Supreme Court

In the midst of the Supreme Court’s hearing on appeals filed by Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala against the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal’s 2007 Order yesterday (4 January), witnessed witty exchanges between Tamil Nadu’s senior counsel, Shekhar Naphade, and Karnataka’s senior counsel, Fali S. Nariman.

According to the Bar Council of India (BCI) official All India Bar Exam (AIBE) website, the “tentative” date for the next bar exam, which is compulsory for law graduates to pass before entering practice, has been set for 26 February 2017, with registration “likely to start” on 6 January 2017:

Splendiferous Greetings! I hope you all had a Merry Christmas/Happy Hanukkah/Kwanzaa/Festivus, and here's an advance Happy New Year to you all. This is what's been up in the week before Christmas.

Luthra & Luthra has hired Bharat Chugh as a counsel in Delhi, according to its press release as reported Bar & Bench.

The Supreme Court Bar Association’s (SCBA) new president, senior advocate Rupinder Singh Suri said that he won the 14 December SCBA election due to the support of “the top seniors and common lawyers”.

Supreme Court Justice JS Khehar has been formally confirmed by the President of India as the next Chief Justice of India (CJI) to succeed Justice TS Thakur and will be the first CJI from the Sikh community, according to the Indian Express.

The Supreme Court of India just finished its work for this year and had an action-packed, if shortened week, the High Courts have been at it, and the organs of Government are all functioning, grinding out laws, rules, guidelines, notifications and much more to govern/rule/harass/intimidate/thieve the populace (delete as per political persuasion). Parliament has... well... you saw how that went.

The Bar Council of India (BCI) cannot be relied upon to take the legal services liberalisation process forward, said NLU Delhi vice chancellor (VC) Ranbir Singh on Saturday.

This is an effort to try and sift through the tonnes of "content" about the law, courts and legal developments every week and bring you the most interesting and important. This newsletter will be a mix of links to original content, opinion and commentary, and the occasional gif. This is not just for lawyers, but for anyone who wants to keep up to date with what's happening in the world of the law and legal institutions.

A Supreme Court of justices Dipak Misra and Amitava Roy, who had passed a controversial order purporting to make playing of the national anthem in cinemas obligatory, today said that cinema goers who were physically disabled would not have to stand but should show “conduct commensurate to respect”, according to Janta Ka Reporter.

Ex-Supreme Court judge Markandey Katju has offered a two-page apology to the Supreme Court, saying he would be prepared to read it out in person in open court if required, in marked contrast to his belligerence last month after he accused the Supreme Court of conducting a surgical strike on him to humiliate him (which, perhaps, was kind of true in their suo motu contempt action against him for one of his many blog posts that were critical-cum-offensive against the judiciary).

70 out of the 100 Supreme Court judges, who retired as on 12 February 2016, took up post-retirement jobs with various permanent and ad hoc bodies and committees, with the greatest number taking up quasi-judicial posts, according to data collected by the Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy.

The Bar Council of India (BCI) talks to come up with a new proposal to reform its regulation of the legal profession, have been shrouded in secrecy due to a media gag order since October.

The Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) elections may be postponed to January, out of fairness to the SC advocates whose names were removed without proper notice from the SCBA voter list, if the election committee agrees to the request of presidential candidate Adish Aggarwala.