News Updates
No Information with Central Information Commission (CIC)
The Right to Information movement commenced in India with the notion of moving PIOs towards rightful information and justice. But the shortcomings of Central Information Commission has made it nothing short of a blasphemy towards the doctrines of this statute. In a recent RTI application filed by Kalpesh Kumar L Gupta of IIM Ahmedabad, the reply by the Commission has been...
Justice A.P.Shah is the new Chairman of Law Commission of India
Justice Ajit Prakash Shah is appointed as the new Chairman of the Law Commission of India. The position was vacant for the last one month since the resignation of Justice D K Jain, who was joined as the head of National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission.He was the Chief Justice of Delhi High Court when he retired in February 2010. He wrote many landmark judgments including the Naz...
Supreme Court issues Notice to Kerala government, CBI in Ice Cream Parlour Sex Scandal Case
A Supreme Court bench headed by Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai asked the state government and others including CBI to reply on a plea of former chief minister V S Achuthanandan who sought a CBI investigation into the Kozhikode ice cream parlor sex scandal, saying the criminal justice has been vitiated in a systematic manner in this case that can be remedied by only ordering an...
Nationwide opening of Lok Adalats by Chief Justice of India
On 23rd November, the Chief Justice of India P Sathasivam will open Lok Adalats in the Supreme Court, and simultaneously Lok Adalats in high courts and lower courts across the country will be made functional.Mainly compoundable criminal offices, cheque bouncing and loan recovery cases, civil suits, motor accident claims and family disputes cases are listed for settlement on Saturday. The...
Additional Solicitor General’s open letter to the Chief Justice of India
The allegations of sexual harassment leveled against a retired Supreme Court judge by a law intern, who graduated from National Juridical Sciences University (Kolkata), has led to hue and cry in the legal circles. The allegation which was first posted on the law graduate’s blog on November 6, received the Supreme Court’s attention and Chief Justice of India P Sathasivam...
NUJS Intern requests media to respect her Privacy
NUJS intern, who alleged sexual harassment against a retired Judge,has requested the media to stop speculating on her communications with the Committee, and continue to respect her privacy.She wrote in NUJS blog as follows;On the 12th of November 2013, the Chief Justice of India set up a three-member Committee to look into a matter of sexual harassment that I had faced by a former Supreme...
Anonymous RTI applications using post box number valid, says Calcutta High Court
Hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by Avishek Goenka challenging the rejection of his RTI application made to a central government department by using his post box number to protect his identity, a division bench of the Calcutta High Court comprising Acting Chief Justice Ashim Kumar Banerjee and Justice Debangsu Basak held that a person making a petition under the Right...
Sexually harassed law intern fails to turn up for recording of statement
The NUJS graduate, who has alleged sexual harassment by a recently-retired Supreme Court judge, failed to turn up for recording of her statement before the three-judge committee set up to investigate the charge.According to court sources, members of the panel which was constituted soon after the law intern revealed about an alleged sexual harassment by a retired Supreme Court judge, assembled...
Supreme Court accepts Prashant Bhushan’s apology
The Supreme Court bench that criticized Advocate Prashant Bhushan for making upsetting remarks against it in connection with the Coalgate case, has accepted his apology that his intentions were not to lower the esteem of the court or hurt judges.Earlier a three-judge bench headed by Justice RM Lodha, which listed the case only for the purpose of taking cognizance of Bhushan’s...
US federal judge grants stay of execution citing concerns over new execution method
Hours before a white supremacist serial killer, Joseph Franklin was due to be put to death in Missouri, a stay of execution was granted to him by a federal judge in Missouri, citing concerns over the state’s new execution method which involves the use of a new drug.Franklin's lawyers showed that the use of pentobarbital carried a high risk of contamination and sustained, unneeded pain...
Amendment in Representation of People’s Act gets SC sanction
The Supreme Court gave its approval to amendment to the Representation of the People Act, opening doors to the people who are in jail or in police custody to contest elections.The apex court has said that in the light of amendments brought by the Government of India in the Representation of the People Act, a person does not cease to be an elector only by a reason of being in police...
Campa Cola case: SC asks illegal residents to vacate premises
Hundreds of residents of Mumbai's Campa Cola Society, who are fighting a legal battle since 2005 claiming they were duped by the builders, have been taken aback by the verdict of the Supreme Court which has directed the occupants of illegally constructed flats to vacate their houses by May 31, 2014.The apex court has directed them to give an undertaking within six weeks for the same which if...