Bar, Bench & Litigation

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) through counsel K K Venugopal filed the first chargesheet in the second-generation (2G) spectrum case last week after the Supreme Court appointed senior advocate Uday U Lalit as special public prosecutor.

The Law Ministry’s Rs 4,000 crore-expenditure on court computerisation is set to make lower court orders and judgements available at the click of the mouse as government proposes an IAS-like judicial cadre to plug judicial delays along with a host of other reforms.

The President of India has appointed ten additional judges as the permanent judges of the Madras High Court and inducted four new additional judges to the court.

Pune could get a division bench of the Bombay High Court said law minister Veerappa Moily.

Advocates at courts throughout India are today observing a protest day, wearing black ribbons in opposition to the Legal Services Bill, coinciding with a Delhi High Court Bar Association strike against the service tax.

The Rajya Sabha-appointed committee has finally chargesheeted Sikkim Chief Justice P D Dinakaran on 16 charges of corruption and financial irregularities thirteen months after impeachment proceedings were first admitted against him with further debate slated for next Parliamentary session.

The Bombay High Court was granted six new judges today to hit 61 sitting judges out of a quota of 75.

Three new high courts in the north-eastern states of Tripura, Manipur and Meghalaya may soon be set up as Law Minister Veerappa Moily has submitted in a memorandum to the union cabinet in a move that would require amendment of the North-Eastern Areas (Reorganisation) Act 1971.

A five-judge bench of the Supreme Court has issued notices to Union Carbide Corp and Dow Chemicals for increasing compensation to victims of Bhopal gas leak from Rs 750 crore to Rs 7,844 crore while hearing the Union government’s curative petition today.

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.