Click on through for a detailed analysis of the Supreme Court’s performance in clearing its backlog in August 2011.

Swearing in ceremonies, such as Tuesday’s induction of three newcomers, are those rare occasions when every single judge of the Supreme Court can be found in one place. It is also when you realise for the first time that the metaphorically larger than life Justice Markandeya Katju is, in fact, actually larger than life. He stands a full head taller than almost every other judge and dominates proceedings without having to say a word.

Chief justices of Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala and Kerala high courts elevated to Supreme Court (SC) along with Bombay High Court’s Ranjana Desai who will be sworn in tomorrow as the second woman SC justice serving the apex court currently [ The Hindu ] IDIA diversity initiative second free national a...

Court Witness: In Facebook terms the relationship status of the nation’s higher judiciary and the press would say “It’s complicated”.

We bump into each other in the long corridor adjacent to Court 5. It’s cruel, I know I shouldn’t be asking but then I do anyway. “Got any briefs yet?” I see the furrows on his forehead. Anxiety. I know what it feels like. Only two minutes earlier, after some small talk he had confided in me: “I’m independent these days.”

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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.

- 57,179 cases pending in SC as of 30 June; on 1 May 2011 only 54,547 cases were pending. [ Supreme Court / PIB ] - Law ministry to examine deal for Mukesh Ambani Mumbai residential tower, may get referred to CBI [ Mint ] (via @SonyBhatt ) - Bail denied to three company promoters in CWG scam [ ET ] ...

Round up of the latest and most legal from around the web. - Supreme Court: Don’t open our judgments on flimsy grounds [ The Hindu ] - Deadline for Greater Noida ‘hi tech court’ with video conferencing and servers was March 2010, now slated to be done in two months [ Times of India ] - “A Challenge,...

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 Supreme Court has stayed the operation of the landmark September 2010 Allahabad high court’s Ayodhya judgement, which divided the disputed Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid site into three, calling it “something strange”.

A five-judge bench of the Supreme Court has issued notices to Union Carbide Corp and Dow Chemicals for increasing compensation to victims of Bhopal gas leak from Rs 750 crore to Rs 7,844 crore while hearing the Union government’s curative petition today.

The Supreme Court today offered little relief by way of clarification while dismissing Allahabad High Court’s application to expunge the apex court’s earlier castigating remarks that “something was rotten” in the lower court amid a prevalence of “uncle judges syndrome”, while holding that there were “excellent and good judges too” and incorrigibles should be transferred.

The Supreme Court has granted three more days to the Bar Council of India (BCI) for completing the summoning process in the All India Bar Examination (AIBE) transfer petition case today in its repeated attempt to get the regulator to clear procedural hurdles for a merit-based adjudication.

The Supreme Court of India has raised the stipends for graduates joining as judicial clerks for one year from Rs 20,000 per month to Rs 25,000, having taken on roughly 50 to 55 students this year, with further stipend increases rumoured for 2011.

Procedural delays were set to derail the discussions on the merits in the All India bar examination court challenges, as the Supreme Court has adjourned the hearing in the transfer petition to 20 October after ordering the issue of fresh notices to the respondents and the shifting of the case to the Delhi High Court was not mentioned.

The Supreme Court has issued notice to ex-Satyam director B Rama Raju and four others following the Central Bureau of Investigation’s (CBI) challenge of the High Court’s grant of bail to the defendants, who were allegedly responsible for the Rs 7,000 crore scam that almost brought the IT company to ...

The Supreme Court today outright dismissed one public interest litigation (PIL) against the bar exam filed by a Delhi University law graduate and issued directions to combine the pending national high court writ petitions against the bar exam for hearing before the Delhi High Court, as Friday’s Bonnie FOI case hearing was adjourned.

Chief Justice of India (CJI)-designate Sarosh Homi Kapadia will work during the Supreme Court’s two-month summer vacation to streamline the court’s functioning and deal with staff and court problems.