Tamil Nadu bar council

Tamil Nadu Dr Ambedkar Law University will be without a vice chancellor (VC) until a proper search committee replaces the current one on the proceedings of which the Madras high court ordered stay, as reported by PTI.

The Tamil Nadu National Law School (TNNLS) will appoint CLC Delhi professor Kamala Sankaran as its second vice chancellor (VC).

Five Madras high court judges met yesterday after the high court’s chief justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul called for the next course of action on the controversial disciplinary rules framed by the high court which have caused the state bar to abstain from courts in protest.

The suspension of 20 more errant lawyers by the_Bar Council of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry_, as reported by the Times of India takes the toll of Madras lawyers suspended recently from practicing in any court or tribunal, to 35.

Among the latest 20 suspended advocates are 10 who laid siege to the court of Madras high court chief justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul on 14 September.

10 more lawyers of the court, not among the suspended 20, maybe awaiting action over their misbehaviour with the Central Industrial Security Force officers deployed at the court who, the lawyers claim, had filmed the frisking of a woman advocate.

The _Bar Council of India (BCI) _has reportedly said that following its September 2015 precedent of direct action against the lawyers if the state bar council fails to act stringently, it may again take direct action in the present case as well.

The notice has reportedly being sent by the Bar Council of India (BCI) to the seven sitting Tamil Nadu and Puducherry state bar council members for opposing the BCI’s earlier purported disqualification of 15 local advocates for alleged violence.

BCI sources in New Delhi told TOI on Wednesday that the BCI chairman, Manan Kumar Mishra, had written to the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry directing the latter to give a list of its members who had participated in the Trichy meeting. Relying on the statement of the additional solicitor-general, the BCI chairman wanted the state council to issue a show-cause notice to the members and seek explanation.

reported The Times of India.

Disqualified advocates are not allowed to contest bar council elections for six years.

The Bar Council of India (BCI) has suspended 15 lawyers who were allegedly involved in violence in the Madras high court, reported The Hindu and others.

The Supreme Court will hear a petition against the Tamil Nadu bar council, which allegedly issued show cause notices to 400 lawyers and began removing graduates who completed their LLB degrees after they were 30 years old.

The petition by a group of graduates calling themselves the TN LLB Advocates Association, who studied for their LLB degrees outside of Tamil Nadu, claims that the Bar Council of India (BCI) had abolished the rule prescribing a maximum age limit of 30 on LLB students in 2013.

Justices SJ Mukhopadhaya and Ranjan Gogoi issued notice to the Tamil Nadu bar council and 30 law colleges in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra. The Tamil Nadu bar council locked horns with the BCI over the controversial rule in December, passing a resolution to reenforce the age limit. Apparently more than 1,000 grads could be affected by the bar council's actions. [New Indian Express]

Rajasthan HC judge accused of locking up daughter over ‘wrong’ caste boyfriend
Rajasthan high court Justice Raghvendra Singh Rathore has allegedly locked his 30-year-old daughter up at home to stop her marrying a man from another caste, who has now filed a Supreme Court petition against the illegal detention [IBN Live] Update: The Supreme Court has ordered the release of the daughter. “She is a major and has the liberty to make her choice in marriage,” said Justices HL Dattu and C Nagappan [AFP]

TN bar council locks horns with BCI over upper age-limit for LLBs
TN bar council Although the Bar Council of India (BCI) has abolished the controversial upper age limit of 35 years for students taking law degrees, the Tamil Nadu bar council has retained the age ceiling, and reinforced it in a resolution on Saturday (14 December). The conflict has left thousands of students in the state, who enrolled in law courses between 2008 and 2011, in limbo, said the BCI, which is looking into the matter [TOI]

CJI: Bench must understand new phenomenon of frivolous litigation
CJI Sathasivam said that long-pending mercy petitions and other frivolous litigations are a new challenged that the bench must learn to understand in order to tackle effectively [The Hindu]

NLS safe but BU campus isn’t one year after rape
NLSIU Bangalore campus now safe after curfew and more guards, one year after the rape of a student near the adjoining Bangalore University campus, where ‘fear still stalks varsity students’, reported the New Indian Express

Delhi HC confirmation of gang rape verdict likely in Jan
The Delhi high court’s verdict on whether the death sentence of the four rapists convicted in the December 2011 Delhi gang rape will likely be delivered in January [IANS]

Publicity interest litigation? SC judges GS Misra and Madan Lokur told Ranbaxy PIL petitioner advocate ML Sharma, who had prayed for cancellation of its licence for allegedly selling spurious drugs, this his allegations were “unfounded”. The judges told Sharma: “Do some serious research on it and only then, we will see it. You are taking a very serious issue and we should not entertain it just because of its publicity value.” [PTI]

NLS rape trial: Trial in the October 2012 rape of an NLSIU Bangalore student is starting tomorrow (12 June), reports the New Indian Express, thoughtfully reminding readers that it was a “sensational gang rape case” with “eerie parallels to the Delhi gang-rape case”.

Striking lawyers: The Tamil Nadu Advocates Association today boycotted proceedings in the Madras HC to press its demand for the dismissal of the state police chief after he refused to register their complaint against the Kanyakumari district police for attacking lawyers. [PTI]

Creative lobby lawyers? Visiting Harvard Law School researcher Bhargavi Zaveri analyses the Disclosure of Lobbying Activities Bill, which seeks to regulate political lobbying in India where lobbyists often “creatively couch themselves as political aides, public relations officers and advocates for policy change”. Also, he asks, would the Bar Council of India permit lawyers to engage in lobbying practice? [EPW]

Advocates sexiest (too)? The UK’s GQ magazine has ranked criminal barristers (but not solicitors) as having the seventh-sexiest job in the world. “These are proper lawyers,” writes celeb journo and Guardian columnist Victoria Coren, who ‘compiled’ the rankings for the July edition of the magazine. “They wear wigs and gowns, which is pleasingly kinky. And they're constantly resentful that they don't make enough money. All women know that a combination of adrenaline, resentment and strange costumes can make for a truly enjoyable weekend.” [Legal Cheek]

Chennai advocate Elizabeth Seshadri has condemned the endemic exchange of votes in Tamil Nadu bar council elections for promises of cash and called for the Bar Council of India (BCI) to intervene following a Times of India report alleging that a bar council candidate had offered Rs 19 lakh to a lawyers’ association in the state’s southern district in exchange for 800 votes.

The Supreme Court has stayed the Madras High Court suspension of the state bar council chairman R K Chandramohan while former CJI Balakrishnan denied that he suppressed allegations that a Madras High Court judge was influenced by Chandramohan and former telecoms minister A Raja.

Tamil Nadu Bar Council Chairman R K Chandramohan was expelled from his post and membership by a division bench following an allegation of attempts to influence a former Chennai High Court judge in an anticipatory bail matter nearly 18 months after the matter was first reported.

As lawyers in Tamil Nadu continue their fight to make Tamil the official court language through hunger strikes and the latest public interest litigation (PIL) in the Supreme Court, Madras High Court advocate and Iyer and Thomas partner H Karthik Seshadri highlights the dangers of a regional language-based divide.