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Relief to Manmohan Singh, others in coal scam case

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manmohan-singh

New Delhi: In a relief to former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the Supreme Court today stayed the trial court order summoning him as accused in a case pertaining to grant of Talabira-II coal block in Odisha in 2005 to Aditya Birla group company Hindalco.

The stay, which also applied to Hindalco Chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla, former Coal Secretary P C Parakh and three others, came after senior counsel Kapil Sibal questioned the legality of the summons to the former Prime Minister citing lack of sanction as required under the CrPC and contended that allocation of a coal block was an administrative act without any criminal intent.

“We issue notice on all six petitions. The trial court order shall remain stayed,” a bench of justices V Gopala Gowda and C Nagappan said after hearing arguments by Sibal, who represented the former Prime Minister, and other lawyers in the case.

82-year-old Singh’s daughters, Upinder Singh and Daman Singh, were present in the court during the proceedings.

The bench also stayed the proceedings before the trial court and issued notice to the Centre on a plea challenging constitutional validity of section 13 (1)(d)(iii) of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

The other three summoned as accused are Hindalco, Shubhendu Amitabh and D Bhattacharya, its officials. All the six were summoned by Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar to appear before the court on April 8.

“I must confess that I have not been able to find out what is the illegal act done by the petitioner in the case,” Sibal said at the outset of the 35-minute proceedings.

Sibal said it is not an illegal act to allot a mine contending that the administrative acts of the Prime Minister cannot be faulted on the ground that he did not follow the recommendations or procedures adopted by the screening committee.

He also referred to the earlier Supreme Court judgement by which all the coal block allocations were quashed on the ground that screening committee procedures were illegal.

“The trial court, in its order, says that you did not follow the screening committee and this is contrary to law,” Sibal said, adding that the order summoning the PM does not stand the scrutiny of “public reasoning”.

He also said that the trial court order does not deal with the provisions on requirement of prior sanction to prosecute a public servant under the criminal procedure code (CrPC) and the Prevention of Corruption Act.

Referring to the essential ingredients of an offence, Sibal said that “there is no reference of meeting of minds to commit an illegal act by the accused persons”.

During the hearing, the bench asked the counsel for Singh to satisfy it on provisions relating to grant of sanction to prosecute a public servant.

Sibal referred to various Supreme Court judgements and said “even if I am the Coal Minister at the relevant time, I don’t lose the status of the Prime Minister who has got plenary power. Everyday, I take decisions as minister and reject the advice, should I be sent to Tihar Jail?”.

There has to be a meeting of minds to do a criminal act with regard to allocation of Talabira coal mines to a private firm, he said, adding, “Where is the criminal conspiracy? Is it an offence to grant coal mines to a private sector company?”

(PTI)

Karnataka firm on Mekedatu project, says CM Siddaramaiah

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mekedatu

Bengaluru: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Monday informed the Legislative Assembly that the State Government was committed to implementing the Mekedatu dam project proposed across the Cauvery river in Ramanagaram district.

He would convene an all-party meeting to discus the project and lead a delegation to Delhi to appraise the Centre of the necessity of the project for Karnataka, Mr. Siddaramaiah said during his reply to the debate on the State Budget.

Mr. Siddaramaiah said Rs. 25 crore had been set aside for preparing a detailed project report. The project was conceived to meet the drinking water needs of people residing in the parched districts around Bengaluru. It would act as a balancing reservoir and harness water flowing into the sea.

“There is no politics in Krishna and Cauvery waters. We are building the Mekedatu dam within our state, they (TN) will not have any problem from it, and we know how to face this legally,” the Chief Minister said.

Tamil Nadu observed a bandh on Saturday opposing the plan for the Mekadatu project this side of the border.

The Opposition parties-backed state-wide farmers’ bandh over the Mekedatu dam row, though the state government has distanced itself from it.

The bandh call is to press the Centre to rein in Karnataka from going ahead with its proposed plan build a dam at Mekedatu and to urge it to set up the Cauvery Management Board and Cauvery Water Regulatory Authority.

Affiliated trade unions of eight state-run transport corporations of these parties, traders’ associations, retailers, vegetable traders and sand lorry operators are among those who had expressed support for the shutdown.

(Agencies)

​Kannada mandatory subject in Karnataka

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Kannada

Bengaluru: Kannada language will be a mandatory subject in classes one to ten in schools affiliated to Karnataka board and a compulsory medium of instruction from classes one to five.

This is envisaged in the Kannada Language Learning Bill, 2015 making Kannada a mandatory subject in classes one to ten and Right To Education Act Amendment Bill which were passed by a voice vote in the state Assembly today.

The second bill amended Section 29 (2) of the Right To Education Act to change the provision “medium of instruction shall, as far as practicable, be in mother’s tongue” to “Kannada or mother tongue will be medium of instruction in primary schools” from classes to one to five.

The amendment would help the government in its arguments before the Supreme Court when the curative petition related to its language policy is taken up.

The Supreme Court had rejected a revision petition filed by the state government seeking review of its ruling which upheld a Karnataka High Court judgement striking down its government order issued in 1994 to impose Kannada or mother tongue as a medium of instruction in primary schools.

(Agencies)

Rajnath backs national ban on cow slaughter

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Rajnath Singh

Indore: The NDA government will try its “level best” to bring in a countrywide ban on slaughter of cows by evolving a consensus, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh said on Sunday.

“Cow slaughter cannot be accepted in this country. We will make all-out efforts to ban it and will also try hard for a consensus,” he told a gathering of spiritual leaders of Shwetambar Jains, a prominent sect of Jainism.

Referring to the cow slaughter ban in the BJP-ruled States of Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, the senior BJP leader said nobody should doubt the government’s commitment in this regard.

“The BJP government in Madhya Pradesh enacted a tough law; so has the Maharashtra government. We didn’t waste any time in sending the Bill passed by Maharashtra government to the President for his assent,” he said referring to the Maharashtra Animal Preservation (Amendment) Act, which also extends the ban to slaughter of bulls and bullocks.

On the occasion, Acharya Shivmuni wanted the Centre to bring in legislation in the current Budget Session of Parliament for banning slaughter of buffaloes also.

To this, Mr. Singh said the government needed to have an absolute majority in both Houses of Parliament to enforce a complete ban. “You must be reading in the newspapers how the government has to struggle to get various bills passed in Parliament.” The BJP lacks the numbers in the Rajya Sabha.

Mr. Singh recalled that when he was Agriculture Minister in 2003, his Ministry had prepared a Bill for a total ban on slaughter of cows. “But the moment I rose to present it in Parliament, there was an uproar. That is why we couldn’t get the Bill passed,” he said.

‘Gem of Indian culture’

Describing Jainism as the “gem” of Indian culture, he said: “The entire world is affected by the scourge of terrorism, origin of which lies in the mentality of violence. And this mentality can be fought with the teachings of Jainism.”

(PTI)

Karnataka MLAs salary up by Rs 5,000; Siddaramaiah to take home Rs 50,000

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Siddaramaiah-Parameshwara

Bengaluru: Karnataka legislators on Monday gave themselves a hefty hike in salaries and allowances with the Chief Minister’s monthly salary set to jump from Rs 30,000 to Rs 50,000.

The salaries of the ministers will go up from Rs 25,000 to Rs 40,000 per month.

The sumptuary allowance has been increased to Rs. three lakh per month for both Chief Ministers and the ministers.

The salary of MLAs will go up from Rs 20,000 to Rs 25,000 per month under the Karnataka Legislature Salaries, Pensions and Allowances (Amendment) Bill.

There is considerable increase in other allowances including conveyence and house rent.

The salaries of the Legislative Council Chairman and the Speaker will be Rs 50,000 per month and sumptuary allowance Rs three lakh each.

The increase in salaries, pension and allowance of the legislators will entail an additional expenditure of Rs 44 crore per annum and the hike in salaries and allowances of ministers will cast an additional burden to the tune of Rs 3.50 crore per year on government exchequer.

The Karnataka Legislature Salaries, Pensions and Allowances (Amendment) Bill, 2015 and Karnataka Ministers Salaries and Allowances (Amendment) Bill, moved by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, were passed in the assembly by voice vote.

(PTI)

SC issues notice to Advani, others in Babri Masjid demolition case

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advani-babri

New Delhi: The Supreme Court today sought responses from senior BJP leader L K Advani and others on a plea against dropping of criminal conspiracy charge against them in the Babri mosque demolition case.

A bench headed by Chief Justice H L Dattu issued notices to the BJP leader and the CBI on a separate plea filed by Haji Mahboob Ahmad, one of the petitioners in the Babri mosque case.

Ahmad, in his plea, has alleged that CBI may dilute its stand in the wake of the change in the government at the Centre.

Earlier, the CBI had moved the apex court against Allahabad High Court’s verdict on dropping conspiracy charge against Advani and 19 others in Babri mosque demolition case.

During the brief hearing, CBI today sought time for filing a fresh affidavit on delay in filing the appeal and on the merits of the case.

The court allowed the plea of the probe agency and granted four weeks time to file the response.

The apex court had earlier pulled up CBI for the delay in filing an appeal against the Allahabad High Court verdict.

CBI has challenged in the Supreme Court the May 21, 2010 order of the high court, which had upheld a special court’s decision to drop the charge against the leaders.

In its verdict, the high court had upheld the special CBI court order dropping conspiracy charge against Advani, Kalyan Singh, Uma Bharti, Vinay Katiyar and Murli Manohar Joshi.

The others against whom the charge was dropped included Satish Pradhan, C R Bansal, Ashok Singhal, Giriraj Kishore, Sadhvi Ritambhara, V H Dalmia, Mahant Avaidhynath, R V Vedanti, Param Hans Ram

Chandra Das, Jagdish Muni Maharaj, B L Sharma, Nritya Gopal Das, Dharam Das, Satish Nagar and Moreshwar Save.

Bal Thackeray’s name was removed from the list of accused persons after his death.

While upholding the special court’s order, the high court had allowed CBI to proceed with other charges against Advani and others in a Rae Bareily court, under whose jurisdiction the case falls.

The May 2010 order of the high court had said there was no merit in CBI’s revision petition against the May 4, 2001 order of the special court which had directed dropping of criminal conspiracy charge against them.

There are two sets of cases — one against Advani and others who were on the dais at Ram Katha Kunj in Ayodhya on December 6, 1992 when the Babri mosque was demolished, while the other case was against lakhs of unknown ‘karsevaks’ who were in and around the disputed structure.

CBI had charge sheeted Advani and 20 others under sections 153A (promoting enmity between classes), 153B (imputations, assertions prejudicial to national integration) and 505 (false statements, rumours etc. circulated with the intent to cause mutiny or disturb public peace) of the IPC.

It had subsequently invoked charges under section 120B (criminal conspiracy) of IPC which was quashed by the special court whose decision was upheld by the high court.

While upholding the special court’s order, the high court had said CBI at no point of time, either during the trial at Rae Bareily or in its revision petition, ever stated that there was offence of criminal conspiracy against the leaders.

(PTI)

Saina Nehwal creates history, becomes world No.1

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Photo: Ben Stansall/AFP

Photo: Ben Stansall/AFP

New Delhi: Ace shuttler Saina Nehwal on Saturday created history by becoming the first Indian woman to be ranked World No.1.

Saina reached the summit after Ratchanok Intanon defeated All England Badminton champion Carolina Marin in the first semifinal of the India Open Super Series badminton tournament in New Delhi on Saturday.

The Olympic bronze medallist is in the hunt for her maiden India Open crown as she reached her maiden semifinal at the event on Friday by beating Indonesia’s Hana Ramadhini 21-15, 21-12 at the Siri Fort Sports Complex.

Saina led 10-6 early on but Hana blasted off four straight points to catch up with the Indian. However, Saina slowly increased the gap with her rival to eventually win the first game.

The Indian dished out a better game in the second, as she entered the break with a healthy 11-4 lead and capitalized on the advantage as her opponent crumbled.

Saina will play Japan’s Yui Hashimoto in the second semifinal on Saturday.

Prakash Padukone was the first Indian to reach the summit of the world rankings.

(Agencies)

Men’s Rights Group strongly objects move to make dowry law compoundable, demands bailability

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SIFF-FRW

by Virag R Dhulia

Mukul Srivastava (name changed) travelled 9 times in a period of 3.5 months to attend his bail hearings from Chennai to Jaipur by flight spending close to INR 1 lakh for the travels. Additionally, he was made to stay in Jaipur for an extended period of 1.5 months jeopardizing his job and career.

His fault, he was an Indian husband whose wife had implicated him in a false dowry case. He approached the court for bail and he was only given interim bail. Every 5 or 7 days, the interim bail was extended keeping him in a lurch wherein he was neither arrested nor completely safe even though he was cooperating in the investigation fully.

Prakash Gupta (name changed) was arrested by the Bihar police from Bangalore even though he had an anticipatory bail and had to undergo the ordeal of police custody from Bangalore to Patna (where a false dowry case was lodged against him) before obtaining final bail.

IAS officer D K Ravi who recently committed suicide in Bangalore, Karnataka, is also believed to have been a victim of 498A as reports are emerging that he was threatened with a false dowry case. This had allegedly happened when he confronted his wife after it was revealed that his wife had eloped with her classmate in her college days and had married him secretly. This fact was kept hidden from Ravi and he came to know about it after marriage.

These are just some examples which throw light on the dark and gory side of Section 498A – the Dowry Law of India as it gets misused highly.

Misuse of dowry laws is not a recent phenomenon and the judiciary of India is totally responsible for the growing misuse of dowry law and the resultant abuse of innocent men in the process.

“The Government and courts should worry more about men avoiding women altogether than being worried about saving marriages by amending laws. Because, when it comes to protecting innocent men from abusive women in marriages and the resultant frivolous and vexatious litigation, the Govt. and the Judiciary score negative”, says Rajesh Vakharia, President Save Indian Family Foundation (SIFF).

“Judiciary and Police, subvert human rights of men when a false complaint of dowry harassment is filed against them”, rues Vakharia as he explains the role of police and judiciary in the misuse of dowry law,

  1. Police do not issue “Notice of Appearance” when a complaint is received from wife. Instead they call the husband and threaten him on phone forcing him to visit the police station without being officially summoned and then the police do marital counseling when they are neither trained nor authorized to counsel couples.
  2. Judges do not punish police when they do not follow provisions of Section 41 CrPC and arrest men without issuing notice of appearance.
  3. Often police visit the office premises of men in order to shame them and jeopardize their job situation. Police also pick up relatives of men who are not even named in the complaint, they are illegally detained by police and forced to give their statements.
  4. Judges grant interim bail and then keep on extending the bail for every 5 or 7 days and thus the man is neither arrested nor free but keeps on attending court dates without any reason.
  5. After giving interim bail, the cases are referred to mediation where the man is psychologically tortured to bow down before wife’s demands and if he does not do so, his bail is canceled and he is sent to jail.
  6. This is nothing short of state sponsored extortion and blackmail which is happening due to the independent and unaccountable nature of the Indian judiciary. Courts and mediation centers, along with the legal fraternity are acting as “agents of wives” and punishing men financially without verifying complaints.
  7. Judiciary has taken an official stand of not punishing wives and her relatives when they attack the husband and/or his relatives physically. At times, such attacks are either fatal in nature or injure the man severely. Wife and her relatives are given a free license to commit atrocities on husbands and then file a complaint of 498A to cover their own crimes. And, the judiciary accepts this behavior as normal and punishes the husband for 498A and lets off the wife without any punishment.

“It is a very sad fact that instead of working to resolve these procedural hurdles which result in abuse of men under section 498A and its growing misuse, the Govt. is planning to make this law compoundable. It is already compoundable in states like Andhra Pradesh and Telengana. After the law is made compoundable, the misuse of this law in fact increased many folds. So, the Government’s proposal to make the law compoundable will not solve the problem of misuse, but will just compound it. This is like adding salt to injury”, says Jyoti Tiwari, spokesperson, Save Indian Family Foundation and pushes move for judicial reforms.

Instead of reigning in the judiciary, the Govt. is strengthening it believing it to be a holy cow.

  1. However, Indian judiciary is not a holy cow.
  2. Today, the law and order situation is in a chaos because of the insensitivity and lack of accountability of the judiciary as the judiciary is least bothered about its dignity.
  3. Cases linger for years together because judges do not follow the due process in the cases and allow any number of adjournments to the wife when she does not attend the court hearings.
  4. Judges do not dismiss the cases even if the wife does not attend the cases for years together.
  5. Judges take months together to merely decide on bail petitions. Bail being a constitutional right and if a man is willing to cooperate in the investigation, there should be absolutely no problem in granting bail. However, judges are forcing lawyers to bring evidence of innocence in the bail itself which is violation of constitutional rights of men.

And with such a state of the judiciary, if we leave decisions like granting bail and compounding cases (Section 320 CrPC) to the judiciary, it will lead to more false cases and it will contribute to the growing menace of misuse of 498A.

This abuse of men is uniform across cities and villages. In fact, being unaware and not having access to basic facilities, the village men suffer more and either bow down or commit suicide being unable to bear the extreme harassment and torture by wife, police, lawyers and judges.

Being a men’s rights organization, Save Indian Family Foundation (SIFF) strongly condemns the apathy and insensitivity of the judiciary and reserves strong objections to 498A being made compoundable. It presses upon the need to make the section bailable and non-cognizable.

Even though, the Govt. has issued multiple directives and circulars directing the police not to arrest before investigation or to issue notice of appearance under Section 41 CrPC, however, all those directives are mere paper tigers and are not implemented in letter and spirit.

Hence, SIFF demands,

  1. To drop the move for amending 498A to make it compoundable.
  2. To make Section 498A bailable and non-cognizable.
  3. To form committees of innocent men, who have been acquitted, as watchdogs to monitor and review orders by judiciary.
  4. To insert a special provision to punish those police and judicial officers who do not follow the law properly and resort to malpractices under the cover of Section 498A.
  5. To stop the extortion and blackmailing of men in the name of mediation and counseling.

Janata Parivar merger on track, says Nitish Kumar

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“The merger vehicle of Janata Parivar is on track and the vehicle is on the run,” Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said. Photo: The Hindu

“The merger vehicle of Janata Parivar is on track and the vehicle is on the run,” Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said. Photo: The Hindu

Patna: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, on Saturday, said there was no “cloud of uncertainty” over merger of old Janata Parivar splinter groups and that it was on track.

“The merger vehicle of Janata Parivar is on track and the vehicle is on the run,” Mr. Kumar told reporters after a conclave on skill development.

“I think the merger will not take much time,” he said.

“The date of the next meeting on merger will be decided soon in which everything will become clear,” Mr. Kumar said.

The Chief Minister, during his recent stay in Delhi, had met Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav, who has been authorised to decide modalities for the merger of Janata Parivar.

“On March 27, Lalu Prasad, Sharad Yadav, Mulayam Singh Yadav and I held detailed talks on merger issue,” Mr. Kumar said.

On a question on his meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Mr. Kumar said he had a talk with the PM on needs for development of the State.

“The discussion was good. The PM heard everything and promised to look into them,” Mr. Kumar said.

(PTI)

Plea to declare Taj Mahal a Shiva temple dismissed

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taj-mahal

Agra: Six lawyers in Agra had moved the Civil Court with the prayer to declare the 7th century Mughal monument, a Hindu temple.

A civil court has dismissed a lawsuit claiming that Taj Mahal was a Hindu temple and its ownership should be transferred to the community.

The petition was filed in the civil court on Wednesday by Hari Shankar Jain and five others over ownership of the 17th century Mughal monument.

Lawyer for the plaintiffs Rajesh Kulshreshtra said that the court refused to entertain the petition and dismissed it on Thursday.

“We will now approach the Allahabad High Court and we are confident our PIL will be admitted on merit there,” Kulshreshtra said.

He claimed that there was substantial evidence to prove that the Taj Mahal was a Shiva temple, dedicated to Lord Agreshwar Mahadev. The suit demanded that the monument’s ownership be transferred to Hindus and Muslims be restrained from offering prayers there.

(PTI)

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