Supreme Court
Despite all the legal firepower involved, it was far from certain that the case would go the way it did.
PTI reported:
The Supreme Court on Tuesday sought response from two advocates, representing the 16 December gangrape convicts, against whom a women lawyers body has sought action for allegedly making derogatory remarks against women in a BBC documentary on the case. “We have heard the argument, pleadings and grievances urged in the petition. The matter requires consideration in view of the factual and legal submissions,” a bench comprising justices V Gopala Gowda and C Nagappan said.
The bench issued notices to the two advocates, ML Sharma and AP Singh, and sought their response in two weeks. The Supreme Court Women Lawyers Association, in its petition, had sought restriction on the entry of the two advocates in the apex court premises, alleging that their remarks in the controversial BBC documentary were “inhumane, scandalous, unjustifiable, biased, outrageous, ill-minded” and are a “direct affront to and in violation of the dignity of women”, especially those practising in the Supreme Court.
A Supreme Court bench of justices Ranjan Gogoi and NV Ramana today stayed the 20 March Delhi high court order that restrained generic drug maker Glenmark Pharmaceuticals from manufacturing an anti-diabetes drug over which Merck allegedly held a patent, reported Mint.
Senior counsel Abhishek Manu Singhvi acted for Glenmark, with TR Andhyarujina acting for Merck. The next hearing will be on 28 April.
Ex-prime minister Manmohan Singh today moved the Supreme Court against the order of a special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) trial court that summoned him as an accused alongside industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla in the coal scam case, reported NDTV and others.
Senior counsel KTS Tulsi and Kapil Sibal will represent Singh, reported India Today.
The CBI had filed a closure report telling the court there was no prosecutable evidence against Singh.
The Hindu reported:
The Supreme Court on Monday granted three more months to the Sahara group to sell its offshore properties to raise the Rs 10,000 crore required to secure the release of its chief Subrata Roy on bail. The court said it was satisfied with the company’s latest proposal and would allow it to proceed further.
“Prima facie, we are satisfied that the proposal appears to be a serious effort and we allow it to pursue it further,” said the court.
Senior counsel Kapil Sibal appeared for Roy, and had secured a “final chance" for the Sahara boss to raise the money by selling the company’s properties. Roy has been jailed for one year now for contempt by violating an order from SEBI to repay investors.
Social media was abuzz this morning as Supreme Court justices J Chelameswar and Rohinton Fali Nariman read down section 66A of the Information Technology Act, though upheld section 69A that allows the central government to block entire websites.
"The Supreme Court Women Lawyers Association took umbrage at the comments of advocates ML Sharma and AP Singh in the documentary India’s Daughter and sought a ban on their entry into the apex court premises” by filing a petition before the court, reported The Times of India and others.
The petition stated:
The comments made in the documentary (by the two advocates) are inhumane, scandalous, unjustifiable, biased, outrageous and ill-minded and are a direct affront to and in violation of dignity of women, especially the women practising in the Supreme Court. These comments have caused a sense of insecurity, indignation and fear among the female lawyers practising in the Supreme Court.
The derogatory and insulting words used by Sharma make it clear that according to him women shouldn’t be allowed to go out after the time specified by him; they should have no choice of choosing persons with whom they want to spend time; they shouldn’t be allowed to befriend men; they should not be allowed to live their life as per their wish; that women shall forever be restrained from even thinking of being independent and maintain individuality.
The Supreme Court bench of justices Dipak Misra and AK Goel has extended the anticipatory bail plea of human rights activist Teesta Setalvad and her husband to a larger bench, while ordering that the stay on her arrest should continue, reported Mint.
The Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) announced it would lodge its protest against last week’s alleged killing of a lawyer by wearing white ribbons, but would not be going on the national strike called by the BCI.
From Monday, 9 March 2015, a special Supreme Court bench comprising of two seasoned tax hands, Justice AK Sikri and Justice RF Nariman, began exclusively hearing and deciding tax cases from Monday to Friday.
Sahara boss Subrata Roy has been in jail now for a year on the orders of the Supreme Court, without significant progress on recovering money owed by Sahara, nor on tracing more than 30 million investors, reported Mint in a comprehensive summary and infographic on the story so far.
The union budget for 2015-16 has earmarked Rs.806.2 crore for the development of judicial infrastructure in states and union territories, the National Mission for Justice Delivery and Legal Reforms and the administration of justice.
It has earmarked Rs.212.19 crore for the mission under the plan head which is up by Rs.124.99 crore compared to the Rs.87.30 crore allocated in 2014-15.
The national justice mission was set up in 2011 to improve a variety of issues relating to the judiciary to reduce pendency and arrears and increase access to justice.
But the catch is that in 2014-15, the government had revised and scaled down the expenditure to just Rs.5.69 crore of the allocated plan expenditure of Rs.89.30 crore for the mission.
However, there is a steep decline in the government allocation for the computerization of district and the subordinate courts with the allocation of just Rs.2 crore.
In 2014-15, the total allocation for computerization was Rs.58 crore which was scaled down to Rs.29.87 crore in the revised budget estimates.
The grant in aid to the states for the development of judicial infrastructure is earmarked at Rs.443.69 crore which is nearly half of Rs.842.40 crore allocated in the revised budget estimates in 2014-15.
Similarly grant in aid for the UTs is Rs.63 crore against the Rs.60 crore allocated in previous fiscal.
The Supreme Court has been allocated Rs.562.99 crore for plan expenditure which is Rs.373.01 crore less than what was allocated under the plan head in the 2014-15 budget.