23 november 1988

Note: This month’s CLE, “Family Law Goes Global,” is Wednesday, July 21.Christopher Savoie got the kind of telephone call that terrifies a parent on Aug. 12, 2008. The school where his two young children attended classes wanted him to know that they had not shown up that day.But Savoie’s first thought was not that Isaac and Rebecca had been victimized by some stranger. Instead, he rushed over to his ex-wife’s home not far from his in the Nashville, Tenn., suburbs. “The first thing that came to mind was murder-suicide,” he says. “It was a horrible thing to imagine. I’d had no contact with her in two days, and that wasn’t normal.”Savoie found his ex-wife’s house empty and the blinds drawn. That’s when another explanation for the children’s disappearance began to worry him.For months, Savoie had been telling people—including the judges overseeing the couple’s divorce—that he feared his … [Read more...] about When Global Families Fail

One of the most senior prosecuting barristers in the country, Bobbie Cheema-Grubb QC, has become the first Asian woman to become a High Court Judge in Britain.The mother-of-three currently works as a Senior Treasury Counsel, and she will take up her new post on 23rd November 2015, in the Queen’s Bench Division, dealing with negligence, defamation, personal injury and land disputes.The 49-year-old was called to the bar in 1989 before taking silk in 2013.In 2007, she was appointed as a recorder and has sat as a deputy High Court judge.Her recent cases include those of Peter Ball, imprisoned for 32 months after he was found guilty of sexually abusing young priests 22 years after the allegations were first made and former barrister and recorder Constance Briscoe, who was found guilty of three charges of perverting the course of justice in 2014 and was sentenced to 16 months in prison at the Old Bailey.Mrs Cheema-Grubb is a member of 2 Hare Court. Her biography on … [Read more...] about Bobbie Cheema-Grubb QC: First Asian woman to become a High Court Judge in Britain

1. The Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act, 2013The Lokpal and Lokayuktas Bill received the President’s assent on the 1st January, 2014. It provides for the establishment of a body of Lokpal for the Union and Lokayukta for States to inquire into allegations of corruption against certain public functionaries and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.The law was enacted for effective implementation of the United Nations Convention against Corruption, which was ratified by India in May, 2011. It was enacted so that “the Government’s commitment to clean and responsive governance” could be reflected in effective bodies in order to contain and punish acts of corruption.The Act has however been in cold storage all this while, with the Apex Court chiding the Government over the same in August. Last month, Union Law Minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda confirmed the government’s decision to amend the provisions of the Lokpal Act and the Delhi Special Police … [Read more...] about Laws Enacted and Amended in 2014: A Snapshot

A Public Interest Litigation has been filed by Advocate Prashant Bhushan for and on behalf of Centre for Public Interest Litigation in Supreme Court demanding a Court monitored investigation by an SIT or the CBI into “the high level of political bureaucratic corporate nexus wherein corporates use their money power to change public policies, plant questions in Parliament, get access to internal government documents/cabinet papers, grant favors to politicians and bureaucrats for receiving benefits in return, and plant stories in news media.”It states, “That the internal emails and documents from one of India’s biggest business group reveal how in violation of the Constitution and the laws of the land, the major corporate like Essar manage to influence the political executive, the bureaucracy, the police and the media, in order to serve its business interests rather than public interest which they are legally obligated to uphold.”The basis of the Petition is … [Read more...] about Essar Leaks: CPIL files PIL in SC seeking a Court monitored investigation by CBI or SIT

The Supreme Court collegium comprising of Chief Justice of India R.M. Lodha, Justice H.L. Dattu, Justice T.S. Thakur and Justice C.K. Prasad, yesterday, reportedly cleared the name of Advocate Uday Lalit for elevation as a Supreme Court judge, along with the names of three Chief Justices of High Courts, including one woman judge. These include Chief Justice of the Meghalaya High Court Prafull Chandra Pant; Chief Justice of the Gauhati High Court Abhay Manohar Sapre and Chief Justice of the Jharkhand High Court R. Banumathi.Lalit had been in the lawyer’s panel for the Maharashtra government and the Centre for 15 years and five years respectively. He appeared for actor Salman Khan in the black buck poaching case. He also appeared for former Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh in the corruption case He represented former cricketer and BJP MP Navjot Singh Sidhu, in the culpable homicide not amounting to murder case.Advocate Lalit had also appeared for former Gujarat home minister … [Read more...] about Collegium clears names of Advocate U.U.Lalit and three Chief Justices for elevation as SC judges