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A 1st, 2nd & 3rd in judgeships: Collegium tips Dua partner Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy, NLS grads Chinnadorai Saravanan, Sunil Dutt Yadav for elevation [UPDATE-1]

The Supreme Court collegium has recommended to the Madras high court bench who would probably be the first of a modern Indian law firm’s partners, as well as the second-ever NLSIU Bangalore graduate.

Lawyer aggregator websites ban? Of fake news & the perennial confusion around whether lawyers can (and do) advertise

Indian lawyers listing their profiles on a number of websites, apps and aggregators are guilty of “surrogate advertising”, Bhasin & Co managing partner Lalit Bhasin told the Hindustan Times in an article headlined “Law firms’ body seeks ban on apps, websites offering legal services”, with a nutgraf of “The Bar Council says the practice is equivalent to surrogate advertising”.

Ex-LCIA India registrar Ajay Thomas joins ICC India arbitration group as vice-chair, alongside Ciccu

Following the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA) India shutting its India operations in April 2016, its former registrar Ajay Thomas has moved to LCIA rival, the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) International Court of Arbitration (ICA) in a part-time role.

Delhi HC to (again) consider video recording in courts, as petitioner Deepak Khosla says he will not pay Rs 20,000 costs in previous order

The Delhi high court has agreed to hear advocate _Deepak Khosla_’s appeal for video recording of all court proceedings in the high court, after it had initially dismissed the plea in August 2011 and again in July 2017 with Rs 20,000 costs that Khosla said he would not be paying.

Abhishek Manu Singhvi: ‘Concept of peer regulation is a failure’ as seen in BCI, Medical Council

Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi said at an event as reported by The Hindu that “broadly” the judiciary was “very independent”, though it occasionally submits to political pressure.

Delhi judges condemn strikes but vow to ‘suffer in silence’, as billboard ‘shames’ lawyers who did their duty to represent clients, defied strike

A WhatsApp forward has been going around of a billboard in Tiz Hazari court with pictures of more than 40 lawyers who had allegedly appeared in court on Thursday and Friday (11 and 12 October) in defiance of Delhi bar associations’ call for a lawyers’ strike in the national capital.

SC collegium goes (much more) transparent, begins posting biz online: But will it last, unlike asset disclosures?

The Supreme Court’s collegium of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Misra and the next senior-most judges, justices J Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan B Lokur and Kurian Joseph, have begun to post recommendations for elevations and other business on a new ‘resolutions of the collegium’ section of its website according to minutes dated 3 October.

Clients will pay GST on all legal services, the government finally confirms, notifies officially

The tax on all types of legal services provided by all classes of lawyers will be borne by clients, the finance ministry has finally settled in an official notification, as first published by Live Law.

Karanjawala for Ryan murder accused in SC, gets bar associations to back-off from restraining legal representation

“The Supreme Court on Monday criticised the bar association of the Gurgaon district courts for passing a resolution calling upon lawyers to not defend the accused in the murder of a sevenyear-old student at Ryan International School. A three-judge bench, led by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, warned local lawyers against preventing the advocates of the accused from appearing in court and defending them,” reported the Economic Times.

Haryana Judicial Services exam result stayed after leak allegations following accused emerging as exam topper

A judge of the Punjab & Haryana high court stayed the result of the Haryana Judicial Services (HJS) Exam after allegations of cheating against the topper of the exam. Immediately after his order the case was taken away from him, for unexplained reasons, at the request of the recruitment committee of the high court, reported Live Law.

J Dipak Misra makes it to CJI office today, despite opposition from several fronts for more than a year

Justice Dipak Misra took oath today as the 45th Chief Justice of India (CJI), succeeding CJI JS Khehar. Misra’s suitability for India’s highest judicial office was questioned before CJI Khehar and in the media, since last year when his name surfaced in allegations of misrepresentation from 1979.

AOR Nandini Gore points out dirty ladies restrooms in letter to Jharkhand HC CJ

Supreme Court advocate on record (AOR) _ Nandini Gore_ has complained about the state of the ladies restroom in the Jharkhand high court, in a letter to the HC’s chief justice DN Patel, which was followed by a public interest litigation by the HCs bar association citing Gore’s letter, reported The Telegraph.

Delhi HC retires district judge who had granted bail to fraud-accused Unitech promoters

The Delhi high court has asked the lower court judge who had granted bail to Unitech’s promoters in April to retire early effective yesterday.

Gov tells SC: Closing liberalisation issue at ‘earliest possible’ of 'utmost importance'

The government has moved for an early hearing in the Bar Council of India (BCI) AK Balaji appeal in the Supreme Court, reported Bar & Bench.

Legal services not exempt from GST, clarifies government

Legal services are not exempt from payment of Goods and Services Tax (GST) applicable on them, under the GST’s reverse charge mechanism, the government clarified on Saturday, 15 July.

Uttarakhand HC orders framing of bar council rules for transparency and accountability in advocacy fee charged to litigants

Bar council rules directing lawyers to explain the quantum and manner of charging fee for a particular case, would safeguard the interest of poor litigants from remote hilly areas, ruled the Uttarakhand high court, the Times of India reported.

Cal HC warns lawmin of 'appropriate action' if no immediate measures toward 38+ judge appointments

The Calcutta high court, which is currently short of of 38 judges and is facing the retirement of 10 more by February, warned the government that “appropriate action” will be taken against it if the judicial vacancies were not filled on priority, reported News18.

'Paperless' SC initiative still distant dream as ICMIS amidst teething problems • AORs insist on parallel manual filing system

Supreme Court ready to go paperless? Not yet The Supreme Court Advocates on Record Association (SCAORA) yesterday told the Supreme Court registrars that the Supreme Court’s new case management system (ICMIS) should only be allowed to run parallel to the old system of manual filing, as the new system...

SC to teach lawyers to love new paperless system, after low AORs enthusiasm for ‘glitchy’ tech so far

The Supreme Court Advocates on Record Association (SCAORA) will get a lesson from the Supreme Court in the use of the new Integrated Case Management and Information System (ICMIS) intended to allow full e-filing at the apex court, in a series of demonstrations organised from this Monday (10 July).

Why did BCI hike bar exam fees by 40%? BCI stonewalls RTI, says reasons not covered by RTI

The Bar Council of India (BCI) denied a right to information (RTI) request for the meeting minutes and reasons for its unexpected decision to yet again increase the bar exam fees by another 40 per cent.