The Bombay High Court refused to grant any interim relief to filmmaker Anurag Kashyap, who had petitioned the court challenging the notification making mandatory an anti-smoking disclaimer during smoking scenes in a movie.

Under Rule 4(7) and 8 of the Cigarette and Other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) Act, the Union government had written a letter to the Censor Board asking them to make it mandatory for film makers to show the disclaimer during smoking scenes.

Kashyap in his petition sought for the rule to be set aside and quashed as illegal, arbitrary and unconstitutional.

The filmmaker had approached the High Court in December 2013, when the Censor Board restrained him from releasing his movie “Ugly” after he refused to comply with the rule that requires for ‘Smoking is injurious to health’ warning to pop up every time a character smokes in the movie.

A division bench of Chief Justice Mohit Shah and Justice M S Sanklecha, after hearing Kashyap’s lawyers, said no case for interim relief is made out. The bench has, however, allowed the director to make a representation before the Union government seeking modification in the rules.

The court said if such a representation is made then the Union government shall take a decision on it expeditiously.

Kashyap in his petition had said that the rule making it mandatory for such a disclaimer was a gross violation of his creative expression and fundamental rights.

The filmmaker as interim relief sought a direction to Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) to permit him to release his movie without the mandatory disclaimer.

The petition noted that a mere depiction or display of a character using cigarette or tobacco, does not attract the attention of audience specifically to the cigarette or tobacco product nor is intended to promote the sale of these products and does not amount to advertising.

Further the film “Ugly” is in the genre of dark cinema which requires the characters to smoke for overall artistic effect.

A hunt has been launched for the four men who sexually assaulted the victim at the residence of one of the accused in Kalyan-Goa naka area on Friday night, an official at Malwani police station said.
Two accused have been identified as Rajkumar Choudhary and Nagori Chowdhary, while the identity of the other two is yet to be established. Rajkumar had on Friday night called the victim to talk to her at suburban Malwani with regard to a complaint she had lodged against his brother Guddukumar, police said.

Guddukumar was arrested by Malwani police for sexually abusing her on the pretext of marrying her. “As Rajkumar requested her to meet him so that he could speak to her with regard to Guddukumar case, she met him on Friday evening. As soon as the victim reached the place, Rajkumar forced her into a waiting taxi and took her to Nagori’s house in Kalyan,” the officer added.

The accused then threatened the victim of dire consequences if she did not withdraw the complaint filed against Guddukumar. As the victim flatly refused to take back the complaint, the four beat her up and took turns to sexually assault her, police said.

The shattered victim remained silent about the offence but she garnered courage and lodged the complaint with Malwani police against the accused. An FIR has been registered against the four and further probe is on, police added.

The chairman of bourse operator Financial Technologies (India) Ltd, Jignesh Shah, was arrested on Wednesday by the Mumbai Police for his alleged involvement in the Rs. 5,600-crore National Spot Exchange Limited (NSEL) scam.
Shah has been under police investigation after National Spot Exchange Ltd, a commodities exchange owned by Financial Tech, abruptly suspended trade in most of its commodities contracts last year.

Shah came under scanner last year, when his group company NSEL faced a payment crisis and nearly 18,000 investors allegedly lost millions in late July.

Shah had been the chairman and managing director of Financial Technologies since January 2001 and now serves as group chief executive.

With Shah’s arrest, the total number of arrests in the scam has gone up to seven.

Since the NSEL crisis came to fore, the FTIL group, Shah and his close aide Joseph Massey came under increased regulatory scrutiny and was ordered by both the Sebi and FMC as not fit and proper to run any exchanges in the country.

Besides being the founder chairman and group chief executive of Financial Technologies Group, Shah is also the founder of MCX, the world’s eighth largest commodity futures exchange, in over 12 years.

Shah is a first-generation entrepreneur and the founder/promoter of the FTIL Group, founded in 1999.

He was actively involved with the automation of the trading systems at Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and was also responsible for designing and implementing various modules of the back-office systems of BSE, particularly for market operations and surveillance.

AirAsia India, the joint venture between AirAsia and Tata Group, is closer to starting its operations in India. The aviation regulator today issued air operator permit to the airline.

Delhi-based Arun Bhatia of Telstra Tradeplace is also a partner in the joint venture.

However, it could be sometime before the airline actually takes off. Public interest litigation is pending before the Delhi High Court over granting of approvals to AirAsia India, though the court has denied an interim stay on the matter.

Besides, earlier this week BJP leader Subramanian Swamy had urged the Election Commission to restrain India’s aviation regulator from giving flying licences to AirAsia’s venture till a new government takes over.

In a memorandum presented to Chief Election Commissioner, he said, “My information is that the Ministry of Civil Aviation is unaware of the principle laid down by the Election Commission in enforcing the model code, that is, no administrative or policy decision impacting the benefits accruable to any section of the society, should not be cleared if there is no operational urgency in the matter.”

Besides Mr Swamy, the Federation of Indian Airlines has filed two separate petitions in the court challenging the approvals granted to the Tata-AirAsia and Tata-SIA Airlines deals respectively. Tata-SIA Airlines is a joint venture between Tata Sons and Singapore Airlines (SIA).

AirAsia plans to operate a fleet of Airbus A320-200 aircraft, initially with 4-5 planes and quickly expand to 10 in a year.

The Maharashtra government which was left red-faced after the Supreme Court quashed a ban on dance bars in the state, said in Mumbai that it would bring an amended legislation to ban them during the Monsoon Session of the state legislature, which is set to begin from June 2.

“We will bring an amended Bill to ban the dance bars during the forthcoming monsoon session. The law and judiciary department of the Maharashtra government would bring the amended Bill,” Maharashtra Parliamentary Affairs Minister Harshavardhan Patil told after the business advisory council (BAC) meeting.

He also said that the monsoon session of the state legislature would go on for a period of two weeks, from June 2 upto June 14.

“Issues concerning Maharashtra like drought and hailstorm which destroyed several hectares of crops, power generation and matters related to the home department would be discussed during the two-week session,” Mr. Patil said.

He also said that six pending Bills and seven new Bills would also be tabled during the monsoon session.

The sessions court rejected the bail application of the suspended chief of Mumbai Central Prison (also known as Arthur Road jail) Vasudev Burkule, arrested for demanding a bribe from a jail officer to pass him in an examination.

This is the second time the court has refused bail to Burkule. He had been denied bail last month too.

Burkule had sought bail on the ground that investigation was over and police no longer needed his custody.

However Public Prosecutor Jaisingh Desai argued that many more people were coming forward with the complaint that Burkule had demanded bribe from them.

Desai also argued that the investigation was not yet complete. Accepting his argument, the court rejected Burkule’s bail plea.

On April 16, the Anti-corruption Bureau laid a trap and arrested Burkule and his deputy Pradeep Pathrikar from central prison police officials’ residential colony in south Mumbai.

Pathrikar was caught red-handed while accepting a bribe of Rs 35,000 of the total Rs 40,000 that had been demanded, whereas Burkule was apprehended as his deputy was taking the bribe on his behalf.

According to the ACB, the complainant, a jail officer, had appeared for the Maharashtra Prison Manual examination on March 25. The answer sheet was checked by Burkule.

Pathrikar allegedly told the officer that he had not scored enough in the examination, but the marks could be increased on payment of Rs 40,000.

Criticising the Maharashtra government’s home, law and judiciary as well as rural development departments for lack of co-ordination, Maharashtra EGS minister Nitin Raut said that there has been an increase in atrocities against Dalits in the state.

After he toured areas affected by caste violence in Maharashtra, he wrote to the Maharashtra Chief Minister yesterday, blaming the state home department for not taking enough steps to ensure law and order as well as punish the guilty.

Raut, who hails from the Vidarbha region and happens to be the Dalit face in the Maharashtra state government, pressed for a special cabinet meeting to discuss the issue of attacks against Dalits.

“A special cabinet meeting should be convened to discuss atrocities against Dalits. The government should take strict preventive measures against such attacks,” Raut told reporters.

Alleging that co-ordination between the state’s home ministry, the ministry of law and judiciary as well as rural development ministry was not seen in the matter, he said that the Maharashtra government had fallen short when it came to taking preventive measures.

Raut, who claimed that he had raised the issue during today’s cabinet meeting said, “All inclusive programmes would be designed to prevent such attacks”.

He also said that Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan has directed a high-powered committee to hold a meeting to discuss the issue.

The high-powered committee, which would be chaired by the Maharashtra Chief Minister himself includes the state home minister, opposition leaders and an officer of the rank of the Director General of Police.