Supreme Court

The leaders said that it was the former Chief Minister and AIADMK leader, late J. Jayalalithaa who had in a declaration in the state assembly in February 2014 said that if the central government did not take a decision immediately for the release of the seven convicts, her government would go ahead with the decision of the state cabinet to release all the seven convicts.

A bench headed by Justice A.M. Khanwilkar allowed the review petition by the family of victim Gurnam Singh against the top court's 2018 verdict, which let off Sidhu with a mere Rs 1,000 fine. The top court enhanced the sentence to Sidhu to one year. The top court said, "We have allowed a review application on the issue of sentence...we impose a sentence of imprisonment of one year to be undergone by the respondent..." The order in the matter will be uploaded later in the day.

The top court order came on a plea by the Madhya Pradesh government seeking modification in the May 10 order, directing the SEC to notify the programme for local body polls within two weeks. Speaking to IANS, advocate Shashank Ratnoo, representing the OBC petitioners, said he argued before the top court that OBCs should not suffer for the mistakes of the government.

A bench of Justices L. Nageswara Rao and B.R. Gavai said a political party has filed this case and it would have examined the matter, if people aggrieved with demolition drive were to come to the court, adding that it cannot pass direction at the behest of a political party. The top court said: "We have not given license to anybody to come here to say my house cannot be demolished, even if it is unauthorised."

The decision came a day after the Supreme Court directed the State Election Commission (SEC) to conduct local body (gram, nagar and zila panchayat) elections without OBC reservation. "I was scheduled to travel abroad from May 14 to attract investment in Madhya Pradesh, but at this time it is my priority to present my case again in the court and protect the interests of the backward classes.

At the outset, a bench of Justices L. Nageswara Rao and B R Gavai said a political party has filed this case and it would have examined the matter if people aggrieved with demolition drive were to come to the court. Senior advocateP.V. Surendranath, appearing for the Communist Party of India-Marxist, urged the court to stay the demolition drive for at least two days.