SCOI Reports

A Supreme Court bench headed by Justice Ranjan Gogoi, together with justices PC Pant and UU Lalit, issued a contempt notice on retired Supreme Court judge Markandey Katju in a review petition in the Soumya murder case to which Gogoi had last month surprisingly invited Katju to argue in.

A Supreme Court bench of justices Pinaki Chandra Ghose and Ashok Bhushan, last week, on 20 October, extended the deadline for submission of applications for the verification process of lawyers to 30 November 2016, making it clear that it would sanction no further delays.

The Cauvery dispute is the most intractable of all the river water disputes, did you say? Think again.

It was a series of surprises wrapped in an enigma, so to speak. In the end, the King of Surprises, Justice Ranjan Gogoi, pretty much proved to those who assembled in Court 5 of the Supreme Court on 17 October that no one could beat him in the game of springing surprises.

The Cauvery climax, which was originally scheduled for 6 October, unraveled itself yesterday.

The Supreme Court today told the Bar Council of India (BCI) that state bar councils should hold elections, even if the BCI’s verification drive had not yet been completed, ordering the BCI to frame guidelines to conduct elections and relax its certificate or practice rules if required to allow elections, reported Bar & Bench.

The Hindu newspaper yesterday successfully persuaded the SC to change its mind for the second time in the same case.

6 October is likely to be the climax in the ongoing Cauvery hearing in the Supreme Court, if one were to interpret today’s outcome in Court No 4 in the afternoon.

A Supreme Court bench of justices JS Khehar and Dipak Misra today disposed of three writ petitions challenging President’s rule in Arunachal Pradesh, which was imposed on 26 January, as infructuous.

So, how did today’s much expected hearing on the Cauvery case go in the Supreme Court?

After three hours of an intense hearing from 2pm today, the Supreme Court bench of justices Dipak Misra and UU Lalit, in an interim order, directed Karnataka to release 6,000 cusecs of water to Tamil Nadu until 27 September.

The Hindu newspaper yesterday successfully persuaded the Supreme Court bench comprising of justices JS Khehar and Arun Mishra to change its mind in an ongoing litigation over a breach of privilege notice issued to its editor, Mukund Padmanabhan, by the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly.

Even amongst epic legal dramas, the Cauvery river water dispute between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka has taken more twists and turns than most, with the Supreme Court’s latest orders asking Karnataka to release water to Tamil Nadu, provoking violent protests in Karnataka and the imposition of a curfew turning Bangalore it into a ghost town.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed that all first information reports (FIRs) involving cognizable offences must be uploaded on state police web sites within 24 hours of their registration.

On 31 August, a two-judge Supreme Court bench comprising justices Gopal Gowda andArun Mishra delivered two separate judgments on the Singur land dispute, with split reasoning, but reached similar results.

Justice Jasti Chelameswar, the fifth-most senior judge of the Supreme Court, and a member of the SC’s collegium, made the news today with the New Indian Express publishing his refusal to participate in a Supreme Court collegium meeting, as a protest against the collegium’s failure to comply with the principle of transparency of its proceedings.