Hearing the plea of a 72-year-old woman lawyer who claimed to have no source of livelihood and that she is sick and infirm, the Bombay High Court asked the Bar Council of Maharashtra and Goa to immediately give her Rs 5,000 as financial aid.

A bench of Justices V M Kanade and B P Colabawalla also asked Maharashtra government and the Centre to inform the court within four weeks if they had introduced any scheme for aged persons who did not have any source of income.

The court was hearing a letter written by the lawyer to Chief Justice Mohit Shah who had suo motu converted it into a petition and placed before a bench headed by Justice Kanade.

The letter said that she had no income of her own and that her children and relatives were not looking after her.

The lawyer also claimed that she needed money and food in order to survive and urged the court to provide her immediate financial help.

Advocate Hiten Venegaonkar and Advocate General Anil Singh, who appeared on behalf of the state government, said funds could also be given from Sanjay Gandhi Niradhar Yojna and handed over a government circular to the court in this regard.

Looking at the circular, the judges said disbursement of funds under this scheme was too meagre and would not suffice. They also advised the government to look into the issue and raise the financial aid under this scheme.

The court was informed that another scheme was Annapurna Scheme under which 10 kgs foodgrains was distributed free of cost to the beneficiary.

However, the woman lawyer’s representative, who was in the court, said she had no cooking devices at home and would not be able to use the free ration supplied by the state.

The court then asked the government lawyers to disclose various schemes under which financial help could be given to the woman lawyer.

A social audit on the Mumbai suburban rail network found that the killer distance between railway station platforms and railway footboard continues to exist on 93 per cent of stations.

“We chose ten suburban railway stations on Central, Harbour and Western lines to do a first ever social audit of the suburban railway network which highlighted various issues that need to be dealt with full willpower and commitment,” Moneylife Foundation’s Sucheta Dalal said.

“Hawkers and beggars were found on foot overbridges at 53 per cent of stations and 57 per cent of railway stations do not have railings to prevent crossing of tracks,” the report stated.

“Sixty three per cent of railway stations had ambulances parked outside premises and only 17 per cent of stations had an acceptable level of sanitation. Most stations did not have adequate signage. However, there are many large and colourful advertisements and hoardings,” the report said.

“The report is a feedback from citizens and commuters from Mumbai and hence we placed it in public domain as well as submitted it to the railway minister, besides general managers of Central Railway and Western Railway,” Dalal said.

The social audit was carried out with the help of two foreign students namely Ricky Vella and Leanne H Truong from the University of Western Sydney in Australia, with help from railway activists.

Samir Jhaveri, a railway activist who is part of the Safe Rail Group, run by the Moneylife Foundation, said, “This report shows the clear picture of the suburban railway system and railway officers must act accordingly”.

The Bombay High Court today said it will hear the appeal filed by Bollywood actor Salman Khan against the five-year sentence awarded to him in the 2002 hit-and-run case from July 30 on a regular basis.

Salman’s lawyer Amit Desai sought adjournment of hearing till August 3, but Justice A R Joshi did not consider his plea and decided to hear the 49-year-old actor’s appeal from July 30.

In a related development, the judge also dismissed an intervention plea for granting a stay on the hearing on the ground that the applicant had no locus standi in the matter.

A murder convict, whose appeal has not been heard since 2009, had filed the intervention application. His contention was that the matters involving celebrities were being heard out-of-turn, whereas those of others were kept pending and such convicts have to languish in jail.

He has also filed a separate petition making the same allegation about appeals of celebrities being heard urgently.

His lawyer Aparna Vatkar prayed that his appeal may be heard expeditiously.

Prosecutor S S Shinde, however, said he had no locus standi (right to be heard) in this matter. The applicant can pursue his other petition which is before another bench, said Shinde.

The court accepted the prosecutor’s plea and rejected the application. The judge said that both the sides in Salman’s case had agreed to expeditious hearing and, therefore, the applicant had no right to intervene.

The actor, who is on bail, did not come to the court today. His sister, Alvira, was, however, present.

Salman was convicted by a sessions court on May 6 and sentenced to five years’ imprisonment on various counts, including ‘culpable homicide not amounting to murder’.

A man was killed and four others were injured when the actor’s Toyota Land Cruiser ran over them while they were asleep on a pavement outside a bakery in suburban Bandra on September 28, 2002.

Four persons were killed and five were injured in suburban Santacruz in a tree collapse incident.

The tree collapsed on a wall in Wakola area and the wall crashed on the shanties built next to it, crushing those inside, Fire Brigade said.

Four persons were killed and five were injured in the incident, it said.

The injured were admitted to nearby municipal hospitals.

The city has been receiving frequent showers over the last one week.

In view of the terrorist attack in Gurdaspur district of Punjab this morning, intelligence agencies have issued high alert in four prominent cities of Maharashtra.

“Intelligence agencies have sounded a high alert for Mumbai, Pune, Aurangabad and Nagpur cities. Intelligence agencies have told us that there should be high security for a few days in places like malls, railway stations and cinema halls as there could be a possible terror attack in one of these cities in the coming days,” said minister of state for home Ram Shinde.

As for Mumbai, city police commissioner Rakesh Maria said that all the concerned units and the special units of the city police apart from police stations have been asked to be alert.
State anti-terrorism squad chief Vivek Phansalkar said, “All our units in the state have been alerted and told to keep a tab on every suspicious person or group.”

A police source said that officers had got in touch with some accused or convicts who are in jail in terror-related case to get clues about possible strike in Mumbai.

In Nagpur, police have already increased security ahead of the scheduled hanging of Yakub Memon, the convict of 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case, on July 30.

Four heavily armed terrorists wearing army uniform went on a rampage attacking a bus and a police station complex, leaving five persons, including a policeman, dead and several injured in Gurdaspur district bordering Pakistan.

Scores of Shiv Sena workers along with Ambarnath Sena MLA Balaji Kinnikar held a protest at the Hill Line police station in the district against the alleged misbehaviour of police with a local Sena leader.

The protest was held on Sunday night.

MLA Kinnikar alleged that last night police misbehaved with a local Sena leader Raju Chikne who was involved in a road accident.

“The police constables who were patrolling the area took Chikane to the police station where a senior officer reportedly abused Chikane. He was also beaten up by the police,” Kinnikar alleged.

Kinnikar said that some Shiv Sena leaders contacted Joint Commissioner of Police V V Lakshi Narayana who rushed a ACP rank officer to the spot to control the situation.

When contacted officials at the concerned police station did not reveal any details about the incident.