SCOI Reports

The Supreme Court today granted bail to Delhi University professor GN Saibaba, accused of being associated with a front organisation of a banned Maoist outfit.

As reported on Legally India in February, Saibaba requires constant and expensive medical attention, which the Mahrashtra government was unlikely to have been able to provide in Nagpur jail.

The apex court bench, headed by Justice JS Khehar, granted bail to Saibaba noting that all the material witnesses in the case have already been examined and there was no basis for keeping him confined.

The court was not moved as counsel for Maharashtra expressed the apprehension that Saibaba would propagate his views if he is set free.

The court said that does not hold as he would be doing so even if he was released later.

Granting bail to Saibaba, the court said his release would be subject to the conditions by the trial court as he would make himself available as and when he was required.

Even as the two rival national political parties played April Fool of their actual political rivalries on 1 April by appealing together in the Supreme Court, a common judgment passed against them by the Delhi high court, The Wire has exposed a little-known fact, which promises to excel the incredible phenomenon of these two rival parties coming together on a common platform to fight a common enemy.

The BJP and the Congress today both found defending themselves as appellants in a case before the Supreme Court, which is likely to hear it in detail after the summer vacation.

Senior counsel Dushyant Dave is now officially Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) president again, after his short-lived resignation in mid-February was held by the executive committee to have been void.

The Supreme Court collegium is learnt to have stood by its decision to transfer Delhi HC judge Rajiv Shakdher after the law ministry sent back his case for reconsideration, said several persons aware of the outcome. The law ministry had asked for a review after lawyers protested against Shakdher’s transfer.

reported the The Economic Times.

As first reported by Legally India on 24 February, several senior counsel had written to the Supreme Court collegium to reverse its order, in light of the respect he enjoyed at the bar.

The ET wrote in its report that five senior counsel had protested in writing about the transfer because “they objected to his being transferred along with [Madras high court Justice CS] Karnan, whose case was regarded in a different light”.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed market regulator SEBI to go ahead with the sale of _Sahara _properties whose unencumbered title deeds are in its possession. The step is being taken to recover investors’ money that Sahara groups’ two companies had collected from public through Optionally Fully Convertible Debentures.

The apex court bench headed by Chief Justice TS Thakur said that the market regulator would appoint an agency to decide the mechanism for the sale of Sahara properties.

The court said that properties would not be sold at a price that is less than 90 percent of the prevailing circle rates.

The SEBI will appoint an agency to work out the mechanism for the sale of properties which are stated to be worth Rs 40,000 crore.

The entire process would be undertaken under the supervision of former Supreme Court judge Justice BN Agarwala and Sahara would be kept informed about the steps being taken for the sale of its properties.

Meanwhile, Sahara head honcho Subrata Roy remains in jail on contempt, now for more than two years.

The Supreme Court bench comprising of justices Ranjan Gogoi, Arun Mishra, and Prafulla C Pant today told Raj Kumar Mehta, the counsel for Lalit Kumar Mishra, the former Additional Judge of the Orissa high court, who challenged his non-appointment as the permanent judge of the high court that there are no records of the proceedings of the Supreme Court collegium.

If the official minutes of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) Executive Committee meeting held on 18 March are any indication, its president, Dushyant Dave, who presided over that meeting, never ceased to be its president, despite his resignation earlier on 15 February.

The All India Bar Exam (AIBE) challenges will be heard by a Supreme Court constitution bench next month.

One of the petitioners in the All India Bar Exam (AIBE) constitutional mega-challenge currently in the Supreme Court, due to be heard on Friday (18 March), will raise the question of irregularities in the Bar Council of India’s (BCI) appointment of private contractor ITES Horizon Pvt Ltd to conduct the AIBE in 2010.

Just as his resignation as the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) president in February was an impulsive decision, Dushyant Dave’s withdrawal of his resignation today also proved to be similarly emotional.

The petition filed by V Vasanthakumar, advocate from Puducherry, seeking the court’s directions to the Government to consider setting up a National Court of Appeal to relieve the Supreme Court of its case burden, got a new lease of life with the two-judge bench comprising the Chief Justice of India (CJI) TS Thakur and Justice UU Lalit, deciding to refer the matter to a five-judge constitution bench to hear from 4 April.

Following last year’s revival of the collegium system of judicial appointments by the Supreme Court’s constitution bench, which quashed the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) last year, the government is all set to revise the existing Memorandum of Procedure for appointment of judges of the Supreme Court and high courts, as suggested by the same bench.

On 11 March, a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court, comprising justices Ranjan Gogoi, Arun Mishra and Prafulla C Pant, after hearing the review petition of three convicts in the 2000 bus burning at Dharmapuri, Tamil Nadu, case in the open court, commuted their death sentences to life sentences.

Should India be known as Bharat? Having issued notice in a public interest litigation petition in April last year, a division bench of Supreme Court of India headed by the Chief Justice of India TS Thakur will be posed with this question on 11 March (today).