Phoenix partner Kartikeya Singh is to become deputy GC at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, as Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas has completed another lateral hire in Mumbai with former Prism co-founder Yogesh Chande joining from Economic Laws Practice (ELP). Meanwhile, AZB turned out to have been the most a...

Nokia forced into Rs 2,250 cr tax guarantee by SC: The Supreme Court today ordered Nokia to give a Rs 2,250 crore ($368m) guarantee before it can transfer one of its mobile phone factories to Microsoft, which bought the Finnish mobile maker last year with the acquisition held up by the tax dispute w...

Chandigarh pink slips 79 kin-counsel : The Chandigarh administration has shown the door to 79 empanelled advocates who were the kin of advocate generals, a judge, and union law minister Kapil Sibal. Now around 30 counsel are left on the UT administration’s panel [ Hindustan Times ] Madras HC on SMS ...

Bombay HC called up on unpaid Feb salaries : The Bombay high court chief secretary and registrar have been issued notices by the Goa State Human Rights Commission over non-payment of February salaries of all court staff of around 150 at the Bombay high court bench at Goa. The complaint on which the ...

Bombay HC mandates cinemas to offer free online booking : Bombay HC asked the state government to issue a circular asking all movie theatres and multiplexes to set up their own websites for online booking of movie tickets without a convenience charge. A government resolution had already asked all th...

Election Commission wants paid news to be crime : Election Commission said it has proposed to the law ministry to make “paid news” a criminal offence, estimating that Rs 500 crore was currently being spent on paid news [ NDTV ] RamJet accuses Kejriwal of demonic pact with Congress : Senior counsel a...

Subrata Sahara grovels, inked, still jailed : Sahara chairman Subrata Roy (after an advocate bystander apparently threw ink at his face and Roy made an unconditional and grovelling apology before justices KS Radhakrishnan and JS Khehar in a packed court room) was sent to Tihar jail for a week by the...

Delhi HC slaps railways with costs for frivolous appeals : The Delhi HC criticised the department of railways for filing “frivolous” appeals to evade coughing up due compensation, and imposed a cost of Rs 20,000 on the Railways officer who had advised moving court in a case where a man was trampled ...

Separate justice dept for budgetary abundance? A PIL filed in the Kerala HC by the HC’s former finance officer alleged that since the administration of justice was presently under the home department a substantial portion of budgetary allocations were being allotted to the police and jail authoritie...

Multi-million rupee job scam in Madras HC : A brother and husband to two Madras HC employees masterminded a multi-crore fake appointment letter scam at the Madras HC with 300 aspirants to posts of junior assistant, driver, office assistant and sweeper in the HC paying him between Rs 2 – 4 lakh each ...

First female judge elevated from Goa : North Goa Principal and District and Sessions Judge Anuja Prabhudessai is set to become the first Goan judge who is a woman to be elevated to the Bombay high court. Once in her two-decade-long judicial career she was suspended for using her discretion in awardi...

Cal client complains HC advocate sexually harassed her : A Kolkata college professor has complained to the Calcutta High Court Bar Association that an advocate whom she had instructed had sexually harassed her during the course of her litigation. The association will now convene an executive committ...

Delhi HC pecuniary enhancement clears another hurdle : The Delhi High Court (Amendment) Bill, 2014 which seeks enhance the Delhi HC’s pecuniary jurisdiction from Rs 20 lakh to Rs 2 crore, and which was a cause of Delhi HC bar protests , is now in the Rajya Sabha [ PTI ] PIL vs anti-activist NGT bar ...

SC Judge slams Gov for “scaring away all foreign investors” : “We are sorry to say that lawmakers are not keeping pace with the changing times, especially fast-changing technology. Then you will legislate with retrospective effect, scaring away all foreign investors,” said Justice KS Radhakrishnan t...

Madras HC chief Agrawal talks candidly on local turmoil : Recently elevated Madras HC chief justice RK Agrawal, at his farewell, made reference to HC justice CS Karnan barging into his chamber hurling abuse. Agrawal said that while nobody had “ever raised their voice” to him in his 37 year career, K...

Journalists wage hike coming up : The Supreme Court last week upheld recommendations made by the Justice Majithia wage board hiking salaries for journalists and non-journalists in print media on Friday and dismissed challenges filed by the managements of various newspapers, reported the [ Mint ] Kar...

Amarchand team wins relay race : Amarchand Mangaldas Mumbai general corporate partner Indranath Bishnu, principal associate Himanshu Dodeja, senior associate Aditya Sabharwal and staff member Vasant Ravande were up to a “stampede” last weekend, according to an Amarchand press release. They completed...

Amit Sibal defamation suit vs Kejriwal : The Supreme Court today issued notice on union telecom and law minister Kapil Sibal’s son, and newly designated senior advocate, Amit Sibal’s challenge to a Delhi high court order that had discharged Delhi chief minister Kejriwal and advocate Prashant Bhushan...

Madras HC pendency down 50K! Madras high court case pendency has reduced by 50,000 cases to 5.57 lakh cases since 2012 year-end [ Hindu ] Six out of 12 clear Kerala DJS : Six candidates cleared the Kerala district judicial service exam, still leaving 50 per cent judges vacancy at the service in the ...

Every HC bench strength to grow by 25% : The central government has decided to increase the judges’ strength of each high court in India by 25 per cent and has invited proposals from all chief justices on additional facilities concerning courtroom, quarters and support staff for the enhanced number ...