Rajya Sabha on Tuesday passed a bill to regulate the appointment and service terms of Chief Election Commissioner and election commissioners incorporating key amendments like retaining their status at par with Supreme Court judges, upgrading the search committee and inserting a new clause to protect them from court cases while discharging their official duties.
Delhi Law Minister Somnath Bharti must be sacked, Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday said as pressure mounted on Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for action against his controversial ministerial colleague.
The Supreme Court said on Monday it will have to constitute a bench to hear a plea against the collegium system of appointment of judges to the apex court and high courts.
The action followed a show-cause notice to the Shahpura MLA, who is a former Speaker of the state assembly, from the party's state unit president CP Joshi.
While Shah is a member of the committee, Meghwal is a special invitee.
Law Minister Salman Khurshid faced a tough time, deliberate interruption of debate on his own Judicial Standards and Accountability Bill to announce 4.5 per cent reservation quota to the minorities led to disruption of the Lok Sabha on Wednesday evening, as angry Bharatiya Janata Party members raised slogans and rushed into the House well forcing adjournment for the day.
Such a legislation, the panel said, should be made applicable not only to the NRIs but also to those individuals who come within the definition of 'Overseas Citizens of India' as laid down in the Citizenship Act, 1955.
Pakistani Law Minister Farooq Naek on Monday met Indian death-row prisoner Sarabjit Singh at the Lahore's Kot Lakhpath Jail to review his case following the Indian government's appeal for clemency for him.
Rijiju, who was removed as law minister on Thursday, refused to answer questions about his previous ministry contending that they were no longer relevant and that he looked forward to serve in the Earth Sciences Ministry.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday defended the electoral bonds scheme, struck down as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, saying it had a laudable objective of bringing transparency in poll funding.
A high-level committee on Thursday recommended simultaneous elections for Lok Sabha and state assemblies as the first step followed by synchronised local body polls within 100 days.
'He was the best court craftsman that I have ever seen who could modulate his arguments in accordance with the judge and the mood.'
Years before the Supreme Court struck down as 'unconstitutional' an opaque political funding tool that allowed individuals and companies to donate money to political parties anonymously and without any limits, the then finance minister Arun Jaitley -- the prime mover of electoral bonds -- had termed them legitimate and transparent.
Setting off a political bombshell, Central Bureau of Investigation Director Ranjit Sinha on Friday submitted before the Supreme Court that the agency's status report on coal allocation scam was "shared" with Law Minister Ashwani Kumar "as desired by him" and that senior officials of PMO and Coal ministry had also seen it.
Additional Sessions Judge Vimal Kumar Yadav allowed the bail application of Tomar after imposing several conditions, including a bar on his travel outside the national capital without prior permission from the court and joining the investigation as and when required.
The TN law minister said similarly, the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption sought sanction to prosecute KC Veeramani and MR Vijayabaskar, also former ministers in the AIADMK government.
The panel headed by Justice (retired) Ritu Raj Awasthi has submitted its report to the government, calling for an exhaustive overhaul of the law.
The establishment of a National Judicial Commission to give the Executive a say in appointment of judges and setting up a special investigation team on blackmoney stashed abroad are the priority areas for the Modi government, newly-appointed Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said.
In a major cabinet reshuffle, Arjun Ram Meghwal has replaced Kiren Rijiju as the Union law and justice minister, a communique from the President's Secretariat said on Thursday.
Tomar was arrested around 11 am following investigation into a complaint by the bar council of Delhi.
Former Delhi law minister Jitender Singh Tomar on Wednesday approached a sessions court in New Delhi challenging his arrest in the alleged fake degree case.
Former Union law minister Hansraj Bhardwaj on Friday alleged that some of his Congress Party colleagues, especially former HRD Minister Arjun Singh, had asked him to influence the judiciary during his time in office under the first Manmohan Singh-led United Progressive Alliance government from 2004 to 2009.
The women's Reservation Bill is likely to be introduced in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday during the ongoing special session of the Parliament and in Rajya Sabha on September 21, government sources said.
In a landmark judgment that delivered a big blow to the government, the Supreme Court on Thursday annulled the electoral bonds scheme, saying it violates the constitutional right to freedom of speech and expression as well as the right to information.
Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi on Monday said it was in "our best interest" to heed the advice of the Constitution as not doing so would result in a "sharp descent into chaos".
According to DMK, the voters are already consolidated on ideological lines, hence the impact of anti-incumbency, whether against the BJP Centre or the DMK state may not be too much, notes N Sathiya Moorthy.
A Delhi court on Tuesday refused to grant bail to former Delhi law minister Jitender Singh Tomar in the alleged forged degree case, saying the investigation is at a crucial stage.
The top court collegium headed by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud had on July 5 recommended the appointment of Justice Mridul, a judge of the Delhi high court, as the chief justice of the Manipur high court, amid the ethnic turmoil in the border state.
A day after Tamil Nadu law minister S Regupathy wrote to Ravi requesting him that he should 'not delay any further' his sanction to prosecute former AIADMK ministers and clear the 13 Bills pending with him for his assent, the Governor's office reacted.
Delhi Law Minister Somnath Bharti carried out raids in South Delhi's Khirki Extension late night on Wednesday and is reported to have had a brush with the local police.
This is the first bill passed by the Lower House of Parliament in the Winter session, which began on Monday.
Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Tuesday sought to give credit to his party for the women's reservation bill but Home Minister Amit Shah refuted his claim, saying that the legislation brought by the Manmohan Singh government had lapsed following the dissolution of the 15th Lok Sabha.
Justice Chandrachud also dealt with questions about criticism by eminent lawyers on the allocation of cases to particular judges and 'bench hunting', and said the allocation of cases is not "lawyer-driven" and vowed to maintain the credibility of the institution of the Supreme Court.
She said that access to justice for all has been a theme close to her heart and mentioned several steps taken to help economically disadvantaged sections of society to approach legal institutions for remedial action.
Chief Justice of India (CJI) D Y Chandrachud on Tuesday said the greatest challenge before the Indian judiciary is to eliminate barriers to accessing justice and make sure that the judiciary is inclusive and accessible to the last person in the line.
"We have prepared a broad platform where we have assessed the top 50 judges of the country who would be considered for appointment to the Supreme Court of India. We have data on judgments and the quality of judgments. The idea is to make the process of appointment in the Supreme Court more transparent," the CJI said.
Union minister and the BJP's election in-charge for Rajasthan Pralhad Joshi, co-in-charge Nitin Patel, the party's in-charge for Rajasthan Arun Singh, state president C P Joshi, Union ministers Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Arjun Ram Meghwal and Kailash Chaudhary, Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly Rajendra Rathore, Deputy Leader of Opposition and former state president Satish Poonia and other leaders were present at the meeting, which is likely to continue till late, the sources said.
Amid an ongoing tiff between the Executive and the Judiciary over the procedure to appoint judges, the government has asked the Supreme Court Collegium to reconsider 10 proposals reiterated by it, Law Minister Kiren Rijiju told Rajya Sabha on Thursday.
A city court has ordered registration of FIR against unknown persons in connection with the midnight raid against African women by a group after Delhi Law Minister Somnath Bharti accused the foreign nationals of being involved in drugs and prostitution.
Introducing the 128th Constitution Amendment Bill, which was approved by a two-thirds majority in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday, Meghwal recounted the measures initiated by the Narendra Modi government for the empowerment of women over the last nine years.
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