Archives for November 2019

The agitation comes on the first day of the Parliament’s Winter Session, which will end on December 13.

NEW DELHI: In the wake of a protest march to Parliament by the JNU Students’ Union against hostel fee hike, heavy police deployment was made outside the university’s campus on Monday.

The agitation comes on the first day of the Parliament’s Winter Session, which will end on December 13.

The students’ protest against the increase in hostel fee is going on for the past three weeks, even as the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) administration on Wednesday announced a partial rollback of the hike.

The union had termed the decision an “eyewash”.

Ten companies are deployed outside JNU, police said.

One company comprises 70 to 80 personnel.

The JNU Teachers’ Association (JNUTA) expressed concern over the deployment of police outside the varsity.

“The massive police deployment and barricading at the gates of the JNU campus, which on the face of it appears to be only for the purpose of preventing the students from taking out their planned march to Parliament,” it said.

“Such measures or use of force to thwart the exercise of constitutionally guaranteed democratic rights and to impede the students from peacefully taking their voice beyond the campus would be extremely unfortunate and the JNUTA hopes that no such situation will eventually arise,” the association said.

Police officials said adequate security arrangements have also been made along the route of the march.

Police personnel have been deployed at all entry points leading to Parliament, a senior police official said.

A five-judge bench headed by him on November 9 brought the curtains down on the Ayodhya land dispute, which dates back to even before the Supreme Court came into existence in 1950.

NEW DELHI: Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi, who presided over the Supreme Court bench for the last time on Friday, etched his name in the annals of history this week by giving some of the most important verdicts on politically sensitive issues in recent times — primarily, the Ayodhya land dispute case.

A five-judge bench headed by him on November 9 brought the curtains down on the Ayodhya land dispute, which dates back to even before the Supreme Court came into existence in 1950.

Justice Gogoi is also known for being part of a presser by the ‘gang of four’ senior-most judges in January last year which questioned the then CJI’s way of functioning.

Set to demit office on Sunday, Justice Gogoi’s tenure as CJI was not free of controversy as he faced allegations of sexual harassment, of which he was cleared.

However, he is more likely to be remembered for the Ayodhya verdict that gave Hindus the 2.77 acres disputed land for construction of Ram Temple and ordered that Muslims be given a 5-acre land at a prominent location to build a mosque in the holy city.

The CJI also headed a bench which, by a majority 3:2 verdict, referred to a larger 7-judge bench the pleas seeking review of the apex court’s historic 2018 judgement allowing women and girls of all ages to enter Kerala’s Sabarimala temple.

The majority verdict included in the ambit of the review petitions raising issues of alleged religious discrimination against Muslim and Parsi women as well.

Justice Gogoi’s name will also be remembered for heading a bench which gave clean chit to the Modi government twice — first on the writ petition and then on Thursday on the pleas seeking review of the December 14, 2018 verdict — in the sensitive Rafale fighter jet deal with the French aviation firm Dassault Aviation.

The bench warned Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for wrongly attributing certain remarks to the apex court in the Rafale case to be more careful in future.

Besides, Justice Gogoi headed a bench which in a landmark verdict held that the office of the CJI is a public authority under the Right to Information Act, but “judicial independence has to be kept in mind” while disclosing information in “public interest”.

On the same day, a 5-judge Constitution bench headed by him struck down in entirety the rules formulated by the Centre on appointment and service conditions for members of various tribunals and referred to a larger bench the issue of examining the validity of the passage of the Finance Act 2017 as Money Bill.

These important decisions apart, Justice Gogoi, known for his no-nonsense approach, boldness and fearlessness, also led a bench which monitored and ensured that NRC exercise in Assam, his native state, is completed within the set timeframe.

A lot of controversies plagued the NRC but he stood his ground and came out in public recently to defend the decision to hold the exercise to identify illegal immigrants.

As the day’s work began on Friday, he sat in the Supreme Court’s number one court for just about four minutes during which the apex court’s lawyers body expressed gratitude to him.

Later, a message from the outgoing CJI came expressing his inability to have a one-to-one interview with scribes and lauded the press for its “maturity” and “character” in preventing “canards and falsehood” in “trying times” of the judiciary.

After that he went to Raj Ghat and paid homage to Mahatma Gandhi, reminding his October 3, 2018 visit to the samadhi of the father of nation after taking oath as the CJI.

Justice Gogoi, who was sworn on October 3, 2018 as the 46th CJI, is the first person from the Northeast to reach the top position of judiciary and his tenure of a little over 13 months comes to ends on November 17, 2019.

Since taking up the leadership of Indian judiciary, and also as the judge of the apex before that, Justice Gogoi faced several ups and downs but that did not affect his approach to take on issues head on.

While Justice Gogoi is known for taking hard and sometimes surprising decisions, the Ayodhya matter reflected both as he not only ensured that arguments were not allowed to be dragged, but wrapped up the hearing two days ahead of the scheduled deadline of October 18, saying ‘enough is enough’.

True to his style when speculation was that the Ayodhya verdict will be delivered on the last three working days of his tenure as CJI, he sprang a surprise on November 8 evening by deciding to deliver judgement on next day (Saturday) when judges keep themselves away from courtroom cases.

There was a moment of personal controversy when a women staff member of the apex court levelled allegation of sexual harassment against the CJI in which he was given a clean chit by an in-house three-member inquiry committee headed by Justice S A Bobde.

Two women judges — justices Indu Malhotra and Indira Banerjee — were the other members of the Committee.

As a judge he had courted controversy by joining three other senior most judges of apex court in holding a press conference on January 12, 2018 in which they virtually revolted against his predecessor Justice Dipak Misra.

He later remarked at a public function that “independent judges and noisy journalists are democracy’s first line of defence”.

A “revolution, not reform” was needed to keep the institution of judiciary serviceable for the common man, Justice Gogoi had said at the same function.

As the CJI, he took tough decisions against erring judges and recommended their transfers and a woman high court judge was virtually forced to resign.

Senior leaders of the Congress said that the party was apparently in favour of ‘NCP-Congress plus Shiv Sena’ option and not ‘NCP, Congress, Shiv Sena’ option.

NEW DELHI: The Congress party will first sort-out modalities with its alliance partner Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) only after which it will initiate talks with Shiv Sena for the government formation in Maharashtra, told party sources. As per sources, the party is in favour of “NCP-Congress plus Shiv Sena” option and not “NCP, Congress, Shiv Sena” option.

Senior leaders of the party met Sonia Gandhi here on Friday and discussed the developments in Maharashtra. They said the party will first talk to the NCP and was apparently in favour of “NCP-Congress plus Shiv Sena” option and not “NCP, Congress, Shiv Sena” option.

The Congress and the NCP, which fought the assembly polls together, and the Shiv Sena have prepared a draft common minimum programme (CMP), which will be discussed by senior leaders of three parties.

Amid discussions over formation of government in Maharashtra, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and NCP chief Sharad Pawar would meet on Sunday to discuss their next course of action.

Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge, who is Congress’ in-charge for Maharashtra, said on Friday that his party alone cannot take decisions and the two leaders will meet on Sunday.

“Congress alone can’t decide things. NCP chief Sharad Pawar and AICC president Sonia Gandhi will sit together on November 17 and discuss the next course of action. They will decide how to solve this problem. Only after that, the other actions will follow,” Kharge told ANI.

He said once they both sit and discuss, only then will the political strategy be prepared. “That will be followed and implemented,” he said.

The three parties are having talks for the formation of the non-BJP government in the state where the President’s Rule was imposed earlier this week.

The Shiv Sena and the BJP, who had fought the polls together, could not form the government due to differences over power-sharing.

The BJP emerged as the single-largest party in the state with 105 seats in 288-member assembly followed by Shiv Sena 56, NCP 54 and Congress 44.

Meanwhile a joint delegation of Shiv Sena, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Congress leaders has sought time from Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari for a meeting on Saturday to discuss farmers’ issues.