WPL: Kiran Navgire's bruising fifty help UP Warriorz score 7-wicket win over MI
Bengaluru, Feb 28: Kiran Navgire and Alyssa Healy unleashed a remarkable assault on Mumbai Indians bowlers to power UP Warriorz to a seven-wicket win in their Women's Premier League match here on Wednesday.
Navigre (57, 31b, 6x4, 4x6) and Healy (33, 29 balls) added 94 runs for the opening wicket stand in just 9.1 overs as the Warriorz eased past the 162-run target in 16.4 overs to hand the defending champions their first defeat of the season.
Mumbai batting suffered in the absence of skipper and in-form batter Harmanpreet Kaur, who is nursing a niggle, as a laboured 55 off 47 balls from Hayley Matthews guided them to 161 for six.
It was a competitive total but the Mumbai bowlers would not have suspected a carnage like the one Navigre and Healy unloaded on them.
Navigre, who is the only Indian women batter to score a 150-plus score in senior T20s, fully exploited her promotion as opener, as Mumbai also suffered from the injury-enforced absence of lead pacer Shabnim Ismail.
Healy gave a sound start to UP's chase with two successive boundaries off pacer Nat-Sciver Brunt, and they kept the momentum going from that point.
Navigre, who made a slow start making five off six balls, slipped into her aggressive best against pacer Issy Wong, hammering her for four fours in the third over to collect 16 runs and it was just the beginning of the onslaught.
Navigre, who was dropped on 42 by Wong near the ropes off Matthews, soon completed his fifty in just 25 balls and it came through a thundering six off the West Indian spinner over long-on.
But leg-spinner Amelia Kerr had player of the match Navigre stumped to give a bite of respite to Mumbai, who seemed to have gained a foothold as Wong dismissed both Healy and Tahlia McGrath in the 11th over.
They needed 64 runs at this stage, but Grace Harris (38, 17 balls) and Deepti Sharma (27, 20 balls) made those runs with minimum fuss.
Earlier, Mumbai made a sedate start to their innings and had to wait till the fourth over for the first four.
Yastika Bhatia (26, 22b) gave Mumbai the much-needed acceleration when the left-hander hammered 18 runs off left-arm pacer Anjali Sarvani through a sequence of three fours and a six, which was thumped right over the bowler's head.
However, Bhatia did not last long as a pull played closer to her body off Harris ended in the hands of Rajeshwari Gayakwad.
Matthews too tried to up the tempo and found the occasional big hits amid a slew of mis-time shots. Her four and six off successive balls off left-arm spinner Gayakwad were a reminder to her power and timing when in flow.
Matthews, who was dropped on 43 by Deepti off Harris, reached her fifty in 44 balls but could not kick on.
Her effort to clear long-on off Gayakwad did not have elevation and distance as Harris completed an easy catch.
A couple of hefty blows in the final stages by Pooja Vastrakar (18, 12b) and Wong helped MI to cross the 150-run mark.
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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.
