Important cases heard by the Supreme Court on Tuesday, April 18:
* SC made it clear that it will not go into personal laws governing marriages while deciding pleas seeking legal validation for same-sex marriages and said the very notion of a man and a woman, as referred to in the Special Marriage Act, is not “an absolute based on genitals”.
* Centre and Gujarat government told SC that they may file a plea seeking a review of its March 27 order asking them to be ready with original files on the grant of remission to the convicts in the Bilkis Bano case.
* SC agreed to hear on April 24 a plea seeking an independent probe into the killing of gangster-turned-politician Atiq Ahmad and his brother Ashraf in Uttar Pradesh’s Prayagraj.
* SC deferred till April 25 hearing on a batch of pleas challenging the scrapping of 4 per cent Muslim quota in Karnataka after the state government sought time to file its reply.
* SC granted bail to independent Assam MLA Akhil Gogoi in connection with a case related to anti-CAA protests and suspected Maoist links.
