BeyondHeadlines

Tag: Supreme Court

  • Kerala Elections: CPI Accuses Congress of Making Efforts to Upset Democracy

    Kerala Elections: CPI Accuses Congress of Making Efforts to Upset Democracy

    BeyondHeadlines Special Correspondent

    Thiruvananthapuram: Ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) ally CPI yesterday alleged that the Congress was trying to upset democracy in the state by using money power in the campaign for the assembly polls.


    “Congress should reveal to the people the source of funds for the helicopter campaign of Ramesh Chennithala, who is now a candidate in the Haripad constituency,” Kerala state secretary of CPI C K Chandrappan told reporters.

    The Election Commission’s promise of creating a level-playing field for all parties in the election campaign was being subverted by the use of choppers by Congress, he alleged.

    Referring to the Supreme Court slamming the Centre for not revealing the names of people with illegal funds in foreign banks, the CPI leader said the Congress-led UPA government lacked the political will to come out with the details of black money holders.

    “The UPA government’s stand on the issue raises serious doubts,” he said.

    Asked about the chief ministerial candidate of the LDF front, Chandrappan said the leader of the combine would be chosen after the elections. There was nothing wrong in seeking votes projecting present Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan, whose government had carried out several welfare measures for the people, he said.

    On the recent desertions of CPM by prominent figures of the minority community like Alphons Kannanthanam and Sindhu Joy, Chandrappan said he did not think they had left the party because of differences over the Left’s policy towards minorities.

    “They have their own vested interests. If they are serious about a debate on the Left’s attitude towards minorities, we are ready for that,” he claimed.

    On the attack on a television channel scribe at Kannur allegedly by CPM MLA P Jayarajan and party workers, he said the incident was unfortunate. Any kind of attack on the freedom of the media was always condemnable, he said.

  • Apex Court Orders Food Commissioners to Pay Visit to Dantewada

    Apex Court Orders Food Commissioners to Pay Visit to Dantewada

    BeyondHeadlines News Desk

    New Delhi: The Supreme Court has ordered Food Commissioners N C Saxena and Harsh Mandar to visit three interior villages of Chhattisgarh’s Dantewada District along with the collector. This comes on a day when a delegation of 10 Congress party legislators made a bid to reach the villages but were turned back citing “security concerns,” 50 kilometres short of their destination.

    The three villages – Tadmetla, Morepalli and Teemapuram – have been in the news since March 23 when two newspapers reported that nearly 300 homes here have been allegedly burnt by special police officers. Five days later, a hindi daily reported that six people had died in Morepalli village due to starvation. The villages lie in an area controlled by Maoists and bereft of any civil administration.

    While food rations and relief material sent by the administration reached the villages, no senior official has visited yet. On March 26, en route to distribute relief, social activist Swami Agnivesh and journalists were attacked by a mob in Dornapal, that allegedly comprised special police officers in civilian clothes and Salwa Judum members. The same evening, in damage control mode, the government transferred both the senior superintendent of police and the collector of Dantewada.

    But the siege like situation continues. On Wednesday, 10 Congress MLAs travelled to Dantewada to visit the villages but could not proceed beyond Polampalli. Bastar Commissioner K Srinivasulu and Inspector General of Police T J Longkumer were travelling with the group. “They blocked our path, citing security concerns. We said we would go ahead even if they did not provide security. They finally arrested and detained us,” said Nand Kumar Patel, Congress MLA.

    “The police had inputs of disturbances ahead,” said Srinivasulu, justifying the decision. “Besides it was already 2 pm, and it would not be safe to travel on an interior road in the evening”. (According to one account, the back window his official car was smashed by stone pelted by a group of Salwa Judum supporters. But Srinivasulu said his car was parked near a school and ascribed the ‘minor damage to the glass’ to mischievous school children).

    On Monday, the Home Minister Nankiram Kanwar had read out a statement in Vidhan Sabha, claiming the villages had been burnt by Maoists, not by the police. Nand Kumar Patel said by obstructing members of the opposition and the media, the government was simply trying to cover up excesses by the police. “Is there any place in the country which is made as inaccessible?,” said Patel.

    Given the Supreme Court directive, it would now become mandatory for Chhattisgarh government to faciliate a visit of the food commissioners, who would assess the reported hunger deaths, and report back to the apex court. The SC directive came in the ongoing hearing in the petition by the Right to Food campaign.

  • 2G Scam: SC Gives Two-Day Extension to CBI to File Chargesheet Against A Raja

    2G Scam: SC Gives Two-Day Extension to CBI to File Chargesheet Against A Raja

    BeyondHeadlines News Desk

    New Delhi:  The Supreme Court today allowed a two-day extension to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to file on April 2 its chargesheet against former Telecom Minister A Raja and others in the 2G spectrum allocation case even as the agency said it was readying an 80,000-page document for submission.

    Former Telecom Minister A Raja

    In their status reports on the probe into the scam, given to the court in a sealed cover, the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) informed a bench of justices G S Singhvi and A K Ganguly that the case involved large-scale violation of Foreign Exchange Management Act and benami transactions.

    After going through the report, the bench allowed the CBI plea that the agency be granted two more days to file the chargesheet in the case. The court had earlier given the CBI the deadline of March 31 for the purpose.

    The ED, in its report, said in violation of RBI guidelines, foreign money was invested in many telecom companies, after they were granted licences during Raja’s tenure as telecom minister.

    Giving fresh details about its probe, the ED informed the court that Rs. 106.95 crore was received by a telecom company in lieu of just one share while the market value of the share was just Rs. 270.

    The apex court was also informed by the ED that it would start attaching and confiscating the properties of erring telecom companies for violating FEMA soon after filing of the chargesheet.

    The ED, in its report, also informed the court about various investments made in telecom companies. The investments originated from several foreign countries, it said.

    It said most of these transactions took place after licences were given to the telecom firms during Raja’s tenure.

    It told the court that a joint team of the CBI and the ED would be sent to foreign countries, starting from Mauritius, to track the trail of the FDI in erring telecom companies involved in 2G scam.

    The ED also placed before the court the transcripts of corporate lobbyist Niira Radia’s telephonic conversations with various people, tapped by the Income Tax department.

    The CBI and the ED had earlier informed the court that a chargesheet would be filed against the former minister on various charges including those of corruption, money laundering, cheating and forgery.

    The Delhi Government had yesterday issued a notification designating Additional Sessions Judge Om Prakash Saini as a special judge to exclusively undertake the trial of the 2G scam. In a separate notification, the Finance Ministry designated his court as special court to deal with offences under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002.

    Saini had earlier dealt with the case as special CBI judge and all the matters connected to the scam including a private complaint filed by Janata Party chief Subramanian Swamy is pending before him.

    The CBI had informed the apex court that the first chargesheet will be filed against Raja and two companies and later on, charges would be filed against other accused persons.

    “This is only the beginning and many people and companies would also be chargesheeted later on,” the CBI had told the bench which had asked the agency to appoint a suitable prosecutor for the trial.

    “Look out for the best man. We want the most competent person to be appointed as the special public prosecutor and he will deal with no other case,” the bench had said.

  • 2G Scam: CBI Likely to Reveal Arrests of DB Realty Execs

    BeyondHeadlines News Desk

    New Delhi: Post CBI’s raid at several locations of the DB Realty Group on March 28, sources say a confirmation on the likely arrests of executives of the DB Realty Group and Kusegaon Realty is on the cards. As CBI confirmation is awaited on the development in the 2G scam probe, CNBC-TV18’s Siddharth Zarabi shares exclusive details.

    He reveals, “the two names that has been doing the around has been Asif Balwa who is suppose to be a Director on DB Realty and Rajiv Agarwal, who is suppose to be an senior executive in Kusegaon Realty.” He further says that the CBI is expected to reveal to the Supreme Court the action that it has taken, including the two arrests so far, according to the sources.

    Below is a verbatim transcript of Siddharth Zarabi’s report. Also watch the accompanying video.

    On March 28 evening, the CBI raided several locations and premises of people connected with the DB Realty Group. These raids went on till last night and two executives were held. Until now, there is no official announcement made by the CBI but we expect that the announcement may come in the Supreme Court shortly.

    The two names that has been doing the around has been Asif Balwa who is suppose to be a Director on DB Realty and Rajiv Agarwal, who is suppose to be an senior executive in Kusegaon Realty which is suppose to be a subsidiary and associate firm of DB Realty Group. Kusegaon came in the purview in recent past with regard to this 2G probe as an alleged conduit of fund flows, which ultimately ended up in Kalaignar TV that is controlled by the.

    The CBI is expected to reveal to the Supreme Court the action that it has taken since yesterday, including the two arrests so far, according to the sources.

    The CBI and the Directorate of Enforcement will submit separate status reports to the Supreme Court which is monitoring the 2G probe with regard to the investigation done so far. There is also a sense of expectation that the charge sheet will be made public at the court. The Supreme Court is likely to be apprised of the contents of the charge sheet. However, the charge sheet is to be filed at a separate court under the Delhi high court or special court which has been notified on March 28. This morning of March 29, the additional solicitor general has also briefed the Supreme Court about the creation of that court. The event is likely to take place on the 31st March and it is likely that the Supreme Court may issue direction in this overall matter. This is because all the petitions seeking cancellation on telecom licenses have been clubbed together be it the Prashant Bhushan petition or the petition filed by Subramanian Swamy.

  • Lawful Euthanasia – Outrageous And Impreactable

    Lawful Euthanasia – Outrageous And Impreactable

    Abdul Subhan for BeyondHeadlines

    Baylor L Rev wrote in 1975: “We are in many ways a violent society, reacting violently to various forms of oppression, real or presumed, by official fiat or human prejudice. But a nation in which capital punishment even for major crime is increasingly rare would find it hard to justify the killing of its political or social rejects in the name of Euthanasia.”

    The word Euthanasia means “good death” and has been derived from the Greek word Eu for good and Thanatos for death. However, in common usage, it is more usually employed to refer to the act of deliberately inducing the death of a patient who is in severe pain and distress as a result of a terminal or incurable illness. There are two distinctions in euthanasia — active euthanasia and passive euthanasia.

    Aruna Shanbag (Courtesy: The Hindu)

    Active euthanasia implies a deliberate act to end the life of a terminally ill patient. However, passive euthanasia is the deliberate withholding or withdrawing off life prolonging medical treatment in respect of a terminal or incurable patient with the object of hastening the patient’s death.

    Many scholars and rights activists argue for legislation in favour of euthanasia on the basis of moral and utilitarian objections and human rights. The moral objection states that it is against morality to leave someone in severe pain and do nothing for his/her relief and against fundamental right to “dignified life.” The human rights arguments state that leaving a patient in severe pain is directly challenging the fundamental right of individual i.e. the right to dignified life.

    Exercising euthanasia in any respect is wrong. First, it is in contradiction with the moral basis and beliefs of all religions on the nature of its act. According to utilitarian principle, there is a balance of pain over pleasure. Active euthanasia would be justified if it could maximize benefits for all, regardless of whether the patient can or could give consent. Thus, the interests of the individual patient are subordinated to the interests of the majority.

    The basis of active voluntary euthanasia is to relieve patients of their pain by killing them with their consent. But the subjective assessment by the patient of his/her own circumstances can be motivated by a fear of pain, suffering, dependency, undue influence or other causes.

    Northern territory of Australia and the Netherland have legalized active voluntary euthanasia, and some countries like Sweden, Belgium and England have already shown signs of complacency towards the idea of active voluntary euthanasia. But there is some complexity in the idea of active voluntary euthanasia. Considering weak hold of India’s administration and judicial system in rural areas, the chances of prohibiting the misuse of euthanasia are very slim. Thus, legalising active voluntary euthanasia in India poses a major risk.

    Moreover, the shortcomings of euthanasia or “mercy killing,” as it is called by utilitarians, are further exposed in a hypothetical situation where the patient wants to die and gives his/her consent for euthanasia, but the doctor knows that by taking some positive steps, the patient’s life can be saved.

    The honourable Supreme Court rightly struck down the proposal of mercy killing for Aruna Shanbaug. But the passive euthanasia too leaves a lot on doctors’ discretion and hence impracticable.

     

    Abdul Subhan is a final year law student at the Christ College, Bengaluru, and can be reached at abdulsubhan88@gmail.com

    The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect BH’s editorial policy.

  • Apex Court Sends Hasan Ali in Enforcement Directorate’s Custody

    Apex Court Sends Hasan Ali in Enforcement Directorate’s Custody

    BeyondHeadlines News Desk

    New Delhi: The Supreme Court today remanded Hasan Ali Khan in Enforcement Directorate’s custody for four days, while pulling up the trial court judge who had granted bail to him dismissing the agency’s plea for his remand in a money laundering case.

    A bench of justices B.Sudershan Reddy and S.S. Nijjar said it was “deeply disturbed” at the manner in which the trial court judge had rejected the ED’s contention and granted bail while giving a lengthy order for it.

    The apex court initially remanded Mr. Khan, 53, in ED’s custody for 72 hours but extended it to four days following a plea made by Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium.

    “The way the proceedings were conducted, we are deeply disturbed,” the bench observed, while staying the trial court’s order for bail to Khan and wondered, “Why has the learned judge written so much?”

    The apex court said it was staying the trial court’s order due to the extraordinary circumstances of the case.

    “The order passed by the learned judge has created an extraordinary situation which may ultimately frustrate the entire investigation. Having regard to the extraordinary situation, complexity of the issue and the magnitude of the case, we deem it fit to stay the order,” the bench said.

    Earlier, making a plea on behalf of the ED, the Solicitor General submitted to the court that the trial court judge had exceeded his brief and passed an unusual order for granting bail to Khan, despite neither the accused nor his counsel making any plea for it.

    He pointed out the judge had granted bail to Mr. Khan, while dealing with ED’s plea for his remand for his custodial interrogation.

    The Solicitor General claimed the ED was in possession of incriminating evidence against Mr. Khan showing that he has stashed huge black money in various banks abroad.

    He alleged Khan had withdrawn about $60,000 from a Swiss bank and cited communications from Swiss official sources to substantiate the allegation.

    A Mumbai court had on March 11 rejected ED’s plea for custodial interrogation of Mr. Khan on the ground that the agency had not gathered sufficient evidence to justify its plea for his custodial interrogation.

    Mr. Khan is also facing a Rs 70,000 crore tax demand notice from the Income-Tax Department as well as the ED probe.

    The ED had arrested Mr. Khan on March 7 after being pulled up by the Supreme Court for its failure to ensure his custodial interrogation. But the trial court had let him off.

  • P J Thomas to File Review Petition in Apex Court Next Week

    P J Thomas to File Review Petition in Apex Court Next Week

    New Delhi: P J Thomas to file a review petition in the Supreme Court next week over its verdict quashing his appointment as CVC, his counsel said today.

    Thomas is seeking a review of the apex court’s decision that had quashed his appointment as Chief Vigilance Commissioner.

    PJ Thomas

    Thomas has asked for a Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court to hear his petition.

    The Supreme Court earlier this month set aside PJ Thomas’ appointment as head of anti-corruption body Central Vigilance Commission, even as it laid down stringent guidelines for future appointments of central vigilance commissioner.

    The SC set aside the September 3, 2010 recommendation for appointment of Thomas as CVC as ‘illegal’ since the high-powered committee did not consider the pending chargesheet in the palmolein import scam. The court said that the committee’s recommendation on appointment of Thomas “does not exist in law

  • SC Asks Parliament Not to Make Laws on Extra Territorial Matters

    SC Asks Parliament Not to Make Laws on Extra Territorial Matters

    BeyondHeadlines News Desk
    The Supreme Court has held that Parliament cannot make laws on extra-territorial matters which have no impact on the interest of the country.

    “It logically follows that Parliament is not empowered to legislate with respect to extra-territorial aspects or causes that have no nexus whatsoever with India,” a five-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice S H Kapadia said.

    Supreme Court of India

    The apex court said it did not agree that Parliament, on account of its alleged absolute legislative sovereignty, should be deemed to have the powers to enact any and all legislation, even without the requirement that it is for the benefit of India.

    The apex court passed the order on a petition by a private firm challenging the validity of a provision of the Income Tax Act, which mandated the company to withhold part of its payment to a foreign company.

    The company had challenged the legislative competency of the Centre in Andhra Pradesh High Court, which had upheld the validity of the impugned provision of the Act. Against the order of the high court, the company had moved the apex court.

    While examining the question whether Parliament has the powers to legislate for any territory other than the territory of India or any part of it, the bench said, “The answer to the above would be ‘no’.”

    “It is obvious that Parliament is empowered to make laws with respect to aspects or causes that occur, arise or exist, or may be expected to do so, within the territory of India, and also with respect to extra-territorial aspects or causes that have an impact on or nexus with India.

    “Such laws would fall within the meaning, purport and ambit of the grant of powers to Parliament to make laws for the whole or any part of the territory of India, and they may not be invalidated on the ground that they may require extra-territorial operation.”

    “Any law enacted by Parliament with respect to extra-territorial aspects or causes that have no impact on or nexus with India would be ultra-vires, and would be laws made ‘for’ a foreign territory,” the bench, also comprising justices B Sudershan Reddy, K S Radhakrishnan, S S Nijjar and Swatander Kumar said.

    The bench opined that a “liberal” and “more extensive” interpretative analysis be undertaken to ensure that the court does not unnecessarily restrict the powers of another organ of the state.

    “Moreover, the essential features of such arrangements, that give the Constitution its identity, cannot be changed by the amending powers of the very organs that are constituted by it,” the bench said.

    The Constitution casts upon various organs of the state the affirmative responsibilities of protecting the interests of the welfare and security of the nation, it added.