Supreme Court

Bangalore-based self-described Supreme Court advocate Vikas Bansode, legal advisor to former Karnataka governor HR Bhardwaj, has had his Z-class security cover renewed and upgraded to Z-plus level “for an indefinite period” on 24 January by the local police, reported the Bangalore Mirror.

Bansode, who was nearly appointed legal advisor to an SIT looking into illegal mining after Bhardwaj’s resignation, apparently enjoys the same security cover as Karnataka’s chief minister and governor - including eight 24-hour guards, some of whom are armed, two police vehicles with a driver and three security personnel, co-ordinated by a reserve sub-inspector, costing around Rs 1.5 crore per year - according to the Mirror.

Trouble is, police declined to tell the Mirror why Bansode was awarded this privilege by a high-powered committee of cops and the state’s chief secretary Kaushik Mukherjee.

Saurav Datta presents the case against Teesta Setalvad and Javed Anand, as well as their defence, and looks into the case law and arguments that’ll lie before the Supreme Court tomorrow.

"Does this case fall in the 93 per cent or in the remaining 7 per cent?” Supreme Court Justice Ranjan Gogoi has begun asking the bar increasingly often, reported Utkarsh Anand in the Indian Express.

While Kapil Sibal reportedly did not get the reference, Gogoi was referring to recent research by advocate KV Dhananjay and others, that revealed that only 7 per cent of cases the Supreme Court heard had a constitutional dimension to them, as reported by Legally India earlier this month.

The countrywide national Lok Adalat for the settlement of bank recovery, cheques bounce and dishonoured cheques cases Saturday witnessed the settlement of 56,000 cases involving more than Rs 265 crore.

The day-long Lok Adalat for the amicable settlement of such cases was organized by the National Legal Services Authority, whose executive chairman is Justice TS Thakur, the senior most judge after Chief Justice of India HL Dattu.

“More than 56,000 cases, which include pending and pre-litigation matters have been settled. The banks and financial institutions and others who participated were able to arrive at final settlements worth Rs.265 crores and more,” said a statement issued by NALSA based on the information available with it Saturday evening.

“It is evident that the National Lok Adalat has greatly benefitted the common man and it has been achieved not only because of the legal services authorities/committees but also because of the cooperation extended by the judges, lawyers and various authorities including banks and financial institutions,” it said.

In the Supreme Court, four benches took up more than 200 cases for settlement. Two of these former apex court judges Arijit Pasayat, Gyan Sudha Misra, BS Chauhan and Ranjana Prakash Desai.

Of the other two courts, one had Justice Dipak Misra and Justice Kurian Joseph and the other had Justice Arun Mishra asnd Justice Prafulla C Pant.

There is an old joke amongst lawyers. Annoyed with a lawyer’s argument, the judge asks the lawyer: “Counsel do you take me for an idiot?”

The Supreme Court Advocates-on-Record (AOR) exam saw its lowest pass rate in four years when results were announced yesterday.