Rain washes out first India-West Indies ODI
Providence (Guyana): Rain played spoilsport as the first One-Day International between India and the West Indies was called off after the home side scored 54 for one in 13 overs here.
The stop-start match, which was reduced to 34-over-a-side, was abandoned after a second rain interruption. After waiting for more than an hour and a half, the umpires were forced to call off the match on Thursday.
Opener Evin Lewis and Shai Hope were batting on 40 and 6 respectively when the match was called off after Indian captain Virat Kohli won the toss and asked the West Indies to bat.
The other opener Chris Gayle was out in the 11th over after scoring 4 off 31 deliveries in an agonisingly slow knock. He had come into the match 12 runs short of Brian Lara's 10,405 ODI runs, the most by a West Indies batsman.
The match was already reduced to 43-over-a side contest even before a ball was bowled as wet outfield due to rains had forced the toss to be delayed. The match began two hours later from its scheduled start.
West Indies made a quiet start with Bhubaneswar Kumar and Mohammed Shami exploiting the conditions well to tie down Gayle and Lewis before the first rain interruption.
India did not take the DRS when Lewis looked plumbed in front of wicket in the fourth over off Shami's bowling. Replays showed the ball would have gone on to hit the leg stump but India did not opt for a review. Lewis was on 1 then.
The home side had scored 9 for no loss in 5.4 overs at the first rain break. The match was about to be resumed 30 minutes later but wet area near the bowlers' run-up led to another delay of more than half an hour.
The Indian fielders and the two West Indies batsmen -- Gayle and Lewis -- came out to the ground but Kohli was seen having a discussion with the umpires.
Play did not start immediately as the umpires reckoned the ground staff need more time to get it ready. Kohli and some other Indian players were seen shaking their legs for a while, moving to the tunes of the DJ at the venue.
The players later walked off the field and the ground staff were seen spraying a lot of sawdust on the wet areas. The umpires made another inspection and after more than an hour's interruption, the match resumed for a 34-over-a-side affair.
Gayle and Lewis picked up steam after the long interruption. Lewis hit Khaleel Ahmed for 15 runs with a six and two fours in the eighth over but the introduction of wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav put some brakes on West Indian batsmen.
Kuldeep gave India the breakthrough as he dismissed dangerman Gayle who dragged the ball onto his stumps. Hope came in two overs later, but rains also came back to force the players to the dressing room once again.
The second one-dayer will be played in Port of Spain on Sunday. India had earlier won the T20 series 3-0.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
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.
