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Centre’s clean chit to ex-CJI
Balakrishnan on corruption
CIL disinvestment: Ministry to seek Cabinet panel nod
EC issues orders on NOTA option
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Ishrat encounter: CBI questions Amit Shah
UP ‘erred’ in official letter on Ram temple
Usmani escape: M’rashtra not to produce terror suspects in court
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Centre’s clean chit to
ex-CJI
Balakrishnan on corruption
New Delhi, October 12 It has stated that a probe conducted by the Income Tax Department showed that he had not acquired any ‘benami’ property when he was the Chief Justice of India (January 14, 2007 to May 12, 2010) or a Judge of the Supreme Court (June 8, 2000 to January 14, 2007) and as such there was no need to initiate any proceedings for his removal from his present position. The government “denies each and every statement, allegation, averment and submission” made by the PIL petitioner, NGO Common Cause, for seeking the removal of the NHRC chairman, the Union Home Ministry said in an affidavit filed in the Supreme Court through Deputy Secretary PK Ahuja. Though the petitioner had not alleged that the former CJI had “professional receipts,” the government examined this aspect as well and “it was found that there was no material to link such payments to any cases pending in the Supreme Court,” the Home Ministry said. According to the PIL, Justice Balakrishnan’s daughters and sons-in-law and brother had amassed wealth when he was a Judge of the Supreme Court and the CJI. In an order passed on May 10, 2012, the apex court had asked the government to have the charges in the PIL verified and take appropriate steps. Further, the Union Law Ministry had advised the government that even if the allegations had any substance, there was no provision in law to initiate proceedings for his removal as NHRC Chairman. This was possible only if there was any proven “misbehaviour” or “incapacity” relating to his functioning as NHRC chief, the affidavit said. “The words ‘proved misbehaviour’ cannot be construed to include within their ambit allegations pertaining to conduct in the previous office,” the Home Ministry said. Further, no allegation was levelled against Justice Balakrishnan at the time of his appointment as NHRC chief, nor had the PIL challenged his appointment. The Centre also maintained that the allegations against him could not be equated with the charges levelled against former Calcutta High Court Judge Soumitra Sen, who had to quit, and allegations relating to the appointment of PJ Thomas as Central Vigilance Commissioner. The PIL and the affidavit would come up for hearing on October 17. Among the other charges against him were his attempts to elevate Justice PD Dinakaran as a Judge of the Supreme Court despite the corruption charges against the latter and his wrong statement over the then Union Telecom Minister A Raja allegedly trying to influence a Madras High Court Judge. While Justice Balakrishnan had stated that the then high court Chief Justice HL Gokhale had not disclosed that the minister was Raja, Justice Gokhale (who is now a Judge of the Supreme Court) had denied this, petitioner’s counsel Prashant Bhushan had contended. Justice Balakrishnan’s official cook had been allotted two plots under the discretionary quota of then Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi. This was not possible without any influence, it was argued.
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CIL disinvestment: Ministry to seek Cabinet panel nod
New Delhi, October 12 Coal Minister Shriprakash Jaiswal had yesterday said that the matter would first go to the CCEA. Officials at the Coal Ministry said that government was looking forward to divesting 5 per cent of its stake in CIL which is expected to bring in over Rs 10,000 crore to the national exchequer. The government has reportedly selected seven merchant bankers for the stake sale -- Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, SBI Capital Markets, Kotak Mahindra Capital, JM Financial and Merrill Lynch. The government's original plan was to sell 10 per cent stake in Coal India to raise Rs 20,000 crore, but the proposal had met with stiff resistance from trade unions who threatened to go on strike. Following prolonged talks with the unions, the government has now scaled down the disinvestment to 5 per cent. The government currently holds 90 per cent stake in Coal India Ltd, which is valued at Rs 1,88,227 crore, while FIIs hold 5.51 per cent, DIIs 2.34 per cent and the remaining 2.15 per cent is with other shareholders. The Coal Ministry is hoping that the nod for the CIL disinvestment would come soon. The decision on buyback of shares or offering special dividend will be decided by the CIL board and the Coal Ministry will have no role to play to play in it. Incidentally, there are still two vacancies in the CIL board and two independent directors are yet to be appointed. The meeting of the board cannot happen till the appointments are made. In the current quarter, coal production has grown 9.6 per cent, while coal dispatch grew 7.2 per cent and coal supplies to the power sector increased by 7 per cent compared with the corresponding months of the previous year.
* The government's original plan was to sell 10% stake in Coal India to raise Rs 20,000 crore *
The proposal had met with stiff resistance from trade unions who threatened to go on strike *
So, the government scaled down the disinvestment to 5%.
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EC issues orders on NOTA option
New Delhi, October 12 The commission has decided to introduce the NOTA option in forthcoming Assembly elections in the five states of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Delhi and Mizoram after the Supreme Court in its Sepember 27 judgment directed that the option be included for voters on EVMs and ballot papers. Voters may for the first time exercise the choice of not opting for any candidate in the fray for a particular seat without their right to maintaining secrecy over their decision being violated. — PTI
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Stapled visas: India lodges protest with China
New Delhi, October 12 The fresh visa row between the two countries comes days ahead of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Beijing. China’s action obviously was prompted by its territorial claim over the entire north-eastern state. The two archers, Maselo Mihu and Sorang
Yumi, were barred from boarding a China-bound flight on Thursday night. The two girls said they were unaware of having had visas stapled on their passports till they reached the airport and were turned back. Earlier in the day, senior BJP leader and Archery Association of India (AAI) president Vijay Kumar Malhotra today shot off a strongly-worded letter to External Affairs Minister Salman
Khurshid, asking him to immediately take up the matter with Beijing. The Chinese Government must stop issuing stapled visa and treat all Indian nationals equal, he said. “The whole episode has raised questions about the political parameters worked out by the Indian and Chinese Governments.” The Chinese action amounted to insulting not only the Government of India but the entire country, said Malhotra in the letter, a copy of which was also sent to the Prime
Minister. Khurshid, however, sought to play down the issue, saying differing perceptions on the border issue between the two countries lead to such unsavoury incidents, which should not affect cooperation in other areas. This is not the first time that India is involved in a row with China over stapled visas to Indians. In 2010, it had started issuing stapled visa to Indian nationals from Jammu and Kashmir, thereby questioning the state’s accession to India. It later discontinued the practice after India’s protestations.
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Call to take tough stand against Beijing
Guwahati, October 12 Two archers from Arunachal Pradesh — Mihu Maselo and Yumi Sorang —who were part of a 24-member squad, were given stapled visas to participate in the Youth World Archery Championship at Wuxi in China. They were prevented from boarding their flight to China from the Indira Gandhi International Airport by immigrant officials on Thursday night. Arunachal Pradesh state unit of the BJP has urged the Union Government to take up the issue with Beijing and requested President Pranab Mukherjee to take appropriate steps to resolve the issue. In a letter to Mukherjee, Arunachal Pradesh BJP chief Tai Tagak expressed concern over China issuing stapled visas to people from Arunachal Pradesh since 2011, thereby denying them the opportunity to attend any important international events in China. A former MP from Arunachal Pradesh and Archery Association of India (AAI) vice-president Kiren Rijiju has demanded the Prime Minister to make the resolution of “stapled visa issue” as a pre-condition to his forthcoming visit to China and summit-level talks. “India should boycott any sporting event in China to show solidarity with people of Arunachal until China stops issuing stapled visas to people of Arunachal
Pradesh,” Rijiju demanded. “India also should adopt tit-for-tat strategy by issuing stapled visas to people visiting India from Tibet,
Xinjiang, Gansu and Qinhai,” Rijiju told mediapersons in Itanagar. The Arunachal Citizen’s Right
(ACR) urged the state government to convene an all-party meeting at the earliest and take up the issue with the Government of India and the Chinese Embassy to solve it once and for all. ACR has also appealed to people of Arunachal not to participate in the forthcoming Parliamentary elections until the stapled visa issue is resolved. “As long as there is a step-motherly treatment by the Central Government to Arunachal
Pradesh, the Chinese authority will continue to treat residents of Arunachal Pradesh the same way, which is very unfortunate,” People’s Party of Arunachal stated.
Voicing anger * Archery Association of India vice-president Kiren Rijiju asks the Prime Minister to make the issue a pre-condition for bilateral talks in his forthcoming visit to China *
Arunachal Citizen's Right appeals to people of Arunachal not to participate in the Lok Sabha elections until the stapled visa issue is resolved
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Ishrat encounter: CBI questions Amit Shah
New Delhi, October 12 Sources said Shah, who was Home Minister of the state in 2004 when the encounter took place, was quizzed as jailed IPS officer D G Vanzara had claimed in his resignation letter that Gujarat government was "inspiring, guiding and monitoring" every police action from "very close quarters". But agency officers refused to confirm the information. The sources said Vanzara, during his questioning by the CBI in Sabarmati Jail, has reiterated the stand taken by him in the resignation letter that police officials accused in various encounter cases were merely implementing "conscious policy" of the state government towards terrorism. — PTI
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UP ‘erred’ in official letter on Ram temple
Lucknow, October 12 In a hurriedly called press conference, Principal Home Secretary RM Srivastava expressed regret for the “mistake” and categorically stated that there were no plans for the re-construction of the temple. He also promised action against persons responsible for the “mistake”. Clarifying the state government’s position, the Principal Home Secretary said that the government had received intelligence reports regarding VHP’s plan to hold a “Sankalp Diwas” in which it was going to make people take a pledge for the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya on the lines of the Somnath temple. “The person who drafted the communiqué put the intelligence input in the subject line which led to this confusion. What happened should not have happened because intelligence inputs are never disclosed in official letters. The meeting scheduled for October 14 is in connection with the “Sankalp Diwas” programme and this will now be held through video conferencing,” he said. According to a report published in a national daily, the letter was signed by Home Secretary Sarvesh Chandra Misra asking the DGP and other senior police officers to attend a meeting convened on October 14 in Lucknow in connection with the “enactment of a law in Parliament for construction of a temple at Shri Ram Janambhoomi on the lines of the reconstruction of Somnath temple”.
Wrong choice of words
October 14 meeting is not for temple construction, but for VHP’s ‘Sankalp Diwas’ in which it is reportedly going to make people take a pledge for the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya on the lines of the Somnath temple
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Usmani escape: M’rashtra not to produce terror suspects in court
Mumbai, October 12 New technologies such as video conferencing will be adopted so that terror suspects and hardened criminals no longer need to be brought to the courts, officials said. “Video conferencing will surely take care of security concerns and will be adopted as much as possible,” Joint Commissioner of Police Himanshu Roy told reporters this week. Senior police officials have also advised the Home Department to utilise police personnel deployed for guarding under-trials elsewhere, sources said. In the past, the authorities have made use of video conferencing in high-profile cases like those involving the trial of Ajmal Kasab, the lone terrorist to be taken alive during the November 2008 terror attack. The government has also decided to shift the special Maharashtra Control of Organised Crimes Act (MCOCA) court to the Arthur Road jail till the video conferencing facilities are installed in jails and court houses. The decision was taken to avoid any attempt to free those accused in terror cases, officials said. The MCOCA court is hearing several terror cases apart from the cases in which Usmani is an accused.
Fresh measures
* New technologies such as video conferencing will be adopted to avoid taking hardened criminals to courts *
The Home Department asked to utilise police personnel deployed for guarding under-trials elsewhere *
This comes after suspected Indian Mujahideen terrorist Afzal Usmani escaped from a court in Mumbai last month.
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Jaipur Rajasthan Assembly Speaker and his son have been booked on the charges of forgery and usurping a property. Speaker Deependra Singh Shekhawat and his son Kunal Singh have been accused of furnishing forged documents to avoid paying rent on a property, which was rented out to Kunal, the police said. — PTI Ahmedabad A Indian fisherman was killed and 30 others were allegedly kidnapped by Pakistani Maritime Security Agency, which took them away in five boats from international waters off Jakhau coast in Gujarat, the fishermen boat association said on Saturday. — PTI Panaji The Goa Government on Saturday announced the augmentation of its major water resources projects that will provide round-the-clock supply to the state by the end of 2014. State PWD Minister Ramakrishna Dhavalikar stated this after chairing a meeting of senior officials. — PTI Dibrugarh (Assam) An ULFA militant was killed on Saturday in an encounter with a joint team of the Army and police near Duliajan town in Dibrugarh district. His accomplice escaped under the cover of darkness. — PTI
Kanpur Poonam, a class VIII student, allegedly committed suicide on Friday after being rebuked by her mother for not studying, the police said on Saturday. In another incident, 29-year-old Meena was found hanging from a ceiling of her house by her in-laws, the police said. — PTI
Hyderabad Buses of the state-run Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation today hit the roads in the Seemandhra region after a gap of two months as employees called off their strike in support of united Andhra Pradesh. — PTI Jodhpur Fearing a backlash by followers of Asaram, Gujarat Police officials are camping here and waiting for orders from their seniors to take the self-styled godman to Ahmedabad despite getting his transit remand. — PTI
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by the Income Tax Department showed that he had not acquired
any ‘benami’ property when he was the Chief Justice of India (January 14,
2007 to May 12, 2010) or a Judge of the Supreme Court (June 8, 2000 to January
14, 2007) and as such there was no need to initiate any proceedings for his
removal from his present position.
Scaled down
