Anon RTIs: A Right to Information application can now also be made using only a Post Box number instead of the applicant’s name and address, the Calcutta HC has ruled [ HT ] Loco Adalat: 300 benches of the National Lok Adalat on Saturday disposed of 3.44 lakh cases and disbursed a total compensation...

SC allows jailed candidates: The SC has approved an amendment in the Representation of People Act, which allows jailed politicians to contest elections while in police custody, unless they are held guilty and convicted by a trial court [ ANI ] Lawyers challenge DHCBA election bona fides: Delhi bar c...

SC examines death row pardon in extreme brutality : The Supreme Court will hear a PIL on whether the President can commute death penalties in cases of extreme brutality. The petitioner Pinki Virani’s plea referred to five death sentences of convicted rapists of children, which former President Prati...

Consti bench rules police must file FIR : A five-judge constitution bench of CJI P Sathasivam and justices B S Chauhan, Ranjan P Desai, Ranjan Gogoi and S A Bobde ruled in the Lalita Kumari case yesterday that action must be taken against police officers who do not register a First Information Repor...

Tamil lawyers want a break from 7-day week: Tamil Nadu lawyers fed up with the seven-day week imposed on them by setting up India’s first weekend family courts in the state in 2010, are of the view that lawyers and judges shouldn’t be made to slog extra without statutory sanction [ TOI ] CCI tamed b...

Protect courts’ ‘lady officers’ from hostility, SC: The Supreme Court told off Gujarat district and high court judges for not protecting a female junior judicial officer from unwarranted inquiry and getting her job terminated for extraneous reasons. Reinstating her, the SC held: “We would like to ta...

MP slayed RTI activist? The use of RTI by a Gujarat-based environment activist, against a member of parliament’s (MP) involvement in illegal mining in the Gir forest, led to his alleged murder by the MP and his aides. The MP has now been arrested after a CBI report [ NYT ] Menaka Guruswamy interview...

Death row worthiness: SC justices AK Patnaik and Gyan Sudha Mishra rendered a 33-page judgment ruling on the principle that courts should record “special” reasons while awarding death penalty and “must” take into account the crime and the character of the criminal which should reflect “extreme depra...

Lawyer myths: NLSIU Bangalore grad and Singapore’s Nanyang Tech B-school lecturer Krishna Udayasankar has penned down a mythological trilogy – the Aryavarta Chronicles. Interview by [ Bangalore Mirror ] TOI didn’t defame: The Times of India is off the hook for criminal defamation after the Madras HC...

Forced MP: Congress MP from Vijayawada L Rajagopal has petitioned the Delhi HC to rid him of his MP post, alleging that he is being forced to carry on as MP despite handing over a resignation on 2 August in protest against the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh [ India Today ] Infosys US soup: India’s se...

SEBI vs Sahara: The Sahara Group has been ordered by the Supreme Court to hand over title deeds of properties worth Rs.20,000 crore to the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) after hearing three contempt of court petitions filed by SEBI against the group’s owner Subrata Roy [ ANI ] Fearles...

Madras HC revenue norms on designating senior advocates : An advocate should have at least 15 years of experience arguing cases, some of them should be landmark judgements and should have earned at least Rs 7 lakh annually from lawyering for three years immediately before being considered to be elev...

Jaising slams progress on sexual violence : ASG Indira Jaising, in a personal capacity, writes how women remain as vulnerable under the system as they were before December 2012, despite protests and promises of reform in the Delhi gang rape: “Bias is embedded in the practice and procedure of trials…...

Orissa circuit bench hopes recede: The prospects for southern and western circuit benches of the Orissa HC have become bleak, after union law minister Kapil Sibal told the state chief minister that his recommendation means nothing in the absence of the HC’s chief justice’s consent [ New Indian Expre...

Community radio PIL: The Supreme Court, hearing a PIL by NGO Common Cause, will examine the rules that bar private FM radio channels and community radios from broadcasting news and current affairs [ DNA ] Eggplant on official’s face in prelim BT Brinjal ruling : The Karnataka HC has ruled that prima...

AP HC 9 new judges: The SC collegium has approved the names of nine district judges who are to be elevated to the Andhra Pradesh HC, increasing its strength to 35, including the chief justice. The sanctioned strength of the AP HC is 49 [ Deccan Chronicle ] Manipur HC CJ: Former Allahabad HC justice ...

Lily Thomas scalp : Lily Thomas claims its first scalp with convicted Congress leader Rashid Masood. Lok Sabha MPs Lalu Prasad Yadav and Jagdish Sharma are likely to follow suit [ PTI ] AC for HC: The Karnataka government has finally cleared the Rs 8 crore proposal to install air conditioners and no...

Happy bday NGT: To celebrate its third day of founding, the National green Tribunal (NGT) is finally getting its own Delhi office in Faridkot house, moving from is current makeshift homes. It is also getting a third bench to share the caseload of its two current benches [ PTI ] SC to listen to sadhu...

SC sees Radia criminal leads : After analysing the Radia tapes the Supreme Court told the CBI to inquire into at least six possibly criminal issues raised by the infamous leaked phone conversations between lobbyist Niira Radia and others. “Radia’s conversations reveal deep-rooted malice by private e...

Court bars advocate from filing, orders psych: Delhi high court advocate Uma Shankar Pandey was barred from filing petitions in the court and was ordered to undertake psychiatric treatment, by justices Pradeep Nandrajog and V Kameswar Rao after hearing his six-hour-long arguments for three days. The...