Justice Madanlal Laxmandas Tahaliyani, a retired judge of Bombay High Court, was sworn in as the new Maharashtra Lokayukta.

Governor C Vidyasagar Rao administered the oath of office to Justice Tahaliyani at a brief ceremony held at the Darbar Hall of Raj Bhavan.

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Minister for Higher, Technical and Medical Education, Vinod Tawde, judges of Bombay High Court, public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam, family members of Justice Tahaliyani and others were present on the occasion.

Justice Tahaliyani succeeds Justice (retd) PB Gaikwad, whose term as Lokayukta ended on July 1, 2014.

Supreme Court, in its judgement dated August 29, 2012, in the Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab versus State of Maharashtra case, had lauded the role of Justice Tahaliyani in conducting the trial proceedings and maintaining the record of the case in an exemplary manner.

The judgement delivered by Justices Aftab Alam and Chandramauli Kr Prasad records, “In the course of hearing of the appeal, we also came to know the trial Judge Shri Tahaliyani. From the records of the case, he appears to be a stern, no-nonsense person. But he is a true flag-bearer of the rule of law in this country.”

“The manner in which he conducted the trial proceedings and maintained the record is exemplary. We seriously recommend that the trial court records of this case be included in the curriculum of the National Judicial Authority and the Judicial Authorities of the different states as a model for criminal trial proceedings,” they said.

Justice Tahaliyani was born on December 23, 1953, at Sardar Shahar in Rajasthan. After obtaining his law degree, he started practising law in May, 1977, at Gondia and Chandrapur in Maharashtra.

He was appointed as Assistant Public Prosecutor at Gadchiroli on December 14, 1979, and worked in that capacity at Gadchiroli, Sironcha, Desaiganj and Warora.

He also officiated as the Metropolitan Magistrate, Mumbai, in 1987. He was appointed as Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Mumbai, in 1994 and Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Mumbai, in 1997.

He was appointed as Judge of Bombay City Civil Court in 1997, Registrar (Inspection) High Court of Bombay in 2008, 2nd Additional Principal Judge, City Civil Court, Mumbai, in 2009, 1st Additional Principal Judge in 2009 and Principal Judge Bombay City Civil Court in 2010. He was elevated as High Court Judge on March 18, 2011.

The Maharashtra government on Monday told the Bombay High Court it will take action against officials concerned if there has been any lapse in stopping supply of sub-standard snacks to schools in tribal areas.

On August 13, government, in an affidavit, accepted the ‘chikkis’ (a type of sweet snack) supplied to schools in tribal areas in four districts under a Rs. 206-crore procurement scheme by the Ministry for Women and Child Development Ministry was unfit for human consumption and hence supply has been stopped.

The affidavit was filed before a division bench of Justices V M Kanade and Shalini Phansalkar-Joshi, which was hearing a petition by social worker Sandeep Ahire seeking a ban on manufacture and distribution of sub-standard ‘chikkis’.

However, the Court was informed by Ahire’s advocate Anil Anturkar that as per information received under RTI, ‘chikkis’ are still being distributed in several schools.

Responding to this, senior counsel Srihari Aney, appearing for government, said “we are still standing by our statement. We have not distributed the chikkis after complaints were received.”

Aney, while seeking time to file an affidavit in response to the fresh allegation, told the Court if there has been a breach then government will take action against those responsible.

The next hearing on the petition will take place on August 31.

Pictures of a goat behind bars have gone viral, days after a parrot was summoned by Maharashtra police for “hurling obscenities” at a woman.

The goat was reportedly locked up after a complaint was registered by its owner for cattle theft at Pathri in Parbhani district.

The goat was stolen on Saturday, allegedly by three people, one of whom was nabbed by the police on Sunday and put in the Pathri lock-up.

However, the police also locked up the goat along with the alleged thief Naseem Khan. It was only after the photos went viral on WhatsApp and the social media, the goat was released from the lock-up but put under police watch.

A police official at Pathri said that the goat was in the lock-up for only 22 minutes and will be handed over to owner Hidayat Khan only after court’s verdict.

The incident comes days after police had summoned the parrot in Chandrapur district for “abusing” a woman.

The Maharashtra Government is all set to acquire the ownership of the three-storey bungalow in London, where Dalit icon and architect of Indian Constitution Babasaheb Ambedkar lived as a student in the 1920s, within 15 days.

Refuting reports that the owner of the bungalow might pull out of the deal, a state minister said the “exchange of contracts” for the purchase of the bungalow will take place in two days and the state will get its ownership within 15 days.

All procedures related to acquiring the 2,050 sq ft bungalow will be over soon and it will be handed over to the state government within the next 15 days, state Social Justice Minister Rajkumar Badole said.

“There is nothing called last day for the purchase of this house. It has been decided that the exchange of contract between both parties will take place within two days. There is no monetary problem as far as the government is concerned. There have been hiccups in the process, but the government will certainly buy the house within 15 days,” Badole told a news agency.

He alleged the reports suggesting that the property’s owner had threatened to withdraw the offer it it was not processed by today were “planted” by the Opposition to cast the government in bad light.

“The Opposition (Congress and the NCP) could do nothing about it in 15 years. When we are taking a step, they want to pull us back by planting stories that would put the government unnecessarily in a bad light,” he said.

Reacting to the charge, Congress leader Sanjay Nirupam said Badole’s statement “smells of hypocrisy” and proves that this government has no respect for Ambedkar.

“The cultural affairs minister (Vinod Tawde) went to London and announced that the government will buy the house. If the government did intend to buy the home, where has the money that they claim was allocated gone? We have just highlighted that the government is disrespectful towards Ambedkar,” Nirupam said.

The state government had announced earlier its decision to acquire the property at Rs 31 crore and to be preserved as a memorial to Ambedkar, an architect of Indian Constitution besides being the most vocal champion of the rights of the suppressed classes in the country.

The BJP-led Government headed by Devendra Fadnavis has also made a budgetary provision of Rs 40 crore for buying the London bungalow.

However, bureaucratic delays in departments concerned has resulted in the transaction to take far too long.

As India continues to build more pressure on Pakistan to hand over 1993Mumbai serial blasts mastermind Dawood Ibrahim, former Home Secretary and now BJP leader RK Singh has made a sensational claim that a covert operation was planned by the Indian authorities to kill the fugitive underworld don sometimes back.

Singh made this claim in an interview to the one of the leading news channels during which he regretted that the entire operation was compromised by some corrupt Mumbai Police officials.

The former Home Secretary also stressed that PM Narendra Modi should act firmly against gangster Dawood, who is the country’s most wanted criminal.

Disclosing details of the highly secret operation, Singh said that it was launched when Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the prime minister and current NSA Ajit Doval was the chief of the IB.

Elaborating on the operation, Singh disclosed that the Indian government had roped in some elements from Dawood’s rival Chhota Rajan’s gang and they were later imparted training at a secret location outside Maharashtra.

However, some Mumbai Police officials who were in regular touch with the D-company landed up at the training camp with arrest warrants for the covert operatives who had been engaged by India.

The entire operation to take down Dawood failed due to these rogue elements in Mumbai Police, Singh claimed. This is the first time that a high-level government official has confirmed about India’s covert operation to take down Dawood Ibrahim.

Noting that Dawood and Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) chief Hafiz Saeed are being protected by the powerful Pakistan Army and the ISI, Singh stressed that a secret operation must be carried out in the manner the United States did to kill terrorists Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar.

Coming down heavily on Islamabad for repeatedly denying Dawood’s presence in Pakistan, Singh added that Pakistan will never admit that the underworld don is there.

It will also shamelessly deny the presence of other terrorists despite funding and training these terror groups on its soil, the BJP MP said, adding, “India must repeat the Myanmar operation in Pakistan.”