Bar, Bench & Litigation

On 7 July, his final day in court, Justice B Sudershan Reddy sat on the Bench with Chief Justice of India SH Kapadia in the Chief’s Court, as is custom for a departing judge. The custom was never more apt. Reddy and Kapadia shared a great rapport while on the Bench and although their outlook in matters judicial and otherwise were quite similar, they could not have been more different in demeanour and action.

The government has accepted solicitor general Gopal Subramanium’s resignation yesterday. Subramanium’s continuing chairmanship of the Bar Council of India (BCI) remains uncertain.

Gopal Subramanium did not appear in the Supreme Court in the 2G PIL today after he offered his resignation as solicitor general on Saturday, following private practice advocate Rohinton Nariman having been formally appointed and today representing government minister Kapil Sibal.

If Subramanium’s resignation takes effect he could also cease being a member of the Bar Council of India (BCI), raising a question mark whether he can continue as chairman.

Khaitan & Co has won the Supreme Court’s (SC’s) approval for French cement company Lafarge to mine limestone in the country’s north-eastern region in a landmark ruling setting the tenor for future reforms in environmental governance after last year’s ban.

Constitutional law expert and senior counsel KK Venugopal has represented the Travancore royal family in the Supreme Court, submitting that they did not intend to claim possession over the contents of the “public temple” that may be worth up to $22bn.

The Supreme Court has vacated the stay on impeachment proceedings initiated against Sikkim chief justice PD Dinakaran in the Rajya Sabha and ordered for the replacement of inquiry committee member and senior counsel PP Rao with another jurist.

The Supreme Court (SC) yesterday appointed a special investigation team (SIT) under former SC judges B P Jeevan Reddy and M B Shah to supervise the investigations and probe into illegal monies stashed by Indians in foreign banks and tax havens abroad.

The Adarsh inquiry commission set up by the state government to probe into the multi-crore housing scam has sought a salary hike for its lawyers as government appointed lawyers receive triple the remunerations.

The Law Ministry’s National Mission for Justice Delivery and Legal Reforms comprising of the law minister and bureaucrats as members of the advisory and governing councils has received the government’s approval with an estimated Rs 7,000 crore ($1.56bn) earmarked for lower judiciary infrastructure development over five years.

Delhi-based management institute IIPM (Indian Institute of Planning and Management) has filed a Rs 50 crore defamation suit against magazine The Caravan, Penguin Publishing and Google after having injuncted the magazine from carrying an article critical of the IIPM.

Following the murder of Mumbai investigative journalist Jyotirmoy Dey the Bombay High Court has allowed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by lawyer VP Patil demanding a CBI inquiry into the incident as a bill has been proposed granting special legal protection to journalists.

Indian lawyers will be able to practice in all courts and tribunals across India irrespective of which bar council they are enrolled in, after law minister Veerappa Moily said he would notify long-pending section 30 of the Advocates Act 1961.

Over 7 lakh undertrial prisoners have been released in the last year-and-a-half following a joint initiative by the government and High Courts of India, according to law minister Veerappa Moily, seeking to reduce prison populations.

One year after it first sued 41 foreign laws firms, the Association of Indian Lawyers (AIL) has filed a case against the Delhi-based London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA), wanting to excise the words “London Court” and alleging that the arbitration organisation is introducing foreign law and lawyers under the garb of arbitration.