January 10th, 2013

ALB20130101

Abhyaas Law Bulletin

For the quintessential CLAT aspirant
The Scoop Of The Month The Editors Column

Delhi gang-rape victim succumbs to her injuries

Dear Student, Welcome to the first edition of the Abhyaas Law Bulletin for 2013. CLAT and AILET notifications are out and there is a significant change in CLAT with negative marks being introduced for wrong answers. This change cannot be taken lightly and it needs a bit of unlearning. Read more about how to tackle this change on our blog. The brutal gang-rape of a 23 year old woman in Delhi shook the nation and the much needed debate about women safety and access to public spaces took off. The Government on its part has formed a committee under the chairmanship of Justice Verma to look into all the related issues and suggest measures to amend the existing rape and sexual assault laws. BJP expectedly won a third term in Gujarat under the leadership of Narendra Modi. Congress saved face by winning back Himachal Pradesh from the BJP. This year is going to witness keen contest between the Congress and the BJP as many Assembly Elections are due. Wish you all a very happy and prosperous new year!! Happy Reading !

The 23-year-old physiotherapy student who was gang-raped on a moving bus in New Delhi on December 16 died at Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore in the early hours of Saturday, Dec 29th. The body arrived in Delhi in the early hours of Sunday, Dec 30th. During the last week of December, as her life hung in the balance, millions across India prayed for her recovery. In several cities, notably Delhi, thousands took to the streets, demanding justice. News of the young woman's death came early morning and was met with sadness, disbelief and anger. A swollen brain a condition called cerebral oedema that in her case was caused by cardiac arrest doused her fighting spirit. As her condition deteriorated rapidly from Friday evening, members of her family, representatives of the Indian High Commission, and a panel of top medical experts were at the hospital. Doctors said cerebral oedema damages and kills brain cells, leading to multiple organ failure. Dr. Kelvin Loh, CEO of the hospital, said in a statement: She was courageous in fighting for her life for so long against the odds but the trauma to her body was too severe for her to overcome. (Contd.)

(Rakesh Dubbudu) Index: Page 2: National Page 3: International

Page 4: Spotlight

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January 10th, 2013 National: The woman was flown to Singapore on Wednesday for admission to this hospital known for organ transplant. While the government said the decision to shift her to Singapore was taken after consultations with a team of doctors on what would be best for the patient medically, doctors consulted by the government told that they were only asked whether the patient was fit to be airlifted not whether the move was medically advisable. Justice Verma to head inquiry panel Former Chief Justice J.S. Verma will head a threemember Commission of Inquiry that will suggest ways for improving safety and security of women, besides looking into the gang-rape incident. Justice Lalita Seth and former Solicitor General Gopal Subramaniam will be its two other members. The Commission will suggest ways to make stricter rape laws. It will submit its report within 30 days, Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde said. The Delhi Police have roped in senior High Court lawyer Dyan Krishnan as Special Prosecutor to ensure speedy trial. Meanwhile, The government has formed a committee of enquiry under justice Usha Mehra to reconstruct the events leading to the 16 December Delhi gang-rape, identify lapses by police and other agencies and fix responsibility for the crime. Three SC judges sworn in Chief Justices of the Madras, Orissa and Karnataka High Courts, M.Y. Eqbal, V. Gopala Gowda and Vikramajit Sen, were sworn in as judges of the Supreme Court by Chief Justice of India Altamas Kabir. Companion judges in the Supreme Court, Delhi High Court Chief Justice D. Murugesan, National Green Tribunal Chairman Justice Swatanter Kumar, Member of the Bar Council of India S. Prabakar, Chairman of Tamil Nadu Bar Council D. Selvam and family members of the three new judges attended the ceremony held in the Supreme Court. Justice Eqbal (61), who hails from Jharkhand, will have a brief tenure of little over three years; Justice Gowda (61), who hails from Karnataka, a little over four years and Justice Sen (62), who hails from Delhi, just three years. With the swearing-in of the three judges, the strength of the Supreme Court has gone up to 27, and there are four vacancies. Supreme Court agrees to examine legality of Bench order in 2G case The Supreme Court will examine the legality of the November 9 order of a Bench that stayed all further proceedings in the 2G case before the Delhi High Court in respect of the petitions the accused had filed to quash the charges framed against them, virtually taking away their rights under Section 482 of the Cr.PC. A Bench of Chief Justice Altamas Kabir and Justices S.S. Nijjar and J. Chelameswar decided to hear a petition filed by Shahid Balwa, one of the accused, who was aggrieved by the order Justices G.S. Singhvi and K.S. Radhakrishnan passed on the CBIs applications for a stay on the proceedings. Senior counsel Ram Jethmalani, appearing for Balwa, made a mention of the filing of the petition, and the Bench agreed to list the matter for hearing. Balwa sought a declaration that the orders passed by the 2G Bench (one on April 11, 2011 that no other court in the country entertain any petition relating to the case and the other on November 9 when the proceedings in the High Court were stayed) were void for being unconstitutional and a legal nullity as they violated Articles 14 (equality) and 21 (protection of life and personal liberty) of the Constitution and provisions of the Cr.PC. SC refuses to go into validity of CMC order

The Supreme Court refused to go into the validity or otherwise of the order passed by the Cauvery Monitoring Committee on December 7 and left it open to the States of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka to seek appropriate remedy before the Cauvery River Authority, headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. A Bench of Justices D.K. Jain and Madan B. Lokur was hearing an application from Tamil Nadu seeking release of 30 tmcft of water for December. Justice Mr. Jain told senior counsel C.S. Vaidyanathan, appearing for Tamil Nadu, that if the CMC in its wisdom had passed an order, how can we go into the correctness of the order. If in their wisdom they had passed some orders with the expertise at their command, we should not be saying they dont know how to compute at all.

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January 10th, 2013 UAE Cabinet nod can benefit 1,200 Indian prisoners India and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have moved a step forward in enforcing an extradition agreement that would allow around 1,200 convicted Indians jailed in the country to return home to complete their prison terms. The UAE Cabinet formally approved the mutual agreement signed last year. The decision follows another ruling from the UAE government that allows expatriates, who have overstayed their visas, to either regularize their documents after paying a fine or to leave the country without any penalty. However, the response to the two-month amnesty scheme, which will run till February 4 next year, has been lukewarm so far, Indian ambassador M.K. Lokesh told a press conference on Sunday. Only around 2,000 people have so far availed themselves of the amnesty, Mr. Lokesh said. There has been no need to draft volunteers from the Indian associations based in the Emirates at this stage, the ambassador said. Supreme Court sets Chisti free Microbiologist Khaleel Chisti, involved in a 1992 case of murder in Ajmer, was freed by the Supreme Court and allowed to go back to Pakistan. A Bench of Justices P. Sathasivam and Ranjan Gogoi, however, convicted him under Section 324 of the IPC (causing simple injuries). For this offence, the sentence of one year and four months, already served by Dr. Chisti, sufficed. Writing the judgment, Justice Sathasivam said the evidence suggested that the accused were, to some extent, victims of armed aggression by the deceased and his companions. The prosecutions failure to explain the injuries on the person of the accused assumed greater importance, where the evidence consisted of interested or inimical witnesses or where the defence gave a version that competed in probability with that of the prosecution one. The Bench said an analysis of the materials showed that two versions of the incident presented by the prosecution differed from each other. In such a situation, the court would be left with no reliable and trustworthy evidence to convict the accused. Retired judge to probe lobbying by Wal-Mart The government announced a time-bound inquiry by a retired judge into reports of lobbying by retail giant Wal-Mart to gain entry into India. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kamal Nath made the announcement in the Lok Sabha. The reported lobbying by Wal-Mart stalled parliamentary proceedings in the past two days. Opposition parties demanded a time-bound probe by a joint parliamentary committee or a judicial panel to ascertain if bribe was paid. WalMart had, in disclosures before the U.S. Senate, said it had spent $125 million since 2008 for various lobbying activities, including for gaining access to Indian markets. Apex court judge delivers verdicts in 95 cases in a day In what could be termed as an unprecedented feat, a Supreme Court judge, who retired on December 30, delivered judgements in 95 cases on December 12th. He passed judgments on cases of different natures, including civil and criminal ones, including the verdict on providing facilities for Amarnath pilgrims. HSBC to pay $1.9 b to settle money laundering case HSBC said, that it would pay $1.9 billion to settle a U.S. money laundering probe, avoiding a protracted legal battle that would have further embarrassed the British banking giant. The probe of Europes largest bank by market value focused on the transfer of funds through the U.S. financial system from Mexican drug cartels and on behalf of nations such as Iran that are under international sanctions. The $1.25 billion figure is the largest forfeiture ever in a case involving a bank. Under what is known as a deferred prosecution agreement, the financial institution will be accused of violating the Bank Secrecy Act and the Trading With the Enemy Act. American mathematicians solve Ramanujans deathbed puzzle American researchers claim to have solved a cryptic formula that renowned mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan believed came to him in dreams while on his deathbed. The formula was contained in a letter he wrote to his mentor, the English mathematician G.H. Hardy, from his deathbed in 1920 outlining several new mathematical functions that had never been heard of before, together with a theory about how they worked. It had baffled mathematicians for more than 90 years.

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January 10th, 2013

This month in pictures:

Justice Swatanter Kumar took over as chairperson of the National Green Tribunal.

Cyrus Mistry took over as the Chairman of the TATA group.

Naina Lal Kidwai took over as the first woman president of FICCI.

Shinzo Abe was sworn in as the new Prime Minister of Japan.

Renowned Indian American, Rangaswamy Srinivasan, has been nominated by Barack Obama National Medal of Technology and Innovation

US beauty Olivia Culpo was crowned as Miss Universe 2012.

Spotlight: National Law Institute University, Bhopal

National Law Institute University, Bhopal was established in 1997 by the Act No. 41 of the State Legislature of Madhya Pradesh in 1997. The University launched its first academic programme in 1998. Recognized by the Bar Council of India, the university admits 120 undergraduates each year through the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT),who complete 15 trimesters before being awarded a combined B.A., LL.B (Hons.) degree. The post-graduate course offered at the university is the LL.M. degree. The University is a member of the Association of Indian Universities and the patron of the university is the Hon. Chief Justice of India. It works closely with the High Court of Madhya Pradesh, as well as the neighboring National Judicial Academy. The year is divided into three trimesters of 70 working days each. The lectures are accompanied by extensive teaching material prepared and consistently revised by the faculty. The University seeks to provide students with ample opportunity to gain practical experience in the concerned field. The internship and clerkship programmes are fundamental part of the education at NLIU. All the students of the previous batches are well placed in the reputed offices in the Country and abroad. Many law firms, leading advocates, MNCs, financial institutions, NGOs and international organizations have offered internships and recruited NIU students.

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