SC deals with range of cases from felling of trees to AIFF facing threat of FIFA ban

The Supreme Court Thursday expressed strong displeasure over a news report attributing motive in non-listing of a case and dealt with cases ranging from a plea against felling of trees in Mumbai's Aarey colony for a Metro car shed to holding of elections in All India Football Federation (AIFF), facing the threat of a FIFA ban ahead of under-17 Women's World Cup. A bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud and Surya Kant expressed strong displeasure over a news report alleging a delay in hearing a plea concerning increasing attacks on Christian institutions and priests across the country, saying that there was “a limit to which you target judges”.

The same bench also agreed to hear a plea challenging the cutting of trees in Mumbai's Aarey colony for a Metro car shed. The Shiv Sena's Uddhav Thackeray faction has filed another petition in the Supreme Court challenging the decision of Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla to recognise Rahul Shewale of the Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde-led group as the floor leader. A bench headed by chief justice N V Ramana agreed to hear on Friday a plea challenging the amended law allowing the extension of tenure of the director of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) up to five years, and the Centre’s decision to grant a one-year extension to Sanjay Kumar Mishra as head of the probe agency. Also, a bench headed by Justice A M Khanwilkar said it would hear on August 5 a plea filed by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which has challenged the postponement of Municipal Corporations of Delhi (MCD) polls on grounds of delimitation of wards in the national capital. The top court Thursday warned the Maharashtra State Election Commission (SEC) of contempt action if it re-notifies the election process to 367 local bodies, where it has already commenced, to provide reservations to OBCs. In another matter, businessman and former IPL head Lalit Modi and his mother Bina Modi told the Supreme Court that the apex court-mandated mediation to resolve a long pending property dispute in the family has failed and urged that the case be adjudicated upon here. A bench led by Justice Dinesh Maheswari Thursday held that the mother being the natural guardian of the child after the demise of the father has the right to decide the surname.

Second senior-most judge Justice A M Khanwilkar, who has been part of several path-breaking verdicts including in the Aadhaar case and the one upholding SIT's clean chit to then Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi and 63 others in the 2002 riots, demits office on Friday.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)