New Delhi, The Supreme Court will on Friday take up Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt's plea seeking review of its March 21 judgement upholding his conviction under the Arms Act and sentencing him to five years in jail in 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case. A bench of P Sathasivam and B S Chauhan, which had delivered March 21 verdict, will take up the review plea in chamber. It will also consider similar pleas made by other six convicts in the case. Other six convicts, who filed review petitions are Yusuf Mohsin Nulwalla, Khalil Ahmed Sayed Ali Nazir, Mohamed Dawood Yusuf Khan, Shaikh Asif Yusuf, Muzammil Umar Kadri and Mohd Ahmed Shaikh. A day before the deadline for his surrender ended, the Supreme Court had on April 17 granted Dutt four weeks time to surrender before jail authorities to undergo 42 months remaining sentence in the case. The apex court had on March 21 upheld his conviction in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case which it said was organised by underworld don Dawood Ibrahim and others with the involvement of Pakistan's ISI. However, the apex court had reduced to five years the six-year jail-term awarded to him by a designated TADA court in 2006, ruling out ...
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New Delhi, The CBI on Friday submitted an affidavit in the Supreme Court stating that the coal scam status report prepared by the investigating agency was shared with the PMO and two concerned ministers before presenting it to the court on March 8. During an earlier hearing in the case, additional solicitor general Harin Raval had told the court that the March 8 probe report was not shared with the political executive. The CBI affidavit says the report was shared with law minister Ashwani Kumar as per his request and the coal minister. The affidavit further states that two joint secretaries had also seen the report. A joint secretary level officer in the PMO had also desired to see the status report and his request was complied with, CBI director Ranjit Sinha says in the affidavit. The CBI director also revealed that the status report was shared with a joint secretary in the coal ministry. There has been a huge controversy after it was revealed that the govt had vetted the CBI status report. The apex court had sought an affidavit from the CBI director on the issue. BJP and other opposition parties have been demanding resignation of law minister Ashwini ...
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New Delhi, Four months after the Supreme Court reserved verdict on a petition seeking implementation of mandatory safety parameters in the Kudankulam nuclear power plant, the petitioner on Tuesday made a fresh attempt to stall commissioning of the Centre's prestigious project in Tamil Nadu alleging that use of sub-standard equipment had rendered it unsafe. The new application filed by petitioner G Sundarrajan said after completion of the hearings in December 2012, it had come to public knowledge about use of sub-standard equipment in the nuclear plant, putting serious question marks on its safety. "The issue concerns use of sub-standard equipment imported by Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd from corrupt Russian nuclear suppliers in the said plant," the petitioner said, adding that this was the reason why the commissioning of the plant was delayed. Though the government has made repeated announcements since March 2012 of imminent commissioning of the nuclear plant, it has been delayed because of lack of preparedness and readiness to deal with safety issues. "Despite this, the central government has been making public statements and putting enormous political ...
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New Delhi, After actor Sanjay Dutt, three more convicts got a breather with the Supreme Court on Thursday granting four weeks more time for them to surrender to undergo their remaining jail term in 1993 Mumbai blasts case. The three convicts are Yusuf Nalwala, Altyaf and Esa Memon. The apex court also agreed to hear Zaibunissa and two other convicts' plea for extension of time to surrender later today. Sanjay Dutt on Wednesday successfully invoked the Supreme Court's mercy to get a four-week extension of his surrender deadline. Dutt was directed by the apex court, which upheld his conviction under Arms Act for possessing illegal weapons, to surrender by April 18 to serve out the remaining three-and-a-half years of his five-year jail term but he pleaded for mercy saying he needed six months to complete his shooting assignments for seven films with Rs 278 crore riding on them. A bench of Justices P Sathasivam and B S Chauhan took unprecedented recourse to Article 142 of the Constitution -- which empowers the apex court to pass any order to do complete justice -- to defer Dutt's surrender purely on mercy considerations, the only ground pleaded by his counsel Harish ...
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New Delhi, The Supreme Court on Wednesday granted Sanjay Dutt four more weeks to surrender and undergo his remaining prison term of 42 months in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case. The apex court granted partial relief to the actor on "humanitarian" grounds, a day before the deadline for his surrender ended on April 18. Sanjay Dutt had sought a six-month extension to allow him to complete shooting of seven films worth Rs 278 crore. "Considering the peculiar facts and circumstances of the case and reasons stated in the petition, we are not inclined to extend the time by six months. However, we extend the time by four weeks from tomorrow. It is made clear that no further extension will be granted," a bench comprising justices P Sathasivam and B S Chauhan said. The court said that the actor will not be entitled to any further extension of time hereafter. The bench also noted in its order that senior advocate Harish Salve, appearing for Dutt, has agreed to the same that no further extension will be sought. The CBI opposed the extension of time but was silenced by the court which asked, why didn't the agency file an appeal against Dutt's acquittal from TADA ...
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New Delhi, After crying before the cameras and expressing his resolve to abide by the judgment asking him to undergo another three-and-a-half year jail term for possessing illegal weapons during the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts, Sanjay Dutt on Monday moved the Supreme Court seeking a six-month extension of his April 18 surrender deadline. Seven films with a budget of Rs 278 crore were under various stages of production and it needed 196 acting days to complete, Dutt said in his application which will be placed before a bench headed by Justice P Sathasivam for hearing on Tuesday afternoon. Dutt also said he had already undergone 18 months imprisonment and that during pendency of his appeal against the trial court's judgment in apex court, he was permitted to go abroad for shooting. He said he had scrupulously abided by the conditions imposed on him. A bench of Justices Sathasivam and B S Chauhan had on March 21 found Dutt guilty of possessing a cache of arms, including an AK-56 assault rifle, which were part of the consignment brought into Mumbai by the masterminds of the serial blasts that killed and maimed hundreds. Senior advocate Fali S Nariman also mentioned writ ...
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New Delhi, The Supreme Court has rejected death row convict Devinderpal Singh Bhullar's mercy plea. The SC rejected Bhullar's plea to commute his death penalty to life sentence on the ground that he underwent great agony for 11 years awaiting the President's decision on his mercy plea. Rejecting Bhullar's petition, the apex court cryptically said the petitioner has failed to make out a case for commutation of death penalty to life imprisonment. This means the SC refused to accept delay in deciding mercy plea as a ground for commutation of death penalty to life imprisonment. Bhullar was handed down death penalty for his role in the bomb attack on then Youth Congress president M S Bitta in 1993 in which nine policemen were killed and 25 were injured including Bitta. Bhullar had pleaded for commutation of the death sentence on the ground that he had undergone imprisonment for 20 years which was akin to a life term and that he had lost mental equilibrium in the despairing 11-year wait. A bench of Justices G S Singhvi and S J Mukhopadhaya had heard elaborate arguments on three petitions - one by Bhullar, second by his wife Navneet Kaur and third by NGO 'Justice on Trial ...
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Chandigarh, The state of Punjab is still not a safe place. This averment was made by Punjab government before the Supreme Court, stating, "Security environment in the state of Punjab continues to be problematic". The statement was made before the apex court by secretary (home) Samir Kumar while justifying deployment of a large number of state police personnel for VVIP security. As per the state government, "considering the situation in the state," 1,294 protectees have been provided 4,120 security personnel by the state on which Rs 15.69 crore is being spent every month. In February last year, the SC had asked the Punjab government to provide a list of persons who have been given security by the state and the total expenditure incurred in this regard. The affidavit, which was placed before the SC on March 25 by the state government, has claimed that political and religious personalities of the state are on the hit list of militants and extremist groups, which are often being sponsored and supported by fundamentalist and extremist groups based abroad. "The recent attack on Lt Gen (Retd) K S Brar in London shows that both terrorist/militant outfits and radical and ...
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Mumbai, Days after Mumbai observed the 20th anniversary of the 1993 serial blasts, the Supreme Court will on Thursday deliver its verdict on 97 convicts, including actor Sanjay Dutt and 11 others who were sentenced to death. Dutt faces six years in jail for possession of arms. The judgment is scheduled to be pronounced by a division bench of Justice P Sathasivam and Justice BS Chauhan. "We are awaiting the final verdict," advocate Farhana Shah, who represented many accused in the trial court and the Supreme Court, told TOI. As many as 257 people were killed and 713 injured in the serial blasts that rocked 12 locations in Mumbai on March 12, 1993, killed 257 people and maimed 713 others, besides damaging property worth Rs 30 crore. The fishermen's colony at Mahim Causeway, Bombay Stock Exchange, Zaveri Bazar, Plaza Cinema in Dadar, Century Bazaar in Worli, Hotel Sea Rock, Sahar Airport, Air India building, Hotel Juhu Centaur and a petrol pump opposite the Sena Bhavan were some of the places that were targeted. According to the CBI, fugitive don Dawood Ibrahim, along with Pakistant's ISI, engineered the blasts, and Tiger Memon and his brother Ayub were the main ...
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Telecom minister Kapil Sibal is more lawyer than politician. Supreme Court judgments from the mid-1980s till 2004 bear testimony of his ability to explain rule of law-based legal principles while assisting the court in solving complex constitutional puzzles in scores of cases. He is a staunch believer in democratic governance where all three organs — legislature, executive and judiciary — play their roles independently but in a manner that strengthens the constitutional scheme. That is why it is a little intriguing why Sibal decided to go public in venting his disapproval of SC's February 15 order on spectrum. The court directed telecom firms, which had operated mobile services for almost a year despite cancellation of their licences, to stop operations immediately for either not participating in the auction of cancelled spectrum or being unsuccessful in the auction. Sibal was right when he faulted the order for not specifying the reasons for the directions. Few can have a quarrel with his logic: "Courts scrutinize government files to discover the basis of decision making. If transparency is expected from government, it must follow that the courts should give full ...
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New Delhi, Launching a fresh attack on Press Council of India chairperson Markandey Katju, the BJP on Monday said the former Supreme Court judge was expressing "unsolicited, bizarre" opinions against non-Congress ruled states and demanded that he should step down. "Mr Katju as Chairperson of the Press Council of India, holds a statutory position, yet he is seemingly floating around the country like a vagabond and giving unsolicited bizarre opinions," BJP spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Rudy told reporters. He alleged that Katju is biased and demanded his resignation. "Katju prefers slurring opposition ruled governments whether it is Mamata Banerjee ruled West Bengal, the JDU-BJP ruled government in Bihar or Narendra Modi government in Gujarat," Rudy said. Rudy maintained that the Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley had made an apt statement that Katju was carrying the "brief of the Congress party" and asked him to resign. "Mr Modi has also supported Jaitley's statement that Katju should quit," Rudi said. Jaitley and Katju were yesterday locked in a bitter war of words over the latter's article critical of Modi with the two asking each other to ...
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Chennai, The mercy petitions of four Veerappan associates, sentenced to death in a landmine blast case, were rejected by President Pranab Mukherjee, an advocate S Balamurugan, appearing for the accused, said. "We have received information from reliable sources that the message has been sent to Belgaum jail authorities and apparently it has also been conveyed to the prisoners," Balalmurugan, who is also the Tamil Nadu PUCL state secretary, said. The dreaded sandalwood bandit Veerappan was killed in an encounter with the Tamil Nadu police of the special task force in October 2004. The four accused, Gnanprakasham, Simon, Meesekar Madaiah and Bilavendran, were sentenced to death by the Supreme Court in January 2004 in connection with the killing of 21 policemen in a landmine blast at Palar in Karnataka near the inter-state border in 1993. They were sentenced to undergo life imprisonment by the Mysore court. But the government moved the Supreme Court, which awarded them the death sentence. Their mercy pleas have been pending since 2004. A division bench of Justice YK Sabharwal and Justice BN Agrawal had converted the life imprisonment of convicts to death sentence and ...
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New Delhi, The government said on Wednesday that all institutions should respect the constitutional demarcation between the executive, legislature and the judiciary and any confrontation which threatens this balance and sends a confusing signal to global investors should better be avoided. Commerce, industry and textiles minister Anand Sharma said the Indian economy is passing through a difficult phase and it is important to retain the trust and confidence of international investors regarding the openness of India's foreign investment regime. "It is important that all institutions respect the constitutional demarcation between executive, legislation and judiciary. Any alteration of this balance which confuses the global investors who are keen to invest in India which leads to job creation, technology upgradation and infrastructure expansion is better avoided," Sharma said in a statement while reacting to the Supreme Court's observation on the issue of government's decision to open up the multi-brand retail sector to foreign investors. The Supreme Court said on Tuesday it would test the constitutional validity of the Centre's decision to allow FDI in multi-brand retail and ...
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Rohtak, Khap panchayats may be notorious for issuing diktats in cases of honour killings but not a single case has been registered against them anywhere in Haryana since 2001. Even as the Supreme Court is in the process of reining in the khap panchayats functioning like kangaroo courts in Haryana villages, a police department reply to an RTI query has revealed that no case was registered for 10 years against khaps from January 1, 2001 to December 31, 2011 in 21 districts in the state, where young couples were killed for "honour" allegedly on the orders of khap panchayats. Jagmati Sangwan, a woman activist, stated that the involvement of khap panchayats had been quite clear in many cases. "The khap leaders are accused in many cases like Kaithal's Manoj Babli case and Sonia Rampal honour killing case in Jind district. But it seems that the police had booked the khap leaders as individuals and not as representatives of the khaps," said Sangwan. Suresh Deswal, a Rohtak resident, had sought details of the cases against the khap panchayats involved in the honour killing cases in Haryana. All India Adarsh Jat Mahasabha president and Bhanwala khap president Pawanjit Banwala, ...
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New Delhi, The Supreme Court on Friday issued notice to the CBI and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) on S Gurumurthy's petition alleging that Dayanidhi Maran, while being the Union telecom minister, had set up an illegal telephone exchange for family-owned firm Sun TV causing a loss of Rs 440 crore to the exchequer. A bench of Justices Aftab Alam and Ranjana P Desai issued notice after hearing arguments from Gurumurthy's counsel Aman Lekhi, who said the petitioner had details of the file noting relating to the illegally set up telephone exchange at the then minister's Chennai home. The petitioner said the CBI had in a preliminary inquiry report dated September 10, 2007 narrated "how the former telecom minister Dayanidhi Maran, during his tenure as telecom minister, had fraudulently set up a telephone exchange with 323 high-speed telephone lines in his Chennai home at No.3, Boat Club Road, R A Puram but secretly in the name of chief general manager of BSNL at Chennai to show as if the said lines were being used by the GM of BSNL". "Further, these lines were smuggled away and linked to the office of Sun TV Network (a company promoted by his brother Kalanithi Maran) for ...
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Bhopal, The head of the Supreme Court appointed monitoring committee to oversee the functioning of hospitals meant for the treatment of Bhopal gas disaster survivors, Dr H H Trivedi, resigned citing indifference by the Madhya Pradesh government. "Dr Trivedi quit the committee on January 2 due to the government neglecting the monitoring committee," Purnendu Shukla, member of the committee said. The resignation came a day before the SC sought a status report within two weeks from the government about medical rehabilitation of the victims. "I have no comment to offer on the support being given by the government to the monitoring committee. I am resigning on health reasons," Trivedi said. Apart from Trivedi, the four-member committee comprised member secretary and director medical education S C Tiwari, Gandhi medical college dean Nirbhay Shrivastava and Purnendu Shukla. "We are empowered but still powerless. Cooperation from government representatives has been dismal. It has been insulting to say the least," said Shukla. At least a dozen meeting had been cancelled or postponed in the past four months, he added. The SC in August 9, 2012 had directed the state government ...
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New Delhi, The Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that an ongoing Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe against Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and his son and Uttar Pradesh chief minster Akhilesh Yadav would continue in disproportionate assets case even as the case against Akhilesh's wife Dimple Yadav, also a politician, was quashed. The verdict came as a setback to the Yadavs whose lawyer said the CBI is grossly misused by the central government. The Supreme Court said Dimple Yadav will not be under investigation because she was not a public official when the allegations of amassing wealth disproportionate to the known source surfaced. "Supreme Court asked to proceed against other people," said the lawyer of the Yadavs. He said "this means this government is misusing CBI because all charges were same." "It is a gross misuse of CBI by the central government and its use as a political tool," said the lawyer of the Yadavs. The Supreme Court will now monitor the case and CBI will submit its report to the top ...
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New Delhi, The clouds on the fairness of President Pranab Mukherjee's election as head of the country cleared Wednesday as the Supreme Court by a majority judgment rejected a petition challenging the process. The apex court special bench, headed by Chief Justice Altamas Kabir, by a majority judgement, rejected the petition by defeated presidential candidate P.A. Sangma, who had contended that Mukherjee held an office of profit when he had filed his nomination papers. The judgement by the chief justice was shared by Justices P. Sathasivam and S.S. Nijjar. Justice J. Chalemeswar and and Justice Ranjan Gogoi, in their separate judgements differed with majority view and held that Sangma's petition challenging Mukherjee election deserves regular hearing. Gogoi said that as the chairman of the Indian Statistical Institute, Mukherjee was holding an office of profit and an application of the Provisions of Representation of People Act does not erase the ...
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New Delhi, The Supreme Court on Friday stayed all proceedings before the Delhi High Court relating to 20 petitions by 2G spectrum scam accused, including former telecom minister A Raja, DMK MP Kanimozhi and others who had challenged the trial court's decision to frame charges against them. Appearing for the CBI, senior advocate K K Venugopal informed a bench of Justices G S Singhvi and K S Radhakrishnan that though the high court had not stayed the trial proceedings, the multitude of petitions by the accused questioning framing of charges against them appeared to be dilatory tactics. The CBI had requested the court to call for the records of the cases and transfer all the petitions to the SC. The bench issued notices to the accused who moved the HC against the trial court order. It gave six weeks to the accused to file their responses to the CBI's plea. Venugopal and additional solicitor general Harin Raval informed the court that the CBI had taken out 4GB of data from the computers of a firm, BTS Belvoir, during its raids and it was transcribing the contents. It promised to provide the court with the data relevant to the 2G scam. He said each MB of data when ...
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New Delhi, Reacting to a probe initiated by the UP government against a senior Enforcement Directorate (ED) official investigating the 2G scam, the Supreme Court has expressed shock at the way the official was targeted at the "behest of higher-ups" in the state government. The apex court, which had on Wednesday stayed all proceedings against the officer, made the remarks after it went in detail through the petition filed by the official. It also issued a contempt notice against the UP government on the official's plea. A bench of justices G S Singhvi and K S Radhakrishnan said ED deputy director Rajeshwar Singh, on whose plea contempt proceeding were initiated against Sahara Group chief Subrata Roy for allegedly interfering with the probe in the scam, needed to be protected. The bench said allegations were being made against Singh to "prevent him from conducting the probe in the scam fearlessly". "He must be protected. He is acting as an officer of the court and we are monitoring the case. They are flouting our order by taking action against him. Hope that good sense prevails upon them," the bench said. A probe against Singh was initiated on the instructions of UP ...
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