Supreme Court Bench headed by Justice UU Lalit to shortly hear the plea filed against the Bombay HC order which dismissed the petition seeking for interim bail on medical grounds of lawyer-activist Sudha Bharadwaj #NIA #SupremeCourt #SudhaBhardwaj
Bharadwaj’s counsel Ragini Ahuja had earlier told the Bombay HC that the activist had been in jail for over two years.
Ahuja had said Bharadwaj had comorbidities that put her at a higher risk of contracting the virus. #COVID19
NIA counsel, Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh, argued against giving bail to Bharadwaj saying that if her condition required hospital care, the state would provide for it.
Singh had further informed HC that 81-year-old co-accused, Varavara Rao, who was admitted to a state-run facility and then a shifted to the private hospital - on intervention of the National Human Right's Commission - for treatment of COVID-19 and other ailments in July.
Hearing begins.
Senior Adv Vrinda Grover for petitioner : I am in custody since 2 years as an undertrial. charges are not proved. i am only seeking interim bail
Justice Lalit: please check the medical report
Grover: Sudha Bharadwaj is suffering from diabetes and comorbidities
Justice Lalit: she is 58 and is not severely diabetic
Grover: she has developed two diseases in custody. one is a heart disease which is a ticking time bomb. it needs a cardio profile, lipid profile.
Grover: Let me get the check up done. She has also developed arthritis. She has never abused any court order.
Justice Lalit: What is the case
Grover: there is a criminal conspiracy which is set to be hatched by her. she was practicing in bilaspur HC. It is nobodys case that any material is recovered from her but from someone else's phone.
Justice Lalit: Why don't you file a fresh bail plea?
Grover: there is one pending in HC
Justice Lalit: So the application on merits is pending.
Her sugar is 114 and not so serious
Grover: our contention is the heart disease
Justice Lalit: but that is not a part of this plea
Grover: She is suffering osteo arthritis and cardiac issues and this she has developed while in custody. (reads the medical report).
Justice Lalit: the HC order says the medication is in order
Senior Adv Grover: I only seek your indulgence to get checked. These tests cannot happen in the jail hospital
Justice Ajay Rastogi: She was examined on August 20 by jail authorities
Grover reads the medication being given to her by the jail hospital
Justice Rastogi: are you saying this report is false? You have a good case on merits. why don't you file a regular bail application
Justice Lalit: Either you withdraw it or we will dismiss it
Justice Lalit: the condition deserves a deeper look and a regular bail plea can be filed.
Supreme Court to shortly resume hearing its suo motu case on stray dogs.
Bench: Justices Vikram Nath, Sandeep Mehta, and NV Anjaria
#straydogs #SupremeCourt
The court is expected to continue reviewing compliance affidavits filed by various states with respect to its 7th November order relating to removal of stray dogs from institutional areas etc.
Yesterday, the Court took a dim view of “vague” affidavits filed by some states.
Amicus Curiae Gaurav Agarwal: Punjab has not submitted any action plan etc.
Counsel for Punjab: there is a budgetary allocation of 11cr. There are 20 dog catching vehicles available. There is a district level committee which we have formed. We have given a full action plan for institutions.
Court: how many dogs have you collected from institutions?
Counsel: for Malerkotla it is 108. I will place as and when information comes.
Supreme Court to hear petitions challenging the University Grants Commission (UGC)'s recently notified rules intended to prevent caste discrimination in educational institutions #UGC #UGCRegulations #SupremeCourt
The rules have been challenged for excluding 'general category' students from complaining under its grievance redressal mechanism #UGC #UGCRegulations
University Grants Commission (Promotion of Equity in Higher Education Institutions) Regulations, 2026 was notified on January 13 and applies to all higher educational institutions in India.
Its objective is to "eradicate discrimination only on the basis of religion, race, gender, place of birth, caste, or disability, particularly against the members of scheduled castes and scheduled tribes, socially and educationally backward classes, economically weaker sections, persons with disabilities, or any of them, and to promote full equity and inclusion amongst the stakeholders in higher education institutions."
MK Stalin case: Supreme Court hears plea by AIADMK leader SA Duraiswamy challenging TN CM Stalin’s 2011 assembly election win from Kolathur constituency.
The plea alleges that Stalin and his party representatives indulged in corrupt practices, particularly by providing money and gifts to secure votes.
Bench: Justices JK Maheshwari and Vijay Bishnoi.
Sr. Adv. DS Naidu, appearing for Duraiswamy refers to a prosecution witness statement:
Naidu: the witness is the editor of a magazine called “kumudam snehidi”.
Court: what’s the meaning of that?
Another counsel: kumudum means lotus. Snehidi means friend.
Naidu: a friend of lotus. May be figurative meaning.
Sr. Adv. Kapil Sibal (for Stalin): most inappropriate definition.
Court bursts into laughter.
Naidu: kumudam was once India’s largest selling family magazine. It’s basically a women’s magazine. Like women’s era. It’s the women’s wing of kumudam publications. Perhaps, the lotus is being compared with women and Snehidi is the friend of the woman, or the fairer sex.
Justice Maheshwari: (in jest): we can’t say anything…
Plea concerning seizure of electronic devices during criminal investigations
Sr Adv A Sundaram: some sort of information is being looked at. No predicate offence against me and my phone is being looked to find a link with predicate offence. There needs to be some guidelines to stop such fishing and roving inquiry. Where is my privacy I ask ? If my phone contain something.. then how it affects them.. there is nothing.
CJI: tell us why your mobile has been taken away ? There are people siphoning off thousands of crores and phones cannot be looked into? If they rely on something which is not related to this then we can intervene. We can look at it from case to case also. But not like this. Let them see first.
Sundaram: Then my plea becomes infructuous!
CJI: why did they come to you.
Sundaram: please see the summons, nothing against me.
Justice Bagchi: This is a fallacious argument by you Mr Sundaram. ECIR is in respect of an offence and not an individual. There is no notice needed for seizing a device.
CJI: you are behaving as if you have nothing to do. ED just raided your place early morning as if you called them for tea.