Important hearings in SC

* SC said there can be no additional restrictions on freedom of speech for public functionaries and held that a minister’s statement cannot be attributed “vicariously” to the government even when applying the principle of collective responsibility.
* SC said a petition seeking an independent probe by a special investigation team (SIT) into the last month’s hooch tragedy in Bihar which claimed many lives will be heard on January 9.
* SC granted interim bail to suspended Jharkhand cadre IAS officer Pooja Singhal in a money laundering case to look after her ailing daughter.
* SC sought a response from the CBI to the bail plea of former Congress councillor Balwan Khokhar, sentenced to life imprisonment in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case, on several grounds including having already served almost nine years in jail.
* SC said it will consider on January 10 the petition filed by sacked Gujarat-cadre IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt seeking to bring in additional evidence in an appeal filed by him in the Gujarat High Court.
* SC said it will hear on January 6 the pleas seeking transfer to the apex court of the petitions pending before high courts for recognition of same-sex marriages. (PTI)