Salman Khan gets Bail from Rajasthan High Court

Aug. 31 - The Jodhpur bench of Rajasthan High Court grants bail to Actor Salman Khan

Salman Khan was arrested on Saturday, a day after a lower court rejected his appeal against his 2006 conviction for killing the endangered animals during hunting trips to the state in 1998.

Khan has been convicted of poaching a chinkara deer at the Ghoda farm near Jodhpur on the night of September 28, 1998 while filming Sooraj Barjatya's blockbuster Hum Saath Saath Hain.

Khan has been in the jail for five days, serving a five-year sentence in the blackbuck hunting case and was waiting for relief from Rajasthan High Court.

Delhi High Court dismisses suit on nuke deal

New Delhi, Aug 30 (IANS) The Delhi High Court Thursday dismissed a pubic suit urging that the government be asked to approach the president for referring the India-US civilian nuclear deal to the Supreme Court for its opinion.

"As of today there is no legislation with regard to the deal, so it is purely a policy decision of the government of India and the court could not interfere in the matter," a division bench headed by Chief Justice M.K. Sharma said, while dismissing the suit.

"We are of the considered opinion that a mandamus cannot be issued directing the union government to approach the president to refer the issue to the Supreme Court for its legal advice," the court observed.

Referring to a previous Supreme Court ruling, the Bench said: "It is a matter essentially for the president to decide whether to refer the issue or not to Supreme Court for its opinion."

On Wednesday, while seeking the opinion of the government, the court had said: "Though the matter is important, we think this is at a premature stage. No issue is arising as the agreement is yet to be arrived at by the government.

"However at this stage, we think there are certain things which are not clear and before passing any order, the centre has to make them clear to us," the court had added.

While appointing senior counsel Jagmohan Sabharwal to assist it, the court had also asked the additional solicitor general to state the government's opinion on Thursday.

The government submitted that the court could not direct the executive or the president to refer the matter to the apex court for its legal opinion.

The suit, filed by social worker Sarvjeet Kumar, said the nuclear deal was a legal matter and affected the country's sovereignty and thus should be scrutinised by the Supreme Court.

In the light of various political parties "misinterpreting" the issue, the matter should be referred to the apex court for its opinion, the petition, filed by counsel Sugriv Dubey, said.

Shahabuddin convicted in yet another case

Patna, Aug 30 (IANS) A Bihar court Thursday convicted Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) MP Mohammed Shahabuddin for a murderous attack on then Siwan superintendent of police (SP) in 1996.

This is the third time Shahabuddin has been convicted this year. He will be sentenced in the case Friday.

Additional District and Sessions Judge Gyaneshwar Prasad Srivastava of a special court inside Siwan jail, 150 km from here, found him guilty. Two of his bodyguards were also convicted.

The attack on then Siwan superintendent of police S.P. Singhal took place May 3, 1996 when Shahabuddin was the legislator from the Zeeradei assembly constituency in Siwan district.

Singhal, upon receiving information about tension in Darauli Mathiya village, went there for investigation. He saw four people carrying arms at Done Bazaar and sent his bodyguards to inquire. But the men sped away in a vehicle. As Singhal gave chase, he was followed by a car. The occupants of both the vehicles then fired upon the police official.

Singhal identified three of his assailants as Shahabuddin and his two bodyguards, Jehangir and Khaliq, who were in uniforms. The men managed to escape while Singhal returned to Siwan.

The cop then lodged a written complaint with the Darauli police station.

In May, a court had sentenced Shahabuddin to life imprisonment for murdering a political activist in 1999. In March, he was convicted of attacking the Communist Party of India-Marxist Leninist office in Siwan town Sep 19, 1998.

A Lok Sabha member from Siwan since 1996, Shahabuddin is involved in 40 criminal cases, including murder, abduction and possession of illegal arms. Currently lodged in Siwan jail, he was arrested in Delhi more than a year ago over the seizure of arms from his ancestral house in the same district.

Earlier this year, the Patna High Court directed that all pending cases against him be tried by a special court set up by the state government in Siwan jail.

Human rights team visiting Bhagalpur to probe police torture

Patna, Aug 30 (IANS) A National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) team is visiting Bhagalpur district Thursday to probe the brutal torture by police of an alleged chain-snatcher at Nathnagar in the district.

"The NHRC team will hold talks with Bhagalpur district administration officials, policemen, locals and also the victim to prepare a report," a senior district official said.

Two days after taking suo motu cognisance of the incident, the NHRC issued notice to the Bihar home department to produce a report on the incident. Its visit assumes significance as the commission views the incident as a serious violation of human rights by the policemen.

On Monday, Aurangzeb, a man in his early 20s, was thrashed and brutally tortured by police at Nathnagar. TV footage showed a cop dragging him through the street tied to the back of a motorcycle. He was hospitalised in a critical condition. His condition has improved Thursday, according to officials.

The incident triggered protests and violent clashes in Nathnagar. The situation turned tense Tuesday after an angry crowd threw stones at a police station following rumours that the man had died due to the torture. Some anti-socials tried to give a communal twist to the incident, but the local administration controlled the situation.

A case was lodged against the police who tortured Aurangzeb. A senior official in the state police headquarters here said a complaint has been registered against the erring policemen and they have been issued a show cause notice. The accused cops, Ramchandra Rai and L.B. Singh, were suspended on Tuesday.

"If a policeman doesn't respect the people, he has no right to hold the post," said State Home Secretary Afzal Amanullah.

"The chief minister has ordered a probe into the incident and the Bhagalpur district superintendent of police has been asked to conduct the probe," Amanullah said.

Bihar police spokesperson Inspector General Anil Sinha said action had been taken against the accused and the officer-in-charge of Nathnagar police station had been asked to submit a report soon.

But Sinha tried to downplay the incident, alleging that Aurangzeb had a criminal background. "There were criminal cases lodged against him. He was a known criminal in the area," Sinha said.

Monday's incident has come as an embarrassment for the state government.

Human rights organisations have condemned the incident and demanded immediate action against the policemen.

New property tax imposed in Rajasthan

Jaipur, Aug 30 (IANS) The government in Rajasthan has imposed a new property tax in urban areas of the state.

In a notification issued here late Wednesday evening the state government imposed urban development tax with immediate effect. The urban development tax is being levied as an alternate to house tax, which was abolished in January.

Abolition of house tax was one of the promises made in the Bharatiya Janata Party manifesto released at the time of the assembly elections in 2003.

As per the new tax proposal, the government now plans to impose tax on residential plots of 300 square yards or more, on flats of over 1,500 sq feet and on commercial houses of more than 100 square yards.

The tax will be calculated on the basis of local district level committee (DLC) rates that will be divided by 2,000 to arrive at the tax figure.

However, the opposition Congress has decided to oppose any move to impose this tax.

"BJP government is trying to fool people by imposing the tax under a new name," said Pratap Singh Khachriawas, a Congress leader.

"We will hold agitation against this stubbornness of the state government," he said.

"AIIMS doctors call off strike after court intervention

New Delhi, Aug 30 (IANS) Striking medics of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) called off their strike Thursday afternoon after the Delhi High Court asked them to do so in view of the suffering of patients.

The doctors said the high court had taken suo moto cognisance of their strike and the suffering of the thousands of patients who throng the hospital every day.

"Respecting the judiciary we have called off our strike. We hope the court will listen to our grievance as well," Nitin Kukkar, a protesting doctor, told IANS.

Since Tuesday evening, hundreds of resident doctors were protesting because they had not received their postgraduate degrees. The strike had affected services at the out patients department (OPD) of the premier hospital, which is visited by around 6,000 people every day.

On Wednesday, the resident doctors had boycotted the OPD although they attended the ICUs and emergency wards.

The resident doctors were protesting because they had not got their degrees even two years after clearing the exams, making it difficult for them to apply for jobs elsewhere or for further studies.

The protesting medicos allege that Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss has not signed the degree certificates though the other three signatories - director, registrar and dean - had signed them.

Ramadoss had urged the protesting medicos to call off their strike and assured them that he would sign their degree certificates soon, but the junior doctors had earlier refused to relent.

AIIMS is India's top government hospital and medical college that treats over 8,000 patients every day. - IANS

Patna High Court does Bihar proud

New Delhi, Aug 26 (IANS) This might come as a pleasant surprise. Bihar, which has one of the highest crime rates in India, can boast of a high court with relatively one of the fewest number of pending cases - 97,354. This is in sharp contrast to many other states where the backlog in the high courts runs into hundreds of thousands.

According to latest official statistics from various high courts at the end of March this year, the figure of 97,354 for the Patna High Court compares very favourably with those at the high courts of Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and Uttar Pradesh.

While the Allahabad High Court tops the list of courts with a high backlog - at 815,602 cases, the Orissa High Court has 224,382 cases.

Three other high courts - in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh - have 209,095, 188,796 and 148,512 cases respectively pending with them.

What's worse, other economically well off states too have a surfeit of cases at their high courts.

For example, the Madras High Court and the Bombay High Court respectively occupy the second and third positions in the list of high courts with a huge build-up of cases awaiting adjudication. The Madras High Court has 418,110 cases pending with it, while the backlog of cases at Bombay High Court stands at 366,495.

The high courts of West Bengal, Punjab and Haryana, and Gujarat had 272,643, 244,875, and 112,045 cases pending with them respectively at the end of March this year.

What's surprising is that the Patna High Court has been able to keep the backlog of cases low despite having a massive vacancy - 32.5 percent - of judges. Against a sanctioned strength of 43 judges, it has just 29 judges.

In contrast, the Allahabad High Court has merely 19 percent judicial vacancy, having 77 judges against a sanctioned strength of 95 judges. Only the Orissa as well as Punjab and Haryana high courts have judicial vacancies higher than that of the Patna High Court.

The Orissa High Court, which tops the list of courts with 36 percent of judicial vacancy, has only 14 judges against a sanctioned strength of 22. The vacancy at the Punjab and Haryana High Court is to the tune of 34 percent (35 judges working against a sanctioned strength of 53).

The vacancy of judges in other high courts is in the range of 20 percent with Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan having 20 percent vacancy each, Gujarat 26 percent, Bombay 17 percent and Madras 10 percent.

Delhi High Court asks BCCI not take action against ICL players

New Delhi, Aug 27 (IANS) The Delhi High Court Monday asked Indian cricket board not to take any coercive action against the cricketers aligning with the rival Indian Cricket League (ICL).

"Let the cricketers play. Don't take any action against them," Justice S.K. Koul said after hearing the ICL petition on the issue.

The court asked the Board for Control of Cricket in India (BCCI), union government and 22 state cricket associations to file their reply to the petition and fixed Sep 28 as the next date of hearing.

The court also asked the government to clarify the situation on the Indian cricket team and the role of BCCI in controlling the game in the country.

Senior Counsel Harish Salve appearing for the ICL submitted that the team representing the BCCI was not the India team.

BCCI counsel Abhishek Sanghvi said the board would file its reply within three weeks.

Dutt out of jail for a month

Mumbai, Aug 27 (IANS) Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt, who is currently out on interim bail, Monday got temporary relief for a month as he will get a copy of his court verdict only Sep 27. He is supposed to surrender once he gets the copy.

Dutt, 48, appeared before P.D. Kode, judge at the special anti-terror court here, along with his lawyer Farhana Shah to receive his copy of the verdict, which will now be given to him a month later.

Dutt was sent to jail July 31 after the special TADA (Terrorist and Disruptive Activities) court sentenced him to six years rigorous imprisonment for illegal possession of arms in connection with the 1993 Mumbai bombings. He was moved to Yerawada Jail in Pune Aug 2.

He was granted interim bail by the Supreme Court Aug 20 and was released from jail last week.

The actor is required to mark his attendance before the Central Bureau of Investigation office here every Friday.

High court judge seeks transfer of Dera chief's case

Chandigarh, Aug 23 (IANS) In a surprise development, a Punjab and Haryana High Court judge Thursday refused to take up the bail application of Dera Sacha Sauda sect chief Gurmit Ram Rahim Singh and instead asked the chief justice to transfer the case to another bench of the court.

Justice Surya Kant, in whose court the matter was listed for decision Thursday, heard the sect chief's lawyers and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) counsel Tuesday, and then refused to take up the matter, saying that he had realised that he had been party to the matter when he was advocate general of Haryana a few years ago.

He said that he had written to the chief justice to transfer the case to another bench of the high court.

The bail application will now come up for hearing after the case is transferred to another bench.

The dera chief's bail was pending before the court in cases registered by the CBI against the godman for his alleged involvement in two murders and the rape of a woman devotee. The three incidents took place between 2001-04.

The dera chief has been summoned by a special CBI court in Ambala city in Haryana Aug 31 for personal appearance so that he can be served the charge sheet filed by the CBI.

The files relating to the cases had been seen by Justice Surya Kant when he was advocate general of Haryana.

The murders relate to that of the dera chief's former manager Ranjit Singh in July 2002 and of a journalist, Ram Chandra Chhatrapati, in November 2001.

Dera activists murdered Ranjit Singh allegedly at the behest of the godman, while it is alleged that he got Chhatrapati killed after the latter wrote about shady activities inside the sect headquarters located at Sirsa, 300 km from here.

The rape case relates to allegations by a former female follower that the dera chief had raped her more than once inside the dera premises.

The dera management has so far refuted all these charges.

The sect chief has been involved in a major stand-off with Sikhs since May this year after he portrayed himself as the revered 10th Sikh guru, Gobind Singh.

Supreme Court: CAs, Architects to Pay Service Tax

The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld the Parliament’s legislative competence to levy service tax on chartered accountants, cost accountants and architects.

Rejecting the contention of All India Federation of Tax Practitioners, a bench of Justice SH Kapadia and Justice B Sudershan Reddy said, “Service tax is a tax on each activity undertaken by a chartered accountant, a cost accountant or an architect. For each transaction or a contract, they render professional-based services.”

The bench further observed that although from the point of view from these professionals the activity undertaken by them is based on their performance but, from a client’s perspective, they are service providers. While upholding the Central Government’s law to levy service tax through Finance Act 1994 and 1998 the bench also distinguished between a service tax and a professional tax. Rejecting the appellant’s argument that the word “profession” was synonymous with the word “service,” the bench held that service tax and professional tax were distinct.

Professional tax, according to the court, is a tax on an individual, person, a firm or a company. And, therefore, the state legislature was entitled to levy the same. However, service tax was a tax on the “status of a cost accountant or a chartered accountant.” Read Complete News

Supreme Court:CAs, Architects to Pay Service Tax

Sanjay Dutt gets interim bail from Supreme Court

Aug 20 - Sanjay Dutt gets interim bail from Supreme Court

Supreme Court granted bail on Monday to Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt, jailed for six years for receiving guns from gangsters involved in the country's worst bombings as per TV Reports

Convicted last November on charges of possessing illegal fire arms in the run-up to the Mumbai serial bombings of March 1993, Sanjay Dutt was sentenced to a six-year jail term on July the 31 this year. Actor Sanjay Dutt's bail application was heard by the Supreme Court Today.

A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan said it was releasing Dutt and others while restoring "status quo ante sentencing".

However, those who had been in prison before being sentenced by the anti-terror TADA court would continue to be inside jail.

Presently serving his term in Pune's Yerwada jail, the popular actor had been taken into custody soon after the July pronouncement of the sentence.

He then moved the apex court seeking bail and challenging his conviction under the Arms Act.

Karan Singh, a member of Dutt's legal team, had told IANS that he hoped the apex court would readily grant interim bail to the actor following the trial court's failure to supply him its detailed judgement at the time of jailing him. - IANS

Insurance against Kidnapping in India

Insurance cover against kidnapping has many takers


New Delhi, Aug 19 (IANS) Chander Lal, 52, an industrialist from Kanpur, is hesitant about telling his friends that he has taken an insurance policy for himself and his family against kidnapping, a growing 'industry' in the country's largest state.

Lal's foremost fear is that word might get around making him vulnerable especially with the kidnapping industry in Uttar Pradesh still thriving despite the crackdown against criminal gangs in the last three months.

But hundreds of industrialists and high net-worth individuals like Lal are increasingly coming forward to take up such policies as their businesses expand in crime-prone areas of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and the northeastern states.

"Most of the requests are coming in from big contractors, industrialists and corporate honchos. Some of them stay in big metros but their industry or enterprise is located in areas where kidnappers hold sway," Santosh Balan of Bajaj Allianz, a private insurance company, told IANS.

"The policies we offer are not off-the-shelf products. They are tailor-made, confidential, and beneficiaries are given pan-Indian exposure."

Other insurance companies such as Tata AIG, ICICI Lombard and HDFC Chubb have also stepped in, offering similar polices with some even providing psychological counselling in the event of abduction.

According to the latest National Crime Records Bureau figures, Uttar Pradesh recorded 2,256 cases of kidnapping in 2006.

Figures received by the Patna High Court from district judges indicate that there were about 1,800 cases of kidnappings registered in Bihar in 2006 against 1,697 cases in 2005.

However, M.P. Gupta, a senior lawyer of the Patna High Court, put the figure higher saying that 4,849 cases of kidnapping took place in Bihar from July 2006 to June 2007. "This high figure of kidnappings in Bihar in one year is not mine or anyone else's. It is a court report and an authentic one," Gupta told IANS.

The indemnity policy of Tata AIG provides coverage for losses incurred as a result of kidnapping, bodily injury extortion (physical harm caused by extortionists), blackmail or property damage extortion (damage to property by extortionists) - including trade secrets, proprietary information and computer viruses and product contamination.

"Expert consultants help companies prepare for and respond to incidents in order to bring kidnap victims home safely and bring successful conclusions to extortion and blackmail situations," the Tata AIG website announces.

Because of the confidentiality clause, most insurance companies were reluctant to part with their customer portfolio, but according to police officials in Assam and Uttar Pradesh, leather goods exporters, contractors and tea estate owners had availed themselves of these policies.

Uttar Pradesh's additional director general of police (law and order) Brij Lal, who has over 100 encounters against his name, said he was unaware whether businessmen were taking policies but pointed out that his force had launched a massive crackdown.

"While it may not be possible to provide personal security to every single individual, strong action against criminal gangs has already brought down kidnappings by about 75 percent over the past three months since the new (Bahujan Samaj Party) government took over," Lal told IANS.

"Since kidnappings have been rampant in parts of western Uttar Pradesh, our special operations against criminal gangs in general has compelled several gangs to either lie low or slip out of the state."

"More recently, we eliminated one known kidnapping gang in Shahjahanpur, while our cops managed to get a hostage released unscathed from the clutches of another gang in the same district."

At a time when Bihar's kidnapping industry is thriving, the offer of insurance cover against kidnapping for ransom has come as a big relief.

Manorama Singh, a homemaker whose husband is an engineer in a top private telecom company, said that insurance cover against kidnapping was good.

"I was watching a news bulletin recently that insurance companies are offering cover against kidnapping for ransom in Uttar Pradesh. But I was told by my husband that companies will offer this in Bihar also," she said.

Fear of kidnapping runs high among the rich, many of whom cannot afford to pay the huge ransoms often demanded by kidnappers.

Professionals, businessmen and school students from well-off families are often the targets of kidnapping gangs. Just last week, Akash Pandey, 12, a Class 8 student was kidnapped while on his way to school in a posh Patna locality. The police are yet to find him.

A senior official of Tata AIG said the company would soon offer insurance cover against kidnapping for ransom in Bihar.

"We have been studying the market and business potential before launching it in Bihar," he said.

K. Ramalingam of Bajaj Allianz pointed out that the personal cover for the insured varied according to individuals and situations.

"It could start at Rs.5 million and go up to Rs.5 billion. There are many factors which go into drafting a policy. It is valid for a year like all other policies," he said.

By Murali Krishnan IANS

Parliamentary panel faults bill on errant judges

New Delhi, Aug 17 (IANS) A parliamentary panel Friday recommended drastic changes in a proposed law to discipline errant judges, virtually junking the bill in its original form.

The changes recommended to the Judges (Inquiry) Bill, 2006, ranged from the composition of the proposed National Judicial Council (NJC) to an impeached judge's right to move the apex court.

Strongly disapproving the all-judge composition of the NJC, the panel, headed by Rajya Sabha member E.M.S Natchiappan, asked the government to broad base it and include members from the executive, legislature and from among the lawyers as well.

The panel, referring to the judiciary's last word in appointment of judges, said, "Judges appointing judges is bad enough in itself; judges judging judges is worse."

The panel also recommended complete omission of section 30 of the bill, which entitles an impeached judge to move the Supreme Court against the president's order of his dismissal passed on the basis of a two-third majority decision of both houses of parliament.

"The president's order of removal of a judge is the result of parliament's decision after due process and resolution of 2/3rd majority by each house. Therefore, allowing the president's decision to be challenged by a dismissed judge is totally unwarranted and uncalled for," said the panel, following a nine-month-long scrutiny of the bill.

The panel, officially known as the Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Ministry of Law and Justice, also fiercely disapproved other provisions of the bill, which would amount to curtailment of parliament's existing power on removing judges.

"The committee takes strong exception to the fact that the provisions of the bill have the effect of curtailing the parliament's right to discuss about the conduct of a judge," it said in a report.

"The committee categorically observes that the powers of the parliament with regard to impeachment of a judge should in no case be diluted or shifted to any other institution or body," the panel said.

In a suggestion, not related to the scrutiny of the bill, the panel also suggested providing for reservation for scheduled castes, tribes and other backward classes people for appointment as judges in the higher judiciary "to meet the ends of social justice and equity".

Consumer disputes redressal forum to be computerised: Pawar

New Delhi, Aug 17 (IANS) In a move to further streamline their functioning, consumer redressal forums in states would be computerised and networked by the year-end at a cost of Rs.486.4 million, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar said Friday.

Inaugurating a two-day conference at Vigyan Bhavan marking the 20th Foundation Day of National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, Pawar said the project was in its final year and was being executed by the National Informatics Centre on a turnkey basis.

He said the government was in the process of strengthening the commission by increasing the number of members to nine from the existing five.

Though the overall performance of the forum has been satisfactory with nearly 88 percent of the 2.8 million cases filed so far disposed off, the minister said there was a need to "change the common man's perception that the consumer fora had slipped onto the path of civil courts, making litigation long drawn out and taking several years to dispose of even cases involving small compensation".

Pawar said it was time to change the common criticism that the orders of the consumer forum are not swift and do not hit the offenders where it hurts them most, and it is not even taken seriously by the offenders.

Though the state commissions and district forum are the responsibility of state governments to ensure that their functioning is not hampered due to lack of infrastructure, the central government has been extending liberal assistance in the form of grants so that there is no resource constraint, he said.

As part of the central government's encouragement to consumer courts in states and districts, the government was spending liberally in providing all requisite infrastructure and has already sanctioned Rs.980 million to 18 states and Rs.474.4 million to 16 state governments as the first tranche of assistance, Pawar said.

Supreme court raps government over food safety law

New Delhi, Aug 17 (IANS) The Supreme Court Friday pulled up the central government for its failure to implement a food safety law that makes it mandatory for soft drink majors Pepsi and Coca-Cola to mention the ingredients on their drink bottles.

A bench of Justices A.K. Mathur and Dalveer Bhandari directed the government to file a detailed affidavit explaining its failure in notifying the Food (Safety and Standard) Act, 2006.

Earlier, counsel for petitioner Centre for Public Interest Litigation, Prashant Bhushan, contended before the court that the government was deliberately avoiding implementation of the law.

Bhushan alleged that the government may be avoiding the notification of the law under the influence of multinational companies like Pepsi and Coke, which have been opposing statutory measures that might force them to mention the contents of their soft drinks.

The petitioner contended the companies had been opposing the law in the aftermath of findings that soft drinks had traces of harmful chemicals, including pesticides, which could damage the health of consumers, a majority of whom are children.

He also suggested that the court constitute a committee comprising of experts to examine the issue of enumerating all ingredients of a food product and soft drink on the packets.

Bhushan suggested the name of eminent scientists Prof Yashpal and P.M. Bhargava for inclusion in the expert committee.

The court adjourned the matter for further hearing on Sep 5.

Apex court stops Haryana from perforating Bhakra canal

New Delhi, Aug 17 (IANS) The Supreme Court Friday temporarily restrained the Haryana government from making a hole in the Bhakra Canal in Kaithal district to feed a water channel being built by the state to irrigate farm land.

A bench comprising Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan and Justice R.V. Raveendran, in an interim order, stalled the Haryana government till Sep 5 from making the canal, on an application by the Punjab government opposing construction of the water channel.

The bench issued notice to the Haryana government seeking its response to the Punjab government's opposition to the construction of the water channel.

The bench, however, refused to stay the ongoing construction of the 20-km-long water channel, called 'Hansi Branch Butana Branch of the Multipurpose Link Channel', being built to link with Bhakra canal through a perforation near Ajimgarh village in Kaithal, Haryana.

The water channel runs from west to east, adjoining the territory of Punjab. It is to have a 10.2-feet-high embankment for the first 11 km and taper to a seven-feet-high embankment along the subsequent nine km run.

The counsel for Punjab government Rajiv Dhavan contended that the embankment would obstruct the free flow of surface water from north to south and result in flooding the territory of Punjab.

He said the water deluge in turn would result in submergence of 20,756 acres of Punjab land in 32 villages and require displacement of over 100,000 people in the state.

Objecting to the construction of the water channel by the Haryana government, Dhavan said that the project would also ruin the existing irrigation system as well as communication system in the state and inflict other damages.

Terming the construction by Haryana as "violation of territorial rights of Punjab", Dhavan pointed out that even the farming land in the Yamuna basin that Haryana proposed to irrigate through the channel was not part of the areas identified for irrigation in the Bhakra Nangal agreement of 1959.

Dhavan said Haryana's project was akin to "creating an extra-territorial nuisance" against Punjab and amounted to trespass into its territory.

The apex court restrained Haryana from perforating the canal, rejecting the contentions by its counsel Shanti Bhushan that the court could not restrain the government from perforating the canal without hearing its arguments.

The court, however, observed that it was an "original suit" between two states, where the court was empowered to restrain a state through interim orders.

Justice that is delayed is forgotten: chief justice of India

Delayed justice and the tardy disposal of cases could result in people losing faith in the judiciary, Chief Justice of India K.G. Balakrishnan said Wednesday after hoisting the tricolour at the Supreme Court.

"The people's faith in the judicial system begins to wane, because justice that is delayed is forgotten, excluded and finally discarded," the chief justice told a gathering on the occasion of India's 60th anniversary of independence.

He said the backlog of cases continued to mount despite the best efforts of the judiciary and urged the government to improve infrastructure so cases could be disposed of faster.

Balakrishnan called for setting up of "high quality and modernised training academies" for judges and lawyers to dispose cases faster. - IANS

Such academies needed to be set up at the lower judiciary level, he said.

"The lower judiciary is hindered with the problem of inadequate infrastructure, as well as poor working conditions in certain areas. This is a pressing concern, since most cases do not go beyond the lower judiciary.

"It is thus imperative to modernise the lowest rungs of the judicial system and introduce high quality and modernised training academies for the judges and lawyers. This will make for a better workforce," he observed.

He expressed his satisfaction at the innovative evening courts, mobile courts and e-courts set up by various high courts to make justice accessible to people living in the remotest parts of the country.

According to the latest figures, there are 25 million cases pending in the lower court, 3.6 million in the high courts and 43,580 in the Supreme Court.

Nithari killings: non-bailable warrants against two cops

Ghaziabad, Aug 16 (IANS) A special court here Thursday issued non-bailable warrants against two suspended officials of the Noida police for allegedly taking bribes to botch up the case relating to the Nithari killings in which at least 20 children and young women were raped and murdered.

Dinesh Yadav, then circle officer, and V.P. Singh, then station house officer, face arrests for allegedly accepting bribes from S.K. Sharma, employee of prime accused Moninder Singh Pandher, to conceal and destroy evidence.

Pandher and his domestic help Surinder Koli had been arrested last year after the recovery of at least 20 human skulls from a drain behind Pandher's Noida bungalow Dec 29.

Hearing the case of 24-year-old Payal, one of the victims, judge Rama Jain of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court found both suspended officials "prima facie accused" for concealing the case diary.

"After hearing the testimony of Payal's father Nand Lal who saw the official accepting bribes, the court finds them prima facie accused in the case and issues non-bailable warrant against them," the judge said.

The court has asked the Ghaziabad senior superintendent of police to produce them on or before Aug 29.

It was Payal's murder that had led to the unravelling of the sex-related butcheries in Nithari village in Noida, adjacent to Delhi.

Delhi HC notice to Ajmer shrine administrator

New Delhi, Aug 16 (IANS) The Delhi High Court Thursday directed the administrator of the shrine of Hazrat Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti at Ajmer to appear before it Sep 26 to reply to charges of corruption and mismanagement levelled by an official committee.

A division bench headed by Justice T.S. Thakur asked the administrator, a government official from the ministry of minority affairs, to come to the court with all documents to reply to the charges made by a committee instituted by the government a few months ago.

During the hearing of a public suit filed by NGO Hum Aap Ke, the court observed, "The report alleged large-scale corruption by the committee and the administrator needs to explain this."

After the ministry of minority affairs received a large number of complaints about irregularities in the management at the shrine and the NGO filed the suit, a seven-member committee conducted an inquiry, examined documents and held hearings in Ajmer in February.

Headed by Ghayur-e-Alam and with Firoz Bakht Ahmed as its convenor, the committee noted in its report: "The very first impression is that of dingy lanes, haphazard shops, beggars and unhygienic conditions."

But the investigation brought to light more sordid aspects of the shrine management with money being spent without maintaining proper records, misuse of facilities, encroachment of the premises by unauthorised people and even sale of liquor in its vicinity.

Andhra Pradesh move to free 1,500 prisoners halted

New Delhi, Aug 16 (IANS) The Andhra Pradesh government's proposal to release 1,500 prisoners, including the convict husband of a Congress legislator, to mark the 60th anniversary of the country's independence was halted by the Supreme Court Thursday.

A bench of Justices B.N. Agarwal and D.K. Jain also issued notice to the government seeking its reply within four weeks, following a petition by R. Chandrashekhar Reddy, a lawyer from Andhra Pradesh.

The bench questioned the rationale of releasing habitual criminals, convicted on heinous charges.

"At this rate you might as well release the people involved in the Nithari killings and the Mumbai blasts," the bench remarked sarcastically, questioning the Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy government's rationale for setting free 1,500 of the 6,500 prisoners in the various jails of the state.

Rejecting Additional Solicitor General Gopal Subramaniam's argument that the state was finalising the list of the prisoners for release after detailed evaluation of their behaviour and conduct in the jails, the bench shot back: "What about their heinous crimes outside the jail?

"Such habitual offenders are menace to society. We also need to consider the impact of their crime on the society," it said.

It, however, allowed the government to continue preparing the list of prisoners eligible for release after evaluating their conduct.

The prisoners set to be released included ruling Congress legislator Charitha Reddy's husband Gouru Venkat Reddy, convicted on charges of culpable homicide not amounting to murder and jailed for 10 years.

Reddy had been given life sentence by the trial court on charges of murder, but the Andhra Pradesh High Court reduced his jail term after convicting him on the lesser charge of culpable homicide.

Reddy was in 2005 granted pardon by then state governor Sushilkumar Shinde, currently union power minister. Shinde's order granting remission to the legislator's husband, however, had been set aside by the Supreme Court last year.

The state government's move to set free a large number of hardcore and notorious criminals was challenged Tuesday by advocate Reddy who practises at the apex court.

In his petition, the lawyer has contended: "The release of such a huge number of prisoners has become a regular phenomenon in Andhra Pradesh. While releasing such prisoners the government pays scant regard to the sentiments of the victims of these criminals. It neither assesses its impact on the morale of the police force nor on the criminal justice system of the state."

He also challenged the state government's tendency to relax the eligibility criteria to grant remission to the prisoners.

"Earlier the lifers were eligible for remission of their sentences only after serving 14 years of jail term. But since 1995, the government has been consistently relaxing the norm for grant of remission to the prisoners," said Reddy.

"The government has now begun giving remission to lifers up to three years even after the completion of seven years of jail term by them," he said, adding that other prisoners, jailed for less than life term too become eligible for remission of their sentences after completing half of their terms.

The petitioner termed the government's decision to release 1,500 prisoners as irrational, illogical and illegal.

Create cells for problem NRI marriages: government report

New Delhi, Aug 13 (IANS) A government report Monday recommended that special cells be set up with Indian missions abroad to address problem NRI marriages and that all marriages be registered so that women deserted by their husbands can fight their case effectively.

There is an urgent need to set up separate cells with Indian embassies to render necessary help in cases of problem NRI marriages, said the 12th report of the Committee on Empowerment of Women (2006-2007) on the "Plight of Indian women deserted by NRI husbands". The report was tabled in parliament Monday.

The report stressed that all marriages irrespective of religion should compulsorily be registered. In marriages with NRIs, such registration would help a woman fight her case more effectively and the concerned Indian mission would be in a better position to track the erring NRI husband, it said.

It also suggested that the Indian Passport Act be amended to incorporate a provision where the erring husband's passport could be cancelled.

The report was based on inputs from the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs, Ministry of External Affairs, National Commission for Woman, NGOs and aggrieved women.

The committee recommended that marriage certificates for NRIs be issued in duplicate to facilitate the deserted woman to fight her legal battle even if the original certificate was taken away by her husband on the pretext of getting a visa or updating other travel formalities.

A majority of the committee members felt that the services of various Indian associations should be utilised for getting complete background details of a prospective NRI bridegroom, including his marital and citizenship status.

The report added that of the budgetary allocation earmarked for the welfare of women, a suitable amount be apportioned for dealing with the problems relating to fraudulent NRI marriages.

SC cancels anticipatory bail to Gujarat police officer

New Delhi, Aug 13 (IANS) The Supreme court Monday cancelled the anticipatory bail to a suspended Gujarat police officer allegedly involved in the November 2005 staged killings of Ujjain resident Sohrabuddin Sheikh and his wife, paving the way for his custodial interrogation in the matter.

A bench of Justices Tarun Chatterjee and P.K. Balasubramanyam annulled Deputy Superintendent of Police Narendra Kumar Amin's anticipatory bail after a first-hand scrutiny of an Ahmedabad court's order granting him bail.

The bench cancelled Amin's bail on an unusual special leave petition filed by the Gujarat government challenging the session court's order directly before the apex court, without first going to the Gujarat High Court.

With the cancellation of bail, the apex court paved the way for Amin's custodial interrogation to unravel his alleged role in the larger plot to eliminate Sohrabuddin, his wife Kausar Bi and his friend Tulsiram Prajapati.

On Friday, the bench had reserved its verdict on the Gujarat government petition. Amin is suspected to know how exactly Kausar Bi had been killed and how her body was disposed of.

Earlier Additional Solicitor General Gopal Subramaniam, who is assisting the court in the case, had pointed out that the charge sheet filed by the Gujarat police team, headed by its Inspector General of Police Geetha Johri, was silent on how exactly Kausar Bi had been killed.

Seeking continued monitoring of the case, even after the investigation is over, Subramaniam had argued that of the police officers Amin, who is suspected to have some knowledge in the case, had never been put to custodial interrogation as he had secured anticipatory bail.

He had argued that even the government was not interested in putting him to custodial interrogation as it never sought to challenge the Ahmedabad sessions court's bail order, despite the lacunae.

It was this argument which prompted the apex court to direct the Gujarat government to directly file a special leave petition before it to let it undertake a first hand scrutiny of the sessions court's bail order for Amin.

Supreme court slams Allahabad High Court for murder acquittals

New Delhi, Aug 13 (IANS) The Supreme Court has severely castigated the Allahabad High Court for the "casual way" in which it acquitted three people - one sentenced to death and two to life imprisonment - convicted for double murder by the Hamirpur sessions court in Uttar Pradesh.

The high court had to face the apex court's wrath for the "casual and summary way of disposing the appeals against the sessions court judgement (made by two lifers) and the reference (made to it by the sessions court) for confirmation of the death sentence".

Expressing its rage over the high court's "perfunctory ways" in dealing with the issue, a bench of Justices Arijit Pasayat and D.K. Jain said Friday: "To say the least, the approach of the high court is clearly unsupportable. This is not the way an appeal or reference for confirmation of death sentence is to be dealt with.

"The high court (while acquitting the convicts) did not even bother to analyse the evidence or to refer to any findings of the trial court (on the basis of which it had convicted the accused)."

The apex court bench made the caustic comment while hearing an appeal from the Uttar Pradesh government challenging the acquittal of two lifers and one condemned prisoner by the high court.

The Hamirpur court sentenced Govind Das to death for the murder of Loknath and Naval Kishore and gave life to two others while acquitting a woman.

While it referred the case to the high court for confirmation of the death sentence, the two lifers also approached the high court challenging their sentence.

The high court acquitted all three on the simple fact that the trial court had acquitted one of the co-accused.

Reminding the high court of the legal position that acquittal of one co-accused cannot be a ground of acquittal of all, the apex court bench directed the high court to adjudicate the two appeals and the trial court's reference afresh.

The apex court also asked the high court to dispose the matter within six months as it had taken "very long" in doing so the first time.

Supreme Court - Murders in 'fit of passion' don't deserve death

New Delhi, Aug 12 (IANS) In what has alarmed friends of slain Delhi University law student Priyadarshini Mattoo, the Supreme Court has held that even a double murder committed "in a fit of passion" after an abortive rape bid does not deserve death penalty.

A bench of Justice S.B. Sinha and Justice Markandey Katju earlier this week upheld a Punjab and Haryana High Court ruling, which commuted a death sentence imposed on a double murder convict by a lower court to life term.

Kulvinder Singh had in August 2002 hacked Hardeep Kaur to death in a Punjab village after she resisted his bid to rape her. He also killed the girl's grandmother who tried to save her.

"While upholding the conviction of the accused for murder, we reduce the sentence to life imprisonment since it appears that the crime was committed in a fit of passion and does not come within the category of the 'rarest of rare' to deserve death penalty," the apex court bench ruled.

The sessions court had sentenced Kulvinder Singh to death saying: "The conduct of the accused depicted him as a person who constituted a threat to the society. He has forfeited his right to life by his barbarity."

The Supreme Court ruling has alarmed Priyadarshini Matoo's friends and relatives. The 23-year-old was raped and murdered in January 1996 by Santosh Singh.

Santosh, son of senior police officer J.P. Si