The Supreme Court on Monday said the Centre is bound to honor its commitment given to Portugal and release gangster Abu Salem on completion of his 25-year sentence in the 1993 Mumbai blasts case.
Salem had said his sentence could not exceed 25 years as per a solemn assurance given by India to Portugal for his extradition in 2002.
A bench of Justices S K Kaul and M M Sundresh said the Central government is bound to advise the President of India for the exercise of power under Article 72 of the Constitution and the national commission on completion of his sentence. ”The necessary papers be forwarded within a month of completion of 25 years. In fact, the government can itself exercise the power of remission under CrPC within the time period of one month upon completion of 25 years,” the bench said.
On February 25, 2015, a special TADA court awarded life imprisonment to Salem in another case for murdering Mumbai-based builder Pradeep Jain in 1995 along with his driver Mehndi Hassan.
Salem, also a convict in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case, was extradited from Portugal on November 11, 2005, after a prolonged legal battle.
Three men drowned in Chuna Dari Waterfall here while on a picnic, police said on Monday.
The waterfall, which comes under Ahraura Police Station area, was immediately closed for tourists by the District Magistrate and the Superintendent of Police, Mirzapur, till further orders.
The deceased had come from Varanasi to have a picnic at the Chuna Dari Waterfall on Sunday afternoon. They slipped their foot while taking a bath and drowned in the gushing water, police said.
All three did not know how to swim, they said.
The deceased were identified as Sandeep Kharwar, 26, Prince, 23, and Rishu, 22, Additional SP Sanjay Verma told PTI.
Their bodies were recovered by the local divers after struggling for about four hours, he said.
Meanwhile, Constable Vinod Kumar who was posted there has been attached to Police Lines for informing about the incident late.
Assembly Speaker not to act on disqualification against Sena MLAs: SC 4
The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Speaker of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly, Rahul Narwekar not to take any action on the new disqualification notices issued against the members of Shiv Sena. A bench of Chief Justice of India NV Ramana, and Justices Krishna Murari and Hima Kohli asked Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Maharashtra Governor, to inform its direction to the newly-appointed Assembly Speaker.
The order of the bench came after senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Uddhav Thackeray camp, mentioned the matter for urgent listing of the pleas saying the matters were posted for today but were not listed today. “The disqualification plea is listed tomorrow before the Speaker.
Let there be no disqualification until the matter is decided,” Sibal told the bench. Hearing this, the CJI asked Solicitor General to inform the Assembly Speaker not to take any decision until the pleas are decided by the apex court. “Please inform the Assembly Speaker not to take any decision until the plea is decided.
Please inform the speaker through your office,” the CJI told Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who agreed to convey the message to the Speaker. The bench said the matter will require the constitution of the bench and it will take some time to be listed. It also clarified that the matter will not be listed tomorrow as well.
During the summer vacation, the bench had listed a number of petitions on the Maharashtra political crisis on July 11. There are various petitions pending before the apex court filed by both the factions of Shiv Sena.
Uddhav Thackeray-led faction has recently approached the top court challenging the Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshiyari’s decision to invite Eknath Shinde to form the government and also the Speaker’s election and floor test. They had also challenged the newly appointed Maharashtra Assembly Speaker’s action recognizing the whip of Chief Minister Eknath Shinde group as the whip of Shiv Sena.
The plea said the newly appointed Speaker has no jurisdiction to recognize whips nominated by Shinde as Uddhav Thackeray is still the head of Shiv Sena’s official party. Thackeray camp’s Sunil Prabhu had filed a plea seeking suspension from the Maharashtra Assembly of new Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and 15 rebel MLAs against whom disqualification pleas are pending.
Shinde group’s plea challenging the disqualification notices issued by the Deputy Speaker to 16 rebel MLAs as well as the appointment of Ajay Choudhary as Shiv Sena Legislature Party leader, is also pending before the apex court. On June 29, the top court gave a go-ahead to the floor test in the Maharashtra Assembly on June 30.
Refusing to stay the Maharashtra Governor’s direction to the then Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray to prove his majority support on the floor of the House on June 30, the bench had issued notice on Prabhu’s plea against floor test. On June 27, the top court granted interim relief to Shinde and other rebel MLAs to file their reply on disqualification notices issued to them by Deputy Speaker by July 12, 5.30 pm. Earlier, Deputy Speaker had granted them time to file a reply by June 27, 5.30 pm.
Giriraj makes fresh pitch for stringent population law 6
Union minister Giriraj Singh on Monday made a fresh pitch for a stringent law to control the population of the country, which he compared to the ever-expanding mouth of mythical female demon “Sursa”.
The firebrand BJP leader came out with a video statement on the occasion of World Population Day and shared it on Twitter.
Singh, who represents the Begusarai Lok Sabha seat in Bihar, rued that in the past three decades, India lost out to China in the pace of economic progress but surpassed its neighbour in the growth of population.
“We have limited resources. Our population is expanding like the mouth of Sursa. The perverse mindset (vikrit mansikta) out of which one person sires 10 children can not be allowed,” Singh fumed.
He added that the need of the hour was a stringent law (‘kada kanoon’) for population control, “applicable across the country and to people of all religious affiliations”.
“The demand for such a law must be raised, from Parliament to the streets (‘sansad se sadak tak’),” said the BJP leader.
The declamation of Singh is in sharp contrast to the view held by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, whose JD(U) is the BJP’s largest ally at the national level.
Kumar has often disapproved of a legislative route for achieving population stabilisation and cited the state’s own experience where fertility rates have shown a decline corresponding to the rise in women’s education.
Moreover, political parties have often been of the view that the BJP raises the bogey of population explosion for dog-whistling against Muslims whom it accuses of trying to change the demographics by procreating more.
Interestingly, anxieties over “changed demography” has often led “fringe elements” to appeal to Hindus that they should produce more children.
The Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) loaded 2.979 MT freight during the first quarter of the current financial year, registering an increase of 28 per cent against the corresponding period of last year.
NFR loaded 0.910 MT during the month of June, 2022. This is an increase of 7.9 per cent as compared to the corresponding period of last year, a spokesperson said on Monday.
In June, coal and other commodities such as stone chips and potatoes also increased by a good margin in comparison to the corresponding period last year, he said.
Cement loading increased by 68.3 percent, Petrol Oil Lubricant (POL) loading rose by 17.3 per cent, container loading grew by 27.8 percent and other commodities increased by 21.4 per cent, he added.
Improved terminal handling facility and improvement in mobility due to enhanced maintenance efforts and continuous monitoring at all levels resulted in increased loading, the spokesperson said.
State-owned coal major Coal India reported a 65 per cent growth in capital expenditure year-on-year during the April-June quarter of FY23 in a regulatory filing to the stock exchanges on Monday. The company’s capital expenditure rose to Rs 3,034 crores during the April-June quarter, as compared to Rs 1,841 crores in the same period last year.
“The capex increase came on the back of a strong spending in acquiring land and strengthening transport infrastructure in our coalfields under first mile connectivity projects. These two vital areas help CIL in expanding its mining operations for accelerated production and pairing it with seamless transportation of coal”, a senior official of the company said in the filing.
“CIL’s production tempo is keeping up a consistent double-digit growth in FY’23 so far and all efforts are on to continue the trend. What assumes importance is to have a matching evacuation infrastructure that can handle transportation of the increased output”, said the official.
Land acquisition accounted for nearly one-fifth of the first quarter’s total capex basket at Rs 608 crores. This represents a close to 2.3-fold increase compared to Rs 268 crores spent on land acquisition during April-June of 2021.
Three labourers were killed and two others seriously injured after lightning struck them during heavy rains in Madhya Pradesh’s Sagar district, an official said on Monday.
The incident took place on Sunday evening in Semadhana village under Jaisinagar police station limits, the official said.
The five labourers were working at an under-construction house. Due to heavy rains, they took shelter under a tree when lightning struck them around 6 pm on Sunday, Jaisinagar police station in charge Shashikant Gurjar said.
Three of them – Mohit Raikwar (30), Chhotu Raikwar (18) and Mahendra Singh (65) – died, while two others were injured and undergoing treatment at the Sagar district hospital, he said.
The Delhi High court on Monday transferred the bail plea of Khalid Saifi, an accused in a larger conspiracy case of North East Delhi riots, before the special bench hearing the connected bail matters.
The Division Bench of Justice Mukta Gupta and Justice Anish Dayal at the request of the petitioner’s counsel, listed the matter before the special bench of justices Sidharth Mridul and Rajanish Bhatnagar for July 22, 2022.
Advocate Rajat Kumar, counsel for the petitioner, submitted that it is an appeal against the trial court order in a riot-related matter and other connected matters are pending before the special bench.
So this matter should be listed before the same bench. Special public prosecutor Amit Prasad did not oppose the request. The High Court on May 9, 2022, had issued notice to the Government of NCT Delhi on an appeal of Khalid Saifi, an accused in a larger conspiracy connected with the northeast Delhi violence challenging the trial court order refused bail to him.
Saifi was booked under UAPA by the Delhi Police. It was alleged that Khalid Saifi was one of the main organizers of the Khureji Protest site which was near Badi Masjid in the Khureji area. The Division Bench of Justice Siddharth Mridul and Justice Rajnish Bhatnagar on May 9, 2022, issued notice to the Government of NCT Delhi and listed the matter for July 11, 2022.
Then the bench was changed and the matter had been listed before another bench. Appearing for Khalid Saifi, Senior Advocate Rebecca John submitted, “my case is different from other appeals pending before this court in the related case. Let me be different even if that has to be delayed. Let those be over. Let me show how my case is different”.
Earlier Trial Court’s Additional Sessions Judge Amitabh Rawat dismissed the bail plea saying, “I am of the opinion that allegations against the accused Khalid Saifi are prima facie true.”
Senior Advocate Rebecca John, counsel for the accused had argued that the accused Khalid Saifi has been falsely implicated in this case and the entire case of the prosecution is unsubstantiated without any evidence to link with the communal riots of 2020.
It was also argued that the accused is a businessman by profession and runs a travel agency. He is also a social activist. There is no evidence on record to suggest that the accused gave any provocative speech so as to instigate anyone to commit any act of violence.
Senior Advocate had argued that the reliance of the prosecution on a WhatsApp group called DPSG would show the peripheral participation of the accused in the said group.
Nothing in the group or in the accused’s participation in the group is suggestive of any criminal conspiracy. Counsel for the accused further argued that as per the prosecution, funding was provided to him between December 2019 and 26 February 2020 for orchestrating riots in Delhi.
It was argued that the accused was receiving money from Naseef Abdul Kareem in his NGO bank account not just in 2020 but since 2018. The statement of Abdul Majid, a Trusty of the New Education Welfare Organisation, NGO, is inherently false.
On the other hand, opposing the bail the Special Public Prosecutor (SPP) Amit Prasad had argued that there is sufficient material on record to establish that the accusation against the accused Khalid Saifi is prima facie true and hence the bail application may be dismissed.
SPP Amit Prasad had submitted that Khalid Saifi was a member of Whatsapp group DPSG, CAB Team and United Against Hate (UAH) Okhla. Khalid Saifi also attended a meeting at 6/6 Jangpura, Bhogal, Delhi on 8 December 2019 attended by Umar Khalid, Sharjeel Imam, Meeran Haider and others.
He also attended the meeting on 26 December 2019 at Indian Social Institute, Lodhi Colony, Delhi after which DPSG was created on 28 December 2019.
According to the statement of Saturn, on January 8, 2020, a meeting between Umar Khalid, Tahir Hussain, and Khalid Saifi took place at the PFI office, Shaheen Bagh, Delhi.
In northeast Delhi, large-scale violence broke out in February 2020. In this violence, 53 people died and hundreds were injured according to the police.
India is projected to surpass China as the world’s most populous country next year, as per a report by the United Nations on World Population Day.
According to a report by the World Population Prospects 2022 by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division the world’s population is projected to reach eight billion on November 15, 2022.
The latest projections by the United Nations suggest that the global population could grow to around 8.5 billion in 2030, 9.7 billion in 2050 and 10.4 billion in 2100.
Central and Southern Asia is expected to become the most populous region in the world by 2037 as the population of Eastern and South-Eastern Asia could start declining by the mid-2030s.
According to the report, in 2022, the two most populous regions were both in Asia, namely Eastern and South-Eastern Asia with 2.3 billion people (29 per cent of the global population), and Central and Southern Asia with 2.1 billion (26 per cent of the global population).
China and India, with more than 1.4 billion each, accounted for most of the population in these two regions. India’s population stands at 1.412 billion in 2022, compared to China’s 1.426 billion, the report said. India is projected to have a population of 1.668 billion in 2050, way ahead of China’s 1.317 billion people by the middle of the century.
The report said that the growth of the world population slowed down by more than half after 1965, owing to reduced levels of fertility. In India, IHME projects a total fertility rate of 1.29 births per woman in 2100 instead of 1.69 in
the United Nations medium scenario, resulting in a population that is 433 million smaller than according to the United Nations projections at the end of the century. Globally, the world counts slightly more men (50.3 per cent) than women (49.7 per cent) in 2022.
This figure is projected to slowly invert over the course of the century. By 2050, it is expected that the number of women will equal the number of men.
In 2020, and for the first time since 1950, the rate of population growth fell below 1 per cent per year and it is projected to continue to slow in the next few decades and through the end of this century, the report said.
In some parts of the world, international migration has become a major component of population change. It is estimated that ten countries experienced a net outflow of more than 1 million migrants between 2010 and 2021.
In many of these countries, these outflows were due to temporary labour movements, such as Pakistan (net outflow of -16.5 million during 2010-2021), India (-3.5 million), and Bangladesh (-2.9 million), Nepal (-1.6 million) and Sri Lanka (-1 million).
The 46 least developed countries (LDCs) are among the world’s fastest-growing. Many are projected to double in population between 2022 and 2050, putting additional pressure on resources and posing challenges to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The UN report said that the relationship between population and sustainable development should be considered within the context of climate change and other global environmental challenges that have a direct impact on sustainable development.
The growth of the population itself may not be the direct cause of environmental damage; it may nevertheless exacerbate the problem or accelerate the timing of its emergence, depending on the problem in question, the timeframe considered, the available technology and the demographic, social and economic context.
The contest to replace British Prime Minister Boris Johnson gathered pace on Sunday as five more candidates declared their intention to run, with many pledging lower taxes and a clean start from Johnson’s scandal-ridden premiership.
Johnson on Thursday said he would resign as prime minister, after lawmakers and cabinet colleagues rebelled over his handling of a series of scandals, including breaches of lockdown rules in gatherings at his Downing Street office.
He said he would stay on until a new leader was elected.
A member of a Conservative party committee which sets the rules for leadership elections said on Sunday the final result would be announced in September.
Junior trade minister Penny Mordaunt officially declared she was running on Sunday, joining transport Secretary Grant Shapps, finance minister Nadhim Zahawi and former ministers Jeremy Hunt and Sajid Javid, who announced their candidacies for the leadership in time for the Sunday newspapers, taking the total to nine.
“This is a critical inflection point for our country. I believe that a socialist or socialist-led coalition government at the next election would be a disaster for the UK,” Mordaunt said in a statement. “We must win the next election.”
The Conservative Party’s 1922 Committee of legislators, which sets rules for the party in parliament, will set out the exact timetable after a meeting on Monday.
Bob Blackman, an officer on the 1922 Committee’s executive, said that nominations would close on Tuesday evening, followed by a process to whittle candidates down to a final two by July 21.
Party members would elect a new party leader over the summer, who would then become prime minister.
“We’ll (select the final two) by the 21st of July, to allow the party membership sufficient time to have husting sessions and a postal ballot to then lead to a new leader being in place by the fifth of September,” he told Sky News.
Entering the race, Shapps, Zahawi, Hunt and Javid all pledged tax cuts, setting them against the current favourite, former finance minister Rishi Sunak, whose budget last year put Britain on course for its biggest tax burden since the 1950s.
“I believe in a lower tax, lower regulation, cut-the-red-tape economy,” Shapps told Sky News, adding he would hold an emergency budget to bring forward a one pence reduction in the income tax rate which is currently planned in 2024, freeze a planned rise in corporation tax and look to reduce the size of the civil service.
Hunt, a former foreign minister who came second in the leadership contest in 2019 when Johnson came to office, and Javid, who twice resigned from Johnson’s government, both said they would cut corporation tax to 15%.
Hunt said that no Conservative should either raise taxes or offer unfunded tax cuts. Asked if cutting taxes would lead to inflation, Hunt said: “I don’t agree with that when it comes to business taxes.”
“If you stimulate consumer demand, when there’s some demand-led inflation, there is that risk, but we must bear down on inflation. That’s why I’d be very careful not to promise (tax) cuts that would stoke inflation,” he said.
The Mail on Sunday said Foreign Secretary Liz Truss would launch her campaign on Monday with a promise to cut taxes and tackle the cost-of-living crisis, while one of her main rivals for the role, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace, has ruled himself out.
