Archives for 2021

New Delhi: Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Saturday hit out at the Centre over the impasse on the farm laws, alleging that “no one” was consulted for the legislations, and asserted that the only way out for the government was to agree to start on a “clean slate”.

His remarks came a day after the Centre asked protesting farmers to form an informal group to prepare a concrete proposal about their objections and suggestions on the farm laws for further discussion at their next meeting on January 19 to end the long-running protest at various Delhi borders.

The protesting farmer unions, however, stuck to their main demand of a complete repeal of the three legislations. In a series of tweets, Chidambaram said that as expected, another round of talks between the farmers and government has failed.

The fault lies with the government because it will not agree to get rid of the disputed laws, the former Union minister said.

“RTI responses have exposed as a lie the government’s claim that there were extensive consultations before the Farm Laws Ordinances were promulgated. The truth is that no one was consulted. In particular, state governments were not consulted,” he alleged.

The only way out of the impasse is for the government to admit its mistake and agree to start on a clean slate, Chidambaram said.

Thousands of farmers, mostly from Haryana and Punjab, have been protesting at several border points of Delhi since November 28 last year, demanding a repeal of the three laws and a legal guarantee to the minimum support price (MSP) system for their crops.

Enacted in September last year, the three laws have been projected by the Centre as major reforms in the agriculture sector that will remove middlemen and allow farmers to sell their produce anywhere in the country.

However, the protesting farmers have expressed their apprehension that the new laws would pave the way for eliminating the safety cushion of the MSP and do away with the “mandi” (wholesale market) system, leaving them at the mercy of big corporates.

New Delhi: On the day of the nationwide launch of the COVID-19 vaccination drive, Prime Minister Narendra Modi turned emotional recalling people’s sufferings during the pandemic, death of healthcare workers while serving the infected and noted that many of those who died could not be given the traditional last rites.

A family often comes together to nurse its sick member. But coronavirus isolated its victims who suffered in loneliness as their kin could not tend to them due to fear of infection, the prime minister said in his address before the launch.

“Many sick small children had to live away from their mothers who were in distress and wept but could not do anything. The elderly were compelled to fight the infection at hospitals in loneliness. Their children could not go near them.

“Many people who passed away could not be given traditional last rites that they deserved,” said a visibly emotional Modi.

Thinking of those times gives goosebumps and one becomes sad, he said. Hailing the healthcare and other frontline workers, the prime minister said they infused hope in that time of crisis and hopelessness.

“Giving priority to their duties they kept away from families, many for days on end and hundreds of them never came back,” the prime minister said in a solemn voice, referring to the deaths of large number of people involved in fighting the disease.

“They sacrificed their lives to save lives,” he said.

The decision to administer the first dose of vaccines to healthcare workers is a way for the society to pay off its debt and a grateful nation paying tributes to them, Modi said.

The prime minister on Saturday launched India’s COVID-19 vaccination drive and asserted that the made-in-India vaccines being rolled out will ensure a “decisive victory” for the country over the coronavirus pandemic.

New Delhi: A farmer union requested the Supreme Court on Saturday to remove the remaining three members of the committee it had set up to resolve the impasse over the three contentious farm laws, and select people who can do the job “on the basis of mutual harmony”.

The Bhartiya Kisan Union Lokshakti said the principle of natural justice is going to be violated as those appointed to the four-member committee “have already supported these laws”.

In an affidavit, it also sought dismissal of a plea of the central government, filed though the Delhi Police, seeking an injunction against the proposed tractor march or any other kind of protest by farmers which seeks to disrupt the gathering and celebrations of Republic Day on January 26.

A bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde had agreed to hear on January 18 the Centre’s application against the proposed tractor march.

The Bhartiya Kisan Union Lokshakti is one of the 40-odd farmer unions spearheading the agitation on various border points of Delhi for about 50 days now, demanding repeal of the farm laws.

In an “extraordinary” interim order, the top court had stayed the implementation of the new farm laws till further orders and had constituted the four-member committee to listen to the grievances and make recommendations to resolve the impasse.

The committee comprised Bhupinder Singh Mann, national president of Bhartiya Kisan Union; Dr Parmod Kumar Joshi, Director for South Asia, International Food Policy Research Institute; Ashok Gulati, agricultural economist and former chairman of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices; and Anil Ghanwat, president of Shetkari Sanghatana.

However, on January 14, Mann recused himself from the committee.

The Bhartiya Kisan Union Lokshakti, in its reply filed through lawyer A P Singh, urged the top court “to remove all these three members from the committee and appoint those persons who make the report on the basis of mutual harmony….”

“It is important to mention here with great regret that the principle of natural justice is going to be violated by making these persons as members of the committee…. how they will hear all farmers on equal parameters when they have already supported these laws,” it said.

On the issue of the Delhi Police seeking injunction against the tractor rally, it said prohibitory orders under CrPC Section 144 were already in place in the New Delhi area.

Thousands of farmers, mainly from Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh, are protesting at various border points of Delhi for over a month now against the three laws — the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, and the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act.

Enacted in September 2020, the government has presented these laws as major farm reforms aimed at increasing farmers’ income, but the protesting farmers have raised concerns that these legislations would weaken the minimum support price (MSP) and “mandi” (wholesale market) systems and leave them at the mercy of big corporations.

The government has maintained that these apprehensions are misplaced and has ruled out a repeal of the laws.

Mumbai: Former CEO of ratings agency BARC, Partho Dasgupta, who was arrested in the alleged fake Television Ratings Point (TRP) case, has been admitted in the ICU of state-run JJ hospital in central Mumbai, an official said on Saturday.

Dasgupta, a diabetic, was rushed to the hospital from the Taloja Central Prison in Navi Mumbaiin the early hours of Saturday after his blood sugar levels went up on Friday midnight.

Dasgupta was admitted to the ICU of JJ hospital and is on Oxygen support, he said.

Dasgupta was arrested in the alleged TRP rigging scam by crime branch of the Mumbai Police on December 24 last year.

A Mumbai court had earlier this month rejected the bail plea of Dasgupta, stating that he played a vital role in the scam.

The Mumbai Police had earlier told the court that Republic TV Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami had allegedly bribed Dasgupta with “lakhs of rupees” to ramp up the news channels viewership.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has imposed a fine of Rs 25,000 on Gujarat for wasting judicial time, irked over the “lethargy and incompetence” of the state government in filing a petition before it after a delay of over a year.

A bench, headed by Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul, pulled up the state for approaching the apex court in a “casual manner” and dismissed the plea on the ground of delay.

It observed that such kind of “certificate cases” are filed with the only objective to obtain a quietus from the top court on the ground that nothing could be done because the highest court had dismissed the appeal.

The petition was filed in the the top court by the state government after a delay of 427 days against an order of the Gujarat High Court passed in March 2019 in a case.

“The objective is to complete a mere formality and save the skin of the officers who may be in default in following the due process or may have done it deliberately. We have deprecated such practice and process and we do so again.

“We refuse to grant such certificates and if the government suffers losses, it is time when concerned officers responsible for the same bear the consequences,” said the bench, also comprising Justices Dinesh Maheshwari and Hrishikesh Roy.

“The irony, emphasised by us repeatedly, is that no action is ever taken against the officers and if the court pushes it, some mild warning is all that happens,” the bench said in its order passed earlier this week.

The plea also noted the explanation given in the application for condonation of delay.

“The aforesaid itself shows the casual manner in which the state government has approached this court without any cogent or plausible ground for condonation of delay. In fact, other than the lethargy and incompetence of the petitioner government, there is nothing which has been put on record,” it said.

“We have repeatedly discouraged state governments and public authorities in adopting an approach that they can walk in to the Supreme Court as and when they please ignoring the period of limitation prescribed by the statutes as if the limitation statute does not apply to them,” the bench said.

The apex court directed that amount of cost imposed on the state be recovered from the officers responsible for the delay in filing the plea and a certificate of recovery be also filed in the court.

“Looking to the period of delay and the casual manner in which the application has been worded, we consider appropriate to impose costs on the petitioner/state of Rs 25,000 for wastage of judicial time, which has its own value and the same be deposited with the Supreme Court Advocates On Record Welfare Fund within four weeks,” the bench said, dismissing the special leave petition.

It said that copy of its order be placed before the chief secretary of Gujarat “cautioning that any non-adherence with the aforesaid order within timeline would result in appropriate proceedings being initiated against the chief secretary himself”. 

Palghar: A 30-year-old man has been arrested from Palghar district of Maharashtra for allegedly killing a woman he was in relationship with and hiding her body in the walls of his flat, police said on Saturday.

The accused killed the woman (32) as she was pressuring him to marry her, an official release said.

The skeleton of the 32-year-old victim, who was prima facie killed in October last year, was recovered from the flat of the accused in Vangaon village, it said.

“The accused and the victim had been in relationship for the last five years. She was last seen with the accused on October 21,” it said.

When family members of the victim enquired about her whereabouts, the accused used to tell them that she had gone to Vapi in Gujarat. They finally approached the police as the victim never returned, the release said.

A case has been registered under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for murder and other charges. 

New Delhi: No steel will be used in the construction of the Ram Temple at the birthplace of Lord Ram in Ayodhya as it has a limited life span. The temple may be constructed without cement either to ensure the construction lasts for centuries. Trees that find mention in ancient texts will be planted in the area to replicate the pattern that existed there originally.

This information has been revealed in a rare interview by Nripendra Misra, a low-profile former civil servant who happened to hold some of the most high-profile assignments through his career, including serving as Principal Secretary to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. 

A 1967-batch Uttar Pradesh-cadre Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer, Misra also worked closely with two chief ministers of the state  — Kalyan Singh of the BJP and Mulayam Singh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party.

He was appointed chairman of the Shri Ramjanmabhoomi Teertha Kshetra Trust, which is overseeing the construction of the temple, last year. The trust was set up by the government following the Supreme Court’s decision on the Ram Janmabhoomi land dispute in November 2019.

Misra is known to be a backroom boy and doesn’t give any interviews. However, he spoke on a wide variety of issues in a detailed interview published in the latest special edition of the weekly magazine Panchjanya.

When asked how the trust is going to ensure that the temple at Ayodhya should last for 500-1,000 years, Misra said, “We are not using steel and some people have said the lifespan of cement is limited to around 100 years, so we still haven’t decided whether we should use cement.

“The ‘mix’ to be used in the foundation is being decided upon by various experts and companies such as Tata Consultancy. L&T has also done an agreement with Indian Institute of Technology-Chennai (sic) as they have experts on material management. We are also studying ancient temples,” he added. 

“We have given the responsibility to the largest construction company of India. Tata Consultancy also has at least 2,000 engineers.”

Misra said trees will be planted on around 70 acres of the area as part of the temple construction plan. 

“There has been a demand that those specific trees should be planted that have found mention in Valmiki’s Ramayana and Tulsi Das’ Ramcharitmanas. National Botanical Garden, Lucknow, had done research on this particular subject a few years ago,” he added. “We would try our best to honour the sentiments of the nation and execute this plan accordingly.”

Replying to a question about how he recalls 6 December 1992 — when the Babri mosque in Ayodhya was demolished — Misra, who was a serving civil servant in Uttar Pradesh at the time, said it was “a justified step”. 

“I had become chairman of Greater Noida three months before December. When this incident happened, I wasn’t present in Lucknow. But earlier, also, incidents related to Ayodhya had happened. In a sense, everyone had that belief that a Ram temple has to be reconstructed here,” he added. 

“This was a justified step. That is why whoever would evaluate this would evaluate it in the context that it was the nation’s desire to build a temple here… the dream of the people has been realised.”

New Delhi: All the three members of the election committee, set up to conduct the polls for the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) this year, have resigned.

The chairman of the Election Committee for the SCBA Elections 2020-2021 was senior advocate Jaideep Gupta and the other two members were Harin P Raval and Nakul Dewan.

In a joint letter to SCBA Acting Secretary Rohit Pandey, the election committee members said they had decided to hold the election on a digital platform and entered into discussions with NSDL, a digital firm, to conduct the polls.

The letter stated that the draft agreement entered with NSDL and the estimated cost of expenses for holding the polls digitally was sent to the executive committee of the SCBA on January 14.

“We have received a resolution, taking certain decisions, passed by the executive committee on January 14. We consider these events as a ‘REFUSAL’ by the executive committee of the SCBA to carry out our directions which in terms of Rule 17A of the Rules of the SCBA are final and binding,” panel members stated.

They further said it was not possible for them to continue to discharge their duties as members of the panel to hold elections.

The Executive Committee of SCBA on December 4 last year had decided to constitute the election committee headed by senior advocate Jaideep Gupta to hold the polls in the second week of January.

Some of the bar association leaders were opposed to virtual election and want a hybrid system where lawyers are allowed to cast votes through physical and virtual modes both.

SCBA president Dushyant Dave had resigned from his post with immediate effect on Thursday saying he has forfeited his right to continue.

The SCBA holds elections annually for selecting its members to the executive committee.