Important cases heard in the Supreme Court on Monday, February 20:
*SC refused to initiate contempt proceedings over demolition of a ‘mutt’ associated with Sikhism founder Guru Nanak Dev in Puri in Odisha.
*SC dismissed a petition filed by former IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt challenging a Gujarat High Court order which set a deadline for completion of trial in a 1996 drug seizure case.
*SC asked whether it can hear a range of pleas including PILs seeking a direction to the Centre to make religion and gender-neutral uniform laws governing subjects such as marriage, divorce, inheritance and alimony.
*SC refused to interfere with the framing of charges against former AAP leader Tahir Hussain under the anti-money laundering law in connection with the 2020 northeast Delhi riots.
*SC turned down a plea seeking uniform minimum age for marriage for both men and women, saying there are some matters which are reserved for Parliament and courts cannot enact a law.
*SC took note of the submission of the Delhi Police that the probe in a case of hate speeches made at religious assemblies in the national capital in 2021 was at an advanced stage, and asked them to place on record the charge sheet to be filed in the matter.
*Gujarat government told SC it will press for death penalty to 11 convicts whose sentences in the 2002 Godhra train burning case were commuted to life imprisonment by the state’s high court.
*SC refused to take on record the suggestion of one of the petitioners and a report published by Forbes in a batch of PILs on the recent Adani Group shares crash triggered by the Hindenburg Research’s fraud allegations.
*The Uddhav Thackeray faction approached SC challenging the decision of the Election Commission recognising the Eknath Shinde-led faction as the real Shiv Sena and ordering allocation of the “bow and arrow” poll symbol to it.
