Jaipur, The Jal Mahal land lease agreement, which was caught in controversies ever since it was executed between the state government and a private company owned by a city businessman in 2005, has been found illegal by the Rajasthan High Court, which annulled it on Thursday. The high court, while cancelling the lease and license agreements, has directed the private company, the Jal Mahal Resorts Pvt Ltd, to return the entire land to the Rajasthan Tourism Development Corporation (RTDC), which will pass it back to its original owners, the Jaipur Development Authority, the Jaipur Municipal Corporation and the Public Works Department. The judgment has come as a blow to the state government which had been trying hard before the court as well as the state assembly to project the agreement to be in public interest. The government had given away 100 acres of priceless land of the ancient Man Sagar Lake to the private company for 99 years in return for an annual lease money of merely Rs 2.5 crore. The land's current market value is estimated to be anywhere between Rs 2,500 crore and Rs 3,500 crore. The 17th century monument, the Jal Mahal, standing inside the lake, was also handed ...
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New Delhi, The Supreme Court Thursday asked the government to take a decision on a representation by the Committee on Judicial Accountability (CJA) seeking a presidential reference on the allegation of misconduct against NHRC chairman K.G. Balakrishnan when he was chief justice of India. The apex court bench headed by Justices B.S. Chauhan and J.S. Khehar issued directions to the government citing the "peculiar sets and circumstances" of the case. Pronouncing the judgement, Justice Khehar said if the government found that the allegation against the former chief justice of India was unworthy of being proceeded against then it would inform the petitioner, NGO Common Cause, accordingly. However, the court said if the government decides in favour of the representation by the CJA, then it would proceed into the matter as mandated Under Section 5 (2) of the National Human Rights Commission Act. The Supreme Court had Monday reserved its order on the petition. Besides allegations of misconduct against Justice Balakrishnan, it has also been alleged in the public suit that his two sons-in-law and brother amassed wealth disproportionate to their known sources of income when he ...
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New Delhi, Lieutenant General Tejinder Singh has withdrawn his petition against Army Chief General VK Singh in the Supreme Court seeking a CBI probe and informed that he would now move appropriate authority for justice (read Delhi High Court). Tejinder's name was dragged in the defence bribery offer controversy after VK Singh said he was offered a bribe of Rs 14 crore by a defence purchase lobbyist [pointing at Tejinder without naming him] for clearing the purchase of 600 substandard vehicles. In his petition, Tejinder Singh had sought CBI inquiry against Army Chief General VK Singh alleging that he misused his power, including alleged illegal phone intercepts. Reports said Tejinder Singh now decided to withdraw the petition arguing that if the case is pursued several top-secret documents could come out in public domain. He reportedly told the apex court that he would not pursue the case with documentary evidence in the High Court. A Delhi court earlier hearing the defamation case filed by Lt Gen Tejinder Singh against V K Singh and four others over bribery allegations transferred it to the Court of Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) on May 5. ...
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New Delhi, More than 15 months after their arrest in the 2G spectrum scam case, former telecom secretary Siddharth Behura and jailed ex-telecom minister A Raja's erstwhile personal secretary RK Chandolia were granted bail by the Supreme Court on Wednesday. This prompted Raja, now the lone accused in judicial custody since his arrest along with Behura and Chandolia on February 2 last year, to move a bail application before the trial court. The former minister, who was waiting for the outcome of Behura and Chandolia's petitions in the SC to apply for bail, argued in his plea, "All the individual accused persons in this case except the petitioner (Raja) have been released on bail .... the petitioner is entitled to bail on the grounds of parity." Claiming that the case against him was "false and fabricated", and that he was "likely to get acquitted", Raja said he should be granted bail as he was unable to argue his case before the Joint Parliamentary Committee on 2G scam as well as Parliament's Public Accounts Committee. "The PAC of the Parliament and the JPC are also looking into various aspects of this matter. The petitioner has been unable to put his case before the PAC and ...
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New Delhi, The Supreme Court today dismissed a PIL seeking action against Anna Hazare and his team members for allegedly showing disrespect to the national flag during his agitation for the Lokpal Bill last year. A bench of justices B S Chauhan and J S Khehar rapped the petitioner, Chennai-resident L K Venkat for filing the PIL. The petitioner had alleged that during the agitation in December last year, the associates of Harare had shown disrespect to the national flag and the government had failed to take any action despite a complaint filed against them. "During the course of the agitation, Hazare and his associates had flown the national flag at half mast in public and also mutilated and defaced the flag," the petitioner alleged. The bench, however, was not satisfied with his contention and during the hearing threatened to impose cost on the petitioner for misusing the process of PIL but it refrained from doing so and dismissed the ...
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New Delhi, The Supreme Court Friday directed dentist Nupur Talwar to surrender before the magistrate's court which is trying the double murder case of her daughter Aarushi Talwar and servant Hemraj. The apex court Bench, headed by Justice A.K. Patnaik said that upon surrendering before the trial court, Nupur Talwar can apply for bail which the court will decide expeditiously and on merit. The apex court passed the order while adjourning till next Friday the hearing of Nupur Talwar's review petition of its order directing her to face trial in the 2008 Aarushi Talwar and Hemraj double murder case. Dentist couple Nupur and Rajesh Talwar's 14-year-old daughter Aarushi was found dead inside their Noida residence in May 2008 with her throat slit. The body of the Talwars' domestic servant Hemraj, initially a suspect in the case, was recovered from the terrace a day later. The Talwar couple is accused in the case. Nupur Talwar faces a non-bailable warrant issued by a CBI special court in Ghaziabad issued after she failed to appear in court as ...
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New Delhi, The Supreme Court on Thursday reserved its order on a defamation case filed against Army Chief General V.K.Singh by Lt. General (retired) Tejinder Singh till May 5. Lt.Gen. Tejinder Singh had recorded his statement before a Delhi court in connection with a criminal defamation case filed against Army chief VK Singh and four others. Lt.Gen.(retired) Singh had also sought an independent inquiry into the illegal monitoring of mobile phone conversation of ministry officials by the army under the present chief General VK Singh. Lt.Gen.Tejinder Singh had retired as Director General of Defence Intelligence Agencies in 2010. Lt.Gen.Tejinder Singh has placed a sealed, written statement and a CD in support of his petition demanding a CBI probe into alleged bugging of ministry offices. Lashing out at the chief for "concocting" bribery allegations against him, the petitioner also wants a court direction to CBI to carry out searches at offices and residences of General Singh, his subordinate officers and their family members. He wants the agency to seize documents related to his private life and not release it to the public. In a disclosure made during an interview to ...
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New Delhi, The Supreme Court Tuesday gave the central government three more months till August 31 to fulfil all requirements and auction 122 2G licenses which were cancelled by it in February this year. The apex court bench of Justice G.S. Singhvi and Justice K.S. Radhakrishnan, while extending the time by three months, observed that the government was aware that something was wrong or this could have been avoided if a little effort was made. While granting three months more to the government for auctioning potential 2G licenses, the court gave time till September 7 to all the service operators whose licenses have been cancelled to continue providing services. The apex court by its February 2, 2012, order had cancelled all the 122 licenses that were granted by former telecom minister A. Raja on and after January 10, 2008. The court had said that all these licenses should be allocated after carrying out their auction. The court had given the government four months' time till June 2 to complete the process of auctioning the cancelled licenses. This was also the date when the licenses that were cancelled were to be terminated. However, the government cited procedural ...
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New Delhi, The Supreme Court has asked the govt to show the file relating to appointment of Lt Gen Bikram Singh as the next Army chief. The apex court wants to find out if the allegations against Bikram Singh were placed before the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet before clearing his name. The court will go through the document at 2 pm. The Centre has opposed the PIL saying it has been filed with malafide intention and for raising the age controversy again. However, the SC made it clear that the date of birth issue of General V K Singh will not be reopened on any ground. The SC clarification on Gen V K Singh's date of birth came because of repeated reference to it in the PIL. Earlier, the Supreme Court refused to hold 'in-camera' proceedings of its hearing on a PIL challenging the appointment of Bikram Singh as next Army chief. A group of retired armed forces officials and bureaucrats have challenged the appointment of Lt Gen Bikram Singh as the next chief of the Army. Retired Admiral Laxminarayan Ramdas is the leader of the group, which has filed the PIL alleging that Bikram Singh, who heads the Army's Eastern Command, was not fit to hold the office. The ...
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New Delhi, The Supreme Court Thursday directed the central and state governments to create 10 percent additional posts of the total regular judicial cadre for subordinate courts to fulfil the constitutional mandate of fair and expeditious justice to people. "Keeping in view the need of the hour and the constitutional mandate to provide fair and expeditious trial to all litigants and the citizens of the country, we direct the respective states and the central government to create 10 percent of the total regular cadre of the state as additional posts," said a bench of Justice A.K. Patnaik and Justice Swatanter Kumar in their judgement. The court said that these 10 percent additional posts would created within three months and the state governments would take up the "process for filling such additional vacancies as per the Higher Judicial Service and Judicial Services Rules of that state, immediately thereafter". "It will neither be appropriate nor logical for the Union of India and/or the state governments to raise an argument that this court may not issue any directions or mandamus to the concerned government, as it may have far reaching consequences," Justice Swatanter ...
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New Delhi, The Supreme Court will on Friday hear Nupur Talwar's plea seeking stay on the non-bailable warrant issued against her by a trial court in connection with the Aarushi-Hemraj double murder case. The apex court has directed Nupur Talwar to present herself in court today. Earlier, on Thursday, the apex court had refused to entertain her plea. The Ghaziabad court issued the warrant on Wednesday after Nupur failed to show up in the court. Earlier, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had searched for Nupur in south and central Delhi but failed to locate her. The special CBI court had on March 14 asked Nupur to appear in court within 30 days. But the Talwars" counsel sought exemption on the basis of a pending plea in the Supreme Court against facing trial. Aarushi"s parents Rajesh and Nupur Talwar had filed a plea seeking review of its January 6 order in which the apex court had cleared the decks for the couple"s trial in the murder case by dismissing their plea to quash criminal proceedings against them. Fourteen-year-old Aarushi, the only daughter of the Talwars, was found dead at the family's Noida residence on the intervening night of May 15-16, ...
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New Delhi, The Supreme Court on Monday said the bail pleas of R K Chandolia, former personal secretary to then ex-telecom minister A Raja, and former telecom secretary Siddharth Behura in irregular allotment of 2G spectrum case would be heard by a bench of Justices G S Singhvi and H L Dattu. This may raise hopes of the two accused as the bench of Justices Singhvi and Dattu had granted bail to five corporate heads - Unitech MD Sanjay Chandra, Reliance officials Gautam Doshi, Surendra Pipara and Hari Nair and Swan Telecom director Vinod Goenka - in the 2G scam case. When the bail pleas of the two public servants came up before a bench of Justices Singhvi and S J Mukhopadhaya on Monday, additional solicitor general Mohan Parasaran, on behalf of the CBI, opposed relief to the duo alleging that their case was different from the corporate executives. The CBI's case against Chandolia and Behura was that they were instrumental in hatching the conspiracy with the Raja and apprehended that releasing them on bail could allow them to influence the witnesses. The bench said, "In cases where accused tamper with witnesses, the court can always cancel the bail. Is there anything ...
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Ranchi, Jharkhand high court today granted bail to former state chief minister Madhu Koda, who was in prison for over two years in connection with illegal investments and hawala transaction case. Koda, who was in judicial custody since November 30, 2009, was granted bail by the single bench of H C Mishra. Koda, who ruled the state between 2006 and 2008, was arrested by the officers of Jharkhand Vigilance Bureau from Chaibasa after the October 2009 countrywide raids by Income Tax and Enforcement Directorate in 69 premises. The IT had alleged that documents relating to illegal investments and hawala transactions worth Rs 2,500 crore were seized during the premises of Koda and his alleged associates. Later, CBI took over the case and along with the ED, charged him with making illegal investments and indulging in hawala transactions with others during his chief ministerial term for 23 months. Koda was an Independent MLA and had led the UPA government in Jharkhand. His alleged aides Binod Sinha, Vikas Sinha and three others are now in judicial custody in connection with the same ...
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New Delhi, The Supreme Court on Wednesday began hearing on petitions seeking investigations into alleged role of P Chidambaram as the finance minister to overrule finance ministry officials' objection on sale of spectrum in 2008 at 2001 prices, but the CBI said there was no merit in the plea. The CBI said as noted by the apex court in its judgment, the agency had completed investigations into 2G spectrum scam and filed chargesheets. The CBI's counsel, senior advocate K K Venugopal said, "The pleas amounted to saying that the CBI had not investigated the case properly." Arguing before a bench of Justices G S Singhvi and K S Radhakrishnan, Venugopal said: "All documents now being cited by the petitioners were placed before the court earlier. After going through them, the court had delivered its judgment saying no further investigation was required. But, the same documents are being relied now to make a prayer against Chidambaram. This is not maintainable." Veugopal said he was appearing for the CBI, which is the investigating agency. "Hence, I do not have much to say except arguing on the legal aspects," he said. An NGO 'Centre for Public Interest Litigation' and Janata ...
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New Delhi, The Supreme Court is expected to hear on Wednesday a plea seeking investigation against Union home minister P Chidambaram for his alleged role in the 2G spectrum scam. Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy and the NGO, Centre for Public Interest Litigation have moved the apex court against the trial court order giving clean chit to Chidambaram in the scam. Swamy had accused Chidambaram of acting in collusion with jailed former telecom minister A Raja on spectrum ...
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New Delhi, The Supreme Court on Monday issued notices to six Andhra Pradesh ministers and eight IAS officers on a plea alleging that the CBI was not proceeding against them despite having sufficient evidence that they helped former Congress leader Y Jaganmohan Reddy accumulate massive illegal assets. A bench headed by Justice Dalveer Bhandari issued the notices to the ministers and the IAS officers and sought their stands on the petition filed by an advocate, Sudhakar Reddy. The petitioner alleged that these six ministers and eight IAS officers were also holding ministerial and other key positions under the then chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, during whose tenure his son Jagan Mohan accumulated huge wealth, disproportionate to his legal income. Reddy, in his petition, said even though the CBI had registered a number of cases against several others in the disproportionate assets case against Jagan Mohan Reddy, but it failed to register any case against these 14 persons. The notice was issued to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), six Andhra Pradesh ministers and eleven IAS officers serving in the state at the time. An apex court bench headed by Justice ...
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New Delhi, The centre on Monday submitted to the Supreme Court the status report of the probe into allegations that close relatives of former chief justice KG Balakrishnan had amassed huge wealth during his tenure. An apex court bench headed by Chief Justice SH Kapadia was given the report in a sealed cover by Attorney General G Vahanvati, who sought three more weeks for further investigations. He told the court that there was evidence of some payments being made and it had to be investigated why they were made. The court is hearing a public suit seeking a probe into the wealth acquired by Balakrishnan's son-in-law and brother during his tenure. ...
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New Delhi, The government will seek a presidential reference under Article 143 asking Supreme Court to clarify on the constitutionality of the 2G verdict that struck down the first-come-first-served (FCFS) policy for allocating natural resources like airwaves as arbitrary and inherently flawed. The Cabinet is expected to approve the presidential reference on Saturday evening, with the government likely to seek a review of the SC order that auctions should be the only means by which precious resources like minerals or airwaves are allocated. The government has filed a review petition in the SC challenging the constitutionality of the February 2 ruling scrapping 122 scam-tainted telecom licences issued during the tenure of jailed ex-telecom minister A Raja. Under Article 143 the president can seek the court's opinion on a matter of "public importance". The Supreme Court's "advisory jurisdiction" can be invoked under Article 143 and in the past its opinion has been sought in cases like the Ayodhya dispute, which it refused to consider, and on aspects of the implementation of an India-Pakistan agreement on exchange of enclaves along the border with erstwhile east ...
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BANGALORE: Facing a fresh come back bid by B S Yeddyurappa after the Karnataka High Court gave him a clean chit in an illegal mining case, Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda on Thursday said the BJP central leadership would decide on the future of his predecessor. Losing no time after the verdict came last evening, Yeddyurappa dispatched a copy of the judgement to party President Nitin Gadkari, who recently had rebuked him for mounting pressure for his reinstatement as chief minister and indicated he had to come clean in the corruption cases. Sources close to Yeddyurappa said he had only sent the judgement copy to Gadkari, but it is seen as a reminder about the party's promise that justice would be rendered to him once he was cleared of the charges. Gowda said he would not like to comment on the issue of Yeddyurappa's reinstatement. "When our leader Nitin Gadkari had come here recently, he had categorically asked us not to discuss this issue. We are bound by the instructions given by our high command and are going to follow it." "I therefore do not wish to comment on the issue. The decision will be taken by the high command," Gowda, who succeeded Yeddyurappa after he ...
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New Delhi, The Samajwadi Party pedalled to a podium finish in the UP polls, but a five-year-old Supreme Court order asking the CBI to inquire into an alleged disproportionate assets case of Mulayam Singh and kin could queer their victory pitch. Going by the popular perception that the CBI heeds to the Centre's command in political cases, the Yadavs could ill-afford not to take note of the spoiler that the Congress-led UPA may prove for them. And the danger is neither far off nor improbable to be brushed aside. For, on October 26, 2007, the CBI had filed an application in the SC seeking permission to proceed ahead with the case on the ground that during the preliminary probe it had stumbled upon prima facie evidence on the alleged DA case of the SP chieftain, his sons, Akhilesh and Prateek, and daughter-in-law Dimple. The CBI's plea that as an independent agency it did not take instructions from the government was filed in the court that was in the midst of hearing a petition filed by Akhilesh seeking review of the SC's March 2007 order passed on a PIL. The SC had ordered the CBI to submit the preliminary probe report to the Centre for further action. When the matter was ...
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