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Prevention of Money Laundering Act
Anti-defection Law
Centre raps state for delay in forming HR commission
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Oppn seeks CM’s resignation on ‘moral grounds’
MC adamant on CLU charges
Market, rural development fund fees halved
Irate villagers lock school gate
Man found murdered in Jhajjar village
Cyber cafés told to get identity details
Man’s murder
Attack on Dera follower’s house, 11 Sikhs convicted
Notice of motion to Chief Secy, vigilance chief
Cold claims man’s life
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Prevention of Money Laundering Act
Chandigarh, December 21 The directorate is making investigation against the Chautalas under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002. Earlier, the Directorate had issued summonses to the elder Chautala and his sons, Ajay Singh and Abhay Singh, to submit certain documents along with information before Deputy Director Rajeshwar Singh either personally or through an authorised representative. The Chautalas sent a chartered accountant, Rahul Bishnoi, to the directorate, who said that the documents and information sought from his clients were in the process of being collected. He sought time till December 26. The directorate had asked the Chautalas to submit their passports; details of their family members and their sources of income, if any, along with copies of their PAN cards and details of all bank accounts maintained in their names or in the names of their family members in and outside India. The directorate also wanted to know from the Chautalas the names and addresses of the companies/firms in and outside India in which they and their family members are director/partner/proprietor/shareholder since July 1, 2005, along with audited balance sheets. It also sought details of all investments made by them or their family members in immovable and movable assets on or after July 1, 2005. The summonses also asked the Chautalas to submit copies of income tax returns filed by them and their family members since the 2005-06 financial year along with all enclosures. |
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Anti-defection Law
Chandigarh, December 21 Even the case of five former HJC MLAs, who were yesterday declared ‘unattached’ by the Punjab and Haryana High Court, promises to be a landmark case in the history of anti-defection law, if the issues goes to the SC, which in all probability would go. There are many grey areas in the law enacted when Rajiv Gandhi was the PM and even after the NDA government amended it. These grey areas had been waiting for interpretation by the SC all these years. Till the judiciary held that “merger”, which allows mass-scale defection of legislators from one party to another under law, has to be the merger of one political party with another, it was presumed that the law allowed the merger of the legislative wings of two parties, particularly so because the power to decide the disqualification petitions vested with the Speaker, who can deal only with the legislature parties inside the House and not with organisational wings of political parties. The Haryana case may prompt the SC to define a timeframe within which a Speaker has to decide a disqualification petition. At present, the law has no such time limit. Even the SC had been saying that a Speaker is expected to dispose of a disqualification petition as expeditiously as possible. But what is “as expeditiously as possible” is not defined in so many words. Since the proceedings are conducted before the Speaker within the broad contours of the CPC, the process can genuinely be lengthy even if the intentions of the presiding officer are honourable. So far there is no methodology available to a Speaker to determine if a political party has merged with another party. It is easier to do so in case of the legislature wing of a political party but not the organisational wing. Then it is not yet clear if in case of a national party, its state unit can merge with another party in that state or the merger has to be in reference to the entire national party. Even Satya Pal Jain, chairman of the legal cell of the BJP and who has contested several anti-defection cases, says that he would welcome if the issue goes to the SC, where many ambiguities of the law might be cleared. The HC judgement has surprised many legal experts. The issue before the Division Bench was whether the court could direct the Speaker to decide the disqualification petitions within a certain time limit. The petitioners were opposing it, while the respondent (Kuldeep Bishnoi) was in favour of it. The court, however, went to the extent of saying that prima facie there was no merger and the five former HJC MLAs would be treated as “unattached” members till the Speaker’s decision. After the court has held that prima facie there was no merger, what has been left for the Speaker to decide? In a Tamil Nadu case of 1996, the SC had not recognised the concept of “unattached” members. It said there could be only three categories of legislators -either they would belong to a political party, or they would be Independent, or they would be nominated.
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Centre raps state for delay in forming HR commission
Chandigarh, December 21 “The government and the NHRC have been requesting all those states which have not yet constituted their human rights commission to do so at the earliest, he said. Following uproar in the wake of large-scale human rights violations, Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda publicly announced the formation of the human rights commission in the state last year. A three-member committee headed by Justice IP Vashisht was formed early this year to work out modalities for the commission’s formation and assist the Chief Minister in recommending the names of the chairperson and members to the Governor. However, the committee is yet to finalise its report. Under the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993, the Chief Minister headed a high-level committee comprising the Speaker and the Leader of the Opposition, which recommended the names of the chairperson and members to the Governor. In reponse to a petition filed by People’s Union for Civil Liberties(PUCL) for the setting up the human rights commission in Haryana in the Punjab and Haryana High Court, the state government said in 2007 it did not feel the need for the commission as adequate mechanism existed to deal with people’s grievannces. However, human rights activists argued that in view of upsurge in the crime graph, including honour killings, atrocities on Dalits and minorities, Haryana was a fit case for having a human rights commission. Besides, according to the “Crime in India-2010” report released by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) of the Ministry of Home Affairs in New Delhi, Haryana is the 12th most criminal state in India with 80,895 cases . While all neighbouring states, including Himachal, Punjab, Rajasthan, UP and New Delhi, have human rights commissions, Haryana has the dubious distinction of being among small states-Arunchal Pradesh, Goa, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Tripura, Mizoram and Uttarakhand-which did not have the rights commissions. |
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Oppn seeks CM’s resignation on ‘moral grounds’
Chandigarh, December 21 Addressing separate press conferences, the BJP-HJC combine and the INLD termed high court order in the MLAs’ defection case as “historic”, adding that they would approach Governor Jagan Nath Pahadia to seek “dismissal” of the government. Satya Pal Jain, who heads the BJP legal cell, said following the high court order , the “defector MLAs” should have either sent their resignations from their respective posts or the Hooda government ought to have asked them to step down. “The orders became effective from the moment they were passed. However, it has been 24 hours and the MLAs as well as the government seem unfazed. If they continue to function in their positions, their action is not only illegal but it tantamounts to insulting the court. We will await government action for a few days and then file a contempt petition ,” Jain said. Maintaining that the order states that they are “unattached” MLAs only for the purpose of attending the House, implying thereby that they would have no voting rights. Jain said the Speaker seemed to be dragging his feet on the petitions against the five “defector” MLAs as also against the seven Independents, who were “virtually functioning as Congressmen”. “The Speaker has not fixed a single date of hearing our petition seeking the disqualification of Independent MLAs who are functioning as Congressmen in the past 10 months. We will move the court in this regard in January next year,” Jain added. Stating that the court had made some adverse observations about the functioning of the Speaker who had not been able to honour his commitment of holding four hearings a month in the case , Jain said: “I hope the Speaker will rise above party considerations and give his decision though he is yet to give up his membership of the Congress. ” Stating that the “merger” argument of the defecting MLAs did not hold good, Jain said if a merger had happened, like they claimed, the Election Commission would not have permitted candidates to contest the Hisar parliamentary seat and the Ratia and Adampur Assembly seats on the HJC ticket. “In fact, delays in deciding defection cases have come up across the country. In my opinion, the Constitution should be amended to take away this power of the Speaker and vest it in the Election Commission or an independent agency. The idea in giving this power to the Speaker was to enable faster decisions since the courts are already overburdened but it is proving to be the other way round with the delay much longer at the Speaker’s end,” he said. Anil Vij, leader of the BJP legislature party, said they would meet the government on December 23 to seek the “minority” government’s dismissal. Ajay Chautala, INLD secretary-general, said the court order in the case of the “defector” MLAs had proved that the government had cobbled its numbers by horse-trading. “The fact that they were accommodated as the ministers and the CPS makes it clear that the Congress ‘bought’ the MLAs to form the government even though the public gave a mandate against them in the 2009 elections,” Chautala said. Stating that the CM should step down on “moral grounds”, he said the MLAs should be divested of their offices with immediate effect. About the Speaker’s role, Chautala said his role seemed to be only to delay the inevitable. |
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MC adamant on CLU charges
Faridabad, December 21 Ravi Singla, Additional Senior Town Planner, MCF, said the rates had been determined by the government and notices had been issued to house owners to procure the CLUs for their establishments. “They will have to comply with the rules failing which the MCF will initiate punitive action against them,” he said. Official sources said 5,000 house owners had been issued notices. Only about 100 of them had so far responded even though the deadline for many was over. Jagdish Bhatia, president of Faridabad Vyapaar Mandal, claimed that paying the entire amount at one go would be a big burden on the owners of house-cum shopkeepers,” he said. “The MCF in a meeting held on May 5 had passed a resolution in favour of the CLU rates. The resolution also specifically mentions that the total amount will be collected in easy instalments. In addition, the house owners will have to pay 25 per cent more on the CLU rates as compounding fees.” According to a rough estimate, about 14,000 units had to pay the CLU charges.
— TNS |
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Market, rural development fund fees halved
Chandigarh, December 21 The market fee for potatoes has been reduced to 1 per cent from 2 per cent and the HRDF fee has also been slashed to 1 per cent from 2 per cent. The fee has been reduced up to March 31, 2012. It has also been decided in principle that the government would provide transportation subsidy for export of potatoes and facilitate potato growers in exporting their produce. The modalities of transportation subsidies would be decided soon. Hooda directed the Haryana State Agriculture Marketing Board to tie up with retail chains so that farmers could be given remunerative prices for potatoes and other vegetables. The HSAMB would organise a programme under which exporters and companies like Walmart, Metro, Reliance, REI, Mother Diary and Nafed would purchase potatoes at better prices.
— TNS |
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Irate villagers lock school gate
Sirsa, December 21 Villagers alleged that their children had to go to other villages for studies after completion of their middle standard. Some children even have to leave their studies midway due to this. The villagers alleged that they had brought this problem to the notice of senior officers of the Education Department several times but to no avail. The protesters maintained that they would not allow the school to function until the authorities conceded their demand. Balwan Singh and Om Parkash, headmasters of government schools in Chaharwala and Kagdana villages, respectively, who were sent by the authorities to pacify the villagers, failed to break the imbroglio. They maintained that the school could not be upgraded because the number of students was lower than the minimum enrolment specified by the Education Department. |
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Man found murdered in Jhajjar village
Jhajjar, December 21 The incident came to light this morning when Sunita went to serve tea to his father-in-law at a plot located adjacent to their house. She reportedly found Tara Chand murdered when she entered the room. Sunita informed the family members and other villagers about the incident. Jai Prakash said her father as usual went to the plot to sleep after having his dinner last night and his wife used to go there every morning to serve him a cup of tea. “ The body bore multiple injuries marks that seem to be inflicted by some sharp-edge weapons. The deceased’s kin has not suspected anyone regarding the crime hence we are making investigations from various angles,” said a police official. Notably, body of Tara Chand’s four-year-old grand daughter, Khusi, was recovered from a pond of the village in January 2010. The police are still clueless about the killers of
Khusi. — OC |
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Cyber cafés told to get identity details
Hisar, December 21 There was always a possibility of unscrupulous elements using the facilities for unlawful activity. The operators had been asked to get the customers’ identity details recorded in the register in their own handwriting after establishing their identities through permissible legal
documents. |
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Man’s murder
Rewari, December 21 Spilling the beans during interrogation, she said after her husband learnt of her extra- marital relations with Rishi Pal, he started reprimanding her. She forced Rishipal to kill her husband. Rishipal, along with Pravesh, eliminated her husband on the night of December 13. Both Rishipal and Pravesh have already been arrested. |
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Attack on Dera follower’s house, 11 Sikhs convicted
Sirsa, December 21 Jeet Singh’s daughter, Devender Kaur, was hurt in the attack and the police had registered a case in this regard. In a counter case, Sher Singh has also lodged a complaint against 10 Dera followers accusing them of abducting and attempting to murder his son, Sukhdev Singh. The court, however, did not find any truth in Sher Singh’s allegations. The court reserved its order on the quantum of sentence.
— TNS |
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Notice of motion to Chief Secy, vigilance chief
Chandigarh, December 21 Three IFS officers, V K Jhanjharia, M M Joshi and M L Rajwanshi, have also been put on notice by the court on public interest litigation alleging large-scale bungling in the afforestation projects. The PIL alleged in one such case at Jui-Meethathal feeder, Hisar, six inquiries by different IFS Officers, confirmed embezzlement, but no action was
taken. — TNS |
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Cold claims man’s life
Sirsa, December 21 The police rushed him to the local General Hospital, where the doctors pronounced him brought dead. The police said the exact cause of the death would be ascertained only after the postmortem report.
— TNS |
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