RANJIT GIRI

The Supreme Court bench headed by CJI Ranjan Gogoi today held CBI Additional Director M Nageswara Rao guilty of contempt of court for transferring the investigating officer heading the probe in Muzaffarpur shelter home case in violation of the orders of the Court. The Court sentenced him till the rising of the Court and imposed a fine of Rs. one lakh, after noting that the transfer orders were passed by him despite knowing that the SC had ordered that the investigation team should not be changed. S Bhasu Ram, in-charge Director of Prosecution CBI, who offered legal advise regarding the transfer orders, was also held guilty of contempt and was awarded the same punishment as given to Rao. Attorney General K K Venugopal, appearing for Rao, made a fervent plea for leniency, saying that Rao's mistake was not willful.  At the outset, the CJI asked the AG why a contemnor was being defended at the Court's expense. The CJI said that Rao's action was 'brazen contempt' an

The SC registry has issued a circular, specifying the check list to "facilitate speedier verification of matters for early listing". The Circular lays down  11 mandatory requirements , which are to be scrutinized by the Scrutiny Officers/Officials of Filing Counter. It also has an  advocate's check list with 21 entries , which are to be complied with Advocates-on-Record. The AOR has to certify that the check-list has been complied. The circular also states that the practise of accepting "incomplete matters without relevant documents.annexures shall be discontinued", as a fresh matter is to be filed with the certificate of AOR that all documents necessary for the purpose of hearing the matter have been filed. The Mandatory Points are : Whether the prescribed court fee has been filed?Whether the original set of petition and the application bear the signatures of the counsel? (i) Whether the addresses of the parties and their representation are complete and se