The SC passed path-breaking rulings on death row prisoners, status of eunuchs and jallikattu in TN
Supreme court of India
New Delhi: The year 2014 was an eventful and glorious year for the Supreme Court. It asserted its supremacy and authority in all spheres whether it was on disclosure of black money stashed abroad or in granting bail to former Tamil Nadu chief minister Jayalalithaa in the disproportionate assets case or in the Padmanabhaswamy temple administration case. Its decisions had an indelible imprint and impact in the country’ economy, especially in cancelling the 214 coal licences.
The court had a check on the executive and advised the Prime Minister of the day not to appoint tainted persons as ministers. When the Narendra Modi government refused to disclose the names of 621 black money holders abroad, the court gave a fiat to disclose the names and asked the special investigation team to conduct further probe.
The Supreme Court saw three Chief Justices occupying office; Justice P. Sathasivam till April 27; Justice R.M. Lodha till September 27 and Justice H.L. Dattu who is continuing in office till date.
In the words of former Justice Lodha, the fact that more and more cases are being filed in courts across the country including in the apex court is an indication that people continue to have faith on this institution for its role in ensuring rule of law and keeping alive the democracy.
In a path-breaking judgement, the court held that even those convicts facing the gallows had a legal right to live with dignity and any violation thereof would be an infringement on their rights. It said an inordinate and unexplained delay by the President in disposing of the mercy petition of a death row convict would be a ground for commuting death penalty into life imprisonment.
Taking this analogy further, the SC ordered commutation of three death row convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case into life sentence. It commuted the death sentence awarded to Devendra Pal Singh Bhullar in the 1993 Delhi bomb blast case into life imprisonment applying the same principle.
This prompted the Tamil Nadu government to order the release of seven convicts (including Rajiv killers). At the instance of the Union government, the court stepped in and stayed the release of Sriharan alias Murugan, T. Suthendraraja alias Santhan, A.G. Perarivalan alias Arivu, Nalini, Robert Pious, Jayakumar and Ravichandran.
The matter is now pending adjudication before a five-judge Constitution Bench and in the meanwhile all States have been restrained from releasing convicts exercising remission powers.
It directed that in future all review petitions of death row convicts will be heard by three judge bench for 30 minutes and decide whether the sentence ordered was to be reviewed or not.
In March the court sent Sahara chief Subrata Roy to jail for not complying with the directions to refund about Rs 24,000 crore to over two crore depositors. Later it imposed a stringent condition for his release on bail directing him to furnish Rs 10,000 crore bond, including Rs 5,000 cr bank guarantee.
As Mr Roy is unable to raise this money till now, he continues to be in jail. In a landmark verdict the court advised the Prime Minister or Chief Minister of a state not to induct chargesheeted persons facing trial for offences involving moral turpitude as ministers though there was no limitation or restriction in the Constitution which debars any Member of Parliament or Legislative Assembly being included in the Cabinet.
The court pulled up the Centre on coal block allocations and declared illegal and arbitrary 218 allocations made from 1993 to 2011 and ordered cancellation of 214 blocks. It rejected the stand of coal licencees and the government that over Rs 2 lakh crores involved in these licences would be affected as a result of cancellation.
In a major setback to Kerala, the Supreme Court allowed Tamil Nadu to raise the water level in the Mullaperiyar dam from 136 ft to 142 ft. It quashed the law enacted by Kerala to prevent TN from raising the water level in the dam above 136 ft. It also declined to entertain a review petition against this verdict.
In a significant step, the Supreme Court recognised the transgender community in the country as a third gender along with male and female. The court granted bail to Ms Jayalalithaa who was convicted and sentenced to undergo four years imprisonment and pay a fine of Rs 100 crore on condition that she should complete the appeal in the Karnataka High Court against the verdict in three months.
Following strong observations, N. Srinivasan had to step down as the BCCI president pending enquiry into betting and spot fixing probe by the Justice Mukul Mudgal panel. Even though the panel in its final report did not indict Mr Srinivasan, the court prevented the BCCI from holding elections scheduled in September, which was postponed to December.
The court continues to monitor the working of the Padmanabhaswamy temple at Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala. It ordered an audit of the temple by former CAG Vinod Rai. The court banned ‘jallikattu’ an annual event being held in Tamil Nadu for several centuries on the ground that it was cruel to inflict pain and injuries on animals.
The Supreme Court has agreed to hear petitions filed by MP Kanimozhi, and other accused in the 2G case seeking to quash the charges framed against them by the trial court. The accused were aggrieved by the order passed by the Supreme Court taking away the jurisdiction of the Delhi High Court to decide on quash petitions.
( Source : dc )
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