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Supreme Court

28 March 2014

A circular by the Supreme Court of India has declared that the week before and after the upcoming court summer vacations from 10 May 2014 to 27 June 2014 will be miscellaneous weeks (i.e., all days from 5 May - 9 May 2014, and from 30 June to 4 July 2014, will be miscellaneous days). Further details on admissions matters and listings in the [SC circular]

28 March 2014

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]

28 March 2014

A Supreme Court three-judge bench headed by Justice BS Chauhan told the government to report on what it had done to investigate the Rs 6,500 crore investment into four Indian Indian Reliance Industries companies by what is allegedly a Singaporean shell company called Biometrix used for money laundering.

Advocate Prashant Bhushan and senior counsel Colin Gonsalves, who are appearing for the two petitioners in the case querying the gas price increase from Reliance's KG-D6 basis concession, alleged that Biometrix had no assets or equity and did not file tax returns in Singapore claiming a small-company exemption, but nevertheless made the single largest FDI into India from Singapore. Solicitor general Mohan Parasaran is appearing for the government. [Business Standard] [Economic Times]

28 March 2014

A Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) P Sathasivam has ruled in a writ petition on people disposing human waste manually from dry toilets, granting Rs 10 lakh compensation each to families of manual scavengers who died in sewers, manholes or septic tanks since 1993, after the work was outlawed by law, which was further strengthened in September of last year.

The SC also ordered better schemes for rehabilitation of workers who would be doing an illegal job under the law, and told the Indian Railways, which is the largest employer of manual scavengers, of whom the majority are from the dalit castes, to stop the practice. [Mint] [Judgment W.P.(C) 583/2003] [January NYT feature on the manual scavenging law]

27 March 2014

Sahara has said it can't afford paying the Rs 5,000 crore in cash to the court, and Rs 5,000 crore in bank guarantees to SEBI, which the Supreme Court yesterday stipulated the amounts for Sahara chief to get out of jail on conditional bail. The next hearing will be on 3 April and Roy will be expected to remain in Tihar until then [NDTV Profit]

CNBC's @thefirmupdate tweeted that Sahara's counsel asked Justices Radhakrishnan and Khehar to recuse themselves from the hearing.

27 March 2014

Supreme Court Justice AK Patnaik said today: "In the place of Srinivasan, we propose to appoint an experienced cricket player like Sunil Gavaskar to replace him and function as BCCI president." Yesterday the court said that N Srinivasan's continuing to stick on as the current BCCI board chairman was "nauseating" [AFP]

27 March 2014

Legally India Supreme Court postcard writer and tweeting advocate Court Witness' column on Subrata Roy: "The Supreme Court dragon has woken and it is annoyed." [Mumbai Mirror]

26 March 2014

The Supreme Court and its registry will be closed on Thursday 10 April and Monday 14 April 2014 because of the general elections and Dr BR Ambedkar's birthday respectively, the Chief Justice of India (CJI) has announced in notices on the SC website

Ambedkar birthday notice [General elections notice]

26 March 2014

SaharaThe Supreme Court has set interim bail for Sahara chief Subrata Roy at Rs 5,000 crore in cash, and Rs 5,000 crore in guarantees to the Securites and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) in bank guarantees.

26 March 2014

Fali NarimanFali Nariman and PP Rao have completed their recommendations to the Supreme Court in what procedure to follow in case of sex harassment allegations against sitting and former judges.

26 March 2014

RiotsThe Supreme Court has slammed the Uttar Pradesh government for failing to prevent the Muzaffarnagar riots in September 2013.

26 March 2014

The Supreme Court said that the Uttar Pradesh government failed to protect the fundamental rights of Muzaffarnagar residents, of whom 60 died in communal riots last year. While the apex court said all those responsible, irrespective of political affiliation, should be arrested, the bench stopped short of ordering a CBI or SIT probe into the Samajwadi government [NDTV]

26 March 2014

"After two wasted years, Sathasivam realizes that Kapadia was, after all, right about the Registry," tweeted CourtWitness. Livelaw reported that Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sathasivam said at an AOR-hosted function yesterday that the registry was not listing matters correctly by allowing lawyers to mention matters, following controversy kicked off by senior advocate Dushyant Dave about forum shopping, which the CJI had attributed to a mistake in the registry [@CourtWitness1] [LiveLaw]

25 March 2014

The second national lok adalat in the Supreme Court, which was scheduled for 12 April 2014, has been postponed, with the new date to be announced shortly [SC notification]

25 March 2014

Sahara says it will pay Rs 2,500 crore in three days, three instalments of Rs 3,500 cr each at the end of June, Sept and Dec, and Rs 7,000 crore by 31 March 2015. The new proposal totals Rs 20,000, which would be Rs 3,000 crore more than its earlier proposal, as the company's chief Subrata Roy is still in jail without grant of bail [NDTV report]

25 March 2014

The Supreme Court has told the cricket body's boss N Srinivasan to step down as board chief so that the IPL betting and match-fixing could be investigated properly, with Justice AK Patnaik saying it was "nauseating" that he continued and would have to go if cricket were to be cleaned: "Why is Srinivasan sticking to his chair? If you don't step down, then we will pass the order".

Senior counsel CA Sundaram was representing the BCCI, whom Patnaik told: "We will show the papers. You see it and tell us as a counsel about your opinion and not as a paid counsel for Srinivasan." [NDTV Sports round-up of developments]

24 March 2014

A Supreme Court bench headed by Justice Justice BS Chauhan reiterated that the government must not imply that Aadhar cards are mandatory to take advantage of any government services.

"I received lot of letters which say Aadhar card is mandatory despite court orders. One letter said his marriage is not registered because of lack of Aadhar card, other letters say they can't get their properties registered. We had already passed orders saying no one should suffer for not having Aadhar card. If there are any instructions that Aadhar is mandatory, it should be withdrawn immediately," he said. [NDTV]

15 March 2014

A Supreme Court bench stayed the execution of two of the four men convicted for the rape and murder of a woman, dubbed Nirbhaya by the media, in December 2012.

14 March 2014

Nokia forced into Rs 2,250 cr tax guarantee by SC: The Supreme Court today ordered Nokia to give a Rs 2,250 crore ($368m) guarantee before it can transfer one of its mobile phone factories to Microsoft, which bought the Finnish mobile maker last year with the acquisition held up by the tax dispute with the Indian government [Bloomberg]

ML Sharma strikes again, hits Ranbaxy: Controversial advocate and serial petitioner Manohar Lal Sharma has succeeded in getting the Supreme Court to issue notice to Ranbaxy Laboratories in a PIL against the pharma company alleging it sold tampered and ineffective drugs in India. Sharma cited a recent order in the US against Ranbaxy [Mint]

Law students fast for action against Sri Lanka: 12 Tiruchi government law college students have begun an indefinite fast demanding that India move a resolution in the United Nations against Sri Lanka, for alleged war crimes [The Hindu]

Dec 16 convicts to hang: Del HC: The Delhi high court upheld the death sentence of the four Delhi December 16 gang rape convicts, dismissing their appeal for commutation of the sentence to life term [The Hindu]

13 March 2014

A Supreme Court bench headed by Justice KS Radhakrishnan today rejected the appeal for the bail of jailed Sahara boss Subrata Roy, pending the next hearing on 25 March 2014.