Harish Salve
Supreme Court justices TS Thakur and Anil R Dave asked Gopal Subramanium to reconsider his recusal as the amicus curiae in the Padmanabhaswamy temple treasure case, because he had already put significant work into the case, reported The Hindu.
Subramanium had announced, as reported on 5 August, that he would withdraw from the case.
In June Subramanium had bowed out of the Supreme Court judgeship nomination process after pressure from the government, vowing that out of a sense of propriety, he therefore wouldn’t practice in the Supreme Court until the current Chief Justice of India (CJI) RM Lodha retired. In July he also rejected the Supreme Court’s plea to act as the special public prosecutor in the coal scam cases.
His report in the temple case was harshly critical of the temple’s administrators and the royal family, having found a web of trusts, bank accounts, and a lot of silver, gold and a gold plating machine during his lengthy investigation of the temple. Senior advocate Harish Salve is appearing for the royal family, with KK Venugopal appearing for the trustees, who both criticised Subramanium’s report.
According to the Times of India, Senior counsel Harish Salve has been the latest lawyer to have been instructed to appear for Sahara boss Subrata Roy, who continues to be locked up in Tihar Jail for contempt of court.
Salve’s first act as counsel was to accept the offer of a bigger cell for Roy - “a big conference room with attached bathroom and also an annexe in Tihar complex that is safe and secure from security point of view” – in order to arrange for the sale of big hotel properties in London and New York owned by the Sahara group to meet the Supreme Court’s stipulated now Rs 10,000 crore quasi-bail, in order to meet Sebi’s order to repay Rs 24,000 crore to investors.
Journalist @JaskiratSB tweeted: “Amongst facilities that could possibly be provided to [Roy] in jail: 2 secretarial staff, wifi, video conferencing + laptops, printers… Sahara to pay for facilities of course. As mentioned in court. But no final call yet.”
“Harish Salve completes a long list of legal luminaries representing Subrata Roy,” commented @SandipGhose on Twitter, referring to the roster of senior counsel who have appeared and failed to get Roy any relief, including Ram Jethmalani, Fali Nariman, Gopal Subramanium, KTS Tulsi, Abhishek Manu SInghvi, PH Parekh, Aryama Sundaram and others.
Attorney General Goolam Vahanvati and Solicitor General Mohan Parasaran have tendered their resignations as is customary on change of government, reported the PTI. The AG’s and the SG’s tenures are conventionally co-terminus with the term of the existing government.
According to speculation senior advocates Harish Salve and Mukul Rohatgi are contenders for the post of AG, while Ranjit Kumar is frontrunner for the SG’s post.
Vahanvati – the first Muslim to become the top law officer of the country - was appointed AG in 2009, after being SG for five years during the UPA-I’s rule.
Son of former AG K Parasaran, Parasaran was appointed SG after senior advocate Rohinton Nariman resigned mid-tenure from the post. He was appointed ASG by UPA-I in 2004.
The Mail Today, said that "sources" have told it that the BJP government's favourites for the job of attorney general would be senior advocates Harish Salve and Mukul Rohatgi (of course, the paper had made the same prediction already a month ago, when it also added that Ranjit Kumar was in the running, and that Salve was the top contender). A "top source" also told the DNA two days ago that Salve and Rohatgi were the top contenders.
According to the Mail's report, Kumar and Gujarat advocate general Kamal Trivedi are first picks for the post of solicitor general, if the government resets its legal adviser roster, currently headed by AG Goolam Vahanvati and solicitor general Mohan Parasaran, as is customary.
The brother of a man who died when his car allegedly slammed into senior advocate Harish Salve's Bentley, driven by his chauffeur, told the DNA that the family was cosidering filing a case against Salve and his driver for "rash driving" [see correction below].
Salve told DNA that on his advice, his driver had filed a case of "rash and negligent" driving against the man on the day of the accident but later withdrew the FIR, with Salve extending his sympathies to the family of the man who died in hospital on the day of the accident on 2 May. [DNA]
Update: DNA seems to have removed the story from its website shortly after we first published it. We're trying to find out why so we can update or amend the story if required.
Update 2: DNA has issued a correction on its website, stating: "In today's (14/05/2014) dna we carried a news report, Bentley mishap: Family mulls plaint against Salve, which said the family of the driver who died from injuries of an accident earlier this month is considering a case against Mr Harish Salve. The report is not true. We regret the inconvenience caused to both to Mr Salve and the family of the deceased."
A detailed report in the Eco Times on the long-running legal scuffle between McDonald's and its local JV partner Vikram Bakshi. McDonald's has accused Bakshi in the Delhi high court of forum shopping by launching Company Law Board (CLB) and Delhi high court challenges to a London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA) proceeding between the parties.
Bakshi, represented by senior counsel Mukul Rohatgi to date, has been fighting for his reinstatement as managing director of the joint venture after he was ousted by McDonald's in 2013.
Senior counsel Harish Salve will appear for McDonald's today, arguing against the Indian proceedings so that the London arbitration can proceed. [Economic Times]
An Indian Supreme Court bench headed up by Justice SS Nijjar has appointed ex-Australian SC judge James Spigelman to preside as arbitrator between Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries and the oil ministry. At stake is who whether Reliance will be able to recover $1.8bn in its costs from the government for developing the KG-D6 oil field.
Two arbitrators had already been decided on - ex Chief Justices SP Barucha and VN Khare, Reliance and the ministry's nominees respectively - but the parties and other arbitrators could not agree on a presiding arbitrator.
The oil ministry had pitched for an Indian arbitrator, because the law and subject matter of the agreement were Indian and since selection should take place under the Indian Arbitration and Conciliation Act 1996 and not the UN's Uncitral rules. Reliance counsel Harish Salve requested an arbitrator from a country other than India, the UK or Canada, since companies from each of those countries has a stake or role in the dispute, arguing that the procedure from the Uncitral rules should be followed. [Financial Express] [Background to dispute in Business Standard]
The Competition Appellate Tribunal (Compat) has rejected an appeal by Jitendra Bhargava, a former executive director Air India, who complained that the Competition Commission had cleared the merger between the two airlines without a detailed assessment.
The names of senior advocates Fali S Nariman, K K Venugopal, Harish Salve and attorney general Goolam Vahanvati have been forwarded in the category of “eminent jurist” to the Lokpal selection panel, alongside former attorney generals Soli Sorabjee and K Parasaran.
They will be discussed in a meeting scheduled for 3 February, reported the Indian Express:
The Lokpal will consist of a chairperson and a maximum of eight members, of which 50 per cent shall be judicial members and the rest shall be from among SCs, STs, OBCs, minorities and women. The selection committee has to have Prime Minister, Lok Sabha Speaker, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha and the Chief Justice of India. A fifth member of the selection committee for selection of Lokpal has to be nominated under the category of “eminent jurist”. These four members will co-opt the fifth member under this category. So far, names of six jurists have been doing the rounds for selection as the fifth member.
Scores of Indian lawyers have made the transition from India to become English solicitors. However, Karishma Vora’s path to becoming a barrister in the UK from the Bombay high court is much rarer and more arduous, taking her three years. Legally India asked her how it’s done.
The senior advocate, who will join top English barristers’ set Blackstone Chambers, argued forcefully for liberalisation of the Indian legal market.
Senior advocate in the process of seeking admission at English bar and will join top English barristers’ set Blackstone Chambers as a tenant, focusing on international arbitration.