Worship Act, Triple Talaq, Marital Rape… 2025 will be the year of big decisions, cases will pass through Supreme Court.

New Delhi : The Supreme Court will hear many important cases in the coming year 2025. Its far reaching social, religious, family and political effects can be seen. Many of these cases have been in the news and the Supreme Court verdict is awaited on them: Examination of the Places of Worship Act.
The Supreme Court will hear petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the Places of Worship Act 1991. Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sanjiv Khanna, Justice Sanjay Kumar and Justice K.V. Vishwanathan’s special bench will hear. In the last hearing, the CJI-led bench had banned passing orders and filing new cases in all the pending cases related to this across the country.

This law prohibits legal action to maintain the status quo of religious structures and to change them as on August 15, 1947. The government has not yet filed its reply in this matter.

Will marital rape be a crime or not?
The Supreme Court will hear the petition filed against keeping the husband in exception in the marital rape case. In the last hearing, the court had said that it will examine the constitutional validity of the provision of keeping the husband in the category of exception in rape cases in the IPC and BNS. There is a provision in Exception 2 of Section 375 of IPC and Section 63 of BNS that if the wife is an adult then the forced relationship of the husband with her will not amount to rape.

Challenge to the law against triple talaq
The apex court had rejected the practice of triple talaq in 2017. Despite this, this practice continued unabated in many places among the Muslim community. The government made a law to stop this, which has been challenged in the Supreme Court. The Center had said in the court that despite the Supreme Court declaring triple talaq unconstitutional, it was not effective in reducing its number. After this, a law was passed to protect the rights of victimized Muslim women.

Supreme eyes on the appointment of election commissioners
The Supreme Court is going to hear the petition challenging the law made for the appointment of the Chief Election Commissioner and Election Commissioners. An important decision has to be taken on this. The court has asked the Center and the Election Commission to file their reply in this matter. The new law made for their appointment has been challenged by filing an application in the Supreme Court. The Chief Election Commissioner and Election Commissioner (Appointment, Conditions of Service and Term of Office) Act 2023 has been challenged.

Services issue in Delhi
The Supreme Court has to hear the petition challenging the Central Government law related to services in Delhi. Actually, by making a law, the government had given the control of services in the hands of LG. This law was challenged by the Delhi government. On May 19, 2024, the Supreme Court had referred the case to a constitutional bench of five judges.

Examination of laws related to money laundering
The Supreme Court will hear the review petition filed challenging the provisions of the Money Laundering Act in the new year. The Supreme Court had rejected the petition challenging the provisions of the PMLA Act in 2022. After this a review petition was filed. The court had said that it is not mandatory to give ECIR (Enforcement Case Information Report) to the accused at the time of his/her arrest and also there is a need to re-look at the provision putting the burden of proving innocence on the accused.