Important cases heard by Supreme Court on May 19

Important cases heard by the Supreme Court on Monday: * SC directed uniform pension benefits for all retired high court judges, irrespective of their mode of appointment or tenure, saying "one rank one pension has to be the norm in respect of a constitutional office".

* SC pulled up Madhya Pradesh minister Vijay Shah for his remarks on Colonel Sofiya Qureshi and constituted a three-member special investigation team to probe the FIR lodged against him.

* SC agreed to hear a plea of Ashoka University's political science department head Ali Khan Mahmudabad challenging his arrest for social media posts related to Operation Sindoor.

* SC dismissed the pleas of telecom majors Vodafone, Airtel and Tata Teleservices seeking the waiver of adjusted gross revenue (AGR) dues.

* SC slammed Delhi government over vacancies in the Delhi Pollution Control Committee and directed it to fill all the posts by September this year.

* SC observed the country was not a "dharamshala" or a public shelter to accommodate foreign nationals from across the globe.

* SC agreed to list for urgent hearing a plea seeking registration of an FIR against Allahabad High Court's Justice Yashwant Varma in connection with the cash discovery row.

* SC extended by four weeks the interim bail of convict Vikas Yadav, serving a 25-year jail term in the 2002 Nitish Katara murder case, to attend to his ailing mother.

* SC sought the response of the Bar Council of India on a plea against fee charged for the All India Bar Examination (AIBE). PTI PKS NB NB