NEW DELHI: Asserting that none of the Justice Verma Committee recommendations have been rejected, the government on Monday said the ordinance on sexual violence against women was promulgated to meet the “universal demand” for a law. It was done on the broadest consensus available at the moment.

Finance Minister P. Chidambaram said the ordinance will act as a deterrent to criminals. He maintained that though all recommendations of the Verma Committee have not been incorporated in it, no suggestion of the panel has been rejected. He said a bill on the issue would come up for discussion in Parliament and a legislation passed after reaching the “broadest possible consensus”.

“The government hopes stringent provisions in the ordinance will have a deterrent effect on potential criminals till a new law is enacted by Parliament,” Mr. Chidambaram told reporters. President Pranab Mukherjee gave his assent to the ordinance on Sunday.

The Finance Minister, who heads the Group of Ministers on Media, rejected the view that the government had acted in a hurry on the ordinance issue and said the measure will have a deterrence on the criminals and that there was a need for promulgating it.

“We are dealing with a grave issue. I appeal to everyone to deal with it with utmost seriousness and sensitivity. I appeal to everyone to respect the legislative process enshrined in the Constitution,” Chidambaram said. — PTI

JAMMU: Kashmir today lost its only all-girl rock-band 'Pragash' as its three teenage members decided to call it quits, a day after the Grand Mufti issued a fatwa terming singing as un-Islamic and asked them to abandon it. 

Although the girls have maintained silence over the issue, sources close to them said, they have decided to quit singing and music. 

The girls had defied convention by stepping into the male-dominated field but faced online threats and abuses from conservative sections of the society. 

The Grand Mufti Bashiruddin Ahmad yesterday issued a decree terming singing as un-Islamic. 

"I have said, singing is not in accordance with Islamic teachings," Ahmad said. 

He said, he has advised the members of the first all-girl rock band of Kashmir to abandon singing as "it is against Islamic teachings and will not help them in playing any constructive role in the society." 

Chief Minister Omar Abdullah was among large number of people who came out in support of the girls. Omar even reportedly dismissed the decree on his Twitter page but removed the Tweet later. 

The teenage girls who came to limelight in December last year after their scintillating performance at the annual 'Battle of the Bands' competition here, received online threats and absurd comments, forcing them to keep a low profile. 

Though there are dozens of bands currently playing popular music of different genres in the valley, the girls – vocalist-guitarist Noma Nazir, drummer Farah Deeba and guitarist Aneeka Khalid (all students of 10th standard) – formed the first all-girl rock band by the name of "Pragash" (light) and won the best performance award in their first public appearance. — PTI

Rohinton Nariman resigns as Solicitor-General

NEW DELHI: A Delhi court on Monday framed charges against sacked CWG Organising Committee chairman Suresh Kalmadi and nine others for allegedly cheating, conspiring and causing a loss of over Rs. 90 crore to the exchequer in CWG corruption case. Special CBI Judge Ravinder Kaur framed charges under various provisions of the IPC and the Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act against Kalmadi and other accused, including OC secretary general Lalit Bhanot, in the case.

Besides cheating and criminal conspiracy, the accused have also been charged with offences relating to forgery and use of forged documents as genuine, criminal intimidation, destruction of evidence of the IPC and section 13(1)(d) read with section 13(2) (criminal misconduct by public servants) of the PC Act.

After framing of charges, the court fixed February 20 for recording of evidence in the case.

The judge said that the evidence will be recorded on a day-to-day basis barring Monday and Friday.

The accused were chargesheeted by the CBI for "illegally" awarding a contract to install Timing, Scoring and Results (TSR) system for the 2010 CWG to Swiss Timing at inflated rates causing a loss of over Rs 90 crore to the exchequer.

Besides Kalmadi and Bhanot, among the other accused in the case are OC's former director general VK Verma, former director general (procurement) Surjit Lal, former joint director general (Sports) ASV Prasad and former treasurer M Jayachandran. They are no more associated with the sporting body.

The court had on December 21, 2012 passed the order on framing of charges under various provisions of the IPC and the PC Act against Kalmadi and nine other accused in the case.

Apart from the six, promoters of two construction firms -PD Arya and AK Madan of Faridabad-based Gem International and AK Reddy of Hyderabad-based AKR Constructions are also accused in the case. Swiss Timing Omega is also an accused in the case.

The court, while ordering framing of charges against the accused, had said that as Swiss Timing Omega, which was allegedly awarded the contract at exorbitant rates, is not appearing in the court despite proper service of summons, its "trial is separated." The court had also said that substantial charges of misusing official position have been made out against the six former OC officials, who were public servants.

The CBI had alleged that Kalmadi and others had rejected Spanish firm MSL's much lower bid of Rs 62 crore and awarded the contract to Swiss Timing Omega, causing a loss of over Rs 90 crore to the exchequer.

CBI counsel VK Sharma had argued that Kalmadi and others had decided to award the contract for installing the TSR system for the CWG to Swiss Timing even before the firm had bid for it.

Kalmadi's counsel, however, had argued that the facts given in the CBI's charge sheet were contrary to the documents which the agency had filed in the court.

Kalmadi had told the court that he was only doing the work assigned to him as the OC chairman and nothing wrong was done by him in the entire process. — PTI