The National Commission for Scheduled Castes on Friday accused policemen of raping and killing the Lakhimpur teenager, even as the Uttar Pradesh government filed a status report before the Allahabad high court on the Crime Branch-Criminal Investigation Department probe into the incident. The commission, which had visited Lakhimpur Kheri recently to inquire into the death of the 14-year-old girl in Nighasan police station, spoke to the parents of the victim.
The common man in India is bogged down by corruption and there is a need to fix accountability at all levels, the Supreme Court observed on Friday as it dealt with a petition seeking debarment of those against whom charges have been framed in criminal cases from contesting elections.
A plea has been moved in the Supreme Court by two Kashmir residents challenging the Centre's decision to constitute the delimitation commission for redrawing the assembly and Lok Sabha constituencies in Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
Universally practiced forms of discrimination and exclusion include social and cultural segregation, expressed in various forms of refusal to have any social interaction; endogamy, expressed through the universal prohibitions on Dalit-non-Dalit marriages and through severe social sanctions on both Dalits and non-Dalits, who break this taboo.'In short, in most social contexts, Dalit Muslims and Dalit Christians are Dalits first and Muslims and Christians only second,' it said.
A bench of Justices SK Kaul and AS Oka was told by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta that he has to put some documents on record in the matter.
A bench headed by Chief Justice Y K Sabharwal said this was not a matter to be mentioned before it since the National Human Rights Commission and the National Commission for Women were looking into it.
"When the matter reaches the SC collegium, there is a fully perfect situation, whether the name be accepted or not to be accepted. It's not as if it is a whimsical exercise taken by someone. It's a fool proof arrangement," he said.
A bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and justices PS Narasimha and JB Pardiwala passed the order after hearing an application of Uttar Pradesh government seeking more time to install and operationalise 100 per cent STP coverage in the state.
The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed a plea seeking initiation of contempt proceedings against heads of political parties for not following its directions to prevent criminalisation of politics in the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls held earlier this year.
The Supreme Court Tuesday asked the Centre and West Bengal government to respond to a plea seeking directions to prevent the alleged exodus due to 'state-sponsored' violence after the assembly polls, constituting a Special Investigating Team to probe the issue and take action against culprits.
The Supreme Court on Monday said it will hear on January 18 a plea of US tech giant Google against an order of the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) refusing an interim stay on the competition regulator imposing a Rs 1,337 crore penalty on it. The NCLAT, on January 4, had refused an interim stay on an order of the competition regulator and had asked Google to deposit 10 per cent of the amount. The NCLAT admitted the search giant's challenge to the CCI slapping a Rs 1,337.76 crore fine for abusing the dominant position of its Android smartphone operating system in the country.
The Supreme Court Friday granted the 'last opportunity' to the Centre to file its reply on a public interest litigation seeking directions for framing of guidelines identifying minorities at the state level as Hindus are in a minority in 10 states and are not able to avail the benefits of schemes meant for minorities.
BJP leaders in Madhya Pradesh, led by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, on Monday held a protest against Kamal Nath, while the National Commission for Women sought an explanation from the Congress leader for his 'item' jibe against state minister Imarti Devi.
The Centre told the Supreme Court on Wednesday that almost every country, including India, was grappling with the problem of use of black money in elections and the electoral bonds scheme was a "conscious attempt" to eradicate the menace of "unclean money" in the poll process.
'The government should immediately enact an Act to make caste discrimination a criminal offence and lay down a procedure similar to that of the Anti-Ragging Act.' 'Ragging has nearly been eliminated because it is treated as a criminal offence.' 'Similar procedure should be used in case of caste discrimination.'
A bench of justices Abhay S Oka and Prashant Kumar Mishra, which heard the matter in a special hearing, urged the Chief Justice of India to assign the matter to a larger bench.
The PIL said the independent expert committee should be asked to submit its report within four weeks and direction be issued for action against state agencies for dereliction of duty.
The analysis of five candidates could not be completed as their affidavits are either badly scanned or complete affidavits are not uploaded on the Election Commission of India website, they said.
The Supreme Court on Thursday asked a petitioner, who has sought the constitution of an independent committee under a retired apex court judge to inquire into the incidents of sexual assault and violence in Manipur, to mention his plea for listing before a bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud.
The national scheduled castes panel on Tuesday issued notices to Union human resource development secretary and IIT-Madras Director asking them to appear before it on June 8 amid a political row over de-recognition of a students' body comprising mostly dalits.
In a response to the August 3 order, the Centre, represented by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, said till the time either the legislature or the poll panel steps in, the top court must lay down "dos and don'ts" for political parties in the 'larger national interest.'
The Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed Indian medical students who have returned from Ukraine, China and Philippines due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the war, to clear the MBBS final examination in two attempts in accordance with existing National Medical Commission (NMC) syllabus and guidelines without being enrolled in any medical college in India.
Kharge accused PM Modi of inciting people over the issues "that the Congress will never do".
The National Human Rights Commission sent notices to the police heads of Delhi and Uttar Pradesh after an alleged victim of sexual assault and police apathy set herself afire outside the Supreme Court in August, officials said Wednesday.
A special bench headed by Chief Justice N V Ramana, in an interim order uploaded Wednesday night, also directed the Commission for Air Quality Management in the NCR and Adjoining Areas to 'commission a scientific study of air quality based on available data of previous years bearing upon recorded levels of air pollution'.
Rajsamand MP Diya Kumari and Jaipur Rural MP Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore are among the seven BJP parliamentarians who will contest the Rajasthan Assembly polls, according to the first list of 41 candidates issued by the party on Monday.
Constituencies that are going to the polls in the first phase, slated for April 19, have just 19 days for campaigning. Contrast that with those going to polls in the 7th phase, notes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Former chairperson of the National Commission of SC/ST, B D Sharma, told rediff.com that he has not been approached by the Chhattisgarh government to mediate in the release of the abducted Sukma Collector Alex Paul Menon.
In a virtual snub to the Mayawati government in Uttar Pradesh, the National Commission for Scheduled Castes on Thursday said the state had the "worst track record" across the country in terms of atrocities on Dalits.
'In 2013, Modi said his government would be of Dalits and OBCs.' 'During his tenure, the highest number of atrocities have taken place.' 'What they want is that this Ambedkar Constitution must not be practised in India in the future.'
The Allahabad high court had in January 2006 struck down the provision of the 1981 amendment Act by which the university was accorded the minority status.
Two top Muslim organisations -- All India Milli Council and Jamiat-e-Ulema Hind (Mahmood Madni) -- on Tuesday backed National Commission for Minorities (NCM) Chairman Wajahat Habibullah's call for scheduled caste status to Muslim and Christian Dalits.
The Supreme Court on Thursday awarded life sentence to four convicts in the 1996 Lajpat Nagar bomb blast case for the remainder of their lives without remission, citing the severity of the offence. Thirteen people were killed and nearly 40 injured in the explosion.
With the appointment of the five judges, the total number of judges in the apex court has risen to 32, two short of the full strength.
Right to apprenticeship, legal guarantee for MSP, passing a constitutional amendment to raise the 50 per cent cap on reservations for SCs, STs and OBCs, a nation-wide caste census and scrapping of Agnipath scheme are among the promises made by the Congress in its Lok Sabha polls manifesto released on Friday.
The Supreme Court on Friday suggested that the Centre assist the medical students who had returned to the country from Ukraine in view of the war with Russia by creating a web portal giving details of the foreign universities, where they could complete their courses as per the government's academic mobility programme.
The Right to Education Act that came into operation from this academic session prohibits screening of students and parents for admissions in schools, but it has been flouted by not only by many private schools but even by the Navodaya schools run by the Centre in Andhra Pradesh and many other states.
The four accused were shot dead on NH-44 near Hyderabad -- the same highway-- where the charred body of a 27-year-old veterinarian was found.
The apex court's five-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra said Aadhaar is meant to help benefits reach the marginalised sections of the society and takes into account the dignity of people not only from personal but also from community point of view.
The top court asked state governments to understand the agony of children starving on the streets and directed the district authorities that they be immediately taken care of without waiting for any further orders from the courts.
