BC LAW
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Virtual meeting to condole passing of Indian jurist and former Attorney General for India, Soli Sorabji

Lalit Bhasin, President of SILF: The law reports are full of the monumental cases in which Soli appeared... during his seven-decade tenure as a lawyer.

#SoliSorabjee

 Attorney General KK Venugopal speaks, recounts of the large number of cases in which he and Sorabjee and appeared in together.

#SoliSorabjee
AG Venugopal: When I think of Soli, one would imagine a legend of the law, a great jurist, an attorney general twice over... and above all a lawyer who was innovative and part of the evolution of the Constitution of India

#SoliSorabjee
AG Venugopal: According to me, his success in SR Bommai.. is one of the feathers in his cap...The judgment as a deathblow to the abuse of power by the Centre...

#SoliSorabjee
AG Venugopal: I was appearing (at the time) for Karunanidhi during the height of emergency ...

The allegation that he had taken a bribe was sufficient to dismiss the government in a State, Venugopal recalls.
AG Venugopal: Today if corruption was the basis for dismissal of governments, I wonder how many of the governments could survive.. just on allegation of corruption, which is easy to make.
AG Venugopal: (SR Bommai) This is one of his greatest achievements... After that, the question of dismissing governments under Article 356 has become very very rare indeed.

#SoliSorabjee
Soli Sorabjee was a lover of poetry, lover of music, of gourmet and above all a great human being, AG Venugopal adds.

#SoliSorabjee
AG Venugopal: He recently celebrated his 91st birthday in style... I excused myself because of health reasons... I however wrote him a letter... I called him, he took the telephone and told me he would call me back later. He did not, and I felt hurt...

#SoliSorabjee
AG Venugopal adds that later Pinky Anand also called him, he said would call her back. Sorabjee did not call either person.

The next he heard was that Sorabjee had passed away because of COVID.

AG: Obviously, he did not want to exhaust me or Pinky...

#SoliSorabjee
Senior Advocate Fali Nariman speaks, refers to tributes that have poured in, notes that Sorabjee was described as a fighter for rights, who died in honour and glory

Nariman: Permit me to add a footnote to these rich tributes

#SoliSorabjee
Fali Nariman: In the past 3 years, whenever Soli and I met, we would greet each other with an exchange of reminisces... not of cases where we had appeared against each other, that was stale stuff

#SoliSorabjee
Nariman recalls that he and Sorabjee exchanged anecdotes from the time they practiced under Jamshedji Kanga, "the uncut diamond of the Bombay Bar", as CJ Chagla had once termed him.

#SoliSorabjee
Fali Nariman recalls one of the last anecdotes they exchanged.

Nariman: Once long ago a Senior Advocate of the Bombay High Court walked in (to the chambers of Jamshedji Kanga).. Jahangir ji, that was his first name, had come to see Jamshedji for a somewhat delicate matter.
Nariman: Neither of us (Sorabjee or Nariman) had the good sense to withdraw, we kept sitting and listening in... there were no secrets in the chamber... it transpired that Jahangir had come to seek advice ...

#SoliSorabjee
Nariman recounts: His problem (Jahangir's) was that he had been a fixture as counsel before a particular judge.. and that judge had recently retired, Jahangirji had been left without work."What about my future?", he asked Jamshedji
Nariman recounts: Jamshedji, all 6 ft 4, in an imperious, slightly angry voice said "Jahangir, how old are you?"

Jahangir, looked at us again, sheepishly said, 82

Jamshedji, aged 92, shot back at him "With one leg in the grave, what are you commiserating about your future?"
Nariman recounts that Jamshedji was a person who believed that after 80 a lawyer should hang up his boots.

Jamshedji, however, would still meticulously came to the chamber but made no appearances, after 80.

Nariman: This was his story the last time we met.

#SoliSorabjee
Senior Advocate Vikas Singh recalls how he once when to brief Sorabji.

Sorabji, he recounted, said, "But I have to be convinced, if I am not convinced I am not going to argue."

@vikassinghSrAdv

#SoliSorabjee
Singh: This was the stature of the man...

Singh adds that he learnt, from this experience, the principle, "Before you start arguing, you have to be convinced yourself."

@vikassinghSrAdv

#SoliSorabjee
Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal: You've given us 3 minutes to encapsulate the life of a man who cannot be captured in 3 minutes

@KapilSibal

#SoliSorabjee
Sibal: If you look at the Constitutional history of India, brick by brick, you would find the imprint in every brick of Soli Sorabjee.

@KapilSibal

#SoliSorabjee
Sibal: We know about his passion for human rights, free speech, liberty... he never wavered in that passion, no matter which govt ... His contributions to the law are phenomenal.. he changed the whole concept of Article 14, 19, 21 in Menaka Gandhi...

@KapilSibal

#SoliSorabjee
Sibal: He was a man of many parts. The freedom that jazz musicians had is the kind of freedom he wanted.

#SoliSorabjee
Senior Advocate Harish Salve: Soli the lawyer is well known, not so well known is Soli the father, Soli the friend, Soli the jazz aficionado...

#SoliSorabjee
Salve recounts that when he went to join Sorabjee's chamber, he said to Salve in Marathi "I will take the oil out of you."

Salve: I said I have a lot of oil in me, please feel free to do that

#SoliSorabjee
Salve: ... grudges were something alien to him. And if you were a friend who was fond of jazz, then you have a special place in his heart...He was my strength ...

#SoliSorabjee
Senior Advocate Iqbal Chagla: He loved the law. But it is not that he loved the law to the exclusion of everything else... his love of literature, his love of poetry, that was remarkable...

#SoliSorabjee
Chagla: It was not western classical music that he loved, it was Jaz. The improvisation, which was the soul of jazz, that moved him.

#SoliSorabjee
Chagla: Soli never talked of secularism. He just practiced secularism. There was no question of religion, race... nothing of that.

#SoliSorabjee
Chagla: I don't think Soli would want us to mourn at all. He would have said at 90, you have had a full life.. let's open a malt and listen to the full album, that is what he would want.

#SoliSorabjee
Justice Mukul Mudgal recounts: He had a great sense of humor and was a terrific mimic. He was gourmet, he loved to give dinners.. above all, he was a humane person. He loved life and lived life...

#SoliSorabjee

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"Is our judiciary delivering on its role as a sentinel on the qui vive in these changing times?"

Former CJI MN Venkatchaliah to deliver lecture shortly as part of Moneylife Foundation’s 3rd Annual RTI Lecture.

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The talk will be followed by a panel discussion with Former Supreme Court Judge, Justice AK Sikri and Senior Advocate Indira Jaising.

The session will be presided by TS Krishnamurthy, Former Chief Election Commissioner and Trustee Moneylife Foundation

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Event begins. Sucheta Dalal renders the introductory address.

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TS Krishnamurthy welcomes the gathering

"I have never seen a more humble person than Justice Venkatchaliah", he adds as part of his introductory remarks.


Former Chief Justice of India MN Venkatchaliah begins his lecture on "Is our judiciary delivering on its role as a sentinel on the qui vive in these changing times?'

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#BombayHighCourt is hearing the default bail application filed by Gautam Navlakha, accused in the #BhimaKoregaon case.

Bench of Justices SS Shinde and MS Karnik are hearing the plea.


Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal submits that this is a simple matter of bail to be decided on facts.

He claims that Navlakha was in custody for more than 90 days. He was under house arrest for some time before being taken into judicial custody.

Sibal submitted that Navlakha had surrendered on April 14 and spent 93 days in custody. He spent 34 days in custody before remand order of Magistrate.

Sibal points out that the nature of custody may have changed but it was arrest nonetheless and for this reason, he should be granted bail.

Additional Solicitor General SV Raju appearing for the NIA begins his submission.

He points out that the police had only arrested him and had not taken custody.
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@barandbench
Delhi High Court begins hearing plea concerning #COVID19 situation in the national capital.

Hearing before Justices Vipin Sanghi and Rekha Palli.

#OxygenCrisis #OxygenShortage

@CMODelhi @MoHFW_INDIA


Any orders passed by the Supreme Court: Court

It is listed today. As of now I have no instructions: ASG Chetan Sharma

It will be taken up once item 301 is over : Counsel

We will proceed. Did the meeting take place : Court

Yes, it did. Mr Mehra is appearing before Surpreme Court: Adv Satyakam urges Court to take up the matter little later.

Maharaja Agrasen Hospital, adv Alok Aggarwal: We have ICU beds and emergency beds. We don't charge emergency patients for oxygen. There is a notice to Hospitals saying we have to attend to all emergency patients within 10 mins and give them oxygen and medicines.

There is no one who is able to tell us there are people supposed to go if we can't admit them. We are full. They can't keep on occupying emergency area.. I can't kill a person because I've to admit another patient : Aggarwal
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#BombayHighCourt begins hearing the plea of Lawyers Collective challenging the summons issued by ED for appearance of Sr Adv Anand Grover before them in the capacity of the trustee of the NGO.

@LCHIVWRI
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@dir_ed


Bench of Justices SS Shinde and MS Karnik ask ASG Anil Singh where the other Sr Advs are.

ASG: Milords had this been physical hearing, I would have located them, it is difficult during virtual hearing.

All Laugh.

Court states that the officers of ED are willing to come to Mumbai to carry out interrogation and they can proceed with the interrogation subject to the outcome of the plea.

Sr Adv Amit Desai asks the court to note certain facts from the plea.

Desai submits that ED has claimed they do not have certain documents with them. We have submitted those records, these are public records, but we will provide them with whatever additional documents they want.

Desai: So I am submitting that those documents can be sent to the ED, they can go through the documents and then take further course of action.
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@barandbench
#BombayHighCourt begins hearing the plea of Sunaina Holey accused of making objectionable statements against Maharastra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and Cabinet Minister Aaditya Thackeray.

@SunainaHoley
@OfficeofUT
@AUThackeray
@CMOMaharashtra
@MumbaiPolice


Adv. Abhinav Chandrachud answers the query of the court asking the parties to present the stand of other democratic countries on the statements made on WhatsApp or Twitter.

Chandrachud relied upon judgments of US Courts to submit that when similar statments against the government were made, a US court took a stand that the statement needs to be rectified and not arrested.

Chandrachud relied upon the judgment of the Supreme Court in the matter of Amish Devgan wherein the court observed that if it is a prominent person like a news channel anchor or a public figure, they have to observe higher amount of responsibility before making statement.

Chandrachud: My client (@SunainaHoley ) is not a public figure and hence her statements if incorrect can be rectified by the concerned authority. She need not be arrested.
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How about a brief refresher on federal bail, since everyone's got opinions on it this week? Yes?

Okay, here we go. In federal criminal cases, bail is governed by the Bail Reform

/2 Under the Bail Reform Act, a defendant MUST BE RELEASED ON BAIL unless the judicial officer (usually a federal magistrate judge) finds that no condition or combination of conditions will reasonably assure (1) them appearing for trial or (2) the safety of the community.

/3 It's the burden of the government -- the federal prosecutor - to PROVE by CLEAR AND CONVINCING EVIDENCE that the danger element applies, and no conditions can reasonably control it, if the government wants someone detained without bail. Preponderance burden for flight risk.

/4 HOWEVER there are certain statutory categories of crimes where there is a rebuttable presumption that no conditions will prevent flight or danger -- in other words, for those crimes, the burden shifts to the defendant.

/5 The Federal Rules of Evidence don't govern detention hearings and they can and do proceed by "proffer" -- that is, the government saying what they will prove if necessary.
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This issue was repeatedly highlighted bu Judge Totenberg:

Dominion’s system “does not produce a voter-verifiable paper ballot or a paper ballot marked with the voter’s choices in a format readable by the voter because the votes are tabulated solely from the unreadable QR code.”


Judge also found that Dominion's QR codes are NOT encrypted:

“Evidence plainly contradicts any contention that the QR codes or digital signatures are encrypted,”

This was “ultimately conceded by Mr. Cobb and expressly acknowledged later by Dr. Coomer during his testimony.”

Judge Totenberg said there was “demonstrable evidence” that the implementation of Dominion’s systems by Georgia placed voters at an “imminent risk of deprivation of their fundamental right to cast an effective vote,” which she defined as a “vote that is accurately counted.”

Judge Totenberg found that Dominion Systems inherently could not be audited.

She noted that auditors are severely limited and “can only determine whether the BMD printout was tabulated accurately, not whether the election outcome is correct.“

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Georgia used RLAs to claim no fraud...
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Akiva Cohen
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Dear Texas: When your argument is that election procedures were adopted in violation of the Electors clause, the only evidence you need to "marshal" is "what election procedures were adopted and how"

You don't need weeks, a magnifying glass, and Melissa Carone


Also, why is there no other forum? You couldn't have sued in Federal court in Georgia or PA in advance of the election because ...?

Oh, right. No standing. That's still a problem


Also, Texas? I feel like you should take that up with ... Texas


I kind of feel like "look, what you meant by Purcell was let's just wait until after the election and then invalidate ALL the votes" isn't necessarily the *strongest* argument


Also, you don't just get to make up a new principle of constitutional and election law and just call it "a variant of" Purcell (or anything else).

You can tell it's made up by the total absence of any citation to ANY case, ANYWHERE, saying that
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Hearing before Justices Vipin Sanghi and Rekha Palli.

#OxygenCrisis #OxygenShortage

@CMODelhi @MoHFW_INDIA


Any orders passed by the Supreme Court: Court

It is listed today. As of now I have no instructions: ASG Chetan Sharma

It will be taken up once item 301 is over : Counsel

We will proceed. Did the meeting take place : Court

Yes, it did. Mr Mehra is appearing before Surpreme Court: Adv Satyakam urges Court to take up the matter little later.

Maharaja Agrasen Hospital, adv Alok Aggarwal: We have ICU beds and emergency beds. We don't charge emergency patients for oxygen. There is a notice to Hospitals saying we have to attend to all emergency patients within 10 mins and give them oxygen and medicines.

There is no one who is able to tell us there are people supposed to go if we can't admit them. We are full. They can't keep on occupying emergency area.. I can't kill a person because I've to admit another patient : Aggarwal
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Gil Kalai
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Where were we: Boaz Barak proposed a “law of nature” that if there is a physical device that can make a certain computation C, then there is a quantum circuit that computes C. 1/11

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Aram remarked that Boaz's proposed law is a variant of the strong Church Turing thesis. Correct! 2/11

I proposed a refinement of the general law. There are cases where we can analyse classes of devices (or natural processes) and can conclude that for them there is even a classical circuit that computes what they compute. 3/11

I gave a few examples 1) Computations that take place in Boaz's laptop can be carried out by a classical circuit.
4/11

2) Computations carried out by Boaz's brain can be carried out by a classical circuit. 5/11
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Andy McCabe has some explaining to do.


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If you’ve wondered exactly who it was who leaked the classified info from that intelligence report on @GenFlynn’s phone calls with then-Russian ambassador Kislyak to the media, you are right now seeing a huge honking clue who it was.

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Up.

Your.

Game.

You just might be too stupid to be following me.

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