DV Sadananda Gowda
Communications and Information Technology minister and lawyer Ravi Shankar Prasad has been made the law minister again in today's cabinet reshuffle, replacing DV Sadananda Gowda, reported DNA and others.
In a two-day conference by the Bar Council of India (BCI) in Dehradun over the weekend, attended by Supreme Court justice Dipak Misra and law minister DV Sadananda Gowda, Professor Madhava Menon held a talk on the "need of continuing legal education to the lawyers".
An American Bar Association (ABA) source told Legally India that the ABA president Paulette Brown had met with the law minister yesterday and talked about liberalisation.
The Delhi high court will soon transfer thousands of cases, mostly related to property disputes, to the district courts of the capital as the President has signed into law a bill which enhances the pecuniary jurisdiction of civil courts.
Pitching for the introduction of an animal rights subject to law schools’ syllabuses, the Indian Express reported that:
Union Law Minister Sadananda Gowda has written to the Bar Council of India chairman to include books written by his cabinet colleague Maneka Gandhi on animal rights in the curriculum of law schools and colleges. Gandhi, the Union Women and Child Development Minister, is also an animal rights activist.
Gowda wrote to BCI chairman Manan Kumar Mishra, according to the Express:
leaving aside the meat consumption issue for the time being, we need to sensitize our citizens about cruelty caused by us to animals in many forms while using them for farming purpose, religious activities, sports activities, recreational activities like circus and while transporting animals etc. We need to make lawyers acquire comprehensive knowledge on various laws governing animal rights and prevention of cruelty to animals. The best way to start forward is to include these aspects in the curriculum of law colleges.
I am herewith attaching a list of Acts pertaining to animal rights and also the books written by Smt Maneka Gandhi for including the same in the curriculum on law schools and colleges.
According to the Express, a number of professors, including NLU Delhi vice chancellor Ranbir Singh and former Delhi University law faculty dean SN Singh, objected to the letter arguing that animal welfare laws were covered in environmental law courses, while the government had no business recommending any particular book to be taught, which was the exclusive preserve of each law school.
DV Sadananda Gowda, commenting on the US Supreme Court’s national country-wide legalisation of gay marriage last week, said that the government could de-criminalise gay sex under section 377 of the Indian Penal Code and might even consider gay marriage as an option.
“The mood appears to be in favour of it. But it can be done only after widespread consultations and taking all views into account,” he told the Economic Times.
Update: Gowda has told ANI News that he was "totally misquoted": "When I was asked about the judgment that was given by the US court, I said that it is not an easy task in our country. So, the people of that country might have accepted it but here it has to be widely debated. Only then can something be done. Otherwise, it is not an easy task. So, we have no idea of scrapping or doing anything about [Section] 377."
Hat-tip: @mohitsingh8 and @sayantan_b on Twitter
Law Minister DV Sadananda Gowda has written a letter to the Delhi high court chief justice on 18 June after having received allegations of “corruption, favouritism and nepotism” in the long-controversial Delhi Judicial Services (DJS) exam, reported the Indian Express’ Utkarsh Anand.
As reported by Legally India on 5 May, only 15 out of 659 candidates or 2 per cent passed the exam this year.
Gowda noted that allegedly Delhi high court judges’ children were very successful in the exam - two out of the 15 who passed - while the majority of other candidates failed spectacularly, as the “the Department of Justice has received many grievances alleging corruption, favouritism and nepotism in the recently concluded Delhi Judicial Services Examination, 2014”.
A petition on change.org signed by 310 supporters and aggrieved students complained that the the DJS should recruit more than just 15 candidates, as it still had 570 vacancies remaining that were unfilled.
This week in Mint, Legally India dove into the complicated and fascinating politics of the Delhi bar.
The Rajya Sabha yesterday deferred passing the bill to increase the pecuniary jurisdiction of the Delhi high court, with some members saying that the reform should be clubbed with pending legislation to create commercial divisions in high courts (the Commercial Division of High Courts Bill 2009), with law minister DV Sadananda Gowda conceding to the demands, reported the PTI.
Two politicians by the JD(U) and the BJP made the suggestion, which Gowda seemed happy to accept according to the report.
The commercial divisions bill is currently being redrafted in line with law commission recommendations that have been taken up by the government in the budget.
A series of strikes for and against the bill by bar associations have plagued Delhi, with high court lawyers most recently striking in December 2014, giving six reasons that they are against the measure, which would move matters with a value of less than below Rs 2 crore from the Delhi high court to the district court.
Update: The Rajya Sabha debates stated the following:
Chief Justice of India (CJI) HL Dattu and the apex court’s most senior judges have decided to continue holding collegium meetings to recommend new judges, reported the Indian Express, despite law minister DV Sadananda Gowda late last month warning that there would be no new judges until the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) was functioning and the writs challenging the body were disposed of.
No names have been finalised yet by the collegium, reported the Express, but sources said that the collegium felt that without the NJAC and constitional amendment having been notified, the collegium should continue meeting and recommending names for appointment to the bench.
Ex Karnataka chief minister and former railways minister DV Sadananda Gowda has become the latest minister of law and justice in the first major cabinet reshuffle of the new government, following telecom minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, who held the law portfolio from 26 May 2014, reported PTI.
Gowda will not hold any other ministry portfolios.