The Bombay High Court stayed a family court order asking Pakistani singer Adnan Sami to hand over five flats in suburban Andheri to his ex-wife Sabah Galadari by the first week of June besides paying certain amount to her.
The stay was granted till June 10 by a vacation bench of justices Anil Memon and R D Dhanuka on an appeal filed by Sami against the family court order.
The family court on April 5 had also ordered Sami to pay Galadari Rs 5.3 crore towards money she gave him between 2007-08 and Rs 1 crore as domestic violence compensation, Rs 10 lakh as belated ‘mehr’ and Rs 1 lakh for litigation costs.
Galadari has filed a matrimonial dispute suit in the family court at Bandra claiming compensation from Sami as well as the flats saying that Sami had gifted them to her in 2008.
Hearing Sami’s appeal today, the judges, however, said “Till the next date (June 10), the implementation, execution and effect of the impugned order of April 5 passed by the family court filed by the respondent (Galadari) is stayed.”
However, the judges made it clear that the high court was not expressing any views on the merits of the matter.
Sami’s lawyer Ranbir Singh sought quashing of the impugned order saying it was “erroneous, illegal, ultra vires, contrary to settled principles of law, and unsustainable”.
Besides, he argued, the family court did not appreciate the legal effect of the order of the Enforcement Directorate holding that Sami had no legal title and hence no legal authority to gift the suit property.
Hence, the court stayed the family court order till June 10.
HC stays family court order asking Adnan Sami to pay ex-wife
IBJA welcomes RBI’s decision to ease gold import norms
The Indian Bullion and Jewellers Association has welcomed the Reserve Bank of India move to allow Star Trading Houses and Premier Trading Houses to import gold under the 20:80 scheme.
Speaking to journalists Mohit Kamboj, President, Indian Bullion and Jewellers Association (IBJA) said the association has presented a detail presentation on various demand of the industry to BJP President Rajnath Singh on February 19, 2014.
“We were assured that necessary action would be taken within 30-60 days after the party takes power. We think that BJP has started fulfilling its promise even before it is sworn in,” said Kamboj.
The Association expects the Government to reduce import duty to 4 per cent from 10 per cent soon. The reduction in duty is expected to come in the next 10-15 days or in the Budget to be presented by the new Government, he said.
Kamboj expects the gold prices to touch 23,000 to 24,000 per 10 grams before Diwali with spot premium on gold vanishing and the Government reducing the import duty. With the reduction in prices and positive sentiment in the bullion trade, Kamboj expects the demand to improve steadily by Diwali.
The Bullion trade in India will revive under the leadership of Narendra Modi’s Government, he said. Coming down heavily on the UPA government, Kamboj said most of the banks exposure to the gem and jewellery has turned bad because of the faulty policy decision of the previous Government.
“We are requesting the RBI to ease the banks NPA norms for the industry, so that the industry can revive and repay the default loan. We need the right business environment to revive our business and pay back the bank loans. We do not want to cheat banks,” he said.
“Raise a Conflict with the Law of the Land” – Arvind arrested
Arvind Kejriwal was summoned as an accused by the court in the defamation complaint in which Gadkari had alleged that he was defamed by the AAP leader, who had included his name in the party’s list of “India’s most corrupt”.
The court cannot act as a mute spectator when a particular plaintiff deliberately seeks to disrupt the procedure established by the law. This case cannot be dealt with any different than any other criminal cases where the courts insist on furnishing bail bond/personal bond to secure the presence of the accused persons. The accused cannot seek different treatment to be let off only with an oral undertaking in violation/divergence to the settled practice/procedure regarding bail. The court, in its order, also said that this was not a case where the accused is unable to furnish bail bond due to financial inability. The defamation suit is of high amount and there is always a percentage to Bond. Is there any application of mind by judge or the advocate of Kejriwal? What is the purpose of demanding bonds? The courts and judges waste precious time of courts in useless things. My personal calculation is that 90 per cent of the court time is wasted on a thing that does not give any justice to anyone.
The Aam Aadmi Party will challenge the court order on Kejriwal’s arrest, after he refused to furnish the bail bond in a defamation case filed by BJP leader Nitin Gadkari; the judge asks for the bond to be paid on Friday.
It’s only a bond on paper that if you don’t come to the next hearing, you pay Rs. 10,000. It’s a normal procedure and we have to pay no money at the court. So, finally one former CM of Delhi landed in Tihar jail, who once promised Delhi people to take Shiela Dixit there. Something he had repeatedly put off during his tenure despite requests from the jail administration. The magistrate, in her three-page order, also observed that the procedure of courts. Kejriwal told the court that he will not furnish a bail bond in the case as it is of a political nature. Instead, he said he would give an undertaking to appear before the court at every hearing, which was actually fair enough; the court’s focus, should be his attendance than the bond.
Every citizen has to follow these procedures. However, Kejriwal feels that it’s a matter of principles, not of Rs.10,000. BJP leader Gadkari has been exempted from appearance based on a prior application.
Life is so simple but we human beings make it complicated. Kejriwal is a nice person. He might be crazy but he has a vision which has gone little out of track. The destiny rewarded him with Delhi CM to prove himself. However, instead of ‘delivering,’ AAP always agitated against police and administration. Everyone cannot digest the affection, love and rewards given to them. So much hatred and negativity is not good for Kejriwal and for his party. This will destroy them. The tormentor Arvind actually became a victim of the system. As fate would have it, Kejriwal would now be the prison’s guest for two days after he refused to furnish a cash bond of Rs. 10,000 at a Delhi court, which gave him a choice between that and two days’ imprisonment. Kejriwal had been lodged in what they call the ‘meditation cell’ after a medical examination. The cell’s special feature is an attached, personal bathroom.
He’s a diabetic and needs to make frequent trips to the bathroom. Police is sensitive to these health needs, so they put him in the 16×10 meditation cell which is separate from other sections and also allowed him to use bedding brought by his family. Meanwhile, several AAP leaders including Rakhi Birla, Yogendra Yadav and Sanjay Singh had to be herded away from outside the prison’s periphery after they led a contingent of AAP supporters to protest Kejriwal’s arrest. The AAP had used social media to spread the word about his arrest and invited protesters outside the Jail. Around 200 of them had complied. People still feel the need for an honest and transparent system. Earlier, people had identified Kejriwal as a leader who will lead them to the required destination. However, his mid-way desertion has disillusioned many. Still, the desire in hearts for such a system does not die. It will be better if Kejriwal is replaced by a capable leader who avoids these shortcuts and cheap publicity to spearhead their movement. A man who is good in organisational skills, who prepares for a long marathon and who is honest. By honest, I do not mean honest from pecuniary angle only. By honest I mean someone who does things out of conviction and tells the same. I hope there are many people of stature in AAP who can provide such leadership. Also, beware of leaders who are really dishonest debaters. And let us remember one thing – There are no shortcuts to good results. Only hard work pays.
SC refuses to hear N Srinivasan’s request to reinstate him as BCCI chief
The Supreme Court on Thursday refused to hear Narayanaswami Srinivasan’s plea to reinstate him as the President of Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for all non-Indian Premier League (IPL) purposes.
The apex court bench of Justice B.S. Chauhan and Justice A.K. Sikri declining the plea, said they would not interfere with the order passed by another bench. The court also said that Srinivasan could approach Justice A.K. Patnaik — who passed the order, for whatever modifications he was seeking in orders.
Srinivasan’s plea was presented by Counsel Nagendra Rai.
The ousted BCCI chief moved the court yesterday seeking modification of its earlier orders to enable him to function as the Board’s president for activities other than the cash-rich Twenty20 tournament.
Srinivasan sought modification of March 28 and May 16 interim orders by which he was restrained from functioning as the BCCI President and former cricketers Sunil Gavaskar and Shiv Lal Yadav were asked to continue as the Presidents of BCCI till September 2014 when the matter will be heard next.
“Suitably modify the orders dated March 28, 2014 and May 16, 2014 passed by this Court and permit the applicant herein to function with immediate effect as the President of BCCI in so far as the non-IPL-2014 related activities are concerned,” Srinivasan said in the application.
Srinivasan argued that he was elected as the President of the cricket body in September last in the AGM held on the orders of the apex court and if the orders are not modified immediately his one year tenure would come to an end.
He said the restrictions imposed on him from discharging the functions of the President of BCCI has led to tremendous loss of goodwill for him and has become a major source of embarrassment in the eyes of the public.
He submitted that he has a strong case on merits and is most likely to emerge unscathed from the baseless allegations levelled against him with respect to betting and spot-fixing.
Srinivasan further said that the March 28 order restraining him from functioning as the BCCI President has been passed by the apex Court without taking into consideration that there is no material whatsoever on record to substantiate allegations of betting and or spot-fixing against him or even of non-cooperation with the probe panel constituted by this Court.
The application further said none of the players against whom any wrong-doing is alleged have been restrained from participating in the IPL-2014 and it is only he who is having to face the stigma of restriction from functioning as the BCCI President despite the probe-panel itself submitting before the apex court that the allegations against him were unestablished.
“The applicant most humbly submits that there is no objection from his side in the probe panel further investigating the allegations against him along with other persons. However, grave prejudice has occasioned to the applicant herein upon being restrained from discharging the functions as the President of BCCI,” it said.
We want good ties with neighbouring countries: BJP
The BJP on Thursday said invitation to Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for swearing-in ceremony of PM-designate Narendra Modi was a step towards forging good relations with neighbouring countries.
“It is in the interest of our nation to have good relations with neighbouring countries. That is why he (Sharif) has also been given invitation (for swearing-in ceremony). No one should have any problem with that,” senior BJP leader Venkaiah Naidu said while interacting with the media here.
Naidu was among a host of senior BJP leaders, including party Chief Rajnath Singh, who were in the state capital to attend oath taking ceremony of newly-elected Gujarat Chief Minister Anandi Patel.
For the first time, SAARC Heads of State and Government, including Sharif, Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa and Bangladesh Premier Sheikh Hasina have been invited to Modi’s swearing-in on May 26.
Asked about the controversy over the decision to invite Sharif, Singh declined to comment. “I don’t want to say anything on that matter. I just want to say that he (Sharif) has been invited.”
Meanwhile, Naidu took a dig at Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal, who refused to furnish bail bond in a criminal defamation case filed by BJP leader Nitin Gadkari and chose to go to jail.
“He is not in picture now. Kejriwal has now become ‘Crazywal’. He is just doing drama and no one takes him seriously now,” Naidu remarked.
Sonia’s son-in-law Robert Vadra likely to be frisked at airports
With Narendra Modi-led NDA government all set to assume charge in the next few days, Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law Robert Vadra is set to be deprived of the powers he enjoyed, while the grand old party was in power.
A news report on Thursday said that Vadra is likely to be removed from the list of passengers, who are exempted of frisking at airports.
The new BJP-led NDA government under the leadership of Modi is expected to pass the orders as soon as it assumes charge.
Interestingly, Vadra, the husband of Priyanka Gandhi, is the only civilian who is not frisked at airports.
“We are expecting the list of those exempted from frisking to get trimmed under the new NDA government,” said a senior BCAS official.
Some sources within the Civil Aviation Ministry said that the outgoing Manmohan Singh-led government did everything to scuttle the various RTI applications filed to seek information regarding the reasons behind Vadra’s name being included in the elite list.
The Home Ministry had once replied to a RTI application saying that Vadra has been included in the list as he is accompanied by Priyanka Gandhi, who is protected by Special Protection Group (SPG).
During the election campaign, Modi and Arun Jaitley had said there will be no witch-hunt against Vadra and law will be allowed to take its own course.
Parasailing Trip of 11-month-old: Case against Parents, Organisers
Parents of the 11-month-old baby girl, who was sent on a solo parasailing trip to a height of about 40 feet at a beach here, have landed in trouble along with the organisers as police registered a case against them under the Juvenile Justice Act.
Police registered a case under Section 23 of Juvenile Justice Act against them, as per which they can be punished with imprisonment for six months or a fine or both.
Kannur Superintendent of Police P N Unniraja told that the statements of the parents and the organisers would be taken today.
The incident evoked sharp reactions state-wide with Kerala Human Rights Commission registering a suo motu case against them.
DIG Sreejith, Chief Investigation Officer of the Commission, said the statements of parents and organisers had been taken.
He said the child’s mother has 60 hours of flying experience and wanted to rear her toddler for the same without giving a thought to the fact that she was too small.
“What is alarming is that there are no norms and guidelines fixed for such adventure sports,” he said.
K E Gangadharan, Member of the Commission, said efforts should be made to ensure such incidents do not recur.
The organisers — Malabar Adventure Sports Society — claim they train cadets of NCC and Nehru Yuvak Kendra and come under the umbrella of the National Adventure Foundation.
Arvind Kejriwal in Tihar jail, AAP to approach higher court
Former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, who has been lodged in Tihar Jail since Wednesday in a defamation case, went for a walk on Thursday morning within the premises of the prison.
The AAP, meanwhile, said it will approach a higher court over a magistrate’s decision to send Kejriwal to judicial custody in a defamation case.
“We will approach a higher court against the order issued by the district court which sent Kejriwal to judicial custody,” party leader Sanjay Singh told the media after meeting Kejriwal in Tihar Jail.
AAP leaders and Kejriwal’s wife Sunita met the former Delhi chief minister in prison. A court on Wednesday sent him to jail for two days after he refused to furnish a bail bond of Rs 10,000.
BJP leader Nitin Gadkari, who Kejriwal called “corrupt”, has filed a defamation case against the Aam Aadmi Party leader.
Kejriwal slept well through the night and woke up early, went for a morning walk and returned to his cell where he was served breakfast, consisting the staple tea and bread, sources at the Tihar Jail said, adding he also read around three to four newspapers in his cell.
At around 10 am, the AAP chief met his party colleagues Sanjay Singh and Ashutosh for about 30 minutes and also met his wife Sunita, who had brought clothes and medicines for him.
“He also interacted with some guards and other jail staff. He told them that he was fighting against corrupt for the common man like them and that is why he was in jail,” a prison official said.
Last night, the AAP leader was served prison food consisting chapati of 400 gm grain, 250 gm vegetable and 90 gm dal.
Kejriwal is kept in the meditation ward of jail number four, the same cell where his one time mentor Anna Hazare was kept after his arrest during the Lokpal movement in 2011.
He has been kept alone in order to ensure that he does not come into contact with other inmates due to security reasons.
Yeddyurappa tells Modi he would work to strengthen party
Karnataka BJP strongman BS Yeddyurappa, reportedly a ministerial aspirant, has written to Prime Minister-designate Narendra Modi, pledging to work for strengthening the party in the state.
Yeddyurappa was part of a group of BJP leaders from Karnataka which met Modi last week apparently to push their case for ministerial berths but they were reportedly told not to lobby and to work to strengthen the party instead.
“…As you expressed in general, I voluntarily and wholeheartedly offer my willingness to work towards strengthening of the party in Karnataka,” Yeddyurappa, who won the Shimoga seat by a whopping margin of 3.62 lakh votes, said in a letter to Modi.
Yeddyurappa recalled Modi’s advice during their meeting that since the expectations and aspirations from the new government were “too high” across the country, at least some capable leaders should come forward to strengthen the party in their states.
The Lingayat strongman is facing graft cases that would put paid to his chances of getting a ministerial berth until he was cleared of the charges.
Former chief minister D V Sadananda Gowda, state BJP President Prahlad Joshi and party six-time MP Ananth Kumar were part of the delegation, apart from Yeddyurappa, that met Modi who reportedly told them not to lobby for berths.
Anandiben Patel takes oath as Gujarat’s first woman Chief Minister
Narendra Modi confidante Anandiben Patel on Thursday took oath as Gujarat Chief Minister, a day after she was unanimously elected leader of the BJP Legislature Party.
Patel is the first woman chief minister of Gujarat.
Governor Kamla Beniwal administered the oath of office and secrecy to Patel, 73, and her ministers at a public ceremony.
Later, 20 Cabinet colleagues were also sworn in.
The newly-elected Gujarat Chief Minister said that the training she received from her predecessor Narendra Modi would help her in taking the state forward.
Besides Modi, senior BJP leaders including party president Rajnath Singh, LK Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj, Venkaiah Naidu, Nitin Gadkari and Subramanian Swamy were present at the ceremony held at Mahatma Mandir convention centre here.
Punjab Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal of Shiromani Akali Dal, an NDA ally, and BJP Chief Ministers Shivraj Singh Chouhan (Madhya Pradesh), Vasundhara Raje Scindia (Rajasthan) and Raman Singh (Chhattisgarh) were also present.
Modi quit as CM on Wednesday after leading the BJP to a stunning victory in the General Election. He is to be sworn in as India’s next prime minister on Monday.
The six Cabinet Ministers who were sworn-in are Nitin Patel, Raman Vora, Bhupendrasinh Chudasama, Saurabh Patel, Ganpat Vasava and Babu Bokharia.
Dilip Thakor, Vasuben Trivedi, Pradipsinh Jadeja, Chatrasinh Mori, Jaydrathsinh Parmar, Rajnikant Patel, Govind Patel, Nanu Vanani, Jayanti Kavadia, Jayesh Radadia were sworn in as Ministers of State. Four new faces inducted as MoS are – Shankar Chaudhary, Tarachand Cheda, Bachubhai Khabad and Kanti Gamit.
Three MoS in the Modi government including Purshottam Solanki, who has charges of corruption against him, Parbat Patel and Vasan Ahir were dropped.
Portfolios of the ministers are likely to be announced later in the day.
Meanwhile, Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh on Thursday morning congratulated Patel on microblogging website Twitter.