Proclaimed offender and Andhra Pradesh High Court (AP HC) judge N Venkata Ramana may continue as judge even after his recommended removal by the Chief Justice of India, if the Parliament does not initiate his removal, attorney general GE Vahanvati told the Supreme Court. An arson case was filed agai...

The law ministry approved Rs 80 crore for recruitment of 2,000 new subordinate judges across the country, to be deployed in fast track courts. The ministry had discontinued the fast-track courts scheme in March 2011 after running it for 11 years. On 9 January the law ministry wrote to all state gove...

The Bar Council of India (BCI) launched an advocates pension scheme under which all advocates in Bihar with at least 30 years of practicing experience will get a monthly pension of Rs 5000, even if they are above 65 years of age. To avail the benefit of the scheme, advocates under the age of 30 year...

A Jaipur magistrate has issued bailable arrest warrants against nine executives of luxury sports car maker Porsche, including its German chief executive officer (CEO) and chairman Matthias Mueller. A former Indian importer of the cars, reported the New York Times , alleged offenses such as “extortio...

Delhi advocate VK Anand is representing the main accused in the 16 December Delhi gang-rape, after urgings from his son, an IP University Delhi law student. The brother of the main accused is represented by activist lawyer ML Sharma , while advocate AP Singh is representing two other accused. Advoca...

Public interest litigation (PIL) activist lawyer ML Sharma, who is defending three of the six Delhi rape-accused in Delhi’s Saket district court, said in an interview that he had never heard of a “respected lady” being raped, and that the rape victim’s male companion was “wholly responsible” for the...

Lawyers offering to defend the five accused in the December Delhi gang rape case, who will stand trial in a special Saket fast-track court, faced heckles from other lawyers in court yesterday, which is considering making the proceedings private. The New York Times wrote: “Tens of lawyers, many of th...

The Supreme Court roster increased to 28 on 24 December after the swearing in of three new judges – former Madras high court chief justice MY Eqbal, former Karnataka high court chief justice Vikramjit Sen, and Orissa high court judge V Gopala Gowda. 62 years-old Sen who fills the Christian represent...

The Saket Bar Association has resolved that its 2,500 members must not represent the six Delhi men accused of the rape and murder in order to ensure “speedy justice”, as the court’s fast-track court that will hear the case will be inaugurated today.

Exclusive: The Delhi High Court Bar Association (DHCBA) executive committee (EC) called on lawyers to boycott the court’s additional judge Valmiki Mehta today, for his allegedly excessive imposition of costs on an unprecedented scale in matters before him, and for passing “brusque remarks” against “some senior lawyers”.

However, some general body members of the association opposed the “humiliating” view.

Telangana Andhra Pradesh lawyers boycotted lower courts in Telangana to protest prosecution of 24 lawyers who had led an agitation in the High Court of Andhra Pradesh. The 24 lawyers were agitating for a 42 per cent quota for Telangana advocates in the posts of government pleader, public prosecutor,...

A research paper published today has analysed nearly 60 years of cases pending in the Supreme Court and revealed a host of trends, including that litigation in states geographically nearer to Delhi is more likely to end up in the apex court, that the longest pendency plagues company, tax, mining and public interest litigations.

Senior advocate MN Krishnamani defeated senior advocate Rupinder Singh Suri by 136 votes to be elected the president of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) until May 2013 in yesterday’s first-of-its-kind SCBA members-only poll, in which 1340 advocates voted. 547 members voted with Krishnamani.

India’s first woman additional solicitor general Indira Jaising wrote to the law minister Ashwini Kumar criticising the government’s decision to drop several “competent” woman lawyers from the panel of advocates for handling government litigation in the Supreme Court. She also wrote to chief justice...

The attorney general of India (AG) is not bound to answer Right to Information (RTI) queries, according to the Central Information Commission’s (CIC) latest order. A full bench of the CIC comprising of chief information commissioner Satyanand Mishra, and information commissioners ML Sharma and Annpu...

The $2.4bn Vodafone tax-case decided in January, was sought to be reopened in the Supreme Court on Monday by Income Tax (IT) Department counsel solicitor general Rohinton Nariman. Nariman was arguing for the department in its challenge to a Gujarat High Court (HC) order which had cleared the demerge...

The Advocates Association of Bangalore (AAB) urged Bangalore lawyers to boycott Karnataka high court (HC) judge BV Pinto. The AAB also resolved to request the President of India not to confirm his appointment as a judge of the high court and to ask the chief justice of the Karnataka HC not to assign...

A bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Altamas Kabir, justices SS Nijjar and J Chelameswar stayed a May 2012 Delhi high court order that suspended a government rule requiring Supreme Court and high court judges to inform the home and external affairs of their foreign trips. After the SC accepted th...

Rajasthan’s high court (HC) chief justice of two years and former NLSIU Bangalore general council chairman Arun Mishra was appointed chief justice of the Calcutta HC. Kerala HC got three new permanent judges, and Karnataka HC got one new permanent judge also. 57-year-old Mishra practised as an advoc...

The chief justice of India Altamas Kabir yesterday told off senior advocate Arvind Dattar who, in the matter of SEBI V Sahara, had objected to his passing an order contradictory to an order passed by a two judge bench of the court - before which bench the matter is still pending. A bench of justices...