The Weekly Reports: Supreme Court of India

What a week, indeed! The Supreme Court was the centre of much activity, with long pending cases being brought to a close, and members of the judiciary itself in the line of fire..Read the highlights from the action packed week below..Monday, February 6.Supreme Court pulls up Amity Law School Chairman.The Court asked Amity Law School Chairman and Founder Ashok Chauhan to detail the steps taken by the administration after receiving Sushant Rohilla’s “desperate” letter, in which he pleaded that he should not be forced to repeat the year because of his poor attendance..A Bench of Justices RK Agrawal and UU Lalit also heard Rohilla’s sister, who has filed an intervention application stating that Amity’s affidavit was full of falsehoods. She requested that Rohilla’s side of the story be considered as well..Read full story here..Orphan CLAT aspirant’s poetic appeal to Supreme Court .An orphan law aspirant has moved the Supreme Court challenging the age limit prescribed for admission to law courses in India..The petition, by way of an impleadment application (in the Rishabh Duggal matter), has been filed by one Michael Sam, a CLAT 2017 applicant..Interestingly, when the matter came up for hearing before a Bench of Justices Dipak Misra and R Banumathi, the former chose to recuse from the case..Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal appeared for Sam, pro bono..Read full story here..Jammu & Kashmir to get State Bar Council (finally).Putting an end to a four-year old litigation in Supreme Court, the central government told the Supreme Court that it will publish the Jammu & Kashmir State Bar Council Rules in the official gazette within four weeks..The Court recorded the submission by the Centre and directed it to publish the Rules in the gazette “positively within four weeks.”.Read full story here..Changes in Bench and changing fortunes of Sahara Chief Subrata Roy.A Bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra, and comprising Justices Ranjan Gogoi and AK Sikri, directed that Sahara’s premier property in Amby Valley be attached to account for the principal amount owed by Roy to the investors. This order comes even as the Court extended the parole of Roy till the next hearing..Read a detailed account of the story here..Tuesday, February 7.Jolly LLB 2: Fox Star Studios withdraws appeal in Supreme Court .Fox Star Studios withdrew the appeal filed in the Supreme Court against the Bombay High Court’s decision on its film, Jolly LLB 2..Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who appeared for Fox, told a Bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi and Ashok Bhushan that it will release the movie with the deletion of scenes recommended by the Committee appointed by the Bombay High Court..The Court allowed Fox to withdraw the appeal and acceded to Fox’s request to keep the question of law open..Read full story here..Wednesday, February 8.Karnan J. contempt: SC issues notice, withdraws judicial and administrative work from judge.In an unprecedented move, the Court issued notice to Justice CS Karnan in a suo motu contempt case and also directed that all judicial and administrative work be withdrawn from him..The Bench comprising Chief Justice of India JS Khehar and six of the senior-most judges of the Apex Court, namely, Justices Dipak Misra, Ranjan Gogoi, Jasti Chelameswar, Madan Lokur, PC Ghose and Kurian Joseph passed the order..The immediate trigger for the court to initiate the contempt case was the letter written by Justice Karnan to the Prime Minister of India, alleging that certain retired and sitting judges of the Supreme Court and High Courts were corrupt..Read full story here..Narmada Bachao Andolan: Court says no to returning land but moots compensation committee.This past week, the Court brought the curtains down on a decade-old litigation started by the families affected by the Sardar Sarovar project on the Narmada River, directing payment of final compensation to those displaced..A bench headed by Chief Justice JS Khehar has ordered payment of Rs 60 lakh each to 681 families in Madhya Pradesh who did not receive compensation towards purchase of land in lieu of the property they lost under the acquisition proceedings for the project..Two months’ time was given to the government to make the payment and a deadline of July 31 was fixed for the families to vacate the area..Thursday, February 9.#Uphaar: Supreme Court partially allows review, sentences Gopal Ansal to one-year imprisonment.The Supreme Court, in a majority judgment of 2:1, decided to send real estate baron Gopal Ansal back to jail for a year in the 1997 Uphaar Cinema fire case. The Court directed him to surrender within a period of four weeks..The Bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi, Kurian Joseph and AK Goel, however, spared older brother Sushil Ansal jail time in view of his advanced age, but upheld the compensation of Rs. 30 crore which is to be paid by each brother..Read full story here..Friday, February 10.Lawyers’ verification: “Don’t worry, we will take care of it”, Supreme Court.In a major development in the challenge to the BCI (Certificate of Practice) Verification Rules, 2015, which mandates the verification of lawyers, the Court allowed the Bar Council of India to implead all the universities as parties to the case..The Court allowed the BCI to publish an advertisement in one English newspaper and different regional newspapers, asking universities to join the case. An order to that effect was passed by Bench of Justices PC Ghose and Rohinton Fali Nariman..Read full story here.