PM Modi to pay his seventh visit to poll-bound Karnataka this year on Saturday
Bengaluru, Mar 21: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be on a visit to poll-bound Karnataka on March 25 -- his seventh this year -- during which he will take part in various events including a Metro ride, and address a mega public meeting organised by the BJP.
Assembly polls are due by May, and the schedule is likely to be announced by the Election Commission in the coming days.
During the visit, the Prime Minister will participate in programmes organised in Chikkaballapura, Bengaluru, and Davangere districts.
According to an official release, the Prime Minister on his arrival here in the morning on that day, will travel to Chikkaballapura by helicopter to inaugurate Sri Madhusudan Sai Institute of Medical Sciences and Research there.
He will then fly back to Bengaluru in the afternoon to inaugurate the Whitefield Metro Line and will ride in the Metro.
Modi will then proceed to Davangere to address a public meeting, and after that will proceed to Shivamogga to emplane for Delhi from Shivamogga Airport.
Though details about the public meeting have not been shared in the official release, it is said to be a mega rally of the ruling BJP as part of its poll preparations in Karnataka.
Karnataka BJP and its leaders including Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai have said that Modi will attend a mega rally in the district headquarters town of Davangere on March 25, to mark the culmination of the 8,000-km long 'Vijay Sankalpa Yatre'.
The 20 day state-wide tour, which began from four different parts of the state, in specially designed vehicles or 'Rathas', was kickstarted on March 1 by BJP national President J P Nadda at Male Mahadeshwara Hills in Chamarajanagar district. Several senior BJP leaders, Chief Ministers of other BJP-governed states, and Union Ministers have taken part in the programme.
This is said to be the first party meeting, which the Prime Minister will be attending, since the poll preparations began in Karnataka.
According to party functionaries, the event is aimed at energising the BJP cadres in the run-up to Assembly polls.
BJP, which aims to come back to power in the state with an absolute majority this time, has set a target of winning at least 150 of the total 224 seats in the Assembly.
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SC dismisses pleas seeking review of 2023 verdict declining legal sanction to same-sex marriage
New Delhi, Jan 9: The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed a batch of pleas seeking to review its October 2023 verdict declining legal sanction to same-sex marriage.
A five-judge bench of Justices B R Gavai, Surya Kant, B V Nagarathna, P S Narasimha and Dipankar Datta took up about 13 petitions related to the matter in chambers and dismissed them.
"We do not find any error apparent on the face of the record. We further find that the view expressed in both the judgements is in accordance with law and as such, no interference is warranted. Accordingly, the review petitions are dismissed," the bench said.
It said the judges have carefully gone through the judgements delivered by Justice (since retired) S Ravindra Bhat speaking for himself and for Justice (since retired) Hima Kohli as well as the concurring opinion expressed by Justice Pamidighantam Sri Narasimha, constituting the majority view.
The bench also rejected a prayer made in the review petitions for hearing in an open court.
According to practice, the review pleas are considered in chambers by the judges.
The new bench was constituted after Justice Sanjiv Khanna, the present CJI, recused from hearing the review petitions on July 10, 2024.
Notably, Justice P S Narasimha is the only member of the original Constitution bench comprising five judges which delivered the verdict, as former CJI D Y Chandrachud and Justices S K Kaul, Ravindra Bhat and Hima Kohli have retired.
A five-judge Constitution bench led by then CJI Chandrachud on October 17, 2024, refused to accord legal backing to same-sex marriages and held there was "no unqualified right" to marriage with the exception of those recognised by law.
The apex court, however, made a strong pitch for the rights of LGBTQIA++ persons so that they didn't face discrimination in accessing goods and services available to others, safe houses known as "garima greh" in all districts for shelter to members of the community facing harassment and violence, and dedicated hotlines in case of trouble.
In its judgement, the bench held transpersons in heterosexual relationships had the freedom and entitlement to marry under the existing statutory provisions.
It said an entitlement to legal recognition of the right to union, akin to marriage or civil union, or conferring legal status to the relationship could be only done through an "enacted law".
The five-judge Constitution bench delivered four separate verdicts on a batch of 21 petitions seeking legal sanction for same-sex marriages.
All five judges were unanimous in refusing the legal recognition to same-sex marriage under the Special Marriage Act and observed it was within Parliament's ambit to change the law for validating such a union.
While former CJI Chandrachud wrote a separate 247-page verdict, Justice Kaul penned a 17-page judgement where he broadly agreed with the former's views.
Justice Bhat, who authored an 89-page judgement for himself and Justice Kohli, disagreed with certain conclusions arrived at by the former CJI, including on applicability of adoption rules for such couples.
Justice Narasimha in his 13-page verdict was in complete agreement with the reasoning and conclusion of Justice Bhat.
The judges were unanimous in holding that queerness was a natural phenomenon and not an "urban or elite" notion.
In his judgement, the former CJI recorded Solicitor General Tushar Mehta's assurance of forming a committee chaired by the cabinet secretary to define and elucidate the scope of entitlements of such couples in a union.
The LGBTQIA++ rights activists, who won a major legal battle in 2018 in the Supreme Court, which decriminalised consensual gay sex, moved the apex court seeking validation of same-sex marriages and consequential reliefs such as rights to adoption, enrolment as parents in schools, opening of bank accounts and availing succession and insurance benefits.
Some of the petitioners sought the apex court to use its plenary power besides the "prestige and moral authority" to push the society to acknowledge such a union and ensure LGBTQIA++ persons led a "dignified" life like heterosexuals.
