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The other day, in the corridor outside the government law officers’ chambers in the Supreme Court a well-dressed man sat outside the solicitor general’s office. Visibly uncomfortable on one of the rickety wooden benches, he was also livid with rage and his gaze seemed intent on burning a hole through the firmly shut door to the SG’s chambers.

Supreme Court Postcard: Chief Justice SH Kapadia does not preside over the Chief Justice’s Court so much as dominate its vaulting, almost cavernous interiors with his presence. In part his impact is a product of his voice - a booming thunder somewhere between tenor and baritone - which is what you’d expect to hear from the Grand Inquisitor as you are confronted with heresies you have allegedly committed.

But if Kapadia is to have a place of pride in Indian judicial history – and everything so far signifies that he might - it will be for his administrative role as the Chief Justice of India even more than for his purely judicial output. Like Hercules before him Kapadia is in the midst of cleaning the Augean Stables that the Supreme Court of India has become under his predecessors but only part of the task is done.

The Bar Council of India (BCI) has elected a new chairman and vice chairman after solicitor general Gopal Subramanium resigned as solicitor general, according to Law et al. News.

Supreme Court senior advocate Rohinton Nariman will be the new solicitor general after Gopal Subramnium unexpectedly resigned from the post two weeks ago.

The Kolkata High Court proceedings in the Tata Motors Singur matter that were disrupted earlier today resumed with Tata’s counsel making the company’s intent of using the Singur land for alternate investment clear to the court.

On 7 July, his final day in court, Justice B Sudershan Reddy sat on the Bench with Chief Justice of India SH Kapadia in the Chief’s Court, as is custom for a departing judge. The custom was never more apt. Reddy and Kapadia shared a great rapport while on the Bench and although their outlook in matters judicial and otherwise were quite similar, they could not have been more different in demeanour and action.

The government has accepted solicitor general Gopal Subramanium’s resignation yesterday. Subramanium’s continuing chairmanship of the Bar Council of India (BCI) remains uncertain.

Gopal Subramanium did not appear in the Supreme Court in the 2G PIL today after he offered his resignation as solicitor general on Saturday, following private practice advocate Rohinton Nariman having been formally appointed and today representing government minister Kapil Sibal.

If Subramanium’s resignation takes effect he could also cease being a member of the Bar Council of India (BCI), raising a question mark whether he can continue as chairman.

Khaitan & Co has won the Supreme Court’s (SC’s) approval for French cement company Lafarge to mine limestone in the country’s north-eastern region in a landmark ruling setting the tenor for future reforms in environmental governance after last year’s ban.

Constitutional law expert and senior counsel KK Venugopal has represented the Travancore royal family in the Supreme Court, submitting that they did not intend to claim possession over the contents of the “public temple” that may be worth up to $22bn.

The Supreme Court has vacated the stay on impeachment proceedings initiated against Sikkim chief justice PD Dinakaran in the Rajya Sabha and ordered for the replacement of inquiry committee member and senior counsel PP Rao with another jurist.

The Supreme Court (SC) yesterday appointed a special investigation team (SIT) under former SC judges B P Jeevan Reddy and M B Shah to supervise the investigations and probe into illegal monies stashed by Indians in foreign banks and tax havens abroad.

The Adarsh inquiry commission set up by the state government to probe into the multi-crore housing scam has sought a salary hike for its lawyers as government appointed lawyers receive triple the remunerations.

The Law Ministry’s National Mission for Justice Delivery and Legal Reforms comprising of the law minister and bureaucrats as members of the advisory and governing councils has received the government’s approval with an estimated Rs 7,000 crore ($1.56bn) earmarked for lower judiciary infrastructure development over five years.

Delhi-based management institute IIPM (Indian Institute of Planning and Management) has filed a Rs 50 crore defamation suit against magazine The Caravan, Penguin Publishing and Google after having injuncted the magazine from carrying an article critical of the IIPM.

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.

Following the political drama surrounding the police lathi charge and alleged atrocities against yoga-guru and social activist Baba Ramdev’s indefinite fast against corruption, advocate Ajay Agrawal has filed a public interest litigation (PIL) in the Supreme Court alleging violation of various funda...

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.

Over 7 lakh undertrial prisoners have been released in the last year-and-a-half following a joint initiative by the government and High Courts of India, according to law minister Veerappa Moily, seeking to reduce prison populations.