Delhi Bar Council vice chairman and Luthra partner Vijay Sondhi explains why BCI should prevail over HRD in HER dispute: letter to Delhi bar council and bar association members on why it would be “ridiculous to make any other authority as a forum superior in any manner and on any decision of the Legal Education Committee” [Letter]

Criminal Law Amendment Bill 2012 proposes to make “rape” under Indian Penal Code 1860, gender neutral by replacing the word “rape” with “sexual assault”. Sexual assault also covers forced ‘unnatural’ sex, and attracts life-imprisonment under the bill [Hindustan Times]

French court rules that music collection societies have a right to demand that the court take “all measures to prevent or stop an attack on a copyright or related rights”. In this case, the “attack” involved Google not filtering search terms Torrent, Rapidshare and Megaupload. The plaintiff alleged that these terms are autocomplete suggestions during search for music content, therefore encouraging piracy [IB Times]

JSA partner Somasekhar Sundaresan to trek in Ladakh to raise money for Mumbai’s urban poor. He says: “This year, I took a hard look around my own Mumbai, India’s “richest” city. It is startling to know that 60% of Mumbai’s population (estimated at 20 million people), who toil to keep the city on its feet, live in slums and on the streets - a stark number both in percentage and absolute terms. YUVA, a non-governmental organisation that works for the betterment of the poor urban population of Mumbai (read about them at www.yuvaindia.org) is supported by Oxfam India (www.oxfamindia.org), and I have decided to use my expedition this year to support their efforts.” [Find out more and support]