Narendra Modi
The Supreme Court has participated in Narendra Modi’s open challenge to clean India, by literally sweeping its own back yard.
Shiv Sena force feeders not PIL material: A Delhi high court bench of chief justice G Rohini and Justice Jayant Nath have declined to hear public interest litigation (PIL) to disqualify 11 Shiv Sena MPs who allegedly force-fed a Muslim member of canteen staff over Ramadan as a way of protesting about the bad quality of food. The bench said that the petitioner had not provided enough evidence to show it was a PIL. [PTI]
NaMo lotus symbol selfie did not violate election code: Narendra Modi did not violate election rules when he tweeted a selfie on 30 April with the BJP’s election symbol near an election booth, decided a metropolitan magistrate, since the lotus symbol was part of his attire and the interaction with the press was not pre-planned [PTI]
Governor files petition against NaMo for pushing out governors: Uttarakhand Governor Aziz Qureshi has filed a writ under Articles 155 and 156(1) of the Constitution against Narendra Modi and his government for pushing him (and other governors) out of their constitutional positions. He will be arguing before a three-judge bench, headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) RM Lodha, that he could only be sacked by the president and with valid cause because a governor is not an employee of the Union government. [Indian Express]
CBI court grants A Raja, business bigwigs bail in 2G-Kalaignar TV case: A special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court has granted Rs 5 lakh bail to politicians A Raja, Kanimozhi, Swan Telecom promoters Shahid Balwa and Vinod Goenka, Kusegaon Fruits and Vegetables directors Asif Balwa and Rajiv Agarwal, Kalaignar TV MD Sharad Kumar, Bollywood producer Karim Morani and P Amirtham in a money laundering case related to the 2G scam. The case alleges that Rs 200 crore were paid to Kalaignar TV, owned by the DMK party, to grant telecom licences to companies of the DB Group [Indian Express]
Death of planning commission, long live NDRC? What would the new planning commission mooted by Narendra Modi look like, experts speculate in [Mint]
BCI chairman should sit on JAC, says Rajiv Khosla: Delhi High Court Bar Association’s (DHCBA) president Rajiv Kohosla has said he wants the Bar Council of India (BCI) chairman to have a seat on the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC), several days after parliament passed the NJAC Act.
SC PIL looks into coaching centres: Centre tells Supreme Court that it can’t regulate private entrance coaching centres for engineering, medicine or other subjects, in a PIL filed by the CPI(M) party’s student wing [The Hindu]
Court orders police to free Manipur hunger striker again: Manipur East sessions court released the world’s longest hunger striker Irom Sharmila from jail for what her captors allege is an attempt to commit suicide by hunger strike. However, in the last 13 years and nine months, she had often been released by the courts and arrested again by the police for continuing with her hunger strike against the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, reported [Scroll]
SC sweeps aside SCBA petition vs new SC Rules: The Supreme Court has refused the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) plea before it to amend the new Supreme Court Rules 2013 that were set to come into force on 19 August, which were allegedly introduced without consultation with the bar [The Hindu]
Bus accident victim gets Rs 12 lakh compensation in tribunal: The Motor Accident Claims Tribunal (MACT) in UP awarded the damages against the bus driver, DTC and the insurance company for causing 60 per cent disability in the plaintiff’s left leg [PTI]
Faizan Mustafa wins something: Nalsar Hyderabad vice chancellor wins South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) award for best law teacher that was decided by a “high-powered jury”, reported [The Hindu] and others. It will be conferred by the law minister in future.
Nine Kerala students were arrested and bailed on Sunday after posting "NaMo" as a crossword clue to the expected solution "NAyeente MOn", which, according to the Times of India loosely translates to "son of a bitch", only several days after six other Kerala students and educational staff were arrested for including Narendra Modi in a line-up of "negative faces" in a college magazine.
Students behind the magazine, in which the crossword also made fun of Kerala chief minister Oommen Chandy, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, party MP Shashi Tharoor, and spiritual leader Mata Amrithanandamayi, were arrested after a complaint by the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP, the student wing of right-wing Hindu organisation RSS) and the Kerala Students Union (KSU). They were booked under "section 153 of Indian Penal Code, which is regarding provocation with intent to cause riot", according to the police commissioner, who also said that "evidence is clear against the accused students" but not yet against the principal of the college.
Two members of staff and four students of a Kerala polytechnic were arrested, then bailed, after publishing a campus magazine that contained a photograph of Narendra Modi alongside Adolf Hitler, George W Bush, Osama Bin Laden and others in a "negative faces" collage, reported the PTI.
They, and the principal who was not arrested due to ill health, were first booked by the police on Tuesday under Section 153 of the Indian Penal Code (provoking with the intent to create rioting), with local BJP workers protesting and burning copies of the student magazine, according to the Times of India. The page, featuring "dreadful personalities" also featured terrorist Ajmal Kasab, LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran and sandalwood smuggler Veerappan.
The student editor of the publication said: "We didn't have any motive to malign the prime minister. When we decided the content in mid-2013, majority of the media and activists were against Modi in the backdrop of 2002 riots in Gujarat."
A Mumbai resident’s anticipatory bail application for arrest under hate speech laws was rejected, after his anti-Modi Facebook posts led to an FIR against him under sections 153(A), 295(A) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and section 125 of the People's Representation Act and 66-A of the Information Technology Act, reported Firstpost.
Meanwhile a student interning in Bangalore was arrested for “sending an objectionable message on PM-designate Narendra Modi”, reported the Bangalore Mirror.
According to the Firstpost report, the Mumbai resident had claimed on a Facebook group with 47,000 members that if elected to power Modi would unleash a “holocaust”. Former chairman of the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) Atul Pai had filed an FIR against him in March. He said: “"The complaint is against Devu for making inflammatory statements and trying to create communal disharmony, not comments against the BJP."
The Mirror reported that the student had sent a picture message to a Belgaum activist who filed a police complaint against him. The message - a morphed picture showing the final rites of Modi being performed, attended by L K Advani, Rajnath Singh, Sushma Swaraj, Baba Ramdev, Maneka Gandhi and Varun Gandhi. It had a caption: Na Jeet Paye Jhooton Ka Sardar — Ab Ki Baar Antim Sanskar (A false leader will never win, this time it's final rites).{jcomments lock}
The alleged victim of snooping by the Gujarat government has approached Supreme Court justices Ranjana Prakash Desai and NV Ramana with her father to restrain the central and state governments from launching an inquiry into the alleged abuse of surveillance powers, claiming that any probe would be violation of their Constitutional right to private life.
In their petition they pleaded: "The constitution of commission by the state government is wholly unwarranted and unjustified. The attempt being made by the central government to constitute a similar commission which would necessarily infringe upon and encroach upon right to privacy of the petitioners and their family which would clearly be unwarranted and unjustified and would be violative of the fundamental rights of the petitioners and their family members as guaranteed under Article 21 of the constitution...
"Such sinister campaign by vested groups under the guise protecting the privacy of petitioners has resulted into tarnishing the reputation and infringing upon the petitioners and their family members right to privacy, causing them immense anguish and suffering." [PTI]
BJP leader Arun Jaitley claimed that no judge would "lend himself" to the " "political and malafide" exercise of investigating charges that India's possible future leader, Narendra Modi, and his Gujarat government had arranged to have a woman in his home state followed and "snooped" on illegally.
Kapil Sibal today replied saying a judge would be found by 16 May but that despite documentary evidence against Modi, the committee would be stalled by Modi as had happened in the Nanavati-Shah commission that was appointed to investigate the 2002 Gujarat riots but still hasn't prepared a final report. [PTI]
Legally India’s informal online poll from last week saw 629 readers cast their virtual vote when asked: Who do you want as your next government.
A few days ago the Financial Express did a long interview with senior advocate and former parliamentarian Fali Nariman.
The chat covers a dozen topics, including Nariman's fear of modern Hinduism's intolerance, how a Narendra Modi prime minister would affect the courts and constitution, judicial reforms, Lokpal and more. Well worth a read. [Financial Express] [via @AparatBar on Twitter]
As polls kicked off in Delhi today we asking, who do lawyers and, more importantly, Legally India readers, want as India’s next government? The outgoing Bar Council of India (BCI) chairman (as “a representative of 1.7m lawyers”), already said he wants you to vote Modi. But what do you want? Have your say here, anonymously, in the poll or comments. [Compare manifestos / Congress law record]
Despite the BCI chairman’s recent ringing personal but apparently representative endorsement of Narendra Modi, lawyers will have to make their own choice this election. LI tries to help.
Bar Council of India (BCI) chairman Manan Kumar Mishra said that he supported Narendra Modi’s bid to become India’s next PM.
With Lok Sabha elections now scheduled to start on 7 April it is fair to ask: what has the current government done for India's legal profession? And can any of the others do better?
Supreme Court justice Dipak Misra asked the Bar Council of India (BCI) to not “please electoral politics”, in a BCI golden jubilee conference closing speech.
Prime ministerial hopeful Narendra Modi, Bar Council of India chairman Manan Kumar Mishra and legion of judges convened at a BCI function in Gandhinagar.
BCI cozies up to NaMo
A delegation led by Bar Council of India (BCI) chief Manan Kumar Mishra met Narendra Modi on Saturday, inviting him to address the valedictory function of the Gujarat bar Council. According to a Gujarat state press release, the BCI respected Modi’s nationalism, while Modi called for better application of technology and faster disposal of criminal cases by improving forensic science education [TOI]
SC settles TDSAT-TRAI turf war: TRAI wins
Telecom tribunals’ TDSAT and TRAI’s three-and-a-half-year-long turf war has been finally put to rest by the Supreme Court which has held that the TDSAT has no business interfering in TRAI-made regulations. TDSAT can only hear and dispose of appeals against TRAI orders [Business Standard / SC judgment]
Crowds admire Kerala HC astrological garden
Kerala high court now has its very own astrological plant garden with 27 varieties of medicinal saplings that relate to the 27 constellations. Crowds thronged the HC complex on Friday in search of their medicinal star-sign flower pot [IANS]
AP HC allows lower courts to accept PILs
We haven’t succeeded in putting our finger on the legal provision Andhra HC chief justice KJ Sengupta has employed in reaching this conclusion: “The common man need not approach the high court for filing of PILs as it involves a cost factor. The filing of PILs can be done at munsiff magisterial courts also.” Can you? [PTI]
Madras HC asked for anti-sex harass cell: After the Allahabad HC is done constituting its anti-sexual harassment cell, the Madras HC is now also under the wave of demand for the cell after a PIL was filed in the HC asking for a mechanism to deal with the problem in all Tamil Nadu courts [TOI]
Bombay HC prioritises ‘younger’ senior citizens’ cases, lowers age limit
The “precedence age” – the age at which a litigant can get his case listed on priority in the Bombay HC – has reduced from 65 to 60. On 3 December the HC has issued a circular that if even one of the litigants party to a case have attained the age of 60, their case will be listed for final hearing and disposal on priority basis, on their request. In 1999, this age was fixed at 65 [PTI]
Madras HC lawyers against SC lawyers as their judges: Madras HC lawyers will have a 25 per cent empty roster rather than “importing a stranger” to fill judge seats in the HC, if their opposition to the appointment of three SC lawyers to the HC’s judgeship is anything to go by. The Advocates Association of the HC swears that the move will ‘'completely distort the present selection process”, because the appointment will not be made by the collegium’s recommendation but on the request of the SC’s Advocates-on-Record association [The Hindu]
Lawyer punches pesky customs officer for clients: A Madras HC lawyer has managed to make headlines for taking his solemn duty for his client a tad too seriously by roughing up the customs officer who held up his clients after their questioning at the unit was over [TOI]