Important cases heard by the Supreme Court on Thursday, Aug 24:
* Commencing their arguments in support of abrogation of Article 370 in the Supreme Court, the Centre’s top law officers Thursday asserted there was no “constitutional fraud” in annulling the provision that accorded special status to the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir.
* “Law is supposed to be a noble profession,” the Supreme Court observed on Thursday, and voiced surprise over how can one of the convicts in the Bilkis Bano gang-rape case and murder of her family members during the 2002 Gujarat riots practise law after his conviction, the remission of his sentence notwithstanding.
* In a relief to former Andaman and Nicobar Islands chief secretary Jitendra Narain, who is accused in a rape case, the Supreme Court Thursday upheld the Calcutta High Court order granting him bail.
* SC has set aside the Rajasthan HC order granting bail to two accused, including a son of a local MLA, for allegedly gang-raping a minor daughter of a police constable several times in 2021 after drugging her and filming the act, saying the offence was “heinous” and a “onslaught on the dignity of the womanhood”.
* SC has set free a death row convict, acquitting him of the charge of setting afire his son and two brothers, who were allegedly against his second marriage, at his Bijnor home in 2014, saying the dying declarations of two victims were not in sync with the testimonies of key witnesses.
