From NJAC to Yakub Memon: Top cases that rocked Supreme Court in 2015

An unprecedented pre-dawn hearing sealing Mumbai blasts' convict Yakub Memon's fate, relief to ex-Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in coalgate and ousting of cricket czar N Srinivasan hogged the limelight in 2015 in the Supreme Court where a historic bid of the Executive to wrest back primacy on judges' appointment got a drubbing.

Besides, the apex court in an activist mode dealt with the aspect of pollution and other issues of fundamental rights with path-breaking verdicts on freedom of speech by striking down controversial section 66A of the Information Technology Act that provided for arrest for posting allegedly "offensive" content on social networking sites. However, the turf war between the legislative/executive combine and the judiciary over the NDA government's ambitious law -- National Judicial Appointment Commission (NJAC) Act -- aimed at replacing the 22-year-old collegium system of judges appointing judges for higher judiciary -- was the cynosure of all eyes which ended with the legislation being dubbed as unconstitutional and compromising independence of judiciary.

The verdict by the five-judge Constitution Bench which revived the collegium system after almost a year culminated in guidelines to improve it, with the apex court at the fag end of the year asking the Centre to draft memorandum of procedures in consultation with the CJI. Another setback the NDA government had was for defending the action of previous UPA regime over the cyber law curtailing the freedom of speech and expression of netizens.

The Supreme Court, whose path-breaking verdicts on the issue is almost unparalleled, lived up to its glorious past and in yet another legendary verdict held section 66A of IT Act as "unconstitutional" which had a "chilling effect" on freedom of speech and expression. So was the case for Narendra Modi government on the issue of Jat reservation when its efforts to defend the pre-poll decision of the Manmohan Singh regime did not yield favourable result with the apex court saying earlier "possible wrong inclusions" cannot be the basis of further inclusions.

After the verdict on the cyber law, the top court again drew international attention for holding pre-dawn hearing when the last-ditch effort by human right activists to save 1993 Mumbai serial blasts master mind Memon from gallows failed. He was hanged, hours after the apex court on July 30 passed the order of rejection of his plea just before 05:00 AM which was filed at midnight after dismissal of identical relief in the day.

Taking a cue from the Memon episode, a similar attempt was made by the Delhi Commission for Women which, through its chairperson Swati Maliwal, rushed to the apex court without success on the intervening night of December 19-20 to stop the release of juvenile offender in the horrific December 16, 2012 gangrape case.  Former Prime Minister Singh knocking apex court's door against the summons issued to him as an accused by a trial court in one of the coal block allocations scam cases, kept all in suspense until a stay came in his favour.

However, his cabinet colleague Santosh Bagrodia was not so lucky as the top court did not grant him same relief on parity and asked him to appear before the special CBI court.

The coalgate also brought disgrace for former CBI Director Ranjit Sinha, whose meeting with high-profile accused at his residence was held improper by the apex court which appointed agency's former Special Director M L Sharma to probe into the alleged misdemeanour and ordered handing over of visitors' diary of Sinha's official residence to the Sharma panel.

While graft cases and other constitutional matters were hogging the limelight, the sporting world was keenly watching the developments evolving from the apex court's proceedings on IPL spot fixing and betting which not only engulfed Mahendra Singh Dhoni-led Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals but proved to be the last nail in the coffin for Srinivasan who was ousted from the cash-rich Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).

In between came controversies and one of them was about alleged bench hunting in the fund embezzlement case against social activist Teesta Setalvad lodged by Gujarat government.

Though she and her husband Javed Anand secured stay on their arrest for custodial interrogation, what was baffling was their legal team making successful complaint for recusal of the bench which was asking some searching questions during the proceedings.

They also succeeded in getting stay from arrest in the case of receiving of foreign funds by Sabrang Communications and Publishing Pvt Ltd, run by them, from Ford Foundation in violation of FCRA provisions.

Controversy, twist and turns were also witnessed in the assets case involving AIADMK leader and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa against her acquittal by the Karnataka High Court with the apex court bench first giving split verdict on the issue of appointment of Special Public Prosecutor (SPP) Bhawani Singh.

Later, a larger bench, though termed the appointment of Singh as SPP "inappropriate", did not order "de-novo" hearing in the high court. While Jayalalithaa returned as chief minister after overturning of her conviction by the high court, former Haryana Chief Minister O P Chautala was not so lucky as the apex court virtually put the curtains down on the controversial political career of octogenarian by summarily rejecting his appeal against the conviction and 10 year jail term awarded to him and his son Ajay Chautala in the Junior Basic Teachers recruitment scam case.

The fag end of 2015 saw the apex court in an activist mode when it passed unprecedented directions to curb the slide in worsening air pollution in the national capital by putting bar on registration of diesel-run sports utility vehicles (SUVs) and high-end private cars with engine capacity of 2000 CC and above till March 31, 2016, in Delhi and NCR.

Besides restricting entry of trucks, which are not Delhi- bound, from two key entry points, it also directed 100 per cent hike of the Environment Compensation Charge being levied on light and heavy commercial vehicles entering the national capital.

Landmark judgments including the ruling that the Centre has "primacy" over states' right to grant remission to convicts in certain kind of cases, assumed importance as it was delivered in the issues arising out of the case of Rajiv Gandhi assassination in which Tamil Nadu government had taken a decision to free the former prime minister's killers.

The issue of black money, one of the major poll planks of the NDA during 2014 Lok Sabha elections, also kept busy the apex court during the year as it asked the SIT, set up in pursuance of its order, to follow up such cases vigorously, besides asking the Centre to implement SIT's recommendations to bring back illegal money stashed in foreign banks.

Political heavyweights including Rahul Gandhi, Subramanian Swamy and Arvind Kejriwal came rushing to the apex court in 2015 against their respective criminal defamation cases and got relief in a form of stay.

The court also reserved it verdict on their pleas also challenging the constitutional validity of penal provisions on defamation. The Centre, however, strongly supported their retention in statute.

The efforts of persons, claiming to be whistle blowers and Congress leader Digvijay Singh, bore fruits in 2015 as the apex court ordered CBI probe into nearly 200 Vyapam scam cases arising from Madhya Pradesh.

The apex court, which had ordered CBI probe into multi- crore chit-fund scam cases in states like West Bengal, Odisha and Assam, however, rejected the plea of West Bengal ruling party TMC of a court-monitored CBI probe. 

These two scams brought out in public glare the perennial problem of acute shortage of man power in CBI and led the court to ask the agency to take corrective steps. The court, which would set up a five-judge bench to decide pleas challenging the Aadhaar scheme, meanwhile lifted its earlier restriction and permitted voluntary use of Aadhaar cards in welfare schemes that also included MGNREGA, all pension schemes and the provident fund besides ambitious flagship programmes like 'Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojna' of the NDA government. Earlier, it had allowed its voluntary use of Aadhaar in LPG and PDS schemes only.

The court came out with an important verdict on the misuse of public funds in giving advertisements by public authorities and barred the publication of photos of leaders in official advertisements except those of President, Prime Minister and the Chief Justice of India.

However, the Centre and states like Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, West Bengal and Assam have sought review of the verdict saying that the Chief Minister and few others cannot be restrained. The woes of Sahara Group chief Subrata Roy, who is in jail since March 2014, continued this year as well as the group could not deposit the requisite money to secure his release.

During the year, the court on the plea for his release on humanitarian grounds quipped, "You are in jail by choice." Real estate barons Sushil and Gopal Ansal escaped further jail term in the case pertaining to 1997 Uphaar fire tragedy in which 59 cine-goers had died of asphyxia during the screening of Bollywood movie 'Border' with the apex court saying they may not undergo the two-year jail term if they pay Rs 30 crore each as fine within three months which they fulfilled.

It rejected pleas seeking death penalty for Vikas and Vishal Yadav, serving 30 years jail term for brutally killing Nitish Katara in 2002. It simultaneously dismissed appeals of Yadav against the conviction and agreed to hear the limited issue as to whether the jail-term awarded to them was fair or just.