The Supreme Court returned to work this week after the Holi sabbatical, diving right into the thick of things..Read on below for the highlights of the week..Monday, March 20.One year old PILs on judicial appointments disposed of by Supreme Court.The Supreme Court disposed of Public Interest Litigation petitions relating to judicial appointments in high courts..A Bench of Chief Justice JS Khehar and Justices DY Chandrachud and SK Kaul disposed of the petitions citing the progress made with regard to the issues raised..The Court noted that the process of appointment of high court judges has been accelerated and that the Memorandum of Procedure has been finalised. It also said that it has constituted a Committee comprising Supreme Court judges to examine the issue of pendency of cases..Read full story here..Election Commission endorses setting up special courts to try criminal cases against law makers and judges.The Election Commission of India filed an affidavit in Supreme Court endorsing the setting up of special courts to try criminal cases against legislators and judges..The affidavit was filed by ECI in a Public Interest Litigation petition filed by advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay..Read full story here..Tuesday, March 21.#RamMandir: Supreme Court bats for outside-court settlement.The Supreme Court urged parties to the Ram Mandir dispute to settle the matter outside the court..A Bench of Chief Justice JS Khehar and Justice DY Chandrachud and Sanjay Kishan Kaul remarked that such matters would be best decided outside the Court. Justice Khehar himself volunteered to be the principal mediator..Read full story here..Sibal, Singhvi, Salve in Narada sting appeal in SC; CBI inquiry to continue.In a major development in the Narada sting case, the Supreme Court refused to interfere with the CBI probe ordered by the Calcutta High Court..The three senior lawyers argued before a Bench of Chief Justice JS Khehar and Justices DY Chandrachud and SK Kaul..Read full story here..Wednesday, March 22.Senior Designations challenge referred to larger Bench .One year and nine months after a petition was filed by Senior Advocate Indira Jaising, the Supreme Court decided that the challenge to the Senior Designation process should be heard by a larger Bench..A Division Bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi and Navin Sinha heard the parties, before ordering that the matter be placed before the Chief Justice so that he can constitute an appropriate Bench to hear the case..Read the full story here..Nature of proceeding (not nomenclature) is the “litmus test” to determine maintainability of intra-court appeal, SC.A three-judge Bench of the Supreme Court held that an appeal to a decision of a Division Bench of the High Court is not maintainable against an order of a single judge in a criminal matter, even if the order by the single judge was passed in a petition styled as civil writ petition..In the judgment which was delivered by a Bench of Justices Dipak Misra, A M Khanwilkar and M Shantanagoudar, the Court has laid down that the nature of the controversy and proceedings would be the deciding factor to ascertain whether an intra-court appeal will lie or not..Read full story here..Friday, March 24.Harish Salve appears for NDTV in Supreme Court against one-day ban; Centre seeks apology.A Bench of Justices AK Sikri and Ashok Bhushan adjourned NDTV’s appeal against the one-day ban imposed on it by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting for Friday, after a cursory hearing..Senior Advocate Harish Salve, who appeared for NDTV, read before the Court a letter containing a general statement of regret for what they dubbed as “the unfortunate incident”..Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi, who appeared for the IB Ministry, did not seem to agree to the contents of the said letter, observing that the statement seemed too generic in nature. He also suggested that the statement should be tweaked to reflect the fact that it was in the nature of an apology..Read full story here..Implementation of paper trails in EVMs: Supreme Court notice to Election Commission.A Bench of Chief Justice JS Khehar and Justices DY Chandrachud and SK Kaul issued notice to the Election Commission in a PIL filed by advocate ML Sharma alleging tampering of Electronic Voting Machines..In his petition, Sharma alleged that EVMs in many elections held after 2010 have been tampered with. He has contended that despite a 2013 judgment of the Supreme Court to implement a paper trail in EVMs, the Election Commission has not done the same..Read full story here.
The Supreme Court returned to work this week after the Holi sabbatical, diving right into the thick of things..Read on below for the highlights of the week..Monday, March 20.One year old PILs on judicial appointments disposed of by Supreme Court.The Supreme Court disposed of Public Interest Litigation petitions relating to judicial appointments in high courts..A Bench of Chief Justice JS Khehar and Justices DY Chandrachud and SK Kaul disposed of the petitions citing the progress made with regard to the issues raised..The Court noted that the process of appointment of high court judges has been accelerated and that the Memorandum of Procedure has been finalised. It also said that it has constituted a Committee comprising Supreme Court judges to examine the issue of pendency of cases..Read full story here..Election Commission endorses setting up special courts to try criminal cases against law makers and judges.The Election Commission of India filed an affidavit in Supreme Court endorsing the setting up of special courts to try criminal cases against legislators and judges..The affidavit was filed by ECI in a Public Interest Litigation petition filed by advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay..Read full story here..Tuesday, March 21.#RamMandir: Supreme Court bats for outside-court settlement.The Supreme Court urged parties to the Ram Mandir dispute to settle the matter outside the court..A Bench of Chief Justice JS Khehar and Justice DY Chandrachud and Sanjay Kishan Kaul remarked that such matters would be best decided outside the Court. Justice Khehar himself volunteered to be the principal mediator..Read full story here..Sibal, Singhvi, Salve in Narada sting appeal in SC; CBI inquiry to continue.In a major development in the Narada sting case, the Supreme Court refused to interfere with the CBI probe ordered by the Calcutta High Court..The three senior lawyers argued before a Bench of Chief Justice JS Khehar and Justices DY Chandrachud and SK Kaul..Read full story here..Wednesday, March 22.Senior Designations challenge referred to larger Bench .One year and nine months after a petition was filed by Senior Advocate Indira Jaising, the Supreme Court decided that the challenge to the Senior Designation process should be heard by a larger Bench..A Division Bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi and Navin Sinha heard the parties, before ordering that the matter be placed before the Chief Justice so that he can constitute an appropriate Bench to hear the case..Read the full story here..Nature of proceeding (not nomenclature) is the “litmus test” to determine maintainability of intra-court appeal, SC.A three-judge Bench of the Supreme Court held that an appeal to a decision of a Division Bench of the High Court is not maintainable against an order of a single judge in a criminal matter, even if the order by the single judge was passed in a petition styled as civil writ petition..In the judgment which was delivered by a Bench of Justices Dipak Misra, A M Khanwilkar and M Shantanagoudar, the Court has laid down that the nature of the controversy and proceedings would be the deciding factor to ascertain whether an intra-court appeal will lie or not..Read full story here..Friday, March 24.Harish Salve appears for NDTV in Supreme Court against one-day ban; Centre seeks apology.A Bench of Justices AK Sikri and Ashok Bhushan adjourned NDTV’s appeal against the one-day ban imposed on it by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting for Friday, after a cursory hearing..Senior Advocate Harish Salve, who appeared for NDTV, read before the Court a letter containing a general statement of regret for what they dubbed as “the unfortunate incident”..Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi, who appeared for the IB Ministry, did not seem to agree to the contents of the said letter, observing that the statement seemed too generic in nature. He also suggested that the statement should be tweaked to reflect the fact that it was in the nature of an apology..Read full story here..Implementation of paper trails in EVMs: Supreme Court notice to Election Commission.A Bench of Chief Justice JS Khehar and Justices DY Chandrachud and SK Kaul issued notice to the Election Commission in a PIL filed by advocate ML Sharma alleging tampering of Electronic Voting Machines..In his petition, Sharma alleged that EVMs in many elections held after 2010 have been tampered with. He has contended that despite a 2013 judgment of the Supreme Court to implement a paper trail in EVMs, the Election Commission has not done the same..Read full story here.
