SCOI Reports

The Supreme Court's vacation bench, comprising justices PC Ghose and Amitava Roy, on 10 June, was surprised to learn that an assistant teacher in the Malda district of West Bengal, had been teaching theology in a Madrasa without receiving salary for nearly a decade.

The heavy backlog of cases and delays in the Indian judicial system are once again the topic of much discussion, with everything from government callousness to over-litigiousness to judicial activism being blamed for the 35 million cases pending in the courts at all levels.

"Highly-placed sources in the government said today that in November, 2013 the collegium had recommended appointing a member of the state judicial services as additional judge to the Patna High Court. But the government had then returned the file to the collegium requesting it to "reconsider" the decision. The government's move was based on an Intelligence Bureau report," reported the PTI.

“Bar associations are facing a very serious identity crisis and good lawyers are unfortunately not willing to participate in the democratic process in bar associations. As a result, most bar association have been hijacked by those lawyers who don't have a serious stake in the institution or those who have a personal agenda, but not the welfare of the bar.”

Imprisoned for 23 years on the basis of faked police confessions, finally exonerated earlier this month by Supreme Court justices Fakkir Mohamed Ibrahim Kalifulla and Justice UU Lalit, Nisar-ud-din Ahmad, and four others were released reported The Indian Express in a harrowing story that should be read in full and will probably end in one asking, is it too little too late?

The Supreme Court on Friday refused to stay the NEET ordinance, saying that its validity on the ground it violated Article 14 of the constitution could be challenged when the court opened after the summer break.

The Supreme Court was moved on Thursday, challenging the NEET ordinance exempting Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Punjab for this year from the ambit of National Eligibility Entrance Test (NEET) for medical colleges.

Senior advocate, Indira Jaising, amicus curiae in the case of Nipun Saxena v Union of India, was elated when Justice JS Khehar and Justice C Nagappan asked her and the UOI counsel on 2 May whether they would have time to attend to the case, if listed during the vacation.

The Supreme Court's vacation bench comprising justices Abhay Manohar Sapre and Ashok Bhushan on Thursday (19 May) heard a matter pertaining to the Rent Act and found to their dismay, that the appellant's counsel in the case was citing an authority which goes against him.

The Supreme Court on Friday imposed a cost of Rs 25,000 on a petitioner in a criminal case for filing an erroneous English translation of a judicial order in Hindi which was wrong on grammar, construction of sentences, usage of words and punctuation.

It was a case of the state government appealing against the acquittal of an accused.

Supreme Court judge Dhananjaya Y. Chandrachud, who was elevated to the apex court on Friday from the Allahabad high court where he was the chief justice, was born on 11 November 1959.

Have to bring matrimonial disputes before the Supreme Court's vacation bench? Think again, perhaps.

At 11:15 am today, the Supreme Court began its proceedings for the last day of the current term. It was 45 minutes behind its usual schedule.

Justice AM Khanwilkar, Justice DY Chandrachud, Justice Ashok Bhushan and the former additional solicitor general L Nageswara Rao were sworn-in as judges of the Supreme Court on Friday.

The Supreme Court is likely to pronounce on Friday its verdict on a batch of petitions including by Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and BJP leader Subramanian Swamy challenging the constitutional validity of sections 499 and 500 of the Indian Penal Code providing for criminal defamation.