With the reopening of the Supreme Court after the seven-week-long summer vacation on Monday, the spotlight once again will be on the top court as it has lined up several important cases for hearing in the days to come and is likely to pronounce verdicts on some crucial issues, including home minister P. Chidambaram’s alleged role in the 2G case and legality of gay sex.
While the top court had reserved its verdict on Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy and NGO, Centre for Public Interest Litigation’s petition seeking probe into Mr Chidambaram’s role in the 2G case, it also had reserved judgment on legality of gay sex on over a dozen appeals against the Delhi high court’s judgment liberating homosexuality from the ambit of Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, which declared it a criminal offence.
Other politically-sensitive verdicts awaiting pronouncement are on Samajawati Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav, his son and Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav and other family members’ petitions seeking quashing of the CBI’s “preliminary enquiry (PE)” into the disproportionate assets case against them. Two judgments had been pending on the issue since February 10, 2009 and February 18, 2011.
The top court is also to pronounce its judgment on the “viability” of controversial Sethusamudram project, pending for the past two years as the government had urged it not to give it till a report of the expert committee had come. Since the report of R.K. Pachauri panel has been submitted to the government, the court might pronounce the verdict on the issue.
Meanwhile, it had asked the government to take a clear stand on whether the mythological “Ram Sethu” be declared a national monument.