The Print and Electronic Media Standards Regulation Bill, 2012 proposes 7-member regulatory body empowered to fine, and suspend licences of, media organizations through civil proceedings for reporting “obscene, vulgar or offensive news”; Requires media to maintain complete transparency, regulatory p...

SC’s justice Dalveer Bhandari outruns Philippines judge nominee in election to ICJ judicial term from 27 April 2012 to 5 February 2018 [ UN ] Intellectual Property Appellate Board achieved about 40 per cent increase in disposed-off matters last year, in only around 8 months of work as Madras HC just...

Competition Commission of India orders investigation into Bharat Matrimony’s complaint against Google’s anti-competitive practices and abuse of dominant position, CUTS to follow suit with complaint next week [ Hindustan Times ] Senior advocate Prashant Bhushan withdraws PG student’s plea in SC strik...

Goolam Vahanvati proposed again for attorney general of India for 2012-2015, after his first three year term comes to an end this year [ Hindustan Times ] Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Bill 2011, raising age of consent for sex from 16 to 18 years, to become law [ Hindustan Times ] Del ...

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’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...

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 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...

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...

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 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 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...

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...

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 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...

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...

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...

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...

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 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, ...