Maharashtra & Goa bar council
15 state bar councils (SBCs) will go to polls between 15 March and 28 March, starting with Jharkhand and ending with eight other SBCs, according to the election schedule announced yesterday by the Bar Council of India (BCI), as reported by Live Law and by the Times of India.
The Maharashtra & Goa bar council has rejected 65,000 persons who had been advocates enrolled on its state rolls, with 17 days to go before closing its voter list in the run-up to long-overdue state bar council (SBC) elections.
The Bar Council of India (BCI) call for a nationwide strike on Friday was joined by at least 3 lakh lawyers in various cities, disrupted court work across India, added pending litigation in thousands and perhaps resulted in the resignation of a bar council chairman in protest, even as the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) and other bar leaders did not support the call.
The Bombay high court has upheld the constitutional validity of Maharashtra’s prohibition of the slaughter of cows, bulls and bullocks, the trade of the animals outside the state for slaughter, and their sale or purchase for slaughter.
The term of all members of the Bar Council of Maharashtra and Goa ended last week (2 December) with the Goa advocate general Atmaram Nadkarni having been appointed as chairman of the bar council.
The Maharashtra government will have to figure out its stance on the legality of casinos in the state, within six months, after the Bombay high court today ordered it to take a decision on the yet-not-notified Maharashtra Casinos (Control & Tax) Act 1976.
Hariani & Co solicitor Anirudh Hariani briefed senior counsel Mihir Desai and instructed advocate Gaurav Mehta on the petition of Jay Sayta seeking directions to take a conclusive step about the 38-year-old law.
A bench of justices VM Kanade and Shalini Phansalkar today disposed of Sayta’s petition which was filed in February, as reported by Legally India.
Sayta today told Legally India in an email that the bench directed the state government to take a reasoned decision on what it intends to do with the Act. He said that this decision is consistent with the Supreme Court’s year 1988 decision in Aeltemesh Rein V Union of India.
The court has also allowed Sayta to file a fresh petition if he is not satisfied with the Maharashtra government’s course of action on this order.
Maharashtra’s second National Law University (NLU) would get its permanent campus in the coastal town of Uttan in Mumbai’s Thane district.
NLU Mumbai launched its website, shifted to a new temporary campus and closed registration for its June 2015 entrance exam.
NLU Nagpur almost done: The National Law University Nagpur cleared another hurdle with the Maharashtra government taking the ordinance route to set it up and the cabinet approving the ordinance. Once the draft of the ordinance is sent to the governor for promulgation, the way would be clear to appoint a vice chancellor and other statutory officers for the university [TOI]
Bar council may suspend Delhi law min: The Bar Council of Delhi yesterday issued a notice to Delhi law minister Somnath Bharti asking him to show cause on 7 February, why his name should not be removed from advocate rolls for allegedly tampering with evidence while representing a client before a CBI special court in August [PTI]
ML Sharma vs Kejriwal: The Supreme Court has admitted advocate ML Sharma’s petition against Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and law minister Somnath Bharti for “creating chaos in the heart of the capital by going on in an unprecedented 10-day sit-in protest” [India Today]
MHAA strikes some more: The Madras High Court Advocates Association continues working on the demand for recall of the list of judgeship recommendations at the HC, by shunning work yet again – courts were boycotted again today and additionally a “day long hunger strike” from 10am to 4pm was launched. The MHAA also resolved to urge dropping of the ten-year old Supreme Court contempt proceedings against Tamil Nadu Advocates Association president S Prabhakaran [New Indian Express]
Kejri for president’s rule? Former Delhi high court judge RS Sodhi said he sees AAP leader and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s protest as a face-saving tactic to bring about president’s rule and quit from his post as a “gullible martyr” as the party has realised it is beyond its power to govern the city [Telegraph India]
Delhi HC CAG audit order appealed: The Association of Uniform Telecom Service Providers of India has moved the Supreme Court against the Delhi high court verdict allowing the Comptroller and Auditor General the power to audit their accounts [The Hindu Businessline]
Nagpur wins NLS Maharashtra clearance: The proposal for “Maharashtra National Law University” (as it will be called) to be based in Nagpur was cleared yesterday by the Maharasthra state cabinet. The government has earmarked a reduced capital grant of Rs 125 crore (from Rs 204 crore) for the NLS, which will take in 100 students for its first batch through the CLAT [TOI]
Justice Singhvi excuses self from 2G case, pre-retirement: Justice GS Singhvi, who was leading the bench in the 2G spectrum case, will not hear the case anymore because he has a lot of workload to finish before his retirement on 11 December [TOI]
World anti death penalty day: To mark today's World Day Against Death Penalty NGO Amnesty International yesterday urged India to commute all its death sentences and impose a moratorium on executions [Firstpost]
ML Sharma again Delhi rape lawyer: Serial PIL filer and the former lawyer of one of the Delhi rape convicts, ML Sharma – who had been dumped as counsel to Delhi gang rape convict Mukesh after failing to appear in a fast track court hearing for him – has again filed a Vakalatnama to represent Mukesh after his defence lawyer VK Anand yesterday withdrew from the case [BS/TOI]
Karnataka circuit fiasco: The principle bench at Karnataka HC suffers undue vacancies as judges get deputed to its recently consolidated circuit benches at Gulbarg and Dharwad [Deccan Chronicle]
Exclusive: The Bar Council of Maharashtra and Goa has set up a society to advance micro-loans to advocates as lawyers fight back against banks’ “unwritten code” that denies credit cards and loans to lawyers.
The Bombay High Court has cleared the way to set up 124 morning courts in Maharashtra by next week, with 20 being based in Mumbai. The courts will operate between 8am and 10am to increase the caseload the courts are able to handle, reported the Times of India. Maharashtra received Rs 542 crore ($117m) of a Rs 5,000 crore budget to modernise the courts, of which Rs 297 crore will go towards establishment of out-of-hour courts in the next five years, according to the paper.
Less than a month ago the Maharashtra and Goa Bar Council resolved to oppose to establishment of evening courts, which would unduly burden advocates.
The bar council of Maharashtra and Goa said today that it would oppose the proposed all India bar exam after a decision reached by 11 chairmen of different state bar councils on 31 July, although the body admitted that unless the Bar Council of India (BCI) or a court intervened the exam would go ahead.
Maharashtra & Goa (M&G) Bar Council veteran Manubhai Paragji Vashi has called for new elections in a letter, as the M&G Advocate General has begun investigating claims of illegality in the Bar Council elections after 4,000 votes were invalidated.
The preliminary count for the Maharashtra & Goa Bar Council election has completed with five clear front-runner candidates, although one in ten ballot papers have been invalidated amid a last-minute Supreme Court order.
ALMT Legal partner Hitesh Jain has fallen short of his target after tentatively winning around 199 first preference votes in the preliminary counting rounds in the first five districts out of 37 in the Maharashtra & Goa Bar Council elections, with four other candidate building a potentially strong lead of first preference votes.
The first ballot boxes were unsealed for electronic counting yesterday at the Bar Council offices near Bombay High Court, kicking off the long count to find the winners of the Bar Council of Maharashtra and Goa elections.
Law firm lawyers turned out in force for the Maharashtra and Goa Bar Council elections yesterday, having left ALMT Legal partner Hitesh Jain feeling confident of winning a seat by a comfortable margin.