Nights to shine in city bar bar

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October 15, 2015

Supreme Court however added a rider to its interim order and allowed the licensing authorities in the State to regulate indecent dance performances at bars and other places.

Mumbai’s night life is all set to become more vibrant after Supreme Court lifted the ban on dance bars in Maharashtra. The apex court stayed the operation of 2014 amendment in the Maharashtra Police Act that had banned dance performances at bars and some other places. The state government had banned dance bars in 2005 saying that these establishments were responsible for rising crime and prostitution activities in the metropolis. During that time around 600 dance bars were functioning in the city. Some of them continued to operate under police patronage, but most gradually shut down.

Referring to the brief history of judicial pronouncement in the case and subsequent amendment in the State law, a Bench comprising Justices Dipak Misra and Prafulla Chandra Pant said “We think it appropriate to stay the provisions section 33 (A)(1) of the Maharashtra Police (second amendment) Act.”

The court however added a rider to its interim order and allowed the licensing authorities in the State to regulate indecent dance performances at bars and other places.

“However, we have a rider that no performance of dance will be remotely expressive of any kind of obscenity…the licensing authority can regulate such dance performances so that individual dignity of woman performer is not harmed,” the Bench said.

The Indian Hotels and Restaurant Association, welcomed the Supreme Court order staying operation of the amendment.

“The way Maharashtra government had put a blanket ban by sidelining all the rules, we were sure to win and that’s what Supreme Court has upheld our view today,” Indian Hotels and Restaurant Association (AHAR) member Manjit Singh Singh Sethi.

“The attitude of the government towards us was so biased that when in 2014 the ban was lifted, we applied to renew our license but that too was quashed,” he alleged.

When asked what would be his further course of action, Singh said, “First we would wait for the details of the Supreme Court order and then decide. But prior to that, we would reapply before the state government and police authorities for the endorsement of licence to run dance bars.”

Meanwhile, the Bar Girls’ Association cautiously welcomed the decision and said it now hopes for a suitable, quick and positive action from the present state government.

“We have not forgotten that when a blanket ban on dance bars was imposed by flouting all our rights, the present government led by BJP, which was in opposition those days, had supported the ban,” Bar Girls’ Association general secretary Varsha Kale said.

The apex court has now fixed the petition filed by Indian Hotel and Restaurant Association for final hearing on November 5 and said that the matter pertaining to the similar issue had already been decided by this court in 2013.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said that his government still favoured ban on dance bars.

Fadnavis tweeted: “Although SC interim order mandates regulation instead of ban on dance bars, government still favours ban. We will examine and press our demand in SC.”

The Maharashtra government had reintroduced the law in 2014 to bypass an SC judgment which had struck down a similar law a year ago. The SC had in April 2013 upheld the right of women bar dancers to follow their profession and dismissed the state government’s appeal to ban them.

Will judgement be delivered in National Herald case?

By

Vaidehi Taman

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October 15, 2015

People on social media and political rivals are waiting for the day to hear some verdict against Gandhi’s, but there is no progress in this case. The Delhi High Court termed as “infructuous” the applications moved by Congress President Sonia Gandhi, her son Rahul and some other party leaders alleging a “different treatment” was meted out to a challenge filed by them in the National Herald case. The Gandhis’ in their application had said their petition challenging a trial court order in the case was transferred in violation of the procedures and practice being followed by the court. The application also said that their challenge petition ought to have been listed before the bench of Justice Gaur before whom the matter was pending for over eight months and was heard by him at length on several occasions.

The National Herald, the Congress party newspaper was the voice of India’s independence movement. Veteran journalist Suman Dubey, a close friend of the Gandhi family, is being consulted on the project. National Herald is a newspaper founded and edited by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru in Lucknow on September 9, 1938. The paper carried on its masthead the words ‘Freedom is in Peril, Defend it with All You Might’ taken from a cartoon by Gabriel from Brentford, Middlesex that Indira Gandhi had forwarded to Nehru. Jawaharlal Nehru was an early editor of the newspaper and until his appointment as Prime Minister was the Chairman of the Herald’s Board of Directors. In 1938, K. Rama Rao was appointed as the paper’s first editor. Following the Quit India Resolution of August 1942, the British Raj clamped down on the Indian press and the paper was shut between 1942 and 1945. The Herald reopened in 1945 and from 1946 to 1950, Feroze Gandhi served as the paper’s Managing Director, helping restore its financial health. From 1946 to 1978, Manikonda Chalapathi Rau served as its editor. The paper had editions from Lucknow and New Delhi, the latter begun in 1968. In Delhi, the paper was based out of Herald House on Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, known as Delhi’s Fleet Street while in Lucknow it was based out of the Nehru Bhawan and Nehru Manzil buildings. The National Herald also had Hindi and Urdu editions named Navjeevan and Quami Awaz.

The paper’s fortunes were closely tied with those of the Indian National Congress. Post-Independence, it was shut down for two years from 1977 following Indira Gandhi’s defeat in the 1977 General Elections that followed the Emergency. By 1986, the paper again faced the prospect of closure but was revived a year later following Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s intervention. The Lucknow operations of the paper were shut down in 1998 and much of its property was auctioned off under court orders to settle outstanding debts. In January 2008 discussions about closure began. On 1 April 2008, the paper’s editorial (of its sole remaining edition, New Delhi) announced that it was temporarily suspending operations. The paper had failed to modernise its print technology and had not computerised at the time of suspending operations and had been making losses for several years owing to lack of advertising revenues and overstaffing. At the time of its closure T V Venkitachalam was its editor-in-chief.

In the recent past Subramaniyam Swamy, in his complaint, alleged that The Associated Journals Ltd.(AJL) was formally closed in 2008 as it was under a huge unpaid debt of around Rs.90 crore. He alleged that on November 23, 2010 under the Companies Act Young Indian Pvt Ltd company was incorporated in which Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi owned 38 per cent shares each. In December 2010, Swamy claimed, YI’s board of directors passed a resolution to “own” AJL’s outstanding debt and “admittedly obtained an unsecured zero interest loan from the Congress party” for an equivalent amount to liquidate the debt. The Congress denies that allegation and says it gave Associated Journals a Rs. 90 crore loan because it was in dire straits.

The court, in its earlier order, said, “From the complaint and the evidence led so far, it appears that YI was in fact created as a sham or a cloak to convert public money to personal use or as a special purpose vehicle for acquiring control over Rs.2000 crore worth of assets of The Associated Journals Ltd.(AJL). It said the accused Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Moti Lal Vohra, Oscar Fernandes were the office bearers and trustees of the funds of the Congress party and the funds of the party were not the personal property of the accused. The funds entrusted to them by the party were to be utilised to advance the purposes for which the Congress party was formed. These funds could not have been advanced in the form of an interest-free loan to AJL, as no provisions exists in the Representation of the People Acts or the constitution of the party permitting grant of any such loan to a company engaged in commercial activities. In the past two years since the Gandhi-family-led private company called Young Indian took over Associated Journals, four floors of the five-storey building have been let out at market rates.

The ground floor and the first floor are let out to the Passport Seva Kendra of the Ministry of External Affairs and the second and the third floor to IT major Tata Consultancy Services or TCS. While Passport Seva Kendra pays a market rent of about 60 lakh rupees per month, TCS pays 27 lakh rupees. On the top floor is the office of Young Indian, registered under section 25 of the Companies Act, which lists Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi as majority stakeholders with 76 per cent stake in total. The rest is divided between Congress veterans Motilal Vora and Oscar Fernandes. The Congress claims Young Indian is a non-profit company, but questions are being asked about who benefits from Associated Journal’s properties. Like Herald House, Young Indian has also acquired other major properties across the country worth Rs. 5,000 crore, the complaint in court alleges. I doubt this case will ever come to the conclusion.

BJP avoids discussion about snapping ties with Sena

By

Afternoon Voice

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October 15, 2015

After its public spat with Shiv Sena, the BJP steered clear of discussing about ties with the saffron ally at a meeting of party legislators and functionaries where it chose “only” to deliberate upon the achievements of the Fadnavis government over the last year.

Several top BJP leaders had said ahead of the meeting yesterday that the worsening relations with the Sena, which is part of the ruling coalition in Maharashtra, were likely to come up for discussion.

A senior leader had gone to the extent of saying that the meeting would discuss the probability of snapping ties with the Sena, which had on Tuesday said BJP was free to opt out of the coalition if it was bored of its brand of “nationalism” and “patriotism”, raising questions about the continuance of the party in the state government.

However, no such thing happened and BJP spokesman Madhav Bhandari said, “The meeting was only held to discuss various achievements of the state government and how do we put them in front of the people. There was no mention of the Shiv Sena anywhere in the meeting.”

“Last year we won elections on October 19 and took oath on the 31st. Hence, we have decided to hold various programmes from October 19 to 31 wherein we will interact with people and tell them what the government has done,” he said.

Relations between the two saffron allies have come under renewed strain after Shiv Sainiks blackened the face of Sudheendra Kulkarni, a former BJP strategist and organiser of Pakistan’s former foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri’s book launch event on Monday.

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had voiced serious displeasure over the incident and said the state would not be allowed to be reduced to a “banana republic”.

Amid the growing unease in their ties, Shiv Sena had, in a snide remark yesterday, sought to remind Prime Minister Narendra Modi of his Godhra past after he termed as “unfortunate” the Dadri lynching incident and cancellation of Pakistani ghazal singer Ghulam Ali’s concert in Mumbai following Shiv Sena’s threat of disrupting it.

Privileges Committee to seek clarification from Shobhaa De over tweets

By

Afternoon Voice

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October 15, 2015

With the Supreme Court asking author Shobhaa De to respond to the breach of privilege notice issued by Maharashtra Assembly against her, Minister Girish Bapat said the state legislature’s Privileges Committee will seek clarification from her over tweets on screening of Marathi films.

Bapat, however, clarified that “no coercive action will be taken against her”.

The breach of privilege motion against De has been admitted by the state legislature, he said.

As per rules of business of the legislature committee, a notice is served to the person and a due clarification is sought, after which the legislature committee decides on the future course of action, the state Parliamentary Affairs Minister said.

“The committee will take action if no clarification is received from De within the stipulated deadline. But there will be no coercive action against her,” he said.

Bapat pointed out that the Supreme Court, in its judgement in the Uttar Pradesh versus Keshav Singh case of 1965, had observed that courts should not interfere in the functioning of Parliament and Legislature, while the latter should also not interfere in the functioning of the courts.

The apex court had asked the author to respond to the breach of privilege notice issued by the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly against her within a fortnight to clarify that her tweets on Marathi movies have nothing remotely to do with the conduct of the House.

The court had earlier stayed the breach of privilege notice issued against De by Maharashtra Assembly Speaker for her tweets on the state government’s decision to make it mandatory for multiplexes to screen Marathi movies during prime time in April this year.

The author had moved the SC against the notice issued by the Assembly Speaker following a complaint against her by a Shiv Sena lawmaker alleging that the series of tweets by her insulted Marathi language and Marathi-speaking people.

The columnist had earlier tweeted, “Devendra ‘Diktatwala’ Fadnavis is at it again!!! From beef to movies. This is not the Maharashtra we all love! Nako! Nako! Yeh sab roko!(sic).”

“I love Marathi movies. Let me decide when and where to watch them, Devendra Fadnavis. This is nothing but Dadagiri,” she had tweeted.

Reacting to the tweets, Shiv Sena MLA Pratap Sarnaik had moved a breach of privilege motion against De for allegedly “insulting CM Devendra Fadnavis and sentiments of Marathi-speaking people”.

No bags day observed in Maharashtra on Kalam’s birth anniversary

By

Afternoon Voice

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October 15, 2015

Students in Maharashtra on Thursday had a ‘no bags day’ as they celebrated the birth anniversary of former president APJ Abdul Kalam as ‘Reading Day’.

The education department, asking students to read non-academic books in school as well, had asked the schools to ensure that students left their school bags at home.

The decision to celebrate October 15 as ‘Reading Day’ was taken by state Education Minister Vinod Tawde soon after Kalam’s death in July.

In a government resolution, the state has asked all schools to host book exhibitions and implement ‘gift a book’ programme.

On ‘Vaachan Prerna Din’ yesterday, Tawde visited Zilla Parishad School No 1 at Achole in Nalla Sopara.

He inaugurated the Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Vaachan Katta (reading hub) and gifted a book box to students.

The minister interacted with students and thereafter visited a ‘Book Mobile’ van with students.

Petition seeks action against Asaduddin Owaisi for remarks against PM

By

Afternoon Voice

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October 15, 2015

A petition in Bombay High Court on Thursday sought criminal action against Akbaruddin Owaisi, Telangana MLA and brother of All India Majlis-e-Ittihad Muslimeen (MIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi, for allegedly making objectionable remarks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi during electioneering in Bihar.

The petition, filed by Conscious Citizen Forum, is slated to come up for hearing tomorrow before a bench headed by Justice Ranjit More.

The Forum alleged that Owaisi had defamed Modi by calling him names in an election speech beamed by a television channel and also alleging that he was involved in Gujarat riots in the past.

The petition said that the Forum had approached Mumbai police to file an FIR against Akbaruddin Owaisi but no action had been taken so far. Aggrieved, the Forum had filed a writ petition in the High Court.

The petition contended that the remarks of Owaisi had hurt the sentiments of the people and that politicians should be restrained from making personal attacks against each other during election campaigns.

It also urged the court to lay down guidelines for the politicians who address gatherings during election campaign.

HC seeks corrective steps to improve conditions in Yerwada

By

Afternoon Voice

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October 15, 2015

The Bombay High Court asked Maharashtra government to take corrective steps towards improving the condition of Yerwada central prison in Pune and providing better facilities to inmates lodged there.

A division bench of Justices V M Kanade and Shalini Phansalkar-Joshi was hearing a petition filed by one Shaikh Ibrahim Abdul, who is lodged in Yerwada central prison, raising the issue of poor condition of the jail.

The court had last week directed the Principal District judge of Pune to appoint a judicial officer to conduct inspection of Yerwada prison and submit a report.

Accordingly, a report was submitted today which said that while the food quality in the jail was fine there was space constraint.

As per the report, while the capacity of Yerwada jail was 2,323 there are over 6,000 inmates (convicts and undertrials) lodged there at present. There are over 125 women inmates and 16 children belonging to these inmates.

“There are 529 toilets in the men’s barracks. There are no bathrooms and the male inmates take bath in the open. In the women’s cell, there are 19 toilets and two bathrooms,” the report said.

The court, after perusing the report, asked the government to take corrective steps towards improving the conditions.

The bench has now directed the Principal Judge of the sessions court in Mumbai to appoint a judicial officer to inspect Arthur Road central prison here and submit a report in four weeks.

Evidence of dead cop introduced late: Salman Khan’s lawyer to Bombay HC

By

Afternoon Voice

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October 15, 2015

Bollywood actor Salman Khan’s lawyer on Thursday told the Bombay High Court that the prosecution had brought the evidence against the superstar in the 2002 hit-and-run case at the fag end of the trial as a last resort after other evidence fell apart.

The HC is hearing an appeal filed by Salman against the five-year sentence awarded to him by a sessions court on May 6 for ramming his car into a shop in suburban Bandra, killing one person and injuring four people who were sleeping outside. The mishap had occurred on September 28, 2002.

Amit Desai, arguing for 49-year-old actor, said “the only way to resurrect the case against Salman was to place the statement of late Ravindra Patil, the former police bodyguard of the actor, recorded by a magistrate.”

In the statement on October 1, 2002, Patil had alleged that Salman was driving the car under the influence of liquor although in the FIR three days before that he had not uttered a word about the actor taking drinks, said Desai.

“The prosecution decided to bring in the evidence of Patil – who died in October 2007 – when it saw that witnesses have been discredited during the cross-examination and serious doubts have been raised on the medical report,” Desai alleged.

Desai argued that the Criminal Procedure Code lays down that the evidence recorded before a magistrate cannot be treated as an evidence before a sessions court. Yet, Patil’s statement was treated as evidence before the sessions court.

The prosecution knew that Patil was no more and that he would not be available to defence lawyers for cross-examination but still it decided to rely on his statement, he said. The trial court had erred in allowing the statement of Patil to be used as evidence, argued Desai.

“Previous statement of a witness, not appearing before court, cannot be taken on record,” the lawyer argued.

Citing Supreme Court and Bombay High Court verdicts, Desai also elaborated in detail section 326 of the CrPC, which deals with “conviction or commitment on evidence partly ecorded by one judge or magistrate and partly by another.” He also referred to section 33 of Indian Evidence Act, which is about “relevancy of certain evidence for proving, in a subsequent proceeding, the truth of the facts therein stated”. Arguments would continue on Friday. The high court has granted bail to Salman after admitting his appeal.

Diwali gift for Maha government employees: DA hiked by 6pc

By

Afternoon Voice

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October 15, 2015

The Maharashtra government decided to hike the Dearness Allowance (DA) of state government employees by six per cent with effect from January 1, 2015.

The DA is now 113 per cent from the existing 107 per cent.

DA is calculated on total of basic pay and grade pay.

Finance Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar said the arrears would be given from October 1, 2015. Separate orders would be issued for payment of arrears from January 1, 2015 to September 30, 2015.

He said the decision was government’s Diwali gift to the employees. The decision will benefit 18 lakh officials and employees as well as 6.5 lakh pensioners.

HC asks Maha to take decision on proposal for its building

By

Afternoon Voice

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October 15, 2015

The Bombay High Court directed the Maharashtra government to take a decision by December 11 on a proposal sent by its administration seeking allotment of 25 acres of land in Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC) for setting up a high court building.

The high court administration had on October 14 sent a proposal to the state government seeking 25 acres of land in BKC and another 25 acres in nearby area.

Advocate Sanjay Udeshi, appearing for the administration, told the court that in a meeting held recently it has been decided to seek a total of 50 acres of land for the high court in the suburbs.

A division bench of justices A S Oka and V L Achiliya today asked the government to consider the proposal and take a decision by December 11.

The court was hearing of a PIL filed by advocate Ahmed Abdi seeking directions to government to have a new high court building due to paucity of space in the present Grade I heritage structure at Fort area in South Mumbai.

The historic structure, construction of which was initiated in 1871, was completed in 1878.

The over 150-year-old Bombay High Court in Fort was constructed essentially to meet the requirements of 15 judges.

However, over the last 135 years, the strength of judges has increased to 75 in 2007. It is soon set to reach a figure of 94.