Justice Singhvi, a Judge for AamAdmi, retires

"A Judge must be of sterner stuff. His mental equipoise must always remain firm and undetected.”This quote is apt for Justice Singhvi. He may not be a great jurist as normally judges  are referred to, but surely he is a judge with backbone. In nutshell, he is a judge for ‘AamAdmi’.Justice Singhvi has the longest tenure as a Judge of the High Court to his credit.  He was elevated to...

Intern Sexual Harassment: Section 354 or Section 354A IPC?

The Times of India has carried a news item “If booked under Sec 354A, Ganguly may get 3 years in jail”. No doubt, under the amended Indian Penal Code, any man who commits the offence specified in section 354 A i.e. Sexual harassment, shall be punished with rigorous imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years, or with fine, or with both. However, the fact is, the amendments...

Exclusive : In Conversation with Baroness Usha Prashar, Member of House of Lords, and UK’s First Judicial Appointments Commissioner

Baroness Usha Prashar was appointed as the first chairman of the Judicial Appointment Commission in the UK in September 2005. She is currently a member of the House of Lords. She was instrumental in bringing far reaching changes to the appointments process; making it transparent, widening the selection pool, eliminating elitism and bringing in diversity.In this conversation with Santosh Paul, (Advocate, Supreme Court) for Live Law, she spoke at length about UK’s model of JAC and the proposed JAC...

Intern Sexual harassment Case-Delhi Police violates Lalita Kumari; Will the Supreme Court initiate contempt ?

The Delhi Police says they would proceed in accordance with the directions of the Supreme Court in the NUJS intern sexual harassment case, in which former Supreme Court Judge and present WB Human Right Commission Chairman Justice A.K.Ganguly is allegedly involved.According to Hindu report ‘Delhi Police would proceed in accordance with the directions of the Supreme Court in connection...

Lily Thomas is a correct judgment while Jan Chaukidar is wrong; Raju Ramachandran

A Senior Advocate at Supreme Court and a former Additional Solicitor General, Raju Ramachandran joined the bar in 1976. He was designated as a Senior Advocate in 1996 at the age of 42 and was appointed as Additional Solicitor General of India for 2002 - 2004. Raju Ramachandran has argued several important cases in the Supreme Court and various High Courts. Ramachandran was the counsel for the Justice Sawant Committee under the Judges Inquiry Act-1968, which probed the charges against Justice V...

Rajiv Gandhi Assassination Case - Prosecute CBI SP

The media on 24th Nov 2013 reported under the caption ‘Former CBI official says he did not record Perarivalan’s confession verbatim’.Mr. V. Thiagarajan, IPS(retired), who was the then CBI Superintendent of Police of the Kerala Branch said that he was assigned the task of recording the statement of accused persons in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case in 1991. The Hindu reported,...

A case of misjudgment

A magazine, born with the criminal cases and proud of defending them, finds itself fumbling in legal recourse chosen for its creator. The ‘man enough’ is hit badly, may be legally forever. The chargé d'affaires, of the enterprise, who allowed herself to be sandwiched between the man and the victim, seems to have acted upon the advice of a quack online Lawyer! She now blames herself...

Open Audit !

I salute Chief Justice Sathasivam for speaking about the allegation of unpardonable aberration by one of his former colleagues on the Bench on the occasion of Law Day celebrations.  The whole world knows what it is.Soft spoken, but determined CJI has assured that justice will be done. The courageous reference to unpleasant allegation makes Law Day-2013 slightly different.The Law Day, a day...

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...

Analysing Google Books Project through the Fair Use Prism

Authors Guild v. GoogleIn the year 2004 Google announced agreements with several major research libraries to digitally copy books in their collections. Thereafter Google had scanned more than twenty million books, delivered digital copies to participating libraries, created an electronic database of books and made text available for online searching through the use of snippets. Since many of...

Be you ever so high, the law is always above you!

It is an irony of a sort that Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court delivers a judgment (Lalita Kumari Vs Govt. of U.P. & Ors) permitting preliminary enquiry in exceptional cognizable cases where there is abnormal delay in initiating criminal prosecution and reporting without explaining the reasons for delay. Thus, it permits the police to hold back registration of FIR until prima...

END OF CBI ? Guwahati High Court says CBI formation is ultra vires

In a path breaking judgment Gauhati High Court has ruled that the 1963 executive order under which the CBI was formed is unconstitutional, and that an act should have been passed for the purpose.A Division Bench of Justices Iqbal Ahmed Ansari and Indira Shah in Navendra Kumar v. Union of india Writ Appeal ;119/2008 said "The resolution number 4/31/61-T dated 1/4/1963 issued by secretary to...