Whoosh! 260 cases on a day ! - Telegraph India.com

A junior district judge in Andhra Pradesh has disposed of 260 cases on a single day, setting what some lawyers saluted as a record but also raising concern that he may have taken procedural shortcuts.

In Nellore’s Venkatagiri town court, judge Yesurathnam is being called “Judge Dredd”, a character played by Sylvester Stallone who hands out summary justice in the futuristic, eponymous Hollywood film. The sleepy weavers’ town, jolted awake by the judge’s feat, is jokingly referring to last Friday as “Judgment Day”.

On that day, Yesurathnam tackled 157 criminal and 103 civil cases (mainly property and tenancy suits) in 13 hours, working from 10am to 11pm, giving each case an average of three minutes.

Of the criminal cases ---- mostly thefts, street brawls, road accidents and domestic quarrels ---- he dismissed 102 for lack of evidence, jailed the accused in 13 and handed out fines (totalling Rs 73,500) in 42.

“I’m not trying to enter any record book, Guinness or Limca,” the judge told TV channels, basking in his feat. “It just so happened that the cases were listed together and were easy to decide.”

Some senior lawyers and retired judges, however, said such “breakneck speed” could impact the quality of judgment. The state government and Andhra Pradesh High Court are planning a review of some of the 260 cases, a law department spokesperson said.

“We want to know the procedure he followed,” he said. “His methods (if found valid) may be repeated in other courts to clear the state’s backlog of 1.2 lakh cases.”

Some lawyers said the Indian judiciary, groaning under a backlog of 3 crore cases, should learn from Yesurathnam. “It’s been a great relief for all — the accused, witnesses, advocates, victims and the police,” said C.V. Prasad, circle inspector of Venkatagiri.

An accused ordered to pay a compensation of Rs 5,000 in a road accident said: “I had running about the police stations and the courts for a year; I’m glad it’s ended.”

A petty thief fined Rs 900 said: “I have been in jail waiting for trial for nearly seven months just for this.”

It isn’t clear if any of the plaintiffs or defendants felt the judge had handled their cases too summarily and planned to appeal in higher courts citing the pace at which the rulings came.

Even before his Friday feat, Yesurathnam had made a name for himself in Nellore, having disposed of over 600 cases since being posted to the Venkatagiri court four months ago. Earlier, a civil judge at Mangalagiri court in Guntur had disposed of 111 cases in a day and a sessions judge at Kaithal in Haryana clocked 148 cases at one ago, working 18 hours at a stretch.

Source - http://www.telegraphindia.com/1100927/jsp/frontpage/story_12986722.jsp

What They Said: The Babri Masjid Case - The Wall Street Journal Blogs

What They Said: The Babri Masjid Case

By Tripti Lahiri

The verdict in the decades-long legal dispute over who has the rights over the Babri Masjid religious site in the northern Indian town of Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh state was scheduled to be issued by the Allahabad High Court on Friday. In 1992 Hindu mobs partially destroyed the medieval Babri mosque there demanding to build a temple to Lord Ram, the deity who in Hindu belief was born at Ayodhya. On Thursday the Supreme Court decided to delay the verdict and ordered a hearing Sept. 28  on the possibility of a reconciliation. India Real Time presents a summary of the opinions expressed in the run-up to the verdict and on its deferment.

AFP/Getty Image

A man prays at a temple in Ayodhya this week.

“It appears almost unreal to remember that this is, in legal terms, a mere dispute over the title to a small plot of land in a nondescript historical town of north India,” said aneditorial in the Economic and Political Weekly, a week ahead of the expected verdict, calling for the country to guard against the rise of militant Hindu nationalism.”

“Unfortunately, for the past two decades and more, this dispute has not remained a mere legal one, but has been the core of a violent political movement which has claimed the lives of tens of thousands of India’s citizens in riots and massacres,” said the magazine.

Political observer Ashok Malik, writing in the Hindustan Times on Wednesday, laid out some of the questions before the court and suggested possible verdicts, based on the historical, archaelogical and other evidence presented.

“A situation where the ASI (Archaelogical Survey of India) report hints at the existence of a Hindu temple and the title suit itself goes in favor of the mosque and its caretakers can’t be ruled out,” wrote Mr. Malik. “Both sides will declare (half a) victory; and Ayodhya will remain intractable as ever.”

Seema Chishti, writing in the Indian Express on Thursday, noted that India has changed a lot since Hindu militants razed the Babri mosque in 1992, triggering off deadly riots across the country—most notably the country has experienced two decades of economic liberalization, she says. But how much have its political parties changed, she wonders.

“The verdict on Ayodhya is not yet out, and it is most likely to be contested,” she says. “But whether new India, having ‘moved on’ has found a new kind of politics to take in its new concerns and preoccupations is likely to be tested.”

One enterprising columnist made a suggestion that has been echoed by many readers.

“What to do about Ayodhya?” pondered Jug Suraiya in the Times of India on Wednesday. “Perhaps the most fitting tribute Ayodhya could pay to both Ram and Islam would be to have a non-denominational shrine to all the countless victims of religious violence, in all places and of all times.”

After the verdict was postponed, the Hindu raised questions about the move, noting it came against a background of government concern about protests in Kashmir and security for the Commonwealth Games, which kick off in New Delhi Oct. 3.

“If the judicial process itself were to be held hostage to fears of disturbances, it would amount to giving rioters a veto over the law-abiding and would have disturbing implications for the rule of law,” wrote the paper on Friday. “The nation as a whole should face the Allahabad High Court verdict squarely and demonstrate its commitment to the rule of law, with issues being resolved in judicial and other institutions of the state rather than on the streets.”

“Calls for calm,” an editorial by The Indian Express on Friday said, a day following the Supreme Court’s order, adding the  It observed: “However, this is unlikely to stem the interventions that have urged everyone to keep their cool.”

The Indian Express said that the top court’s intervention “might mean the judgement has been pushed back by just a week, but could well lead to an even longer wait.”

But the paper was also cheered by what it saw in the days leading up to the now-postponed verdict.

“That has been the most remarkable feature of this period of anticipation, the way people and organizations from across the political and ideological spectrum have called for calm, regardless of the judgment’s content,” it said in an editorial Friday. “All of us, in truth, have a stake in ensuring that no self-destructive spiral of rancorous bitterness is embarked upon.”

Source - http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2010/09/25/what-they-said-the-babri-masjid-case/

ALMT sets up Delhi corp practice with Luthra’s Vineet Aneja

Former Luthra & Luthra and FoxMandal Little partner Vineet Aneja has now joined ALMT Legal to start up the firm’s office in Delhi.

Aneja will set up ALMT’s fourth office at the Incube Centre at Nehru Place with his long-standing team of associates Surbhi Gupta, Mohit Sharma and Vikram Bhargava.

Aneja, who resigned from Luthra & Luthra earlier this month saying he wanted to pursue more entrepreneurial opportunities, having joined a year ago from FoxMandal, toldLegally India: “This is the kind of role which I had been looking at which gives me the ability and opportunity to lead and set up an office in Delhi.”

“It’s going to be a corporate practice and then slowly and slowly we’ll try to add on litigation in the near future,” he added.

The office was around 2,400 square feet large, said Aneja, which would mean that even today he could expand to a size of 10 lawyers adding that he hoped to reach a size of around 10 to 15 lawyers within the first year of operation.

ALMT partner S R Arun said that Delhi is one of the largest and fastest growing commercial centres in India and the world and was an exciting new phase for ALMT.

ALMT is an all-equity partnership and Aneja (pictured) will be its 18th partner, with Delhi being its fourth office following London, Mumbai and Bangalore.

In June 2009 ALMT inked a best-friend relationship with UK firm Clyde & Co and in April of this year bolted on an infrastructure projects practice with India Law Services partner Ishtiaq Ali.

Please help other students and lawyers and add more information to the Legallypedia page of ALMT Legal.

Source - www.legallyindia.com

Islamic 'finance': Between faith and the law - Economic Times

ON SEPTEMBER 9, a senior bureaucrat told an Indian court that the law of the land does not allow Islamic banking. He was stating the government’s position before the court which was hearing a petition that challenged the functioning of such institutions in India. What he was possibly unaware of was a meeting held at the Reserve Bank of India headquarters in Mumbai a fortnight before his court appearance. 

At that meeting, a team of Islamic scholars and senior lawyers met a top central bank official to talk about the possibility of a pilot project where banks in India may open special windows to offer interest-free products that are based on Sharia’h, the sacred law of Islam. The RBI official, like most RBI officials, was non-committal. But the delegation that visited the regulator challenged the fundamental argument that the finance ministry as well as RBI have so far held on to. 

According to an RBI report prepared some years ago, neither banks in India nor overseas offices of local banks can offer Islamic banking under the current legal framework. Interestingly, unlike other RBI reports, this was never put up on the bank’s official website. 

Since then, this too has been the government line on the subject. Today, this is being questioned. The term “banking”, as defined in the Banking Regulation Act, has three essential features: (1) acceptance of deposits from the public; (2) the use of money so accepted for lending or investment, and (3) liberty to the depositor to withdraw the money. 

“The definition does not require a banking company either to pay interest on deposits or charge interest on lending...the Monetary Authority of Singapore has allowed interest-free banking activity,” says H Abdur Raqeeb, who led the team to RBI. The studies undertaken by his centre claim that conventional banking products like saving bank account, term deposits, credit cards and consumer and farm loans can be structured in a way that fulfil the requirements of the Indian banking laws as well as Sharia’h. 

For men like Raqeeb, general secretary of the Delhi-based Indian Center for Islamic Finance, persuading regulators to allow Islamic banking, even in a small way, may be a mission. For someone like H Jayesh, a senior lawyer, it’s a different challenge. 

“We are often asked by people on investment products and ways to go about doing transactions that are Sharia’h compliant,” says Jayesh, founder partner at the Mumbai-based law firm Juris Corp. As a genre of financial services, Islamic banking shuns the very idea of interest rates and rests on profit sharing. It abhors the business of making money out of money and upholds the belief that wealth is generated through actual trade and investment. For instance, someone buying a home with bank funds will not borrow from the bank and pay EMIs. Instead, the bank will purchase the property and sell it back or lease or rent out to the customer. 

It’s possible to structure the contract in a manner where the leased assets are held by borrower as an agent of the bank. Jayesh’s colleague Maymoona Mandviwala thinks that there are ways under the Bombay Stamp Act ‘58 to carry out transactions to avoid ‘double stamp duty’ — often perceived as a deterrent to Islamic banking, where the deals can have two legs of buy and sell. 

As a lawyer, I take an agnostic approach, says Jayesh, who feels that Islamic banking is becoming too big to be ignored. Financial centres such as Singapore, Hong Kong, Geneva, Zurich and London have either changed laws or tweaked existing regulations to accommodate Islamic finance industry that is worth $800 billion globally and is growing at 10-15% a year. In some of these financial centres, said a Boston Consulting Group paper, the focus is “on leveraging deep and long-term relationships with wealthy Muslim clients from the Middle East who are seeking Islamic private banking services”. In Asia, Hong Kong’s position as a gateway to China is attracting Middle Eastern institutions which want to park petro dollars in China through Sharia’h-compliant vehicles. Money markets in the West were quick to spot the opportunity. At the peak of derivatives boom, the industry body International Swaps & Derivatives Association (ISDA) had even structured something called an Islamic swap. 

Indian financial circles do sense the future possibilities of Islamic finance. For instance, real estate financiers are talking about the scope of mezzanine products — instruments that are somewhere between debt and equity — as an investment product to mop up funds. A senior banker with an MNC bank said that India’s proposed infrastructure fund may well receive a part of the seed capital from Gulf sovereign funds which follow Sharia’h principles. But there are issues that come in the way. One of the public interest litigations alleges that a Kerala government agency’s decision to promote a Sharia’h-based institution amounts to the state favouring a particular religion. “The government invited trouble by deciding to sponsor the entity...it could have let some NRIs set it up and then step in at a later point to pick up stake,” said Jayesh. 

But there are activities that don’t face regulatory barriers. This is where many are beginning to make a difference between Islamic banking and Islamic finance. It could take years to convince RBI to give a banking licence, but setting up an non-banking finance company based on Islamic finance could be simpler. “Such an NBFC will not be a deposit taking one, but an entity where investors are either shareholders holding equity or subscribing to sukuks,” said Sameer Gupta of Ernst & Young which had advised the Kerala government agency on the project. Shariq Nisar, director, Taqwaa Advisory and Shariah Investment Solutions, and Suprio Bose, a lawyer at Juris Corp, too feel that the best option will be promote Sharia’h-based NBFCs. 

These institutions can raise funds and invest in Sharia’h-compliant private equity funds, venture funds, real estate projects and asset-backed leasing companies. “Apart from investing in companies, Sharia’h-based NBFCs can issue Sukuks, where the asset is securitised and earnings are derived only from cashflows of the underlying asset. Sharia’h-based mutual funds, portfolio management schemes et al other options that can be considered under Islamic finance,” says Nisar. The Kerala government, in all likelihood, has made a mental note on the distinction between ‘banking’ and ‘non-banking finance’. Its plans have come under the media glare; and, the way it tackles the law and regulators to take them forward could shape the future of Islamic finance in India.


Source - Economic Times

Comments


Justice Gafoor Kochi- India 16/09/2010 at 11:07 AM
Islamic banking is financial concept based on investment of money in buisiness rather than lending it unmindful of the risk/benefits of use it being put to earn profit. So it cannot be an investment opprtunity confined to those follow. It is an investment tool to be experimented in the emerging economy of India at the earliest. It cannot be viewed in the narrow sense of sect, when developed countries like UK and developing ones like Thailand have put it into practice. For India there is another reason also to make it accomplished. India is the second largest country in the globe in Muslim population. Therefore there will be large amount of liquid cash with them who are mainly buisinessmen, traders and artisans. Majority among them do not approach the conventional banking system woking on interest based return, which according to their religious tennets is prohibitted. Tapping of this wast resources, rermaining under utilised, to syphon it to national infrastrure development is a an absolutely wise economic step to advance nation building. This will be huge resourses without any strings unlike that of World Bank, ADB etc on whose financing the economists and politicians are devided in their opinion. Every one in India has equal rights and shall have equal opportunity to feel that equality. Islamic banking will render that equality to those who do not have it as the existing banking system is not conducive to their belief.