The Week That Was: Supreme Court of India

After Justice TS Thakur took over as the Chief Justice of India, the Supreme Court of India is witnessing a change in its functioning. Miscellaneous days are now witnessing Constitution Benches sitting in the second half of the day..Besides this, the Social Justice Bench, which was the brain child of former CJI HL Dattu and had started out with much fanfare, has now been disbanded..The Constitution Benches on Miscellaneous days means that the Court sits till 4 pm even on Mondays and Fridays unlike before when the judges were done with their work in court by 2pm on these days..Here is a look at some of the significant developments from the Supreme Court this week..February 1, 2016.“Don’t Disband BCI; My submissions were misconstrued by HC”, says Petitioner.The week began with the hearing in a petition filed by an advocate from Tami Nadu challenging the judgment of the Madras High Court which had directed that the Central government should consider disbanding Bar Council of India..Interestingly, the petitioner is the same person in whose case the High court had passed that judgment. The petitioner has contended before the Supreme Court that his submissions were misconstrued by the High court and he did not seek dissolution of BCI..The Court issued notice in to the Bar Council of India, Central government and the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu..Read more about the case here..February 2, 2016.Cure for S. 377?.One of the most eventful days in the recent past as the much awaited curative petition in relation to the constitutionality of Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code came up for hearing before 3-judge Bench presided by Chief Justice TS Thakur..In a court room packed with LGBT activists and media personnel, the Bench heard Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal before referring the matter to a Constitution Bench. As was the case during the hearing of the appeal, the curative petition was also opposed by religious groups who have sought intervention in the case..The scenes of jubilance of the LGBT activists and supporters outside the court were in contrast to the gloom and dejection that had descended on them two years back when the Court had upheld the Constitutionality of the impugned provision..PACL/ Sahara 2: No break for Justice (Retd.) RM Lodha .Former Chief Justice of India, RM Lodha’s hectic retired life continues. Hardly. had he submitted a report on BCCI and cricket reforms when Supreme Court chose him to head a committee to oversee refund of money by PACL Limited to its investors..The PACL Ponzi scam has been likened to the SEBI Sahara dispute and has even been called “Sahara 2” by the Bench. The Court after hearing PACL, SEBI and investors has now debarred PACL from collecting any further money from public besides asking the Lodha committee to oversee the refund of money to investors..165 new AoRs for Supreme Court.The results of the Advocate-on-Record exam 2015 was published. 165 lawyers qualified while 76 are eligible to re-appear. Read more here..February 3, 2016.Still a greenhorn in “Green” matters?.The Court lifted the stay on the proceedings in National Green Tribnal in the challenge to the environmental clearance given for constructing Vizhinjam port in Kerala. The NGT will now decide the challenge to the construction of the port on merits..The court has directed the NGT to hear and dispose the case within 6 weeks; the NGT’s decision will not prejudice the rights of the parties to raise the issues of law already raised in their petitions in Supreme Court. The Court said that it will decide the petitions before it after the NGT decides the case on merits since it will have the benefit of perusing NGT’s views on the subject..February 4, 2016.Sonia and Rahul finally move Supreme Court.After a lot of rumours about the two Congress leaders moving the apex court, it finally happened when their petitions in the National Herald case were filed at around 11 am..The President and Vice President of the Congress party have challenged the Delhi High Court order refusing to intervene in the summons issued by the trial court..Read the full story here..Public Service Commissions within RTI ambit.In a significant judgment delivered by Justice MY Eqbal and Justice Arun Mishra, the Court upheld a judgment of the Kerala High Court which had ruled that Public Service Commissions (PSC) fall within the ambit of the Right to Information Act, 2005 (RTI Act). The court ruled that PSCs are bound to provide scanned copies of answer sheets of the written test, copy of the tabulation sheet and other information sought under the RTI Act. It, however, overruled that part of the High Court judgment which had held that even details of the examiners who evaluate the answer sheets should be provided to RTI applicants..Cycling Club for Supreme Court.After Supreme Court judges car-pooled to work to arrest pm levels in the National Capital, it is now the turn of the Bar..A few Supreme Court lawyers have now formed a cycling club to bring together all interested cyclists to a common platform..Senior Advocate KTS Tulsi has also assured the club of his support..February 5, 2016.Salman Khan’s Hit and Run case.The appeal filed by the Maharashtra government against the acquittal of Bollywood actor Salman Khan in the 2002 Hit and Run case came up for hearing before a Division Bench presided by Justice JS Khehar. Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi appeared for the State government while Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal appeared for Salman Khan. Rohatgi argued that the High Court’s judgment was “perverse” and “improper” and a travesty of justice. He said that there was enough evidence to convict Salman and to discard his theory that his driver was driving the car at the time of the accident. The court will resume hearing the case on February 12..Prisoners have rights.In the PIL registered by the Supreme Court pursuant to a letter from former Chief Justice RC Lahoti, the Court today issued eight directions to ensure better conditions for prisoners. The directions have stressed on the need to release undertrial prisoners by securing proper legal aid for them. The Court also took note of the fact that proper legal aid was not being provided to undertrial prisoners remarkind that Stat Legal Services Authorities should take steps to ensure that “legal aid for poor does not become poor legal aid.”.The court has also directed that the police officers in charge of prisons should utilize the funds properly so that living conditions of prisoners is commensurate with human dignity and issues of health, hygiene, food, clothing, rehabilitation etc. of prisoners are addressed properly..Besides, all these, Constitution Benches were sitting regularly this week hearing cases on Arunachal Pradesh controversy (Nabam Rebia v. Registrar General, Gauhati High Court and Ors), whether life sentences are to run consecutively or concurrently (G Muthuramalingam & Ors v. State Represented by Inspector of Police) and on whether Civil Procedure Code will override a statute which was a precursor to the Act which governs the High Court (Pankajakshi (Dead) Through L.Rs v. Chandrika & Ors.).