Important cases heard by the Supreme Court on Friday, December 1:
* SC orally observed that the power of the Punjab Police has not been taken away by the Centre’s decision to expand the BSF’s jurisdiction to undertake search, seizure and arrest within a larger 50-km stretch from the International Border as compared to the earlier 15 km limit.
* Governor of a state cannot refer bills passed by the legislature and readopted by it for presidential assent, SC ruled, and asked Tamil Nadu Governor R N Ravi to hold a meeting with Chief Minister M K Stalin in an effort to end the impasse over 10 such pending bills.
* SC deferred the hearing on a plea of AAP MP Raghav Chadha challenging his suspension from the Upper House, after it was informed that “something constructive” is likely to happen in the matter.
* SC said the advocate-on-record (AoR) cannot merely be a “signing authority” but will have to take the responsibility of what they file in the apex court.
* SC deferred the hearing of the petitions filed by Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra as well as the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) challenging the transfer of their income tax assessments to the Central Circle, which is mandated to check tax evasion, till December 13.
* SC agreed to hear a petition challenging the validity of the provisions of the Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Rules, 2014 that require the consent of a near relative or person in lawful possession of the body before organs or tissues of a cadaver donor can be harvested.
* SC asked the Attorney General (AG) for India R Venkataramani to use his “good offices” for amicable appointment of vice-chancellors in several state-run universities of West Bengal following a bitter tussle between the Mamata Banerjee government and Governor C V Ananda Bose over how the state’s universities should be run.
* SC extended the interim protection from arrest it had granted to four journalists against whom the Gujarat Police had issued summonses in connection with an article published on the Adani Group.
