A Look at the Legal News this Week
Germany prosecutors indict Volkswagen CEO for fraud
German prosecutors charged former Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn and four others with fraud, unfair competition and breach of trust in connection with the company’s massive, multi-year effort to cheat on diesel emissions testing.
Prosecutors said that Winterkorn knew about the deceptive practice since May 2014 and failed to stop it. The company has admitted installing software that designed to cover up the the elevated pollution emissions during regular driving. Eleven million cars worldwide were equipped with the illegal software.
Prosecutors stated bonuses collected due to sales based on the deception could be forfeited. The bonuses in question ranged from around 300,000 euros to 11 million euros (USD $340,000 to $12.45 million). The 71-year-old Winterkorn and the others face from six months to 10 years imprisonment if convicted on charges of aggravated fraud involving serious losses.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission had already charged the company and Winterkorn on March 15 with defrauding investors through misleading statements about vehicle quality and environmental compliance.
Oz Arbitration Centre Gets its First Female President.
HSF partner appointed first female President of the Australian Centre for International Commercial Arbitration (ACICA)
ACICA’s first female president Brenda Horrigan, head of international arbitration Australia at Herbert Smith Freehills, began her tenure of leading ACICA yesterday, almost a year after she was elected an executive director of the centre’s board.
Ms Horrigan, a US-qualified lawyer, has nearly 20 years’ experience in international arbitration and is consistently ranked in Chambers and in Global Arbitration Review’s Who’s Who: Legal as a leading arbitration practitioner. She has practiced previously in the US, Paris, Moscow, and Shanghai, and is now based in Sydney.
SC Lawyers Menaka Guruswamy & Arundhati Katju Named In Time’s List Of 100 Influential Persons For Legal Battle Against Sec.377 IPC
In the Time Magazine’s list of 100 influential persons, the names of Supreme Court lawyers Menaka Guruswamy and Arundhati Katju are included, in recognition of their contribution in the Navtej Johar case in which the Supreme Court had decriminalised homosexuality by striking down Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code. “Arundhati and Menaka have helped take a giant step for LGBTQ+ rights in the world’s largest democracy. In their committed fight for justice, they have shown us that we as a society must continue to make progress, even after laws are changed, and that we must make an effort to understand, accept and love”, wrote actor Priyanka Chopra about them in the Time.
SC Acquits Murder Accused After 20 Years, Finding That He Was Juvenile At The Time Of Incident
Supreme Court acquitted a murder accused after 20 years of commission of alleged murder on the crucial finding that the he was a minor at the time of commission of the offence. In the case Ashok Kumar Mehra & Anr v. State of Punjab, the appellant along with his father was convicted for the offences under 302 r/w 34 of IPC and sentenced to undergo imprisonment for life by the High Court of Punjab and Haryana wherein the order of acquittal of the Sessions Judge was reversed by the High Court on an Appeal and Revision preferred by the State as well as the complainant.
Person Ineligible To Be Arbitrator Under Sec.12(5) Of Arbitration Act Cannot Appoint Another Arbitrator : SC
An appointment of arbitrator made by an ineligible person is itself void ab initio The Supreme Court has held that the appointment of an arbitrator by a person who himself is ineligible to be an arbitrator as per Section 12(5) of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act 1996 is void ab initio. The bench of Justices R F Nariman and Vineet Saran followed the 2017 decision in TRF Ltd. v Energy Engineering Projects Ltd (2017) 8 SCC 377 (TRF Ltd)., which had held that an ineligible person cannot appoint arbitrator.
