Chandigarh pink slips 79 kin-counsel: The Chandigarh administration has shown the door to 79 empanelled advocates who were the kin of advocate generals, a judge, and union law minister Kapil Sibal. Now around 30 counsel are left on the UT administration’s panel [Hindustan Times]
Madras HC on SMS case update: The Madurai bench of the Madras HC will now use phone text messages to inform litigants and lawyers of the status of their cases. The service has already been successfully introduced since 23 January in the principal bench of the Madras HC [PTI]
Maha prisons to cut costs by Skype-ing inmates: The Maharashtra Prison Department will now deal with a lack of availability of “Police Escort Personnel” by producing inmates in court on internet video messaging program Skype. At the moment 54 prisons and 146 courts are linked through expensive bespoke video conferencing facilities in the state. In the last three months ending February, 2014, over 10,000 undertrials were produced before courts through video conferencing. The bill for a bespoke video conference line is around Rs 15,000 per month [DNA India]
Retd Justice Srikrishna now FPSB chair: Retired SC judge BN Srikrishna is now the chairman of the Financial Planning Standards Board India (FPSB) - India’s professional standards setting body for financial planners. Srikrishna had authored the Financial Sector Legislative Reforms Commission and was also the chairman of the sixth central pay commission. He takes over from Dhirendra Swarup [PTI]
CCI to ease M&A compliance burden: The Competition Commission of India (CCI) is about to roll out new M&A guidelines that will reduce the regulatory compliance burden to get M&As approved for businesses and lawyers. The CCI also plans to provide assistance in “substantiative” matters in M&As [Express]
Female advocates politics post-poll fight: Female advocates part of the Indian Federation of Women Lawyers (IFWL) are fighting in the Madras HC over the locking of a room from which the IFWL functions, alleging foul play by the loser of a recent IFWL election who has allegedly taken away documents from the room [Bangalore Mirror]
Artistic Calicut lawyers: 15 Calicut Bar Council lawyers, including seven women, showcased 52 “Rhythmic Painting” works done by them at the Kerala Lalithakala Akademi Art Gallery exhibition [The Hindu]