Umar Khalid's Bail Hearing, Bilkis Bano's Plea: What Happened in Courts Today?

Former JNU scholar Umar Khalid’s bail application was listed before a bench of Supreme Court bench of Justices AS Bopanna and PK Mishra, but was later dropped from the list of cases to be heard.Why? Previously on 8 August, Justice PK Mishra had recused himself from hearing Khalid’s case. The case was thus, likely deleted on Thursday, 17 August “because it was listed before the same bench of which Justice PK Mishra (who recused himself last week) was a part,” LiveLaw noted.For details on adjournments in Khalid’s bail plea at the top court, go here.While hearing the Bilkis Bano case, the Supreme Court raised questions over the apparent selective implementation of the convict remission policy by both the Gujarat state and Union governments."Why is the policy of remission being applied selectively? The opportunity to reintegrate and reform should be given to every convict, not a few. Question is, not en masse, but where eligible, are all life sentence convicts after 14 years being given the benefit of remission?" Justice Nagarathna observed orally.The top court is hearing a bunch of petitions that challenge the Gujarat government's decision to grant remission to a group of 11 convicts implicated in the gang-rape of Bilkis Bano and the subsequent murder of her family members during the 2002 Gujarat riots.The Delhi High Court Women Lawyers' Forum has reached out to Chief Justice of India, Justice DY Chandrachud, through a formal letter petition, asking him to take action against videos on social media economic boycott targeted at specific communities in the wake of communal clashes in Haryana's Nuh.The letter petition, signed by 101 esteemed women lawyers, seeks the intervention of the Supreme Court. The letters says:“We, as members of the legal community and of The Delhi High Court Women Lawyers Forum, residing in Delhi and Gurgaon, have approached Your Lordship, vide this Letter Petition, to bring to your notice the fact that hate speech videos are circulating on social media which purport to have been recorded at rallies in Haryana. We humbly seek urgent and expeditious directions to the State of Haryana to prevent incidents of hate speech and to take action against those who have perpetrated it, in violation of directions repeatedly issued by the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India and to immediately track and ban these videos that amplify hate speech and create an atmosphere of fear.”

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Umar Khalid's Bail Hearing, Bilkis Bano's Plea: What Happened in Courts Today?

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Topics: Supreme Court