• NATIONAL

'Ministers should take legal advice before making statements'

It will be good if ministers seek legal advice before making any major statements. This is how the former judge of Karnataka High Court M F Saldanha reacted to a statement by home minister V S Acharya to thinking of the government to set up a media ombudsman. "An ombudsman is equivalent to Lok Ayukta and is a statutory post. The government cannot set up a second ombudsman on any nature," he said.

After Kiran Karnik was appointed the Satyam board chairman on Friday, the company leadership is now formally in place, with AS Murty being made CEO. TN Manoharan, a board member of the new six-member Satyam board, commenting on Karnik’s appointment, welcomed the move. Manoharan added that only funcionaries appointed by the government would enjoy legal immunity under the Company Law Board.

Apprehensive of the Special Investigation Team’s next course of action, several senior police officers in Gujarat, posted in some key areas during the 2002 communal riots in the State, have started seeking legal advice, particularly on getting anticipatory bail. The SIT’s declaration of Minister of State for Women’s Welfare Mayaben Kodnani and State Vishwa Hindu Parishad general secretary Jaideep Patel as “absconders” for their failure to appear before it for questioning has sent shivers through police officials facing similar predicaments like Sangh Parivar leaders.

In a unique collaboration between ICICI bank and the Delhi Legal Services Authority, 100 lok adalats were held in five district courts of the Capital on Sunday to settle long pending cheque bouncing and recovery suits. Defaulters presented their card numbers, details which were then forwarded to the lok adalat. The matter was heard in the presence of a magistrate and the bank officer. The day-long exercise helped thousands of ICICI customers across the city settle long pending bank disputes without getting into the legal rigmarole. But evidently, not everyone went home happy.

Chevron Corp. is seeking to recoup $485,000 in litigation costs from a group of Nigerian villagers who unsuccessfully sued the big energy company over the shootings of protesters who occupied an offshore oil rig, a legal move that an attorney for the Nigerians said was designed to scare off foreigners from bringing similar lawsuits in the future.

Asian Legal Business, the leading Asian legal journal, has featured Cains in their Watchlist of ten law firms for 2009. Asian Legal Business has included in the Watchlist those firms which it believes "have managed to balance the often-competing concerns of ambition, risk and growth with pragmatism; they have identified their niches and discovered that which separates them from the rest." Cains was listed along with leading firms from jurisdictions such as India, Singapore, Hong Kong and China.

A draft bill seeking to alter the oath taken in courts of law is currently being discussed in Parliament’s Justice Commission. The oath, which currently reads "I swear on Allah and my honor," will be changed to "I swear on every belief and value that I consider holy." The argument in favor of the change is that this will make the oath more secular. The draft bill aims to better facilitate correct, fast and efficient rulings and consists of 458 articles, one of which is the oath. According to the bill, the oath will cover testimony provided for events that are vital to the resolution of a case, events that are controversial and events that occurred through the actions of an individual.