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judiciary

06 February 2017

The law ministry has asked Bar Council of India (BCI) chairman Manan Kumar Mishra in a letter to help it create a list of lawyers who are willing to act pro bono in cases, which could end up being “one of the proposed yardstick (sic) to be considered for appointment as Judges of High Courts”.

17 November 2016

Arepalli Naga Babu - a former Increasing Diversity by Increasing Access (IDIA) scholar and 2016-graduate of NLU Odisha - has won the right to take a judicial services exam with additional time to compensate for his disability, after initially having been denied to even sit for the exam in the first place.

22 July 2016

Dwarka district court judge PS Malik was hospitalised today after an alleged unsuccessful suicide attempt by overdosing on sleeping pills, after an accusation by a colleague on 20 July that he had raped her repeatedly since January 2016, reported media.

30 March 2016

In line with tradition, Kalaiyarasan, Gokuldas, Bharathidasan, S Sunder, MV Muralidharan and D Krishnakumar today signed in the Devanagari script in court to become Madras high court judges, high court sources told The Hindu, after Madras high court chief justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and the Supreme Court collegium cleared the names.

04 August 2015

The 2014 Delhi Judicial Service (DJS) exam’s controversial results were not stayed, but may be probed after the Supreme Court’s order in a writ today. The DJS will hold its interviews for selection of judges in Delhi on Thursday, as per schedule.

03 June 2015

Three graduates from NLSIU Bangalore - K S Bharath Kumar (2001 batch), Nerale Veerabhadraiah Vijay (2001) and Nerale Veerabhadraiah Bhavani (1999) - will become Karnataka district judges, alongside advocates Vijayakumar Malasiddappa Anandashetti and Ravi M R, reported Bar & Bench.

They will be sworn in on 8 June.

22 September 2014

The Allahabad high court terminated 11 trainee judicial officers from the lower judicial service last week after a drunken brawl in Lucknow in which the 11 were involved, reported the Times of India.

The 11 had visited a restaurant on 7 August to celebrate the completion of their training on 8 August, had allegedly consumed liquor and then engaged in a scuffle with people present at the restaurant. The footage of this was recorded on the restaurant’s CCTV camera.

The HC’s administrative committee had already recommended the suspension of 20 trainee judges who were originally accused of misbehaviour, according to several local news sources, but the full court headed by chief justice DY Chandrachud decided to terminate the services of 11 out of those 20. The full court also transferred three additional directors at their institute, who had allegedly tried to hush up the incident.

A female trainee judge was the target of their misbehaviour in the inebriated condition, reported ENI.

07 April 2014

PromisesDespite the BCI chairman’s recent ringing personal but apparently representative endorsement of Narendra Modi, lawyers will have to make their own choice this election. LI tries to help.

31 March 2014

The Supreme Court has ordered a retrospective amendment in the High Court Judges Rules 1956, to standardise all retired higher judiciary judges’ pension. The SC has also directed those states which have not yet extended various post-retirement benefits to retired higher judiciary judges, to do so within six months.

26 March 2014

Gujarat High Court Justice Anant Dave ordered Nandiad sessions judge B B Pathak to go back to the judicial academy for a "training session is to be scheduled with regard to powers to be exercised under Section 438 of the Code of Criminal Procedure" (anticipatory bail), which the judge had flubbed in a blue bull poaching case, refusing bail assuming it was a non-bailable offence, when it is in fact bailable. "A bare perusal of the order passed by the Additional Sessions Judge of Nadiad revealed ignorance of provisions of Section 438," said Dave. [PTI]

23 March 2014

Bombay high court chief justice Mohit S Shah, at a Maharashtra bar council event to promote lawyers to join the judiciary, said that being a judge had many benefits: 1. It's interesting. 2. It's challenging. 3. Enjoying the independent nature of the work. 4. The honour judges enjoy in society. [TOI]

20 March 2014

Law minister Kapil Sibal has written to all chief justices to get recommended names on how to increase each HC's bench strength by 25%, taking the total size of India's higher judiciary to 1,112 from 906. Nevertheless, there are already 250 vacancies, even without the new plan [The Hindu]

18 February 2014

The Supreme Court (SC) collegium withdrew the 12 names recommended for judgeship at the Madras high court, which had been opposed vehemently by a section of the HC’s bar and bench since December, reported the Times of India.

The collegium said that the withdrawal wasn’t based on an opinion of the merits of the names for selection, but was done keeping in mind the “unprecedented opposition” and the fact that the HC’s chief justice RK Agrawal had since been elevated to the SC and the new chief justice should be given a chance to consider names afresh.

The recommendation of the now withdrawn list had led to successive court boycotts by the bar, a petition by senior advocate R Gandhi against the recommendation and a controversial outburst by the Madras HC’s judge CS Karnan, among other things such as casteist slurs flying around at the HC’s bench.

31 January 2014

Six Delhi Judicial Service (DJS) examinees from 2011 have lost the case for their instatement in the city’s lower judiciary, due to a lack of courtrooms and infrastructure, reported the PTI.

The petitioners, who had secured a little over the cut-off ranks for appointment to the DJS, had argued that since there were a greater number of vacancies in the DJS than those advertised at the time they should be appointed against the extra vacancies, as Legally India had reported. The bench hearing their writs said:

The contention of the petitioners on the aspect of courtroom etc are mere surmises and conjectures based upon their own calculations and cannot form the basis of a judicial decision to accept the writ petitions. It would be appropriate to note that till date additional infrastructure in the form of building and courtrooms have not been made available.

It is unfortunate but true that the infrastructure is normally made available after the posts have been sanctioned and not before.

23 January 2014

A delegation of Madras High Court Advocates Association president, Paul Kanagaraj and others met with CJI Sathasivam and SC justices Ibrahim Kalifulla and C Nagappan yesterday about their problems with the list of 12 names proposed for judgeship at the high court, reported The Hindu.

The delegation told the Deccan Chronicle that they also met law minister Kapil Sibal on Wednesday, who assured them he would “recall” the list. The CJI reportedly told them that because he is from Tamil Nadu, “he has de­ep interest in the state and will en­sure that only persons with absolute qualifications will be elevated as judges”.

Lawyers in the state returned to work today.

17 January 2014

fp2igb13[20]The Supreme Court (SC) on Monday transferred to itself a week-old Madras high court (HC) petition challenging 12 names that were recommended for judgeship at the same HC, after the apex court ordered that judicial review of the list was not permitted and that the HC lacked the “conducive atmosphere” to hear such a petition.

10 December 2013

The Supreme Court threatened to stay the appointment of retired judges to tribunals across India blaming lack of action in bringing uniformity in their appointment process and service conditions, reported the Times of India.

Picking out Armed Forces Tribunal, National Commission for Dispute Redressal and National Green Tribunal as examples, a bench of justices GS Singhvi and C Nagappan said:

The disparity in service conditions results in compromising the dignity of the judges. Everyone tried to get a post which has five-year term. That compromises the dignity. Let this be stopped till Parliament considers the proposal for uniform tenure.

27 November 2013

Tejpal still bail less: Tehelka founding editor Tarun Tejpal’s bail hearing has been postponed till Friday – until then the Goa police could arrest him. [Bail arguments summary NDTV / Deccan Chronicle]. The Goa police was represented by senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, as senior KTS Tulsi was on for Tejpal [The Hindu]. The alleged victim has recorded her FIR statement in the meantime [DNA], as Goa police has requested Tejpal to appear for questioning before 3pm on Thursday [Zee Liveblog]

Cash-at-judge’s door could see SC: A CBI court allowed former Punjab & Haryana HC judge Nirmal Yadav – accused in the “cash-at-judge’s-door” scam – 2 weeks to move the Supreme Court against the P&H HC’s order dismissing her application for stay on the CBI court’s trial of the scam [IBN Live]

26/11 Taj sued in London: A British paralysed victim of the 2008 terror attacks on the Taj Hotel in Mumbai, is suing the hotel in London’s high court, for failure to deploy enough security at the premises despite warnings of an imminent terror attack [Zee News]

Dainik courts sex harassment: A former employee of the Dainik Bhaskar group’s MY FM radio station with two other colleagues, has pressed on with claiming against the station’s CEO Harish Bhatia for sexual harassment and intimidation. The woman journalist has made the complaint before the National Commission for Women and the Delhi HC [The Hindu]

NOTA law: If a majority of voters exercise the recently introduced “None of the Above (NOTA)” option during polls, the election commission cannot be directed to hold fresh polls, said the Supreme Court while dismissing a PIL seeking this remedy. The SC said that it is for the legislature to suitable amend the law after seeing how voters respond to NOTA [IBN Live]

Speedy Karnataka judiciary: The Karnataka judiciary has settled over 91,000 cases in the state in the last 90 days, through Lok Adalats conducted by the Karnataka State Legal Services Authority. 83,023 of these cases were pending for adjudication in various courts across the State, 9,169 cases were at pre-litigation stage before legal services committees in various districts [The Hindu]

Nalsar student suicide committee: None of the Universities in Andhra Pradesh have implemented the Nalsar Committee’s recommendations on measures to alleviate student suicides in the state. The nine member committee hosted by Nalsar Hyderabad had recommended examination pattern and curriculum changes, suicide probe task force, student grievance cells, restorative justice centre [TOI]

11 November 2013

gxrrp4tbA law graduate who recently blogged about how a retired Supreme Court judge sexually assaulted her while she was his intern, says that the problem is real and not uncommon at the bar and the bench.