Legally Wired

Land Acq Bill 2011; Dhcba.com hacked; Singhvi-driver truce; RTE amendment…

Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill 2011 is unclear on rehabilitation and resettlement in case of private purchase of agricultural land, misses compulsory temporary govt acquisitions and consent requirement for acquisition by PSUs, dilates implementation and doesn’t account for un...

SC extends 2G deadline; Cairn-Vedanta under SC radar; Walmart bribe-suit; Privacy V Censure…

SC’s Singhvi and Radhakrishnan partially accept Vahanvati’s plea of practical impossibility to auction 2G licences by June 2, yet refuse govt’s prayer for 400 days extension; Re-auction fixed for 31 August 2012 [ Hindustan Times ] SC’s DK Jain and Anil Dave ask for ONGC’s reason behind non-assertion...

Gogoi in SC; SC pendency records; Katju Sibalesque; Liaison offices under tax scanner…

Justice Ranjan Gogoi bid farwell to Punjab & Haryana HC on Friday to be sworn in as Supreme Court judge, for seven years, today. He may be elevated to CJI in 2018 [ Law et al News ] Oldest and second-oldest pending SC case, from almost four and three decades ago, respectively, were last listed ...

John Doe’s AMS file-sharing; IT rules protest guide; BSE norms PILed; Client billing conversations and comfort…

John Doe is not injuncted from sharing Abhishek Manu Singhvi’s ‘alleged’ sex tape [ Order ] Fight against the IT Intermediary Rules by signing a petition, writing to your MP , participating in Your Voice , Delhi and Free Software Movement , Karnataka (offline protests), attending CIS meetings, and t...

No Dirty Picture Sunday; Mature Katju V Electronic Media; BIT no threat; Not legalizing prostitution…

Bombay High Court petitioner lashes out at Sunday’s Sony T.V broadcast of Dirty Picture as being in violation of Section 6 of Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act [ Law et al News ] Katju wants electronic media under Press Council of India Act – rejects self-regulation stance; Feels Mamata sho...

UK, China responsibly retro; SEBI, IT V fat fingers; TRAI m-banking; Internet-freedom struggle…

Nishith Desai explains how Indian Finance Bill 2012 cannot justify retroactivity by hiding behind UK and China’s similar enactments – UK made decided cases immune, while China cast net not on planning but avoidance [ ET ] SEBI warns NSE to report massive client code modifications (CCMs) in the futur...

Vodafone’s BIT notice; Didigiri; Norton “Rose” above sexism; Turbulence Law…

Vodafone International Holdings BV initiates arbitration under India-Netherlands BIT by serving notice against Finance Bill 2012 proposals on PM, FM law minister and telecoms minister [ Business Line ] Mamata Bannerjee causes West Bengal state CID to debut in IP address tracking, following getting h...

SEBI revisions; Katju prays; 2G review; Lawyers divided; Shiny new campus…

SEBI revises minimum shareholding norms. Onto consent order norms, IPO process revamp and MIMPS next; Avoids GAAR [ Mint ] Katju appeals to Zardari for release of Indian national from Pakistani life-term [ Justice Katju ] SC’s Singhvi and Radhkrishnan agree to review 2G licence cancellation order; r...

Kapadia’s Leveson inquiry; SEBI revisions; UK bans visa; Asian lawyers face casual sexism…

SC Media Watch: CJI Kapadia wary of paid news, annoyed with RTIs and afraid of “pre-judging” [ Mint ] SC’s Aftab Alam and CK Prasad directed SEBI, through Vahanvati, to revise stock exchange ownership regulations, dismissing its appeal against MCX-SX represented by Salve [ Mint ] UK blanket ban on p...

Unitech-Telenor to arbitrate in Singapore; Jones Day for Cong in 1984 riots case; 2G prez reference lies...

Jones Day acts for Indian Congress party in a US Federal Court hearing of the 1984 Anti-Sikh riots; avers that American citizens’ jury duty in an entirely Indian dispute is inappropriate [ First Post ] Unitech will arbitrate in Singapore with Telenor over Indian JV dispute after backing from Company...

Court News is back; MCX appeal dismissed; HC V Media; FDI Policy 2012 removes restrictions…

Court News resumes publication, bringing unfilled vacancies, mounting arrears, and skewed judge ratio out from under the carpet once again [ Business Standard ] SEBI yesterday appealed to the SC against Bombay HC’s order directing it to reconsider MCX-SX’s application for listing. Argued impropriety...

FDI Circular out, JV not in; Baker Macs more popular than moolah; Freedom struggle 2012; Karnataka SBC chairman inspires no confidence…

Consolidated FDI Policy 2012 is effective from today. Fails to Include definition of ‘joint venture’ through specific shareholding. B2B is now allowed 100 per cent FDI [ Circular ] [ Medianama ] Baker & McKenzie wins US law firm popularity contest, evidencing that money is not foremost on the m...

5 pay the price of 1; Noojie foodie biz; Katju times; MII-Takeover Code clash resolved…

Kapadia’s media-trial bench clubs 4 earlier cases, broadens scope of hearing from “regulation of coverage of court proceedings” to “regulation of media per se” [ Mint ] Ex-Noojie starts own food-tour biz in Delhi after six years in Amarchand Delhi’s dispute resolution team [ MyLaw ] Indian elections...

SC to review Gov’t 2G plea; Media trial, day 4; Nimbus BCCI guarantee; Cop avoids law exam, CBI; US anti-troll law; HC village dirty dancing ban…

Supreme Court accepts review petition of 2G cancellation but rejects Telcos and Raja pleas [ Livemint ] Prashant Bhushan reopens 2G flank on Chidambaram in court [ Livemint ] Day 4 of SC media regulation trial: Editors guild wants to talk, not to be regulated [ Hindu ] SC rejects SLP by Nimbus Comms...

Protecting Deep Throat; Tax P-notes or spare Voda; Women-on-board (not); Noble cause, ignoble way…

India farthest from while France closest to absolute journalistic privilege to protect identity of source; UK qualifies privilege while US gives state-level “shield” [ TOI ] Non-taxability of P-notes is not coherent with logic behind taxing Vodafone. P-notes are derivatives whose underlying are shar...

SEBI in catch-22; SEBI approves bourse listing; TCI V CIL; TCS faces Indian class action in US…

SEBI in a catch-22: Tayals unbanned because offence of non-disclosure was “not grave enough”. What is the rationale of SEBI’s non-disclosure norms then? [ Mint ] SEBI allows listing of stock exchanges; 51% publicly held stakes, though not more than 5% for individual investor, and max 15% for banks, ...

Trilegal partner count down; Luthra & Luthra for, then against Coal India; SC dismisses ATM PIL; Katju’s Frankenstein monster…

Trilegal partner promotions down to one as Ashwyn Mishra promoted to head corporate M&A practice [Bar and Bench] Luthra and Luthra to represent foreign hedge fund investor and 1 per cent stakeholder in CIL – TCI which alleges mismanagement by CIL board and violation of BIT by Indian govt [ Mint...

Mad HC’s John-Doe Kolaveri; Sign Intermediary Rules annulment e-petition; FIIs threaten with market-crash; Clemency politics disgust SC…

Mad HC passes its first ever John-Doe order on Release day of Kolaveri-di-movie “3”; Ex-parte ad interim injunction operating against future defendants will ensure proactive prevention of 3’s copyright infringement by ISPs [ Spicy IP ] E-petition portal Change launches petition to support annulment ...

Indian tribunals’ mother disgraced; Gogoi for CJI 2018; TRAI disconnects, penalizes, blacklists; Costly Indian M&As…

ITAT Bar seeks SC judge appointment to save face of mother of all Indian tribunals [ ITAT Online ] North-east and J&K make their way to SC as Punjab-Haryana HC’s Assamese CJ Gogoi, and Kashmir’s Kalifulla appointments cleared. Gogoi likely to make CI 2018 [ The Hindu ] TRAI disconnects nearly 2...

Record rise in geek criminals; SEBI unbans Tayals; Bangalore lawyers retaliate cops; Maoist Ghandy cleared…

Information Technology Act convictions rise by 64 per cent as cyber crime convictions fall [ Medianama ] SEBI lifts March 2010 securities trading ban on Bank of Rajasthan’s former promoters – the Tayal family - who still face proceedings to determine monetary penalty for violating RBI norms on owner...