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Difficult proposition of law for Soren, Sidhu
Chota Rajan’s brother led Dalit rioters
SHO replaced, Dalit parties demand probe Arjun forms panel on Sachar findings |
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Blast in Bhutan, 3 Indians hurt
Telangana sentiment runs high in Karimnagar
Kalyan’s
three-option formula to Mulayam
India to endorse Hague convention on private international law
Submarine facility resumes work
Madras HC dismisses Jaya’s IT appeal
Rajnath to meet President today
Name thermal plant after Devi Lal: MP
Six more farmers commit suicide
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Difficult proposition of law for Soren, Sidhu
New Delhi, December 2 Though they do not face immediate disqualification from Parliament, the prospects of their contesting of any future election looks bleak as a Constitution Bench of the apex court in its January 2005 verdict had clearly laid down that a convicted MP or MLA could not carry the benefit available to them under Section 8(3) and 8(4) of RPA to the next House, even if their appeals are admitted by the higher court and the sentence is stayed. The only hope for them to continue in electoral politics will be if the appellate court stays the conviction altogether, but the Supreme Court in another verdict delivered recently had come down heavily on the high courts staying the convictions of legislators in a routine manner without looking at the ramifications of such orders. In the case of Soren, who faces a minimum sentence of life, the appeal will go to the Delhi High Court and in Sidhu’s case it would go to the Supreme Court as his acquittal by the trial court was reversed by the Punjab and Haryana High Court and he faces a maximum sentence of 10 years. Though the Supreme Court in its Constitution Bench made a clear distinction between the two propositions of law - stay of conviction and stay of sentence on admission of appeals of the convicted legislators - it cautioned the high courts against suspending the conviction order without taking into account the “ramifications” of keeping such conviction in abeyance. “Such a power should be exercised only in exceptional circumstances where the failure to stay the conviction will lead to injustice and irreversible consequences,” the apex court has ruled. The Constitution Bench, headed by the then Chief Justice of India R C Lahoti, in Haryana MLA Nafe Singh’s case had further laid down that if a legislator was sentenced for various offences charged with separately and the same were to run consecutively, the different periods “shall” be added up and if the total period on such sentence was more than two years or more, the disqualification provision under Section 8(3) would apply. The court had said that the protection under Section 8(4) of the RPA would be available only for the membership in the House to which a legislator was elected and subsequently convicted. The court further had said that under Section 100(1)(d)( i ), the qualification or disqualification of a convicted legislator “shall” be determined with reference to the date on which he was declared elected and another crucial date was when the Returning Officer of such a candidate had scrutinised his nomination to see whether he enjoyed the benefit of stay of conviction or stay of sentence on that day. Any decision by the appellate court against the conviction on any subsequent date of the filing of nomination, would “not have the effect of wiping out disqualification that existed on the focal dates of election and scrutiny,” the apex court had laid down.
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Chota Rajan’s brother led Dalit rioters
Mumbai, December 2 The police said Nikalje was seen leading rioters in Chembur where several shops were stoned and buses damaged. The gangster originally hailed from this area and Deepak is a major builder here. He had even unsuccessfully contested the last Assembly elections with support from some of the factions of the Republican Party of India. Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh asked top police officials this morning to apprehend those behind the violence. Though police officials have called it a spontaneous outburst by Dalit communities across the state, Mr Deshmukh believes that a conspiracy exists in the attack on the Deccan Queen train and other installations. According to the information put out by the authorities, the number of shops burnt across Maharashtra has been pegged at 200 while more than 250 vehicles were destroyed. Three persons were killed in the violence and police firing. Maharashtra’s Deputy Chief Minister R.R. Patil said a complaint had been lodged against Nikalje. However, he is not suspected for causing riots in areas other than Chembur. Political parties supporting the Dalits have hit out at what they called the government’s attempts to blame the violence on the underworld. "The violence was a spontaneous to the violence at Kherlanji and the UP incident," BRP Bahujan Mahasang President and grandson of Babasaheb Ambedkar Prakash Ambedkar said. Meanwhile, the police said they had picked up several associates of mobster-turned-politician Pappu Kalani. After several years in jail, Kalani came out only to contest and win elections on RPI ticket. The police suspects that he may have played a major role in burning the Deccan Queen and a local train at Ulhasnagar, which is considered his stronghold. Incidentally, none of those arrested are Dalits. Kalani himself is a Sindhi who migrated to Maharashtra after the Partition like most of the residents of Ulhasnagar. The police also says that leaders of different factions of the RPI began to make political capital once violence broke out in different parts of the state. The situation took a turn for the worse on Friday night. Ramdas Athvale, a senior Dalit leader who is claiming a major role for his faction of the RPI, attempted to take his supporters to Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh on Friday. However, the authorities there did not allow him to enter the city and forced him to return to Delhi. After rumours spread that Athvale was arrested in UP, his supporters in Mumbai blocked the Eastern Express Highway early this morning. Only after the police pacified the crowd did the demonstrators leave.
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SHO replaced, Dalit parties demand probe
Kanpur, December 2 Authorities shifted the SHO and placed the constables under suspension for alleged negligence in preventing the violence, officials said, adding the situation in the troubled area was tense but under control. Republican Party of India president Ramdas Athawale, who was put under “house arrest” in Circuit House here late last night after his arrival from Maharashtra, threatened violent protest in Uttar Pradesh like those in Maharashtra, saying “atrocities against Dalits will not be tolerated”. He said the RPI would also raise the issue of police action on Dalits in Parliament on Monday and alleged that atrocities against Backwards had gone up under the Mulayam Singh Yadav regime. He demanded an inquiry into the episode by a retired Supreme Court judge and arrest of “real culprits”. Dalit Panthers sought Rs 20 lakh compensation to the families of the four persons killed in violence in Maharashtra and a vigilance probe into the matter. A delegation led by Panthers state chief Dhani Ram Baudh gave District Magistrate Anurag Srivastava a memorandum of demands to be sent to President A P J Abdul Kalam. — PTI
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Arjun forms panel on Sachar findings
New Delhi, December 2 The 13-member high level committee headed by Minister of State for HRD MAA Fatmi will examine various recommendations concerning the education sector, formulate views on these and prepare a plan of action, an official announcement said. “The minister, while deliberating on various recommendations of the Sachar Committee with the Ministry officials on December 1 had called for immediate action and has now set the deadline of January 31 for the committee for submission of its report,” it said. Other members on the committee are Mr Sudeep Banerjee, Adviser, Mr Champak Chatterjee, Secretary, Secondary Education, Mr R.P. Agarwal, Secretary, Higher Education, Mr B.B. Bhattacharya, Vice-Chancellor of JNU, Syed E Hasnain, Vice-Chancellor of Hyderabad University, and Ms Zoya Hassan, Centre for Political Studies, JNU. Mr Zafar Naqvi, Chairman, National Monitoring Committee for Minorities Education, Mr Saiyed Hamid, Chancellor of Jamia Hamdard, Mr Mool Chand Sharma, Vice-Chairman of UGC, the Director of the NCERT, Mr Ashok Ganguly, Chairman, CBSE, and Mr Sunil Kumar, Joint Secretary, Higher Education, are also its members. Minority Affairs Minister A.R. Antulay had earlier said that the ATR should be ready in three to four months. — PTI
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Blast in Bhutan, 3 Indians hurt
Jalpaiguri, December 2 They said the blast occurred between 6.30 and 6.45 am in a waste bin at the Bhutan Gate petrol pump near the Royal Bhutan Revenue department office in Phuntsholing, 200 metres from the Indo-Bhutan border adjacent to the bordering town of Joygaon in West Bengal’s Jalpaiguri district. They said the Indo-Bhutan border had been sealed soon after the blast and the Royal Bhutan government had closed all entry gates to the Himalayan kingdom. Three injured Indian nationals are being evacuated to the Binaguri army hospital in Jalpaiguri district, they said. High police officials from North Bengal have rushed to Joygaon. A Guwahati report quoting Additional DGP of Assam B P Rao said preliminary reports point out towards the involvement of the ULFA. “But involvement of other outfits other than ULFA cannot be ruled out at this moment”, he said. Mr Rao said Indo-Bhutan border had been sealed and there was additional deployment of the para military Shastra Seema Bal. He said security had been tightened along the Indo-Bhutan border, including Samdrup Jhongkar in Nalbari district, which is the entry point to the Himalayan kingdom. The Assam police had taken all precautionary measures and was in touch with the BSF and SSB in this regard, he added. — PTI
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Telangana sentiment runs high in Karimnagar
Karimnagar (AP), December 2 KCR, as he is popularly known here, first quit the UPA protesting against what he called the dilly-dallying of the Congress over the issue of separate Telangana state and followed it up by resigning as MP. By throwing this gauntlet, KCR not only checked the sagging image of his sub-regional party, but once again catapulted statehood issue to centre-stage of Andhra politics. When he announced his seemingly impulsive decision to resign as MP, he chose to walk on razor’s edge. Given that the TRS had lost some of its sheen by spending more than two years in power corridors, the party was not too sure of its ability to retain Karimnagar, a bastion of what is described here as Telangana sentiment. Besides KCR was taking too much of political risk by staking the plank of separate state for one byelection, said observers. Because a defeat of TRS in this byelection would virtually seal the fate of Telangana as both the ruling Congress and the opposition TDP would interpret such an eventuality as a vote for united Andhra Pradesh. This realisation among the nearly 8 lakh electorate seems to have actually helped TRS, which is pitted against the Congress, the TDP and the BJP in a multi-cornered contest for the first time in many years in the state. In the 2004 Lok Sabha poll, TRS had the support of the Congress, while the BJP was backed by the TDP in this constituency. “You will be signing your own death warrant, if you vote either for Congress or for the TDP,” warned Mr K Chandrasekhar Rao in the run-up to the campaign, and this pithy statement appears to have worked wonders for his party. There is a huge groundswell of support for the TRS across sections and communities in this Telangana heartland. “Telangana sentiment is stronger than at any time, points out Mr K Ajeet Singh, an advocate and a sixth-generation Sikh settled in Karimnagar. There is any number of such organisations in Telangana, whose stated goal is to achieve a separate state, and they seem to have created an impact on students, youth professionals, government employees and farmers. The man on the street talks about the inevitability of KCR’s victory in the December 4 election. There is a debate on who will come as runner-up; Congress or the TDP. Congress’ double speak on the issue during the last two years seems to have cost the party dear Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy’s opposition to carving the state, despite Congress Party’s lip service to Telangana, is too well-known to fetch too many votes in these days of strong Telangana undercurrent. But it is sparing no efforts, having deployed as many as 15 Ministers and scores of MLAs to campaign for the party. The TDP always stood for a united state, and it is banking on anti-TRS and anti-Congress vote. TDP fielded a BC candidate unlike its rivals, and hopes to reap substantial vote of this community. The BJP is suffering a loss of credibility due to its flip-flop on the separate state issue. Ironically, the first party to pass a resolution as early as in 1997 on ‘one vote, two state’, the saffron party’s renewed commitment to the cause has no takers.
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Kalyan’s
three-option formula to Mulayam
New Delhi, December 2 Alongwith his demand for President's rule in the state to ensure free and fair elections, Mr Singh also said that the Election Commission should revise the voters list and arrange better security arrangements. " The people have seen the three governments in the recent past and now are eager to revert to the BJP,", he said. Confident of securing more than the requisite majority in the 402-member assembly , Mr Singh said that the electorate is looking for a good alternative and BSP leader Mayawati is not the ideal one. The BJP will be ready with its list of "neat and clean" candidates by the end of this month, he said and added that the effort is to have one woman candidate from every district. The BJP is in the limelight due to its recent successes in the civic polls and has ruled out alliances with any party in the state."Our party will contest on its own and draw the direct support of the people", Mr Singh said .
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India to endorse Hague convention on private international law
New Delhi, December 2 The assurance regarding signing of the Hague convention that facilitated the recognition of the orders of the courts of signatory countries mutually on private laws was given by Union Minister of Overseas Indian Affairs Vayalar Ravi at a seminar on these crucial aspects. “I am happy to inform you that the Government of India is expected to become a member of the Hague Conference on Private International Law soon,” he said. In the changed globalisation scenario, private international law had become very relevant.“One such issue is the delicate and complex problem of the breakdown of marriages of NRI couples… my ministry is giving utmost importance to finding legal solutions to tackle such situations,” he told the conference organised on initiatives of two Chandigarh-based lawyers - Anil Malhotra and Ranjit Malhotra - who had launched a sustained campaign for India to become a member of the Convention. The conference was addressed by Lord Justice Thorpe, Head of International Family Law in England.
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Submarine facility resumes work
New Delhi, December 2 Admiral Sureesh Mehta today said that the construction of the first of six Scorpene submarines will start in Mumbai within 15 days. The formal inauguration of the Rs. 18,000 crore project, which is in collaboration with France, is expected to take place around December 15 . The first two submarines will be built completely on French technology and input after which Indian designs and technology will also be incorporated. The deal which was signed on October 6 did not see a bright
beginning with allegations that the deal concerned persons who were also involved in the notorious Naval War Room Leak.The Mazagon Docks will be employing around 150 officers and over 1000 works-men to carry out the mammoth construction. The cutting of the steel which is tentatively slated for December 15 will resume a process of producing around two dozen submarines for the Indian Navy in the coming 30 years. The first Scorpene submarine will be ready by 2012.
—TNS
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Madras HC dismisses Jaya’s IT appeal
Chennai, December 2 While dismissing their petition, Justice Prabha Sridevan upheld the constitutional validity of the Income Tax Act, which states that the court may presume the "culpable state of mind of the accused". 'When a statute creates a duty or a liability, a failure in this regard is an offence. It is reasonable then not to ask the prosecution to prove that the defendant was aware of his duty or liability,' the Court said. Following this order, the Income Tax department can now freely frame charges against the duo for deliberately not filing their returns in the early 1990s.
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Rajnath to meet President today
New Delhi, December 2 The delegation will submit a memorandum to the President, drawing his attention to the “unfair” practices adopted by the Mulayam Singh government in the recently held civic poll. The delegation will include BJP chief ministerial candidate Kalyan Singh, party's senior Vice-President Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and other senior leaders from the state.
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Name thermal plant after Devi Lal: MP
New Delhi, December 2 Even though the Centre had asked the Haryana Government to restore Devi Lal's name with the thermal plant, nothing has been done to rectify it. After all Devi Lal was the founder of Haryana, freedom fighter and Deputy Prime Minister, the member said.
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Six more farmers commit suicide
Nagpur, December 2 Astonishigly, 550 out of these have occured after the Prime MInister announced a relief package on July 1.
—UNI
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300 gold coins missing Life sentence
for 8 of family
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