The Week That Was: The Supreme Court of India

The nation’s Supreme Court witnessed an interesting week, with several important matters coming up for hearing. The appeals filed by the four convicted in the 2012 Nirbhaya gang-rape, claims against Vijay Mallya, and the PACL scam were some important cases which were heard last week..Here is a flashback of the important events of this past week at the apex court..April 4, Monday.The Nirbhaya gang rape .The appeals filed by the four convicted in the Delhi gang rape came up for hearing after nearly two years. The matter was listed before a 3-judge Bench presided by Justice Dipak Misra and comprising Justices V Gopala Gowda and Kurian Joseph. Advocates ML Sharma and AP Singh were appearing for the accused while Senior Advocate Sidharth Luthra appeared for the Delhi government..The Bench in complete contradiction to the stance of the earlier Bench, said that it will hear the case like a trial court would..“You can proceed in your own way even if some time is consumed. How a trial judge would appreciate the case, we would do so, so that there is no grievance”, said Justice Dipak Misra..The case would witness an interesting development later in the week..Senior designation challenge from Karnataka High Court fizzles out .The Court refused to entertain a petition challenging sixteen senior designations made by the Karnataka High Court..The court was hearing an appeal against the decision of the Karnataka High Court refusing to entertain the petitions of advocates TN Raghupathy and M Veerbhadraiah..The matter was heard by a Bench of Chief Justice TS Thakur and Justice UU Lalit which asked the petitioners to instead intervene in ex-ASG Indira Jaising’s petition on the system of designation..Justice Thakur said that while the apex court is open to correcting the system, challenging earlier designations would not augur well for the Bar..“There are no statutory norms for designating advocate. How can you say ‘No, no don’t designate him’. We can understand if the lawyers designated are practising in say Sikkim and get designated by the Karnataka High Court. But these are lawyers practising regularly there, and [the] majority of [the] judges have agreed to these designations. I still remember some of them. They were doing well then, they would be doing well now.”.No Hindi in Supreme Court.The Court dismissed a Public Interest Litigation petition seeking amendment of Article 348 of the Constitution for use of Hindi as official language of Supreme Court and High Courts..A Bench presided by Chief Justice TS Thakur also nearly imposed cost on the petitioner, Shiv Sagar Tiwari. Though the Court cautioned Tiwari against filing such “frivolous” PILs, it eventually let him off without imposing costs..Interestingly, a Bench presided by the then Chief Justice, HL Dattu had issued notice in the matter in 2014..April 5.Lodha Committee authorised to move against Australian assets.The Court ordered that the committee appointed to oversee the refund of money by PACL Ltd. to its investors will have the jurisdiction to look into overseas assets of PACL..This order was passed in an application filed by Kerala based investors and employees of PACL praying for a direction to the court-appointed Committee to seize and sell all properties situated in Australia and belonging to the Company, its promoters and directors..The matter was heard by a Bench of Justices Anil R Dave and AK Goel. Advocates PB Suresh, Vipin Nair, CP Chandrasekharan, Tishampati Sen and Prithu Garg appeared for the petitioners. Advocate Surekha Raman appeared for SEBI..The Supreme Court had appointed the committee headed by former Chief Justice of India, RM Lodha on February 2, 2016 to oversee the refunds..Stray dog menace in Kerala: Supreme Court appoints ex-HC judge to entertain complaints.The Court appointed a committee headed by former Kerala High Court judge, Justice S Siri Jagan to examine complaints with regard to injuries sustained due to dog bites in Kerala. The committee has also been asked to ascertain specifics including as the nature and gravity of the injury, availability of medicines, and the treatment administered to them..The order appointing the 3-member committee was passed by a Bench comprising Justices Dipak Misra and Shiva Kirti Singh..The Committee has been asked to submit the first report within 12 weeks, following which the apex court will decide on granting compensation to victims or other appropriate measures..April 7.Centre, States under fire for not doing enough to tackle drought consequences.The Supreme Court came down heavily upon the Central government and Additional Solicitor General Pinky Anand for not being present in Court for the hearing in the case relating to drought. A Bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and NV Ramana minced no words in expressing their displeasure at Anand’s absence even as a Ministry official held the fort admirably for nearly an hour..When the hearing began in court 8, the Centre was not represented by any law officer. The Court said that the Centre could not spare any of the ASGs despite the matter being of grave importance. Subsequently, when quizzed about Anand’s absence, a junior advocate responded that she had a prior engagement in another court. This irked Justice Lokur, who retorted,.“Two Supreme Court judges have no other job but to come and sit here and stare at the clock and watch time ticking by…..You think drought is not important. There is a procedure to be followed. Inconvenience is to us. Not to you.”.Subsequently, the Bihar, Gujarat and Haryana governments also came under fire from the Bench for not doing enough to arrest the consequences of the drought..Not easy for Mallya.Rajya Sabha MP and liquor baron Vijay Mallya was asked by the Court to prove his bona fides by depositing money with the Court. The order was passed by a Bench of Justices Kurian Joseph and Rohinton Fali Nariman in the petition filed by a consortium of banks led by the State Bank of India..Senior Advocate Shyam Divan appeared for the consortium while Senior Advocate CS Vaidyanathan appeared for Mallya and Kingfisher. Senior Advocate Parag Tripathi appeared for United Breweries..Further, Mallya has also been directed to disclose details of his assets and assets belonging to his wife and children. Mallya has also been asked to respond to the request for his presence in-person in court. He has to file his response by April 21. The case will now be heard on April 26..April 8.Raju Ramachandran, Sanjay Hegde appointed amicus in Delhi gang rape.In a surprising move, the Court appointed Senior Advocates Raju Ramachandran and Sanjay Hegde as amicus curiae in the appeals filed by the accused in the 2012 Delhi gang rape case..The decision was taken by the 3-judge Bench comprising Justices Dipak Misra, V Gopala Gowda and Kurian Joseph..The two amicus curiae will assist the court on behalf of two accused each. While Ramachandran will assist the court on behalf of Mukesh and Pawan, Hegde will assist on behalf of Akshay Kumar and Vinay..Don’t certify curative petitions without “applying mind”, Court admonishes Senior Advocate.Chief Justice of India TS Thakur admonished Senior Advocate Parmanand Katara for “certifying curative petitions without applying mind”..This happened just after the hearing of a Public Interest Litigation petition filed and argued by former Law Minister Ashwani Kumar..When Katara sought to say something after the court dictated its order in the matter, Justice Thakur asked him to step forward and said to him,.“Mr. Katara, 90 percent of the curative petitions certified by you are dismissed. My brother judges have pointed this out and I have also noticed. So if people come to you and pay you money, you sign on what they give without applying your mind. We may be forced to withdraw your designation. Please don’t do this”..Katara told the court that he will be careful in the future.