IN COURT

The National Green Tribunal has ordered the closure of eight industrial units in Uttarakhand's Sitarganj area after the Central Pollution Control Board found that they were violating pollution norms.

On June 4, the Supreme Court lifted its stay on the demolition drive in Asola Bhatti village of South Delhi against illegal farmhouses and constructions. Estimates say nearly half of the 80 ha of village and forestland has been encroached upon by land mafia who had further sold them off as farmhouses.

On May 30, the Madras High Court asked the Centre to instruct state governments to ensure that weight of the bags of schoolchildren should not exceed 10 per cent of the weight of the child and no homework should be given to students of classes 1 and 2.

On June 7, the Pathankot court, while hearing the case of gangrape and murder of a minor girl from the nomadic Bakherwal community in Jammu and Kashmir's Kathua district, framed charges against seven of the eight accused. This paves way for beginning of the trial. The fate of the eighth accused, a juvenile, is yet to be decided.

Hearing a petition by a transgender, the Gauhati High Court expressed its displeasure with the Assam government's inaction in protecting the rights of the community and asked the core committee, which was formed to suggest measures to address the issue, to submit its recommendations within three months.

The Madras High Court has issued a notice to the wife of mahout of the Madurai Meenakshi Amman shrine while hearing a public interest litigation that claims an elephant gifted to the temple is in the illegal possession of the woman, who is using it for begging.