The Supreme Court on Friday deferred the question of Aligarh Muslim University's minority status to a fresh bench and overruled the 1967 judgment that said the university cannot be considered a minority institution since it was created by a central law.
The bench expressed displeasure over the delay by the Centre in clearing recommendations for transfer of high court judges, saying "it is a very, very serious issue".
In a significant verdict, the Supreme Court by a majority of 7:2 on Tuesday held all private properties cannot form part of "material resources of the community" empowering states to take them over for distribution to serve "common good" under the Constitution.
The Centre on Tuesday urged the Supreme Court not to hear this week the pleas on the vexed legal question of whether a husband should enjoy immunity from prosecution for the offence of rape if he forces his wife, who is not a minor, to have sex.
The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to consider a plea of the Tamil Nadu government against the refusal of Governor RN Ravi to appoint senior DMK leader K Ponmudi as a minister in the state cabinet.
Democracy does not begin and end with elections and the integrity of election process is pivotal for sustaining the democratic form of government, the Supreme Court said on Thursday while striking down as unconstitutional the electoral bonds scheme for political funding.
It is crucial to electoral democracy that the exercise of freedom to vote is not subject to undue influence, the Supreme Court said on Thursday while striking down as unconstitutional the electoral bonds scheme for political funding.
The plea has alleged that Speaker Rahul Narwekar is deliberately delaying the adjudication despite the May 11 verdict of the apex court.
An offence under the SC-ST Act is not established merely on the fact that the complainant is a member of a Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe community unless there is an intention to humiliate, the Supreme Court said on Friday.
Aligarh Muslim University is not a minority educational institution, Supreme Court's Justice Dipankar Datta said on Friday and noted had it not been a "race against time" he would have articulated better in his dissenting opinion. The judge also flagged a non-exchange of ideas and opinions in a "true democratic spirit" to build a consensus.
Observing secularism means to 'live and let live', the Supreme Court on Tuesday said regulating madrasas was in the national interest as several hundred years of the nation's composite culture could not be wished away by creating silos for minorities.
The Supreme Court on Monday refused to entertain a fresh public interest litigation (PIL) on the Manipur violence seeking among other things a special investigation team (SIT) probe into alleged poppy cultivation and narco-terrorism.
The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the National Testing Agency (NTA) to declare by 12 noon of July 20 the centre and city-wise results of NEET-UG 2024 while masking the identities of aspirants.
A bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra will hear the plea of Anjuman Intezamia Masajid Committee.
The top court issued notice to the Election Commission on the PIL filed by author, activist and motivational speaker Shiv Khera.
The top court also directed the protesting resident doctors in West Bengal to resume work by 5 pm on Tuesday and said no adverse action shall be taken against them on resumption of work.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected the Centre's plea for prospective effect of its July 25 verdict, which upheld the power of states to levy tax on mineral rights and mineral-bearing land, and allowed them to seek refund of royalty from April 1, 2005 onwards.
Section 6A, which was incorporated in the Citizenship Act 1955 following the signing of the 1985 Assam Accord, was upheld by the Supreme Court.
A local court in Ajmer has issued notices to the dargah committee, the Ministry of Minority Affairs, and the Archaeological Survey of India on a plea seeking to declare the shrine of Sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti a temple. The petition, filed in September, has sparked a heated debate, with politicians and community leaders weighing in on the potentially volatile issue. The dargah committee has declined to comment, but the Anjuman Syed Zadgan, a body representing the caretakers of the dargah, described the petition as a deliberate attempt to fracture society along communal lines. The petition comes just days after four people were killed in Sambhal, Uttar Pradesh, following a local court ordering survey of a Mughal-era shrine. The Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991, which fixed August 15, 1947, as the cut-off date for status quo on the character of religious places, is at the centre of much of the debate. Several politicians, including Union minister Giriraj Singh and PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti, have weighed in on the issue. The Communist Party of India (Marxist) has called the civil court's decision to entertain the petition unwarranted and has asked the Supreme Court to immediately intervene.
The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to list for an early hearing the appeal of US-based creditor Glas Trust Company LLC against a judgment of the NCLAT, which had stayed insolvency proceedings against ed-tech firm Byju's and approving its Rs 158.9 crore dues settlement with the BCCI. A bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra was urged by senior advocate NK Kaul, appearing for the ed-tech major, that the case needed to be heard at the earliest.
The then Uttar Pradesh chief secretary, Durga Shankar Mishra, in an order dated June 26 and issued to all the district magistrates of the state, cited a letter from the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights dated June 7.
Though seven opportunities have been granted to the states, it appears that full compliance has not been affected and several states are in default, it said.
The top court took note of the submission that the definition of forest under the 2023 amended law on conservation leaves out nearly 1.99 lakh sq km of forest land from the ambit of 'forest' which can be used for other purposes.
The PIL also seeks a direction to the Election Commission to invoke its powers to freeze the election symbols and cancel the registration of such political parties.
Under the Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita, exception 2 to Section 63 (rape) says that 'sexual intercourse or sexual acts by a man with his own wife, the wife not being under eighteen years of age, is not rape'.
A bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra asked the ASI not to take recourse to any invasive act during the survey.
'The ruling does not automatically mean that your house can be taken away, but suppose it blocks an expressway or a highway or such essential development, then it can be taken away as long as there is a law to support that action.'
The top court also questioned the West Bengal government's decision to hire contractual employees for the protection of doctors and other staff in hospitals.
The Supreme Court on Monday sought the responses of Ajit Pawar and his 40 MLAs on a plea moved by the Sharad Pawar faction of the Nationalist Congress Party challenging Maharashtra assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar's decision declaring the group led by the deputy chief minister as the real NCP.
The Supreme Court on Thursday set aside caste-based discriminatory provisions of prison manuals of around 11 states while deprecating the practice of distribution of work and segregation of prisoners in separate wards on basis of their castes.
The Supreme Court on Friday closed the proceedings in a habeas corpus petition filed by a man who had alleged that his two daughters were held captive inside the premises of spiritual leader Jaggi Vasudev's Isha Foundation at Coimbatore.
"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.
On Thursday, the SC had voiced "serious concern" over Governor Ravi's refusal to reinduct Ponmudi as a minister in the state cabinet even after the SC had suspended his conviction in a corruption case.
The bench not only issued notices to the state government and its police authorities, but also stayed the coercive proceedings against Shankar.
The Supreme Court on Friday asked the Centre to provide information about the numbers and names reiterated by the apex court Collegium for appointment as judges in higher judiciary with reasons why they were not considered so far and at what level they were pending.
Transferring to itself a habeas corpus petition of a man alleging that his two daughters were held captive inside the premises of the Foundation, a bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud directed the Tamil Nadu police to not take any further action in pursuance of the Madras high court's direction asking it to inquire into the alleged illegal confinement of the women.
The top court said since the remit of the panel has been expanded, the committee would submit its report by September 30 on various measures to rectify deficiencies in the examination system.
The protests by resident doctors at government hospitals in several states across the country ended on Thursday as major doctors' bodies called off their 11-day strike over the rape-murder of a trainee medic in Kolkata after the Supreme Court made an appeal to them to resume work.
A bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra took note of the submissions of Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the office of the speaker, that some more time will be needed to pass orders on the disqualification pleas.
Describing the case as a "very hard one", the Supreme Court sought the Centre's response on Tuesday on a plea of a couple whose 30-year-old son has been lying in a vegetative state in a hospital since 2013 after suffering head injuries.
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