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| Friday, June 16, 2000, Chandigarh, India   
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CALCUTTA, June 15 — In a landmark judgement, the Calcutta High Court has ruled that divorced Muslim women will get maintenance allowance till they remarry. Mr Justice Basudev Panigrahi spelt out the judgement on a revision petition filed by a divorced Muslim woman Sakila Parvin. Ex-FS advised Rajiv against sending IPKF Attacks on churches: BJP seeks probe |
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| Clerical error shatters
youth’s dreams NEW DELHI, June 15 — A simple clerical mistake in the recruitment wing of Indian Army here has resulted in a rude shock to a teenager longing to join the National Defence Academy. Row over Granth takes new turn NEW DELHI, June 15 — The controversy over the Sikh holy scripture “Dasam Granth” took a new turn today with an influential religious leader and scholar Baba Virsa Singh demanding that those who are contesting the authenticity of the book be summoned immediately by Akal Takht and asked to substantiate their claim. Gujarat stalling minority panel’s visit Go-back orders to hijacked ship CBI detects oil scam Telecom staff stir on June 28 Raghavan may be Tripura Governor
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Divorced Muslim women to get allowance: HC CALCUTTA, June 15 (UNI) — In a landmark judgement, the Calcutta High Court has ruled that divorced Muslim women will get maintenance allowance till they
remarry. Mr Justice Basudev Panigrahi spelt out the judgement on a revision petition filed by a divorced Muslim woman Sakila Parvin. Deserted by her husband Haidar Ali in 1993, Sakila filed a case before the Sealdah court seeking maintenance allowance. Though a copy of the petition was served on Haidar, no one represented him before the court, nor did he respond to the trial court by any means. In an order on July 15, 1993, the trial court, however, granted maintenance allowance of Rs 800 for a customary three-month iddat and denmehr of Rs 2,500 to Sakila. Unhappy over the judgement, Sakila moved the Calcutta High court praying for its revision. After a lengthy hearing, Mr Justice Panigrahi on June 8 ruled that the trial court had wrongly constructed the provisions of Section 3 of the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act, 1986, and also held that the expression such as “ all reasonable and fair provisions and maintenance to be made and paid to her” should be constructed liberally. “A divorced Muslim woman is entitled to maintenance after contemplating her future needs and the
maintenance is not limited only up to the iddat period. The phrase used in Section 3 (1) (A) of the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act, 1986, is reasonable and fair provision and maintenance to be made and paid to her by which Parliament intended to see that the divorced woman get sufficient means of livelihood after divorce and that she does not become destitute or is not thrown on the streets without a roof over her head and without any means of sustaining herself and her children,” Mr Justice Panigrahi observed in his judgement.
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Ex-FS advised Rajiv against sending IPKF NEW DELHI, June 15 (PTI) — Former Foreign Secretary A.P. Venkateswaran today claimed he had advised then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi against sending the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) to Sri Lanka but the latter ignored his counsel.“I had advised Gandhi not to send our troops to Sri Lanka, but he chose to agree with then Sri Lankan President Jayewardene rather than his Foreign Secretary. This was one of our major points of differences,” Mr Venkateswaran, who was unceremoniously removed by the late Prime Minister, said. He was speaking to reporters after a meeting of the city-based Surya Foundation’s International Think Tank which urged India not to intervene militarily in the Indian Ocean island. “Over 1,200 of our troops were killed, four to five thousand were crippled for life, about 6,000 Tamils lost their lives and we were
ignominiously asked to leave the island,” Mr Venkateswaran said summing up the IPKF operation. He said Indian armed forces were meant for defending the country’s borders and not to intervene in other countries. “Anyone who wants Indian troops to be committed in another country is being irresponsible,” he said. The former Foreign Secretary expressed hope that the LTTE would come around the negotiating table. “Prabhakaran does not want a pie in the sky. All Tamils want are dignity, self-respect and security,” he said. |
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Attacks on churches: BJP seeks probe NEW DELHI, June 15 (PTI) — The BJP today sought a thorough probe by states where the incidents of attacks on churches had taken place, as it suspected "a design" behind them."I wish every state government thoroughly probes into these attacks on churches as unfortunately
every time such incidents take place, particular organisations names are dragged into it. We are equally concerned and see some design behind it," party Vice-President Jana Krishnamurthy told reporters here. He urged political parties to refrain from making charges against the organisations and branding them as communal. "These parties should not make charges before investigations are started. Don’t brand the organisations like RSS before the investigations are completed. The BJP is also sensitive to communal riots," he said. Mr Krishnamurthy said Home Minister L K Advani had asked all state governments to probe the incidents as the party is "very keen on probing into them." |
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Clerical error shatters youth’s dreams NEW DELHI, June 15 (PTI) — A simple clerical mistake in the recruitment wing of Indian Army here has resulted in a rude shock to a teenager longing to join the National Defence Academy (NDA). The young man, Vatsalya Sharma, was the happiest man in the world when he received on June 6 a letter from Additional Directorate-General of Recruiting informing him that he has been selected for training as a cadet at the National Defence Academy, Khadakwasla in Pune. Sharma was so happy that the very next day he went in person and gave his acceptance letter to the officials at the AG’s Branch Army Headquarters here and also sent a copy of it to NDA, Khadakwasla. Sharma’s parents were thrilled, for it was their son’s third and final attempt for the NDA, and they immediately prepared a draft for
Rs 6,500 (initial fee payable for the course) and also arranged provisions worth Rs 10,000. But, Sharma never ever imagined that he will be in for a rude shock. On June 12, an officer from the recruitment wing came with a telegram which stated that “the letter (dated June 3) informing him about his selection to NDA be “treated as cancelled”. Sharma was more upset for the fact that the recruiting wing officials did not inform him about the mistake when he went personally at their R.K. Puram office to give his acceptance letter for joining the course. “If it was a mistake on their part they should have immediately informed me about it and should not have kept me in the dark for so long,” Sharma’s father V.B. Sharma said. “Our near and dear ones started coming to meet my son for he had to leave for Khadakvasla... it is really shocking,” he said. When contacted Lt Col R.S. Sangwan confirmed that there was a mistake on the part of a clerical staff which resulted in the issue of selection letter to Sharma. “Actually the clerical staff issued the selection letter thinking that Sharma’s combined merit rating was 157, while his merit rating in Air Force alone was 157,” Lt Col R.S. Sangwan said. However, he said once the Section Officer of the recruiting wing realised the mistake he personally went to the house of Sharma to inform about the
mistake. |
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Ashes of Pilot immersed AJMER, June 15 (PTI) — Amid chanting of Vedic mantras, the ashes of Rajesh Pilot, who was killed in a road accident on Sunday, were immersed today in the holy Pushkar lake. The urn containing the ashes of the late Congress leader was brought here by his wife Rama Pilot and son Sachin in a helicopter from Delhi via Bharatpur, Dausa and Jaipur. A large number of people, braving scorching heat, were present at various ghats of the lake when the ashes were
immersed. Earlier, the urn was taken in a flower bedecked truck to Gau ghat where a police contingent reversed arms. Scores of people paid homage to Pilot by laying flowers on the urn at Bharatpur, Dausa and Jaipur. In Jaipur, the urn was kept at the Pradesh Congress Committee office where Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and PCC chief Girija Vyas were among those who paid homage to the departed leader. Earlier in the day, another urn containing his ashes was taken to Thiruvnanthapuram for immersion at the confluence of the three seas in Kanyakumari. |
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Row over Granth takes new turn NEW DELHI, June 15 (PTI) — The controversy over the Sikh holy scripture “Dasam Granth” took a new turn today with an influential religious leader and scholar Baba Virsa Singh demanding that those who are contesting the authenticity of the book be summoned immediately by Akal Takht and asked to substantiate their claim. Seeking to set at rest the recent controversy about the writing of the holy book, Baba Virsa Singh, founder of the Gobind Sadan Institute for Advanced Studies in Comparative Religion told reporters on the institute premises here that it was penned by the illustrious 10th Guru — Guru Gobind Singh. “I am of firm opinion that the holy book was written by Guru Gobind Singhji who always believed in unity of purpose of all religions,” he said, adding that the matter had been researched by Sikh historians many a time in the past and eventually concluded that the entire “Dasam Granth” was written by Guru Gobind Singh. Refusing to name the “group” involved in the campaign, he said, “I will only say that those people who are spreading such falsehood are totally ignorant both about history and religion and their campaign is motivated by self-interest”. Asked whether he was not toeing the RSS line on inclusion of various facets of Rama’s or Krishna’s lives in the book, he said, “Guru Gobind Singhji himself believed that from Rama to Chandi every name meant one God and path to one salvation”. The book should be “religiously” published by all gurdwaras to preach the essence of its message, he said. |
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Gujarat stalling minority panel’s visit NEW DELHI, June 15 (PTI) — The BJP government in Gujarat has stalled the proposed visit of National Minority Commission (NMC) to investigate into incidents of attack on Christians in the state allegedly by Hindu fundamentalists saying it was busy tackling the drought situation. Chairman of the commission Justice Mohammad Shamim said “We have written to the Gujarat Government about our decision to visit the state to investigate into the incidents of attack against Christians.” “But the government has stalled our visit saying it will not be able to provide any assistance to the commission at present as it was busy taking measures to counter severe drought conditions in the state,” he told PTI today. He said “The Chief Minister had expressed his inability to assist the commission saying he was busy touring various places in the state to assess the drought situation and assist administration in measures to counter the adverse conditions.” He said as the drought conditions had eased in the government for a visit to the state in the near future. |
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Go-back orders to hijacked ship MUMBAI, June 14 (PTI) — Immigration officials here today asked the Croatian master of the hijacked Italian cargo ship “MV Med Star” to take back all 14 stowaways and leave the Mumbai shores. The Officer on Duty of the Immigration section Prakash Tamse told PTI the Croatian master G Barlolomei was asked to take back the stowaways - 10 Iranians and four Iraqis - as they did not possess any documents, including identity cards and passports. “The stowaways have not been brought down and are still onboard the ship and the ship has been asked to leave the Mumbai shores,: Mr Tamse said. The decision was taken after a thorough security check up was done by the Indian protection and indemnity officials and the bomb disposal squad of the Coast Guards. |
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CBI detects
oil scam NEW DELHI, June 15 (PTI) — The CBI has unearthed another racket of sales tax evasion to the tune of crores of rupees by major oil companies in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra where high speed diesel (HSD) was sold either to non-existent companies or closed industrial units. The oil scam came to light after the agency registered a case on May 30 against some officials of these oil companies and Sales Tax Department of Gujarat, accusing them of colluding in sales tax evasion to the tune of crores of rupees, highly-placed sources in the agency told PTI. |
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Telecom staff stir
on June 28 NEW DELHI, June 15 (UNI) — At least 350,000 class III and class IV employees of the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), the Department of Telecom Services (DTS) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) will observe a nationwide strike on June 28 in protest against the proposed corporatisation of the DTS from October and against the move for disinvestment of MTNL shares. A notice to this effect has been served on the Secretary, DoT, and the Secretary, DTS, by the National Federation of Telecom Employees (both factions), the Bharatiya Telecom Employees Federation and other unions as also the staff union of the MTNL separately, a spokesman of the federations and unions told UNI here today. |
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Raghavan may be Tripura Governor AGARTALA, June 15 (UNI) — Lt Gen
V.R. Raghavan (retd) is likely to be the next Tripura Governor replacing Prof Siddheswar Prasad, whose term expires tomorrow. Official sources told reporters here today that a formal announcement on the appointment of the new Tripura Governor would be made very shortly. The Union Home Ministry has already recommended Lt. Gen Raghavan’s name to the President of India, the sources added. |
briefs
Rail tragedy averted 3 Naxalites surrender 5 die of food
poisoning Ex-minister’s son dead Seven killed as
car overturns Father, son hacked
to death 84 IAS officers shuffled in MP Bail for minister’s brother 6 killed in mishap 2 girls charred to death |
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