Bar, Bench & Litigation

Minor criminal charge not enough to stop enrolment as lawyer, rules Madras HC [READ JUDGMENT]

The http: </http:>PTI reported that the Madras high court ordered the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry to enrol law student R Nagendran as an advocate within four weeks despite an “unlawful assembly” criminal case pending against him (and 23 others) because he had taken part in a protes...

Bombay HC rules for Maggi: FSSAI acted arbitrarily [READ JUDGMENT]

The Bombay high court has ruled for Nestle India’s Maggi noodles today, quipping: “Even though it’s a 2-minute noodles, it took us a lot of time.”

Verist Law (formerly Veritas Law) acts on MCX-SX Rs 75 crore rights issue

The Metropolitan Stock Exchange of India Ltd (MSEI), formerly known as MCX Stock Exchange Ltd (MCX-SX), has raised Rs 75 crore (750 mn) by issuing equity shares to its existing shareholders, according to a [http://www.msei.in/SX-Content/Press-Release/2015/July/PR-ENGLISH-08-JUL-2015

Food terrorism? Gov't hits Maggi with Rs 640 cr claim under Consumer Protection Act for us all

The Indian government has filed a Rs 640 crore class action on behalf of consumers with the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC) against Nestle India under section 12(1D) of the Consumer Protection Act.

Salve gets CJI Dattu to stay yesterday's Guj HC order in land grant to judges [READ ORDER | UPDATE-2]

PTI and others reported that a Supreme Court bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) HL Dattu and justices PC Ghose and Abhay Manohar Sapre has stayed yesterday’s Gujarat high court order serving notice on 27 of its current and former judges over land allotted to them by the state government in 2008. ...

Sentencing SCOI Report: Centre battled it out with states, YM Chaudhary, RamJet, ors on nature of remission power

On yesterday’s penultimate day of hearing of Union of India vs V Sriharan @ Murugan, the battle lines were clearly drawn between the Central Government and the State Governments, most of whom are listed as respondents in this case.

SC orders IIPM 'bogus litigation' vs Caravan transferred from Silchar to Delhi HC

A Supreme Court bench headed by Justice Madan Lokur has transferred to the Delhi high court the four-year old Rs 50 crore defamation suit by the Delhi-based Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM) that was filed in Silchar, Assam, which had in 2011 passed an injunction against the Delhi-based publisher of The Caravan magazine for a hard-hitting profile of its founder Arindam Chaudhuri.

Bombay HC grants bail, sees no reason not to grant Teesta Setalvad anticipatory bail

The Indian Express and others reported: The Bombay HC granted anticipatory bail to activist Teesta Setalvad and her husband Javed Anand booked by the CBI under the FCRA for allegedly collecting foreign funds. Justice Mridula Bhatkar observed there was no need of custodial interrogation. “Prima facie...

27 of Guj HC judiciary slapped with show cause over 2008 property hand-outs from gov't

The Indian Express and others reported: A bench of the Gujarat High Court, led by outgoing acting Chief Justice VM Sahai, today issued notices to 27 judges (both sitting and retired) of the court; the state Revenue Department; and the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation among other government agencies, ...

SC nulls Aadhaar, constitution bench will hear 'right to privacy' challenge [UPDATE: READ ORDER]

The Supreme Court today said an Aadhaar card was not mandatory for availing government social welfare schemes. The court said this while referring to the constitution bench a challenge to the constitutional validity of the Aadhaar scheme on the grounds that it violates the right to privacy. An apex ...

Delhi HC rejects Ola cabs' plea against diesel taxi ban

The Delhi high court today dismissed app-based cab service provider Ola’s plea against a single judge’s order asking the Delhi government to “strictly enforce” the ban imposed by it on January 1. A division bench of Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice Jayant Nath dismissed the plea filed by Ola cabs ...

Law min pitches cabinet colleague's book to BCI for syllabus inclusion, law profs not amused

Pitching for the introduction of an animal rights subject to law schools’ syllabuses, the Indian Express reported that: Union Law Minister Sadananda Gowda has written to the Bar Council of India chairman to include books written by his cabinet colleague Maneka Gandhi on animal rights in the curricul...

Saga continues: SC stays Bombay HC order that upheld service tax of lawyers

The Financial Express and others reported: The Supreme Court on Monday stayed the Bombay high court’s judgment that upheld the levy of service tax on services provided by lawyers and law firms to business clients with turnover of Rs 10 lakh and more. A bench headed by Chief Justice HL Dattu while is...

SCOI Report: Ex-CBI director Ranjit Sinha visitors diary case takes an interesting turn

The Supreme Court yesterday asked the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) in what way it could assist the court in probing allegations that the meetings then-CBI director Ranjit Sinha had with several coal block allocation scam accused impacted utcome of the cases. The case came up for hearing before...

SCOI Report: Suo motu Lokur-Lalit bench acts tough in fake encounter case

The fake encounter case involving the use of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) against innocent victims - being heard by the Supreme Court suo motu - came up before justices Madan B Lokur and UU Lalit.

SCOI Report: P Bhushan alleges parties' wanton delay to comply with foreign funding HC directive

In Indian National Congress vs UOI, which came up before the Supreme Court’s Chief Justice Bench today, the counsel for the Association for Democratic Reforms, Prashant Bhushan, alleged that both the Congress and the UOI suffer from conflict of interests in the case, in the face of a clear finding by the Delhi high court that both the Congress and the BJP had received crores as funding from foreign sources, and that there is not even an iota of doubt that the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 1976 was violated by both.

560-page 'culpable homicide' charge sheet with 57 witness statements filed against lawyer Janhavi Gadkar for drunk drive killing [UPDATE-1]

Police on Monday filed a voluminous charge sheet, invoking the dreaded charge of ‘culpable homicide not amounting to murder’ against 35-year-old corporate lawyer Jahnvi Gadkar, who was arrested on June 10 for drunk driving and killing two people. Running into around 560 pages, the charge sheet inclu...

Gov't suddenly goes soft-core: Want to ban child porn, not be moral police, tells SC

The government today told the Supreme Court that it wanted to ban child pornography websites, but expressed its inability to go beyond that and don the role of moral police. Addressing the apex court bench headed by Chief Justice HL Dattu, Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi told the court that the state...

Pecuniary jurisdiction bill passes: District bar celebrates, Abhijat bemoans ‘victory of arbitrariness’ [UDPATE-1]

Bar wars: A hope for peace or is a triple-trilogy just beginning?
Bar wars: A hope for peace or is a triple-trilogy just beginning?
The Lok Sabha, on day 11 of the monsoon session, passed the Delhi High Court Amendment Bill, 2014 after years of wrangling and lobbying around the issue between the bar of the district court and the high courts in Delhi. The legislation increases the pecuniary jurisdiction of the High Court of Delhi from Rs 20 lakh (Rs 2m) to Rs 2 crores (Rs 20m).

After 57 days in jail, Amit Desai gets Janhavi Gadkar bail in drunk-drive killing case

Mumbai sessions court judge Sanjay V Patil granted bail to Janhavi Gadkar today with Rs 30,000 surety, after the Reliance Industries in-house and former Talwar Thakore Associates corporate lawyer allegedly killed two when driving drunk nearly two months ago, reported Mid-day and others. Gadkar’s law...