The Supreme Court of India has directed the Odisha government to decide within six weeks on a plea for remission filed by Ravindra Pal alias Dara Singh, who is serving a life sentence for the murders of Australian missionary Graham Stuart Staines and his two sons in 1999. Singh, who has spent over 24 years in prison, claims to have "repented" his actions and seeks an opportunity to reform his character. The court issued the notice after Singh argued that he has already served more than the required period of sentence and that his right to liberty is being jeopardized by the delay in processing his plea.
A five-judge bench of the Supreme Court will consider review pleas challenging the October 2023 verdict that declined legal sanction to same-sex marriage. The review pleas will be heard in chambers on January 9, with Justice P S Narasimha being the only member of the original bench that delivered the verdict.
The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed a batch of pleas seeking to review its October 2023 verdict declining legal sanction to same-sex marriage.
The sentence shall commence after he serves the sentence of imprisonment in the other cases, the judge said. This is the 19th case out of the 20 murder cases registered against the criminal, who has killed several women using the deadly cyanide after befriending and raping them.
Chief Justice of India N V Ramana on Thursday set in motion the process of appointment of his successor by recommending the name of Justice Uday Umesh Lalit, the most senior judge, to the Centre.
Justice Sanjiv Khanna, who has been part of several landmark Supreme Court judgements such as scrapping the electoral bonds scheme and upholding abrogation of Article 370, will be sworn in as the 51st Chief Justice of India on Monday.
The court said that in the instant case the investigating officer adopted a "lethargic attitude" throughout the investigation.
Directing the Centre, states and Union Territories (UTs) to ensure the queer community is not discriminated against, the CJI, who is heading the constitution bench, said queer is a natural phenomenon known for ages and is neither urban nor elitist.
Tahawwur Hussain Rana, a Pakistan-born Canadian national and close associate of David Coleman Headley, is set to be extradited to India from the US. Rana was involved in the planning and execution of the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, which killed 166 people, including six Americans. He assisted Headley in obtaining a visa for India, established a front company in Mumbai, and helped in reconnaissance of targets in Mumbai and New Delhi. Rana was convicted in the US for providing material support to Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and sentenced to 14 years in prison. His extradition to India will allow authorities to question him about his involvement in the Mumbai attacks and potentially uncover new information about the role of Pakistani state actors.
A 'jatha' of 101 farmers Friday began its foot march to Delhi from their protest site at Shambhu border, but was stopped a few metres away by a multilayered barricading.
The high court said the psychological impact on a POCSO case victim being present in court during the arguments is grave.
The verdict was welcomed by the victim's sister who told a TV channel that she would like to thank the Sessions Judge "for pronouncing a fair judgement".
The apex court, hearing a plea that has raised the problems faced by sex workers due to the COVID-19 pandemic, has been passing orders for their welfare and on September 29 last year, it had asked the Centre and others to provide dry ration to them without insisting on their identity proof.
Appointed as the first female head of the state judiciary on August 3, 2018, she retired on December 8, 2020.
In his petition, Suri's lawyer said that he is being punished as his wife, who is a US citizen, is of Palestinian heritage and because the government suspects that he and his wife are against the US foreign policy towards Israel.
The Tamil Nadu government had, on May 28, ordered the state pollution control board to seal and "permanently" close the mining group's copper plant following violent protests over pollution concerns.
Her protests come right after the trial court offered Pawan Gupta, one of the four death row convicts in the case, saying a condemned convict is entitled to legal aide till his last breath.
The Calcutta high court on Monday directed the police to arrest Trinamool Congress leader Shajahan Sheikh, who has been accused of sexual atrocities and land grab by villagers in Sandeshkhali area, while clarifying there is no stay on it.
The CJI said the higher judiciary is getting 'flooded' with bail matters because of the reluctance at the grassroots level to grant bail.
The court emphasised that all parties must comply with Section 16 of the POSH Act, ensuring confidentiality of the identities involved.
Senior-most Supreme Court judge Sanjiv Khanna on Wednesday recused himself from considering pleas seeking review of the apex court's judgment last year declining legal recognition to same-sex marriage, sources said.
According to the cause list of July 10 uploaded on the apex court website, a five-judge bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud would consider in chambers the pleas seeking review of the October 17 last year verdict.
A habeas corpus petition was mentioned before a bench of Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela for listing on October 3 by a lawyer for Wangchuk's "next friend".
Police personnel removed him and his supporters from the protest site as they were holding the demonstration near a restricted area, and thus it was "illegal", a senior officer said.
The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on May 8 a plea challenging the promotion of 68 Gujarat lower judicial officers, including Surat Chief Judicial Magistrate Harish Hasmukhbhai Varma who had convicted Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in a defamation case, on the ground of allegedly disregarding the 'merit-cum-seniority principle'.
The plea was filed by advocate Chaitanya Rohilla who stated that WhatsApp changed its privacy policy in "most arbitrary manner" and had made it compulsory for its users to accept its terms and conditions, failing which the accounts and services would be terminated after February 8, 2021 for the respective user.
Two days after violence broke out during a court-ordered survey of a Mughal-era mosque in Sambhal, Uttar Pradesh, life is gradually returning to normal with schools reopening and shops resuming operations. Internet services remain suspended and authorities continue to monitor the situation closely with restrictions in place on entry of outsiders and public representatives. The area around the Shahi Jama Masjid remains deserted, while the police investigate the violence and make arrests.
A search operation to track down the fleeing terrorists continues near the scene of the ambush, while mobile internet services remained suspended in the twin districts for the second day on Sunday, they said.
We the people are left in the wind, waiting on the whims of an unengaged president and an oligarch with a nearly bottomless wallet, observes Sree Sreenivasan.
The plea has been filed by the Centre in a PIL, which was earlier instituted by lawyer Gaurav Kumar Bansal, saying it may not be desirable to continue the process of ex gratia payment without any outer limit.
History would not see the institution kindly if it continues to avoid, as appears to be the case, hearing and deciding some of the most pressing issues of our time, asserts Aakar Patel.
Once identified, these individuals are drawn into private groups where they are exposed to manipulative content, including fabricated videos depicting atrocities allegedly committed by security forces, the officials said.
The state police on Thursday appealed to the people not to believe in rumours as some elements are trying to create confusion.
A unanimous decision was taken by the 30 judges of the apex court in the full court meeting headed by Chief Justice of India U U Lalit held on Tuesday evening to implement an apex court verdict of 2018 in the Swapnil Tripathi case.
The Delhi High Court on Monday imposed fines on Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and cricketer-turned-politician and parliamentarian Kirti Azad for their delayed response in the defamation suit filed by the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) against them.
In Punjab, farmers sat on railway tracks at many locations in 22 districts, including Amritsar, Ludhiana, Tarn Taran, Hoshiarpur, Firozpur, Fazilka, Sangrur, Mansa, Moga and Bathinda. Because of the disruption of train services, passengers experienced inconvenience.
In a letter, State Council of Educational Research and Training director Sajjan R urged competent authorities to immediately suspend all such teachers' training programmes.
In her plea, the victim claimed that a mere reading of the inquiry report with regard to the illegal access of the devices indicates that the authority carrying out the probe "never conducted a fair, free and complete" investigation as directed by the high court.
The Supreme Court in its official communication called it "Truly, a historic day".
A bench headed by Justice L Nageswara Rao directed the state governments to get help from the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) and legal services authorities to identify sex workers and maintain confidentiality pertaining to the identity of sex workers.
