Important matters heard by the Supreme Court on Tuesday, January 30:
* SC said review orders to consider pleas for the restoration of internet services in Jammu and Kashmir are “not meant to be kept in the cupboard” and asked the administration to publish them
* An institution of national importance must reflect the “national structure”, the Centre told SC while pointing out that around 70 to 80 per cent students studying at Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) are Muslims even without reservation
* It is the responsibility of the state to ensure that the maximum number of trees are protected from being chopped, SC said while asking the Central Empowered Committee to explore an alternative solution to cutting down 3,874 trees for the construction of a road project in the Taj Trapezium Zone
* SC extended interim protection from arrest to Rajendra Bihari Lal, the vice-chancellor of Uttar Pradesh’s Sam Higginbottom University of Agriculture, Technology, and Sciences, and some other officials of the institution in a case of alleged illegal religious conversion, rape and immoral trafficking
* SC observed a two-minute silence in the memory of those who laid down their lives in the struggle for India’s freedom
* Hindu women plaintiffs have moved SC seeking direction to the Archeological Survey of India (ASI) to determine the nature and associated features of “Shivling”, claimed to have been found at Varanasi’s Gyanvapi mosque, in the sealed area.
