Supreme Court

The case involving the legality of the lightweight, intra-city, four-wheeled travel vehicle, known as quadricycles, took an interesting turn yesterday before the bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI), TS Thakur and Justice UU Lalit, with heavyweight senior lawyers being hired by both the petitioners and the respondents.

The Bar Council of India (BCI) told the Supreme Court today that it unanimously agreed that advocates’ alleged assault of journalists and senior advocates outside of Patiala House district court last week was “really shameful” and a “very unfortunate... incident” that should not be tolerated, according to its affidavit published by Live Law, but that those attacks should be dealt with separately from the alleged attacks on the ‘unlawful assembly’ of JNU students who “need[ed] to be opposed strongly” and “strongly condemned”.

BJP leader Subramanian Swamy on Monday moved the Supreme Court seeking construction of Lord Ram temple at the disputed site in Ayodhya.

The Supreme Court today issued notice to filmstar Salman Khan on the Maharashtra government’s petition challenging a Bombay high court verdict acquitting him in a 2002 accident case.

The bar councils are the only remaining speed bump in the government liberalising legal services, the law ministry secretary responsible for implementing the entry of foreign law firms said today.

The Supreme Court today cleared the decks for the revocation of President’s Rule in Arunachal Pradesh as it vacated its own order of status quo that it had passed yesterday.

India’s 156-year-old, colonial-era sedition law - used against arrested Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union President Kanhaiya Kumar - has been discarded by the UK (where punishment once included chopping ears), Scotland, South Korea and Indonesia.

JNU student leader Kanhaiya Kumar, arrested for sedition, on Thursday moved the Supreme Court for bail as students rallied in support across the country and the opposition took the row to President Pranab Mukherjee.

Just before noon on 17 February, when the bench comprising justices J Chelameswar and AM Sapre was hearing ND Jayaprakash’s petition against the Ministry of Home Affairs and Delhi Police, seeking protection to the accused, his counsel and journalists in the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) sedition case at the Metropolitan court, advocate Rajiv Yadav shouted the beginning of the “national song” vande mataram (I praise thee, mother), disturbing the court proceedings.

The Supreme Court today appointed a team of six senior lawyers to go to Patiala House court to observe the situation there and report back.

The Supreme Court on Monday directed the government to consider the matter of passive euthanasia and made it clear that pendency in the apex court should not come in the way of authorities to take a decision on the matter.

Adding to his list of failed litigations, Supreme Court of India has dismissed a public interest litigation filed by advocate Manohar Lal Sharma, in which Sharma had urged the Court to take judicial note of a statement made by actor Salman Khan’s father Salim Khan that the Khan family had spent Rs 25 crore on the litigation involving 2002-hit and run case.

The president of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA), Dushyant Dave, has quit in disgust after his differences with SCBA secretary Gaurav Bhatia and the SCBA executive committee became unresolvable.  

The Supreme Court has rendered Madras high court judge Justice CS Karnan judicially impotent, ordering that he should not be allocated any cases and even if he did pass any orders suo motu, those should be ignored

The Supreme Court collegium has transferred four Delhi high court judges to other high courts.

The proceedings in Court number 3 during the hearing of item number 53 today were full of suspense.

India isn’t the only country currently wondering about “carnal intercourse against the order of nature”, to quote section 377 of the IPC Apparently, in the US a piece of semi-news has gone viral that Michigan has made oral and anal sex illegal. That’s not quite true - the Michigan legislature when amending the penal code simply didn’t remove the outdated section:

When the Supreme Court decided Lawrence v. Texas by a 6-3 margin in 2003, making oral and anal sex legal nationwide, 14 states still had anti-sodomy laws on the books.

The decision (which has a fascinating history) invalidated those laws. Still, 12 states, including Michigan, never repealed them.This isn’t necessarily unusual. Legislators love passing laws, but they’re much less likely to go back and clean up old ones. State criminal codes are overstuffed with outdated, unconstitutional, unenforceable laws of all kinds, and Michigan is no exception.

Adultery is technically a felony in Michigan. So is “seducing and debauching an unmarried woman.” The state’s penal code says unmarried people who live together can be fined or put in prison.

Read more at Vox.

The Supreme Court has observed that revealing the name of examiners evaluating answer sheets in competitive exams under the RTI Act could lead to “dire consequences” and “create confusion and public interest,” as unsuccessful candidates may try to seek revenge.

The observations were made by a bench of Justices MY Eqbal and Arun Mishra, while partially allowing the appeal of Kerala Public Service Commission against a 2011 Kerala high court order directing it to make available all information, including the identity of the examiner.

reported India Today.