the bench
Monday’s Madras high court judgment by Justice Karnan caused debate, outrage and counter-outrage in and between traditional, new and social media, which unfortunately missed the wood for the trees, argues Prachi Shrivastava.
The Delhi High Court is slated to welcome Delhi Tis Hazari district judge Sunita Gupta and Delhi HC registrar general VP Vaish as additional judges after at least four senior advocates and one advocate are due to take seat at the bench.
The High Court of Delhi on Tuesday reshuffled the 463-judge-strong lower and higher Delhi judiciary, transferring and reallocating the jurisdiction of more than 150 judges to provide for 11 new district and sessions courts created in the national capital territory on 17 October 2012.
A bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Altamas Kabir, justices SS Nijjar and J Chelameswar stayed a May 2012 Delhi high court order that suspended a government rule requiring Supreme Court and high court judges to inform the home and external affairs of their foreign trips.
After the SC accepted the law ministry’s petition, judges will now again have to notify official and personal visits abroad at least 15 days before the date of travel. The Delhi high court had quashed the rule of the government circular because it lowered the dignity of the constitutional posts of the judges [IANS]
Judicial vacancies have decreased since last year across 21 high courts in India but nevertheless 30 per cent of 895 judges’ posts sanctioned remain vacant, according to statistics released on Monday.
Union law minister Salman Khursheed said that the entry of foreign lawyers should be left for the bar to decide, welcomed the All India Bar Exam (AIBE), said the government was thinking about reforming the collegium system of judicial appointments, while admitting that pendency was a huge problem, in an interview with legal website Bar & Bench published today. Legally India brings you the digested read and highlights.
The Hindu has compiled a handy (but non-exhaustive list) of judicial and quasi-judicial bodies headed by retired SC judges, after Arun Jaitley’s and others’ comments criticising the existing rules about ex-judges’ appointments.
1. The National Human Rights Commission: Chairperson Justice K.G. Balakrishnan, former Chief Justice of India. Member Justice G.P. Mathur.
The Law Commission of India: Chairperson Justice P.V. Reddy.
3. The National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission: President Justice Ashok Bhan.
4. The Press Council of India: Chairperson Justice Markandey Katju.
5. The Competition Appellate Tribunal of India: Chairman Justice V.S. Sirpurkar.
6. Justice Lokeshwar Singh Panta, who was appointed Chairperson of the National Green Tribunal, resigned to become the Lokayukta of Himachal Pradesh. A sitting Supreme Court judge, Justice Swatanter Kumar, is to be appointed Chairperson.
7. The Armed Forces Tribunal: Chairperson Justice A.K. Mathur.
8. The Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal: Chairperson Justice S.B. Sinha.
9. The Uttar Pradesh Human Rights Commission: Chairperson Justice H.K. Sema.
10. The West Bengal Human Rights Commission: Chairperson Justice Asok Kumar Ganguly.
11. The Madhya Pradesh Lokayukta: Justice P. P. Naolekar.
A lot of the recent frictions between the judiciary and the media are little more than misunderstandings, argues Kian Ganz.
The result of the Delhi Judicial Service (preliminary) exam 2011 was rescinded for 6974 candidates who did not qualify for the main exam after a Delhi high court division bench ruled against the Delhi high court registrar general in a writ petition by aggrieved examinees.
The government has allocated Rs 1,470 crore ($323m) to “modernise judicial infrastructure” and “improve judicial infrastructure”, according to a law ministry press release.
The Government is planning to set-up a super-regulator to wield control over all quasi-judicial authorities functioning in India.
The Mega Lok Adalat organised by the Delhi Legal Services Authority and the Delhi High Court yesterday has set a new record by disposing of one lakh cases, including 1,042 MACT (Motor Accident Claims Tribunal) claims, 90,000 traffic challans and 15,000 disputes related to recovery, injunctions, rent, cheque bouncing the Times of India reported.
A Supreme Court of India judgment, while defining “Common Law Marriage”, cited as a source Wikipedia, the online encyclopaedia anyone can edit. The same judgment on live-in relationships was also slammed by additional solicitor general Indira Jaisingh for using gender biased terms “one night stand” and “keep”.
The Delhi Legal Services Authority (DLSA) has enlisted 200 judges to work this Sunday and resolve over 30,000 civil and criminal compoundable cases in a “Mega Lok Adalat” in a bid to reduce the increasing backlog of cases.
Higher judges would now be made accountable to the public for alleged acts of misconduct and corruption as the long-awaited Judicial Standards and Accountability Bill 2010 wins Cabinet approval as an Oversight Committee is being set up.
The Supreme Court of India has raised the stipends for graduates joining as judicial clerks for one year from Rs 20,000 per month to Rs 25,000, having taken on roughly 50 to 55 students this year, with further stipend increases rumoured for 2011.
Chief Justice of India (CJI) S H Kapadia has initiated the transfer of 20 high court judges, citing “public interest” in an apparent first step by him to clean up the judiciary.
The higher echelons of the judiciary voluntarily agreed to disclose their assets after a full court room meeting of Supreme Court judges yesterday. The move will allow the public to view the movable and immovable property of judges and dependants on the official website of the Supreme Court.