Arun Jaitley
Over the last several days, many have remembered Mr. Arun Jaitley as a politician, as a person, as a mentor, as a friend, as a colleague, and as a devoted family man.
Ram Jethmalani, apparently proposed to charge Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejrriwal a Rs 1 crore retainer and Rs 22 lakhs per appearance to defend him against political rival Arun Jaitley’s defamation claim.
A court today granted bail to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and five others in a criminal defamation case filed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.
A lower court announced the bail to Kejriwal and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders Kumar Vishwas, Ashutosh, Sanjay Singh, Raghav Chadha and Deepak Bajpayee.
Kejriwal and the others were summoned in March to appear before the court on 7 April.
Jaitley accused Kejriwal and other AAP leaders of giving “false and defamatory” statements against him in a case related to the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA), thereby harming his reputation.
The AAP leaders had alleged corruption in the DDCA, which Jaitley headed for 13 years until 2013. Jaitley has denied the allegations.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has expressed support for enabling foreign lawyers to establish a presence in India.
On 25 August the Society of Indian Law Firms (Silf) hosted a meeting with journalists and Arun Jaitley, finance and information and broadcast minister.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley Saturday said the government proposes to set up exclusive commercial courts including in various high courts for the quick resolution of commercial disputes.
Announcing the measure in his budget speech for 2015-16, he said that government would consult all the stakeholders before bringing a bill in parliament for setting up court to exclusively deal with commercial disputes.
For the “quick resolution of commercial disputes, the government proposes to set up exclusive commercial divisions in various courts in India based on the recommendations of the 253rd Report of the Law Commission”, he said.
The Law Commission in its 253rd report submitted to the government Jan 29, had while recommending the setting up the commercial courts, the commercial divisions and the commercial appellate divisions of high courts had said that the “goal is to ensure that cases are disposed of expeditiously, fairly and at reasonable cost to the litigant”.
It maintained that the setting up of such courts would not only benefit the litigant but other potential litigants (especially those engaged in trade and commerce) would also be advantaged by the reduction in backlog because of quick resolution of commercial disputes.
Quick resolution of commercial disputes would further the “economic growth, increase foreign investment, and make India an attractive place to do business”, it noted, stressing that a “robust dispute resolution mechanism is a sine qua non for the all-round development of an economy”.
BJP suggests a two-year gap between retirement of judges and their assuming positions on various tribunals, to avoid the “clamour” for post retirement positions among judges. Of the 21 judges who retired from the SC since 2008, 18 joined various commissions and tribunals.
Former law minister Arun Jaitley says:
This clamour for post-retirement jobs is adversely affecting the impartiality of the judiciary... When I was a minister, I would be wary of meeting retiring judges for the fear that he would hand me his bio-data.
Now through judicial verdicts post-retirement jobs are being created... We are the only country in the world where judges appoint judges [Express with PTI]