Supreme Court

In a significant order, the social justice bench of the Supreme Court Justice Madan Lokur and Justice UU Lalit on Monday, 28 September, dismissed an application filed by the Government of Madhya Pradesh (GoMP) / Narmada Valley Development Authority (NVDA) seeking a ‘modification / clarification’ of the apex court’s previous judgements of 2000 and 2005, thereby denying right to land of a few thousand adult sons of the Sardar Sarovar Project (SSP) affected farmers.

When the BJP formed the Government at the Centre in 2014 with an absolute majority of its own, it was widely expected that judicial activism, which was on the rise in the 1990s and 2000s when coalition governments with bare majorities were in power at the Centre, might well be on its decline.

When the petition filed by Delhi Grameen Samaj and others against the Central Government’s Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (Amendment) Ordinance came up in court No.4 on Thursday, 24 September, it was a foregone conclusion that Justice JS Khehar, and Justice R Banumathi who heard it, would consider it infructuous, as the ordinance had already lapsed.

The Gujarat government on Wednesday told the Supreme Court that sacked state cadre IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt, accused of hacking the email of its former law officer, could not ask which agency would undertake an investigation and how it would do so.

The Supreme Court has said that the magnitude of the Uphaar fire tragedy may call for “higher sentence” but it could not go beyond the choices under the law while sentencing brothers and real estate barons Sushil and Gopal Ansal who own the Uphaar cinema hall, represented by senior counsel Ram Jethmalani.

Sniffer dogs, armed commandos and Rajputana Rifles personnel might soon be common citings at the Supreme Court which is being audited for parliament-style campus security, reported the Times of India.

Emailed threats after the recent Yakub Menon verdict by the Supreme Court, prompted the move. SC public relations officer Rakesh Sharma told /TOI/ that, “public must know that we are looking at the security aspect closely”.

Once the audit report is finished, more steps might be taken as the report would assess the possibility of attack from high rises as well as use of drones for perpetration. Some sources were also cited stating that the security protocol of the SC premises would be at par with that of the Parliament including electronic scanning of car registration plates and increase in electronic surveillance.

The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transexual (LGBT) community in Nepal now stands out as the only LGBT community in Asia to have the right to equality and non-discrimination, reported Catch News.

Articles 12, 18 and 42 in Nepal’s first federal constitution guarantee citizens the right choose their gender – male, female or other – on their citizenship document and the right not to be discriminated against based on their gender or sexual minority status, obligate the government to take affirmative action for gender and sexual minorities and list gender and sexual minorities among the groups of citizens who have a right to participate in state mechanisms and public services.

The Supreme Court of Nepal had in 2007 ordered the government of Nepal to guarantee equality to the LGBT community.

The Supreme Court’s Social Justice bench comprising of Justices Madan B Lokur and Uday Umesh Lalit pursued their quest for social justice on Friday, Sepember 18 with a combination of compliment, reprimand, and expression of dismay. The bench heard eight cases in two hours from 2 pm in Court 9.

On September 15, the Supreme Court bench of justices Anil Dave and Adarsh Kumar Goel expedited a pending hearing on admission of SLP, and granted leave thus converting it into a civil appeal, even while continuing the ad-interim relief granted earlier. In the normal course, it would not have raised eyebrows. But when it became known that the subject of the SLP is about the Government’s denial of tax exemption to a film on gay sex, Meghdhanushya, (meaning a spectrum or a rainbow) it made news and rightly so. The film centers around a young boy who finds himself attracted by persons of his own sex.

Opponents of the Aadhaar scheme have stepped up their campaign to expose instances of contempt of court in the Aadhaar case, which is pending for a resolution by the yet-to-be constituted Supreme Court’s Constitution bench.

In a setback for the Manohar Lal Khattar government in Haryana, the Supreme Court on Thursday stayed the state law providing that a candidate aspiring to contest the panchayat elections should have cleared the class 10 examination.

A bench of Justice J Chelameswar and Justice Abhay Manohar Sapre stayed the operation of the Haryana Panchayati Raj (Amendment) Act, 2015, passed by the state assembly on September 7, after the petition challenging the amended law was mentioned before the court.

While staying operation of the amended provision providing for educational qualifications for contesting local body’s elections, the court also issued notice to Haryana government and the Election Commission.

Under the amended law, a person from the general category should have passed the class 10 examinations and a Dalit should have passed class 8 to be eligible to contest local body’s elections.

The court was moved by the Communist Party of India-Marxist’’s woman wing, the All India Democratic Women Association, Rajbala and others.

The court order came after senior counsel Sanjay Parikh and Kirti Singh appearing for the petition mentioned the matter before the court.

The Supreme Court legal correspondent accreditation rules were changed to enforce stricter dress codes, and limits on permissible entry spaces, on journalists reporting the Supreme Court’s proceedings.

The Supreme Court legal correspondent accreditation rules were changed to enforce stricter dress codes, and limits on permissible entry spaces, on journalists reporting the Supreme Court’s proceedings.

According to Rule 7A, inserted in the new notified on 03.01.2007 rules, temporary and permanent court-reporters will have to dress in a “formal attire befitting the decor of the court"and prominently display their identity cards, and restrict their movement to an “area prescribed”.

The rule states that the journalists are supposed “to maintain decorum in court and refrain from doing such things as may disturb the proceedings of the court and shall confine to the area prescribed” and making a “serious endeavor of reporting a faithful account without any distortions and embellishments”.

The new rules also reduce the time for which a journalist has been continuously court-reporting, from the earlier five years to 3.5 years now, in case the journalist is only applying for temporary accreditation.

However, for permanent accreditation, journalists with law degrees still need to be continuously court-reporting for at least 5 years, like in the old rules.

The rules also note that grant of accreditation and its withdrawal are the prerogative of accreditation committee as constituted by the Chief Justice, and that the committee is not liable to give any reasons for its decision.

-- Prachi ShrivastavaReporterLegally India - News for Lawyershttp:// (India): +91 9810483059Twitter: http://twitter.com/legallyindiahttp://twitter.com/PrachiLI

The Supreme Court bench comprising justices TS Thakur and Kurian Joseph, in their order first granted permission to file the SLP in the appeal against Bombay high court order staying the Maharashtra government’s ban on sale of meat on some days of Paryurshan, an annual holy festival of Jain community. The ban was to be effective on September 10 and 17.