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”.

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.

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.

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 ...

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.

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...

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 Augu...

The Supreme Court has finally avenged social media’s June 2013 furore over Madras high court justice CS Karnan’s “ sex equals marriage” judgment , by holding that that judgment was only applicable one-off to the facts of the case it decided. Advocate Uday Gupta, through senior advocate MR Calla, had...

Despite 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.

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.

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...

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...

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]

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 m...

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...

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...

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.

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 Redress...

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...

A 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.