Amid an uproar over the Supreme Court verdict on gay rights issue, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi on Thursday said she was disappointed that the apex court had reversed a previous Delhi high court judgement decriminalising homosexuality and hoped Parliament would address the matter.
Sources said the Congress may consider opposing the bill when it is introduced in Parliament. The Aam Aadmi Party, which is in power in Delhi, has been seeking the support of various political parties on the matter.
Jaitley said the judgment elaborates at length the constitutional philosophy behind the Constitution and reaffirms precisely the text of what the Constitution says.
The participants lauded the government and the people for ensuring harmony after the apex court verdict on Saturday.
Former Supreme Court judge Justice Rohinton Nariman has warned that events similar to the Jallianwala Bagh massacre could occur if the 'basic structure' doctrine of the Constitution is diluted. In his new book, 'The Basic Structure Doctrine: Protector of Constitutional Integrity,' Nariman argues that the 1973 Kesavananda Bharati judgment, which established the doctrine, is essential for protecting fundamental rights and preventing constitutional amendments that could lead to such tragedies. Nariman's concerns are echoed by Supreme Court judge Justice K V Viswanathan, who applauds the book for its "chilling clarity" and underscores the importance of the Kesavananda Bharati ruling. The book provides a detailed analysis of the doctrine and its implications, highlighting the robustness of the Kesavananda Bharati judgment and the lack of a compelling alternative theory.
The court said a petition has already been admitted in this regard.
'They want to keep the pot boiling all the time.' 'The BJP wants to set a political narrative that the Gandhis are doing wrong things.'
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'.
Rajnath said the opposition parties were trying to cover up their own "mistakes and weaknesses".
The accused, in the present case, alleged it was a case of a "long friendly relationship" turning sour owing to the woman failing to repay a loan he gave her.
Counted as a judge who enriched the 'verdict docket' of the apex court, Justice Chandrachud is viewed as sharp, articulate and forward looking.
The Congress on Sunday made it clear that it will not support the Centre's ordinance on the control of administrative services in Delhi and will oppose any such attempt of the central government to 'sabotage federalism' in the country.
The apex court rejected the preliminary objection raised by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) that Aam Aadmi Party leader Manish Sisodia cannot be permitted to file second set of special leave petitions to challenge the Delhi high court's May 21 verdict which denied him bail in the excise policy cases.
"This is my last judicial act as a judge of the Delhi high court," Justice S Muralidhar, who has been transferred to the Punjab and Haryana high court, said after delivering a judgment in a matter relating to commercial activities being carried out from residential areas.
Leaders of several opposition parties on Thursday hailed the Supreme Court verdict striking down the electoral bonds scheme and termed it an important step in ensuring transparency in electoral funding.
A Juvenile Justice Board is likely to pronounce its verdict on Thursday against the juvenile accused for his alleged involvement in the December 16 gang-rape and murder of a 23-year-old paramedic student.
The CJI also said merits of a case may be quite different from what is shown in the media when asked about the delay in hearing on the bail plea of former Jawaharlal Nehru University student Umar Khalid, lodged in jail in a Delhi riots case.
The Delhi high court granted bail to alleged middleman Christian Michel James in the Rs 3,600-crore AgustaWestland money laundering case on Tuesday. Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma, while granting the reprieve to James, said it was an "exceptional situation" where the accused was in custody for over 6.2 years but the trial had not yet commenced due to incomplete investigation. James, who was extradited from Dubai in December 2018, can now walk out of prison subject to compliance with the conditions.
For the longest time, the court did not even hear important matters that the government did not want it to. Of late, it has begun to form benches. Meanwhile a lot of the damage has been done and continues to be done, asserts Aakar Patel.
'In the past six months, capital markets have seen a dip, and realty is struggling. The stock-market investor will be cautious of putting that investment in real estate when there may be a slowdown coming.'
The Supreme Court on Monday said it will decide "once and for all" the legal issue of whether the earlier apex court judgment laying down procedures for the appointment of the director general of police (DGP) in states will also be applicable to Delhi and other cities.
The Kashmir issue should be resolved through dialogue and consultation between India and Pakistan, China said on Tuesday while reacting to the Supreme Court judgment on Article 370 upholding the central government's decision on the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir.
The father of one of the rapists sentenced to death by a Delhi court for the brutal gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old paramedic in the national capital last December, on Friday said he would explore the option of appealing to a higher court.
It held that though the LG was not a 'titular head', he should not emerge as an 'adversary having a hostile attitude' towards the Council of Ministers but rather act as a facilitator.
The court sentenced Patkar after considering the evidence before it and the fact that the case went on for over two decades.
Ramani had made allegation of sexual misconduct against Akbar in the wake of #MeToo movement in 2018.
"The courts of law will take their own course...there are processes involved because definitely there will be an appeal filed in the high court. Therefore, it is premature to comment on this," Law Minister M Veerappa Moily told media persons in New Delhi.
The Supreme Court on Thursday said women, other than cisgender women, may also require access to safe medical termination of pregnancies, while expanding the scope of the MTP Act to include unmarried women with 20-24 weeks pregnancy for abortion.
Ramesh said the current limit of 50 percent is not explicitly mandated by the Constitution, but has been decided through various Supreme Court decisions.
Justice Khanna, who will serve as CJI for a little over six months, will demit office on May 13, 2025.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday reserved its verdict on a batch of pleas challenging the abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution which bestowed special status on the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir.
'Will the LG be ready to rule with a light hand, having been vested with powers that amount to using a hammer to kill a fly?' asks Aditi Phadnis.
The Supreme Court Friday said it will strengthen its 2018 guidelines for dealing with mob violence, hate speeches and lynching to ensure that culprits are dealt with equally, irrespective of their communities for their public utterances spreading bigotry.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday declared as 'invalid' the arrest of NewsClick founder Prabir Purkayastha in a case under the anti-terror law, and directed that he be released from custody.
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was 'party to the criminal conspiracy' of the formulation and implementation of the Delhi Excise Policy since the beginning, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has alleged in its latest supplementary charge sheet in the case.
"This is the matter of executive policy decision," the bench said while dismissing the appeal.
A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and SVN Bhatti, which reserved its verdict on two separate regular bail pleas of Sisodia in the corruption and money laundering cases, told the ED it cannot go by the assumption of bribe having been paid, and whatever protection an accused enjoys under law needs to be granted.
In view of the differences, Justices A K Sikri and Ashok Bhushan referred the matter to a larger bench of the apex court.
The SC also asked to amend its plea and add the Lieutenant Governor as party in case.
