Advocate-On-Record Exam To Be Held From June 12 To 15 [Read Notification]

The Supreme Court of India has announced that its next examination for Advocates-on-Record [AoR Examination] will be held on June 12, 13, 14 and 15.The exam will be held on the Supreme Court premises.All advocates who will be completing one year's continuous training on or before April 30, 2018, are eligible to appear for this examination.The last date for the acceptance of the application...

1998 Black Buck Poaching Case: Salman Khan Gets Bail After Spending Two Nights In Jail

After spending two nights in Central jail after being sentenced to five-year imprisonment in the 1998 blackbuck poaching case, Bollywood actor Salman Khan was on Saturday granted bail by a Sessions court in Jodhpur.District and Sessions Judge Ravindra Kumar Joshi granted bail to the 52-year-old actor on a personal bond of Rs 50,000 and two sureties of Rs 25, 000 each.Salman has been directed...

Terrorism Trials: Justice A.M.Thipsay Questions Confessions Which Are Not Trustworthy

Former Judge of the Allahabad High Court, Justice Abhay M. Thipsay, on Friday questioned the reliance on confessions of the accused by the courts in terrorism cases, while delivering the Fourth Shahid Azmi Memorial Lecture at the Indian Law Institute, New Delhi.  Speaking on “Terrorism Trials: Reflections on Fundamental Rights and Judicial Independence”, Justice Thipsay recalled his...

Disciplinary Action Against Lawyers By Bar Council: SC Refuses To Interfere With Karnataka HC Order Dismissing Plea

“Why did you file a PIL,” inquired Chief Justice Dipak Misra on Friday, as an SLP preferred against a January 8 order of the Karnataka High Court dismissing a writ petition seeking the writ of certiorari and the quashing of three notifications issued by the Karnataka State Bar Council taking disciplinary action against five advocates came up for hearing.By the impugned notifications,...

Constitutional Embarrassment: When SC Stays Ordinance Signed By Ex-CJI On Ground That It Nullifies Court Orders

“When boundaries between judiciary and executive get permeable facilitating easy switch from one role to another, such constitutional embarrassments are bound to happen”.   It is quite unusual for a law to be made to get over a particular judgment by a court. It is further unusual if the law is not one passed by the legislature, but is made by the government through the ‘ordinance route’.It gets more strange when the Ordinance, which is specifically intended to nullify Supreme Court and high...

Family Court Can’t Delegate Recording Of Evidence To Advocate Commissioner Without Consent Of Parties: Kerala HC [Read Judgment]

“Sensitive issues like cruelty, adultery, desertion or custody of children can be better adjudicated only when the witnesses are cross-examined before the face of the Court itself”.The High Court of Kerala has held that evidence in matrimonial cases has to be recorded by the court itself, and that the Advocate Commissioner can be appointed to record evidence only if the parties have...

Delhi HC Issues Notice On Petition Filed By Lawyers Mukul Talwar & Vrinda Grover For Filing ITR Without Aadhaar, Extends Deadline For Petitioners

The Delhi High Court extended the deadline for linking Aadhar with tax returns till June 30 for the petitioners before it, while considering the petitions filed by two lawyers. Two lawyers- Senior Advocate Mukul Talwar and Advocate Vrinda Grover- approached the Court raising the grievance that the Income Tax Department was not permitting e-filing of tax returns without quoting Aadhar number....

The Reading Down of SC/ST Act: A case of Judicial Insensitivity to Social Justice, Unwanted Judicial Legislation & A Clear Message To Whom It Matters

The insensitivity of the Court towards social justice cause and judicial dilution of a stringent protective social justice legislation by resorting to judicial excess in total disregard of legislative intent was seen reflected once again in Subhash Kashinath Mahajan v. the State of Maharashtra and Anr [hereinafter, Subhash Kashinath]. In this case, a Division Bench Supreme Court comprising of A.K. Goel, J. and U.U. Lalit,J. had...

The Selective Battles Of The Bar Council Of India

The disciplinary actions initiated by BCI of late have given the impression that it is selective and partisan in the battles it wants to wage.The Bar Council of India, which ceased to be truly representative long ago because of the failure to hold due elections in time, recently surprised many with a resolution. The resolution, stated to have been taken on March 18, but announced to the world on March 31 in a press conference held by the Chairman of the ad-hoc Council Senior Advocate Manan Kumar...

A Compromised Judicial Independence Is The Single Biggest Security Threat To This Country-Prof. Mohan Gopal

Speech delivered by Prof. Mohan Gopal at the Public Meeting on ‘Independence of the Judiciary - Implications for Democracy’ hosted by Lawyers’ Forum for Democracy and Justice and Lawyers’ Collective at the Indian Society of International Law, Delhi on 23rd March 2018I was just reading the other day by coincidence in 2018 Vanderbilt Law Review an interesting article based on extensive research of the evolution of judicial independence and various safeguards for judicial independence in the United...

Karnataka HC Drops Inquiry Against District Judge After Justice Chelameswar's Intervention

The Chief Justice of Karnataka High Court, Justice Dinesh Maheshwari has reportedly dropped an inquiry initiated against a senior District and Sessions Court Judge, after Justice J. Chelameswar wrote a scathing letter to Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra last week, challenging the propriety of the inquiry which was initiated at the behest of the Centre.According to a report by The Print,...

Missing JNU Ward Najeeb Ahmed’s Mother Sues Media Houses For Linking Son With IS, Seeks Rs 2.2-Cr Damages

Fatima Nafees, the mother of JNU student Najeeb Ahmed who has been missing since October 15, 2016, has filed a defamation suit in the Delhi High Court against certain media houses for linking her son with terrorist organisation Islamic State (IS).Fatima, in her suit filed through the Human Rights Law Network (HRLN) has impleaded Times of India, Times Now, Dilli Aajtak and also reporters of...