Adultery law verdict likely soon

Supreme Court may also return verdict on women’s entry into Ayyappa temple

India’s Supreme Court is likely to pronounce this week a series of judgements — including its decisions in the Aadhaar, Ayodhya and adultery hearings — that would have bearings on the right to privacy, politics and social morality.

Verdicts will returned on the challenge to the constitutional validity of Aadhaar, and whether it is violative of the right to privacy, and the “discriminatory” adultery law that punishes the man alone for being in an extramarital relationship.

In the case of Aadhaar, the court pronouncement on whether it could have been brought as a money bill will have a bearing on the powers of the Speaker to allow a bill to be presented as a money bill that debars the Rajya Sabha from deciding its fate.

Chief Justice retiring

The next five days starting tomorrow are significant as both the Constitution bench and the three-judge bench are headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra and he is left with six working days — from September 24 to September 28 and October 1 — as chief justice in regular court.

As Misra retires on October 2, it being the national holiday on account of Mahatma Gandhi’s birth anniversary, the court will not be functioning.

In all likelihood, most of the judgements are likely to be pronounced in the coming week.

In the Ayodhya case, the court will decide whether a challenge to the 2010 Allahabad High Court verdict in the dispute should be heard by a regular bench or a five-judge Constitution bench.