Supreme Court Observer

☀️ Good Morning! 📰 Seven significant Constitution Bench decisions are expected to be delivered by the top court before CJI Chandrachud retires on 10 November. Stay updated with SCO: 💬 Big on Twitter (X)? Follow us now! We will be live tweeting key judgement pronouncements: https://bit.ly/3dXuuCU 📸 We’re also on Instagram with posts and videos on the biggest story of the day and week. Here's our profile: https://bit.ly/3Rnjzjr 📹 Subscribe to our YouTube channel for video updates and judgement explainers: https://bit.ly/3RkL39u 📧 If you enjoy a crisp weekend newsletter, SCO’s Desk Briefs are for you. Sign up here: https://bit.ly/3TZLf20 🙏🏽 Thank you for following our updates. Do write to us at admin@scobserver.in with suggestions or feedback!

💫 Good morning! 📈 In September, the Supreme Court maintained a steady rate of disposal, clearing 5142 cases. However, high institution numbers meant that there was no significant reduction in pendency: https://bit.ly/3U31XO9 📊 Pendency increased by over 200 cases in September, reversing a declining trend observed in July and August: https://bit.ly/4fbzKgj 🗓️ September was a busy month for the Court, despite it not hearing any Constitution Bench matters. It granted bail to two state ministers and heard cases concerning the R.G. Kar incident, bulldozer demolitions, and child rights: https://bit.ly/4dxAomP

🌤️ Good Morning! 👨🏻‍⚖️ Justice Aziz Mushabber Ahmadi was the 26th Chief Justice of India. During his time at the Supreme Court, he was in the majority in verdicts like _S.R. Bommai_ and _Indra Sawhney_. 🗣️ But what also defines his legacy was his dissenting voice in landmark cases like the Ayodhya verdict in 1993. 📖 We bring you two excerpts from _The Fearless Judge_, a recently published biography by his granddaughter and journalist Insiyah Vahanvaty. 🛕The first excerpt captures the pressures of being a dissenting judge: https://bit.ly/3BzV00v 🏛️ The second excerpt tells us how he started the judicial clerkship programme: https://bit.ly/3NfZAU9 📄 For a profile of him and other judges, visit our judges page: https://bit.ly/4eACbsA

🌄 Good Morning! 📖 Last week, the Supreme Court granted Atul Kumar, a Dalit student, admission to the Indian Institute of Technology in Dhanbad. Kumar had been late to pay the admission fee. The bench relied on Article 142, a provision that empowers the Court to pass any necessary order to secure “complete justice." 🏛️ In our newsletter, we explored the use of this provision and found that, while the Court has often clarified that Article 142 is not an overriding provision, it has sometimes functioned as one in practice: https://bit.ly/4dAbAdR 📊 Pendency at the Supreme Court increased by 200 cases in September 2024, reversing the trend of declining pendency observed in July and August. More: https://bit.ly/4fbzKgj

🍂 Good Morning! 🛂 In September, the Supreme Court granted bail to former Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal from his arrest by the CBI for charges of corruption in the Delhi Liquor Policy scam. Earlier this year, he had also been granted bail from his arrest by the ED for alleged money laundering in connection with the same scam. ⏳Our timeline untangles the maze of arrests and bails: https://bit.ly/4dsbt48 🗓️ September also saw other notable judgements and hearings. The Court delivered a landmark judgement for child rights under the POCSO, continued hearing the Kolkata hospital rape and murder case and reserved judgement in a matter related to the spate of bulldozer demolitions. 📝 Our Monthly Review captures the highlights: https://bit.ly/4dxAomP

🌼 Good Morning! 💻 Today, the Court is scheduled to hear cases on electoral freebies, marital rape, restitution of conjugal rights, and a challenge to the Bihar government increasing reservations upto 65 percent. Our 'Cases' page has detailed backgrounds of all these cases: https://bit.ly/3BwUSyT 🚧 On Tuesday, the Supreme Court reserved judgement on bulldozer action by government authorities. Catch the story so far, here: https://bit.ly/3Br2y5H 🎥 Two years ago, the Supreme Court livestreamed Constitution Bench hearings on YouTube for the first time. Concerns of institutional posturing and performative justice remain relevant. Read our newsletter: https://bit.ly/3NbXp4e

🪴 Good Morning and happy Gandhi Jayanti! 👓 Here’s our recommended reading list for your day off today! 📝 Of late, judges have been openly critical of the mistakes made by the Supreme Court Registry in the way they’ve been listing cases to be heard at the top court. SCO’s reported story shows that listing concerns are not new, and puts together the views of practitioners who work at the Supreme Court. https://bit.ly/3XIQtQW 👨🏻‍⚖️ The other administrative side to how cases are heard involves the man at the helm of the highest court. The Chief Justice of India is the Master of the Roster and is incharge of assigning cases to judges. Is there a logic behind these allocations? Is the MoR system safe from allegations of political and corporate interferences in how cases are assigned? https://bit.ly/3BffM5o

🍂 Good Morning! ⛏ Today, the Supreme Court will continue hearing petitions for pan-India guidelines to prevent illegal bulldozer demolitions. The Court’s interim stay on all demolitions without its permission also ends today. Here’s the story so far: https://bit.ly/3ZGV3Sj 🏥 Yesterday, the Court said that the West Bengal government’s efforts to improve security for medical professionals were “tardy.” It also reviewed the CBI's fourth status report on the investigation into the rape and murder case at R.G. Kar Hospital: https://bit.ly/4gEBOia 🏢 Last month, the SC granted bail to Tamil Nadu minister V. Senthil Balaji in money laundering case. We summarise the judgement here: https://bit.ly/3Y33oyu

🌇 Good Morning! 🏥 Today, the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear the R.G. Kar rape and murder case for the fifth time. Here's what's happened so far: https://bit.ly/4egZ4kU 📑 After the last hearing on 17 September, the case was expected to be listed last week, but wasn't. It speaks to a wider issue. There's a lot of chatter surrounding the listing of cases at the Supreme Court. To understand what's going on, we spoke to practitioners at the top court. Find out what they said in our latest feature: https://bit.ly/3XIQtQW 📺 The R.G. Kar proceedings are being livestreamed by the Court in public interest. Has livestreaming blurred the lines between public interest and institutional posturing? More in our latest newsletter: https://bit.ly/47Q1Ue3

🍃 Good Morning! 🚫 Yesterday, the Supreme Court dismissed the Gujarat government's review petition in the Bilkis Bano remission case. In January, the Court had set aside the remission of the 11 convicts. 🏛️ The Gujarat government's ask was for the deletion of a remark which noted that it had “acted in tandem” with the convicts. Read our judgement summary: https://bit.ly/3zHKOCr 🎥 Watch our video summary of the key developments in the Kolkata hospital rape and murder case so far. The Supreme Court has taken up the matter suo moto: https://bit.ly/4egZ4kU

🪴 Good Morning! 🗣️ Yesterday, the Supreme Court closed its suo moto action against a Karnataka High Court judge for making remarks that discriminated on the basis of gender and which were religiously divisive. The video clippings of his comments in the courtroom were being widely circulated. 🙏🏾 Accepting the judge’s unconditional apology, the Supreme Court put on record their deep concern over prejudices seeping into the courtroom, and stressed on the need for judges to “deliver objective and fair justice”. Our report: https://bit.ly/3XDYMNK 🖋️ We’ve also summarised the Supreme Court’s judgment granting bail to Arvind Kejriwal in the CBI case. Read now: https://bit.ly/3Y0E9vB

🦚 Good morning! 🚫 This week, the Supreme Court held that viewing, storing and possessing child pornography is punishable under the POCSO Act. Read more: https://bit.ly/3ZDhJCJ 📰 Today, the Supreme Court has listed pleas challenging the restitution of conjugal rights and the validity of the marital rape exception. While these cases are consistently listed, they haven't been heard on merits. More in our newsletter: https://bit.ly/3TH0BIv 🔒 Yesterday, the Court listed reviews challenging the correctness of the mineral taxation and sub-classification judgements. As the pleas were scheduled to be heard "in chambers," we are unable to provide an update. We explain "in chamber proceedings" here: https://bit.ly/4dx4lE1

🦋 Good Morning! 📃 At the _SCO,_ we start our day by scouring the daily causelist of the Supreme Court, which can run into well over 400 pages. 🪨It's how we know that today, a review against the Court's decision to uphold states' power to tax mines and minerals is scheduled to be heard in chambers. 🔍 Also on the list today are some of our other *"tracked cases"* like the challenge to the restitution of conjugal rights, the validity of the marital rape exception and the challenge to the law that criminalises triple talaq. 📩 Skimming through the causelist everyday, we've seen that these cases are often listed but are rarely heard. More in our latest newsletter: https://bit.ly/3TH0BIv

☕ Good morning! ⛓ On 28 August, the Supreme Court granted bail to Prem Prakash, aide to Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren, in a PMLA case. By drawing on the ‘bail is rule, jail is exception’ proposition in a PMLA case, the Court may have furthered softened its 2022 interpretation in 'Vijay Madanlal'. More: https://bit.ly/47FHrsj ⏳We track how the SC may have limited the scope of the ED's wide powers since 2022. Read: https://bit.ly/4euRWB2 🇵🇰 Last week, an Ordinance in Pakistan appears to have revived the abolished ‘Master of the Roster’ system by giving the Chief Justice power to nominate a judge in a 3-person committee. 👨🏻‍⚖ In India, concerns around bench rigging have called the Master of Roster system into question. Can we move towards a more defensible model? Read: https://bit.ly/3BffM5o

✨ Good Morning! 🗃 This week, the Jharkhand government approached the Supreme Court asking it to initiate contempt proceedings against the Union government for its "deliberate and wilful" delay in approving the SC Collegium’s recommendation to appoint a Chief Justice to the Jharkhand High Court. ❔ The case throws up some questions. Contempt proceedings can be used to penalise anyone who disobeys or ignores the orders of constitutional courts. Does a Collegium recommendation fall within the category of an order of the court? 📜 Does the Union’s delay in appointments violate Article 216 of the Constitution, which stipulates that “Every High Court shall consist of a Chief Justice and such other Judges…”? 📺 SCO’s video explainer breaks down the top Court’s contempt jurisdiction: https://bit.ly/3zpSnxD 🖋 We’ve also written about it here: https://bit.ly/4dx4lE1

🌅 Good morning! 🗣️ In January 2018, four judges of the Supreme Court held an unprecedented press conference, where they laid down a number of administrative issues in the judiciary. One of the allegations was that then CJI Dipak Misra was allocating politically sensitive cases to junior judges. What the judges were flagging was a misuse of the Master of Roster (MoR) power. 1️⃣ As part of their MoR powers, the CJI allocates and constitutes benches in the SC. Lately, the system has received fresh criticism. So Sudhir Krishnaswamy and Advay Vora undertook a data-centric study to identify bench allocation patterns in the courts of CJI DY Chandrachud and his predecessor UU Lalit. 📊 The authors found that Justice Lalit has followed what they have categorised as the 'Seniority Pools' method. A discernible pattern did not emerge under Justice Chandrachud, after studying parameters like seniority, subject matter expertise and future institutional role. ❓ The authors argue in favour of retaining the MoR system while also developing a predictable and publicly defensible rationale (such as Seniority Pools) for rostering. Read the full piece: https://bit.ly/4d6bzOS

☁️ Good Morning! 📃 Today, a Special Bench of the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear a review of the Court's 2022 decision in _Vijay Madanlal._ 🛂 The decision upheld the wide powers granted to the Enforcement Directorate under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. Here's a summary of the _Vijay Madanlal_ judgement: https://bit.ly/3YzK1gY 🏥 Yesterday, the Chief Justice's Court reviewed the CBI's updated status report of its investigation of last month's rape and murder at Kolkata's R.G. Kar Medical College. 🔎 The bench refused to disclose the CBI's findings to maintain the integrity of the investigation, but stated that the investigation would "unearth" the truth. Here's our report: https://bit.ly/3TvJUj6

🍵 Good Morning! 🩺 Today, the Supreme Court will continue hearing the suo moto case on the rape and murder of a trainee doctor at R.G. Kar Medical College, Kolkata. 🏛️ In the last hearing, the Court had directed the Central Bureau of Investigation to file a fresh status report by today, addressing the alleged discrepancies found during investigation so far. 📄 The Court had also directed the West Bengal government to submit a document connected to the victim's autopsy by today: https://bit.ly/4e7QJji ⛓‍💥 Last week, the Supreme Court granted bail to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in the CBI case. Justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan differed on the question of the validity of CBI's arrest. Read here: https://bit.ly/4e1J0mM

🎈Good Morning! 📚 We’re out with another batch of articles in our special series commemorating 75 years of the Supreme Court! 🔢 This month, we're presenting a data-centric look into the patterns of benches formed by the two most recent Chief Justices of India. Authors Sudhir Krishnaswamy and Advay Vora argue that the Court should evolve a method of ensuring predictability in case allocation to protect itself from allegations of political and institutional intrigue. https://bit.ly/4d6bzOS ❌ In the second article, Salil Tripathi writes about how the Court has dealt with book bans over the years, and how most bans have served political and corporate interests. https://bit.ly/3BenX1H 👩🏻‍⚖️ As part of the series, we've also produced a video where we look at just how much of a man's world the Supreme Court is. 75 years on, only 11 of the Court's 276 judges have been women. Where does the problem lie? https://bit.ly/3zvO5ER 📝 Also, check out the other articles in the special series here: https://www.scobserver.in/75-years-of-the-supreme-court/

🌼 Good Morning! 🚔 Today, the Supreme Court will deliver its judgement in an interim bail plea by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. He was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation in the Delhi Liquor Policy case. ⏳The Court reserved judgement in the case last week, after one day of arguments. Kejriwal, now imprisoned for almost six months, highlighted that the CBI arrested him almost two years after investigations began in the liquor policy case. 📃 Kejriwal also relied on three orders by the Supreme Court and a trial court which granted him bail from his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate for money laundering in the same liquor policy case. He claimed that the CBI arrested him to keep him in custody: https://bit.ly/3Mz8v2U