Important cases heard by the Supreme Court on Tuesday, May 16:
* SC asked about the “source of power” of the Lieutenant Governor under the Constitution and the law to nominate 10 aldermen to the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) without the aid and advice of the elected government.
* Don’t create an “atmosphere of fear”, the SC told the Enforcement Directorate (ED) after the Chhattisgarh government alleged the probe agency is “running amok” and is trying to implicate Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel in a money laundering case linked to the alleged Rs 2,000 crore liquor scam in the state
* SC agreed to hear in July, after the summer vacation, a plea of several Gujarat judicial officers whose promotions were stayed by it on the ground that the high court and the state government followed the policy of giving precedence to seniority over merit for promotion.
* SC rapped alleged conman Sukesh Chandrasekhar for filing a plea seeking extension of time to meet and consult his lawyers in the Mandoli jail here.
* SC transferred to the Jammu and Kashmir High Court a plea alleging that over 20 people detained under the public safety law have been shifted out of the union territory prisons to jails in various states like Uttar Pradesh and Haryana.
* SC transferred a 2011 PIL to the Kerala High Court for monitoring the state government’s action in providing “medical and palliative care” to the victims of toxic pesticide Endosulfan in Kasargod district.
