Veerappa Moily

Ex-UPA law minister Veerappa Moily allegedly plagiarised portions of an article published under his name in The Hindu on 11 June 2015, which emerged had been in-part copy-pasted from a 26 May article published in the same paper as an op-ed by G Sampath, reported the News Minute.

The article has been pulled from its website while the newspaper is “investigating charges of plagiarism”, according to its website.

The Bar Council of India (BCI) in 2010 said it was in talks with government agency Software Technology Parks of India to design cost effective or free anti-plagiarism software for law schools and others.

Exclusive: NLSIU Bangalore has launched a host of new construction in its academic block, hostels, and basketball courts while NLU Delhi has decided to renegotiate the pay of its foreign-educated faculty, after both law schools were sanctioned close to Rs 8 crore by the University Grants Commission (UGC) in November 2012.

A similar grant was also extended by the UGC to the other 12 national law schools (NLU) late last year under the eleventh five-year plan, after their vice chancellors (VC) lobbied aggressively against excluding the law schools from central funding.

Mumbai, exhibiting that clichéd resilience much loved by commentators, continued with its business despite taking shocks and wild media rumours that would dent the spirits of many other cities. While the financial capital continues to live, the legal profession faced its own share of shocks: one new Anglo-Indian best friendship, a new law minister and the loss of its solicitor general and probably also the Bar Council of India (BCI) chairman.

Salman Khursheed has replaced Veerappa Moily as the new law minister with Moily taking on the corporate affairs portfolio in the second cabinet reshuffle just announced by prime minister Manmohan Singh-led UPA government this year.

Following the murder of Mumbai investigative journalist Jyotirmoy Dey the Bombay High Court has allowed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by lawyer VP Patil demanding a CBI inquiry into the incident as a bill has been proposed granting special legal protection to journalists.

Indian lawyers will be able to practice in all courts and tribunals across India irrespective of which bar council they are enrolled in, after law minister Veerappa Moily said he would notify long-pending section 30 of the Advocates Act 1961.

The Law Ministry’s Rs 4,000 crore-expenditure on court computerisation is set to make lower court orders and judgements available at the click of the mouse as government proposes an IAS-like judicial cadre to plug judicial delays along with a host of other reforms.

Pune could get a division bench of the Bombay High Court said law minister Veerappa Moily.

Three new high courts in the north-eastern states of Tripura, Manipur and Meghalaya may soon be set up as Law Minister Veerappa Moily has submitted in a memorandum to the union cabinet in a move that would require amendment of the North-Eastern Areas (Reorganisation) Act 1971.

Having survived recent media speculation that he was on his way out, law minister Veerappa Moily showed off that he is very much aware of the issues around him, as revealed in a candid interview with business daily Mint this week. He also remains ever the seasoned politician.

Law minister Veerappa Moily admitted that the entry of foreign firms could be good for business if local lawyers were allowed to build capacity before an “onslaught from the rest of the world” and that he had seen 80 national law school graduates prosper at London firms, in a revealing interview with the Mint paper today, adding that the door was still open to transfer the Chennai writ petition against foreign firms to the Supreme Court.

Arguing that legal education should be taken away from the BCI, he denied that the Bar Council of India (BCI) should feel threatened by the Legal Practitioner’s Bill.

From today Indian law firms will have to get used to AZB being officially single again, Legally India can reveal.

Clifford Chance and AZB broke off their best friendship late last night, which means that global CC rivals will again be more comfortable approaching AZB with referrals.

“I don’t think there is any single international firm out there which has the ability to sustain any firm like ours [in terms of referrals],” one AZB lawyer summed up eloquently last week.

Update 18:20: Law minister Veerappa Moily has survived cabinet reshuffle and retained his post after intense but apparently unfounded media speculation that he would be ousted.

Law minister Veerappa Moily said the government had finished a Bill to set up a new National Commission for Higher Legal Education and Research, which would replace the BCI as the regulatory body responsible for legal education, recognition of law colleges and a unified law school curriculum.

Responding in writing to a question in the Indian parliament law minister Veerappa Moily stated that there were no proposals to allow foreign firms into India.

Veerappa Moily is visiting Singapore from 8 and 9 September to meet with his local counterpart K Shanmugam and discuss both countries’ development of the legal sector, arbitration and mutual co-operation, according to Channel NewsAsia.

The Indian government will attempt to move the Chennai writ petition against 31 foreign firms to the Supreme Court in order to take a "broader perspective" and make a "final decision" on the entry of foreign law firms said law minister Veerappa Moily, according to newspaper reports.

India's minister of law and justice Veerappa Moily unveiled a "national litigation policy" today under which the government "must cease to be a compulsive litigant" by creating a new layer of supervisory bureaucracy, reducing appeals and reviewing all existing cases, while tightening legal panels and increasing fees of lawyers representing the government.

The bar examination has faced further hurdles in a fourth court case by a Karnataka student, while a group of protesting final year students representing a number of law schools met law minister Veerappa Moily last Monday evening, calling the exam an unfortunate decision taken in haste that could cost jobs.