- Sabarimala temple Case: Sabarimala temple has been practicing a decade old tradition. According to the tradition, the entry of the women of age group 10-50 is restricted, that is, those who are in the menstruating age. The ban on the entry of women has been challenged in the Supreme Court. In October 13th, 2017 a three-judge bench of CJI Dipak Misra, Justice R. Banumathi and Justice Ashok Bhushan referred the case to Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra. The main issue in the case is whether the right of women to pray at the place of her choice can be discriminated against reason solely based “on a biological factor exclusive to female gender”. The court will also deal with the issue of whether restricting women from entering the temple is violative to their fundamental rights mentioned under the Constitution of India.
- Section 377 IPC: Five-judge Constitutional bench, led by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra and comprising of Justices R F Nariman, A M Khanwilkar, D Y Chandrachud and Indu Malhotra is hearing petitions challenging Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 since last week. Petitions were filed by journalists, hoteliers, business executives and LGBTQ activists. In their petitions, they claimed that "rights to sexuality, sexual autonomy, choice of sexual partner, life, privacy, dignity, and equality, along with the other fundamental rights guaranteed under Part-III of Constitution, are violated by Section 377." They challenged the validity of the constitutionality of section 377.
- Ban of Female Genital Mutilation: The Centre recently sought the ban on female genital mutilation (FGM). A bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra was told by Attorney General K K Venugopal, that the practice causes irreparable harm to girls and needed to be banned. The bench also comprising of Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud has last week backed the ban saying that the touching of genitals violates one’s privacy and no one should be allowed to do so in the name of religious practice.
- Jaypee Infratech case: A Supreme Court bench comprising of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices Amitava Roy and A M Khanwilkar will give its decision on realty firm Japyee Infrastructure Limited’s (JIL) offer to let its parent company, Jaypee Associates Limited (JAL) complete construction of flats so that possession can be handed to buyers awaiting their houses.
The apex court is hearing petitions against the insolvency proceedings that began against JIL on the plea of IDBI bank under Section 7 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code 2016.
- Ban on firecrackers: The Supreme Court will also hear a PIL on a ban of the sale of fire-crackers. After it stopped the sale of crackers in the capital before last Diwali, the court was approached by the three toddlers to impose the ban all over the country to control rising pollution levels.
