Legally Wired

Delhi HC pecuniary enhancement clears another hurdle: The Delhi High Court (Amendment) Bill, 2014 which seeks enhance the Delhi HC’s pecuniary jurisdiction from Rs 20 lakh to Rs 2 crore, and which was a cause of Delhi HC bar protests, is now in the Rajya Sabha [PTI]

PIL vs anti-activist NGT bar association fine: The Madras HC made secretaries of three bar associations and two advocates association party to a PIL. The associations (Madras Bar Association, Madras High Court Advocates Association, DRT/DRAT Bar Association, The Service Bar Association, Women Lawyers Association, Law Association) had received the proceeds of a Rs 10,000 fine imposed by the National Green Tribunal on a petitioner for being 36 days late for an appeal to challenge an environmental clearance of the Kudankulam nuclear project. He then filed a PIL against the fine in the Madras HC, asserting that it would be difficult to raise such social issues in the face of arbitrary imposition of fines [PTI]

CCI vows to reduce investigation timelines by one third: The Competition Commission of India (CCI) which currently takes one-and-a-half years on an average to decide a case requiring detailed investigation, has come out with a “3-6-3” rule to reduce the average time of completion to one year. The Commission would take three months to decide whether an investigation is required or not, six months to complete the investigation, and three months to conclude hearing pursuant to investigation results [PTI]

Madan B Lokur offers Coal recusal but excused: Supreme Court justice Madan B Lokur offered to recuse himself from the hearings of the coal block allocation scam on the ground that he and his wife held shares in Reliance Infrastructure, which is a party to the case. However, the CBI, which is probing the case, and the two petitioners - lawyer and Aam Admi Party spokesperson Prashant Bhushan of the NGO Centre for Public Interest Litigation and activist serial PIL lawyer ML Sharma – who are seeking the de-allocation of “illegally allotted” coal blocks, said they had no objection to Justice Lokur continuing on the bench [Dailymail]

SC’s six month lease to fill HC vacancies: The Supreme Court told an NGO Centre for Justice that it would entertain its petition regarding filling vacancies in the higher judiciary if after six months the high courts had still not made any progress in strengthening their benches [PTI]

Mukul Mudgal to chair Broadcasting Complaints Council after AP Shah: Former Punjab & Haryana high court chief justice Mukul Mudgal will take over from former Delhi HC CJ AP Shah as the chairperson of the non-news channels’ self-regulator Broadcasting Content Complaints Council (BCCC). Mudgal had recently given a statement supporting legalising betting in Indian sports [TOI]

Pakistan in ICJ aghainst Afzal Guru execution: Pakistan may challenge in the International Court of Justice the 9 February 2013 execution of its former citizen Afzal Guru in an Indian court, after Guru had been charged with masterminding a December 2011 terrorist attack in the Indian parliament [ANI]

Marriage certificates through video conf: The Delhi HC‘s justice Manmohan Singh has given a ruling allowing solemnisation of court marriage on video conferencing. Couples based abroad can now confirm their willingness to marry on video conferencing and their relatives can collect their marriage certificate from the registry without the actual couple having to be physically present [Business Standard]

New bar assoc prez in P&H: The Punjab & Haryana High Court Senior Advocate Association has a new president – senior advocate Rajiv Atma Ram, who was unanimously voted in. Senior advocate Puran Singh Hundal was voted in vice president [PTI]

Compared: Delhi Jan Lokpal Bill vs Central Act: The Delhi Jan Lokpal Bill mirrors the central Lokpal and Lokayukta Act 2013 in terms of appointment and removal of Lokpal, fines and penalties but gives greater protection to whistleblowers, greater investigative powers, a citizen’s charter and citizens and the Lokpal can take suo motu cognizance of any alleged act of corruption [TOI]

SC Judge slams Gov for “scaring away all foreign investors”: “We are sorry to say that lawmakers are not keeping pace with the changing times, especially fast-changing technology. Then you will legislate with retrospective effect, scaring away all foreign investors,” said Justice KS Radhakrishnan today, who had ruled in 2012 that Vodafone would not have to pay Rs 11,000 crore in tax, which was undone by a retrospective amendment by the government [ET]

Is India’s as an investment being damaged by tax disputes? asks [Mint] after Vodafone’s failed conciliation talks with the government over its huge tax bill, Nokia approached the Supreme Court to fight to transfer its India-based factory to Microsoft without a massive tax hit and disputes with IBM and others…

Cong MP sues Kejriwal for defamation for calling him corrupt: Congress MP sues outgoing Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal for defamation for calling him one of the “most corrupt persons in India” [CNN-IBN]

Gov pushes for tabling HC judges retirement age bill this session: The Government has pushed for the Lok Sabha the bill pending since 2011 to increase high court judges’ retirement age from 62 to 65 years [PTI]

ET does Cyril Shroff for two hours: The Economic Times does a two hour interview with Amarchand Mangaldas Mumbai managing partner Cyril Shroff and finds out he likes Chinese food (but not much else) [ET]

Bombay HC allows Peta to inspect elephant: The Bombay HC has permitted People for Ethical Treatment to Animals (Peta) to visit Sunder, an elephant that they allege has been abused [DNA]

Lawyers strike forces 87-y-o to argue himself: Due to an advocates strike in Madurai an 87-year-old litigant in a wheelchair had to argue his case himself, reported [TOI]

Madras HC chief Agrawal talks candidly on local turmoil: Recently elevated Madras HC chief justice RK Agrawal, at his farewell, made reference to HC justice CS Karnan barging into his chamber hurling abuse. Agrawal said that while nobody had “ever raised their voice” to him in his 37 year career, Karnan was the one exception. “I need not tell you that the events of this Court are followed throughout the country. I worry not about the personal comments, but I do get pained when I hear that innuendos are being targeted at the High Court and it is becoming the subject of public ridicule,” he said [New Indian Express] He also said that many of his colleague’s on the HC’s bench desired transfer to another high court [TOI]

Gov blocks 1299 social URLs: Government asked social networking sites to block 1,299 web addresses or URLs to comply with court orders between January 2013 and January 2014, reported the [PTI]

Gujarat prisoners UIDed: Out of total 12,123 inmates in Gujarat prisons, all Indian nationals will get Aadhar cards according to a recent HC direction to the state government [TOI]

3 Bihar district judges dismissed: The Bihar government has dismissed three district judges whose dismissal was recommended by a full court of the Patna high court, after they were “found with some women” in a Nepal hotel’s police raid [TOI]

JAC controversial clause dropped: A controversial clause debarring judges from making verbal comments against any constitutional authority during open hearings was today dropped by the Cabinet in the Judicial Standards and Accountability Bill, reported the [Indian Express]

Journalists wage hike coming up: The Supreme Court last week upheld recommendations made by the Justice Majithia wage board hiking salaries for journalists and non-journalists in print media on Friday and dismissed challenges filed by the managements of various newspapers, reported the [Mint]

Karnataka HC pendency and vacancy stats: Pendency: over 12,000 more than five-year old cases pending, over 500 are more than 10 years old and six are from two decades ago. The HC is functioning with 12 less judges than its sanctioned strength [India TV News]

Bail fail for Asaram Bapu: Veteran criminal lawyer Ram Jethmalani’s client Asaram Bapu, whom Jethmalani had initially defended by stating: “The only way to test his potency is to expose him to some member of the opposite gender”, has been denied bail by the Rajasthan HC [One India]

New Rs 50 crore Mangalore court: Mangalore has a new six storied court complex where the the courts of first and second class judicial magistrates have already been relocated and 18 other courts will start functioning from where in the next few days. The new building has cost the state exchequer Rs 49 crore, and was inaugurated on 8 February [Daijiworld]

Amarchand team wins relay race: Amarchand Mangaldas Mumbai general corporate partner Indranath Bishnu, principal associate Himanshu Dodeja, senior associate Aditya Sabharwal and staff member Vasant Ravande were up to a “stampede” last weekend, according to an Amarchand press release. They completed a relay race in 1 hour, 44 minutes and 6 seconds to emerge at the top of 200 teams representing 100 Indian companies running a track of 20km. “Simply logging in three or four runs per week” prepared all team members for the event, said Bishnu. The same team had also previously participated in the Mumbai Marathon

Jan Lokpal bill needs governor assent or not?: Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal has written to Lt governor Najeeb Jung countering solicitor general Mohan Parasaran’s opinion that every bill to be passed by the Delhi assembly must first be vetted by Jung in order to be legal. Kejriwal, who intends to have the way clear to pass the Jan Lokpal Bill this week, based his view on the legal opinion of former Chief Justice of Punjab & Haryana High Court Mukul Mudgal and senior advocates K N Bhatt, P V Kapur and Pinaki Misra [TOI]

Karkardooma court strike: Lawyers in Delhi’s Karkardooma district courts are boycotting work to protest the shifting of family courts from the Karkardooma court complex to a locality in East Delhi. The Shahdara bar association is attempting to coordinate a strike among bar associations of all the six Delhi districts, over the issue [PTI]

NTPC to continue supply power, unpaid for now: The Supreme Court on Friday restrained India’s largest thermal power maker NTPC from cutting off supply, over unpaid dues, to the two BSES discoms which supply power to 70 per cent areas of Delhi. The two BSES discoms, which were earlier facing possible licence cancellation from the electricity regulator, due to large power outages as a result of fund crunch to buy power, have been ordered to pay up Rs 50 crore to NTPC within two weeks, and the SC has posted the case of dues running up to Rs 20,000 crore, for final hearing on 26 March [PTI]

Western Orissa lawyers force city bandh: Western Orissa lawyers, who are agitating for a permanent bench of the Orissa high court in Western Orissa, have been forcing closure of government offices since last Monday and forced closure of financial institutions and banks from Friday at Sambalpur, while “senior members” of the bar in that part of the state have reportedly been on a hunger strike [TOI]

Law Comm chief AP Shah on homosexuality: Law commission chief and former Delhi high court chief justice AP Shah, who had authored the judgement decriminalising gay sex under Section 377, spoke in favour of homosexuaal intercourse's legality, in an interaction with students [TOI]

Amit Sibal defamation suit vs Kejriwal: The Supreme Court today issued notice on union telecom and law minister Kapil Sibal’s son, and newly designated senior advocate, Amit Sibal’s challenge to a Delhi high court order that had discharged Delhi chief minister Kejriwal and advocate Prashant Bhushan of Amit Sibal’s defamation suit against them. The suit was a result of Kejriwal stating in a 15 May 2013 press conference that Sibal had been given telecom cases because his father was a telecom minister [DNA India/TOI]

Bhopal district court pendency: Bhopal district courts face pendency of 29,697 cases. District magistrate and registrar APS Chouhan blames it on failing police processes such as tracking accused and getting witnesses to court and to finally depose [TOI]

Rape case high court pendency: Over 23,000 rape cases are pending across Indian high courts, after 8,000  were disposed of in the last three years. The maximum pendency (over 8,000) is in Allahabad high court. Sexual harassment cases numbered 309 on 31 December [Zee News]

SG defines roadblocks for Lokpal Bill: Solicitor general Mohan Parasaran, in an opinion to Delhi’s lieutenant governor Najeeb Jung, said that the Jan Lokpal Bill which the Delhi government plans to enact next week would be illegal without Jung’s consent. Parasaran also opined that the Jan Lokpal Bill will be repugnant and contrary to the Lokpal and Lokayukta Act passed by the parliament last year [TOI]

Jailed undertrials can contest polls: The Delhi high court yesterday dismissed a petition seeking restriction on jailed undertrials from contesting elections. The petition was filed by serial PIL-filer ML Sharma [Business Standard]

Apar G and Pranesh P on Forbes 30 under 30: Forbes does a “30 under 30 list” for “individuals who are already forces in their fields”. Advani & Co partner Apar Gupta and Centre for Internet and Society policy director Pranesh Prakash made it under the law, policy and politics category [Forbes India]

Madras HC pendency down 50K! Madras high court case pendency has reduced by 50,000 cases to 5.57 lakh cases since 2012 year-end [Hindu]

Six out of 12 clear Kerala DJS: Six candidates cleared the Kerala district judicial service exam, still leaving 50 per cent judges vacancy at the service in the Rs 51,550 to Rs 63,070 pay scale [Zee News]

Ex-SC Justice AK Mathur to head 7th Pay Comm: Former Supreme Court judge and retired armed forces tribunal chairman AK Mathur will head the seventh commission, which will recommend on revising the salaries and pensions of five million current (and three million retired) government employees from 1 January 2016 [Business Standard]

Every HC bench strength to grow by 25%: The central government has decided to increase the judges’ strength of each high court in India by 25 per cent and has invited proposals from all chief justices on additional facilities concerning courtroom, quarters and support staff for the enhanced number of judges [TOI]

SC to consider banning red beacons outright: After its ban on the widespread ‘misuse’ of red beacon lights on cars, the Supreme Court has yesterday agreed to look into the meaning and constitutional validity of the term “high dignitaries”, as only allowing them to use the lights could be contrary to the “democratic ethos” and reflective of “Raj mentality”. Justices RM Lodha and Shiva Kirti Singh, with amicus curiae Harish Salve, will examine the arguments [Express]

Mysore DCs to become more efficient with self-service kiosks: Mysore becomes the second city in India after Bangalore to have kiosks around its district court campus, where case details can be retrieved by punching in the case number. Three kiosks were inaugurated on Sunday [TOI]. The city aims to reduce over 63 per cent of its case pendency in its ongoing Lok Adalats [Deccan Herald]

Krishna Iyer’s disdain for recusing judges: Jurisprudential luminary and retired Supreme Court justice VR Krishna Iyer commented on the rampant practice of judges recusing themselves from cases. In letters to the Kerala high court chief justice and governor he said: “Vast powers have been vested in judges under the Constitution and they are bound to adjudicate every case posted before them. That is a great duty from which they cannot retreat. Not hearing cases or declining to do justice is breach of the solemn obligation vested in them. To default or decline to exercise this sublime power is to invite impeachment by Parliament or dismissal by the President.” [TOI]

Karntaka SLSA appointment: Karnataka high court justice NK Patil has been appointed executive chairman of the Karnataka State Legal Services Authority [TOI]

Aadhar facility in Gujarat jails: Gujarat high court has asked the state government to facilitate issuing Aadhar cards in prison, after a prisoner’s wife applied for his bail for the purpose of enabling him to apply for his Aadhar card [TOI]

PIL vs Kejriwal: The closing up of several public roads and metro stations in Delhi thanks to protests and demonstrations carried out by the newly elected Arvind Kejriwal government, has spurred a second petitioner to file a public interest litigation against the government [Mizo News]

12 new Allahabad HC judges: Four Allahabad high court lawyers and eight higher judicial service officers have taken oath as Allahabad HC additional judges [TOI]

AK Ganguly SC report private info: Rejecting a Right to Information (RTI) request for the Supreme Court’s report on its recent sexual harassment complaint proceedings against its former justice AK Ganguly, the SC said: “The disclosure of information and reports emanating out of a self-evolved mechanism which is in the nature of an In-House Procedure by the judiciary is expressly prohibited.” [PTI]

Verma J’s family declines Padma Bhushan: Refusing to accept the Padma Bhushan national honour on behalf of late justice JS Verma, his wife Pushpa Verma has written to the president stating that her husband “never hankered or lobbied for any acclaim, reward or favour” and that he “will be satisfied with being remembered as one of India’s most pre-eminent jurists […]”. Verma’s family was upset that they were not informed or “consulted” about the award through official communication but only came to know about it through media reports, and that they feel that the issue has been dealt with in a “bureaucratic manner” reported [IBN Live] Former Delhi high court chief justice Rajinder Sachar said that the ex-CJI at least deserved the higher honour of a Padma Vibhushan [Express]

RamJet set for BJP expulsion damages: The Delhi high court has fixed 2 May as the date for hearing veteran criminal lawyer Ram Jethmalani’s plea against expulsion from political party BJP on charges of “breach of discipline”. Jethmalani has asked the court for Rs 50 lakh in damages from the party’s parliamentary board members and a direction to the board to declare the order of his expulsion as "null and void" [IBN Live]

FDI U-turn vs national security: The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion has revised its policy for 100 per cent foreign direct investment in Indian railways, after security concerns over Chinese firms prospectively setting up projects near the international border [Mint]

Suicide a crime or not?: The Mental Health Bill, approved yesterday by the cabinet, stands at odds with the Indian Penal Code which makes suicide a criminal offence. The bill decriminalises suicide [Scroll]

Del, Mad HC CJs for SC elevation: The names of Madras HC chief justice RK Agrawal and Delhi HC chief justice MV Ramana have been cleared for elevation to the Supreme Court. Agrawal will be the seventh judge in the SC “having a strong and direct Chennai link” reported [TOI]

Definition of “Juvenile”: The Supreme Court yesterday reserved orders in petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act on the point that the act interprets the term “juvenile” in a straightjacket formula [Hindu]

New TN law commission: Tamil Nadu chief minister Jayalalitha yesterday ordered the reconstitution of the state law commission and to appoint former Madras HC judge N Dinakar as its head [TOI]

GNLU gets Microsoft IPR chair: GNLU Gandhinagar will soon become the sixth national law university with an intellectual property rights (IPR) chair after NLSIU Bangalore, Nalsar Hyderabad, NLU Jodhpur, NLIU Bhopal and NUJS Kolkata. While each of its five predecessors have IPR chairs set up by the Ministry of Human Resource and Development (MHRD), GNLU’s IPR chair will be funded by Microsoft India. At GNLU’s IPR chair, in addition to a chair professor there will be two assistant professors. The MHRD has 18 IPR chairs in various universities and IITs across India [TOI]

Singapore law firm regulators to merge: Singapore’s dual regulation – different regulators for domestic and foreign law firms – could merge into a single body following the recommendations of a committee headed by Singapore’s chief justice [Channel New Asia]

US bench changed over Facebook request: A judge in the US was taken off a marital dispute he was judging, after the litigating wife’s lawyer alleged that the judge had saddled his client with “most of the marital debt” and had given the husband a “disproportionately excessive alimony award” after his client did not accept the judge’s Facebook friend request [WSJ Blogs]

Aligarh law professor jailed over sex harassment: The suspended chairman of department of law Aligarh Muslim University, Professor M Shabbir, was sent to jail after his bail plea was rejected in a case of alleged sexual harassment by a female law student [TOI]

Madurai opposes MHAA protest: The Madurai bench of the Madras High Court Advocates Association (MHAA) is opposed to the MHAA’s protest for recall of the list of 12 names recommended for judgeships at the Madras HC, because four names in the list were from Madurai – giving the Madurai bench “a proper share for the first time” reported [TOI]

Delhi lacking prosecutors: Delhi’s Saket fast-track court special public prosecutor AT Ansari said: “Our department (prosecution) has asked us to attend two courts at one time. We (prosecutors) are not able to reach there on time as the concerned judges do not allow us to go. in case we reach to the next court room on time, we do not get much time to go through the files.The cases before sessions court are mainly of criminal and civil in nature. Most of them are very important, so how can we deal with such case, until unless we do not get time to understand the background of the file,” explaining the problem of paucity of public prosecutors in the capital [PTI]

CCI and sectoral regulators: Competition Commission of India chairman Ashok Chawla stresses on the need for proper communication and coordination between the CCI and sectoral regulators so as to avoid duplication of work and conflict of orders, however the level of such communication presently is below the required standard [Economic Times]

2,648 new legal aid clinics: CJI P Sathasivam has inaugurated 2,648 legal aid clinics, each to be manned by two volunteers and a lawyer, in villages across India to assist villagers in getting BPL card, Election ID, Aadhaar Card, Gas connection and government welfare schemes [IBNLive]

Lowly paid consumer forum members: Bombay HC has directed Maharashtra to increase the remuneration of its district consumer forum members. Right now a full-time member gets paid Rs 800 per day while a part time members gets paid half of that. 19 out of 40 district forums in the state are dysfunctional due to vacant posts of members [DNA]

Delhi HC illegal heritage renovation: 500 Delhi high court advocates have made a representation to the chief justice of the HC to look into the allegedly illegal construction and renovation work of the Sher Shah Suri mosque located within the HC’s premises [PTI]

Delhi HC public prosecutor axed: Delhi HC’s chief public prosecutor Pawan Sharma has been continuing illegally in his post since the expiry of his three-year term on 21 December 2012, but will now be removed. The irregularity was discovered after Delhi’s Lt governor wrote to chief minister Arvind Kejriwal asking for an explanation on why the government was losing many cases over the past few years. Sharma maintained that his remaining in the post was not illegal in the absence of a notification formally ending his tenure, and that he had been attending meetings and taking files of cases from the new government as well [Mail Today]

Lawyers boycott supporting boycott to force judicial transfer: The Allahabad High Court Bar Association boycotted work today in support of the boycott of work by the Awadh Bar Association of Lucknow. In fact Allahabad outdid Awadh and added an extra half-day of boycott after lunch yesterday. The boycotts attempt to force the transfer of Allahabad high court judge Satish Chandra to the “remotest HC of the country” [TOI]

Chhatisgarh HC gets 2 judges: The Chhatisgarh high court today got two new additional judges in Inder Singh Uboweja and Chandra Bhushan Bajpai, taking its total strength to 13 [PTI]

1,400 criminal cases pending v TN lawyers: 1,200 lawyers in Tamil Nadu have criminal backgrounds and 1,424 cases are pending against them, the director general of police told the Madras high court in a petition filed in the HC. The DG seeks to prohibit advocates who qualify in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka from practicing in Tamil Nadu [New Indian Express]

MM moves HC against DU study leave: A Delhi metropolitan magistrate has moved the Delhi high court against the Delhi University’s condition to obtain a two-year study leave from her employer – the Delhi high court – in order to obtain her PhD from the university, calling the condition (arbitrary and unreasonable) [PTI]

SC/ST advocates entitled to held-up grants: Advocates belonging to scheduled communities are eligible for upto Rs 1 lakh of municipal grants annually in Karnataka, for the purpose of buying books. 450 advocates have alleged before the Karnataka high court that the grants have not been released since 1977 [New Indian Express]

Salve challenges CAG audit order: Senior advocate Harish Salve called the Delhi government order, which wanted a CAG audit on power companies, a “Sheikh Chilli” order that gave the CAG the power to audit every private citizen because all taxes go to the consolidated fund of India. He was representing the power companies appealing against the HC’s decision but the HC declined them a stay on its earlier order [Indian Express]

RamJet liplock “controversy”: A photograph has surfaced showing veteran Bollywood actor Dharmendra apparently in a “lip-lock” with politician and senior advocate Ram Jethmalani at the venerable advocate's recent birthday bash. The photo has “caused a stir in social media” as a sight that was both “shocking and unbelievable”, gasped the Times of India

Karnan opposes own transfer: Madras HC justice CS Karnan, who had complained against the HC’s chief justice and the Chief Justice of India for collegium interference and caste bias, opposed his transfer to another high court on the ground that his presence was needed in the Madras HC until he had proven his allegations against the two senior brother judges [TOI]

JS Verma’s ‘flawed’ & unloved Hindutva verdict: Supreme Court advocate and political commentator AG Noorani points out how the 18-year-old flawed verdict of former Supreme Court justice JS Verma on Hindutva is pending a reference by a constitutional bench, which none of the successive Chief Justices of India have bothered to constitute yet [Frontline]

Govt advocate alleges unfair dismissal: An additional government advocate has challenged his premature removal from his post on the ground that the removal was spurred by the chief minister’s underhand attempt to appoint someone from his own community to the post, and has alleged that the same unfairness has happened to 50 other government advocates in the state [TOI]

Consumer courts clogged, empty in Karnataka: 9,660 cases are pending in Karnataka’s consumer courts after 32 member posts lie vacant across the state [Bangalore Mirror]

Delhi lower judiciary gloom: The Delhi HC’s administrative department has said that vacancies in the city’s lower judiciary cannot be filled because there are not enough courtrooms [Business Standard]

Sesquicentennial bar anniversary: The Advocates Association of Western India will tomorrow begin celebrating its 150th year, with unveiling a portrait of former Chief Justice of India, the late YV Chandrachud, who was once a member of the association [TOI]

SEZ Act 2005 under final examination: Seven years after farmers’ groups, politicians and corporates filed petitions under the SEZ Act against forcible land acquisitions and other issues around setting up of Special Economic Zones in the country, the Supreme Court has begun final hearings for the clubbed bunch of petitions [DNA]