The Week That Was: The Delhi High Court

In between preparing for the upcoming elections of the Bar Association and swearing in five new judges, the High Court of Delhi managed to hear a few high-profile matters. Here are the highlights of the past week at the capital’s High Court..Monday, November 11.DB directs Hotel Leela Venture to pay ₹258 crores to AAI.Pradeep Nandrajog and Pratibha Rani JJ heard the appeal of the hotel against the single judge order directing payment of Rs. 258 crore to the Airport Authority of India as royalty for possession of property near the Mumbai International Airport..The dispute relates to the payment of minimum guaranteed royalty amount on 11,000 sq mt of land leased by the AAI adjacent to the existing hotel of the company in Mumbai for construction of another hotel. It is expected that the hotel will soon move in appeal to the Supreme Court..Tuesday, November 8.All India Judicial Services: The Law Ministry responds.The response of the Law Ministry in a PIL brought the All India Judicial Services in the limelight yet again..The petition filed by Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay sought to establish an Indian Judicial Service on the lines of the Indian Administrative Service. The division bench disposed off the matter but gave the liberty to the petitioner to approach the court again if he feels dissatisfied with the Ministry’s response..The government stated that a consultative process to arrive at a common ground had been undertaken as a step forward towards setting up an All India Judicial Service..Publishers’ guilds state they have interest in the DU Photocopiers’ case.Three publishers’ guilds – Indian Reprographic Rights Organisation, The Federation of Indian Publishers and Association of Publishers in India have filed an application to be impleaded in the appeal against Rameshwari Photocopy Services in the DU Photocopiers case..The appeal is against the single judge order of Rajiv Sahai Endlaw, J. declaring that photocopying text books and course books for furtherance of education of the students was not copyright infringement. .The bench allowed the application and listed the matter for November 29..Friday, November 11.Who controls AirAsia? .The Chief Justice directed Air Asia India, a joint venture between Tata Sons and Air Asia Berhad to produce the Brand Licensing Agreement that determines the ownership and control of the Indian counterpart..BJP leader Subramanian Swamy also filed an application for the impleadment of R. Venkatramanan who is the Managing Trustee of the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust and is responsible for management and oversight of all the Tata Trusts..The bench has issued notices to the Centre, DGCA and AirAsia seeking their replies on the impleadment application.