• NATIONAL NEWS

SEBI mulls legal action against Pyramid promoters

Market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) is understood to be contemplating legal action against P S Saminathan, managing director and one of the promoters of Pyramid Saimira Theatre (PSTL), and Nirmal N Kotecha, another promoter of the company. This is in connection with a forged Sebi letter and possible manipulation of the company's stock in December 2008.

Some lawyers from the legal cell (criminal side) of the market regulator met a few well-known criminal lawyers yesterday to seek their opinion, a source close to the development said.

"SEBI can take criminal action against errant promoters, who violate the guidelines, and can bring them to book even under existing laws. This is why the lawyers from the legal cell of the regulatory body sought legal opinion. There could be some action soon," said the source.

Jethmalani sends legal notice to Thackeray

Noted advocate Ram Jethmalani has sent a legal notice to MNS chief Raj Thackeray asking him to apologise for incorrectly calling him the lawyer of 2001 Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru.

"You are not sure of the facts. Afzal Guru's mercy petition is pending before the President on the grounds that he was not represented by lawyers during the trial," Jethmalani said in the notice to the MNS chief yesterday.

Jethmalani also said he will press charges against Thackeray if he does not apologise within 48 hours for his comment allegedly made during an election rally.

However, Thackeray's lawyer Sayagi Nagre told PTI that the MNS chief "has not received any such notice yet and will definitely give a befitting reply as soon as he receives it."

"We will file a suitable reply to the notice after going through its contents," Nagre added.

Jethmalani, a former Union Law Minister, also told Thackeray that he was not like shopkeepers of Mumbai who out of his fear change their establishments' names from 'Karachi sweets' to 'Krishna sweets'.

Shanno family gets legal help, to sue MCD over daughter's death

Shanno Khan's family will file a petition in the High Court against teacher Manju Rathee, who the family has accused of causing the 11-year-old's death.

The family is being represented by legal firm Kochhar & Co on a pro bono basis (no fees, in the interest of public good).

The family is likely to include the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) and the Delhi government as co-defendants in a suit to claim damages. "The writ petition will be filed by Thursday at the latest," chairman of the firm, Rohit Kochhar, said on Tuesday.

The petition will seek a speedy investigation into the case and demand that charges against Rathee be framed under Section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), instead of Section 304-A (causing death due to negligence). Section 304-A carries a comparatively lighter sentence.

Ravi Chopra gets Legal notice for lifting a Hollywood film

The film industry is abuzz with the news that Ravi Chopra's 'Banda Yeh Bindaas Hai', starring Govinda, Lara Dutta and Sushmita Sen, is in deep trouble. Reportedly, 20th Century Fox has served a legal notice to Chopra for blatantly lifting the Hollywood film 'My Cousin Vinny' and have demanded a compensation of Rs. 7 crores. True?

Sanjay Bhutiani, the CEO of B.R. Films, doesn't deny the development. "We have the email correspondence by people in Los Angeles to make the film. We have it in writing," he says. But, reportedly, Fox is talking of plagiarism. "Well, our legal people are looking into it. We should be ready with a reply in a day or two," Bhutiani adds.

• INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Palin's legal fund challenged as ethics violation

An ethics complaint filed against Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin claims the legal defense fund she formed last week to challenge such claims is an ethics violation itself.

The complaint filed Monday with the Alaska attorney general's office seeks an investigation by the Alaska Personnel Board. Complainant Kim Chatman claims Palin is misusing her official position for political gain and receiving improper gifts.

The former Republican vice presidential candidate has said she's accumulated more than $500,000 in legal fees. They come from defending herself against a dozen or so ethics complaints and in Troopergate, the Legislature's probe into the firing of Palin's former public safety commissioner.

Apple sued for iPod tricks

Internet rights champions have accused Apple of stifling free speech by bullying OdioWorks into ending online sharing of ways to get iPods to work with music websites other than iTunes.

Attorneys from nonprofit Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) teamed with OdioWorks lawyers to file a lawsuit against California-based Apple in a US federal court.

At the heart of the issue is the BluWiki website that details ways to get Apple's popular iPhones and iPod MP3 players to synchronize music and video files with media at services such as Songbird, Banshee, Rockbox, and Winamp.

BluWiki operates as a "public service" with visitors able to freely edit or modify content on web pages in wiki-style collaborative efforts, according to OdioWorks, which owns the website.

"Hobbyists" at BluWiki shared insights about reverse-engineering Apple software and making it possible for iPod and iPhone owners to "manage their media with whatever program they chose," the lawsuit states.

Thomson Reuters to put up legal content unit

INFORMATION SERVICES firm Thomson Reuters plans to set up a new facility by yearend to serve clients subscribing to legal content, citing the country's "highly educated work force."

"The speed by which we will have an operation here would depend on how fast our recruitment would be," Fred K. Gordon, vice-president for legal content operations of Thomson Reuters, said in a briefing yesterday.

"The Philippines with its highly educated work force was the logical location to set up a center for complex services such as the ones the division provides," he added.

Tom C. Leighton, vice-president for the firm's litigation content center, said employees are expected to do tasks as proofreading, editing, and "rendering and merging" legal cases.