Professor, once accused of sexual harassment, appointed Visva Bharati VC

‘The observations of the Apex Committee in the sexual harassment case against him, that ‘to keep his past conduct in mind while considering any assignment, which involves intensive interaction with a female colleague/subordinates’, are adverse in nature’ — said a 2015 note on Chakrabarty when he was being considered as a potential candidate to be the VC of Delhi University.

CJI who reserved the best for the last

Despite several serious pitfalls in the 45th CJI’s tenure, CJI Misra’s contribution to gender justice cannot be overstated. His sincerity in granting urgent hearings in cases of torture, violence against women and lynch-mob incidences has been par excellence. He was a humane judge, with great tolerance who never resorted to contempt jurisdiction despite all kinds of insinuations, allegations, and barrage of criticism traded against him. He has an eminently unforgettable term on which history will shine a kind light with the healing distance of time.

EVMs: SC seeks reply from ECI on unauthorised handling

The Petitioner has contended that in the Uttarakhand State Elections held in February 2017, not only the Election Commission officials and employees of Electronics Corporation Of India Limited(ECIL) were allowed access to the EVMs, but also several persons belonging to a private firm M/s T&M Services Consulting Private Limited engaged by the ECIL were allowed to access the EVMs — thereby raising serious concerns and apprehensions about the possibility of a security breach.

Great expectations from Justice Gogoi

Justice Gogoi’s participation in the January 12, 2018 press conference in the company of brother judges set his stock soaring in the legal fraternity. He expanded on the ‘vision of justice’ when he delivered this year’s Ramnath Goenka Memorial Lecture and said that India at present needs “not only independent judges and noisy journalists, but even independent journalists and sometimes noisy judges”, in order to be a truly democratic and just society.

Blame it on Collegium

According to their warrants of appointments signed off by the President of India on August 3, 2018, Justice K M Joseph has been put below the other two justices in the seniority order despite the fact that Justice Joseph’s name was initially recommended by the Supreme Court Collegium much before the name of Justices Banerjee and Saran. The Collegium erred knowing fully that reiteration of his name along with the names of other Chief Justices could compromise his seniority further.

Amendment to RTI Act will kill transparency

The proposed amendment in the RTI Act, 2005 takes away the independence of Information Commissions that have been conferred with the adjudicatory power to decide the appeals and complaints arise out of violation of the RTI Act and denial of the information, whatever may be the case.

Will Justice Gogoi be superseded?

Justice Gogoi’s ‘fitness to hold the office’ of the CJI has, in fact, been bolstered by his participation in the unprecedented press conference on January 12, 2018.

Is impeachment the solution?

We need an effective, practical and comprehensive mechanism to deal with complaints against judges that at the same time could also ensure no honest judge is victimised.  

Constitutional secularism

Patronising a tainted judge

Not in public interest?

RTI reply: CJI sent letter