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Justice Lodha defends collegium system
Appoint special public prosecutor, demands DSGMC
Chavan quits, Cong set for lonely battle in M’rashtra
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No tie-up with NCP, but BJP to go soft on Sena
Om Prakash Chautala
Drug raids in Punjab, Australia; five held
BJP releases list of 172 candidates
Chinese troops start withdrawing from Chumar
Sena ups ante, says BJP
anti-M’rashtra
Verdict in Jayalalithaa’s assets case today
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Justice Lodha defends collegium system
New Delhi, September 26 He, however, said “we can’t talk about it now because Parliament has already passed the relevant Bills.” Nevertheless, judges were in a better position to assess the merits and demerits of lawyers to choose the right candidates for elevation as HC judges, he said. Justice Lodha said he would not accept any position or office following his retirement tomorrow. In fact, no judge of the Supreme Court or the High Court should take up any post, constitutional or otherwise, at least for two years after retirement, he said. “This is my personal view. I am very clear about it,” Justice Lodha told reporters. Acknowledging that legal provisions mandated that several institutions, commissions and tribunals should be headed only by retired judges, he suggested such laws be amended, providing for a cooling off period of two years or offering some other solution. He, however, refused to comment on the propriety of his predecessor Justice P Sathasivam becoming Kerala Governor, post retirement in April this year. On his suggestion for keeping the courts open round-the-year for dealing with cases pending for several years, he said it was unfortunate that lawyers had rejected it outright terming it as unworkable. Had there been a little more discussion on the subject, “I am sure they would have understood the benefit of working 365 days which does not mean that every lawyer or judge will be on duty every day.” Justice Lodha said he had never come under any political pressure during his nearly 21-year career as a judge of high courts and the SC. In fact, no one every approached him directly or indirectly, seeking any favour, he said. Side-stepping a question as to whether he had changed his view that the CBI was a caged government parrot repeating what it was tutored to say, he said he was looking forward to his “freedom” post-retirement. “All these years, I have not given some time for myself. Now, I will spend some time on myself and see how I can enjoy my freedom.” The SC Bar Association gave him a farewell in the evening by organising a function. Justice HL Dattu, who has been designated as the next CJI, will be sworn-in on September 28.
* The CJI said collegium system “may affect the independence of judiciary” as the proposed NJAC would have persons other than judges
* Nevertheless, judges were in a better position to assess merits and demerits of lawyers to choose the right candidates for elevation as HC judges, he said.
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Appoint special public prosecutor, demands DSGMC
New Delhi, September 26 Manjit said the previous governments and law enforcement agencies showed reluctance in dealing with the cases of riot victims. “The Congress Government has been shielding culprits of the1984 riots. The Delhi High Court directed the Commissioner of Police to hold an inquiry and take action against guilty police officers within six months but till date no action has been taken by the Delhi Police,” the letter said. “Another accused Jagdish Tytler has been given a clean chit in the closure report filed by the CBI and the officer who was involved in the investigation has been lured with a post after his retirement,” the letter said. It said in yet another case, “Joginder Singh, who was a bus driver and a witness to one of the important cases, lost his son who was set on fire sleeping outside his house. His minor daughter was kidnapped about 12 years ago and till date, she has not been traced.” These are some of the cases, which are known to the applicant and there are many more, which have never seen the light of the day on account of apathy and callousness of the previous government, Manjit said. The victims want justice and speedy redress of the cases and guilty should be punished, he said. He said there had been a lack of coordination between the government and investigating agencies in dealing with the cases and in one particular case, a closure report has been filed giving clean chit to Sajjan Kumar by the Delhi Police while it has no authority to do so. The report has been invalidated by the Delhi HC, said the DSGMC chief.
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Chavan quits, Cong set for lonely battle in M’rashtra
Mumbai/ New Delhi, Sept 26 Earlier today, the BJP demanded President’s rule in Maharashtra after the NCP withdrew support to the Prithviraj Chavan government on Thursday. A BJP delegation met Governor earlier today. Sources in Raj Bhavan said the Governor had sought legal opinion of the Union Home Ministry in the matter. Reports say, Maharashtra is facing the same situation as Andhra Pradesh earlier this year when the then CM Kiran Kumar Reddy resigned on the issue of Telangana. At that time President’s rule was imposed even though elections were imminent. Shortly after seat-sharing talks broke down on Thursday, Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar drove to Raj Bhavan where he submitted the letter withdrawing support to the government. Recalling the past when it gave Maharashtra a “single party” government, the Congress today said it was ready for the poll battle and would revive one party rule in the state. To garner secular votes after losing a 15 year old friend NCP yesterday, the Congress was today said to have reached a pre-poll tie-up with the Samajwadi Party, offering the latter eight seats in the 288-member state Assembly. “We are raring to go. Our workers are particularly elated. We have in the past given Maharashtra a single party government. This is not the first time we are going alone,” Congress spokesperson Shobha Oza said. While Oza cited the past to see hope in the future, the fact is the Congress faces an uphill task in a multi cornered contest in Maharashtra. Traditionally, the Congress-NCP alliance has been consolidating behind itself a major chunk of the vote share in the state including Dalits (10.6%), Muslims (around 13%) and Marathas (30%). As for Congress’ alliance with SP, there are credibility issues considering the Congress fights SP in Uttar Pradesh.
Woos SP
* The Congress is said to have reached a pre-poll tie-up with Samajwadi Party *
The party is offering the latter eight seats in the 288-member state Assembly *
Congress leaders privately argued that the NCP, with the taint on its leaders, had become a liability for the party
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No tie-up with NCP, but BJP to go soft on Sena
New Delhi, September 26 The party has decided to focus the election campaign in Maharashtra on “bad governance and corruption during the Congress-NCP regimes” and strategically avoid any direct campaign against
Sena.
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Go back to Tihar by Oct 17, Delhi HC tells Chautala
New Delhi, September 26 The HC passed the order after taking a serious note of the fact that Chautala addressed a rally at Jind yesterday without its permission. The INLD leader, sentenced to 10-year imprisonment for his involvement in the scam in the recruitment of junior basic trained (JBT) teachers when he was CM, is on bail on medical grounds. Chautala’s counsel contended that the health of the former CM continued to be serious. He was taken from a private hospital in Gurgaon in an air-ambulance to enable him to participate in the 100th birth anniversary celebrations of his father Devi Lal. Unconvinced, the Bench said he should have taken the court’s permission for the purpose. CBI said Chautala had taken the judiciary for a ride by producing medical certificates only to address rallies as part of the ongoing assembly election campaign. The HC, however, extended the interim bail granted to his son, Ajay Singh, till October 31 on medical grounds. INLD MLA Sher Singh Badshami and Vidya Dhar, who was OSD of OP Chautala, and former IAS officer Sanjiv Kumar also got their bail extended for similar reasons. The HC has reserved its verdict on the appeals of 55 persons, including the Chautalas, convicted for the scam involving corruption, cheating, forgery, fake documents and abuse of official position.
Vital targets
* The HC passed the order after taking a serious note of the fact that OP Chautala addressed a rally in Jind, Haryana, on Thursday without its permission *
Chautala's counsel contended that the health of the former CM continued to be serious and was taken from a private hospital in Gurgaon in an air-ambulance to enable him to participate in the 100th birth anniversary celebrations of his father Devi Lal.
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Drug raids in Punjab, Australia; five held
New Delhi, September 26 Sources in the Enforcement Directorate said its officials conducted searches across nine places in India, five in Delhi and four in Amritsar, while Australian Federal Police (AFP) simultaneously raided 13 places across six places in Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra, Adelaide and Perth in a well-synchronised fashion. In India, the ED said it had arrested two persons from Amritsar identified as Paramdeep Singh and Gangandeep Singh for alleged involvement in these activities. The ED sources said it recovered Rs 78 lakh besides electronic material that reflected alleged illegal financial transaction of Rs 1 crore per day to Europe, West Asia and the United States. In Delhi, the authorities picked up one Gaurav Gupta for alleged involvement in money-laundering suspected through trading. “The joint operation occurred due to sharing of data on real time and shows excellent cooperation between two law-enforcing agencies,” the sources said adding that for the past three years Australia has been facing problems on account of increased vending of drugs and narcotics in the country and funds being generated from the trade by organised groups, laundered through networks, including India. On its part, the AFP issued a media release today acknowledging the joint international effort to “disrupt a sophisticated transnational money-laundering network that resulted in 13 search warrants across the country. During search, the police seized $73,000 in cash and a significant volume of electronic and financial material suspected to relate to money laundering.
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BJP releases list of 172 candidates
New Delhi, September 26
The list includes 15 women candidates, including sitting Parli MLA Pankaja Munde, daughter of late Gopinath Munde. In all, the list has 35 sitting MLAs and an MLC and senior leader Vinod Tawde who will contest from
Borivali.
Other top leaders in the list are Devendra Fadnavis (MLA, Nagpur South West) and Eknathrao Khadse (MLA, Muktainagar), who also remained the Leader of Opposition in the Assembly. Many of the declared candidates today filed their papers before the list was announced. Tomorrow is the last date of filing nominations. — TNS
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Chinese troops start withdrawing from Chumar New Delhi, September 26 The pullback by around 750 PLA troops began after the issue was resolved at the third flag meeting between the two sides, Army sources said here. After a meeting with her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in New York, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj announced that the two countries have resolved the stand-off at the Ladakh border and withdrawal of troops will begin today and be completed by September 30. Swaraj said that the two sides have also decided on a timeline for the withdrawal of troops. As per the understanding between the two sides at a Brigadier-level flag meeting, it is learnt that the Indian side agreed to dismantle its observation posts in the area while the Chinese agreed to stop the construction of a road there. This exercise appeared to be a re-run of last year's Depsang Plains stand-off where the Chinese had demanded the dismantling of Indian positions in Chumar in return for withdrawing its troops from the Indian territory and succeeded in getting their demands accepted before leaving. — PTI
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Sena ups ante, says BJP
anti-M’rashtra
Mumbai, September 26 “Those who broke the saffron alliance are enemies of Maharashtra,” party mouthpiece Saamna said in a frontpage write-up in today’s edition. “The breaking up of the MahaYuti (alliance) is an insult to the 105 Marathi martyrs of the Samayukta Maharashtra movement,” Saamna said reviving memories of old animosities between Marathi and Gujarati-speaking people of the state. The Samayukta Maharashtra movement was over the inclusion of Mumbai in Maharashtra when Gujarat was carved out of the erstwhile Bombay state. Then Chief Minister Morarji Desai who opposed the move ordered the police to open fire on protesters killing 105. Sena sources said the party is looking to pre-empt a move by the BJP to rope in Prime Minister Narendra Modi as its star campaigner for the Assembly elections. “Gujaratis in Delhi cannot appoint the Chief Minister of Maharashtra,” a poster put up by the Sena said on Friday. Even before the LS polls, Sena had launched a campaign against Gujaratis. “Why are Gujaratis not celebrating Maharashtra Day on May 1,” Saamna had asked, adding members of the community who have established businesses in state diverted their wealth to their home-towns.
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Verdict in Jayalalithaa’s assets case today
Bangalore, September 26 The trial had concluded in the special court in Bangalore on August 28 after around 17 years of its registration. Judge John Michael Cunha has directed all accused — Jayalalithaa, VK Sasikala, VN Sudhakaran and J Ilavarasi — to be personally present in the court on the judgment day. The judge had initially decided to announce the verdict on September 20, but it was postponed to September 27 for security reasons. Earlier, citing “voluminous evidence” and “elaborate arguments of counsel for the accused”, the judge had expressed his inability to pronounce the verdict within 14 days from the date of conclusion of the trial. The case was registered in 1997 when the DMK was in power in Tamil Nadu. The Supreme Court in 2003 (when Jayalalithaa was back in the saddle) transferred the trial to Bangalore following a petition by DMK leader K Anbazhagan. The apex court took note of the conduct of the public prosecutor and other developments that took place after Jayalalithaa assumed the post of Chief Minister in 2002 and came to the conclusion that “fair” trial was not possible in the Chennai court. The Special Court in Bangalore will shift to a temporary location tomorrow to provide security to Jayalalithaa. The Bangalore city police are deploying a massive force around Gandhi Bhavan (near Prappana Agrahara central prison) where the court will pronounce its verdict. Gandhi Bhavan is the same location where the court had recorded Jayalalithaa's statements in 2011. Supporters of the AIADMK leader are streaming into Bangalore from Tamil Nadu to show their solidarity with her.
* Jayalalithaa has been charged with accumulating Rs 66 crore wealth disproportionate to known sources of her income from 1991 to 1996 in her first term as the Chief Minister *
Her close aide Sasikala Natarajan, her niece Ilavarasi and nephew and Jayalalithaa's disowned foster son Sudhakaran are others listed as accused in the case.
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Mumbai/ New Delhi, Sept 26
‘Judges better equipped to decide’
The case