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…
Naidu argues that Kumudum Snehidi featured an article on an interview of Durga Stalin, wife of MK Stalin, wherein she says when she campaigned for her husband, many people approached her asking for many favours, etc.
Naidu: she said that when her husband (MK Stalin) came to power, she told him about the votes he has to keep and accordingly he bought bicycles etc. (to distribute).
Naidu: this was termed as “innocent charity” by the Hon’ble High Court (Madras HC) [while dismissing Duraiswamy’s election petition earlier].
Justice Maheshwari: innocent charity? Innocent charity I cannot understand. Innocent charity has been done by Karna (from Mahabharata). Not by any other.
Naidu proceeds to read an excerpt from Durga Stalin’s interview:
Naidu: the article was titled Thalapathiam Naanu.
Court: what does that mean?
Naidu: Thalapathiam means “captain”. The wife speaks about the husband (MK Stalin).
Naidu: my husband and me. My party’s captain and me, either way it can be interpreted.
Justice Maheshwari: (in jest) we can’t read what you are saying…
Naidu: one word may have many shades. They must have used some sort of creativity, nothing else.
Justice Maheshwari: what wit and humour in the court….
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
#THREAD Supreme Court is set to hear today West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee’s plea raising concerns over the SIR electoral roll revision exercise in the State. @MamataOfficial is scheduled to appear in person. #SupremeCourt #WestBengal
Follow updates here 👇
West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee has urged the Supreme Court to issue urgent directions in the SIR process, warning that mandatory hearings, document rejections and use of Micro Observers could lead to large scale voter disenfranchisement #SupremeCourt #SIR @MamataOfficial
@MamataOfficial All eyes on the Supreme Court today as a Bench led by CJI Surya Kant, with Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul Pancholi, hears Mamata Banerjee’s plea on the SIR process, with the final electoral roll deadline close at hand. #SupremeCourt #SIR #WestBengal
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."
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.