Thursday, August 20, 2009

Do not lie to the court, SC tells lawyers

"What will happen if the judges become wary of lawyers' statements made across the Bar. In the apex court, we trust the advocates for they and the judges are equal partners in administration of justice. How can we carry on with the job if we start distrusting the lawyers," the Bench said.

Girls above 18 entitled to live with or marry anyone

India is a free country where girls after attaining the age of 18 years have the freedom to live with or marry anyone they like. Parents, if not happy, could at the worst severe their ties with her but cannot threaten, coerce or torture her.

Testimony of criminal can be accepted

"Therefore, the criminal background, in our opinion, would not be of much consequence, though while appreciating their evidence, that fact has to be borne in mind," a bench of Justices V S Sirpurkar and Cyriac Joseph observed in a judgement.

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

SC wants criminal cases on fast track

Awarding death penalty to be made tougher

It took note of the concern of legal commentators that while the rich and powerful never got the extreme penalty, “it is invariably the marginalised and destitute who suffer extreme penalty ultimately”.

Thursday, July 9, 2009

Acid throwers face jail for life

"There should be some restriction on free sale of corrosive substance. Acid is easily avialable," a Bench comprising Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan and Justice P Sathasivam observed.

Through lawyer Aparna Bhat, she had sought a direction from the court for enacting a law that provided exemplary punishment to those throwing acid on girls as also a sound rehabilitation scheme for the victims.

Monday, June 1, 2009

Women facing harassment can write to us

Those who burn brides need to be hanged

"People like you need to be hanged, You behave like junglee (animal)," Justice Katju rebuked the petitioner Gulati as his counsel pleaded for interim bail for his client.

As the counsel pleaded saying that it was case of suicide and not bride burning, Justice Katju said: "They all say that. Every time they burn a bride, they say it was a suicide."

"On one hand they regard women as devi (goddess), on the other hand they burn them alive. This is against the norms of civilized society. It's barbaric," said Justice Katju.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

SC notice to Tamil Nadu lawyers over frequent strikes

"There have been instances of individual lawyers having been tonsured for appearing in courts during the strike against the dictates by the lawyers' bodies," he said.
"There is an increasing trend of politicisation of bar in the state accompanied with violent tendencies," said Murlidharan.

For example, he mentioned, several advocates ransacked shops around the Madras High court while in another incident they hijacked a bus and took it to the Shastri Bhawan to protest against the self-immolation by a youth to demand welfare of Tamils in Sri Lanka.