Important matters heard by the Supreme Court on Tuesday, July 29:
* The Supreme Court fixed a time schedule for hearing the Presidential Reference raising constitutional issues on whether timelines could be imposed for dealing with bills passed by assembly, and proposed to start the hearing from August 19.
* The SC said if a person is merely acting as a lawyer, then he should not be summoned by probe agencies for rendering legal opinion to a client who is under investigation.
* Terming the Election Commission a constitutional authority deemed to act in accordance with law, the SC said it will step in immediately if there is "mass exclusion" in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar.
* The SC said the phrase "accident arising out of and in the course of his employment" in a provision of the Employees' Compensation Act would include accidents occurring while commuting between the residence and the place of duty.
* The SC expressed displeasure over the Tamil Nadu government "attempting to delay" the trial in cases involving former state minister V Senthil Balaji by implicating more than 2,000 people as accused in an alleged cash-for-jobs scam.
* The SC issued contempt notices to a litigant and his lawyers for making "scurrilous allegations" against a sitting judge of the Telangana High Court in their plea.
* The SC stayed an order of the Allahabad High Court directing Rampur's MP-MLA court to proceed with the trial in two cases linked to former MLA and senior Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan's son Mohammad Abdullah Azam Khan.