Nasheman News :Ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, the Parliament on Wednesday passed a landmark Constitution amendment bill providing for 10 per cent reservation to upper castes in government jobs and higher educational institutions, with the Rajya Sabha voting it late in the night after rejecting a demand for referring it to a select committee for detailed scrutiny.

The House passed the Constitution (124th Amendment) Bill, 2019 — which was adopted by the Lok Sabha on Tuesday — with 165 members in its favour and seven against it in a division amidst broad support from the Congress and other opposition parties despite their reservations over its constitutional validity and the timing in view of the approaching elections.

Earlier, the House rejected an amendment moved by DMK member Kanimozhi and CPI(M)’s T.K. Rangarajan for referring the bill to a select committee for indepth scrutiny, with 155 voting against it and 18 for in a House of 244. Several other opposition amendments were also negatived. A constitutional amendment needs a special majority of more than half of the House present and two-thirds of those present voting in favour of it.

The AIADMK, which is friendly with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), staged a walkout opposing the Bill with its member A. Navaneethakrishnan saying it violated the basic structure of the Constitution. 

Rejecting the opposition criticism that the bill was brought late in the government’s tenure with an eye on upper caste votes in the coming Lok Sabha elections, Social Justice Minister Thawarchand Gehlot said the measure had been brought with good intentions and was aimed at justice for the economically weaker sections.

He called the bill historic and allayed fears that the legislation would face legal hurdles, saying since it is a constitutional amendment even the Supreme Court would accept it, should there be any challenge.

The Minister told the Congress party that unlike the Narasimha Rao government which issued a government order to implement a similar quota, the Modi had taken precaution by bringing in a statute amendment.

Intervening in the over eight-hour debate, Law and Justice Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said that the proposed quota would not breach the Supreme Court’s cap of 50 per cent on overall reservations.

He said the legislation would apply to both Central and state governments.

Senior Congress member and an eminent lawyer, Kapil Sibal, said the bill had been brought with “complete non-application of mind” and raised questions over the constitutionality of the bill and its implementation.

“If the bill is passed, the implementation of the reservation due to complexities involved and absence of required data with the government would be like demonetisation.” 

Calling it a “jumla” (gimmick), Sibal said: “Kamal ka hamla, aur ek jumla (attack of lotus, one more gimmick).”

“What was the hurry? The bill could have been sent to the Select Committee. There would have been discussions and suggestions before it was introduced (in Parliament),” he said.

Earlier, his party colleague and deputy leader in the House, Anand Sharma, welcomed the 10 per cent quota for the upper caste poor but questioned its timing as it comes ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.

“We are not opposing it. But the question is why it is being brought all of a sudden. It is the last session (of Parliament)…then there are elections,” he said.

He asked why the BJP did not bring the bill in its four-and-half years of rule and emphasised that the decision came after the saffron party lost five states in the recently-concluded Assembly elections.

Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Derek O’Brien accused the government of committing a “fraud with the poor and youth” on jobs and “spitting on the Constitution” by moving bills for passage without proper legislative scrutiny.

Samajwadi Party leader Ram Gopal Yadav said that since the government had now breached the 50 per cent ceiling on reservations, it should give OBCs the benefit of quota in accordance with their population at 54 per cent.

BSP member Satish Chandra Misra backed the bill and demanded that minorities also be given reservation.

BJP President Amit Shah, who was present during the entire debate, at one point intervened to accuse the opposition of trying to give quotas for Muslims at the cost of other communities.

Nasheman News : The Supreme Court on Thursday deferred the Ayodhya title dispute to January 29, saying that the five judge bench to hear the case will be reconstituted as Justice U.U. Lalit has recused himself.

The apex court took the decision after senior counsel Rajeev Dhawan, appearing for one of the Muslim parties, told the bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi that Justice Lalit in 1997 appeared for former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Kalyan Singh in one of the matters related to the Babri Masjid-Ram Janmabhoomi dispute.

Singh is currently the Rajasthan Governor.

While telling the bench that personally he had no objection to the presence of Justice Lalit on the bench hearing the challenge to the 2010 Allahabad High Court verdict, he was just bringing the issue to the notice of the court. 

Thereafter Justice Lalit conveyed to Chief Justice Gogoi and other members of the bench — Justice S.A. Bobde, Justice N.V. Ramana, Justice D.Y. Chandrchud — of his reluctance to continue on the bench and recused himself. 

Chief Justice Gogoi in his order said that under the Supreme Court rules in exercise of his administrative powers, it was his perogative to decide the strength of the bench.

He said this while declining the submission by Dhawan that an earlier bench headed by then Chief Justice Dipak Misra had said that a hearing on the batch of petitions will be heard by three judge bench.

The court thereafter directed its registry to go through all the records relating to the Ayodhya case which are available with it and submit a report by January 29 as to how much time it would require for translating the documents and the case material which are in Persian, Arabic, Urdu and Gurmukhi languages. 

However, when senior counsel Harish Salve, appearing for one of the Hindu litigants, offered to assist the registry in handling of the papers and their translations, Chief Justice Gogoi said that he will rely entirely on his own registry to do the job. 

Having directed the secretary general of the Supreme Court to submit the report in 15 days the court directed that the reconstituted bench will hold the hearing on January 29. 

Nasheman News : Samajwadi Party leader Ram Gopal Yadav on Wednesday demanded 54 per cent quota for the Other Backward Classes (OBCs), saying the government had opened the doors for that by breaching the 50 per cent barrier on reservations set by the apex court.

While supporting the Constitution amendment bill to provide 10 per cent quota for upper castes in government service and higher educational institutions, he said the OBCs were given reservation corresponding to only half their population to ensure that the 50 per cent cap is not breached.

“But when you have broken the barrier of 50 per cent as set by the Supreme Court, I request that OBCs should be given 54 per cent reservation as per their population as opposed to 27 per cent now. Also, the population of Scheduled Castes is also now 25 per cent and they should be given reservation accordingly,” he said in the Rajya Sabha during a debate on the Constitution (124th Amendment) Bill, 2019 which was passed in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday.

He added that the Bill would not bring the results that the government was promising as the cut offs under the reserved class would be even higher than the general quota “as you would see in one year when public service commission results are announced”.

He also questioned the timing of the Bill saying it could have been brought any time over the last four and a half years and was yet brought on the last session of Parliament before the Lok Sabha polls.

“The government’s goal is not to help the poor. This bill is brought by the government with eyes at 2019 elections. Had you (government) been honest, this Bill would have been brought some two-three years back so that people would have actually benefited from it,” Yadav said.

The Samajwadi Party leader also asked the government to improve implementation of reservation for SCs and STs.

“Even after so many years of reservation, do they have enough representation in government jobs,” he asked.

He added that the new 10 per cent reservation for upper castes won’t yield desired and promised results because there were not enough jobs in the market as “many jobs were lost due to demonetisation”.

“When there are no jobs, what is the meaning of reservation?”

The child, Rohitsawa, was four years old in 2011 when he witnessed the murder of his mother and gave his statement when he was nine years old.

The Karnataka High Court on Tuesday upheld a sessions court order which had pronounced life imprisonment to a father and grandmother based on the testimony of a child, for the murder of his mother. The child, Rohitsawa, was four years old in 2011 when the crime took place and gave his statement when he was nine years old.

The High Court observed that the child’s statement as “unwavering evidence”.

A division bench of Justices KN Phaneendra and BA Patil was hearing the criminal appeal filed by 62-year-old Parvathi (grandmother) and 45-year-old Ravish (father) hailing from Bantwal taluk in Dakshina Kannada district. The mother-son duo, both working as labourers, was convicted by the First Additional District and Sessions Judge on August 12, 2016, reported media.

Rohitsawa’s mother Saraswathi was hacked to death in February, 2011 with sickles by Ravish and Parvathy, following a verbal disagreement over household work and property related matter. Saraswathi was also suspected of having an affair.

The report said that the duo was nailed based on a video recorded by the investigating officer in which Rohitsawa, the only eyewitness in the case, was heard saying that it was his ‘ajji’ and ‘appa’ who killed his mother. Later, the statement was again recorded in the chamber of a district judge.

The judge also chose not to administer oath to the child during the course of the trial. His answers were recorded in yes or no. “Since the witness is aged about 9 and says that he is studying in 4th standard, he does not seem to be knowing about the importance of the oath. The statement is recorded without administering oath to the witness,” the district court judgment had said.

The district legal services committee was asked by the court to ensure that Rohitswa is ensured a better future and further directed that the two convicts be fined an additional Rs 5,000 each.

Nasheman News : A five-Judge Constitution bench of the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi has been constituted to hear the title suit in the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid Ayodhya case, which will begin hearing on January 10.

The others in the bench will be Justice S.A. Bobde, Justice N.V. Ramana, Justice U.U. Lalit and Justice D.Y. Chandrchud according to a notice issued by the Additional Registrar (Listing) on Tuesday.

The Supreme Court on Friday had said the bench that will hear a batch of cross petitions challenging the 2010 Allahabad High Court judgment on the Ayodhya title suit will decide the future course of the hearing.

Taking up the applications for early hearing, a bench of CJI Gogoi and Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul had said further orders on the course of the hearing will be passed by the bench which will be constituted on January 10.

The Allahabad High Court had in 2010 trifurcated the disputed site, giving one portion each to Ram Lalla, Nirmohi Akhara and the original Muslim litigant.

Nasheman News :  The government on Tuesday introduced the Constitution Amendment Bill in the Lok Sabha seeking to provide 10 per cent reservation for economically backward people in the general category in jobs and higher educational institutions.

Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Thawarchand Gehlot introduced the Bill in the House, a day after it was approved by the Union Cabinet. 

The cabinet had decided to provide for 10 per cent quota for people belonging to “unreserved categories”, including Christians and Muslims, in jobs and education with an annual income limit of Rs 8 lakh and a land holding ceiling of about five acres. 

Nasheman News : The Union Cabinet on Monday approved the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2016 that aims to give citizenship to illegal migrants of six minority groups from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan, a move that has stoked a major row in Assam.

The Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, cleared the bill soon after a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) presented its report in the Lok Sabha endorsing the move to legalize minority immigrants who entered Assam till December 31, 2014 but asked the government to tread with caution in view of the matter being sub judice and take all legal steps, lest it causes embarrassment at a later stage.

The amendment bill is likely to be tabled in Lok Sabha on Tuesday.

The Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) pulled out of the BJP-led government in Assam over the latter’s decision to go ahead with the Citizenship Bill. Assam and other northeastern states are witnessing protests against the Bill.

As many as eight MPs in the 30-member parliamentary Committee, headed by Rajendra Agarwal of the BJP, have appended their notes of dissent to the report of the JPC that was tabled in Parliament on Monday saying the provisions of the Bill went against the spirit of the Assam Accord and will accentuate divisions and discontent among the people of the state. 

BANGALORE : The Income Tax Department, which raided Sandalwood actors and producers’ houses and offices simultaneously on the alleged illegal financial transactions in Kannada cinema, has collectively invested Rs 109 crore. Non-record income detected. Besides, Rs. The unmatched foundation of value has collapsed.

The crores discovered by artists and producers were Rs. There is some evidence that money stored in theaters and worthless movies has been transferred elsewhere. This information will be shared with relevant revenue and other financial investigating agencies. 

The producer of the tax-fraudulent actor and producer will be summoned soon. The actor, who has a tax deduction, will be asked to pay the producers immediately, IT officials said.

According to sources, the Income Tax Department, the DRI (Revenue Directorate) or ED. (Enforcement Directorate) to exchange information. It is said that Sandalwood’s actor and producer might be more likely to suffer.

Sivarajkumar, Puneet Rajkumar, Sudeep, Yash and Radhika Pandit Home, producers Rockline Venkatesh, Vijay Kiragandur and Jayanna Housing, Vidyaparish member, producer CR Ravindra, were present on the occasion. 180 IT officers from Karnataka and Goa divisions raided Manohar’s house and offices.

The actor, who produced Rs 11 crore from the producers, The undisclosed property worth Rs 2.85 crore was found. Cash and 25.3 kg Jewelry seized. In addition, income taxes are estimated to be around Rs 109 crore. Income Tax Department officials said in the announcement that there was undisclosed income. But IT does not mention how much money and jewelery has been found in any actor and producer’s house personally.

The IT department requested
all businesses in the Kannada film industry and entertainment field to be mentioned in documents. The Income Tax Department has also requested that the pending tax be paid immediately.

The Central Bureau of Investigation today raided 12 places across Uttar Pradesh, including the residence of a senior IAS officer in Lucknow, and Delhi in connection with the multi-crore mining scam in the state’s Bundelkhand region.

The flat of B Chandrakala, a 2008 batch officer of the Indian Administrative Service, in an apartment building in the heart of Lucknow was searched. Raids were also carried on Samajwadi Party legislative councillor Ramesh Mishra’s home in Hamirpur, of red sand contractors in Jalaun and other premises in Kanpur, Noida, Jalaun and Hamirpur in the state and Delhi.

A 15-member CBI team was also questioning Mishra and former zila pachayat chairman Sanjeev Dixit

Illegal mining is a long standing issue in the Bundelkhand region. The CBI had taken over the probe in the case on the directions of the Allahabad High Court, reported media agency.

Nasheman News: The Supreme Court will hear on January 22 a contempt plea against the Sabarimala temple tantri for shutting the sanctum for purification after two women belonging to the previously prohibited age group entered the temple on January 2.

Declining the plea for an early hearing of the latest contempt plea, the bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi said: “We have kept the date as January 22. We have arranged our schedules for that. Will hear then.”

The application in the already pending contempt petition by activist A.V. Varsha was mentioned by lawyer P.V. Dinesh.

The Sabarimala temple was shut on January 2 after two women — Bindu and Kanaka Durga — from the hitherto banned age group prayed there and was reopened an hour later after the priests performed “purification rituals”.

In line with its traditions, the women and girls in the age group of 10 to 50 are barred from praying at the Sabarimala temple.

This prohibition was struck down by the Supreme Court on September 28, 2018, opening the gates of temple to women of all age groups.

The Supreme Court order opened the gates of the Sabarimala temple, dedicated to Lord Ayyappa, to women and girls in the 10-50 age group, holding that the exclusion based on “menstrual status is a form of untouchability which is an anathema to constitutional values.”

“The social exclusion of women, based on menstrual status, is a form of untouchability which is an anathema to constitutional values. Notions of “purity and pollution”, which stigmatize individuals, have no place in a constitutional order”, Justice Dhananjay Y. Chandrachud had said in his separate but concurring judgment.

The Supreme Court had on November 13 decided to go for open court hearing on January 22 of the nearly 50 petitions seeking a recall of its order permitting women of all age groups to pray at the Kerala temple.

The court will hear the review petitions along with three more petitions.

The prayers in three petitions effectively seek to uphold the practice of prohibiting the entry of girls and women in the age group of 10 to 50 years in the Sabarimala temple.