The important observation on the interpretation of the provision came in a judgement by which the top court directed National Disaster Management Authority to issue guidelines in six weeks for ex gratia compensation to families of those who died of Covid.
"The Right to Life as guaranteed by Article 21...gives the right to every human being to live a life of dignity with access to at-least bare necessities of life. To provide food security to impoverished persons is the bounden duty of all States and Governments," the top court observed while issuing a slew of directions on a plea of three activists.
A five-judge Constitution bench, headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan, gave a week time to all the states to submit their brief note of submissions after some of them sought time.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, said media reports suggest that chargesheets filed in the case comprises of more than 10,000 pages.
'A balance has to be struck as some OTT platforms are also showing pornographic materials on their platforms'
The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked Maharashtra Police to place on record the second supplementary charge sheet filed in the case related to alleged lynching of three people, including two seers, in Palghar district in April last year.
Attorney General K K Venugopal had granted consent for initiation of criminal contempt proceedings against Kamra, saying the tweets were in "bad taste".
The Supreme Court has got four new judges with President Pranab Mukherjee signing their warrants of appointment on Wednesday.
A bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan, Sanjay Kishan Kaul and M R Shah said industries and employees need each other and they should sit together to arrive at a settlement on the issue of payment of wages.
In a festival gift to borrowers, the finance ministry on Wednesday approved guidelines for a scheme for grant of ex-gratia payment of the difference between compound interest and simple interest for six months of loans up to Rs 2 crore.
A bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and K M Joseph would hear the appeals filed in the matter.
While hearing the matter on December 1, the top court had observed that once posters or signages are pasted outside the homes of COVID patients, the people affected are treated as "untouchables", reflecting a different "ground reality".
HC had struck down 50 per cent institutional preference in admission to PG medical seats.
'Applications seeking permission to file review petitions are allowed. We have carefully gone through the review petitions and the connected papers. We find no merit in the review petitions and the same are accordingly dismissed,' the bench said in its order.
65-year-old Sathasivam, whose appointment triggered debate in legal and political circles on the propriety of giving gubernatorial assignment to a former CJI, is the 23rd governor of the state.
The Supreme Court has refused to interfere with the government and RBI's loan moratorium policy, and declined to extend the six-month loan moratorium period.
For how many generations would reservations in jobs and education continue, the Supreme Court sought to know during the Maratha quota case hearing on Friday and raised concerns over 'resultant inequality' in case the overall 50 per cent limit was to be removed.
The government said this before a bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan which reserved order on a plea seeking directions to do away with the practice of pasting posters outside the homes of those infected by coronavirus.
The petitioners seeking reconsideration by a larger bench, the observations made by it in a 1994 verdict that a mosque was not integral to Islam.
The bill for amendments to the UAPA was passed by Parliament on August 2 and it received the President's assent on August 9. The amended Act allows the Centre to designate individuals as terrorists and seize their properties.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) to issue fresh guidelines for providing minimum standards of financial help to families of those who lost their lives to COVID-19.
Testing only those with symptoms is not such a great idea. A lot of asymptomatic people are also positive. Its also important to do some amount of random testing in the clusters. You need to do lot more testing. The more you test, the more positives you get. Only redeeming feature is that the number of those getting into ICU or dying is not huge, she said.
Senior advocate Parag Tripathi, appearing for the BCCI, referred to the recorded telephonic conversations in the matter and told the court it was clear that money was demanded and was 'probably received' also.
The observations by a bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan came after the Centre apprised it that ongoing wave of the pandemic appears to be 'harsher' than earlier.
Kumar, 73, surrendered before a trial court on December 31, 2018 to serve his sentence in accordance with the Delhi high court's December 17 judgment, which convicted and sent him to prison for the "remainder of his natural life".
"If the states are not complying with the directions and orders of the Central government, you are not helpless. You have to ensure that your order is implemented. "You have got the power under the Disaster Management Act. You can take steps also," the bench told Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre.
In a major relief to passengers, whose flights got cancelled due to the Covid-19 lockdown, the Supreme Court on Thursday accepted the recommendations of the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to refund ticket fares and also approved a credit shell scheme which will be valid till March 31.
The top court said it is not satisfied with the efforts of the Centre as well as the states on the issue of registration of workers in unorganised sectors.
The Centre has moved the Supreme Court seeking review of the May 5 majority verdict which held that 102nd Constitution amendment took away the power of state governments to declare Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (SEBC) for grant of quota in jobs and admissions.
The judgment came on a batch of pleas challenging the Bombay high court verdict which had upheld the grant of reservation to Marathas in admissions and government jobs in the state.
Tainted Indian pacer Shantakumaran Sreesanth's ban for alleged spot-fixing will end next August, BCCI Ombudsman D K Jain has ordered, observing that the cricketer is well past his prime having already served six years.
The court said the situation is "going out of control" in Gujarat.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday granted protection from coercive action to AAP leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh in alleged hate speech cases lodged against him in UP.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday declined to grant interim protection from arrest to Ali Abbas Zafar, director of the web series Tandav, and others seeking the quashing of FIRs against them for allegedly hurting religious sentiments of Hindus, and issued notices Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and other states on their pleas.
The solicitor general said that the PM CARES Fund is a 'voluntary fund'. "It is a public trust. It is a body where you can make voluntary contributions and no budgetary allocations to the NDRF or SDRF are being touched. What has to be spent will be spent," the law officer said.
A bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan, S K Kaul and M R Shah said that 'with regard to this incident, this court has already taken cognisance. There is no question of multiplying the petitions one by one'.
The Centre informed the Supreme Court on Monday that a decision is likely in 2-3 days over charging of interest by banks on instalments which were deferred during the moratorium period in view of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday sought response from the four death row convicts in the Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case on the Centre's appeal challenging the Delhi high court verdict which dismissed its plea against stay on their execution.
The top court asked the Centre to file a compliance report within four weeks on payment of salaries and quarantine facilities to doctors and healthcare workers and warned that non-compliance would be viewed seriously.
The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), in its circular, had asked all employers to make payment of wages to their workers without any deduction for the period their establishments were under closure during the lockdown to contain COVID-19.
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