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Supreme Court refuses to review verdict on gay sex

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to relook into its verdict criminalising gay sex in the country.

A bench of Justices H L Dattu and S J Mukhopadhaya, dismissed a bunch of petitions filed by the Centre and gay rights activists against its December 2013 verdict declaring gay sex an offence punishable up to life imprisonment.

In a big setback to the LGBT community, the Supreme Court had on December 11 set aside the Delhi High Court judgement decriminalising gay sex and thrown the ball into Parliament’s court for amending the law.

The judgement revived the penal provision making gay sex an offence punishable with life imprisonment in a setback to people fighting a battle for recognition of their sexual preferences.

Seeking a stay on the operation of the judgement, gay rights activists, including NGO Naz Foundation, had said thousands from the LGBT community became open about their sexual identity during the past four years after the high court decriminalised gay sex and they are now facing the threat of being prosecuted.

They had submitted that criminalising gay sex amounts to violation of fundamental rights of the LGBT community.

The NGO had submitted there are a number of “grave errors of law” and “wrong application of law” in the judgement which needs to be corrected.

“This court has failed to consider the submission that Section 377 violates the right to health of men who have sex with men, since criminalisation of same sex activity impedes access to health services, including HIV prevention efforts.

This contention was supported by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in this court,” the review petition had said.

Amid huge outrage against the judgement, the Centre had also filed a review petition in the apex court seeking a relook to “avoid grave miscarriage of justice to thousands of LGBT” persons who have been aggrieved by the apex court judgement contending it is “unsustainable” as it “suffers from errors”.

Challenging the verdict, Naz Foundation had said in its review plea that the verdict is contrary to the well-settled legal principles of the Constitution and proscribing certain sexual acts between consenting adults in private, demeans and impairs the dignity of all individuals under Article 21, irrespective of their sexual orientation.

While setting aside the July 2, 2009 judgement of the Delhi High Court, the apex court had held that Section 377 (unnatural sexual offences) of the IPC does not suffer from the vice of unconstitutionality and that the declaration made by the high court is legally unsustainable. - PTI

HC notices to Kejriwal, Bharti on pleas of BJP leaders 

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court today issued notices to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Law Minister Somnath Bharti on separate pleas of two BJP leaders seeking to declare their election as void on the ground that they exceeded the poll expense limit of Rs 14 lakh each.

A bench of justice Vipin Sanghi sought the response from Kejriwal on the election petition of former Delhi BJP president Vijender Gupta, who had unsuccessfully fought the Assembly election against Kejriwal from New Delhi constituency.

Another bench of justice G S Sistani issued notice to the law minister on the plea of BJP leader and former Delhi mayor Arti Mehra, who alleged that Bharti did not comply with the provisions of the Representation of People Act (RP Act) and had spent more than Rs 14 lakh during his election campaign in the Malviya Nagar Assembly seat.

The courts, which did not issue notice to the Election Commission, asked the Aam Aadmi Party leaders to file their responses within four weeks and fixed the matters for hearing on February 25.

During the hearing, Satyapal Jain and Rajeev Ranjan Raj, appearing for BJP leaders, cited various related provisions of the RPAct to stress on the point that the AAP leaders did not give correct and separate accounts of expenses incurred by them during the election campaign.

The BJP leaders have said in their petition that Kejriwal and Bharti had indulged in corrupt practices and incurred huge expenditure of nearly Rs 94.80 lakh during campaigning by organising a rock show "Jeet Ki Gunj, Vote for Change" on November 23, 2013 at Jantar Mantar, after filing their poll nomination.

"...The total actual expenses incurred by the Aam Admi Party on the account of concert is Rs 94.80 lakh which has been highly underestimated by the respondent (Kejriwal) and the Aam Admi Party as Rs. 14.72 lakh," the petitions said.

Similar allegations have been made by Mehra against Bharti.
"Kejriwal has influenced/solicited the voters by such a massive concert, thereby affecting the outcome of the election," the petitions allege.

It accused both the AAP leaders of having violated the Model Code of Conduct issued by the Election Commission of India, the provisions of the RP Act and also the principles of the Constitution regarding free and fair elections.

The petition said many prominent singers and Bollywood personalities performed at the event and all of them charged Rs 3 lakh to Rs 10 lakh, which was allegedly paid by Kejriwal.

The petitions also said that the concert was advertised through newspapers, TV and radio to attract voters. Elaborate arrangements were put in place and the programme was attended by more than 20,000 people and the total cost of the show/concert will not come to be less than Rs one crore.

Gupta said "the show was addressed and attended by Kejriwal and three other AAP candidates namely Somnath Bharti from Malviya Nagar constituency, Surinder Singh from Delhi Cantt constituency and Manish Sisodia from Patparganj, who was also a star campaigner. In that event, Rs 33 lakh has to be added in the expenses account" of Kejriwal.

He said the Election Commission has a video recording of the event but the same is yet to be provided to him.

The petitions said that on their complaint, an inquiry was initiated by the Election Commission and the District Expenditure Monitoring Committee "erroneously apportioned" an expenditure of Rs 13.05 lakh in the account of Kejriwal, Bharti and Surinder Singh.

They said that the assessment arrived at by the Commission treating the concert as "good cause" was "erroneous" and no independent information was used to evaluate the exact amount.

"....The stand of Kejriwal and AAP that the artists/ celebrities have not charged for performing in the concert for being associated with the party is factually wrong and, hence, not acceptable as per the guidelines of the Election Commission.

"If such explanation is accepted, then every candidate will organise such similar events in the name of "good cause" to influence/target voters and will get away by breaching the monetary ceiling imposed by the Election Commission for conducting free and fair elections of candidates," the petitions said.

Kejriwal had secured 44,269 votes while Sheila Dikshit and Vijender Kumar secured only 18,405 and 17,952 votes respectively.

Bharti had won from Malviya Nagar with 32,258 votes, defeating Mehra who had garnered 24,486 votes - PTI 

27 kg gold seized at Chennai airport

CHENNAI: Twenty-seven kgs of gold concealed in cell phones was seized by officials of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence from the cargo of a private airliner on Tuesday.

The gold is valued at around Rs 10 crore.

Airport sources said the DRI officials made the seizure from the cargo of a private airliner, where the yellow metal was concealed inside cell phones that were packed inside many boxes.

Investigations about the sender and recipients were on, the sources said, adding, the consignment arrived from Hong Kong. - PTI

New Zealand beats India by seven wickets

HAMILTON: New Zealand defeated India by seven wickets in the fourth one-dayer to take an unassailable 3-0 lead in the five-match series at Seddon Park here on Tuesday.

Chasing 279, New Zealand made 280 for three in 48.1 overs.

Brief Scores:

India: 278 for five in 50 overs (M S Dhoni not out 79, Rohit Sharma 79, Ravindra Jadeja not out 62; Tim Southee 2/36).

New Zealand: 280 for three in 48.1 overs (Ross Taylor not out 112, Kane Williamson 60, Brendon McCullum not out 49; Varun Aaron 1/51). - PTI

RBI hikes key lending rate

MUMBAI: Reserve Bank Governor Raghuram Rajan on Tuesday again surprised the markets and raised the key policy rate by 0.25 per cent to 8 per cent in a bid to curb inflation, a move that may translate into higher EMIs and push up the cost of borrowing for corporates.

"..an increase in the policy (repo) rate by 25 basis points is needed to set the economy securely on the recommended disinflationary path,” Dr. Rajan said while unveiling the Third Quarter Review of Monetary Policy.

Consequently, the reverse repo rate under the liquidity adjustment facility will be revised to 7 per cent and the marginal standing facility rate and bank rate to 9 per cent.

However, the RBI kept the cash reserve ratio unchanged at 4 per cent as liquidity seems to be comfortable.

It was widely expected that Dr. Rajan would maintain the status quo on rates to support growth. Ahead of the quarterly review, Rajan had termed inflation a “destructive disease.”

The Governor said economic growth would be below 5 per cent in the current financial year and could accelerate in 2014-15 to a mean projection of 5.5 per cent.

In line with the Urjit Patel committee recommendations, monetary policy reviews will henceforth be undertaken every two months, consistent with the availability of key macroeconomic and financial data, Rajan said.

The RBI’s baseline projections for retail inflation indicate that over the ensuing 12-month horizon, and with the current policy stance, there are upside risks to the central forecast of 8 per cent.

“The extent and direction of further policy steps will be data dependent, though if the disinflationary process evolves according to this baseline projection, further policy tightening in the near term is not anticipated at this juncture,” he said.

The repo rate hike is likely to have a bearing on interest rates and may push up the cost of funds for retail as well as corporate borrowers. - PTI

Rupee recovers 8 paise, trades at 63.02 Vs dollar 

MUMBAI: The rupee recovered by eight paise to 63.02 against the American currency in late morning trade today on fresh selling of dollars by banks ahead of the RBI policy meeting today amidst firm equity market.

The rupee resumed lower at 63.15 per dollar as against the yesterday's closing level of 63.10 at the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) Market on initial demand for the US currency from banks and importers in view of strong dollar overseas.

However, it recovered afterwards to 62.98 on fresh selling of dollars by banks before quoting at 63.02 per dollar at 1045 hours.

It moved in a range of 62.98-63.18 per dollar during the morning deals.

In the New York market, the US dollar recovered from a nearly two-month low against the Japanese yen yesterday, even as the greenback remained vulnerable to major rivals amid heightened worries about risk in emerging markets.

Meanwhile, the Indian benchmark BSE-30 share index Sensex firmed up by 47.19 points or 0.23 per cent in the late morning trade. - PTI

Sensex up 53 points ahead of RBI policy 

MUMBAI: The benchmark BSE Sensex on Tuesday recovered over 53 points in early trade after two sessions of losses on emergence of buying by funds and retail investors ahead of the RBI’s policy review.

The 30-share index, which had lost over 666 points in the previous two sessions, recovered by 53.76 points, or 0.25 per cent, to 20,761.21, with stocks of consumer durables, capital goods, power, realty and metal sectors leading the recovery.

Similarly, the wide-based National Stock Exchange index Nifty moved up by 11.05 points, or 0.18 per cent, to 6,146.90.

Brokers said emergence of buying by funds at prevailing levels ahead of the RBI’s policy review to be announced later in the day and a firming trend in the Asian region mainly influenced the trading sentiment.

In the Asian region, Japan’s Nikkei rose by 0.10 per cent, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index gained 0.16 per cent in early trade. - PTI

Facility to pay power bill online extended in Haryana

CHANDIGARH: The online bill payment facility for electricity consumers has been extended to entire Haryana.

Earlier, the facility of online payment was available in Faridabad, Gurgaon and Hisar in the area of the Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam and the Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam.

V K Chaudhary, Director (Operations), DHBVN said that electricity consumers in Haryana can now view their power bills online and make payment.

Besides, consumers can make payments at the cash collection centres of the discoms across the state.

He said consumers can apply online for new connection and lodge complaints through SMS - PTI