Archives for June 2024

This is the second mercy plea rejected by the President after assuming office on July 25, 2022.

The Supreme Court had dismissed a review petition by Arif on November 3, 2022, affirming the death penalty awarded to him in the case.

However, a death row convict can still knock on the doors of the top court seeking commutation of his sentence on the ground of prolonged delay under Article 32 of the Constitution, feel experts.

The mercy petition from Arif, received on May 15, was turned down on May 27, the officials said, quoting the President’s secretariat order of May 29.

The Supreme Court, while upholding the death sentence, noted that there were no mitigating circumstances in Arif’s favour and emphasised that the attack on the Red Fort posed a direct threat to country’s unity, integrity, and sovereignty.\

The attack, which took place on December 22, 2000, saw intruders opening fire at the 7 Rajputana Rifles unit stationed within the Red Fort premises, resulting in the deaths of three Army personnel.

Arif, a Pakistani national and a member of banned Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), was arrested by Delhi Police four days after the attack.

“Appellant-accused Mohd. Arif alias Ashfaq was a Pakistani national and had entered the Indian territory illegally,” the top court’s order of 2022 had said.

Arif was found guilty of conspiring with other militants to carry out the attack, with the trial court sentencing him to death in October 2005. The Delhi High Court and the Supreme Court upheld the decision in subsequent appeals.

The trial court had said that the conspiracy to attack the Red Fort was hatched at the house of two conspirators in Srinagar, where Arif had illegally entered in 1999 along with three other LeT militants.

The three militants — Abu Shaad, Abu Bilal and Abu Haider — who had also entered the monument, were killed in separate encounters.

Despite multiple legal challenges, including review and curative petitions, Arif’s plea for mercy was rejected, highlighting the severity of the crime and the threat it posed to national security.

The Delhi High Court had confirmed the trial court’s decision in September 2007. Arif then approached the Supreme Court challenging the high court’s verdict. The top court had in August 2011 also sided with the order of awarding the death sentence awarded to him.

Later, his review petition came up before a two-judge bench of the apex court which dismissed it in August 2012. A curative petition was also rejected in January 2014.

Thereafter, Arif had filed a petition submitting that review petitions in matters arising out of award of death sentence be heard by a bench of three judges and in open court.

A constitution bench of the apex court had in its September 2014 judgement concluded that in all cases in which death sentence was awarded by the high court, such matters be listed before a bench of three judges.

Before the September 2014 verdict, the review and curative petitions of death row convicts were not heard in open courts but were decided in chamber proceedings by circulation.

In January 2016, a constitution bench had directed that Arif shall be entitled to seek re-opening of the dismissal of the review petitions for an open court hearing within one month.

The apex court had rejected the review petition in its verdict delivered on November 3, 2022.

This decision comes after President Murmu rejected another mercy petition last year in a separate case, demonstrating a firm stance on cases of heinous crimes.

Prayagraj: The Allahabad High Court has quashed a kidnapping case against a man registered on the complaint of his wife’s uncle after the couple eloped and said the judicial magistrate was wrong in sending the adult petitioner back to her parental home even when she had expressed fear for her life there.

“No one can restrain an adult from going anywhere that he or she likes, staying with a person of his/her choice, or solemnising marriage according to his/ her will or wish as this is a right which flows from Article 21 of the Constitution, which provides protection of life and personal liberty,” the court observed.

The woman aged about 21 years had married the man according to Muslim rites in April 2024, regarding which the Telangana state waqf board issued a marriage certificate.

The woman’s uncle lodged an FIR against her husband under section 363 (kidnapping) of IPC. Thereafter, the police not only arrested her husband but also took the woman into custody and handed her over to her uncle.

When the police produced the woman before the Magistrate to get her statement recorded under Section 164 CrPC, she categorically said that she had married the man of her own choice and that her husband had been implicated in the case falsely.

Subsequently, the couple jointly challenged the FIR before the high court.

A bench comprising justices JJ Munir and Justice Arun Kumar Singh Deshwal said the judicial magistrate had sent the woman to her uncle’s home despite her statement under section 164 of the criminal procedure code (CrPC), wherein she had expressed fear for her life if sent to her uncle/parent’s home.

The court said that the judicial magistrate, before whom the first petitioner lady claimed that she feared for her life because her uncle had threatened to do her death, was duty bound to get an FIR registered against the uncle, besides taking adequate measures to secure the safety and life of the first petitioner.

Emphasising that the honour killing in such matters is not an unknown phenomenon”, the court added that the Superintendent of Police, Siddharth Nagar and the Station House Officer, police station-Bansi, Siddharth Nagar district were equally answerable for not taking action against the woman’s uncle by registering an appropriate FIR and safeguarding the woman’s life and security.

While making the above observations, the court quashed the FIR against the husband.

In the decision dated June 7, the court also directed the officers concerned to ensure that her uncle or any other family member does not harm her in any manner.

Patna: The Bihar Education Department withdrew its controversial orders freezing bank accounts of most of the state universities and withholding salaries of vice-chancellors and other officials for failure to comply with its directions.

The department’s move came in the backdrop of recent Patna High Court orders in this regard.

In a missive to VCs of all state-run universities on Wednesday, Baidya Nath Yadav, Secretary (Education department), said, “The department has decided to withdraw its earlier orders of freezing accounts of various state-run universities… following the recent orders of the Patna High Court.”

The high court last month directed the department to take “no coercive action” against state universities and its officials till further order while directing that withholding salary of officials and freezing accounts of varsities “be kept in abeyance”.

The education department in March had ordered freezing of the bank accounts of all the state-run universities, barring one, and withheld salaries of their vice-chancellors for allegedly remaining absent in a review meeting convened by the department in the last week of February this year.

The department had issued letters to all VCs barring Kameshwar Singh of Darbhanga Sanskrit University, asking them to clarify why they did not attend the meeting to discuss the status of pending examinations and other issues.

In a related development, Bihar Governor Rajendra V Arlekar on Wednesday reminded the state education department that it was duty-bound to provide “adequate funds” to state universities.

The governor, who is also chancellor of state-run varsities, said this at a meeting in presence of Education Minister Sunil Kumar, who expressed hope that “team spirit” would bring about the much-needed improvement in higher learning.

According to a statement issued by the Raj Bhavan on Wednesday, the governor also directed VCs to prepare a road map for the academic development in the respective universities and the latter should also work hard to develop their institutions as centres of excellence.

The governor said that there should be separate deans in all universities, one for academics and another for research, said the statement.

Bhubaneswar: All four gates of Jagannath temple in Puri were reopened for devotees on Thursday morning in the presence of Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi and his council of ministers.

The three gates of the 12th century shrine, which were closed since COVID-19 pandemic, were reopened after the ‘Mangal Alati’ ritual of Lord Jagannath.

The chief minister, his two deputies, ministers, several BJP MPs and party leaders visited the temple and offered prayers before Lord Jagannath. They also conducted a ‘parikrama’ around the temple complex.

“After the oath-taking ceremony, the BJP government had on Wednesday evening taken its first decision to reopen all four gates of the temple. Today, the gates were reopened at 6.30 am after the ‘Mangal Alati’ ritual,” Majhi told reporters in Puri.

The government will closely monitor the situation and take necessary steps, if required, to streamline the flow of devotees to the shrine, the CM said.

He said the Odisha government has also decided to set up a Rs 500 crore corpus fund for better management, maintenance and development of the temple. The provision will be made in the upcoming state budget, Majhi said.

Cabinet minister Suresh Pujari said a detailed report has been sought to know why the three gates of the temple have not been reopened after the pandemic.

“We had the darshan of Lord Jagannath and sought his blessings to protect humankind and give us all strength to serve the people of Odisha for the next five years,” he said.

Opening all the temple gates was a key promise in the BJP’s election manifesto. The previous BJD government had kept three out of four gates shut since the COVID-19 pandemic.

The devotees were allowed to enter through only Singhadwara (Lion Gate), while the gates located at the three other sides of the temple remained closed, causing inconvenience to the devotees.

Mumbai: A glitch in the signalling system near Vikhroli station affected the suburban train services on the Main line of the Mumbai suburban network on Thursday morning, causing overcrowding at several stations and hardships to commuters during the rush hours.

Railway officials said the technical fault occurred in the signalling system on the UP (Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus-bound) fast line around 7 am, due to which some local trains were held up for about an hour.

“Due to some technical faults at UP through line near Vikhroli station local trains are held up hence some locals are running behind schedule time,” Rajneesh Goyal, divisional railway manager of Central Railway’s Mumbai division wrote of X.

Later on, he added that the technical glitch was rectified at 8.05 am.

Commuters said the suburban services were delayed by 20 to 30 minutes and led to overcrowding on trains and stations during the rush hours.

As the CSMT-bound fast trains were held up one after the other for a long time, several commuters were seen jumping on the tracks and walking to the next station to reach the office using an alternative mode of transport.

The disruption of suburban services left commuters fuming.

“Central Railway trains are always punctual – if you consider being at least 20 minutes late every day as on time. And don’t expect any announcements about platform changes or cancellations; they like to keep things exciting!” Mandar Abhyankar, a commuter, wrote on Facebook.

The Central Railway operates over 1,800 suburban services on its suburban network spread across Raigad and Thane districts outside Mumbai every day. More than 30 lakh commuters travel on its suburban network.

India on Thursday sent 19 tonnes of humanitarian and disaster relief (HADR) materials to Papua New Guinea’s Enga province that was hit by a major landslide.

Late last month, India announced a USD 1 million assistance to the island nation in the wake of the landslide.

Over 2,000 people were killed in the landslide, according to media reports from that country.

“In the wake of devastating landslide in Enga province of Papua New Guinea, India had announced immediate assistance of USD 1 million to our close FIPIC partner,” External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said.

“Pursuant to the announcement, a flight carrying approx 19 tons of HADR supplies departed for Papua New Guinea today,” he said.

Papua New Guinea is a member of Forum for India-Pacific Islands Cooperation (FIPIC). India has been promoting cooperation with the Pacific island nations through FIPIC.

Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday assumed charge as the Finance and Corporate Affairs Minister for the second consecutive term and is slated to soon present the final Budget for FY ’25, that is going to set the tone for the Modi 3.0 government’s priorities and direction for Viksit Bharat.

Upon her reaching the North Block office, Sitharaman was greeted by Finance Secretary T V Somanathan and other top officials.

Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary was also present. Chaudhary assumed charge on Tuesday evening.

After assuming charge, the Finance and Corporate Affairs minister was briefed on the ongoing policy issues by the Secretaries of the different departments, an official statement said.

She noted that the government is fully committed to ensuring ‘Ease of Living’ for its citizens and will continue to take further steps in this regard.

Sitharaman also stated that the reforms undertaken since 2014 will continue, which will further provide macroeconomic stability and growth for India.

She also highlighted India’s commendable growth story in recent years amidst global challenges and noted that there is an optimistic economic outlook for the coming years.

She urged the departments to advance the NDA government’s development agenda with renewed vigour and ensure responsive policymaking to achieve the Prime Minister’s vision of a ‘Viksit Bharat’.

She also said that the government believes in ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas, Sabka Prayas’ and called for the continued support and cooperation of all stakeholders, including industry leaders, regulators, and the citizens, to ensure a strong and vibrant economy.

Sitharaman, who is credited with carrying forward second-generation reforms in her last term, would be creating a record by presenting the seventh Budget in a row and sixth full Budget consecutively.

Full Budget for FY ’25 is likely to be presented to the newly formed 18th Lok Sabha next month.

She has many records to her credit in her political career. She created a record when she was appointed as the first female Raksha Mantri, or Defence Minister, in 2017. Prior to that, she was industry and commerce minister.

When her mentor Arun Jaitley (Finance Minister 2014-19) took ill, Sitharaman was given the charge of the finance portfolio in the newly re-elected Modi government after the 2019 general elections.

She became the first full-time woman Finance Minister in Independent India.

Earlier, Indira Gandhi had held finance as an additional portfolio for a short duration when she was the prime minister of India.

Soon after taking over, the first major reform was a cut in base corporate tax to 22 per cent from 30 per cent to prop up the economy hit by demonetisation and GST implementation.

The following year, India weathered the Covid-19 pandemic with an array of policy measures announced for the poor and continued its tag of the fastest growing major economy and a ‘bright spot’ in the world economy.

To overcome the hardship during the pandemic, the government announced a special economic package worth Rs 20 lakh crore equivalent to roughly 10 per cent of India’s GDP.

She steered the economy from nearly 24 per cent contraction in the first quarter of FY21, to the fastest growing world economy.

Despite fiscal expansion, she continued to follow the path of fiscal consolidation and was successful in bringing down the fiscal deficit to 5.6 per cent of GDP, from the earlier estimate of 5.8 per cent in FY24.

She also set a record by presenting the sixth Budget in a row — five annual Budgets and one interim — a feat achieved so far only by former Prime Minister Morarji Desai.

After the Modi government came to power in 2014, Arun Jaitley took charge of the Finance Ministry and presented five Budgets in a row from 2014-15 to 2018-19.

In 2017, Jaitley departed from the colonial-era tradition of presenting Budget on the last working day of February to 1st of the month.

Following the footsteps of her mentor, Sitharaman also did away with the traditional Budget briefcase and instead went for a bahi-khata with the National Emblem to carry the speech and other documents.

Born in Madurai on August 18, 1959 to Narayan Sitharaman (who worked in the Railways) and Savitri (a homemaker), Nirmala Sitharaman studied economics at Tiruchirapalli’s Seethalakshmi Ramaswami College.

She then moved to the capital to pursue her Master’s and M.Phil in the subject from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU).

But before Sitharaman forayed into politics, she was part of the corporate world in the UK, where she was living with her husband Parakala Prabhakar.

The two had met while studying at JNU, and tied the knot in 1986.

They have a daughter, Parakala Vangmayi.

Sitharaman’s political career began in 2008, when she joined the BJP (she returned to India in the early 1990s), and in two years became the party’s second woman spokesperson after Sushma Swaraj, fielding questions from journalists at the party headquarters and also becoming a familiar face on television debates.

Prior to taking the political plunge, she served as a deputy director of the Centre for Public Policy Studies in Hyderabad, and also started a school in the city.

From 2003 to 2005, she was also a member of the National Commission for Women.

Amaravati: TDP supremo N Chandrababu Naidu was sworn-in as the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh for the fourth term on Wednesday.

Janasena chief and actor Pawan Kalyan took oath as Minister in the Naidu cabinet.

Nara Lokesh, son of Chandrababu Naidu, also took oath as Minister.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, his cabinet colleagues Amit Shah, Nitin Gadkari, J P Nadda and several other leaders and prominent personalities were present at the ceremony.

Former Vice president M Venkaiah Naidu, Ex Chief Justice of India N V Ramana and Superstars Rajnikanth and Chiranjeevi were also present

AP Governor S Abdul Nazeer administered the oath to the CM and Ministers.