Important matters heard by Supreme Court on August 5

Important matters heard by the Supreme Court on Monday, August 5: * In a major setback to Delhi's Aam Aadmi Party government, SC ruled that the law "expressly enables" the lieutenant governor to nominate aldermen to the MCD and he is not bound by the advice of the council of ministers in the matter.

* Coaching centres have become "death chambers" and are playing with the lives of students, SC said as it issued notices to the Centre and the Delhi government on three IAS aspirants drowning in the basement of an institute here.

* In a significant development, SC asked the West Bengal government to provide quantifiable data on social and economic backwardness of fresh castes it has included in the Other Backward Classes (OBC) list and on their inadequate representation in public sector jobs.

* Enforcement Directorate opposed in SC the bail plea of AAP leader Manish Sisodia, claiming it has documents to show his "neck-deep involvement" in the alleged Delhi excise policy "scam".

* SC extended its July 22 interim order staying the directives issued by the BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Madhya Pradesh, asking eateries along the Kanwar Yatra routes to display the names of their owners, staff and other details.

* SC rejected a PIL seeking a direction to the Election Commission to restrain the use of body part like 'hand' as election symbol of political parties, saying it was intended to target the Indian National Congress Party.

* SC said it will list for final hearing the pleas challenging the Allahabad High Court order that had scrapped the Uttar Pradesh Board of Madarsa Education Act, 2004, calling it "unconstitutional" and violative of the constitutional principle of secularism.

* SC extended by six months the tenure of the Justice Gita Mittal committee set up to oversee relief and rehabilitation of the victims of ethnic violence in Manipur.

* SC will next week hear pleas on the intensely discussed legal question of whether a husband should enjoy immunity from prosecution for the offence of rape if he forces his wife, who is not a minor, to have sex.

* SC rapped the Uttar Pradesh government for not complying with its order to consider remission pleas within the time frame specified by it and directed the principal secretary of the state's prisons department to appear before it on August 19. PTI ABA NB