• NATIONAL

Team of legal eagles to study issue

The Madras High Court Advocate Association (MHAA) on Wednesday asked leading criminal lawyer N Natarajan to form a committee of lawyers to study the amendments made to the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) and to submit a report. According to MHAA president RC Paul Kanakaraj, the committee would find out the amendments which were detrimental to the interest of the lawyers and the litigant public. On receipt of the report, the MHAA would submit a memorandum to State Chief Minister M Karunanidhi urging him to prevail upon the Centre not to notify the Amendment Bill, 2008.

Delhi Police first to make changes as per new CrPC rules

In tune with the recent changes in Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), the Delhi Police has simplified and introduced transparency in chargesheets. Top cop YS Dadwal has directed officers to include the name of accused arrested or granted bail or against whom the trial is pending in a separate column column 4 of the chargesheet. The person who is still wanted in the case or declared proclaimed offender by the court or a person against whom there is no evidence has to be mentioned in column 2. It means that those escaping the trial will not get away lightly as earlier an absconding suspect against whom trial is pending used to be put in column 2. But now such accused will be included in column 4 and the charge(s) will be framed.

'Religious conversion for second marriage un-Islamic'

Muslim clerics have termed as "un-Islamic" and "unacceptable" conversion to Islam to escape legal complications of a second marriage, citing the example of Chander Mohan alias Chand Mohammed and Anuradha Bali alias Fiza whose apparent wedding of convenience is now showing signs of strain.

"Adopting Islam with an intention for second marriage is not only un-Islamic but against reason as well," renowned Muslim scholar Maulana Wahiduddin Khan told IANS.

Texas legal aid services face dramatic drop in funding

A heart-stopping drop in funding has created a "crisis of epic proportions" for programs that provide legal aid to the poor, according to Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Wallace Jefferson.

In 2007, a special fund provided Texas legal aid agencies with $20 million to support services for people at or below the federal poverty line. This year, the fund is projected to plummet to $1.5 million, Jefferson said. That will force some legal aid programs to greatly scale back services, and other programs may close, said Betty Balli Torres, executive director of the Texas Access to Justice Foundation, which distributes the money.

• INTERNATIONAL

IDF: War crime charges over Gaza offensive are 'legal terror'

War crimes charges brought abroad against Israeli soldiers and officers involved in Operation Cast Lead are nothing but "legal terrorism," Col. Liron Liebman, who heads the military prosecution's international law department, said Wednesday. Liebman, who recently replaced Col. Pnina Sharvit-Baruch, was speaking at the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations in Jerusalem about the role of the law in fighting terror.

Law Lords have ruled that radical cleric Abu Qatada can be deported from the UK to Jordan where he faces jail for terrorism.

Law of Lords in UK has ordered the deportation of the radical cleric to Abu Qatada to Jordan to face conviction for terrorism. Last year court of appeal blocked his deportation on the ground that he did not get fair trial. Lord Phillips said: "The prohibition on receiving evidence obtained by torture is not primarily because such evidence is unreliable or because the reception of the evidence will make the trial unfair. Rather it is because 'the state must stand firm against the conduct that has produced the evidence'. That principle applies to the state in which an attempt is made to adduce such evidence. It does not require this state, the United Kingdom, to retain in this country, to the detriment of national security, a terrorist suspect. What is relevant is the degree of risk that Mr Othman [Abu Qatada] will suffer a flagrant denial of justice if he is deported to Jordan."Human rights group Amnesty International said it was "gravely concerned" about the ruling's implications. Spokesman Nicola Duck worth said: "No-one should be deported to face a risk of torture, whatever they might be alleged or suspected to have done.

Japanese whaling ship outlawed

The Oriental Bluebird, used to refuel the Japanese whaling fleet in the Southern Ocean and to ship whale meat back to Japan, was found to be in violation of a number of domestic and international regulations by Panamanian authorities. On October 8th it was fined the maximum penalty due to violations relating to its permissible use, the safety of human life and the preservation of the marine environment.

Baselines bill ‘sellout of sovereignty’

In Philippines, lawyers were of the opinion that Baseline bill is sell out sovereignty and they would question the Congress ratified measure before the Supreme court. The final version of the proposed law make such waters “archipelagic waters” and thus subject to use by foreign vessels in the exercise of the right to innocent passage and worse, the right for planes to make overflight over our airspace, he said. When signed into law, Roque added, this now allow all ships, including nuclear powered ones the right to sail the entirety of our archipelagic waters. All aircraft, including military aircrafts, can now fly through our airspace without our consent. “This is a total abdication of national sovereignty and jurisdiction,”.