SC collegium’s biggest crisis as Justice Chelameswar refuses to attend its meetings

Justice Jasti Chelameswar’s revolt against the Supreme Court’s collegium, reported exclusively by the New Indian Express, is the story of the day. Justice Chelameswar is reportedly of the view that there is no point in attending the collegium’s meetings, as long as its deliberations are kept under wraps.Justice Chelameswar, by his refusal to join the rest of the collegium on principle,...

Deputy Director of Income Tax is not competent to file complaint of the contempt of lawful authority of IT Officers: SC [Read Judgment]

Complaint filed by the Deputy Director of Income Tax fails for procedural snag. The Supreme Court held that the Deputy Director of Income Tax (Investigation) has no competency to file a complaint against the contempt of the lawful authority of Income Tax Officers, resulting in quashing the complaint. The Court was dealing with the multifarious questions related to the competency of the...

SC dismisses Vedanta plea to export iron ore from Karnataka [Read Judgment]

The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed Vedanta Group’s plea to export iron ore mined from Karnataka. It stated that Vedanta’s inability to sell the ore due to higher pricing cannot be made the ground for its export.However, the apex court allowed the National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) to continue with its dual pricing mechanism.The Karnataka Iron and Steel...

Barren Surrogacy Bill prescribes the ideal “Parivar”

In an effort to safeguard the rights of the surrogate mother and regulate the commissioning of surrogacy, the Union Cabinet on last Wednesday cleared the draft Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill, 2016, to be introduced in the Parliament.Once in place, the Bill will impose a blanket ban on commercial surrogacy in India and instead only altruistic surrogacy would be permitted. Streamlining further,...

SC to hear PIL to debar convicted persons uniformly from Legislature, Executive & Judiciary [Read Petition]

A petition was filed in the Supreme Court of India on Thursday, demanding that convicted persons be debarred uniformly from Legislature, Executive and Judiciary.The petition, filed by Mr. Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, demands that an order be issued directing the Centre to take necessary steps to debar persons charged with criminal offences from contesting elections, forming a political party...

Rahul to face defamation trial for blaming RSS for Bapu's killing [Read Order]

Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi will have to stand trial for the criminal defamation case filed by a Maharashtra-based RSS activist for allegedly blaming the organisation for the assasination of Mahatma Gandhi.Despite Kapil Sibal, senior pleading for exemption from appearance in trial court, SC did not grant it.A bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra said : "trial magistrate shall proceed...

Experts express different views to end stalemate on Appointment of Judges

Senior Advocate, Anil Divan, urged the Supreme Court to recall its consequential judgment on the Collegium, delivered in December last year, and finalise the revised MoA on appointments to Higher Judiciary on its own, as the stalemate between the Government and the Collegium on the revised MoA continues, without any solution in sight.Divan was a counsel for one of the petitioners in the NJAC...

SC scraps land acquisition for Tata’s car plant in WB; slams procedure adopted [Read Judgment]

The Supreme Court today quashed the acquisition of 1000 acres of land in Singur by West Bengal’s Left Front government in 2006 for Tata’s Nano project concluding that it was “illegal” and proceeded ahead in “violation of law”.Civil rights organizations, several of them backed by present chief minister Mamata Banerjee, had moved the apex court challenging the acquisition. The...

Advocates who enrolled after July 2010 to submit new Declaration Form: BCI [Read Notification & Download the form]

The Bar Council of India has issued a circular notifying all State Bar Councils to ask for submission of Declaration forms from the advocates enrolled after July 2010.The notification entails submission of necessary information in a prescribed format required for preparation of electoral rolls for elections to the State Bar Councils and also to update the existing ones.The State Bar Councils...

Plea against new WhatsApp Privacy Policy: Delhi HC issues notice to DoT and TRAI

Delhi High Court has issued notice to Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on a Public Interest Litigation filed by two students.The Petitioners contended that on 26th August 2016, they realized that Whatsapp has sought to suddenly change its Privacy Policy proposing to make drastic changes and severely compromises with the rights of the users...

Judges ordering Security to Judges: Conflict of Interest? SC to examine

A resident of Meghalaya has moved Supreme Court challenging the order of Meghalaya High Court ordering security to its own serving and retired Judges.In December last year, the Full bench of Meghalaya High Court had asked the Union Home Ministry to ensure adequate security to the Retired Judges of the High Court, in view of the fact that they are working in North east and dealing with the...

Phrase ‘contract to the contrary’ does not mean that the parties are free to contract out of the express provisions of the law: SC [Read Judgment]

The phrase ‘contract to the contrary’ in Section 106 of the Act cannot be read to mean that the parties are free to contract out of the express provisions of the law, thereby defeating its very intent, the Bench said.The Supreme Court in M/S PARK STREET PROPERTIES (PVT) LTD.  VS. DIPAK KUMAR SINGH & ANR has held that the phrase ‘contract to the contrary’ in Section 106 of...