Archives for October 2022

NEW DELHI: Despite the current strain in India and Pakistan relations, Pakistan has sent two delegations to India in the last 10 days. For the ongoing Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Coordinators meeting being held in Delhi, Pakistan has sent a two-member delegation headed by DG SCO at Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry, Margoob Saleem.

Last week for the SCO Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS) Pakistan sent two members as observers at the closing ceremony at Manesar. India has also taken over the Presidency of the SCO and will organise a Summit in September 2023. “There will be many meetings organised under the SCO and countries including Pakistan and China are likely to take part in them irrespective of the fact that relations with India are not normal,’’ said sources.

The SCO coordinators meeting is the first meet since under SCO since India took the presidency and such meetings will happen every month. “National coordinators are like the `Sherpas’ of the group and work on issues of concern to SCO,’’ sources added.

“It was a pleasure to interact with SCO National Coordinators at the start of their first meeting in India under India’s chairmanship,’’ said Minister of State for External Affairs, Meenakshi Lekhi. Whether the visiting of Pakistani officials will manifest into a thaw in relations with India, one can’t really say. However, sources say that Pakistan has evinced a keen interest to take part in all the SCO meetings that India would be hosting under its Presidency.

The names of Pakistani officials circulating for attending various events include DG Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs Asim Ali (he is said to be attending around three events) and Rai Muhammad Tahir, National Coordinator, National Counter Terrorism Authority (Nacta).

SCO meet
For the ongoing Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Coordinators meeting being held in Delhi, Pakistan has sent a two-member delegation headed by DG SCO at Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry, Margoob Saleem

AHMEDABAD: Union Law and Justice Minister Kiren Rijiju said the people of the country are not happy with the collegium system and according to the spirit of the Constitution, it is the government’s job to appoint judges. 

Speaking at ‘Sabarmati Samvad’ organised here on Monday by ‘Panchjanya’, a weekly magazine published by the RSS, he said he has observed that half of the time judges are “preoccupied” with deciding the appointments, due to which their primary job of delivering justice “suffers”.

The minister’s remarks came after he had said at a conference in Jaipur last month that there is a need to rethink the collegium system of appointments to the higher judiciary.

“Till 1993, every judge in India was appointed by the law ministry in consultation with the Chief Justice of India.

“The Constitution is clear about it. It says that the President of India will appoint judges, which means the law ministry will appoint judges in consultation with the Chief Justice of India,” he said.

“The Supreme Court in 1993 defined consultation as concurrence. In no other field has consultation been defined as concurrence but in judicial appointments,” he said, adding that the collegium system was expanded by the judiciary in 1998.

The Supreme Court collegium is headed by the Chief Justice of India and comprises four seniormost judges of the court.

While the government can raise objections or seek clarifications regarding the collegium’s recommendations, it is bound by procedure to clear the names of the five-member body reiterates them.

“I am aware that the people of the country are not happy with the collegium system of appointment of judges. If we go by the spirit of the Constitution, appointing judges is the job of the government,” said.

“Second thing, nowhere in the world except India is there a practice that judges appoint their brothers as judges.”

“Third, as the law minister, I have observed that half of the time and minds of judges are preoccupied with deciding who will be the next judge. Their primary work is to give justice, which suffers due to this practice,” he said.

“Further, the process of consultation for the selection of judges is so intense that, I am sorry to say such a thing, groupism develops in it. People can see politics among leaders but they do not know the politics going on inside the judiciary,” he added.

Rijiju said the law ministry’s job is to see that the person whose name has been recommended for appointment by the collegium is fit to be a Supreme Court or high court judge.

“A judge will be above criticism if he is not involved in the selection of another judge. But if he is involved in the administrative work, then he or she is not above criticism,” he said.

In 2014, the NDA government tried to change the system of appointing judges. The National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) Act brought in 2014 would have accorded a major role to the executive in appointing judges to the higher judiciary.

However, it was struck down by the Supreme Court in 2015.

Responding to a question on judicial activism, Rijiju said, “Several judges pass observations which never become part of the judgement. During my consultations with them, I have requested them to refrain from it, especially when live streaming of court proceedings is taking place. They are being judged by the people.”

“As a judge, you might not know the practical difficulties or even financial implications of the order you pass,” he said.

“We have three pillars – the executive, legislature and judiciary. The executive and the legislature are bound and regulated by the judiciary. But if the judiciary goes astray, there is no mechanism to control it,” he said.

NEW DELHI/HYDERABAD: A SpiceJet plane coming from Goa made an emergency landing at Hyderabad airport on Wednesday night after smoke was observed in the cabin and aviation regulator DGCA is probing the incident, according to officials.

The plane landed safely and passengers disembarked through the emergency exit.

One passenger sustained minor scratches on the feet while disembarking from the aircraft, a DGCA official said.

A Hyderabad airport official said there were 86 passengers onboard the Q400 aircraft VT-SQB and that due to the emergency landing, as many as nine flights were diverted on Wednesday night after the incident at around 11 pm.

SpiceJet has been facing operational and financial headwinds in recent times, and it is already under enhanced surveillance of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).

The regulator had also directed the airline to operate only 50 per cent of its total flights till October 29.

On Thursday, the DGCA official said the regulator is probing the incident.

“SpiceJet Q400 aircraft operating from Goa to Hyderabad landed safely at its destination on October 12 after smoke was observed in the cabin during descent. Passengers were safely disembarked,” an airline spokesperson said.

According to the DGCA official, the plane made an emergency landing due to smoke observed in the cockpit.

On July 27, DGCA directed SpiceJet to operate a maximum of 50 per cent of its flights, which were approved in the summer schedule for a period of eight weeks owing to a series of incidents involving its flights.

Last month, the restrictions were extended till October 29.

Raipur: The Enforcement Directorate on Thursday arrested IAS officer Sameer Vishnoi and two other people after it conducted raids in a money laundering case in Chhattisgarh, officials said.

Businessman Sunil Agrawal of Indramani group and Laxmikant Tiwari, uncle of “absconding” businessman Suryakant Tiwari, have been taken into custody in the morning by the federal agency from state capital Raipur, they said.

The three people have been arrested under criminal sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and will be produced before a local court, where the ED will seek their further custody.

Vishnoi, CEO of the Chhattisgarh Infotech Promotion Society, was questioned by the agency in Raipur on Wednesday.

The arrests came after the agency launched multiple raids in Chhattisgarh on October 11 in a money laundering case linked to alleged illegal levy extorted from transporters in the state by a purported nexus of government officials, businessmen and private entities.

The agency had also sealed the residence of IAS officer and Raigarh district Collector Ranu Sahu as she was not available during the raids.

Sahu has informed the agency that she was undergoing a medical procedure and has assured cooperation in the investigation.

Chitradurga (Karnataka): The ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ of the Congress led by Rahul Gandhi on Thursday resumed from Bommagondanahalli in Karnataka’s Chitradurga district and headed towards Rampura.

Hundreds of people gathered on the roadside in the morning to welcome them.

According to Congress workers, the march started at 6.30 am from the BG Kere underpass in Bommagondanahalli.

After walking 12 kilometres, Gandhi will take a break at Konasagara in the district.

The march will then resume at 4 pm from Konasagara and stop for an evening break in Molakalmuru. After that, Gandhi will take a night halt in Rampura.

The ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ entered Karnataka on September 30. It will cover 511 km in 21 days and exit the state on October 20.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi

Chitradurga: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday said every State should have the right to use its language and if the students want to do exams in it, they should be allowed.

The former AICC president said this while interacting with around 1,800 youths from all over Karnataka on unemployment and related issues here, as part of the Bharat Jodo Yatra led by him.

“A language is much more than simply something you use for conversation. A language has hope, a language has imagination, a language has history in it,” Rahul Gandhi said.

He said, “Every State should have the right to use its language, and if the students want to do the exams in that language, they should be allowed to do exams in that language.”

Rahul Gandhi’s statement comes amid controversy over a Parliamentary Committee’s recent recommendation that the medium of instruction in technical and non-technical higher education institutes such as IITs in Hindi-speaking States should be Hindi and in other parts of the country their respective local language. It said the use of English should be optional.

In southern States where Hindi is not spoken as much, several political leaders like former Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin and Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan have expressed objections to the Parliamentary Committee’s recommendation and termed it “Hindi imposition.”

New Delhi: Observing that “citizens cannot be faced with an emergency situation due to lack of governance”, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) has directed the Delhi government to pay Rs 900 crore as environmental compensation for improper management of solid municipal waste.

A bench headed by chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel noted that around 80 per cent of legacy waste at the three landfill sites — Ghazipur, Bhalswa and Okhla — was not remediated and the quantity of legacy waste at the three dumpsites was 300 lakh metric tonnes.

The bench, also comprising Justice Sudhir Agarwal and expert members A Senthil Vel and Afroz Ahmad, said that the scenario presented a grim picture of environmental emergency in the national capital.

“Citizens cannot be faced with an emergency situation due to lack of governance,” the bench said.

There was continuous emission of methane and other harmful gasses along with groundwater contamination, the bench said, adding even minimum safeguards against repeated fires were not adopted.

“Needless to repeat the hazardous consequences of accumulated and unscientifically stored huge quantum of garbage which are mountains,” the bench said.

The green tribunal further said that scarce and costly public land was occupied by the waste dumpsites.

“The area is 152 acres and its price even at a conservative rate is more than Rs 10,000 crore at the applicable circle rate and thus the urgency to retrieve the said public asset for beneficial public use,” it said.

The NGT said that there was a serious violation of the rights of citizens and a failure of the public trust doctrine to protect the environment and public health by the authorities concerned.

“Steps taken so far do not meet the mandate of law and are not commensurate to the grim factual emergency situation, constantly threatening the safety and health of citizens and the environment with no accountability of officers entrusted with the task,” it said.

The NGT said that emergency measures, along with a new and sensitive approach in a mission mode, were required to remedy the situation.

Fixing accountability of the state authorities for past violations, the bench said, “We hold the National Capital Territory of Delhi liable to pay environmental compensation of Rs 900 crore having regard to the quantity of undisposed waste which is to the extent of three crore metric tonnes at the three landfill sites.”

The amount could be placed in a ring-fenced account to be operated under the directions of the chief secretary, Delhi, for restoration of the environment by remediation of waste and other measures, the bench said.

It also directed the authorities to ensure that current waste is not added to the legacy waste sites and the waste was disposed of as per norms.

To control foul smell and improve aesthetics, turfing of landfill sites could be done through boundary walls or fencing by plantations of at least three rows of fast-growing and tall native trees in the periphery of landfill sites, the tribunal said.

The authorities could also establish a tourism and recreational centre, the bench said.

The already constituted 13-member monitoring committee headed by the chief secretary could coordinate with any other concerned departments and co-opt any other experts or institutions for speedy preparation and execution of the action plan, it said.

The NGT directed that an interim progress report, providing the status of compliance as on December 31, 2022, be filed by January 15, 2023.