New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday held as maintainable a suit filed by the West Bengal government which alleged that the CBI was continuing probes into various cases despite the state’s withdrawal of general consent on November 16, 2018.

A bench of Justices B R Gavai and Sandeep Mehta said the state’s suit shall proceed in accordance with law on its own merits.

It fixed the matter for hearing on August 13 for framing of issues.

The apex court had on May 8 reserved its verdict on the maintainability of the suit filed by the state.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for West Bengal, had argued that once the state had withdrawn its consent on November 16, 2018, the Centre could not allow the probe agency to enter the state for investigation.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, had said that the Union government or its departments do not exercise any supervisory control over Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probes.

The Centre had raised preliminary objections about the maintainability of the lawsuit filed by the West Bengal government, contending that there was no cause of action against the Union of India.

The West Bengal government has filed an original suit in the apex court against the Centre under Article 131 of the Constitution, alleging that the CBI has been filing FIRs and proceeding with investigations despite the state having withdrawn the general consent to the federal agency to probe cases within its territorial jurisdiction.

Article 131 deals with the Supreme Court’s original jurisdiction in a dispute between the Centre and one or more states.

Chandigarh: An overcrowded Haryana Roadways mini bus, mostly carrying schoolchildren, overturned near Pinjore in Panchkula district on Monday, injuring 50 passengers, officials said.

However, most of the passengers escaped with minor injuries and were discharged from the hospital in the evening, they said, adding only nine people are admitted now in the hospital.

The incident took place in the morning when the bus veered off the road near a turn while passing through a hilly patch near Pinjore, a police official said.

Panchkula Deputy Commissioner Yash Garg told PTI that after the accident about 50 passengers, most of them children, were brought to hospitals in Panchkula and Pinjore.

Most of the passengers escaped with minor injuries, he said, adding that during the screening, it was found that most of the children were in a state of shock.

“Only nine are admitted now in the Panchkula civil hospital. Of them, three-four are adults and the rest are children. No one is hospitalised in Pinjore now,” Garg said.

Meanwhile, Haryana’s Minister of State for Transport, Aseem Goel, visited the hospital in Panchkula in the evening and enquired about the health of the injured.

Goel later told reporters that the bus driver was on the run.

He said a five-member inquiry committee has been formed under the chairmanship of additional director (transport) for a probe into the incident. “The inquiry panel will give its report within a week.”

Replying to a question, Goel said, it was a 32-seater bus.

Deputy Commissioner Garg said two-three children have suffered fractures.

An elderly woman suffered serious injuries and had been referred to PGIMER at Chandigarh, he said, adding another injured person had been shifted to ICU.

Some accounts said the woman was on the road when the accident occurred.

The conductor of the bus was among the injured.

Earlier in the day, Haryana Assembly Speaker Gian Chand Gupta, who is BJP MLA from Panchkula, told reporters at the Panchkula Civil Hospital, that the driver and conductor of the bus have been suspended.

“The bus was overloaded and we have been told that the vehicle’s speed was slightly in excess. As it approached a turn, it overturned,” Gupta said.

“Our first priority was to rescue and give best treatment to the injured,” he added.

Gupta said from Tuesday an additional bus will ply on the route for the convenience of the public.

When asked if the mini bus was packed beyond capacity, Deputy Commissioner Garg said preliminary reports suggest that more people were travelling on it against its capacity.

“Some children have said the speed of the bus was slightly in excess…a detailed probe is being conducted into the cause of the accident,” he said.

Earlier, speaking to reporters at the Panchkula Civil Hospital, Garg said, “The reasons behind the accident are under investigation. Our main focus at the moment was on rescue. The matter of relief is that all children are stable, no one has a threatening injury or critical injury.”

A passenger on the bus, Jaipal, told reporters in Panchkula that the bus was overcrowded. “Suddenly, the bus started shaking near a turn and overturned,” Jaipal said.

Lucknow: A special investigation team probing the Hathras stampede submitted its report to the Uttar Pradesh government on Tuesday, a senior official said.

The July 2 stampede at the ‘satsang’ of self-styled godman Surajpal alias Narayan Sakar Hari alias Bhole Baba claimed 121 lives.

The SIT comprised Additional Director General of Police (Agra Zone) Anupam Kulshrestha and Aligarh Divisional Commissioner Chaitra V.

“The SIT has submitted its report to the government,” Director of Information, Shishir said. He, however, did not reveal the contents of the report.

on July 5 that they have not ruled out the conspiracy angle in the stampede and added that the culpability of the incident was on the organisers of the event.

A separate judicial commission headed by retired Allahabad High Court judge Brijesh Kumar Shrivastava, and retired IPS Hemant Rao is also probing the Hathras stampede case.

Government agencies, including police, have so far blamed the organisers for the mismanagement at the event, noting that the size of the crowd exceeded to over 2.50 lakh from the permitted 80,000.

The lawyer of the ‘godman’, however, on July 6 claimed “some poisonous substance” sprayed by “some unidentified men” triggered the stampede.

So far, nine people, including key accused Devprakash Madhukar, have been arrested in connection with the stampede.

Madhukar was the main organiser and fundraiser of the July 2 ‘satsang’ of self-styled godman Surajpal alias Narayan Sakar Hari alias Bhole Baba at Phulrai village.

The godman was not mentioned as accused in the FIR lodged at the local Sikandrarau police station on July 2.

Panaji: A Qatar Airways flight from Doha to Goa was diverted to Bengaluru in the wee hours of Tuesday due to “poor visibility” at the Manohar International Airport (MIA), an official said.

Goa witnessed heavy showers on Monday.

The Qatar Airways flight (QR522) could not get clearance to land at the Manohar International Airport at Mopa in North Goa due to poor visibility at 1.50 am, an MIA official said.

The flight had arrived from Doha. It flight flew over the MIA for 15-20 minutes before being diverted to the Kempegowda International Airport in Bengaluru, Karnataka, the official said.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued a ‘red alert’, forecasting heavy to very heavy rainfall very likely at a few places and extremely heavy rainfall at isolated places with strong surface winds over North Goa and South Goa districts on Tuesday.

Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday said that a date of hearing has been accorded to a PIL seeking probe into the Hathras stampede that left 121 dead.

“I have ordered listing of the plea yesterday itself,” Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud said when PIL petitioner and advocate Vishal Tiwari mentioned his petition for urgent hearing.

The PIL sought appointment of a five-member expert committee under the supervision of a retired apex court judge to probe the stampede.

It also sought a direction to the Uttar Pradesh government to submit a status report on the July 2 incident and to initiate legal action against the authorities, officials and others for their negligent conduct.

The stampede at a religious congregation in Hathras on Tuesday last left 121 people dead.

Over 2.5 lakh devotees had gathered in Hathras district’s Phulrai village for the ‘satsang’ conducted by Baba Narayan Hari, who is also known as Saakar Vishwahari Bhole Baba.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge (PTI)

New Delhi: The Modi government has only one mission and that is to “keep the youth jobless”, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge alleged on Tuesday in a scathing attack against the Centre on the issue of unemployment.

The Modi government may be refuting independent economic reports like the one by Citigroup on unemployment but how will it deny government data, Kharge asked in a lengthy post on X citing various reports.

“The truth is that Modi government is solely responsible for shattering the dreams of crores of youth in the last 10 years,” he alleged.

Kharge said the latest government data punctures the government’s claims.

According to NSSO’s (National Sample Survey Office) Annual Survey of Unincorporated Sector Enterprises, in the manufacturing sector, 54 lakh jobs were lost in unincorporated units in the seven years between 2015 and 2023, he said.

“In 2010-11, 10.8 crore employees were employed in unincorporated, non-agricultural enterprises across India, which has become 10.96 crore in 2022-23 – that is, a marginal increase of only 16 lakh in 12 years,” he said.

Kharge cited the latest Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS), to state that the urban unemployment rate is at 6.7 per cent (Q4, FY24).

“Modi government beats the drum of employment generation in the Formal sector by showing EPFO data, but even if we assume that data to be true, it has seen a 10% decline in new jobs in 2023,” he said.

A report by IIM Lucknow, after analysing government data, shows that unemployment growth, high unemployment among the educated, low participation of women in the workforce are prevalent in the country, Kharge said.

He said the Modi government rejects independent economic reports because they expose their “shameless attempt to whitewash”.

According to the CMIE (Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy), the current unemployment rate in the country has reached 9.2 per cent, he said, adding that it is a whopping 18.5 per cent for women.

“According to the ILO report, 83% of the unemployed in the country are youth. According to the India Employment Report 2024, between 2012 and 2019, about 7 crore youth joined the labour force, but there was zero growth in employment – only 0.01%!” he added.

The Congress chief also referred to the 2023 report from Azim Premji University to say that 42.3 per cent of graduates under the age of 25 in the country are unemployed.

“According to the latest report of Citigroup, India needs 1.2 crore jobs annually, and even 7% GDP growth will not be able to create enough jobs for our youth. Under the Modi Govt, the country has achieved an average of only 5.8% as GDP growth,” he said.

“Be it government jobs, or private sector, self-employment or unorganised sector – Modi government has only one mission ‘Keep the youth jobless’,” Kharge said.

The Congress, which has been attacking the government over the issue of unemployment, on Sunday cited the Citigroup report to allege that the Modi government had accentuated India’s “unemployment crisis” with the decimation of job-creating MSMEs through the “Tughlakian demonetisation, a hastily rushed GST, and rising imports from China”.

New Delhi: Patanjali Ayurved Ltd on Tuesday informed the Supreme Court that it has stopped the sale of the 14 products whose manufacturing licences were suspended by the Uttarakhand State Licensing Authority in April.

The company told a bench of Justices Hima Kohli and Sandeep Mehta that it has issued instructions to 5,606 franchise stores to withdraw these products.

It said media platforms have also been instructed to withdraw advertisements of these 14 products in any form.

The bench directed Patanjali Ayurved Ltd to file an affidavit within two weeks stating whether the request made to social media intermediaries for the removal of advertisements has been acceded to and whether advertisements of these 14 products have been withdrawn.

The bench posted the matter for further hearing on July 30.

The top court is hearing a plea filed by the Indian Medical Association (IMA) alleging a smear campaign by Patanjali against the Covid vaccination drive and modern systems of medicine.

The Uttarakhand State Licensing Authority had earlier told the apex court that manufacturing licences of 14 products of Patanjali Ayurved Ltd and Divya Pharmacy have been “suspended with immediate effect”.

The apex court had on May 14 reserved its order on the contempt notice issued to yoga guru Ramdev, his aide Balkrishna and Patanjali Ayurved Ltd in the misleading advertisements case.