Sidharth Luthra

It was a series of surprises wrapped in an enigma, so to speak. In the end, the King of Surprises, Justice Ranjan Gogoi, pretty much proved to those who assembled in Court 5 of the Supreme Court on 17 October that no one could beat him in the game of springing surprises.

Item 9 before the bench of Supreme Court Justices JS Khehar and C Nagappan turned out to be an interesting hearing yesterday (13 April) when counsel for Tata Motors, Sidharth Luthra, persisted that there was a case of defamation against the Sunday Indian magazine, edited by the appellant IIPM-Supremo Arindam Chaudhuri, who has been no stranger to strategic litigation against public participation (SLAPP) against publishers.

NLU Delhi ‘s legal aid cell is fighting against two foetal-sex-determination doctors in the Delhi high court, for girl-child-protection NGO Beti Bachao Samiti. Senior advocate Sidhharth Luthra is representing the doctors – Sunil Fakay and Urvashi Fakay.

Delhi University (DU) law students should not suffer in the ongoing tussle between the Bar Council of India (BCI) and DU’s law centres over campus infrastructure, said the Delhi high court yesterday.

The Supreme Court has said that the police should take action in the gang-rape of a woman in a village, which was allegedly ordered by a village panchayat as punishment for her affair. The bench led by the Chief Justice of India (CJI) P Sathasivam was apparently able to do little substantively in the case, beyond order the WB government to pay Rs 5 lakh in compensation, but reiterated the Lalita Kumari guidelines that police must register an FIR on congisable offences and that hospitals must provide free medical assistance to victims of certain offences. "We implore upon the State machinery to work in harmony with each other to safeguard the rights of women in our country," he said.

Amicus curiae and additional solicitor general Sidharth Luthra assisted the court, which took notice of the case after reading newspaper reports about it. [Judgment]

Senior counsel and new additional solicitor general Sidharth Luthra’s credo - becoming so good that nobody can lay a finger on you - sits well with his propensity for hard work at nearly superhuman levels and a passion for the criminal court room. And if anyone in the Delhi courts was not already aware of him, there are also his well-known pre-court-vacation parties of course.

Advocate Adit Subramaniam Pujari meets Luthra for Legally India’s new Debrief series to find out about his practice and what makes the man tick.

Exclusive: Supreme Court senior advocate Sidharth Luthra has today accepted his appointment to become additional solicitor general (ASG).