'Henceforth, legislators who wish to defect need not dread the Tenth Schedule to the Constitution, dealing with the disqualification of elected representatives on the grounds of defection. Before indulging in any anti-party activity which could invite disqualification under the schedule, they need to simply send in their resignation letters to the presiding officers of the house to which they have been elected as members.
'As it attempted to sort out a century-old Hindu-Muslim issue with its 1045-page judgment on the Ayodhya land dispute, the Supreme Court has inadvertently riled Sikhs. It has described their religion as a ‘cult’ and seems to have relied on the testimony of someone who Sikhs believe has “misinterpreted the purpose of Guru Nanak Dev’s visit to Ayodhya in 1510-1511”.
The Supreme Court judgment on Babri Mosque-Ram Janmbhumi dispute gave the verdict that the whole land where the mosque stood from 1528 to 6th December 1992 be given to the ‘Hindu Side’, Ram Janmbhoomi Nyas, set up by VHP. Just to recall it was demolished in broad day light by the RSS combine led by Lal Krishna Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi and Uma Bharati on that day. As per verdict Government should make a trust which should supervise the temple construction and Muslims, Sunni Waqf Board, should be given five acres of land in a prominent site in Ayodhya.
'The Supreme Court's judgment in the Babri Masjid title suit is dishonest and hypocritical. Why do I say so? On the one hand, the "unanimous" judgment of the Supreme Court asserts that it is deciding this case strictly in accordance with the law and on the basis of the evidence led by the parties. On the other, it is very obvious that the way in which the Supreme Court has applied the law and assessed the evidence, it has used the lens of religion and faith to determine the validity of one claim over the other...'
'Like many Indians, I was glued to the television set on Saturday, awaiting the Supreme Court’s decision about the site of the Babri Masjid, an important mosque and monument of faith for Indian Muslims demolished in 1992 by right-wing Hindu nationalists. The court delivered a huge victory for the nationalist government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, by awarding the land at the heart of the clash to a Hindu litigant over Muslim objections. I watched the verdict in Washington with a Muslim family from India who had migrated to the United States in 1993.
'NRC, communal citizenship laws or the instituting of a uniform law code for all communities: the decks are clear for the BJP to move forward on its agenda... On Saturday, the Supreme Court decided on the Ayodhya dispute, ruling that a Ram temple will come up on the disputed spot where, till 1992, the Babri Masjid stood. The judgment is hugely significant, revolving around an intersection of faith and politics that has gripped and driven India for the past three decades. Now that the legal dispute is over, what does this point of inflection mean for Indian politics going forward?
'The Supreme Court has pronounced its “unanimous” verdict in the Ayodhya title dispute case, saying that the Hindu parties will be given the disputed land where the Babri Masjid once stood. The Sunni Waqf Board, the biggest Muslim litigant in the case, will be given five acres at a separate “prominent” location in Ayodhya...'
'Justice Akil Abdulhamid Kureshi’s appointment as a high court chief justice continues to spur debate with the Supreme Court giving in to the Modi government’s insistence that he not be sent to Madhya Pradesh as the collegium had initially decided: the judge has instead been recommended for the position of chief justice of the Tripura high court. Justice Kureshi is currently the senior most judge in the Gujarat high court. As a high court judge, he had in 2010 sent Amit Shah to police custody in the Sohrabuddin fake encounter case.
'Thousands of dalit activists from across the country under the banner of Ravidas community, Bhim Army, Dalit Soshan Mukti Manch (DSMM), Dalit Sant Samaj and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) will protest on Wednesday at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar against the demolition of the historic Sant Ravidas Temple in the Tughlaqabad area. Dalit activists said the demolition of the temple by the Bharatiya Janata Party-run Delhi Development Authority (DDA) had enraged people and demanded that the temple be re-constructed on the same location...
'On 5 July, a Supreme Court division bench led by the judge Arun Mishra overturned a 2011 judgment of the Gujarat high court. The high court had acquitted 12 men accused of murdering Haren Pandya, a former home minister of Gujarat, in 2003. In the acquittal, the court condemned the Central Bureau of Investigation’s probe into the case—the agency had linked Pandya’s murder to the killing of a Gujarat-based leader of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, and said that the murders were an international conspiracy supposedly led by a Muslim cleric to spread terror among Hindus.
