Archives for January 2022

Karnataka COVID-19 War Room chief Munish Moudgil

Bengaluru: The Karnataka COVID-19 war room analysis into the infections in the past seven days from January 1 to 7 has revealed that unvaccinated people are 30 times more likely to land in the Intensive Care Unit than the vaccinated, an official said on Saturday.

Karnataka COVID-19 War Room chief Munish Moudgil said unvaccinated people are 10-times more likely to have manifested COVID infection than vaccinated.

“The unvaccinated people are 30 times more likely to land in ICU or High Dependency Unit (HDU) as compared to the vaccinated,” he said in his analysis.

He explained the methodology to arrive at the conclusion.

According to him, with 97 per cent citizens vaccinated and three per cent unvaccinated, ideally if both were equally vulnerable to COVID, then for every 100 COVID cases or hospitalised cases, 97 people should have been vaccinated and three should have been unvaccinated.

“But, proportionately unvaccinated constitute 10 times COVID patients and 30 times more in ICU than expected,” Moudgil explained.

“Vaccination surely helps a lot to avoid COVID complications and everyone eligible must take it,” the IAS officer concluded.

Regarding the possibility of overwhelming majority of patients who are vaccinated fully, Moudgil said many in hospital general beds could be out of their own precaution. The actual number of people in the ICU will give the real comparison, he opined.

PC: @PunjabPoliceInd/Twitter

Chandigarh: Senior IPS officer Viresh Kumar Bhawra has been appointed as the new director-general of Punjab police, an official order said on Saturday.

The order came just hours before the announcement of the dates for the assembly elections in five states including Punjab.

Bhawra, who was the DGP of Punjab Home Guards, replaced officiating DGP Siddharth Chattopadhyaya.

Chattopadhyaya along with 13 other police and civil officers appeared on Friday at Ferozepur before a three-member panel formed by the Union Home Ministry to inquire into the “serious lapses” in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s security during his Ferozepur tour.

The Charanjit Singh Channi government selected the 1987 batch officer Bhawra out of a panel of three officers shortlisted by the Union Public Service Commission.

The other two officers in the panel were senior IPS officers Dinkar Gupta and Prabodh Kumar.

On the consideration of the panel received from the UPSC, the Punjab governor is pleased to appoint Viresh Kumar Bhawra, IPS as director general of police, Punjab (Head of Police Force), the order said.

Bhawra term shall be for a minimum period of two years from the date of assumption of office, it added.

Punjab got its third DGP in a span of three months.

A few days back, the UPSC had sent a panel of three IPS officers — Dinkar Gupta, V K Bhawra and Prabodh Kumar for the appointment of a regular director general of police of Punjab.

According to the Supreme Court guidelines, out of the three shortlisted IPS officers by the UPSC, the state government is to finalise the name of one officer for the appointment of a regular DGP.

The Punjab government had sent a list of 10 IPS officers including Siddharth Chattopadhyaya for shortlisting the panel of three officers.

According to the SC guidelines, only an officer who has been left at least six months of service can be considered for the post of DGP.

The UPSC had taken October 5, 2021 as the cut-off date for the selection of the DGP and since Chattopadhyaya was due to retire on March 31, 2022, his name did not find a place in the panel.

After Charanjit Singh Channi took over as the new chief minister last September, the 1988-batch IPS officer Iqbal Preet Singh Sahota was appointed as the officiating DGP replacing Dinkar Gupta who was the state police chief when Amarinder Singh was the chief minister.

But Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu was against the appointment of Sahota.

Later after facing pressure from the former cricketer, the state government had appointed 1986-batch IPS officer Siddharth Chattopadhyaya as officiating DGP until a regular DGP is appointed out of a panel of three IPS officers shortlisted by the UPSC.

Mumbai: Music composer-singer Vishal Dadlani on Saturday revealed that his father Moti Dadlani has passed away at a hospital here. He was 79.

Dadlani shared the news in a post on Instagram, saying that he could not be with his father in his final moments as the music composer tested positive for COVID-19 on Friday.

He revealed that his father was in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) for the past three-four days after a gallbladder surgery.

“Lost my best friend, the nicest and kindest man on earth, last night. I couldn’t have asked for a better father, or a better person to be my teacher for life. Anything good in me is just a pale reflection of him,” he wrote alongside a photo of his father.

“He was in ICU for the last 3/4 days (due to a gall bladder surgery that went bad) but I couldn’t go from yesterday on because I tested positive for Covid. I can’t even go hold my mother in her most difficult time. It’s really not fair,” he said.

Dadlani is currently under isolation at his residence here and has mild symptoms.

“Thankfully, my sister is handling everything with far more strength than I would be able to muster up. I don’t know how to live in a world without him. I’m completely lost,” he added.

Dadlani had revealed about his coronavirus diagnosis via social media on Friday. The music composer said that he contracted the virus despite taking “every precaution”.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has said that demanding money as illegal gratification while working in courts is “unacceptable” and very high standards apply to not only judges but also those employed there.

The apex court observed this while modifying the punishment given to a man, who was posted in a district court in Bihar and was dismissed from service on the charge of having demanded Rs 50,000 for acquittal of the accused in a case, to removal so that he may explore the possibility of another employment.

A bench of Justices A M Khanwilkar and C T Ravikumar was told by the counsel appearing for the appellant that for the last 24 years, the man had an unblemished service and this was the first allegation against him.

“You (appellant) were working in court and demanding money…, the bench observed, adding that the appellant had admitted his guilt.

The top court was hearing a plea filed by the man against the January 2020 order of a division bench of the Patna High Court which had dismissed his plea against the single judge bench verdict.

The single judge had in January 2018 refused to interfere with the punishment imposed upon the man, who was earlier posted in the office of a presiding officer of a court in Aurangabad.

During the arguments before the top court, the counsel appearing for the appellant said that the man was dismissed from service in 2014 and the punishment imposed upon him was extremely harsh.

Why do you say harsh? It is after inquiry, is it not? the bench observed. The counsel said the appellant was exonerated by the enquiry officer in the first inquiry.

He said later, a fresh departmental proceeding was directed to be initiated and the charges were held to be proved against him.

“The appellant has admitted his guilt. That is the finding, the bench observed, adding, If you admit your guilt, what else can be done, tell us.

When the appellant’s counsel argued that if possible, the service be restored, the bench observed there is no question of reinstatement.

Working in court and demanding money, that is unacceptable, the bench orally said.

The bench noted that the appellant has been dismissed from service by way of penalty, having admitted his guilt to the charges levelled against him.

After hearing counsel for the parties and keeping in mind the past service record of the appellant, to which our attention was invited to, in our opinion, interest of justice would be subserved by modifying the punishment from dismissal to removal so that the appellant may be able to explore possibility of another employment elsewhere, the court said.

In its order, the division bench of the high court had noted that the man was proceeded against on the charge of having demanded Rs 50,000 for acquittal of the accused persons in a case.

It had noted that a preliminary enquiry was made and a report was submitted before the standing committee, which directed the District and Sessions Judge, Aurangabad, to initiate disciplinary proceedings against him.

The high court had also noted that after holding the enquiry, the District and Sessions Judge had submitted his report to the standing committee, which was considered and turned down by it with a direction to initiate disciplinary proceedings against the delinquent afresh in the high court.

In the second enquiry report, the charges were held to be established and proved against the man and accordingly, he was given the punishment of dismissal from service with immediate effect.

New Delhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday accused the BJP of having set up several “factories” of hate and said the Tek Fog’ app is one of them.

He said the entire country is wondering where so much hate is coming from, going by the age of the accused in the Bulli Bai’ app case that targeted women of a particular religion.

“Looking at the young age of the accused in the BulliBaiApp case, the entire country is asking where does so much hatred come from. In fact, BJP has set up many factories of hate. Tek Fog is one of them,” Gandhi said in a tweet in Hindi.

He tagged a report that said Tek Fog’ is BJP’s helpful app that has given the power to the cyber army’ to spread hatred and tinker with the trends on social media.

The Congress has already demanded answers from the government over the app and asked the Supreme Court to intervene.

In the Bulli Bai’ case, doctored photographs of hundreds of Muslim women were uploaded for auction’ on an app called Bulli Bai’, hosted on open-source software platform GitHub.

New Delhi: The central government has told the Delhi High Court that citizens from different religions and denominations following different property and matrimonial laws is an affront to the nation’s unity and the Uniform Civil Code will result in the integration of India.

The Centre, in an affidavit filed in response to a plea seeking the Uniform Civil Code (UCC), said it would examine in consultation with stakeholders the issue of formulating the Code after it receives the report of the Law Commission.

The government added that the issue is important and involved sensitivity which required an in-depth study of various personal laws governing different communities of the country.

“Article 44 (of the Constitution on UCC for citizens) divests religion from social relations and personal law. Citizens belonging to different religious and denominations follow different property and matrimonial laws which is an affront to the nation’s unity,” the Centre stated in the affidavit filed through its lawyer Ajay Digpaul.

It informed that pursuant to its request to undertake an examination of various issues relating to the UCC and then make recommendations, the 21st Law Commission uploaded a consultation paper on ‘Reform of Family Law’ on its website in 2018 for wider discussion.

“As and when the report of the Law Commission in the matter is received, the government would examine the same in consultation with the various stakeholders involved in the matter,” the affidavit stated.

“In view of the importance of the subject matter and sensitivity involved which requires in-depth study of the provisions of various personal laws governing different communities, the central government requested the Law Commission of India to undertake examination of various issues relating to Uniform Civil Code and to make recommendation thereof,” it added.

In the affidavit, the Centre also said the petition is not maintainable as formulation of the UCC is a “matter of policy”, which has to be decided by the “elected representatives of the people” and “no direction can be issued on with regard”.

In May 2019, the court had sought the Centre’s response on BJP leader and lawyer Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay’s petition seeking constitution of a judicial commission to draft the UCC in order to promote national integration, gender justice and equality, and dignity of women.

Four other petitions have also contended that India “urgently needs a Uniform Civil Code”.

The petitioners have contended that gender justice and gender equality guaranteed under Articles 14-15 of the Constitution and dignity of women guaranteed under Article 21 cannot be secured without implementing Article 44 (the State shall endeavour to secure for citizens a UCC throughout the territory of India).

The petitions have claimed that the UCC, with a common set of rules governing every citizen of the country, will replace the personal laws which are based on the scriptures and customs of various religious communities.