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India, China agree to have ‘strategic communication’
SC norms to stop overstay in govt houses
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Cong-JMM to form govt in Jharkhand
Ishrat case
Cash-at-judge’s door scam
Apex court rules in favour of disabled soldiers
Spot fixing
CAT manager, 3 examinees tampered with results
Amarinder, Hooda vow to fight for Jat reservation
Constitution Bench to decide on states’ mother tongue policy
Advani meets RSS brass, discusses poll
MP minister accused of sodomy, quits
Mind your language, Mulayam tells Beni
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India, China agree to have ‘strategic communication’
New Delhi, July 5 Defence Minister AK Antony, who is on a four-day official visit to China, today held delegation-level talks with his counterpart Gen Chang Wanquan in Beijing, where it was decided to have ‘strategic communication’ and maintain peace and tranquility along the LAC until the boundary between the two edgy neighbours is demarcated. Sources said the ‘strategic level’ could be between the Director General of Military Operations of either side. “Discussions between the two Defence Ministers included measures to promote mutual trust and confidence building between the armed forces. It was agreed that ‘strategic communication’ is required for building trust and understanding,” Indian Defence Ministry spokesperson Sitanshu Kar said in an emailed communiqué from Beijing. Both ministers discussed a number of issues relating to bilateral defence relations, exchanges and interactions between the Ministries of Defence and armed forces of both countries and the regional and international security situation. Antony later called on Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, who had visited India in May this year. The Chinese Premier and his Defence Minister conveyed to Antony that “China attaches great importance in developing friendly and cooperative relations with India”. An India Defence Ministry statement said: “Both sides agreed on the need to maintain peace, tranquility and stability on the LAC. It was agreed that the Special Representatives should continue to work towards a boundary solution. Both sides agreed to make joint efforts to maintain peace.”
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SC norms to stop overstay in govt houses
New Delhi, July 5 In the case of ministers and MPs, the matter of unauthorised retention should be intimated to the Speaker of the Lok Sabha or the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha and action should be initiated by the House Committee for the breach of the privileges which a member/minister enjoyed “in a time-bound period.” In the case of government servants, the SC suggested levy of compound interest instead of simple interest and stoppage of or reduction in the monthly pension till the date of vacation of the premises as part of the steps to get them vacated from their official accommodation immediately upon their retirement. Notice should be sent to the employees three months prior to their retirement asking them to vacate the premises, the Bench said placing the responsibility for enforcing the guidelines on the department concerned and estate officer. The apex court said it felt the need for framing guidelines as the existing legal provisions and directions under the Public Premises (Eviction of Unauthorised Occupants) Act 1971 were found inadequate. As a result, the allottees of government accommodation continued to retain their premises by paying a paltry amount as rent or penalty. In view of the paucity of government accommodation, the SC also banned conversion of such premises as memorials. The court issued the directives in a judgment in a case from Karnataka.
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Cong-JMM to form govt in Jharkhand
New Delhi, July 5 The
Congress-JMM pact, arrived at after days of detailed negotiations, envisages a Chief Minister in the coalition from the tribal party. The Congress has preferred to play junior partner in Jharkhand but has decided to contest 10 of the 14 Lok Sabha seats in the state and extended the scope of the partnership to neighbouring states of Bihar,
Chhattisgarh, Odisha and West Bengal that have sizable tribal
populations. JMM leader Hemant Soren, who is tipped to be the Chief Minister, announced the pact here after a meeting with AICC general secretary BK Hari Prasad, incharge of party affairs in the state. Prasad told The Tribune that the pact with the JMM shows that the UPA was expanding around the time the
BJP-led NDA was losing allies. The pact also ended the dilemma within the ruling coalition at the Centre since President's Rule in the state is due to end by July 18. In the absence of any arrangement, the options were either to extend Central rule necessitating Parliamentary approval or to dissolve the 81-strong Assembly where elections are due towards the end of next year. The state was brought under Central rule in January after the JMM withdrew support to the
BJP-led Arjun Munda government. The JMM has 18 legislators, the Congress 13 and the parties will require the support of 11 more. Indications are that the Rashtriya Janata Dal with five MLAs is expected to be on board.
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Ishrat case
Ahmedabad, July 5 The period from the planning to the execution of the cold-blooded murder of the four persons overlapped with both the
BJP-led NDA government and the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre. As the Centre was kept in the loop, both parties cannot shake off the responsibility for the gruesome killing of a 19-year-old college girl whose links with terror groups are yet to be established. In the face-off between the Intelligence Bureau and the Central Bureau of Investigation, the Union Home Ministry has prevailed upon the investigating agency not to touch the IB joint director Rajinder Kumar till he retires from service this month-end. Due to the insistence of the Centre, the CBI has not named Rajinder Kumar and other IB officials as accused in the chargesheet filed on Wednesday despite having clinching evidence against the IB official just as it had against Gujarat cadre IPS officers like DG Vanzara and PP Pandey whom it had charged with conspiracy and murder. The state police sources here maintain that the Union Home Ministry’s attempt to protect the IB officers was not only guided by the utility of the intelligence officials but also because its fallout could hit the MHA - both under the BJP and the Congress regimes. An “encounter” of the alleged terrorists was originally planned in April 2004 after the arrest of Kashmir-based Zeeshan Johar near Ahmedabad in a joint operation of the IB and Gujarat Police. Zeeshan had migrated to Pakistan where he reportedly had received terror training and might have come to Gujarat on a “mission.” Another alleged terrorist killed with
Ishrat, the Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir-based Amjad Ali Rana was picked up in Ahmedabad on May 27 - five days after the
UPA-I took office in Delhi after the NDA’s defeat in the parliamentary
elections. Ishrat and Pranesh Pillai alias Javed Sheikh were first arrested in the first week of June, let off and called back to be picked up near Vadodara on June 12 - three days before the “encounter.” Each arrest was based on intelligence inputs from the IB and copies of all the inputs, according to rules, were also sent to the Union Home Ministry that was kept informed about the developments.
IB complains against CBI
New Delhi: Taking strong exception to CBI's alleged "witch-hunt" against its officials in Ishrat Jahan case, the Intelligence Bureau has lodged a strong protest with the Union Home Ministry saying the investigating agency's move would only hurt the morale of the officers of
IB. In a formal letter, IB Director Asif Ibrahim said CBI's move to prosecute its officials would be "disastrous for the morale of IB officers" and would harm the country's internal security.
Clarify on LeT links: Digvijay
New Delhi: Congress leader Digvijay Singh on Friday asked the Home Ministry to clarify whether Ishrat had any link with
Lashkar-e-Toiba. He asked the Home Ministry to clarify whether 26/11 terror attack accused David Headley had said that Ishrat had terror links. He said National Investigation Agency, Intelligence Bureau and Central Bureau of Investigation had given different statements on the issue. —
PTI
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Cash-at-judge’s door scam
New Delhi, July 5 “You can raise the question of sanction in the trial court,” a Bench comprising Justices HL Dattu and Dipak Misra told her senior counsel KTS Tulsi while rejecting her plea. The Bench also wanted to know as to why the trial court was not framing charges in the case. “It can’t go on like this,” it remarked. According to the CBI case, the cash of Rs 15 lakh was actually meant for Justice Yadav, but had been delivered at the residence of Justice Nirmal Kaur by mistake because of the similarity in the two names. Justice Yadav, who was a Judge of the Punjab and Haryana HC at the time of the incident, had sought quashing of the charges against her, contending that the then Chief Justice of India KG Balakrishnan had refused to grant sanction to prosecute her in the case. However, his successor SH Kapadia reviewed the case and granted permission for proceeding against her. Citing SC verdicts, Justice Yadav had maintained in her petition that there was no legal provision under which a decision against granting sanction to prosecute a Judge on the charge of corruption could be reviewed. She had come to the SC after the HC refused to buy her argument.
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Apex court rules in favour of disabled soldiers
Chandigarh, July 5 The court, while dealing with the case of Dharmavir Singh of the Corps of Signals, held that under the rules, a soldier could not be asked to prove his entitlement and on the contrary it was for the medical board to prove with recorded reasons that the disability was such that it could not be detected on his joining service. The SC ruled that the soldier was entitled to disability pension, as the medical board did not record any reasons in support of denial of service-connection. The order passed yesterday could affect hundreds of disabled soldiers. In another case, the SC has overturned the judgment of the Lucknow Bench of the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT), wherein the tribunal based on the medical board opinion had rejected the claim of a former disabled soldier, Veerpal Singh, and held that although the medical opinion deserves respect it should not be worshipped by courts and quasi-judicial bodies that are entrusted with the task of dealing with claims of disabled soldiers. The SC has also held that examination of the medical opinion needs to be carried out to see whether it is legally sustainable. It opined that the tribunal did not bother to look into the medical opinion and mechanically concluded that they could not sit in appeal over the medical opinion. The SC further observed that had the members of the tribunal taken pains to study medical literature, they would have found that the observations of the doctor were incompatible. Affected disabled soldiers say that high courts as well as various Benches of the AFT had also held that disability pension had to flow in accordance with rules and the medical board’s opinion could not override the provisions of the applicable rules. The Punjab and Haryana High Court had recently ruled that the AFT could not accept the medical board’s opinion or statements of the government as the gospel truth and was duty bound to apply its mind.
Key observations
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Spot fixing
Mumbai, July 5 The police said Mehta was arrested by personnel from the property cell of the city police, who were also tracking him. Mehta fled the city shortly after the spot-fixing scandal involving cricketer S Sreesanth, actor Vindoo Dara Singh and Chennai Super Kings CEO Meiyappan and others broke. The police said Mehta was a known associate of mobster Dawood Ibrahim and is one of the biggest bookies in the sub-continent. Last month, a lookout notice was posted for Mehta after investigators tracking his cell phone traced him to the Mumbai airport. Sources say Mehta may have fled to Goa under a false identity.
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CAT manager, 3 examinees tampered with results
Lucknow, July 5 Of the total 80 candidates, whose percentile were unlawfully increased in order to help them get admission in better-ranked non-IIM institutes, at least 30 belong to Uttar Pradesh. An investigating team which arrived from Kozhikode to probe the compromising of the prestigious CAT results this year stated that the altering in the results was to the extent of increasing percentile 3 to 93! Last fortnight, Indian Institute of Management (IIM)-Kozhikode had registered a case against Lucknow-based web management company Web Weavers - which maintains the CAT website - charging it of tampering with the results of 80 candidates. The joint team of Kozhikode and UP police led by AU Bala Krishnan interrogated the owner of Web Weavers Shuja-ul Hasan at the Aminabad police station for well over two hours. A contractual computer teacher at the Aminabad Inter College, Hasan, reportedly blamed his employee Kozhikode-based Afaq for the scam.
Hand in Glove
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Amarinder, Hooda vow to fight for Jat reservation
New Delhi, July 5 Addressing a convention here today, Capt Amarinder Singh, who is also a former Chief Minister of Punjab, said securing reservation for the Jats in Central Government jobs was a major challenge. “This does not mean we are begging. This is the government policy for needy and week communities so that they can be brought on a par with others. We will fight for reservation,” he said. He said reservation was applicable for the community in entire Rajasthan, barring Bharatpur and Dholpur districts. This amounted to discrimination against the Jats living in the two districts. Around 50 per cent Jats in Punjab owned land under five acres. “Such farmers cannot run their families solely on agriculture. They need jobs,” he said. Hooda said the government had agreed to give reservation to the Jats at various fora. The community needed to unite to get the benefits. He assured support to the Jat Mahasabha. MP Virender Singh, Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh, Congress leader Renuka Chaudhury and Delhi CM Sheila Dikshit were also present.
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Constitution Bench to decide on states’ mother tongue policy
New Delhi, July 5 Since the “vital question” involved had a “far-reaching significance on the development of children,” a Bench comprising Justices P Sathasivam and Ranjan Gogoi said it should be heard by a Constitution Bench. The apex court said it would, among other things, define mother tongue. If it was the language in which the child was comfortable with, then who would decide the same? The other questions the SC would go into are: Whether a student or a parent or a citizen has the right to choose the medium of instruction at primary stage? Does the imposition of mother tongue in any way affect the fundamental rights under Article 14, 19, 29 and 30 of the Constitution? Whether the government recognized schools are inclusive of both government-aided schools and private and unaided schools? Whether the state can by virtue of Article 350A of the Constitution compel the linguistic minorities to choose their mother tongue only as the medium of instruction in primary schools? The SC verdict came on an appeal relating to the Karnataka government’s order for enforcing its mother tongue policy.
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Advani meets RSS brass, discusses poll
Nagpur, July 5 Advani’s meeting with Bhagwat and RSS general secretary Bhaiyyaji Joshi comes a day after he attended the party’s Parliamentary Board meeting in Delhi where he came face to face with Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi. Presenting a picture that showed things have returned to normal, Modi, whose elevation as BJP’s election campaign committee chief had prompted the patriarch to resign from all posts including the Parliamentary Board, and Advani had sat side by side and party sources claimed his body language was “positive”. Emerging from his day-long meeting with Bhagwat and Joshi, Advani said it was part of the consultation process the RSS chief had said would continue during an interaction with the media in Delhi. It was following Bhagwat’s intervention that Advani had taken back his resignation and the trouble in the BJP had blown over. “I had fruitful discussions with Bhagwat and Joshi. These discussions will give us strength when state assembly elections and next year’s Lok Sabha poll happen. We will then be able to bring about a change and take the nation on the right path,” he said after the meeting. “Today’s visit is very positive from BJP’s point of view and from the point of view of national politics,” he said. Recalling his association with RSS since he was a 14-year-old, Advani said: “Like my political commitment is to the BJP, the Sangh is my ideological family. Since the days of Jansangh, there have been constant exchange of views with the RSS. Had there been no RSS, the Jansangh and the BJP would not have been born.” — PTI
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MP minister accused of sodomy, quits
Bhopal, July 5 The servant, Rajkumar Dangi, who was with Finance Minister Raghavji (79) for the past 3-4 years, submitted an affidavit along with his complaint. In the affidavit, he claimed he was in possession of a CD containing a video that purportedly showed the minister in a compromising position with a woman. Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, according to Raghavji, called him around 10.30 this morning and asked him to tender his resignation. Raghavji termed the police complaint against him by his servant as a "conspiracy" to malign him.
— PTI
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Mind your language, Mulayam tells Beni
Lucknow, July 5 Responding to a question about his one-time-confidant-turned-foe’s frequent diatribe against him, the senior Yadav quipped: “What should I say about him? He has been an old colleague. It is good that he keeps discussing me. It does not matter whether what he says is positive or negative. At least, he keeps me in the news.” Yadav, however, advised Verma to be more careful with his language and to learn to choose his words with care. “He should learn some decorum,” he added. Hinting that Verma must have been severely reprimanded by the Congress leadership for making unsavoury remarks against him, Yadav said, “Unko (Beni Verma) ko party me daant padi hai. Varna unhone ye kyun kaha ki veh party chhod denge agar unhe roka gaya (He must have been scolded by the party. Why else did he say that he would quit the party if he was restrained).” Asked about Verma’s allegations about the Samajwadi Party patriarch’s connivance with the BJP in the demolition of Babri Masjid, Yadav said that the government was free to conduct an inquiry into the charges. In recent months, Verma has been repeatedly hitting out at Mulayam Singh Yadav on his prime ministerial ambitions, issues related to the Ayodhya movement and alleged links with terror suspects. |
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Looking to put behind the tension that erupted along the Line of Actual Control in April this year, India and China today agreed to have better communication at the highest level.
Coming to the rescue of soldiers whose disability pensions were rejected after the authorities concerned declared disability as “neither attributable to, nor aggravated by service”, the Supreme Court has held that once a soldier joins service and is disabled while in service, a presumption operates in his favour that the disability has been caused due to service thereby entitling him to disability pension.
All-India Jat Mahasabha president Capt Amarinder Singh and Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda today vowed to secure reservation for the community in Central Government jobs.
Nagpur, July 5
A Bench comprising Justices P Sathasivam and Ranjan Gogoi directed all judges to vacate their official residences within one month from the date of superannuation or retirement. They could be given one more month if there were sufficient reasons.