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SC sets up 'Social Justice Bench' with the object to 'secure social justice'

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Supreme Court India

New Delhi: The Supreme Court today set up a special ‘Social Justice Bench’ to exclusively hear cases concerning social issues particularly those related to women, children and underprivileged saying that specialised approach is needed for dealing with these matters.

Emphasising that judiciary needs to be proactive to ensure early disposal of such cases and to bring fruits of the rights provided under the Constitution to people, the apex court set up the bench which will assemble every Friday at 2 PM from December 12.

“In Supreme Court several cases relating to the domain of social justice are pending for several years. Chief Justice of India is of the view that these cases shall be given a specialised approach for their early disposal so that the masses will realise the fruits of the rights provided to them by the constitutional text.”

“In this perspective his Lordship has ordered constitution of special bench titled as ‘Social Justice Bench’ to deal specially with the matters relating to society and its members, to secure social justice, one of the ideals of the Indian Constitution,” a press release issued by the apex court said.

The special bench will comprise justices Madan B Lokur and U U Lalit.

“Under the domain of social justice, several cases highlighting social issues are included.”

To mention summarily about the release of surplus foodgrains lying in stocks for the use of people living in the drought-affected areas to frame a fresh scheme for public distribution of foodgrains, to take steps to prevent untimely death of women and children for want of nutritious food, providing hygienic meal besides issues relating to children to provide night shelter to destitute and homeless, to provide medical facilities to all the citizens irrespective of their economic condition, to provide hygienic drinking water, to provide safety and secure living condition for the fair gender who are forced into prostitution etc.

“These are some of the areas where the Constitution mechanism has to play a proactive role in order to meet the goals of the Constitution,” the release said.

Oldest litigant says he will not pursue Babri case further

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Mohammad Hashim Ansari

Lucknow/Ayodhya/New Delhi: Mohammad Hashim Ansari, the oldest litigant in the Babri Masjid case, has accused Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan of seeking to take political advantage of the issue and said he will not pursue the case any further.

Ansari, who is in his early 90s, also said he did not want to see “Ram Lalla” in a tent but in a free and open state.

Ansari’s remarks triggered political reactions, with the Bharatiya Janata Party welcoming them and the Bahujan Samaj Party demanding a probe into the circumstances in which he made the comments.

Ansari said he was fed up with the politicisation of the issue.

“Whether it is Babri masjid or Ram Janmabhoomi, it has become a battleground of politics. I do not want to befool Hindus or Muslims. I will not pursue the Babri Masjid case at any cost,” he said.

Ansari also said he will not take part in any programme Dec 6, the anniversary of the Babri Masjid demolition.

He hit out at Azam Khan, a minister in the Akhilesh Yadav government in Uttar Pradesh, and said: “I file the case and political advantage is taken by Azam Khan. Hence, I will not pursue it. Let Azam Khan fight it.”

Ansari said when Azam Khan can visit temples of Chitrakoot, why can’t he visit Ayodhya.

Talking to All India Radio, Ansari said when he sees Ram Lalla in a tent, it pains him and he does not want that to continue. He said he wants to see Ram Lalla to be free and open.

In remarks to Times Now channel, Ansari said he was ready to talk to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the issue.

“The door for talks is open. I will talk to him, welcome him,” Ansari said.

Zafaryab Jilani, legal advisor to the All India Muslim Personal Law Board, said Ansari’s recusal from the case would not have much effect.

He said Ansari may be upset over some issue or has not been properly briefed.

BSP chief Mayawati said the state government should probe the circumstances in which Ansari made the remarks.

“If the state government does not do it, then the central government should do it,” she said.

BJP leader Yogi Adityanath welcomed Ansari’s decision and said talks should be held and a bigger Ram Mandir should be constructed at the site.

BJP secretary Shrikant Sharma described Ansari’s comments as “a good beginning”.

He said if a solution to the Babri Mosque dispute could be found through talks, it will be a historic decision.

D. Raja of the Communist Party of India wondered if Ansari was under some pressure.

“Legal implications arising out of Mohammad Hashim Ansari leaving the case would have to be looked into by court but my point is whether he is under pressure,” Raja said.

(IANS)

Illegal export of iron ore: Janardhana Reddy, 9 others get conditional bail

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Janardhana Reddy

Bengaluru: Former minister, G Janardhana Reddy, his close associate Mehfooz Ali Khan, Kudligi MLA Nagendra and seven others have secured conditional bail in the third case pertaining to illegal export of iron ore from Belekeri port by a special CBI court.

The case pertained to the second case registered against Dream Logistics, sources said.
The CBI has registered five FIRs against Janardhana Reddy, one pertaining to illegalities in Associated Mining Company and four in connection with illegal export of iron ore from Belekeri port.

On Wednesday, the court granted conditional bail to Reddy and others. However, the accused will not be released from the prison as cases are still pending against them.

Shiv Sena to get 12 ministries in Maharashtra government

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uddhav-thackeray

Mumbai: A day after Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said the talks with Shiv Sena over power sharing were 70-80 per cent complete, a senior Sena leader today said both the parties have “buried” their differences and agreed on a “suitable” formula.

According to the pact, Sena will be alloted a total of 12 ministries in the Fadnavis government, out of which 5 will be of Cabinet rank.

However, the formal announcement in this regard is likely to be delayed in the wake of demise of Congress veteran and former Maharashtra chief minister AR Antulay today.

“After discussing our alliance with the BJP over last few days, we have finally decided on a ministry-sharing formula (which is) agreeable to both parties,” said a senior Sena leader whose name is reportedly in reckoning among Sena inductees in BJP government.

“We have decided (with BJP) that Shiv Sena will hold 5 cabinet portfolios in the state ministry and 7 Minister of State portfolios,” he said. He said the expansion of the state cabinet, slated for Wednesday, may get deferred by a couple of days after Antulay’s death.

“We have to follow the protocol after the sad demise of Congress leader A R Antulay. The expansion will be deferred by at least a couple of days now, and thus we will be formally announcing the names of Sena ministers only when the cabinet expansion date is announced,” he said.

Another Sena leader said ministries to be allotted to his party include Industries, Environment, Health, MSRDC (Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation) and Transport or Excise.

This is viewed as a tactical climb-down by Sena from its earlier stand wherein it had staked the claim for the crucial posts of the deputy chief minister and home minister.

However, senior Sena leader Subhash Desai who had held talks with Fadnavis last night said that talks between BJP and Sena leaders will continue today.

“We discussed several things last night,” he has said. A Sena leader had said last night that talks with BJP have almost reached a positive conclusion barring one ministry.

When contacted a senior BJP leader said the formula – allotting 5 Cabinet berths and 7 state ministries to Sena – is indeed thrashed out. “However discussions are still on,” he said on condition of anonymity as he is not authorised to speak to media.

(PTI)

Bengaluru: 3-year-old raped twice in school; one held

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rape-case

Bengaluru: In yet another shocking incident, the police have arrested an employee of a private school for allegedly raping a 3-year-old student.

The suspect has been identified as Nagaraj, who has been accused of raping the minor twice between October 22 and Nov 26.

The incident came to light, when the victim’s mother took the child for a medical check up, as the child developed medical complications. The doctor who examined the child confirmed rape and advised parents to approach the police.

Based on the complaint filed by the parents of the victim, the police arrested Nagaraj, an attender, with the school, on Nov 30 and booked him under 5(m) (f), 6, and 21 of the POCSO Act and sections 188, 336, and 376 of the IPC. According to sources, the accused has confessed to raping the child.

The cases of sexual assault in schools are on the rise in the City. This is the fifth incident of child rape reported since June.

(Agencies)

Pakistani band denied permission for Mumbai show

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Sachal Jazz Ensemble

Mumbai: Popular band Sachal Jazz Ensemble had to call off its performance in Mumbai on Monday after the city police withheld permission for seven Pakistani artistes in the group to perform, local newspapers said on Tuesday.

They said the Lahore-based band consists of three British citizens and seven Pakistanis. The last-minute cancellation left a 1,000-strong crowd that had gathered to hear the internationally renowned band deeply disappointed.

The band had tweeted on Sunday night that it was going to perform “jazz and ragas” at the NCPA. The performance was to begin at 7pm; the show was cancelled at 7.40 pm after the permissions failed to come through.

“Permission (for the concert) was not given keeping the law and order situation in mind,” Deputy Commissioner of Police (spokesperson) Dhananjay Kulkarni said today.

“The organiser was informed about it on Sunday,” he added.

The band members include Nijat Ali (conductor), Nafees Khan (sitar), Baqar Abbas (flute), Ballu Khan (tabla), Rafiq Ahmed (naal), Najaf Ali (dholak, mardang), Asad Ali (guitar) and UK artistes Phillep Achille (harmonica and double bass) and Steve Lodder (piano).

The three UK citizens in the band were reportedly given approval by the police to perform in the city, but the permissions to the Pakistanis were held up, the papers said.

The band reportedly performed without any hitch in Delhi and Pune a few days ago before arriving here.

In February this year, a press conference attended by members of a music band from Pakistan was disrupted in Mumbai by Shiv Sena workers.

UNGA urges India, Pakistan and Israel to give up nuclear weapons

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united nations

United Nations: India, backed by the United States, opposed a UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution calling on New Delhi to voluntarily abandon its nuclear weapons. The resolution that also targeted Israel and Pakistan, however, passed overwhelmingly.

The US joined India to vote against a key part of the resolution on achieving a nuclear weapon-free world that called on India, Israel and Pakistan to immediately and unconditionally accede to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty as non-nuclear-weapon states and put all their nuclear facilities under International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards.

In plain language, this clause would have the three countries it targeted to just give up their nuclear weapons and ability to manufacture them.

Israel and Pakistan also voted against the provision, while France, Britain and Bhutan abstained from voting. It passed with 165 votes in the 193-member UNGA, with 21 countries absent.

India and the US were joined by Britain, Russia, Israel and North Korea in voting against the overall resolution on working towards a nuclear-weapon-free world. But it passed with 169 votes, with China, Pakistan, Bhutan, Micronesia and Palau abstaining.

This resolution and similar ones are not binding under the UN Charter and are symbolic in nature.

India also voted against clauses in two other resolutions that, without naming any country, asked all countries to accede to the NPT while giving up their nuclear arsenals.

New Delhi has been firm in rejecting the NPT, which it considers discriminatory in trying to preserve the nuclear weapons monopoly of five nations — the US, Russia, China, France and Britain.

This stand was reiterated by Ambassador D. B. Venkatesh Varma in October at a meeting of the UNGA’s committee that deals with disarmament and crafted these resolutions. “There is no question of India joining the NPT as a non-nuclear weapon state,” said Varma, who is India’s Permanent Representative to the Conference on Disarmament. “In our view, nuclear disarmament can be achieved through a step-by-step process underwritten by a universal commitment and an agreed global and non-discriminatory multilateral framework.”

India also voted against a resolution pushing for conventional arms control at the regional and sub-regional levels and abstained on another urging nations not to carry out nuclear tests. These resolutions passed by overwhelming majorities.

In another resolution, the UNGA asked all nations to take strong actions to prevent terrorists from acquiring weapons of mass destruction.

Yet other resolutions called for lessening international tension by reducing the operational readiness of the several thousand nuclear weapons that remained on high alert despite the end of the cold war, and requested the five nuclear-weapon States to review of nuclear doctrines and take steps to reduce the risks of the use of nuclear weapons.

Anil Kumar Sinha appointed new CBI Director

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Anil Kumar Sinha

New Delhi: Senior IPS officer Anil Kumar Sinha on Tuesday night was appointed the new CBI Director to succeed Ranjit Sinha who retired in a glare of controversy with the Supreme Court directing him to recuse from 2G spectrum scam case probe.

Sinha, a 1979 batch IPS officer of Bihar cadrde, was the Special Director in CBI.

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, cleared the name of Anil Kumar Sinha who was among the candidates shortlisted by the searh committee earier this evening.

The term of Sinha will be for two years from the date he takes charge, an official notification said. Earlier in the day, Modi held discussions with the Chief Justice of India and leader of the main Opposition in Lok Sabha on selecting a new CBI head.

The panel discussed the names of about 40 officers shortlisted by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), sources said.

Ranjit Sinha retired today after a tumultuous tenure of two years at the helm of affairs in CBI that ended on a controversial note.

Sinha’s tenure as CBI chief saw highs like busting of some big bribery cases involving a Railway Board member, Chairman and Managing Director of a public sector bank, Chief Executive Officer of Censor Board among others.

The lows were mainly the criticism he faced from the Supreme Court which asked him to withdraw from 2G probe, criticism from a special court for shoddy probe in coal scam cases, sharing of status report in coal with the then Law Minister Ashwani Kumar after which the agency earned the sobriquet of “caged parrot” from the apex court.

I carried out the encounter of Ishrat Jahan on the orders given by my superior, DG Vanzara testified before CBI court

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Photo: Hindustan Times

Photo: Hindustan Times

Ahmedabad: Accused in many fake-encounters, Gujarat IPS officer DG Vanzara has spilled the beans on Friday when he testified before a special CBI court here that he carried out the encounter of Mumbai college student Ishrat Jahan on the orders given by his superior on the basis of inputs received from Intelligence Bureau (IB).

Vanzara, who has been in jail for more than seven years, made his submission through his lawyer during hearing on his bail plea. His lawyer VD Gajjar told the CBI court that the IB, in an affidavit before the Supreme Court in August, had clearly mentioned that the four persons killed in the encounter were terror suspects and the claim was supported by a statement of David Headly, a 26/11 plotter. However, the CBI charge sheet contradicts Vanzara’s claim as the inputs about the terror suspects coming to Gujarat were given to then Ahmedabad Police Commissioner KR Kaushik not to Vanzara. The inputs were forwarded to Vanzara, then a DIG, through his superior Kaushik, he said.

His counsel argued that Vanzara was not aware about IB’s inputs and he only executed the operation on the instructions of his superior but the CBI did not make Kaushik an accused in the encounter case.

He further asked the court that in the FIR, CBI relied upon statements of some police inspectors, who said they took part in the encounter on the orders of their superiors. Vanzara also did the same, then why was he “framed” while his superiors were not named accused by the agency. He also questioned why IB officers were let off the hook?

“CBI had not made four IB officials linked to the case (Rajendra Kumar, Tarun Mittal, MK Sinha and Rajiv Wankhede) accused and only Gujarat Police officers were named in the charge sheet”.

In its defence, CBI lawyer LD Tiwari said the agency had not received sanction from the Union Home Ministry, as required under Section 197 of CrPC, to proceed against the IB officers.

It is to be noted here that under the Section 197 of CrPC, no public servant can be prosecuted for an alleged offence committed during discharge of official duty without the government’s nod. Contending this, Vanzara counsel Gajjar said CBI did not opt for any such permission before naming Vanzara or any other Gujarat Police officer in the charge sheet. The court, after hearing the submissions, adjourned the matter to December 5.

It is to be recalled that Ishrat (19), a college girl from Mumbra near Mumbai, and along with three men – Javed Shaikh alias Pranesh Pillai, Amjadali Akbarali Rana and Zeeshan Johar – were shot dead allegedly by Gujarat Police near here on June 15, 2004 on suspicion that they were on a terror mission.

On the order of the Supreme Court, CBI did the probe of the encounter and found that it was cold-blooded murder in which over a dozen policemen, including IPS officers, were charged with murder and criminal conspiracy and Vanzara is one of them who got bail in another fake encounter of Sohrabuddin Sheikh and his wife. Vanzara’s submission, who was considered as a blue-eyed police officer in the then Modi-led Gujarat, may stir up hornets’ nest.

Strike cripples banking in Karnataka

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Strike banking Karnataka

Bengaluru: Banking transactions across Karnataka were crippled Tuesday as about 35,000 employees of all banks across the state went on a day-long relay strike to press for their many demands, including wage revision.

“The relay strike was a total success, as all officers and employees of state-run, private and regional rural banks kept away from work in protest against the adamant attitude of the Indian Banks Association (IBA) in considering our legitimate demands,” All India Bank Officers’ Federation (AIBOF) president Y. Sudarshan told IANS here.

The relay strike, which will continue over the next three days zone-wise across the country, was also observed in other southern states.

It will be observed across the north zone Wednesday, in the east and northeastern regions Thursday, and in the western region Friday.

“As efforts to avert the relay strike Monday between the IBA and the United Forum of Bank Unions (UBFU) failed despite the mediation of the deputy labour commissioner (central) in Mumbai, we had no option but to go ahead with the strike zone-wise for four days to draw the government’s attention to prevail upon IBA to meet our genuine demands,” Sudarshan said.

Though people with debit and credit cards were able to draw cash from the automated teller machines (ATMs), all other transactions were affected.

“Our five-year wage revision is due since Nov 1, 2012. We have asked for 25 percent hike in wages keeping in view the high cost of living and inflation since then. The IBA, however, is refusing to give more than 11 percent hike, which is far less than 17.5 percent hike given Oct 31, 2007, for five years,” he said.

Asserting that their major demands were legitimate, as the responsibility, accountability and risk of all employees, especially officers, has gone up substantially, Sudarshan said the unions had agreed to accept 23 percent wage revision after the IBA conveyed that the banks were not in a position to offer beyond 11 percent due to rising non-performing assets (NPAs).

“It is not our fault if NPAs of all banks have gone up. The IBA cannot blame us, as NPAs have increased due to default by hundreds of large corporates in repaying their loans or advances. Our demands are in conformity with the settlement the IBA had with our forum (UBFU) in 2010,” he said.

The other major demands of the unions are upgradation of pension benefits, especially family pension, as retired employees do not get the benefit of wage revision, regulate working hours for officers and declare five-day banking, which is applicable to employees of the Reserve Bank of India, central government and industries in the organised sector.

Over 1.5 lakh employees of all banks across Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Lakshadweep, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu and Telangana also struck work, seeking early settlement of their demands.

The UBFU decided to launch the four-day relay strike across the country for the first time at a meeting in Bengaluru in October.

The UFBU represents nine unions of over a million officers and employees in state-run, private and regional rural banks across the country.

“The IBA is determined to cause inconvenience to the public and fill its coffers by deducting salary of our striking employees who are the lowest paid section. IBA’s indifference to our demands is apparent, as the strike notice was given 40 days ago and a nationwide strike was held Nov 11,” All India Bank Employees Confederation (AIBEC) general secretary A.K. Krishna Murthy told IANS here.

(IANS)

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