views and action on issues of probity in public life, corruption, fairness and above all impartiality” [Indiatimes]

Neglected juveniles: Delhi HC directs that all Delhi jails will have a welfare officer, after noting that only 5 Delhi jails out of 11 have them. The absence of welfare officers and one social worker to work with each Special Juvenile Police Unit in the city has led to imprisonment of juvenile offenders in adult jails [Express]

Judge on marriage U/A: Karnataka HC justice K Sreedhar Rao observes that movies and IPL cricket matches are ruining the lives of youth who are not mature enough to be married at the current legally marriageable age of 18 for girls and 21 for boys. He considers raising the age limits while hearing two habeas corpus petitions to produce girls who had eloped with boys [NIE]

White collar advocates: Supreme Court justice BS Chauhan says: “India has become a haven for white collar criminals, who are advocated by ‘giant’ lawyers. If quality justice cannot be ensured to people, it is better to abolish the judicial system” [HT]

Taping court trials: Law minister Kapil Sibal to discuss audio recording options for trial court proceedings, with chief justices of high courts across the country. Sibal said: “In other countries, proceedings of trial courts are audio-recorded but not in India.... What the judge is saying, witness is saying, cross examination is saying, how work is taking place, nobody knows although the courts are public places.” [HT]

Open court: DHCBA called off its Delhi HC desertion strike yesterday after a day-long full court consideration of the lawyers body’s concerns against enhancing the HC’s pecuniary jurisdiction to Rs 2 crore [PTI]

Three day comedy: Network18 TV channel Comedy Central’s 10-day ban gets lifted on day three, after a Delhi HC division bench puts a stay on the I&B ministry’s order banning the channel for “vulgar” and “offensive” content [Indian Television]

Life is short, live it imprisoned: The SC has ruled that life imprisonment really involves incarceration for a convict’s whole life and not just for 14 years. Only the president and the governors can remit the sentence and allow the convict to be released [PTI]

Rajiv Gandhi PIL yojna: Chennai advocate V Santhakumaresan has filed a PIL in the Madras High Court asking for the reopening of the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case based on the reported statement of the CBI investigating officer that evidence in the case had not been handed over to the special investigation team [ANI]

Saucy Aussies: Aussie corporate lawyers have resorted to cold-calling clients to drum up new business. A Sydney firm source said: ““they’ll wait for a journalist to publish with an article saying X CEO is thinking about acquiring Y company, and they’ll straight away call them…” [Roll on Friday]

Deplorable score: The Hindu’s V Venkatesan attacks former SC judge Cyriac Joseph’s suitability for the National Human Rights Commission based on the number of judgments authored by him being “deplorably and consistently below average”. He writes: “In the history of the Supreme Court, some judges are celebrated merely because of their salient contributions to the interpretation of the law and the Constitution, and not because they wrote more judgments than their colleagues. Yet, the number of judgments written by a judge cannot be dismissed as being irrelevant […]”

NUJS bribe hackers: NUJS Kolkata students Monalisa Saha and Sreerupa Chowdhury won a $30,000 grant from the World Justice Project for their website Bribe Hackers which encourages victims of the offence of bribery to report their complaint online so that the Bribe Hacker team can investigate it and publicise those found guilty of the offence on their site [DNA India]

Simple living, high disposal: Madras High Court justice Chandru settles more than 96,000 cases in less than seven years. The Milli Gazette lauds him for declining to have a farewell in his honour on retirement, and personally bidding a goodbye to companion judges, court staff and others by going around he court premises on his last day

Raveendran for NBSA: Former SC justice RV Raveendran succeeds late justice JS Verma in becoming the chairman of the News Broadcasting Standards Authority (NBSA), the self regulatory initiative of the News Broadcasters Association (NBA). Raveendran retired from the SC on 14 October 2011 [Indian Television]

Comic relief: Network 18 owned TV channel Comedy Central has been prohibited from broadcasting for 10 days starting Saturday, after an inter-ministerial committee (IMC) set up by the information and broadcasting ministry found that several of its shows carried "obscene dialogues and vulgar words," which appeared to "offend good taste." [India Today]

FDI in AI: Delhi lawyer Ankit Jain has complained to the Competition Commission against the government allowing FDI in aviation but not in Indian Airlines. “The government is pumping in thousands of crores into AI to keep it alive and yet denying it even an outside chance of getting funding, management expertise of a foreign airline that may help it turn around,” said Jain [TOI]

Unpromoted women lawyers: Former Clifford Chance lawyer Stephanie Haladner said: “said: "There is an unconscious bias that is stopping women from getting promoted in law firms. […]One other issue for women that constantly comes up is that women tend not to be as good at promoting themselves within an organisation.” [Telegraph]

Witness protection: Delhi HC directs Delhi government to prepare a wintess protection program including focussing on assesment of risk to witnesses and protection of their identity [TOI]

SCOTUS in for taste of India: Indian-born US citizen Srikanth Srinivasan becomes the first person of South Asian descent to be on the track to the US Supreme Court bench, after the Senate unanimously approved his candidature for the US Court of Appeals for the District of Coumbia circuit [AFP]

New Karnataka AG 30K cases old: Senior advocate Ravivarma Kumar is the new advocate general of Karnataka, replacing predecessor CH Vijayashankar. He has appeared in over 30,000 cases in the Karnataka high court and the Supreme Court, including 8,000 cases where he argued for tenants under the Karnataka Land Reforms Act 1961 [Deccan Herald]

Justice for Jessica: The Delhi HC has dismissed perjury charges against 17 of the 19 hostile witnesses in the Jessica Lal murder case. The court has ordered suo moto prosecution against Bollywood actor Shayan Munshi and ballistic expert PS Manocha under Section 340 of the Code of Criminal Procedure [Hindu]

Alam for TDSAT: Former SC judge Aftab Alam will head the presently headless Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT), according to CJI Alatamas Kabir’s recommendation with new law minister Kapil Sibal’s nod. Former SC judge Cyriac Joseph was Kabir’s previous recommendation to the post but Sibal was opposed. Joseph may now be a TDSAT member [BS]

Anti-vacation PIL after vacs: Advocate K Shyam has petitioned the Madras HC against its summer vacations; the petition will be heard after the HC’s 1 May to 2 June summer vacations. Shyam asserts that the vacation was useful in the colonial days when the judges could not bear the heat, whereas now judges operate in an air-conditioned environment. Five lakh cases are pending before the Madras HC [Hindu]

Maha SIC on FIRe: The Maharashtra state Chief Information Commission has directed the Director General of Police to publish all first information reports (FIRs), except those decided by an officer of Commissioner level, on its website. The commission holds that uploading FIRs would curb the practice of bribing to obtain a copy of the report and soon denials of FIRs would be a thing of the past in Maharashtra [Money Life]

Sinha pours out: SEBI chairman UK Sinha on dealing with defaulters of the minimum public shareholding directives, slowing down markets to safeguard against algorithmic trading risks, the need for more enforcement powers and the lack of coordination between regulators [BS]

Judicially accepted live-ins: By holding that rape charges cannot be slapped against a man who did not marry a woman after physical intimacy with her, the Supreme Court has paved the way for judicial acceptance of cohabitation between unmarried men and women, writes The Times

Bloggers v Suerage: An Indian university lecturer was jailed in Dubai after he blogged against a Dubai-based private university. He was a senior lecturer at the Dubai university from 2008 to 2012 and had won relief against the university in a Dubai court for improper termination of his contract. After the court’s ruling he had blogged against the institution and moved Karnataka High Court for what he termed was a gross human rights violation [TOI]

Defence secrets out of CAGe: Supreme Court advocate Prashant Bhushan says he intends to challenge the appointment of former defence secretary Shashikant Sharma as the new Comptroller & Auditor General, as illegal and unconstitutional due to conflict of interest from having access to considerable secret defence information [TOI]

Negative list, service tax: The Delhi HC becomes the first high court to examine an issue under the new negative list regime of service tax. The court examined whether a foreman in a business chit fund can be taxed under this regime, and observed that ‘transaction in money’ per se is not a ‘service’ [BMR Advisors/Money Control]

Fitness test: Union law minister Kapil Sibal proposes to amend the Indian Penal Code to include a provision penalising sports-related offences, after the IPL spot fixing scandal. However, sports is a state subject in the Constitution of India. The law ministry is therefore seeking the attorney general’s opinion on its domain [TOI]

P&H AAG resigns: Punjab & Haryana’s additional advocate general Manish Bansal resigns after facing criticism over holding company director posts alongside his government post [TOI]

No Reliance on reportage: Anil Ambani’s ADAG threatened legal action against monthly magazine Caravan while they were reporting their 11,000-word profile on attorney general Goolam Vahanvati. Delhi law firm Agarwal & Associates acted for ADAG, The Hoot published the deets.

Feel me once, shame on you: iGate chief Phaneesh Murthy sacked for sexual harassment allegation after improper relationship with subordinate and investigation by outside counsel. At his former workplace, Infosys, Murthy was also accused of harassment, which was settled for $3m [Mint]

IPL PIL: A Public interest litigation (PIL) was filed yesterday in the Supreme Court asking for a special investigation team (SIT) probe into cricketing tournament Indian Premiere League’s (IPL) irregularities, including spot fixing. The SC dismissed the PIL giving time to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to complete its investigation within 1CC5 days [PTI/ESPN Cric Info]

CCI all grown up: At the Competition Commission of India’s (CCI) annual day yesterday finance minister P Chidambaram discussed the realistic possibility of the CCI soon being called upon to override decisions of other regulators [Business Today]

DoT demands promotion: The Department of Telecommunication (DoT) will invite proposals from various ministries by 9 June to give more power, resources and staff to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), according to an internal DoT memo seen by Mint

New Andhra CJ: Andhra Pradesh HC gets a new chief justice in Uttarakhand HC justice KJ Sengupta. Sengupta, who practised as a lawyer in the Calcutta high court and became acting chief justice there on 5 October 2012 [New Indian Express]

Paid Rs 61 lakh: Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer emerges as the UK’s highest paying law firm with a base salary of £65,000-£72,500 (Rs 54lakh – Rs 61lakh). It leads Linklaters, Slaughter & May, Allen & Overy, and Clifford Chance in that order [The Lawyer]

SC bars two-finger: The Supreme Court has held that the so-called “two-finger test” on female rape victims violates their right to privacy, and asked the government to provide better medical procedures to confirm sexual assault. Justices BS Chauhan and FMI Kalifulla said that rape survivors are entitled to legal recourse that does not re-traumatise them or violate their physical or mental integrity and dignity [PTI]

Ubuntu-Linux court: Jammu & Kashmir HC organises a “training-cum-awareness” program on the use of the Ubuntu-Linux operating system for judicial officers in the state’s district courts [Greater Kashmir]

Out-of-this-world Nalsar: The Centre for Air and Space Law (CASL) in Nalsar Hyderabad is launching new programs in aviation, space, telecommunications, GIS and remote sensing laws in June 2013 [The Hindu]

TRAI-ing new approach: On enforcing the 12 min/hour advertising cap on TV, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India head Rahul Khullar says: “I don’t have to win a fucking election. I am a regulator, I am answerable to Parliament, my job is to enforce the law. Once the regulation is issued, it is law. The telecom guys know this. The broadcasting guys are learning it late.” [Mint]

Facebook arrest: Supreme Court refuses to allow a blanket ban on arrest under Section 66 of the Information Technology Act 2000 for posting content on social networking sites, but reasserts that such arrests can only be made after permission from senior police officials [Hindu]

NLU targets: National law universities need a more rigorous curriculum, greater focus on post graduate courses, greater faculty focus on research, “higher benchmarks”, consultative regulation from the BCI, and integration of inter-disciplinary subjects argues the Hindu Businessline [HBL]

SEBI’s grey options: There are a number of options available to the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) between the two extremities of being ‘reactive’ or ‘proactive’ when dealing with capital market frauds, argues former SEBI executive director Sandeep Parekh [BS]

Sibal to-do: A Delhi-based lawyer chalks a to-do list for new law minister Kapil Sibal: A constitutional amendment to change the collegium system, appointment of law officers by the judiciary instead of the executive, amendment of economic laws, and reduction in case pendency [Hindu]

Time for a raise? HC judges request the CJI to increase their Rs 80,000 per month salary to an amount greater than what state chief secretaries get. They also want double the free electricity units at their residences, and to increase their retirement age from 62 to 65 [TOI]

Sibal for conciliation: Vodafone can resolve the issue of its Rs 11,200 crore tax liability in India by conciliation with the finance ministry, says new law minister Kapil Sibal. Sibal overturned his predecessor Ashwini Kumar’s decision disallowing the conciliation because it was illegal [NDTV]

NUJS internships: NUJS Kolkata signed a 5-year MoU with the department of consumer affairs for capacity building of the department by helping it with research on legal and procedural governing provisions. NUJS students will get to intern with the department and get experience of conducting court cases [TOI]

Mute trials: SC lambasts trial courts for flouting Section 309 of the Code of Criminal Procedure by granting too many adjournments in criminal cases instead of proceeding on a day-to-day basis after witness examination starts. “A trial judge cannot be a mute spectator to the trial being controlled by the parties,” said a bench of justices Dipak Misra and KS Radhakrishan [TOI]

Lawyers v police: A Madras HC lawyer asked the HC to direct the city police to take action against the Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) for harassing the lawyer by allegedly creating a scene outside his office for no reason [NIE]

Writ extorts 500 Rupee JEE key: The CBSE has today notified that it will provide the JEE-mains answer key to interested candidates for Rs 500. Legally India had yesterday reported the listing of a writ in the Delhi HC against the CBSE, by a JEE candidate, to force the CBSE to disclose the answer key [CBSE Notification]

Sex and the Judiciary: Convicting a factory worker for the murder of a woman, a Kancheepuram district judge wrote in his order: “A man and woman, if left alone, will always go for sexual intercourse”. The Madras HC acquitted the accused and observed: “Mere suspicion based on surmises and conjunctures will not take the place of proof.” [TOI]

SC cuts NE(E)T of suffering: The Supreme Court yesterday lifted its 13 December embargo on government and private medical colleges, allowing them to declare the results of the entrance exams conducted by them independently for the 2013-14 batch of MBBS, BDS and PG candidates. The SC’s interim order came in a stand-off between the colleges and the Medical Council of India, over the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) [Express]

Sibal on the collegium: Telecom minister Kapil Sibal, who was on Saturday given the additional charge of the law ministry, told journalists: “The collegium system of appointment is opaque and non-transparent. But changes cannot be made overnight. There are both short-term and long-term…. Under the short-term process, we will have proper consultation with the judges on how to go about the changes.” [Telegraph India]

Chicken came first or parrot?: Taking a dig at the Supreme Court for its “caged parrot” remark about the CBI and its independence, Congress reader Digvijay Singh told reporters: “I will request you to try and get access to all those who are calling our institutions chicken or parrot. You should take reaction from them also.” [PTI]

Dutt jail-holiday ends: The Supreme Court today refused to hear the plea of two film producers seeking an extension in Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt’s date of surrendering to jail authorities to complete his three-and-a-half year jail term under the Arms Act. 1993-blasts accused Dutt has to surrender on Thursday, after the SC earlier already granted him a four-week extension [PTI]

Not your business, TRAI: News organizations have opposed the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (TRAI) attempt to frame guidelines for the print and electronic media. They have suggested that the TRAI should instead work toward “orderly growth in the sector” together with the CCI, the SEBI and the MRTP Commission [BS]

Ineffective BCI: SC justices BS Chauhan and Dipak Mishra today said: “Bar Council has become ineffective. No action is taken against erring lawyers and we have to suffer. We are actually the victim and lawyers are making money… Lawyers think that they are above law. We are facing such situation every day.” [PTI]

Collegium conspiracies: 1,000 Punjab & Haryana High Court Bar Association members have signed a resolution opposing the elevation of seven lawyers to the bench, asking the Chief Justice of India to intervene in the “conspiracy of silence” [Express]

CCI market research: The Competition Commission of India has decided to have a dedicated Market Research Unit with the help of some external agency [Zee News]

3 new Bom HC judges: Member secretary of the Maharashtra State Legal Services Authority P N Deshmukh, secretary general of the Supreme Court A I S Cheema and Registrar General of the HC S B Shukre have been elevated as additional judges of Bombay high court [Express]

Imagine world without lit: Andhra Pradesh State Legal Services Authority (APSLSA) has identified 172 villages across the State as ‘litigation-free’ and the AP High Court will soon declare them as ‘litigation free areas’. Disputes will be settled only by Lok Adalats in these villages [Hindu]

American Hindu?: Janata Party President Subramanian Swamy has filed a plea in the Delhi High Court saying editors of news organisations in India “must be Indian citizens and residents of India” and not foreign citizens. He has attacked the US citizenship of editor of The Hindu Siddharth Varadarajan [Newslaundry]