Lily Thomas

In the ongoing hearing of petitions challenging the denial of right to worship to women devotees at the Sabarimala temple, Kerala, Justice Kurian Joseph, one of the three judges on the bench, on 18 April, asked amicus curiae Raju Ramachandran, a pointed question: Can you force deity who does not want to see women (of menstruating age), to 'see' women?

Ex-NLUO VC arbitrary at Pondi: Former NLUO Cuttack VC Chandra Krishnamoorthy - who left the law school months after her appointment to assume VC-ship at Pondicherry University – stands to lose her position. Her appointment has been challenged in the Madras HC for being arbitrary and without due process [New Indian Express]

DHC on Android: The Delhi high court website now has an android app with the case display board, causelist and final orders available on it. To install it on your Android device go to Settings –> Security, and check ‘Unknown Sources’. Then click this link from your phone [App Link]

Jaitley vs Neta ordinance: BJP leader and former law minister Arun Jaitley gives a detailed statement explaining his party’s opposition to the UPA’s ordinance against the Lily Thomas law that would disqualify convicted MPs from contesting polls [Firstpost]

Undertrial terrorism: Karnataka plans to appoint a retired judge of its high court to look into cases of undertrial Muslim youth prisoners jailed on charges of terrorism. 226 suspects have been booked for terror charges in the state since 2000 [Hindu]

Benegal’s Samvidhaan: Veteran Hindi cinema and television director Shyam Benegal is currently working on a ten part TV series on the Indian constitution, called Samvidhaan [NDTV]

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.