President Droupadi Murmu conferred the coveted Padma awards on 68 eminent personalities, including former Chief Justice of India Jagdish Singh Khehar, dancer Shobana Chandrakumar, actor Anant Nag, and Vice Chancellor of King George's Medical University Soniya Nityanand. The awards were given in various disciplines and fields, including art, social work, public affairs, science and engineering, trade and industry, medicine, literature and education, sports, and civil service. The Padma Vibhushan was awarded to Justice (retd) Khehar for public affairs, while nine individuals received the Padma Bhushan. The Padma Shri was awarded to leading immunologist and KGMU VC Nityanand, footballer Inivalappil Mani Vijayan, singer Ashwini Bhide Deshpande, actor Ashok Laxman Saraf, mask maker Reba Kanta Mahanta, and musician Ricky Gyan Kej, among others.
President Droupadi Murmu on Saturday approved 139 Padma awards including seven Padma Vibhushans, 19 Padma Bhushans and 113 Padma Shris.
Landmark judgments follow new CJI's assumption of office.
Justice J S Khehar will be sworn in on January 4 and will hold the tenure for over seven months till August 27, 2017.
The Supreme Court on Friday termed as "virtually infructuous" a petition filed by a group of lawyers opposing the elevation of Justice J S Khehar as next the Chief Justice of India, observing that the President of India has already issued a notification in this regard.
Justice Khehar, 64, will be the first Chief Justice from the Sikh community and he will succeed CJI Thakur who will be demitting office on January 3, 2017.
President Pranab Mukherjee administered the oath of office and secrecy to Justice Kehar at the Darbar Hall of Rashtrapati Bhawan.
Justice Khanna, who will serve as CJI for a little over six months, will demit office on May 13, 2025.
"How can a court order this? To say that the judgment, a public document, be pulled down will have very serious ramifications," said a bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra after taking note of the submissions of Ikanoon Software Development Pvt Ltd, a Bengaluru-based legal website.
A 'communication dated May 6, 2014 received from Justice J S Khehar was placed before the Chief Justice of India on May 7.
Justice Lalit will be the second CJI who was directly elevated to the apex court bench from the Bar.
Senior-most judge of the Supreme Court Justice U U Lalit, who is in line to become the next Chief Justice of India (CJI), has been part of several landmark judgments including the one which held the practice of divorce through instant 'triple talaq' among Muslims illegal and unconstitutional.
The speaker of Parliament or a legislative assembly can decide on the notice seeking his recusal from dealing with disqualification pleas of lawmakers subject to judicial review and can ascertain whether such applications are bona fide or intended only to evade disciplinary action, the Supreme Court said on Thursday.
Justice Nazeer, along with then Chief Justice of India J S Khehar, was in minority in the 'triple talaq' judgement which was delivered in August 2017.
CJI Lalit concurred with the minority view of Justice S Ravindra Bhat who held the EWS quota as "unconstitutional" for excluding poor among SCs, STs and OBCs.
President Droupadi Murmu administered him the oath at a brief ceremony held at the Rashtrapati Bhavan.
'If you were to say today that the government should appoint judges to the high courts and Supreme Court, then I think that even those few good judges that we are getting today we would not get them.'
Lt Governor Najeeb Jung has appointed a special public prosecutor to represent Delhi police in the alleged fake degree case involving former law minister and AAP leader Jitender Singh Tomar, a court in New Dehli was told on Thursday.
The PM lauded the steps being taken by the CJI to make use of technology in simplifying the working in the courts and bring about qualitative change.
Justice Karnan said the eight judges have "jointly committed the offences punishable under the SC/ST Atrocities Act of 1989 and amended Act of 2015.
A new bench has been constituted in the Supreme Court to hear the Sahara case which will take up the matter on May 19.
'Some BJP old timers have remarked that the BJP is now driven by its own high command, the way the Congress was under Mrs Gandhi, says Subir Roy.
A bench headed by CJI asked the petitioner to approach the high court.
Along with the triple talaq matter, the Supreme Court will also hear cases related to Aadhaar and WhatsApp during the nearly 50-day summer vacation.
Justice Bobde, who decided several key cases during his tenure including the historic Ayodhya verdict, was administered oath as the 47th CJI in November 2019 and retired on Friday.
Contempt proceedings were initiated against Justice Karnan for writing letters to various judges including the Prime Minister, accusing several judges of corruption.
Mathews J Nedumpara, counsel for the former judge, said Justice Karnan has been in jail without a detailed judgment and moreover, one of the seven judges of the bench, which had convicted him, has already retired.
The judges in the minority verdict said that if the Centre does not bring a law within six months, then its injunction on triple talaq will continue.
Justice Misra will remain in office till October 2, 2018.
The apex court's strength is now 28, including the Chief Justice of India.
He also said nation can't progress unless judiciary gets ready to handle the challenges.
Chief Justice of India J S Khehar on Saturday criticised the electoral politics in the country, saying poll promises are "routinely unfulfilled", caste issues projected differently to get a majority and party manifestos do not have any linkage to socio-economic justice.
"We have repealed 1,200 laws. There were so many laws," the PM said.
The Centre had termed privacy as a 'vague and amorphous' right which cannot be granted primacy to deprive poor people of their rights to life, food and shelter.
The CJI said that absence of timely legal help to poor affects credibility.
Justice Karnan claimed that the seven judges of the bench have insulted him 'wantonly and deliberately and with mala fide intention'.
"You have been extremely unfair to the accused, especially looking at his medical condition. If material witnesses have been examined, then there is no point in putting him in jail," the bench said to the police.
Roy and the other two directors of the Group have been in judicial custody since March 4.
The Waqf Board has sought time from the top court for setting up of a committee for exploring an amicable resolution of the vexatious issue.
PM urges lawyers to fight cases for the poor for free.
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