New Delhi, May 21 : The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed a PIL filed by an independent candidate Ramu Mandi against the Election Commission of India appointment of two retired bureaucrats, Vivek Debey and Ajay Nayak, as special observers in the Lok Sabha election in Bengal, which was marked by violence, bloodshed and mayhem.
A bench, headed by Justice Arun Mishra, found no merit in the Public Interest Litigation and noted that the polling in Bengal had concluded.
It ruled, “We don’t find any merit. Thus, accordingly we dismiss it.”
The apex court, however, granted liberty to the plaintiff to approach the state High Court for redressal.
In the fray from Barrackpore, Mr Mandi had moved the apex court against the ECI’s order which had appointed Messrs Debey and Nayak, as special observers in the Lok Sabha election in Bengal.

The Election Commission is learnt to have asked Twitter to take down an exit poll-related tweet.

The EC’s move came after it received certain “complaint”, sources aware of the development said Thursday, adding that the user later removed the tweet.

The sources, however, did not specify the complaint.

“There is no such general order issued by ECI today. Only one case was reported to us today which the user himself removed,” a senior functionary said.

The move came a day after it issued a show-cause notice to three media outlets for allegedly publishing a survey “predicting results” of Lok Sabha elections.

Section 126A of the Representation of the People Act states that “no person shall conduct any exit poll and publish or publicise by means of the print or electronic media… The result of any exit poll during such period… In case of a general election, the period may commence from the beginning of the hours fixed for a poll on the first day of poll and continue till half an hour after closing of the poll in all the states and union territories.”

The section also prescribes that any person, who contravenes the provisions of this section, shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to two years or with fine or with both.

Polling for the seventh and last phase of Lok Sabha elections will be held on May 19.

Agencies

Mandya, Karnataka, May 10 : A Postal Vote by a CRPF Soldier was rejected by the Karnataka State Election Commission as the Soldier from Mandya after casting his Vote took selfie and posted it in the social media.
The solider after casting his vote for independent candidate Sumalatha Ambareesh posted a selfie of the vote on social media. Following these five people took objection and complained to the State Election Commission against the soldier on April 10.
As per the directions from the Central Election Commission, the State Election Commission directed the Mandya Polling officer to reject the Soldier’s vote while counting on May 23.

India and France got into a deal in 2015 for the procurement of Rafale fighter jets.

The Supreme Court on Friday reserved order on Rafale review petitions against its December 14, 2018 judgement upholding the Rafale fighter jet deal.

Earlier on Thursday, three petitioners, former Union Ministers Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie and activist-lawyer Prashant Bhushan had claimed in the Supreme Court that the Centre played fraud upon the court to obtain favourable order in the Rafale fighter jet case.

The petitioners filed a rejoinder stating the December 14, 2018 verdict should be subjected to a review as it was based on “multiple falsehoods and suppression of material and relevant information”.

The top court had dismissed the plea filed by Sinha, Shourie and Bhushan, who sought investigation into alleged irregularities in the Rafale deal.

The petitioners said since the government was suppressing information, they have sought production of relevant and material documents before the court.

Bhushan on Friday pointed out that a non-existent CAG report was referred to in the December verdict. He also claimed that three out of the seven-member International Negotiating Team (INT) had also raised objections to the inflated pricing of the Rafale aircraft.

Attorney General KK Venugopal, however, cited a CAG report to argue India got Rafale at a cheaper price. “Will this court sit on the computation of the prices? And what happens thereafter? Will this court then fix the prices of the aircraft and avionics?” questioned Venugopal.

The AG, on behalf of the Centre, argued that the deal was a matter of national security and cannot be examined by any court.

“This (Rafale fighter) is not for ornamentation. This is an essential requirement for protection of each and every one of us… Nowhere in the world will any such matter be brought before the court,” KK Venugopal, the centre’s top law officer, told the judges.

On May 4, the government filed a fresh affidavit in the Supreme Court in the Rafale case, opposing the reopening of the whole matter by contending that the petitioners were attempting to get “a fishing and roving inquiry ordered”.

The Centre further said that monitoring of progress by the PMO cannot be construed as interference or parallel negotiations.

A three-judge bench of the Supreme Court had on 10 April admitted three documents connected to the Dassault Rafale fighter jet deal as evidence in the review petitions and dismissed the Centre’s “preliminary objections” to them.

The Supreme Court on December 14 last year gave a clean chit to the Centre on the procurement of 36 Rafale fighter jets from France.

A three-Judge bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi dismissed all the petitions and said that no probe was required.

Agencies

Tiruchirapalli, May 2 : National Investigation Agency (NIA) officials on Thursday conducted raids at the offices of Popular Front of India (PFI) and Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) in Tiruchirapalli and Kumbakonam in connection with the sensational murder of a PMK party functionary for opposing religious conversion.

The NIA sleuths from Cochin, led by Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) A.P.Shaukat Ali which is probing the murder case, raided the office of PFI at Palakkarai in Tiruchirapalli and the SDPI office at Kumbakonam in neighbouring Thanjavur district.

Police made tight security arrangements around the PFI and SDPI offices in view of the searches which is underway at both the locations.

The office bearers of the two outfits were being questioned by the NIA officials.

The NIA sleuths also held enquiries with the complainant and also about all the accused involved in the murder with Thiruvidaimaruthur DSP A.T.Ramachandran.

The PMK functionary V.Ramalingam (45), a native of Keezha Thoondil Vinayagam Pettai in Thirubhuvanam in Thanjavur district was hacked to death by a gang at Muslim Street on February 5 last allegedly by a group belonging to the Muslim community after the victim questioned them for attempting to convert Dalit people into Islam.

On a complaint from the victim’s son R.Shyam Sundar, Thiruvidaimaruthur police registered a case, booked 16 persons and arrested 11 among them subsequently. However, following the demand from various quarters, the case was transferred to NIA on March 14.

New Delhi, Apr 29 : High-profile action was witnessed in the Supreme Court on Monday as the Centre sought more time to file an affidavit in the Rafale review petition case.
Earlier in the day, Indian National Congress president Rahul Gandhi filed a fresh affidavit in compliance with the apex court order asking him to respond to the contempt petition filed by Bharatiya Janata Party MP Meenakshi Lekhi.
Expressing regret for attributing the ‘chowkidar chor hai’ comment to the apex court, Mr Gandhi said, ”I regret my remark.”
The Congress president expressed regret but no apology in his affidavit.
He averred that petitioner Meenakshi Lekhi was seeking political mileage under the pretext of contempt petition.
The Supreme Court had rejected Mr Gandhi’s plea to close the criminal contempt petition.
It will hear the matter tomorrow.
Centre seeks more time
“We need more time to file an affidavit in the Rafale review petitions case,” Solicitor-General Tushar Mehta told the Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi-led three-judge bench.
The Centre also sought deferment of Tuesday’s hearing in the case.
Allowing the Centre more time to file the affidavit, the bench however, did not pass any order on the deferment of Tuesday’s hearing.
The bench allowed the Centre to circulate the letter requesting adjournment in the Rafale review petitions case.
As per earlier order of the apex court, the matter was listed for an hearing on Tuesday.

New Delhi, Apr 29 : The Election Commission on Monday strongly condemned and warned BJP leader and Union Minister Maneka Gandhi for her controversial speech in an election rally, citing violation of Model Code of Conduct (MCC).

“The Commission strongly condemns the impugned statement made by Maneka Sanjay Gandhi and warns her not to repeat such misconduct in future”, the poll body said in the order.

The Commission has pointed out that this was the second violation by Ms Gandhi.

The poll body had barred her “from holding any public meetings, road shows and interviews and public utterances in media for 48 hours” on April 15 after convinced that she had violated MCC in a speech delivered on April 11.

According to Commission, the speech delivered by the Union Minister at a poll rally in Sarkota Village of Sultanpur on April 14, wherein she categorised the voters according to the percentage of votes she gets and the development works also starts accordingly.

The Commission has also observed that Ms Gandhi has violated the relevant sections of Representation of the People Act, 1951 which deals with ‘bribery’ under ‘corrupt practices.

Ms Gandhi is contesting from Sultanpur, where her son Varun Gandhi won in 2014 Lok Sabha election.

Bengaluru : The Election Commission has ordered a probe into seizure of cash being transported in a Police vehicle in Hassan district during Lok Sabha elections.
The probe order was based on a report by the Special Officer, Enforcement, Munish Moudgil, into the incident.
According to official sources Regional Commissioner Anil Kumar and ADGP Raghavendra Auradkar conducted an inquiry into the incident in the presence of the District Electoral Officer Priyanka Mary Francis recently.
Income Tax sleuths had seized Rs 1.2 lakh cash from a police vehicle on April 16 during a raid at Holenarasipura in Hassan District and registered a case.
In Hassan Lok Sabha seat, Prajval Revanna the grand-son of the former Prime minister H D Deve Gowda is the JD(S) candidate and fighting the BJP candidate A Manju.
Taking serious note of cash seized from a police vehicle, Moudgil, had recommended an inquiry into the incident to the Election Commission.

Bengaluru : Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) today conducted raids on house and properties of Krishna Lal, who is on deputation working as Assistant Executive Engineer, Bengaluru Development Authority (BDA).
ACB in a release here on Friday said that the raid was conducted following complaint against Krishna Lal to the effect that he, by misusing his official power and by joining hands with private parties, had sold land and houses acquired for road widening. He sold thus acquired land and houses at higher prices leading to crores of rupees loss to BBMP and State Exchequer.
Raids were conducted at 6 places simultenously including on his houses and properties. The process of verifying the documents is still continuing.