Important cases heard in Supreme Court on Monday

Important cases heard in the Supreme Court on Monday, December 5: * Asserting the purpose of charity should not be conversion, the SC reaffirmed that forced religious conversion is a ''serious issue'' and against the Constitution. * ''The youth will be finished,'' an anguished SC said voicing concern over the burgeoning illicit liquor trade and drug menace in Punjab, and asked the state government to fix responsibility on the local police for failing to keep vigil. * Centre told SC that it has filed a fresh plea seeking reference to a larger bench a matter involving a Constitutional issue related to the control of services in the national capital.

* Fake currency, terror financing and black money are three evils and are like 'Jarasandha' (an antagonist in Mahabharat) and should be cut into pieces, the Centre told SC while opposing the pleas challenging the 2016 demonetisation exercise.

* Lower court can summon new accused for trial under Section 319 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) before the pronouncement of the order of sentence in cases of conviction and before the order of acquittal, SC said.

* The father of the 19-year-old girl, gang-raped and murdered in Delhi's Chhawla area in 2012, moved the SC seeking a review of its November 7 verdict by which it had acquitted three men, who were earlier sentenced to death.

* SC refused to entertain a plea seeking removal of alleged wrong historical facts related to the construction of the Taj Mahal from history books and find the age of the monument.

* India is a secular country and everybody has a right to their religion, SC said while dismissing a PIL seeking to declare late religious figure Sri Sri Thakur Anukul Chandra as 'Paramatma'.

* Tamil Nadu's ruling DMK sought a review of the November 7 verdict of the Supreme Court which upheld 10 per cent reservation for the economically weaker sections (EWS) in educational institutions and government jobs that excluded the poor among the SC/ST/OBC categories, contending it ''legitimises discrimination''.

* The world has changed and the CBI should also - SC observed while hearing a plea seeking guidelines for probe agencies on seizure, examination and preservation of personal digital and electronic devices and their contents.

* SC asked the Centre to consider as representation a plea which has sought uniformity of rules governing cadaveric organ transplant in all the states.