Page 147 - Supreme Court

Politicians can't be restrained from participating in political acts: SC

Granting of bail preconditioned on the premise of politicians not participating in political activities would be violative of fundamental rights, said the apex court

Usher in transparency, not price controls

A standard rate chart for hospitals across the country is impractical as it doesn't consider real estate costs that vary widely across locations

BJP criticises Kerala govt's move to approach SC against President Murmu

The BJP on Sunday criticised the Left government in Kerala for its move to approach the Supreme Court against President Droupadi Murmu saying that it reflected the Marxist party's discrimination towards women and tribal communities. The CPI(M) has always adopted an "anti-woman" stand and they had even opposed when Murmu had been nominated to the supreme post of the country, senior party leader and Union Minister V Muraleedharan alleged. To prove his argument that the Marxist party's fundamental stand was anti-woman, he said there was no woman member in the Left party's polit bureau till 2022. The saffron party's criticism came a day after the LDF government justified its move to approach the apex Court against Murmu for withholding assent to four bills passed by the state assembly, saying her action has "significant constitutional implications." "If we look back into history, we can understand why the Marxist Party is moving against President Murmu...The innate objection of the CPI

K'taka moves SC seeking direction to release funds for drought management

The Karnataka government has moved the Supreme Court seeking a direction to the Centre to release financial assistance from the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) to the state for drought management. The petition has also sought to declare that the Centre's action in not releasing the financial assistance for drought arrangement as per the NDRF is "ex-facie violative" of the fundamental rights of the people of the state guaranteed under Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution. It said the state is reeling under "severe drought", affecting the lives of its people and for the Kharif 2023 season, which starts in June and ends in September, a total of 223 out of 236 taluks are declared as drought-affected. The plea said 196 taluks are categorised as severely affected and the remaining 27 as moderately affected. "Cumulatively for Kharif 2023 season, the agriculture and horticulture crop loss have been reported in more than 48 lakh hectares with the estimated loss (cost of cultivation

Will seek court permission to set up office for Delhi CM in jail: Mann

Aam Aadmi Party leader and Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Saturday said that if his Delhi counterpart Arvind Kejriwal is sent to jail, they will approach the court seeking permission to set up his office in prison to run his government from there. He also asserted that no one can take the place of Kejriwal in the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). "It is not written anywhere that a government cannot run from jail," Mann told PTI videos in an interview when asked about the arrest of the Delhi chief minister and AAP chief by the Enforcement Directorate in an excise policy case and how he will run his government if he is sent to judicial custody. The BJP has demanded the resignation of Kejriwal after he was remanded in ED custody till March 28. "The law says he can work from jail till found guilty. We will seek permission from the Supreme Court, High Court for setting up office in the jail and the government will function," Mann said. He said that no one can take the place of Kejriwal in

Was trolled and abused for changing seating position, says CJI Chandrachud

Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud on Saturday recalled a recent incident of him facing 'trolling' and 'vicious abuse' for adjusting his seating position, during a hearing due to a discomfort and highlighted the need for judicial officers to manage stress and ensure work-life balance. He was speaking after inaugurating the 21st Biennial State Level Conference of Judicial Officers titled, "Equity and Excellence for Futuristic Judiciary", organised by the Karnataka State Judicial Officer's Association. Speaking on work-life balance and stress management, which was one of the topics of the two-day conference, he said the capacity to manage stress is significant in the life of a judge, especially for district judges. As judicial officers they regularly engage with vulnerable litigants. Many of the people who come to the courts are stressed about the injustice caused to them, he said. "Sometimes in their dealings with us as judges, they cross the line. As Chief Justice of India, I s

Kerala govt moves SC against President withholding assent to its bills

In an unusual move, the Kerala government has petitioned the Supreme Court against President Droupadi Murmu withholding assent to four bills passed by the state assembly. It has requested that the President not granting assent to the bills -- University Laws (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill, 2021; the Kerala Co-operative Societies (Amendment) Bill, 2022; the University Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2022; and the University Laws (Amendment) (No. 3) Bill, 2022 -- without stating any reason be declared unconstitutional. The CPM-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) government has made the Union government, the Secretary to the President of India, Kerala Governor Arif Mohammad Khan and his additional secretary parties to the case. Besides several other reliefs, the state government has also sought direction to declare illegal Governor Khan reserving a total of seven bills, including these four, for the consideration of the President. "The conduct of the Governor in keeping Bills pending for long and ...

Opaque electoral bond scheme ensured bribes through banks, says Congress

Stepping up its attack on the BJP-led government over the electoral bonds issue, the Congress on Saturday said the "opaque scheme" ensured that prepaid, postpaid and even post-raid bribes could be routed through the banking channel. The opposition party also reiterated its demand that there should be a Supreme Court-monitored inquiry into the issue. At a press conference, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh alleged that this is the prime minister who gave a guarantee of 'bringing back black money' and instead "legalized corruption and is then desperately trying to hide it". The opposition party also released a "python code" due to which, it claimed, it took less than 15 seconds to match the donors with political parties, "exposing the brazen and ridiculous claim of the SBI that it would take months to provide the data asked by the Supreme Court". The Congress has highlighted four patterns of "blatant corruption" in the electoral bonds scam -? "Chanda Do, Dhanda Lo i.e. Prepaid

Preventive detention based on capricious exercise of powers must stop: SC

Observing that preventive detention is a draconian measure and any such move based on a capricious or routine exercise of powers must be nipped in the bud, the Supreme Court has set aside a Telangana High Court order rejecting a detenu's appeal. A bench headed by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud on Thursday said the essential concept of preventive detention is that the detention of a person is not to punish him for something he has done but to prevent him from doing it. "Inability on the part of the state's police machinery to tackle the law-and-order situation should not be an excuse to invoke the jurisdiction of preventive detention," the bench also comprising Justice J B Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra said. "Preventive detention being a draconian measure, any order of detention as a result of a capricious or routine exercise of powers must be nipped in the bud. It must be struck down at the first available threshold," the top court said. The appellant was arrested under

Interfering with appointment of ECs would lead to chaos, says Supreme Court

"Suspension of legislation pending consideration is an exception and not the rule," the Supreme Court observed on Friday while dismissing pleas challenging the appointment of election commissioners under a 2023 law, saying interfering with the selection process would lead to "chaos and a virtual constitutional breakdown". A bench of justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta, which pronounced the order dismissing the pleas against the appointment of election commissioners (ECs) Gyanesh Kumar and Sukhbir Singh Sandhu on Thursday, gave detailed reasons for its findings. It, however, expressed concern on the procedure adopted for the selection of ECs and said such selection should be made with full details and particulars of the candidates circulated among all members of the selection panel comprising the prime minister, leader of the largest opposition party in Parliament and a Union minister nominated by the prime minister. "Procedural sanctity of the selection process requires a fair

SpiceJet cleared all outstanding dues: Credit Suisse tells Supreme Court

Credit Suisse and SpiceJet have been entangled in a legal conflict since 2015 over outstanding debts of approximately $24 million

Green energy firms get Supreme Court nod to use area around GIB habitat

The SC, in April 2021, said the priority habitat area of GIB will remain out of bounds for any construction.

SC denies bail to BRS leader K Kavitha in Delhi excise policy case

In a setback to BRS leader K Kavitha, the Supreme Court on Friday refused to grant her bail in the money laundering case related to the alleged Delhi excise policy scam. The development came a day after Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in the same case. A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna, MM Sundresh and Bela M Trivedi asked Kavitha to approach the trial court, saying it is a practice which this court is following and cannot bypass the protocol. "Issue notice. Counter affidavit shall be filed in six weeks. Rejoinder, if any, in six weeks. It will be open to the petitioner to move the trial court or invoke any other remedy for grant of bail," the bench said, adding all pleas and contentions available to the petitioner are left open. It clarified that the court has not made any comments on merits of the case. The bench said as far as Kavitha's plea challenging the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) is concerned,

Arvind Kejriwal key conspirator in liquor scam, ED tells Delhi court

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday moved the Supreme Court seeking to withdraw his plea against his arrest by the ED in the excise policy-linked money laundering case, hours after the apex court agreed to hear the matter. Senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, representing Kejriwal, mentioned the matter before a bench headed by Justice Sanjiv Khanna and said since the remand proceedings before the trial court later in the day will be clashing with the hearing in the top court, he be allowed to withdraw the plea. He said Kejriwal will contest the remand proceedings before the trial court and then come back to the apex court with another petition. "You may go there (before trial court). Just write an e-mail to the registry. We will see," Justice Khanna told Singhvi. Singhvi said, "I will write a letter to the registry. I had to mention this again before this court so that it is convenient for your lordships". The move came hours after Justice Khanna had told Singhvi that ...

SC transfers batch of pending pleas against IT rules 2021 to Delhi HC

The Supreme Court on Friday transferred to the Delhi High Court a batch of pleas pending before different high courts across the country challenging the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021. A bench of Justices Hrishikesh Roy and Prashant Kumar Mishra noted that several petitions were pending on the issue before different high courts including Karnataka, Madras, Calcutta, Kerala and Bombay high courts. "In order to avoid contradictory judgments, the Union of India would wish to have all matters consolidated for analogous hearing. Since a large number of these cases are pending consideration before the Delhi High Court, we deem it appropriate to transfer the matters in various HCs to the Delhi HC," the bench said. The top court directed that all relevant paper books shall be transferred by the high courts to the Delhi High Court within four days. The apex court passed the order on a transfer petition moved by the Union of India f

ED required to furnish grounds of arrest to accused in writing, says SC

The Supreme Court has dismissed the Centre's petition seeking review of its verdict which said the Enforcement Directorate (ED) is required to furnish the grounds of arrest to an accused in writing "without exception", saying there was no error in its judgement warranting reconsideration. A bench of Justices AS Bopanna and Sanjay Kumar considered the review petition in chambers and passed the order. "We have carefully gone through the review petitions and the connected papers. We do not find any error, much less apparent, in the order impugned, warranting its reconsideration. The review petitions are dismissed accordingly. Pending application, if any, stands disposed of," the bench said. In its order passed on March 20, the bench also dismissed the Centre's application for an open court hearing. The Centre had sought a review of the October 3 order of the apex court by which it had set aside the orders of the Punjab and Haryana High Court as well as the arrest memos, while directin

SC sets aside order directing Bloomberg to take down defamatory article

The Supreme Court on Friday set aside a trial court's order directing international media group Bloomberg to take down an allegedly defamatory news article against Zee Entertainment. The top court was hearing a plea filed by Bloomberg against the March 14 order of the Delhi High Court, which dismissed its appeal against the trail court order. A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud said the error committed by the trial judge had been perpetuated by the high court. "The error committed by the trial judge had been perpetuated by the high court. Merely recording that a prima-facie case exists for a grant of injunction, the balance of convenience lies in Zee's favour and that an irreparable injury would be caused would not amount to application of mind in the case," the bench, also comprising Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, said while granting liberty to Zee to approach the trial court afresh with its prayer seeking injunction. Reacting on the apex court ord

SC refuses bail to K Kavitha in ED case related to Delhi excise policy scam

The Supreme Court on Friday refused to grant bail to BRS leader K Kavitha, who has been arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in the Delhi excise policy scam case. A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna, MM Sundresh and Bela M Trivedi asked Kavitha to approach the trial court, saying it is a practice which this court is following and cannot bypass the protocol. The bench said as far as Kavitha's plea challenging the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) is concerned, the court is issuing notice to the ED and seeking its response in six weeks. The petition challenging the provisions will come up with the pending matters, the bench told senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Kavitha. At the outset, Sibal said that people are being arrested on the basis of an approver's statement. The bench said it is not going into the merit of the case at the moment. Kavitha has moved the top court challenging her arrest by the ED in connection with the Delhi excise policy .

Supreme Court bench set to hear Arvind Kejriwal's plea against arrest

A three-judge bench of the Supreme Court will on Friday hear Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's plea against his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate in an excise policy-linked money laundering case. Senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, appearing for Kejriwal, mentioned the matter for urgent listing before a bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud. The CJI asked Singhvi to mention his plea before a bench headed by Justice Sanjiv Khanna. Singhvi then rushed to Justice Khanna's court and mentioned the matter. Justice Khanna said Kejriwal's plea would be heard by a three-judge bench which will assemble in a while. Kejriwal had moved the Supreme Court late Thursday after the ED arrested him.

Editors Guild welcomes Supreme Court stay on PIB's fact-checking unit

Editors Guild of India on Thursday welcomed the Supreme Court's order staying the Centre's notification setting up a fact-checking unit under the Press Information Bureau (PIB) to identify fake news about the Central government. The fact check unit was notified on March 20 under Information Technology Rules, 2021, by the Ministry of Electronics and IT, amid concerns voiced by civil society groups and media outlets about the possibility of its misuse for potential censorship. "EGI welcomes the stay on the Fact Checking Unit under the IT Rules 2021, by the Supreme Court of India," the Guild said in a statement here. The Supreme Court on Thursday stayed the notification setting up a fact-checking unit under the PIB to identify fake news about the Union government.