PC Ghose

Supreme Court Advocates on Record (AoR) need not verify their right to practice under the Bar Council of India’s (BCI) Certificate of Practice Rules 2015.

Foreign lawyers should be allowed to work on arbitrations in India to make domestic arbitration more attractive and to unburden the courts said Supreme Court justices SS Nijjar and PC Ghose and retired judge AK Ganguly, reported Kolkata paper The Telegraph.

Nijjar said at the seminar by the Indian Council of Arbitration that “we need to open up. Let’s come up with a comprehensive act (and become) an arbitration-friendly nation and judiciary”, adding that the process must be liberalised and foreign lawyers should be allowed to participate.

Ganguly added “It is natural that foreign companies will depend on foreign lawyers. If we want the arbitration process to become popular in India, we need to provide a level playing field to foreign lawyers. This will improve the legal system in India.”

Foreign lawyers are currently banned from practising in Indian courts or running offices here.

The Supreme Court’s vacancies are set to come down to three again, as the names of Andhra Pradesh high court (HC) chief justice PC Ghose and Himachal Pradesh HC chief justice Kurien Joseph have been cleared for elevation to the SC roster by the collegium, a month after three new judges were sworn in.

According to the Hindu’s sources in the law ministry, the process of appointment of the two judges will be completed in around a month.

While Ghose (60) was appointed as chief justice only in December, Joseph (59) was heading the Himachal Pradesh high court since February 2010. Ghose first became a judge in 1997, while Joseph is a judge since 2000.

Ghose would have a tenure of around five years in the SC, while Joseph would preside for almost six years.

Madras HC judge S Nagappan has been cleared to be appointed chief justice of the Orissa HC. [The Hindu]

Nalsar Hyderabad will see another change of chancellor in less than a year as Ghose becomes the second Andhra Pradesh HC chief justice to be elevated after justice Madan B Lokur’s June elevation.

SC justice Swatanter Kumar retired in December 2012, and DK Jain retired in January 2013. However, justices MY Eqbal, Vikramjit Sen, and V Gopala Gowda were sworn in in January.