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...

Information Commissioner Sridhar Acharyulu Questions "Arbitrary" Reconstitution Of Bench Hearing Complaint Relating To Political Parties [Read Letters]

Merely two months after an unprecedented press conference was held by four sitting Judges of the Supreme Court against the Chief Justice of India's constitution of benches, similar allegations are now being leveled against Chief Information Commissioner Mr R.K. Mathur.In two letters addressed to Mr Mathur, Information Commissioner M. Sridhar Acharyulu has raised several questions on...

Two Aadhaar Cards With Same Aadhaar Number And Different Date Of Births: MP HC Orders ‘In-Depth Enquiry’ [Read Order]

The Madhya Pradesh High Court recently, while hearing a habeas corpus petition, came across two Aadhaar cards pertaining to one individual bearing the same number, having different dates of birth and directed the state government and the Unique Identification Authority of India to conduct enquiries in this regard.The petitioner in this case and the girl (corpus) had produced Aadhaar card....

Terrorizing The Public At Large Is A Heinous Crime And That Should Be Dealt With A Stern Hand: Punjab & Haryana HC Denies Bail To Gurmeet Ram Rahim Supporters [Read Order]

Creating terror in the mind of the general public, duly armed, paralyzing the entire city, violating the law, is taken as a joy ride by the petitioners.. Facts reveal that they have projected themselves as Rulers of the State at that juncture, the Court observed.The Punjab and Haryana High Court declined to grant bail to supporters of Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim who after...

Committing To An Independent Judiciary

“The principle of complete independence of the judiciary from the executive is the foundation of many things in our island life…The Judge has not only to do justice between man and man. He also – and this is one of the most important functions considered incomprehensible in some large parts of the world – has to do justice between the citizens and the State.”– Winston Churchill[1]Even a despot like Churchill understood the requirement of the complete independence of the judiciary from executive...

Office Of Profit Row: Here Is What The Delhi HC Said While Setting Aside Disqualification Of 20 AAP MLAs [Read Judgment]

In a major relief for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the Delhi High Court has set aside the Election Commission of India's (ECI) recommendation for disqualification of 20 Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLAs for holding office of profit.The Bench comprising Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Chander Shekhar directed the ECI to take another look at the allegations, observing that the MLAs were not given an...

INX Media Case: Karti Chidambaram Granted Bail By Delhi HC [Read Order]

The Delhi High Court on Friday granted bail to Karti Chidambaram in the INX Media case registered against him by the CBI while holding that there was no possibility of him fleeing from justice as he has roots in the society, his parents are senior lawyers and he has a family to take care of while also noting that the CBI had not recovered any incriminating material from his possession during...

Petition Filed In Uttarakhand HC Challenging Minimum Eligibility Criteria For CLAT, 2018 For LLM; Notice Issued

The Uttarakhand High Court, on Wednesday, issued a notice to the Vice-Chancellor of National University of Advanced Legal Studies, Kochi on a Petition challenging the minimum eligibility criteria laid down in order to appear for Common Law Admission Test (CLAT), 2018 for LLM.The notice was issued by Justice Sudhanshu Dulia, on a petition filed by two law graduates Mr Deepak Rawat and Mr....

First Lawsuit Against Facebook & Cambridge Analytica

A class-action complaint has been filed by Lauren Price, a resident of Maryland, before the U.S. District Court in San Jose, California seeking unspecified damages for Facebook’s failure to protect data of its users and the exploitation of the data by Cambridge Analytica in the 2016 US election campaign. The complaint alleges violation of California unfair competition law.It is only...

In Defence Of The Offensive

While many detractors of the AAP sneered at Kejriwal’s “backtracking” for apologizing to politicians Nitin Gadkari, Kapil Sibal and Bikram Singh Majithia in the criminal defamation complaints filed against him, few realize that this was a political masterstroke on his part. As Atishi Marlena notes in her piece, this was Kejriwal’s way of getting the cases out of the way to focus on real work. Criminal defamation complaints as intimidation tactics are common in politics and against the media....