Supreme Court agrees to review existing system of designating Senior Advocates

The Supreme Court on Friday issued notice to the Supreme Court Registry, the Bar Council of India, the Law Ministry, Attorney General, Supreme Court Bar Association and the Supreme Courts Advocates on Record Association on a plea challenging the designation of senior advocates.A bench comprising Justice’s T.S. Thakur, V. Gopala Gowda and R. Banumathi asked the above to respond on the plea...

“The process is the punishment” : Rajeev Dhavan on the need to decriminalize defamation [Read his written submissions]

Senior Advocate Mr. Rajeev Dhavan who is appearing for Mr. Kejriwal in the writ petition filed by him in the Apex Court challenging the constitutionality of criminal defamation provisions in the Indian Penal Code has filed his written submissions in the case.In his written submissions, a copy of which has been accessed by Live Law, Mr. Dhavan, referring to a host of decided cases, has...

Breaking; Making a Mockery of Justice Delhi HC let off Rapist without Trial, holding that Victim aged 15 was married to the Accused [Read Jt]

Delhi High Court in State v. Umesh [Crl.Rev.P 266/2014] upheld an order of discharge passed by a Sessions Judge in a Case where the Accused was charge sheeted for Section 363/376 of  IPC and Section 4 of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act 2012Justice Indermeet Kaur had set the accused free of all the offences alleged, holding that the victim was married to the Accused...

Faith is something different from wearing some kind of cloth : Supreme Court on plea against CBSE dress code

Certain Islamic Organisations approached the Supreme Court of India citing that the Notification of AIPMT entrance exam by CBSE, barred the right of Muslim girls to wear Hijab, their customary religious dress. However the Court refused to entertain the plea saying that ”We will not interfere with these kind of small issue”. The counsel for the petitioner, sensing the inclination of Court...

Supreme Court dismisses PIL to stop usage of religious symbols for business purposes

A Public Interest Litigation came up before the 3 Judges Bench of Supreme Court of India yesterday, praying ‘to stop the use of names and images of gods and goddesses for commercial exploitation’.  The court dismissed the petition remarking that “You have raised the issue which concerns the faith of the people. This country has 33,000 crore gods. Sorry.”The bench asked the Lawyer...

Read Order; SC Constitution Bench permits States to release life convicts, but with stipulations

Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court comprising Chief Justice H.L. Dattu, Justice F.M.I. Kalifulla, Justice P.C. Ghose, Justice A.M. Sapre and Justice U.U. Lalit on Thursday allowed the State Governments to grant remission and set free life term convicts whose cases have not been investigated by the CBI or those not probed under central laws.The Bench however explained that the...

SC seeks to know when the CBI would take over the probe into the Vyapam scam; issue of court-monitored probe to be decided later, says SC

The Supreme Court on Friday sought to know from the CBI when it would take to take over the investigation into the “Vyapam” scam cases so that it could thereafter decide the issue of monitoring the probe."We want to know by what time you (CBI) will take over the investigation which is in the hands of SIT/STF of Madhya Pradesh and we have to take a decision that should we monitor or...

Constitution Bench started hearing Union of India vs. Sriharan , referred by Three Judge Bench; Read the summary of Arguments by SG [Day-1]

(The Centre on the Death Penalty at National Law University, Delhi will be posting daily reports of the arguments in the Constitution Bench matter in Union of India v. Sriharan)[We would like to thank Dr.Anup Surendranath and Centre on the Death Penalty at National Law University, Delhi for this initiative. We also would like to thank the Law and Other Things Blog where it is...

Supreme Court agrees to hear Yakub Memon’s Plea against Death Warrant

Supreme Court of India has agreed to hear two petitions challenging the Death warrant issued against the Mumbai Blast Convict Yakub Memon. One is filed by Yakub Memon and one intervening application by The Centre on the Death Penalty at National Law University, Delhi. Senior Advocate Raju Ramachandran appeared for Memon and TR Andhyarujina appeared for Centre for Death Penalty. Chief...

“Criminalization of Defamation acts as a Handcuff on the Freedom of Speech and expression”; Aravind Datar [Read the Written Submission]

Mr. Arvind Datar, appearing for Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal before the Supreme Court in his petition challenging the constitutionality of the defamation provisions in the Indian Penal Code, has contended in his written submissions filed in Court- a copy of which has been seen by “Live Law”- that Sections 499 and 500 IPC and the procedure for prosecution under Section 199 Code...

Supreme Court re-iterates that Live-in Relationship is not a Crime

Today, the Supreme Court of India observed that ‘Live-in Relationships’ does not amount to a crime as the society has accepted it be normal and an acceptable norm. According to a bench comprising Justices Dipak Mishra and Prafulla C Pant, "Being in live-in relationship is not a crime and with changing time it has become a norm accepted by society". Back in September 2013, the...

Right to establish Educational Institutions is not a Fundamental Right, Hence it cannot be agitated under Article 32; SC [Read the Judgment]

The Supreme Court of India in a ruling [DM Wayanad Institute of medical sciences vs. Union of India and Another - Writ Petition (C) No. 441 Of 2015] rendered today has reaffirmed the settled legal position as established through a catena of decisions that under Article 32 it will not interfere with an administrative order where the constitutionality of the statute or the order made there...