The observation came in an order issued by a Division Bench, comprising Chief Justice S Manikumar and Justice Shaji P Chaly, on January 25 while dismissing an appeal filed against a single judge order junking a plea seeking removal of the Prime Minister's photo from the COVID-19 vaccination certificates.
The petition, likely to come up for hearing within next few days, sought to investigate if the illegal hacking into the phones using the Pegasus spyware represented an attempt by agencies and organisations to muzzle and chill the exercise of free speech and expression of dissent in India.
It said that the nodal counsel would consider designating some other matters as lead ones, keeping in mind the grounds of geographical and religious classifications among other factors.
'Justice B V Nagarathna has excellent human qualities and is a stickler for the law.'
A Division Bench, comprising Chief Justice S Manikumar and Justice Shaji P Chaly dismissed an appeal filed against a single judge order junking a plea seeking removal of the Prime Minister's photo from the COVID-19 vaccination certificates.
The top court had on January 18 said the Centre will have a role in drafting the model community kitchens scheme and, particularly, exploring the possibility of providing additional food grains for it.
The government's move to withdraw the circulars came after the HC said those orders were illegal and issued without following the procedure prescribed under provisions of the Disaster Management Rules.
The Bombay high court on Monday directed the Income Tax department not to take any coercive action against Reliance Group chairman Anil Ambani till November 17 on a show cause notice issued to him seeking to prosecute him under the Black Money Act. The I-T department had issued the notice to Ambani on August 8, 2022 for allegedly evading Rs 420 crore in taxes on undisclosed funds worth more than Rs 814 crore held in two Swiss bank accounts. The department has charged Ambani (63) with "wilful" evasion, saying he "intentionally" did not disclose his foreign bank account details and financial interests to Indian tax authorities.
Sri Lanka's Acting President Ranil Wickremesinghe on Monday imposed emergency giving him sweeping powers ahead of the key election on July 20 to pick a new President as he urged the political parties to put aside differences and form an all-party government, with the Opposition dubbing his decision as an 'undemocratic draconian act'.
Vice President Dhankar's and Law Minister Rijuju's recent interventions have the danger of destabilising the Constitutional equilibrium, cautions N Sathiya Moorthy.
The AIMPLB appealed to the Centre to not undertake the Uniform Civil Code.
The petitioners challenging a Tamil Nadu law allowing bull-taming sport Jallikattu argued in the Supreme Court on Tuesday that when the law prohibits cruelty to animals there cannot be an amending Act which perpetuates cruelty.
Justice Chandrachud said unlike many countries, India's Constitution was forged by Indians here in New Delhi
The bench, which said it would not stay any probe in these FIRs, issued notice on the plea and posted it for hearing after three weeks.
The top court was hearing the plea of an organisation 'Lawyer's Voice' seeking a thorough investigation into the breach in Prime Minister Modi's security in Punjab and ensuring there is no such event in the future.
The top court said in order to declare whether the exercise is academic or infructuous, it needs to examine the matter since both sides are not agreeable.
"Girls are sitting outside classrooms and demanding their fundamental rights. The hijab is a part of their cultural and religious identity of these girls. It is like the mangalsutra for Hindus, crucifix for the Christians and turbans for the Sikhs," Prathapan said during Zero Hour.
The poll panel on Friday took note of alleged breach of 'ethical and dignified behaviour' and revoked the 'star campaigner' status of the Congress leader. While the political party pays for the expenditure of a star campaigner, the candidate pays for the expenditure of other campaigners.
The petition, likely to come up for hearing on Tuesday, sought the court's direction to the Director General of Military Intelligence to withdraw its June 6 policy to the extent that it orders all the members of the Indian Army to delete their accounts from Facebook and Instagram and 87 other applications.
The Mumbai police had earlier told the HC that they would not arrest Ranaut till January 25, 2022 over her social media post that allegedly linked farmers' protests to a separatist group.
The yatra goes on till the first week of August and sees thousands of Shiva devotees called kanwariyas' travelling mostly on foot from neighbouring states, including Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Delhi to collect water from the Ganges in Haridwar.
"The girls are losing out on studies," lawyer Prashant Bhushan said.
Opposition members hit out at the government for the introduction of the bill in a 'hurry' and 'without any consultation with stakeholders'.
Saying that prison inmates do not cease to be human beings and can't be deprived of the fundamental right to life, the Bombay High Court on Thursday directed the Maharashtra government to transfer alleged Maoist leader Nirmala Uppuganti from jail to a hospice for palliative care on account of her terminal cancer.
The Centre on Monday told the Delhi high court that Mughal Mosque in South Delhi's Mehrauli area is a "protected monument" and sought time to state its stand on a plea against the stopping of offering namaaz by devotees there.
Referring to the statement of NCP leader Nawab Malik in which he had cast aspersions on NCB, the plea said it's high time the NCB is probed by a top court judge to unravel the truth.
The Supreme Court said on Friday the extension of time granted to probe agencies to file charge sheets in criminal cases is not an "empty formality" because it deprives the accused of their "indefeasible right" to seek default bail due to non-completion of investigation during the stipulated period.
Additional sessions judge Anil Antil dismissed the application of Bhupinder Tomar, president of the 'Hindu Raksha Dal', and said that in the past such incidents have flared communal tensions leading to riots and loss to life and property. Tomar was accused of raising communal slogans and inciting youth to propagate against a particular religion at a rally at Jantar Mantar on August 8. "We are not Taliban State. Rule of law is the sacrosanct governing principle in our plural and multi-cultural society. While the whole of India is celebrating 'Azadi ka Amrut Mahotsav', there are some minds still chained with Intolerant and self centric beliefs," the judge said in the order passed on August 21.
"In the first place, unless a legislature mandates by law that CCTV cameras should be installed in certain place, it cannot be done. It is violation of Art 21 (on privacy)," Justice G R Swaminathan of the Madurai bench of the HC said.
Salman Rushdie has been taken off a ventilator and was able to talk, a day after the Mumbai-born author was stabbed, in what US authorities said was a 'targeted, unprovoked, preplanned' attack.
Let the existing collegium system which is functioning not get derailed, the SC observed.
Right to privacy as a fundamental right and granting 'third gender' status to transgenders were heavily relied upon by the SC while giving judgment.
'Your confidence is shaken when the government does what it does these days, but then it is the same confidence that gives you the courage to stand up to the government's high-handedness.' 'There will always be people who will not fear jails or the physical and mental torture that visit citizens protesting against the government's draconian policies and laws.' 'There will always be Indians who will not be afraid to face the consequences of fighting for their Constitutional rights.'
According to the cause list uploaded on the apex court website, a bench comprising Chief Justice N V Ramana and Justice Surya Kant would hear on August 5 three separate petitions seeking probe into the reports of alleged snooping by government agencies on eminent citizens, politicians and scribes by using Israeli spyware Pegasus.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to consider listing pleas challenging the Karnataka high court verdict which had dismissed petitions seeking permission to wear hijab inside the classroom.
Police said according to the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) report, the blood samples recovered from Poonawala's house were of Walkar's.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed the Election Commission to go ahead with the hearing of Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde group's plea seeking recognition as the real Shiv Sena and allocation of the party's bow-and-arrow poll symbol to it.
'The attack prima facie constitutes an act of cyber-terrorism,' the petition stated, 'that has several grave political and security ramifications, especially considering that the devices of government ministers, senior political figures and Constitutional functionaries which may contain sensitive information have been targeted.'
President Ranil Wickremesinghe on Wednesday thanked India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi for giving Sri Lanka 'a breath of life' by providing timely economic assistance to his country as it faced the worst economic crisis in decades.
The Delhi high court on Wednesday asked the Centre to explain why married men and women cannot be considered for the judge advocate general (JAG) department, the legal arm of the Army, and remarked the policy barring married individuals from applying "does not make any sense".