Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)
Supreme Court advocate KV Dhananjay argues that former CBI director Ranjit Sinha’s clandestine meetings with 2G and Coal scam accused were prima facie illegal.
The NGO Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL), represented by advocate Prashant Bhushan, today declined to name the whistleblower who disclosed the alleged interference by Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Director Ranjit Sinha in the 2G investigation and prosecution after meeting the accused in the 2G and coal scam cases.
The CPIL, in its affidavit filed Thursday, said that its governing body in its meeting Sep 17 decided not to reveal the identity of the whistleblower who took off the lid on the alleged interference in 2G matters by the CBI director. The NGO’s governing body consists of advocates Anil Divan, Colin Gonsalves, Shanti Bhushan, Kamal Jaswal, Kamini Jaiswal and Prashant Bhushan, reported *Mint].
The NGO said this in response to the Sep 15 order of justices HL Dattu and SA BobdeRead more at:
CBI judge JT Utpat, who was presiding in a Mumbai hearing into 2006's alleged fake encounter of Tulsiram Prajapati, had told off BJP general secretary Amit Shah's lawyers on 20 June because their client for wanted to be exempted from appearing in court and had skipped a hearing in the case on 6 June.
Now Utpat has been transferred to Pune and replaced by BH Loya who will take over his case. Utpat apparently requested the transfer, according to the Bombay high court, which told the Indian Express that Utpat wanted to be transferred "because of his daughter's education" and that he was one of three transfers that took place at the same time.
Shah is one of several people who was chargesheeted by the CBI in the case.
Gopinath Pillai's lawyer, Shamshad Pathan, was fined for not turning up in court, despite having been scheduled for arguments against the CBI court's decision that it did not have sufficient evidence to prosecute BJP general secretary Amit Shah. Pathan was fined Rs 500 after he didn't turn up for the hearing scheduled for today. [Indian Express]
Swatanter wins media blackout: The Delhi HC has provided former SC judge Swatanter Kumar interim relief in the defamation suit he had filed against three media houses. The HC prohibited the media from publishing anything beyond the court’s orders in his ex-intern’s sexual harassment PIL against him, including his photographs [Hindustan Times]
Bar boycott of Swatanter’s NGT: The All India Bar Association has asked its over 10,000 Delhi members to boycott the National Green Tribunal’s Delhi bench until its current head Swatanter Kumar quits the post. Kumar is accused of sexual harassment by his former intern from NUJS Kolkata [PTI]
Judges immune from sex harassment complaints: The Supreme Court was yesterday stuck on the question of absence of mechanism to deal with sexual misconduct cases against its sitting and retired judges, while hearing the ex-intern’s sexual harassment case against Swatanter Kumar. The matter has been posted to 14 February for further hearing [DNA India]
CBI to get more autonomy: CBI on the road to autonomy has gained central government secretary-rank status for its chief and power to approve spending up to Rs 15 crore, as opposed to earlier when it infamously waited 100 days for government approval on a laptop’s purchase and three months for a mobile phone [TOI]
SC probes PwC accounts, FDI, FEMA fudging
A Chief-headed bench will examine an NGO’s allegations of financial and accounting irregularities at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and its locally allied auditing firms. PwC and others “are apparently indulging in activities in violation of various statutes and polices like evasion of income tax, violations of FDI policy, RBI guideline, Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) and other rules” raising “serious apprehensions about the end use” of cash [PTI]
Delhi HC bans IIPM from advertising without court permission
The Delhi high court has passed an order affirming the UGC’s order debarring Arindam Chaudhary’s university IIPM from publishing ads in any medium without prior court permission [Firstpost]
Telangana-AP High Court Draft Reorganisation Bill
Telangana and Andhra Pradesh will have a common HC with the expenditure apportioned between the two according to state population ratio, according to the Andhra Pradesh Draft Reorganisation Bill [Deccan Chronicle]
CBI too challenges Guwahati HC unconstitutionality order
The CBI’s challenge to the Guwahati HC’s order declaring it unconstitutional, has been joined in the Supreme Court’s chief’s court to the Department of Personnel and Training’s challenge to the order [Firstpost]
Plea dismissed banning section 144 around India Gate: Delhi HC has dismissed a petition seeking a ban on imposing Section 144, CrPC, around India Gate. Section 144 prohibits the assembly of five or more people at and around India gate. It was imposed during the 16 December Delhi rape protests last year [TOI]
Coimbatore lawyers want Madras bench, Chennai don’t
Lawyers demand a Coimbatore bench of the Madras HC 10 years after Madurai got a bench of the HC, but lawyers in Chennai oppose the demand [TOI]
Advocate commission to check town planning
The Madras HC deputed three of its advocates in a commission to check improvement of facilities in Rameswaram and the Ramanathaswamy temple [PTI]
The US NRI widower who won a Rs 6 crore medical negligence in October, yesterday won in a special CBI court that convicted two ex-Supreme Court registry officials of corruption.
The SC stayed the Gauhati HC’s order that the CBI is unconstitutional, three days after the 6 November order, in an urgent hearing at the Chief Justice of India P Sathasivam’s residence on Saturday, reported Firstpost.
Attorney General Goolam Vahanvati had filed a special leave petition on behalf of the Department of Personel and Training, appealing the HC’s verdict. The HC’s verdict would impact 9,000 trials and 1,000 investigation currently ongoing at the CBI, he stated on behalf of the centre.
Experts told the Economic Times that with its legal status in doubt, the CBI would have to fend off challenges in every single case it investigates or prosecutes.
Death row worthiness: SC justices AK Patnaik and Gyan Sudha Mishra rendered a 33-page judgment ruling on the principle that courts should record “special” reasons while awarding death penalty and “must” take into account the crime and the character of the criminal which should reflect “extreme depravity” to deserve such a punishment [PTI]
Tribunal refunds: The high court of Bombay at Goa has ordered that the tribunals shall issue certificates for refund of fees paid by the claimants after their petitions are settled before the Lok Adalats [TOI]
CBI exposed: “Fascinating insight into how the CBI actually works, manpower and expertise shortage and all,” tweets @CourtWitness1 [Caged parrot or a poor man’s Hercule Poirot? Business Standard]
A CBI court today found Rashtriya Janta Dal chief and former Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad Yadav guilty in the “food for fodder” scam, reported the Business Standard.
Yadav has been booked for criminal conspiracy, corruption and cheating.
The case was lodged by the Bihar government in 1996 against Yadav for alleged fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 37.7 crore from the Chalibasa treasury in the 1990s. A month after lodging the FIR the case was transferred to the CBI court. After a year of investigation the CBI filed a chargesheet and in 2000 the special CBI court commenced trial against Yadav.
44 others including several administrative officials were also found guilty by the court today. [Timeline of the case]
Yadav could be the first big shot politico who will be caught by the Supreme Court Lily Thomas judgment of July, which disqualifies convicts from standing for political office.
PIL filed in Delhi HC against Facebook India, Google India about alleged compliance failure in tax and RBI regulation, data security, and user-agreement [DNA India]
Maharashtra NLU in limbo after as ministers fight over location: Aurangabad campus in addition to Mumbai? [TOI]
CBI calls on two Italian law firms to help it figure out chopper graft case [PTI]
Former solicitor general Gopal Subramanium has been appointed to represent the Maharashtra government and the Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI) as special counsel.
India’s Supreme Court has today dismissed the Central Bureau of Investigation’s (CBI) curative petition to reinstate culpable homicide charges against those responsible for the Bhopal gas disaster.
Exclusive: Delhi Bar Council member Rajinder Singh Rana is understood to have withdrawn his bail plea in the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) of alleged law school accreditation bribes, as the Delhi High Court has now also denied anticipatory bail to the co-accused BCI vice-chairman R Dhanapal Raj after the end of four weeks of the Madras High Court-granted interim bail.