April 10th, 2013

ALB20130404

Abhyaas Law Bulletin

For the quintessential CLAT aspirant
The Scoop Of The Month
The Editors Column Dear Student, Welcome to the April edition of the Abhyaas law Bulletin. The diplomatic stand off between India and Italy dominated the news last month with Italy initially refusing to send back the two marines. This also led to the unprecedented directive from the Supreme Court restricting the movement of the Italian Ambassador. Good sense prevailed at last and a bitter diplomatic stand off was averted. Supreme Court also delivered a landmark judgment in the Novartis case denying the company the patent of the cancer drug Glivec. This judgment will enable the Indian drug companies produce generic drugs for cancer at much cheaper rates. The war of words between the Congress and the BJP reached new heights after Rahul Gandhi and Narendra Modi addressed various Industry fora. Britains first woman Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher passed away after a stroke. Founder of Dr.Reddy Labs, Dr. Anji Reddy also passed away after a prolonged illness. Happy Reading !

Italian Marines return to face trial

As the two Italian marines accused of killing two Indian fishermen swept into the Italian Embassy on March 22nd, an unprecedented diplomatic chapter in India-Italy ties seemed to have drawn to a close. Accompanied by Italian Deputy Foreign Minister Steffan de Mistura, the marines, Massimiliano Latore and Salvatore Girone, landed in Delhi on a military plane hours before the end of the March 22 deadline for their return and dodged a full complement of media personnel camped outside the international airport since the morning. External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid said the Italian government had sent a message via the Indian charge daffaires in Rome, Ravi Shankar, seeking assurances that the marines would not be arrested upon their return or run the risk of being given the death penalty in the event of their conviction by an Indian court. Mr. Khurshid and his colleagues, Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai and Secretary (West) Sudhir Vyas, knew immediately that an end to the crisis was at hand. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh welcomed Italys decision to send back the marines saying that he was happy the integrity and dignity of the Indian (Contd)

(Rakesh Dubbudu) Index: Page 2: National Page 3: International Page 4: Spotlight

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April 10th, 2013 National: judicial process had been upheld. Earlier, after Italy had declared that it would not be sending back the marines, Dr. Singh had termed this volte-face as unacceptable and warned that there would be consequences. At a press conference in Delhi on March 22nd night, Steffan di Mistura underlined the Indian assurance on the death penalty and stressed the need for a quick and effective disposal of the case by the special court. He also reiterated the Italian position that under international law, the matter should be tried in Italy, adding that during their month-long sojourn in Italy, the two marines were questioned by Italian judges about the shooting incident. To know more about Diplomatic Immunity, read this piece. Supreme Court rejects Novartis cancer drug patent modifications to any existing medicines to receive fresh patents. The message from the court is clear: India will grant pharmaceutical companies extended market monopoly only if a medicine is genuinely innovative. Its not that Glivec is not an excellent medicine. It is a lifesaving medicine for those who suffer with chronic myeloid leukaemia. But the key ingredient, Imatinib, was patented in 1993 before India accepted product patents. All salt forms, including Imatinib Mesylate (IM), were covered. So, IM was never eligible for a patent in the first place. Like many others, local companies produced their own quality-assured versions at much lower prices. In 2005 India conformed to the World Trade Organisations intellectual property standards (1995 TRIPS Agreement), and retroactively accepted applications for product patents from 1995 for scrutiny. What Novartis was seeking was a patent on a slightly altered version (betacrystalline form of the imatinib mesylate compound) that was developed in this window. RTI applications for NRIs simplified

The Supreme Court dismissed Swiss pharmaceutical chain Novartis AGs petition seeking patent protection for its anti-cancer drug, Glivec (Imatinib mesylate). The apex court bench of Justices Aftab Alam and Ranjana Prakash Desai dismissed with cost Novartis plea challenging the Intellectual Property Appellate Boards decision declining the plea for patent of the drug that is used in the treatment of chronic myeloid leukaemia and malignant gastrointestinal stromal tumours. Novartis AG had claimed that it is the inventor of the beta crystalline form of Imatinib mesylate. Pronouncing the judgment, Justice Alam said that the claim was beyond the realm of patents. In whatever way Section 3(d) of the Indian Patent Act is interpreted, Novartis cannot claim that it is a patent. It fails the test of patentability, he said. This leaves the door open for Indian pharmaceutical companies to produce their own versions of the drug. Since these are sold at roughly one tenth of the patented brand price, for thousands of cancer patients it means the difference between medicine and no medicine at all. It is not just cancer patients that will benefit, but millions of people dependent on medicines for survival, including those with HIV, diabetes, hepatitis and more. Had the judgment gone the other way, it would have set a precedent for other big pharmaceutical companies to simply make minor

The government of India took a major step forward in enabling Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) to file applications under the Right to Information Act, announcing that it has launched a service called elPO, or Electronic Indian Postal Order. Using this, NRIs across the world may now be in a position to file RTI applications conveniently via direct payment of fees. According to an Office Memorandum put out by the governments Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, the Department of Posts service will permit NRIs to purchase an Indian Postal Order, electronically by paying a fee on-line through ePost Office Portal. It could also be accessed through India Post website www.indiapost.gov.in, the memorandum explained. This move will enable NRIs pay the application fee online using credit or debit cards and save an online receipt with a e-IPO number. This receipt can then be used to file a RTI application with the relevant public authority. The payment of application fees was a major hurdle for NRIs who wanted to use the RTI act.

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April 10th, 2013 Supreme Court to get two more judges The Supreme Court collegium of judges, headed by Chief Justice of India Altamas Kabir, has recommended elevation of Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court Justice Arjan Kumar Sikri and Chief Justice of the Madhya Pradesh High Court Justice Sharad Bobde as Supreme Court judges. Editor responsible for every news item: Supreme Court

International
New BRICS bank to cater to developing nations The BRICS Summit (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), with about 12 African leaders and all the continents eight regional economic communities attending as interested parties, will announce the setting of an exclusive bank for themselves and the developing world. BRICS officials say the bank will start functioning in two years after details such as capitalization, location and holding percentages are worked out. Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher dead Margaret Thatcher, Britains first woman Prime Minister who led the Conservative party for more than a decade through one of the most tumultuous periods in modern British history and became a deeply divisive political figure, died on following a stroke. She was 87 and was suffering from Alzheimers. Her son Mark and daughter Carol said in a statement that she died "peacefully". Indian schoolgirl in U.K. has IQ higher than Einsteins A 12-year-old Indian-origin girl in the U.K. has stunned everyone after she scored an incredible 162 in her IQ test a score even higher than that of Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking. Neha Ramu, daughter of an Indian doctor couple, achieved a score of 162 on a Mensa IQ test the highest score possible for her age. The score puts the teen in the top 1 per cent of the brightest people in the U.K. and means that she is more intelligent than physicist Hawking, Microsoft founder Bill Gates and scientist Einstein, who are all thought to have an IQ of 160. Neha scored 162 on the Cattell IIIB test, putting her within the top 1 per cent of people in the country, a spokesman for British Mensa said. Nehas parents lived in India before moving to Britain when their daughter was seven. She took the test for Mensa, a society for people with high IQs, and achieved a perfect score of 280/280, the maximum possible score for someone under the age of 18.

The Supreme Court has held that the Editor of a newspaper is responsible for every news item published in it and he cannot escape liability by putting the blame on the Resident Editor for publication of a defamatory article. From the scheme of the Press and Registration of Books (PRB) Act, it is evident that it is the Editor who controls the selection of matter that is published. Further, every copy of the newspaper is required to contain the names of the owner and the Editor and once the name of the Editor is shown, he shall be held responsible in any civil and criminal proceeding. The presumption would be that he was the person who controlled the selection of the matter that was published. However, we hasten to add that this presumption under Section 7 of the Act is a rebuttable presumption and it would be deemed sufficient evidence unless the contrary is proved, said a Bench of Justices C.K. Prasad and V. Gopalagowda.
External debt at $ 376.3 billion In a slew of significant data released by the Union Finance Ministry, the Government indicated that India's total external debt was US$ 376.3 billion as at the end of December 2012, an increase of 8.9 per cent from March on account of long-term and short-term components of the foreign borrowings. The Centres fiscal deficit also touched 97.4 per cent of the budget estimates (BE) in the April-February period of 2012-13. Money demand unrelated to marriage wont attract dowry offence The act of a man seeking money from his father-in-law to set up a business six months after marriage will not come within the ambit of dowry, the Supreme Court has held. To attract the offence of dowry, any property or valuable security should be given or agreed to be given either directly or indirectly at or before or anytime after marriage and in connection with the marriage of the said parties.

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April 10th, 2013

This month in pictures:

Tashi Rabstan became the first Buddhist and the first person from Ladakh to become a judge of the J & K High Court.

Uhuru Kenyatta, the son of Kenyas first Prime Minister & President Jomo Kenyatta, won the presidential election.

Shen Jilan is serving a record 12th term in the legislature of Chinas Parliament.

Leng Sary, who co-founded Cambodias brutal Khmer Rouge movement in 1970s died at 87.

Anji Reddy, founder & Chairman of Dr. Reddys Labs died at 72.

Veselin Vlahovic, a former Bosnian Serb paramilitary dubbed the Monster of Grbavica, was jailed for 45 years.

Spotlight: Jindal Global Law School, Haryana

Jindal Global Law School (JGLS), Indias first global law school is situated on a 60-acre state of the art residential JGU campus. The vision of JGU is to promote global courses, global programmes, global curriculum, global research, global collaborations, and global interaction through a global faculty. In the academic year 2013-14, JGLS offers a five year B.A. LL.B. (Hons.) programme; a three year LL.B. programme and an LL.M. programme. The LL.M. programme of JGLS is offered for law graduates, corporate lawyers, legal practitioners, civil servants, diplomats and judges with three options for specialisation. Students for admission to the five year B.A. LL.B. (Hons.), three year LL.B. and two year LL.M. programmes at JGLS will be selected on on the basis of their performance in the Law School Admission TestIndia (LSAT India). LSATIndia is an entrance test designed by the Law School Admission Council (LSAC), USA and is conducted by Pearson VUE, LSACs affiliate in India. The test will be in a multiple choice format and covers logical reasoning, analytical reasoning and reading comprehension. A sample test is available on the LSAT India website - www.pearsonvueindia.com/lsatindia. Various scholarships such as O.P Jindal Outstanding Merit , Naveen Jindal Young Global Scholarships, Shallu Jindal Outstanding Women Scholarships are available for prospective students.

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