• NATIONAL

Appointment of PPs triggers legal debate

State Minister Amit Shah, who figures among 63 whose role in 2002 riots is to be probed, heads Legal Department that will make the selections. The appointment of public prosecutors for the riot cases has raised legal as well as moral questions, given the fact that this has to be made by the state Legal Department, which is headed by state minister Amit Shah. This assumes significance as he is among the 63 people whose role in the 2002 riots is going to be probed by Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT). The Gujarat High Court has already designated nine special judges for conducting trial of as many heinous cases of the 2002 mayhem as per Supreme Court directions.

Fastest murder judgment: All over in 10 days

There's after all some glimmer of hope for India's judicial system, pilloried for endless delays and sluggish hearings. A district court made legal history on Saturday by convicting a man with murdering his wife within 10 days of framing charges, and in just three hearings. On Saturday, Chandigarh additional district and sessions judge Raj Rahul Garg found Sunil Kumar guilty of brutally killing his wife, Kiran, on February 17, 2009. The accused was convicted solely on the basis of his eight-year-old son's statement. The quantum of punishment will be pronounced on Monday.

Charges were framed within 70 days of the crime and the verdict came 10 days after the chargesheet was filed.

"It is a ray of hope for thousands of victims and a warning for those who exploit the loopholes in criminal justice system," said criminal lawyer N K Nanda.

Sunil killed Kiran during the intervening night of February 17-18 by hitting her with a rod after she refused to give him money for liquor. Their son witnessed the murder, as did Sunil's sister-in-law. In his deposition, the child said that he saw his father hit Kiran on the head with a log. Their neighbour, Kanta, had testified that the boy had run up to her immediately after that and that she had seen Sunil leave the house in a huff. Though the defence counsel argued that the boy had been tutored by Kiran's parents as he was in their custody, the prosecution argued that he had recorded the same statement with the cops after the crime.

• INTERNATIONAL

US considering terror tribunals with new rules

US military commissions to try terrorism suspects could be revived as early as this summer, but with increased legal protections for the accused, reported the Washington Post on Saturday.

After President Barack Obama's inauguration, the White House instituted a 120-day suspension of the military commissions. Those commissions had been set up by the George W Bush administration to try inmates at the holding facility in Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, but had come under heavy criticism for placing more emphasis on protecting classified sources than on the rights of the convicted.

According to government officials cited in the paper, the administration will seek an additional 90-day suspension before bringing back the commissions, but with new guidelines to provide greater legal protections. The current suspension expires on Friday.

PCB in legal battle with ICC over stripping of World Cup 2011

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has 'launched' a legal battle against the International Cricket Council (ICC) for stripping Pakistan of the right to host World Cup 2011 matches. "The ICC didn't consult us before taking this decision," PCB chairman Ijaz Butt told a news conference at the Gaddafi Stadium here on Saturday. The ICC last month stripped Pakistan of 14 World Cup matches, including a semi-final, citing the 'uncertain security situation' in the country. Co-hosts India will now host 29 matches inclusive of a semi-final and the final, while Sri Lanka will host 12 matches with one-semi-final and Bangladesh eight matches and the opening ceremony. This ICC move came after terrorist attacks on the Sri Lankan cricket team during their February-March tour, which was itself the first major bilateral contest in Pakistan since October 2007. The meeting also said that international cricket was unlikely to return to Pakistan till 2011.

In the end, it may be legal bills that sink the polygamists

These are tough times for fundamentalist Mormon polygamists.

The criminal charges -- one count each of practising polygamy -- against Bountiful's two leaders, James Oler, 44, and Winston Blackmore, 52, are expected to end up in the Supreme Court of Canada because their defence is that the Constitution guarantees their right to freedom of religion and polygamy is one of their beliefs. Their legal costs could be $1 million or more.

Even in good times, that's a lot of money for men with multiple wives and, in Blackmore's case, 119 children. But these aren't good times.

Forestry, the backbone of Bountiful's economy, has tanked.

Oler Bros. Contracting -- a company owned by Oler's half-brother, Ken -- filed for bankruptcy on April 14. With only $2.98 million in revenue and liabilities of just under $4.8 million, Oler Bros.' first meeting with its creditors is scheduled for today in Red Deer, Alta.

Insurer may have to pay Hardie legal bill and fines

The next phase of the NSW Supreme Court case against 10 former James Hardie executives and directors could provoke a debate over who should foot the bill for any fines imposed and for the huge legal costs.

The law was unclear on whether directors could call on an insurer to meet their $200,000 fines in a civil penalty case such as this, insurance experts contacted by the Herald said.

There have also been questions in Parliament over whether a foreign company, as James Hardie has been since it moved to the Netherlands in 2001, could pay fines for its directors that an Australian company would be banned from paying.

There could also be a dispute over how the costs of the defence's 24 barristers and nine teams of solicitors will be shared among James Hardie, its insurer and the defendants personally.

Labour disputes double in China

China has admitted that the economic slowdown has caused widespread discontent among industrial workers. The number of labour disputes has doubled to nearly 700,000 in just one year. The cases involved 1.2 million workers in 2008.The rise in the number of disputes is surprising because Chinese workers are compulsorily linked to one trade union controlled by the Communist Party of India and have no other choice in the matter. The new trend is also an indication of the recent legal reforms giving workers better opportunities to voice their discontent. Yang Zhiming, vice minister of Human Resources and Social Security, has said there has been a 98 per cent increase in the number of labour disputes in 2008 when it rose to 693,000. He said that the number of workers involved in different labour cases has risen 90 per cent over 2007 and now covers 1.2 million.