• NATIONAL

HC sets up panel for juvenile homes

Taking a note of the alleged sexual abuse and harassment of children inside juvenile homes, the Delhi High Court on Wednesday, 19 August 2009 constituted a four-member committee to look into the matter. Setting up the committee, a division bench headed by Chief Justice Ajit Prakash Shah and Justice Manmohan said, "Bureaucracy will remain bureaucracy and will not change people who are insensitive towards these children. So we need to form a committee that can regularly visit the homes and look after their welfare.'' "Our priority is to solve the problems in juvenile homes... It has been pointed out there is no sensitization training for the people who are working there,'' the bench said while hearing a public interest petition that alleged rampant sexual abuse and ill-treatment of minors lodged in juvenile homes. The four-member committee would comprise of the joint director (technical) from the social welfare department's women and child development wing, two principal magistrates (respective jurisdiction) and one representative, either from an NGO or from a legal fraternity to be appointed by Delhi Legal Service Authority. "The committee will observe the conditions inside the homes and conduct surprise inspections from time to time. It will submit its first report within two weeks to a two-member judge committee,'' said the bench while posting the matter for hearing on September 2, 2009.

Varun seeks legal opinion from former UP speaker

Pilibhit MP and BJP leader Varun Gandhi, facing trial for an alleged hate speech delivered by him during the general elections, met former Uttar Pradesh Assembly speaker Keshri Nath Tripathi to seek "legal opinion". Varun, who drove to Tripathi's house, declined to take any questions from the reporters, saying "I am here to seek legal opinion from Tripathiji, who is also an eminent lawyer. I do not wish to comment on any political development on this occasion". The estranged scion of the Nehru-Gandhi family left the city after spending nearly an hour at the residence of Tripathi, who is also a former president of the state BJP.

Bayer mulling legal action for its cancer drug

Global drug maker Bayer Corporation is considering legal options against a Delhi High Court judgement which dismissed its petition seeking to restrain the Drug Controller General of India from giving licence to Cipla for producing a generic version of its cancer drug. Bayer HealthCare is disappointed and disagrees with the court decision and will consider its legal options in this regard, the company said in a statement. Bayer HealthCare intends to defend the patent vigorously, the statement added.

OilMin pledges support for NTPC in legal fight with RIL

The Petroleum Ministry is believed to have told the Power Ministry that it would support NTPC Ltd in the state power firm's legal fight to get natural gas from Reliance Industries at prices the Mukesh Ambani-led firm had quoted in the 2004 tender. This was communicated to the Power Secretary, Mr. H S Brahma, when he met Petroleum Secretary, Mr. R S Pandey. NTPC is seeking gas for its Kawas and Gandhar expansion projects in Gujarat at the $2.34 per million British thermal unit, rates which are 44 per cent lower than the Government approved price for RIL's KG-D6 fields. "There is no question of compromising on NTPC's interest. Never had we ever dumped the Navratna PSU and never had we tried to impose the $4.2 per mmBtu approved price on the two projects," a Petroleum Ministry official said.

Nitish seeks Centre's help for legal reforms

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Tuesday once again demanded greater cooperation from the Centre for legal reforms including speedy trial of pending cases in the state. Nitish, who met Union Law Minister M Veerappa Moily on Tuesday also raised the issue of pendency of a state government's Bill before the Centre, which aims at setting up special courts for speedy trial of cases in the state. The Bill reportedly has provisions to seize the property of corrupt persons once they are convicted. Nitish is also learnt to have taken up the issue of funding for setting up of Gram Nyayalayas (village courts). Only on Sunday Bihar government had demanded financial assistance from the Centre for setting up more courts and developing other judicial infrastructure at the Conference of Chief Ministers of the States and Chief Justices of the High Courts in New Delhi.

SEBI sets limit for legal help to investor groups

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has released guidelines related to monetary aid that investor associations may seek for legal proceedings. Aid for a legal proceeding would not exceed Rs 20 lakh if the case was before the Supreme Court and Rs 10 lakh if it was before any other forum, Sebi said. The guidelines would come into force after the Sebi Investor Protection and Education Fund Regulations were notified, said the regulator. Sebi said it would reimburse only up to 75 per cent of the expenses incurred and endeavour to reimburse the amount within 15 days of the receipt of the claim. Expenses that will be reimbursed include court fees, processing fees, and bills of solicitors, advocates, and counsels. SEBI said the investor association would have to furnish an estimate of expenses for the legal proceedings to avail of the aid. If the regulator believed that any legal proceeding was not achieving the objective of investor protection, it woud discontinue the aid after giving notice to the association. In cases where SEBI receives more than one application for aid, preference will be given to the association that has filed the petition in the court first.

• INTERNATIONAL

China legal activist arrested in alleged tax crime

A Chinese legal activist whose rights group has tackled some of the country's most politically sensitive cases has been formally arrested on suspicion of evading taxes, though he has not yet been charged, his lawyer said Tuesday. The arrest of Xu Zhiyong comes as China appears to be widening a crackdown against activist lawyers and non-governmental organizations to stifle any possible dissent ahead of the 60th anniversary of the communist nation's founding on Oct. 1. Xu's lawyer, Zhou Ze, said Beijing police told him the arrest was made formal last Wednesday - two weeks after Xu was taken into police custody.

Microsoft legal chief sees risk in Yahoo deal

Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) has confidently described its planned search advertising deal with Yahoo Inc (YHOO.O) as a "win-win", but the software company's legal chief is prepared to concede that the outcome is not certain. The deal, struck in late July after months of talks, faces a tough regulatory review, and the possibility that it won't be enough to effectively challenge Google Inc (GOOG.O). "For both companies, it would be right to say this is not risk-free," said Microsoft general counsel Brad Smith, in an interview last week. "I don't know of any investment that is." The deal, struck on July 30, proposes that Microsoft's Bing becomes the search engine for both, while Yahoo focuses on attracting big advertisers. Microsoft shareholders generally welcomed the deal, but Yahoo's shares plunged as investors bemoaned the lack of an upfront payment from Microsoft or revenue guarantees in hard dollars.