The Bombay High Court has posted for final hearing on Wednesday a bunch of petitions challenging the beef ban legislation in Maharashtra.

The petitions would be heard by a bench of Justices Abhay Oka and V L Achilya for three days from October 14.

In February 2015, the President had granted sanction to 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 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 HC had in April refused to grant an interim stay on the law on the issue of possession of beef.

Arif Kapadia, a city resident, and noted lawyer Harish Jagtiani, have challenged the provision of the law which says mere possession of beef in any place in the state is a crime.

According to Jagtiani, this provision of the law is arbitrary and hits upon the cosmopolitan nature of the city which houses people from all religions and communities.

Kapadia, on the other hand, has described as “draconian” section 5(D) of the Act which makes possession of meat of any cow, bull or bullock slaughtered outside the state a cognizable and non-bailable offence with punishment upto one year in jail and Rs 2,000 fine.

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

On September 21, the HC had rejected the plea in a bunch of petitions seeking the relaxation of beef ban in Maharashtra during a three-day period for Eid festival, also known as Bakri-Eid.

The HC was of the view that it cannot temporarily suspend the beef ban as it was hearing petitions challenging the Act.

The Bombay High Court said it was “appalled by Maharashtra government’s “lack of political will” to put an end to custodial deaths and the state seems to be a “consensual party” to such incidents.

A division bench of Justices V M Kanade and Shalini Phansalkar-Joshi said it was appalled by government’s “insensitivity” and “lack of political will” to address this problem.

The Judges made the stinging observations while hearing a bunch of petitions, including a PIL, on the increasing number of custodial death cases in the state.

“When we heard the matter for the first time we said the government should take steps to put an end to this. But it is still happening. In fact, incidents of custodial deaths have increased. What can the judiciary do when the executive is so insensitive?” Justice Kanade said.

“Despite such deaths taking place in custody, the entire machinery is insensitive and turning a blind eye as though it is not happening. The state seems to be a consensual party. We are appalled by the government’s insensitivity and lack of political will to address this problem. The government does not seem to be bothered and is silent towards this menace of custodial deaths,” the Court said.

The bench expressed displeasure over the government’s failure to comply with its January order, asking it to initiate steps to install CCTVs in all police stations.

“The government has not yet even filed an affidavit saying what steps it has taken so far. We feel that even if CCTVs are installed, police will come up with excuses that the cameras are not working. The mindset needs to be changed.”

It noted that though officers are prosecuted in custodial death cases, they are generally acquitted. “In the last 15 years, there has not been a single conviction in a custodial death case. If they are punished, then it will act as a deterrent,” the bench maintained.

The HC, which fixed October 21 for next hearing, has sought suggestions from petitioners’ advocates Yug Choudhary and Mihir Desai on how to tackle the issue.

As part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Make in India’ campaign, three city-based educational institutions have decided to adopt suburban Matunga railway station in a bid to convert it into a ‘world class station with the most modern facilities’.

“Ruia College, Podar College and Welingkar Institute have come together to adopt the Matunga station for the benefit of thousands of commuting students, people thronging the surrounding business district and local residents of Matunga,” WeSchool Group Director Dr. Uday Salunkhe said.

WeSchool refers to the Welingkar Institute of Management Development and Research, a business school with branches in Mumbai and Bengaluru.

Salunkhe said the aim of the project is to go beyond the basics and use thinking and intelligence gathering through pain-points of various stakeholders and collectively design a better user experience and space management.

“Transforming self-organisation and then society through collective wisdom and creating multiple customised solutions which are inclusive and humane is WeSchool’s connect with the nation’s vision of smart cities,” he said.

“In our mission to groom the citizens for future, educational institutes must focus on their role of providing the young students with skill-sets that will contribute to the national agenda as well as global business, as India’s share in the global business is expected to rise by several billions by 2020,” he said.

Matunga has some of the best educational institutes and with a population of nearly 70,000 students, can we not look at the possibility of turning this ecosystem into a student-centric university township that will nurture our global citizen leaders,” he said.

A sessions court granted interim bail to former Maharashtra minister Kripashankar Singh and four members of his family in connection with a disproportionate assets case.

“The sessions court granted interim bail to Singh and his family members– his wife, son, daugher and son-in-law on a bond of Rs. 25,000 each,” said a Mumbai police official.

Singh, the former chief of Mumbai unit of Congress, and his family members appeared before the court today. The case is likely to be heard next on October 21.

The court also allowed the intervener Sanjay Tiwari to file his application and posted the plea on the next hearing date.

“The court has asked us to file intervener plea and it will be taken up on October 21,” advocate Nilesh Tribhuvan, who appeared for Tiwari, said.

Tiwari had approached the Bombay High court seeking filing of a case against Singh and his family members.

A case was filed against Singh and his kin in February, 2012 after the Bombay High Court directed the Mumbai police to investigate the allegations of criminal misconduct and disproportionate assets.

Tiwari in his PIL before the Bombay High Court said that Singh and his relatives had assets of Rs. 320 crore disproportionate to known sources of their income.

In the petition, Tiwari claimed that Singh had been close to former Jharkhand Chief Minister Madhu Koda who was in jail for alleged involvement in a multi-crore hawala scam.

He alleged that several monetary transactions had taken place between them. Singh’s son Narendra Mohan is married to Ankita, daughter of Kamlesh Singh, who was a minister in Koda cabinet.

Ankita had received Rs. 1.75 crore in her account from Kamlesh, the PIL said, adding that there were huge transactions from the bank accounts of Kripashankar’s wife Malti Devi too.

Noted Marathi writer Pradnya Pawar on Tuesday said she was returning all her literary awards and prize money totaling Rs 1.13 lakh to the state government to protest the “culture of intolerance” in the country.

Pawar cited Dadri lynching and killing of rationalists Dabholkar, Pansare and Kalburgi as instances that show “growing intolerance”. “I have taken the decision to protest against the intolerant attitude and ‘dandelashahi’ (dictatorship) in the country in the last one, one-and-half years,” she said.

“Those returning the awards have started a movement. My gesture is to boost this movement. Maharashtra has led intellectual movement in the country. I cannot understand why is there silence in the recent past. “More hands should come out in support of my stance,” she said.

Pawar has written to Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis saying, “We are living in an era of undeclared emergency.” Urdu novelist Rahman Abbas, who lives in Mira Road near Mumbai, on Monday returned the Maharashtra State Urdu Sahitya Academy Award as a mark of protest against the Dadri lynching incident.

“After the Dadri lynching, the Urdu writing community has been quite unhappy. Therefore, I decided to return the award. There are some other Urdu writers who also want to join the protest. It is high time we stood up to the injustice surrounding us,” he said.

Abbas had in 2011 won the award for his third novel ‘Khuda Ke Saaye Mein Aankh Micholi’ (Hide and Seek in the Shadow of God). Earlier, noted writers Nayantara Sahgal and poet Ashok Vajpeyi had returned their literary honours to protest what they termed as an “assault on right to freedom of both life and expression”.

The Bombay High Court directed the Maharashtra government to extend till November 30 the tenure of a one-man panel appointed to probe the alleged irregularities in allotment of flats under the Chief Minister’s discretionary housing quota since 1982.

The direction was given by Justices Abhay Oka and V L Achilya who acted on a request made by the committee.

The bench, on October 9, last year, had appointed Justice J A Patil, a retired judge of the high court, to probe the allegations of double or multiple allotment of flats in a public interest litigation filed by activist KetanTirodkar.

The HC had asked the committee to probe the allegations and file a report before it. The tenure of this committee was to end on October 15, this year.

The secretary of the Justice J A Patil Committee today placed a letter before the court seeking more time on the ground that the work involved was of a great magnitude.

The letter further said that Justice Patil had already started writing the report and he would conclude by October 31. However, some more time was needed to wind up the matter.

While extending the tenure of the committee to November 30, the bench appreciated the voluntary gesture of Justice Patil of not drawing salary for the period of extended tenure.

The PIL, posted for hearing on November 19, alleged that many people got more than one flat under the CM’s quota by making false declarations. It also said most beneficiaries are politicians or those who are close to politicians.

Pending recommendations by this committee, the high court had earlier asked the state to continue its ongoing action against those who got the flats by filing false affidavits.

The judges had also asked such beneficiaries to return the flats or pay up the price if they have sold off the flats.

The court had ordered that the government must ensure that those who have got multiple flats hand over the possession back to the authorities.

The HC has asked the Patil committee to scrutinise all the applications for flats since 1982, and look for the cases where a single person has got more than one flat.

The government has filed FIRs against 27 people for getting flats fraudulently, the court was informed.

The allotment under the CM’s quota has now been stopped following the court’s order. Under the scheme, the flats were supposed to be given to freedom fighters, art personalities and sports persons.

Former Pakistan foreign minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri on Tuesday urged India and Pakistan to spread positivity through a ‘healing balm’ to improve the deteriorating relations between the two neighbouring countries.

“It is incumbent on India and Pakistan to realise that their founding fathers had a completely different view on how Hindus and Muslims would conduct themselves in reference to each other. It’s a pity that this is not the case today. Men of goodwill in both the countries should try to apply a healing balm,” Kasuri told the media during his visit to Mani Bhawan, the focal point of Mahatma Gandhi’s political activities in Mumbai between 1917 and 1934.

“It is very easy to spread negativity but very difficult and rewarding to spread positivity. My book is an attempt to expand the convergence between the two countries. It’s a privilege to be here. The Indian freedom struggle depicts that we had a common history when we were fighting against British whether it is India or Pakistan. Sincere efforts were made by Mahatma Gandhi and Mohammed Ali Jinnah to keep the two people together,” Kasuri added.

Kasuri’s book ‘Neither a Hawk nor a Dove’ was launched in Mumbai yesterday amid protest by the Shiv Sena.

A 15-member delegation of the Mumbai Congress, led by president Sanjay Nirupam, met Governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao seeking lowering of power tariffs in the metropolis.

Nirupam said the delegation comprising senior leaders and office-bearers discussed the issue of indiscriminate increase in power tariff in the city.

He demanded a CAG audit of all the power discoms and said the Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC) and discoms link should be probed. MERC takes decisions on power tariffs.

Nirupam said the tariffs should be reduced to provide relief to people.

The Congress leader said the Governor assured him that he would call a meeting of Energy Department officials and take up necessary steps.