Judge’s Resignation, Vedanta Versus Adani, Arvind Kejriwal & More

“A large number of students from prestigious institutions are aspiring to become lawyers as we see in Suits, and not lawyers as ought to be in Maamla Legal Hain,”

-Supreme Court judge, Justice Sanjay Karol while speaking at an event in NLIU, Bhopal

Yashwant Varma Becomes The Third Judge to Resign Than Face The Music 

Yashwant Varma, a judge facing an inquiry committee’s probe into allegations of corruption after unaccounted for cash was recovered from his residential premises, resigned from his post as a judge of the Allahabad High Court. Varma wrote a long letter to communicate his resignation and became the third judge in Independent India to resign from the post in the face of impending impeachment motion.

The incident around Varma’s case raises questions over accountability of the higher judiciary, transparency and institutional scrutiny. Be it former chief justice Gogoi being part of a bench to examine allegations of sexual harassment against himself and later going on to become a Rajya Sabha member, or now Varma who continued to hold the post of a high court judge, though without a roster, but proceeded to resign instead of facing a full inquiry and impeachment motion preventing the findings about the truth being disclosed – the judges seated in higher judiciary have continued to evade scrutiny.

In the absence of a decisive conclusion to such cases, the probability of increased erosion of public trust looms large. The citizenry of this country wants to see even the judiciary members brought to justice to feel there is real transparency in the system. Anything short of that may protect institutional reputation but not public trust. 

Key Rulings:

• Supreme Court reiterates that voting is not a fundamental right but a statutory right

• Top court rules that borrowers do not have the right to get a personal hearing by banks before their accounts are classified as fraud

Courts: 

• Bombay High Court quashes a demand of 11 billion rupees by MMRDA against Reliance Industries

• Former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal seeks recusal of a Delhi High Court judge from hearing his case on grounds that she attended four events affiliated to the RSS giving an impression that she may be sympathetic to the ideology and may be biased against Kejriwal

• Delhi High Court seeks centre’s response on plea challenging the validity of the Transgender Persons Protection Amendment Act, Kerala High court asks if hormone therapy and other procedures halted

• Supreme Court refuses to stay Adani’s resolution plan for Jaiprakash Associates on Vedanta’s plea, asks NCLAT to hear the case in a timebound manner and directs the monitoring committee for Jaiprakash to seek the appeals court’s permission before taking any policy decisions

Quasi Courts:

• NCLAT begins hearing Vedanta’s appeal against approval Adani’s plan for Jaiprakash Associates

Others:

• Yashwant Varma, high court judge accused of corruption, resigns from post

• Punjab & Haryana High Court asks judges not to take AI’s help to write judgments or for legal research

The Big Listings:

• Apr 16: NCLAT to hear Vedanta’s appeal against approval for Adani’s resolution plan for Jaiprakash Associates

• Apr 17: Securities Appellate Tribunal to hear appeal by Jane Street challenging SEBI’s move to allegedly refuse access to important documents to the firm in the case against it

• Apr 30: Supreme Court to hear PIL petition seeking tighter probe into Anil Ambani’s fraud allegations

• May 5: Supreme Court to hear challenge to Citizenship Amendment Act

• Jul 15: Delhi High Court to hear Apple Inc.’s plea against India’s competition law’s provisions on global turnover-based penalties on MNC

* The dates of hearing can change and a concrete list is prepared just a day before

Legal Moves: 

• Geetanjali Mehlwal joins IndiaLaw LLP as Senior Consultant

• Malabika Boruah elevated to partner, Stuti Shetty made COO at Naik Naik & Co.

• Gauri Joshi of Aditya Birla joins Godrej Housing Finance as Legal Head