Bar, Bench & Litigation

Amit Desai (no Salve) wins much Bombay HC sympathy for Salman Khan with bail [UPDATE-1]

Staying his incarceration, a single Bombay high court bench of Justice Abhay Thipsay told actor Salman Khan to give up his passport, pay Rs 25,000 Rs 30,000 surety and seek fresh bail from the sessions court that convicted him two days ago for five years in prison, reported the Hindustan Times . “We...

Read the trial court judgment that almost sent Salman Khan to jail

The Mumbai trial court judgment that sentenced actor Salman Khan to five years in jail, just a few hours before a quick Bombay high court appeal by DSK Legal and senior counsel Harish Slave stayed the sentence until tomorrow , has been uploaded. Download PDF In the 240-page judgment and additional s...

LS passes bill to try some under-18s as adults (child minister hopes it'll be a deterrent)

The Lok Sabha on Thursday passed the bill amending the Juvenile Justice Act, paving the way for children in the 16-18 age group to be tried as adults if they commit heinous crimes such as rape and murder. The bill is now likely to be taken up in the Rajya Sabha on Monday. The amended Juvenile Justic...

Rohatgi ramps up NJAC offensive: How did ex-CJI Kabir's sister get appointed?

Attorney General of India Mukul Rohatgi attacked the collegium system during his arguments in the Supreme Court yesterday defending the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC), using the example of allegations of bias and nepotism in 2013 judicial appointments, reported the Indian Express ....

How Justice AP Shah has made the Law Commission of India cool and (a bit more) important again [via Mint]

AP Shah (via Mint)
AP Shah (via Mint)
“)Legal reform in India has been steered by dozens of its best legal minds since 1955, including legendary attorneys general M.C. Setalvad and C.K. Daphtary, justice P.B. Gajendragadkar, justice H.R. Khanna and justice V.R. Krishna Iyer.

Holy strike! RS passes bill to enhance Delhi courts' pecuniary jurisdiction

The Rajya Sabha today passed a bill to increase the pecuniary jurisdiction of the Delhi high court, a move that some of the capital’s lawyers welcomed. Pecuniary jurisdiction refers to the jurisdiction of a court over a suit based on the amount or value of its subject matter. The Delhi high court wi...

DSK Legal & Harish Salve win speedy Bombay HC bail for Salman Khan after 5 years sentence for driving drunk without licence & killing [UPDATE-5]

Barely hours after he was sentenced to five years jail in the 2002 accident case, Bollywood superstar Salman Khan was granted two days interim bail on medical grounds by the Bombay High Court today. Rushing post-haste to secure bail, Salman’s defence team led by Supreme Court counsel Harish Salve me...

ML Sharma gets more time to respond to SC petition over sexist comments

The Supreme Court on Tuesday gave lawyer ML Sharma, who appeared for the December 16, 2012 Delhi gangrape accused, another two weeks to respond to a petition by an apex court body of female lawyers seeking action against him and another advocate AP Singh for allegedly making derogatory remarks again...

NJAC: Gov't clashes with SC over why CJI has primacy in judicial appointments

The NDA government today questioned the primacy of the Chief Justice of India (CJI) and the judiciary in appointments to the higher courts’ judiciary but the Supreme Court said that having accepted the collegium system in 1998, the government couldn’t go back on it now. “If the primacy of CJI in jud...

Delhi Barfly: Of 500 rupee judges and what happens when lawyers strike

(Except when there's a strike on)
(Except when there's a strike on)
“)Tensions run high, and patience wears thin in the city’s district courts as its lawyers’ bar strike for the quick-smart implementation of enhanced jurisdiction for lower courts stretches on (now until 6 May).

Record low 2% pass rate: Only 15 clear Delhi judicial services exam with 570+ theoretical vacancies remaining

The Delhi subordinate judiciary recruited at 17.5 per cent of its actual requirement this year, dipping lower than its last recorded recruitment rate, after only 2 per cent of the candidates who appeared for its final examination passed it.

SC goes online with judicial clerkship application process

The Supreme Court process to apply for judicial clerkships has moved online, according to a notification on the Supreme Court website today.

Candidates can apply for clerkships here.

Hat-tip @mohitsingh8 on Twitter.

Hyderabad high court to continue as common court for AP & Telangana

The Hyderabad High Court on Friday ruled that it will continue to as common high court for both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh till the central government sets up a separate court for the latter state. Pronouncing its orders on the matter, a division bench of Chief Justice Kalyan Jyoti Sengupta and Ju...

Delhi district courts extend strike to 15 days [in a bid to set a new record?]

The Delhi lawyers’ strike, which began last week to protest the delay in passing the amended bill on enhancing pecuniary jurisdiction of district courts, was on Friday extended till May 6. “A delegation of lawyers met Home minister Rajnath Singh, who has assured that the bill would be cleared in the...

SC asks: How will NJAC make judiciary meaningful?

The Supreme Court today asked how the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) mechanism would make judicial functioning “meaningful” and in what way would its members be “accountable” and to whom. A constitution bench of Justice JS Khehar, Justice J Chelameswar, Justice Madan B Lokur, Justi...

First bail in oil ministry leak case goes to Jubilant Energy

A Delhi court today granted bail to Jubilant Energy official Subhash Chandra, an accused in the petroleum ministry documents leak case. Additional Sessions Judge Raj Kapoor granted bail to Chandra and asked him to furnish a personal bond of Rs.2 lakh and a surety of like amount. He is the first accu...

Delhi HC gets 6 new seniors: Mohit Mathur, KK Manan, Rekha Palli, ex-DSK Balbir Singh, Mukul Talwar, Vivek Sood

The Delhi high court has designated six new senior counsel today, according to two authoritative sources.

Bombay HC upholds beef ban for now, next hearing on 25 June [UPDATE-1]

The Bombay High Court today declined to suspend certain provisions of a recent Maharashtra law banning beef consumption, its possession or transportation even when slaughtered outside the state. A division bench of Justice V.M. Kanade and Justice M.S. Sonak felt no suspension could be granted till t...