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HC notice to Chautala Govt on Justice Vasishth’s plea
Uma not to quit politics
Man kills pregnant wife, son; ends life
Rs 70 crore
sought from Centre to set up industries
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Journalist killed in tenant-landlord feud
Pundri MLA granted bail
in rape case
Data-sharing scheme on crime launched
Transfers a priority, not education
Seminar on intellectual property rights
War widows honoured
Face-save by Chautala govt?
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HC notice to Chautala Govt on Justice Vasishth’s plea
Chandigarh, September 23 It may be recalled that Justice Vasishth, who was appointed the Lokayukta on January 1, 1999, by the Bansi Lal Government for five years, was removed from his post by the Chautala Government on September 18, 1999, barely two months after it came into power. The Chautala Government had repealed the Haryana Lok Pal Act, 1997, through an ordinance. The petition came up for hearing before a Division Bench comprising the Chief Justice, Justice Binod Kumar Roy, and Justice Amar Dutt, yesterday. The Bench issued the notice to the government for October 25 next. The then Chief Secretary, Haryana (CS), Mr R.S. Varma, offered the post to Justice Vasishth on December 16, 1998, when he was a sitting Judge of the Allahabad High Court. Mr Varma had offered him the salary and allowances admissible to the Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court. Justice Vasishth in his concurrence letter of December 18, 1998, sought the guarantee of his tenure in light of the experience of the former Chief Justice of the Allahabad High Court, Justice S.S. Sodhi, who had to quit as the first Lok Pal of Punjab after the change of government. Justice Vasishth also sought protection under Article 310(2) of the Constitution which provides for compensation in case a person is removed from his post before the expiry of his tenure. Mr Varma conveyed the acceptance of his conditions to Justice Vasishth on December 22, 1998. The Haryana Governor signed the warrant of appointment, which also mentioned the protection to him under Article 310(2), on January 4, 1999. Next day Justice Vasishth took the oath of office. However, the Chautala Government, which came to power on July 24, 1999, repealed the 1997 Act on September 18, 1999, through an ordinance. Justice Vasishth challenged the government's action before the Supreme Court, which dismissed the petition “as withdrawn”. The court gave liberty to the petitioner to approach the High Court for relief. Justice Vasishth approached the Allahabad High Court. The Haryana Government, which was represented by the then Additional Solicitor-General of India, Mr Raju
Ramchandran, and the then Advocate-General, Mr Surya Kant Sharma, objected to the admissibility of the petition on the ground of territorial jurisdiction of the Allahabad High Court. Justice Vasishth’s plea was that since the offer of the post of Lokayukta was made to him when he was at Allahabad, that High Court had the jurisdiction to hear his petition. A Division Bench comprising Justice Pradeep Kant and Justice K.S. Rakhra, without going into the merits of the case, upheld the objection of the state and dismissed the petition on July 13 last. Mr Sanjay Bansal, who appeared on behalf of Justice Vasishth before the Punjab and Haryana High Court, contended that the legislature had no power to abrogate a contract entered into by a person with the government under Article 310(2). The ordinance and the Act which repealed the 1997 Act, he said, did not expressly abrogate the contract entered into by Justice Vasishth. Mr Bansal argued that “a bare perusal of Section 25(2) of the Haryana Lokayukta Act, 2002, leads to an inescapable conclusion that a pre-existing contract sanctified by Article 310(2) remains unaffected by the repealing clause.” The repealing clause had provided that notwithstanding any thing contained in any contract, law or rules made
thereunder, the Lokayukta “shall not” be entitled to any compensation for the unexpired period of his tenure. Quoting a Supreme Court judgement in the Justice S.K. Ray versus Orissa case, Mr Bansal said since Justice Vasishth had “altered his position to his detriment by accepting the post of Lokayukta by giving up two years of his service as the High Court Judge, the government is liable to pay compensation to him in view of the principle of estopple by representation.” Moreover, he said, a former Lokayukta was debarred by the law from reappointment as Lokayukta or from any other appointment in any capacity under the state government. Therefore, the natural justice demanded that Justice Vasishth must be paid compensation. |
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Uma not to quit politics
Karnal, September 23 She said, “I have no intention to quit the politics in the near future as I am already a sanyasan for the past many years”. Ms Bharti said that she would seek permission from the party high command to fulfil her dream of initiating “Bharat yatra” that would take at least two years to visit every nook and corner of the country. “During this ‘Bharat yatra’, I will not touch any political issue,” she claimed. Ms Bharti reiterated that she was a committed worker of the BJP and would work for the party till her last breath. “I will try to bring awareness among the people during ‘Bharat yatra’ about the vision of development initiated by the party for the nation,” she added. Ms Bharti, who arrived almost four-and-half hours late, said that the main purpose of the “Bharat yatra” was to apprise the people of their powers and the role they could play in the development of the nation in all fields with the help of indigenous resources. Praising the development work initiated by the previous Vajpayee government, she said that he brought the nation into the category of nuclear powers. Under his regime, the nation was heading towards becoming a developed country; however, the present Congress government lacked vision with regard to the overall development. Former Union Minister of State for Home Affairs I.D. Swami, state president of the BJP Ganeshi Lal, former Industry Minister of Haryana Shashi Pal Mehta and a few other leaders also addressed the gathering. Before arriving at Karnal, she addressed public gatherings at Sonepat and Panipat. Later, she addressed a public gathering at Kurukshetra. |
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Man kills pregnant wife, son; ends life
Hisar, September 23 Mr Attar Singh Ahlawat, SSP, said the police had registered a case under Sections 304-B and 498 of the IPC on a complaint lodged by Sunita’s father, Mr Jai Pal, against the in-laws of his daughter. The bodies of the deceased have been sent to the local Civil Hospital for post-mortem examinations. Mr Jai Pal, a resident of Bhagat Singh Nagar here, said Sunita was married to Shiv Kumar in December, 2000. Soon after, her in-laws started harassing her for dowry. She was compelled to live with her parents for around one year. He said his daughter’s in-laws kept on asking her to bring money from her parents. Earlier, Shiv Kumar used to ask for money as he wanted to buy a car. Lately, he started the construction of his house and allegedly demanded Rs 50,000 on the occasion of Raksha
Bandhan. Sunita’s father said as he could not arrange the said amount, he gave Rs 10,000 to his son-in-law and promised to give the balance later. “But before it could be done, this happened,” Mr Jai Pal said. On his complaint, the Sadar police has registered a case of dowry death against Shiv Kumar’s father Sohan Lal, mother Dhankauri Devi, brothers Suresh and Shamsher and sister Sunita. |
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Rs 70 crore
sought from Centre to set up industries
Chandigarh, September 23 While stating this here today, a spokesman of the Industries
Department said that a project proposal seeking Central assistance had
already been submitted to set up these clusters for handloom, light
engineering and automobile industry. He said project proposals
involving Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) of Rs. 3378 crore had been
implemented in Haryana during the tenure of the present Government. A
Foreign Investment Promotion Board had been set up in the state to
attract FDI, he added. He said the state was exporting goods worth Rs
4.5 crore when it came into being in 1966. The exports further increased
to Rs 4183 crore in 1998-99 and to the level of Rs 12000 crore during
the last financial year. He said that 6500 acres of land had been
acquired during the tenure of the present government to develop
industrial estates. As many as 7000 plots had been allotted and on
implementation of projects on these plots, there would be an investment
of Rs 10,000 crore and more than two lakh persons would get
employment. He said that a special economic zone was being set up at
Garhi Harsaru in district Gurgaon over an area of about 3000 acres to
boost exports from the state. He said that the state government had laid
emphasis on simplification of rules and procedures for smooth operation
of industry. Stamp duty and registration charges had been reduced by 50
per cent, market fee had been reduced from 2 per cent to 1 per cent on
21 commodities, change of land use charges had been drastically reduced
and special concessions had been given to IT and biotech industry.
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Journalist killed in tenant-landlord feud
Karnal, September 23 Police sources said that the journalist was party to a dispute over a rented accommodation that was presently occupied by a brother of his female personal assistant. Inquiries made by The Tribune revealed that the owners of the residential property had filed a complaint before the police yesterday that their house taken on rent was not being vacated by the occupant despite their best efforts. The owners alleged that Mr Sachdeva was protecting the occupant. The police called both the parties, including Mr Sachdeva, to the police station in the evening. Mr Sachdeva tried to solve the issue amicably between both the parties. The police seemingly took no interest in solving the issue. Later, late in the evening, Mr Sachdeva went alone to the owners of the residential property and requested them to let the tenant stay in the house on rent for some more time, but the owners did not agree to his proposal. The owners allegedly threatened the journalist that they had the backing of the local police to get the rented house vacated. Further, the issue led to a clash between them in which Mr Sachdeva was allegedly beaten up and then strangulated to death. Injury marks were visible in the neck region of the body when the police recovered it. As per the family members and close relatives of the deceased, the incident took place at around 9.30 pm. However, the police reached the spot at around 11.30 pm. For about two hours, the journalist was said to be lying on the road in a serious condition. He allegedly died just before the police reached on the spot. A post mortem was conducted today, the report of which was still awaited. The Tribune contacted the DSP (City), Mr Surinder Pal Singh, and the SHO of the city police station, Mr Rajesh Sharma, for details of the incident but they avoided. Both the police officials insisted on talking to the duty officer and the “Munshi” to get the details of the incident, but duty officer Balbir Singh and Munshi Deewan refused to give the details, saying, “The SP has ordered them not to give details of the murder case to the media.” The Tribune tried to contact the SP, Mr Vikas Arora, on his mobile phone several times, but he did not pick up the phone. At the time of writing the news, it was reliably learnt from sources in the police that the investigating officer had detained four persons, including a lady, who were named in the FIR. However, their names were kept secret by the police. On the other hand, the Haryana Union of Journalists, the Haryana Patrakar Sangh and the local Press Club mourned the death of the local journalist and demanded an impartial probe into the incident, including the role of the police in the investigation.
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High Court Our High Court Correspondent
Chandigarh, September 23 The MLA had been arrested by the Kurukshetra police on July 4 after Ms Asha Thakur lodged a complaint with the police that the MLA was having physical relationship with her on the pretext of marrying her. She also told the police that the MLA had even married her in a temple at New Delhi and later taken her to the office of Registrar of Marriages to get the marriage registered. He also told her that the marriage had been registered. However, later he married another woman in a clandestine manner without informing or divorcing Ms Thakur. Following which she filed a complaint against the MLA for rape and fraud. Today, during hearing, advocate Ranjan Lakhanpal, counsel for the complainant, while opposing the bail plea of the MLA, said that the accused not only raped the body of the woman but also her soul and emotions. He said that his bail plea should be declined as he would not allow witnesses to depose against him. However, the Bench allowed the bail plea of the accused. Notice issued A Division Bench comprising Mr Justice M.S. Gill and Mr Justice Viney Mittal on Thursday issued notice for November 22 on a petition filed by a Haryana resident, challenging the recent selection of 140 candidates as Hindi teachers by the Haryana Staff Selection Commission. In his petition, Mr Rajesh Sharma of Kaithal has stated that despite having the qualification needed for the post, he was not selected. |
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Data-sharing scheme on crime launched
Sonepat, September 23 Taking to mediapersons here, Mr Deswal disclosed that the range police has fixed priorities to curb the incidents of crime and these included ransom calls, incidents of
dacoities, robberies on highways, molestation, information sharing with Delhi police and the nabbing of proclaimed offenders and bail jumpers besides bringing improvement in police personnels’ behaviour. The police personnel mostly women, have been directed to visit the girls institutions and keep vigil on the public places like bus stand, railway station, in plain clothes to reprimand the culprits involved in eve-teasting, molestation etc. he said. He claimed that the police has obtained vital clues in the Sahara India robbery case in which cash amount of Rs 2 lakh was looted at the pistol point by the gangsters here in July last. The Superintendent of Police, Mr Kuldeep Singh Sihag, said the district police has launched a special illegal arms detection campaign in the district. He also claimed that the district police has nabbed 57 proclaimed offenders and as many as 320 bail jumpers after launching of special campaign and the guaranters of such offenders were being penalised and prosecuted. Stating that there were 759 bail jumpers in the district, he clarified that many of them had been absconding for the past 10 to 30 years and it had become difficult for the police to trace out their addresses after such long periods. Earlier, Mr Deswal awarded 20 police personnel, who had taken part in the encounter in which dreaded criminal Anil Bhaga was killed. |
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Transfers a priority, not education
Chandigarh, September 23 While the officer acted out of concern for the students whose training would suffer if teachers were transferred in the middle of an academic session, the Chief Minister himself was far from pleased by the officer’s attitude. Mr Khemka, sources in the CMO said, got a dressing down from the Chief Minister and was likely to be transferred out from the Secondary Education Director’s post soon. As things stand now it has become obvious that education of students will continue to be missing from the agenda of the Secondary Education Department, while transfers and postings of teachers are destined to remain its top priority. Here is an instance of the chaos in the department resulting from transfer orders issued by the CMO. There were as many as six transfer notes in one case---five from Mr Vijay Singh, OSD to Mr Chautala, and one from the Finance Minister. Two of the notes from the CMO issued in September ordered the posting of one Mr Pratap Singh, lecturer, commerce, from Government Senior Secondary School, Koelpur Khetawas (Jhajjar), to the textbook section of the directorate at Chandigarh, in place of Ms Renu Bala, who was a subject specialist in mathematics. But in two other notes issued in the months of August and September, respectively, the OSD had conveyed the desire of the CM that Ms Renu Bala should not be transferred from the textbook section of the directorate since hers was a “couple case”. Another note from Finance Minister Sampat Singh in August said Ms Renu Bala should not be transferred from the directorate. The latest note from the CMO, issued this month, said Mr Pratap Singh should be transferred to Chandigarh or Panchkula as his was a couple case. Ms Renu Bala’s husband, Mr Yudhister Kumar, is posted as private secretary to Mr H C Disodia, Food and Supply Commissioner of Haryana. Mr Pratap Singh’s wife, Ms Shakuntala Yadav, is a member of the state Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission at Chandigarh. As such both Pratap Singh and Renu Bala are covered under the couple case but the CMO offered a series of contradictory orders on their transfer and posting. Moreover, Pratap Singh's (being a commerce teacher) utility in the textbook section is much lower than Renu Bala, who is a specialist in mathematics.
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Seminar on intellectual property rights
Ambala, September 23 Delivering the keynote address at the national seminar on “Intellectual property rights” organised at GMN College, Ambala Cantonment, Dr Mungekar said a lot of money on research and development was to be invested for obtaining IPRs as the procedure was long and complicated. Citing an example of neem, turmeric and basmati, Dr Mungekar said intellectuals present in India need to build up knowledge base and carry out research to procure patents in these areas. Dr Mungekar, who is a former Vice-Chancellor of Mumbai University, said IPRs have become a common word but these had not been commonly understood. “IPRs can also be explained as the creation of the human mind. Ever since globalisation process began in 1991, a debate has been raging for the past 15 years,” he said. “India is a nation which follows the middle path. The success of any socio-economic policy must be assessed to what extent its aim has been accomplished. From 1951 to 1991, India achieved a number of things including rise in production, improved saving investment ratio, higher life expectancy and gender equality,” he said. Since 1991, the world economy began to be integrated. “Whenever, there is exchange, it is integration. A clear division began to emerge between North and South. There was prolonged economic recession which was also referred to as stagflation, a combination of stagnation and inflation,” he said. Dr Mungekar said even when the developing countries were referred to as “third world countries”, it is a form of intellectual slavery. “During the Uruguay round, trade related IPRs became controversial since everything under the sun came under the WTO or GATT. North wanted to expand and it brought agriculture and pharma industry under IPR,” he said. Taking the example of pharma industry, Dr Mungekar said the Indian pharma industry did not invest in R&D. “Today, the most important challenge is the transition from process patent to product patent,” he said. “People call India is a knowledge power. I would agree to that in the field of development of software, but how can the dropout rate from schools be ignored,” he added. Among others, the College Principal, Dr R.R. Malik, Dr Vinay Malhotra, Dr V.K. Jain and Mr Jauhar spoke on the occasion. A number of academicians from different universities and research scholars were also present. |
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War widows honoured
Ambala, September 23 Deputy Commissioner R.P. Gupta honoured six war widows on the occasion. The martyrs in whose honour the function was held were Grenadier Chaman Lal, Sepoy Dayal Singh, Sepoy Mehar Singh, Havaldar Amar Singh, Sepoy Naib Singh and Sepoy Hafiz Ali. Competitions for schoolchildren was also held. In the declamation contest, Roopali was first, Priya Pandey was second and Meenu was third. In slogan-writing contest, Suraj Dua was first, Neha was second, while Chetna was third.
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Face-save by Chautala govt?
Chandigarh, September 23 However, the Opposition in the state will flaunt the decision as vindication of its allegations about large-scale irregularities in the auction, which was not being confirmed by senior officers of HUDA. Mr Karan Singh Dalal, Congress MLA, who was the first to raise the issue, said the government was forced to cancel the auction by Governor, A.R. Kidwai’s bold decision to seek a report from it. By doing so, he said Dr Kidwai had saved the state exchequer from a loss of about Rs 500 crore. He said the Governor deserved the gratitude of the people of the state for this
step. |
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‘Sadbhavna yatra’ at university
Kurukshetra, September 23 NSS volunteers of the university college, Bhagwan Parshu Ram College, Dayanand Mahila Mahavidyalya, National Institute of Law, College of Education, Kurukshetra, MIB Department and DAV College, Pehowa, took part. The yatra concluded at the university community centre of Kurukshetra University where refreshments were
served.
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Pharmacist shot dead
Sonepat, September 23 According to a report, he was returning to his home on a scooter. His body was found on the road in a pool of blood. Someone informed his family on the mobile telephone which was found in his pocket. The police has registered a case of murder and sent the body for a post-mortem examination. A hunt has been launched by the police to
apprehend the culprits. Another report said housewife Urmila (28) was found shot dead in a field at Sandal Kalan village, 5 km from here, yesterday. A case of murder has been registered. |
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