The Bombay High Court posted on November 16 for final hearing a batch of petitions challenging the beef ban law in Maharashtra.

A division bench of Justices A S Oka and V L Achiliya, before whom the petitions came up for hearing today, was informed by acting Advocate General Anil Singh that the Maharashtra Cabinet has recommended appointment of senior counsel Shreehari Aney as the Advocate General and hence, he would not appear in the matter anymore.

Aney told the court that the notification appointing him has not yet come. “Once the notification comes I would require some time to prepare for arguing the case. But the petitioners’ counsel can start their arguments,” he said.

Senior counsel Aspi Chinoy, appearing for one of the petitioners, submitted that the petitions can be heard next week. The court then adjourned hearing till November 16.

In February 2015, the President had given assent to the Maharashtra Animal Preservation (Amendment) Act. While the Act had banned slaughter of cows way back in 1976, the recent amendments prohibited slaughter of bulls and bullocks.

According to the amended Act, the sale of bulls and bullocks in the state for slaughter is an offence punishable with five-year jail term and Rs 10,000 fine. Besides, possession of meat of a cow, bull or bullock is also an offence for which the punishment prescribed is one year jail and Rs 2,000 fine.

While hearing the petition, the high court had in April refused to grant an interim stay on the law on the issue of possession of beef.

City resident Arif Kapadia and lawyer Harish Jagtiani have challenged the provision of law which says mere possession of beef in any place in the state is a crime. According to Jagtiani, this provision of law is arbitrary and hits upon the cosmopolitan nature of the city which houses people from all religions and communities.

Kapadia described as “draconian” section 5(D) of the Act which makes possession of meat of any cow, bull or bullock slaughtered outside the state an offence.

Other petitions have been filed by lawyer Vishal Sheth and student Shaina Sen. They said, “We are Hindus who are consumers of beef, which is now part of our diet and nutrition source. The ban on beef and criminalising its sale and possession violates fundamental rights of citizens.

With an aim to keep the stations neat and clean, 29 and 11 stations of Central and Western Railway respectively have been adopted by different social, non-governmental organisations and charitable institutes.

The move by the organisations is aimed at meeting the target of ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’ launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi last year.

The adoption of station by charitable institutions, social organisations and NGOs is a new concept initiated under ‘Swachh Rail Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’ of Indian Railways initiated by Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu, the Railways said in a statement.

“To get the ‘Swachh rail’ actualised, prominent charitable Institutions, social organisations and NGOs were contacted by Central and Western Railways regarding adoption of stations and support in taking forward the campaign with active participation of its volunteers/social workers.

“Matunga station has been adopted by Welinkgar Institute, Vadala Road station by Vidyalankar Institute and Dadar station by Nerolac Paints. Apart from this, cleaning drive has already been started at GTB Nagar, Nahur, Chembur, Kanjurmarg, Vidyavihar, Kings Circle, Bhandup and Ghatkopar stations with the initiative by various institutes and organisations,” it said.

Rotary International has come forward by accepting the challenge to fulfil the social cause by adopting various stations of Central and Western Railway (WR).

Yesterday, Rotary International District 3140 adopted eight stations – Thane, Dombivali, Govandi and Mankhurd of Central Railway (CR) and Borivali, Kandivali, Bandra and Khar Road of Western Railway.

“Rotary is involved in series of humanitarian efforts and it is in sync with various initiatives proposed by PM Narendra Modi,” a volunteer with the organisation said.

“Through these proactive efforts of the Central and Western Railway authorities and the Rotary, we expect a face-lift of the stations, cleaner and healthier toilet blocks, awareness to the travelling public on various health and safety issues and a high sense of belonging to the commuters towards the public property,” a senior officer of the Central Railways said.

City and Industrial Development Corporation of Maharashtra Ltd (CIDCO) will set up an Aviation Academy for the training of manpower required for the proposed Navi Mumbai International airport, its joint managing director V Radha said.

The work of the proposed airport is likely to begin next year and the first phase has been scheduled to be completed in 2019, she said.

Radha was talking to reporters yesterday during a presentation on the ongoing projects of CIDCO here.

The Navi Mumbai airport project, for which CIDCO is the nodal agency, is in its final stages of getting approvals and all pending permissions and clearances will be in hand soon, she said, adding, post which agency (to develop and operate the airport) will be finalised.

She said all major project approvals clearances, namely from Ministry of Civil Aviation, Environment and CRZ clearance from Ministry of Environment and Forest, defence clearance, are in place, while clearance from MPCB (Maharashtra Pollution Control Board) was also obtained.

The stage I forest clearance and wild life clearance have been obtained and Stage II clearance is in progress, the MD said.

In order to expedite the airport development and give a head start to the prospective bidders, CIDCO is taking up pre-development works for the airport such as land development of core Airport area, shifting of EHVT lines belonging to Tata Power.

Once operations start, the airport will give jobs to more than a lakh people and to cater to this need, CIDCO is, in advance starting an Aviation Academy which will train the required man power, she said.

Radha informed that the JNPT is also mulling to open a port academy in the vicinity.

As per the current estimates, major passenger influx of 16 per cent to the airport is likely to come from Kalyan and Bhiwandi, eight per cent from Thane, she said.

During the presentation, a new web portal of CIDCO and a mobile app was also launched.

A teenage boy was allegedly murdered by two minor boys in Bhiwandi area over a scuffle on sharing smoke, police said.

Inspector V K Deshmukh of Shanti Nagar police station said the incident took place last Monday and the two boys, both aged 16, have been detained.

Victim Bilal Ahmed Ansari (17) was on his way to a public toilet and was intercepted by the two minors who asked him to share the ‘beedi’ he was smoking, the officer said.

When Bilal refused to share the smoke, the two boys thrashed him up severely, leaving him dead, he said.

The duo have been charged under IPC section 302 (murder) rw 34 and have been detained since both are minors.

Further investigation into the matter is on, police added.

A man has been sentenced to one year imprisonment by a district court here for raping a minor girl on several occasions between 2008 and 2009.

Judge V V Bambarde held Shahzad Ali, 27, guilty of raping a minor girl under IPC sections 363 (kidnapping), 366-A (procuration of minor girl), 376 (rape) and sentenced him to one year imprisonment here yesterday.

He was also convicted under relevant sections of the Scheduled Castes and Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, and was sentenced to an additional six months imprisonment.

Both the sentences will run concurrently, the judge ordered.

Additional public prosecutor Hemlata Deshmukh told the court that the accused worked as a labourer at a plaster of paris firm and had befriended the victim (then aged 13), a resident of Karave in Navi Mumbai.

He then took the girl to different cities, Nagpur, Ludhiana, and in Uttar Pradesh between July 2008 and February 2009, and raped her on several occasions.

The court was also told that the accused is a native of Badarpur in Uttar Pradesh and had come to Navi Mumbai for work.

The Maharashtra unit of Congress has threatened to hold a statewide agitation if the government does not withdraw its decision to provide psychological counselling to farmers.

“The Congress condemns the government’s decision to arbitrarily declare farmers as ‘mad’ and provide them psychological treatment,” Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) chief Ashok Chavan said.

The Centre and the state government have failed to provide adequate monetary compensation to farmers and this had resulted in them being pushed into a financial crisis and therefore the suicides are taking place, the former chief minister said.

“The government has ignored this fact (financial crisis) and instead issued a Government Resolution on providing farmers psychological treatment which is nothing short of declaring them mad,” he added.

State government had on September 24 issued a GR that it would open counselling cells in 14 districts and extend them to taluka level with contractual employees.

The Bombay High Court directed Maharashtra government to probe the legality of a decision taken by the authorities to release water from Gangapur dam for ‘shahi snan’ (royal bath) at the Kumbh Mela in Nashik this year.

Giving the directions to the state’s Chief Secretary, a division bench of Justices A S Oka and V L Achiliya said the decision to release one TMC (thousand million cubic) water from the dam was contrary to a policy of the government which categorises its priority list as regards supply of water.

As per the policy, supply of water for drinking purposes comes first and supply for such ‘shahi snaan’ comes in the last at fourth category.

The bench was hearing a Public Interest Litigation filed by H M Desarda, a professor from Pune, seeking quashing of the state government’s decision to release one TMC water for every ‘shahi snaan’, saying the state was reeling under a drought-like situation.

The court was earlier told that for the royal bath on September 13, the government released two TMC water from the Gangapur dam.

The bench had then restrained the government from releasing the water from the Gangapur dam henceforth for the purpose of ‘shahi snan’. The court was today told that the water was still released for the last royal bath held on September 25.

The Bombay High Court asked the Central and Western Railway authorities to adopt crowd management techniques to ensure a smooth ride for suburban railway passengers, including elderly commuters.

“Consider introducing an ‘all standing’ boggie in suburban trains to accommodate the crowd… at least do it on a pilot project to check the results,” a bench of Justice Naresh Patil and Justice S B Shukhre said.

The court had taken suo moto cognisance of a letter written by a senior citizen, A B Thakkar, in 2009 and converted it into a PIL.

Thakkar contended that entering a jam-packed train during peak hours was a nightmarish experience for the elderly.

The bench also suggested the railways consider having double decker suburban trains to help crowd management during peak hours.

The Judges further asked the state government to consider appointing a private agency to carry out a survey to analyse the movement of passengers during peak and non-peak hours to come up with ways to improve crowd management.

The railways informed the court that around 38,000 senior citizens travel daily on suburban trains. The railways have, after court orders, reserved 14 seats in a compartment for the elderly.

Justice Patil also suggested to the railways to consider having space for senior citizens in ladies special trains as it is difficult for senior citizens to board the train otherwise.

The bench, however, going back on the issue of overcrowding, asked “during peak hours, can a senior citizen enter the compartment? If not, then how can he or she even be able to reach to his/her seat?”

The court gave the railways time till November 18 to respond to the suggestions made by the bench.

Denying allegations that clay particles were found in chikki (a sweet snack) being supplied to students of state-run schools, Maharashtra government told the Bombay High Court that a laboratory test of its sample did not reveal presence of any such inedible material.

“No clay particles were found in a sample sent to a reputed government lab in Ghaziabad,” state government counsel Srihari Aney said during the hearing of a petition which alleged that sub-standard chikkis were being supplied to students in government-run schools.

A bench of Justices V M Kanade and Anuja Prabhudessai was hearing a public interest litigation filed by Sandeep Ahire and others seeking an inquiry by a retired high court judge into the alleged Rs. 206-crore chikki scam for which Women and Child Development Minister Pankaja Munde had come under fire.

Meanwhile, the bench extended till November 17 its interim order restraining the state government from distributing chikki to school students following complaints over its quality.

The government counsel informed the court that at present there was no stock of chikki left for distribution to the students and also that the date of the seized chikki stock had expired, hence it could not be used any more.

The government filed an affidavit in reply to the PIL stating the procedures required to be followed for procurement of Chikki from the suppliers and also whether the purchase was made through auction or otherwise.

The high court had last month asked the government not to make payments to the contractors who had supplied the chikki for free distribution to students of Anganwadis (primary schools in tribal areas).

The state had informed the court that the government had already stopped payments to the contractors.

The state justified the capability of the manufacturer to supply chikki on a large scale and said the snack was still being supplied in schools run by municipal corporation in Navi Mumbai, Pune Zilla Parishad and other private bodies. This showed the quality of chikki was not sub-standard or else they would not be purchased by these institutions.

Pankaja Munde has been accused of irregularities in procurement of items worth Rs. 206 crore, including chikki. It has also been alleged that the chikki, meant to be distributed to tribal students, had traces of clay.