Important cases heard in the Supreme Court on Tuesday, January 31:
* SC ruled that the armed forces can take action against their officers for adulterous acts, as it clarified the landmark 2018 judgement that decriminalised adultery.
* SC said it will examine whether it should consider now the plea challenging WhatsApp’s policy to share users’ data with parent company Facebook and others or it will be a mere “academic” exercise, after the Centre submitted that it was going to bring a data protection bill in the Budget Session.
* SC expressed strong displeasure over Delhi Police seeking adjournment of hearing on pleas against the bail granted to three student activists in the 2020 Northeast Delhi riots case on the ground that a senior law officer representing them was busy in another court.
* SC reserved its verdict on a plea of journalist Rana Ayyub challenging the summons issued by a special court in Ghaziabad in a money laundering case.
* SC Collegium recommended to the Centre the names of Allahabad High Court Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal and Gujarat High Court Chief Justice Aravind Kumar for elevation as apex court judges.
* SC agreed to consider the Centre’s submissions for an open court hearing of its plea seeking review of the judgement by which several provisions of the Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Amendment Act, 2016 were struck down.
* SC suggested Mainak Mehta, the brother-in-law of fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi who is an accused in the Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud case, to give a “letter of authority” to CBI to access and probe his offshore bank accounts.
* SC observed that the petitioner, who has filed a PIL seeking a ban on political parties with religious names and symbol, must be “fair to everyone” and “secular” and should not be selective in his approach.
* An apex court-appointed committee, constituted for assessing the feasibility of laying underground transmission lines in priority and potential Great Indian Bustard (GIB) habitat, has urged the SC to pass necessary directions to the concerned agencies for expediting the underground laying of power transmission lines inside such areas of Rajasthan and Gujarat.
* SC said petitions on the electoral bonds scheme, bringing political parties within the ambit of the Right to Information Act and those challenging amendments in the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act will be heard separately.
