NATIONAL NEWS
Pegasus row: Supreme Court asks Bengal to wait and not go ahead with judicial inquiry
The Supreme Court on Wednesday urged the West Bengal government to wait and not go ahead with a separate judicial inquiry into the Pegasus snooping allegations when the apex court is already seized of the issue. A Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) N.V. Ramana and Justice Surya Kant did not pass a formal order staying the work of the government-appointed commission of inquiry after senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi gave an oral assurance to convey the apex court’s message of restraint to the government. The commission of inquiry comprises retired Supreme Court judge Justice Madan B. Lokur and retired Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court, Justice Jyotirmay Bhattacharya. Senior advocate Harish Salve, appearing for the petitioner, an NGO called ‘Global Village Foundation’, submitted that there cannot be a parallel inquiry when the apex court was hearing the issue. The petition has challenged the government notification, which appointed the commission in July. It said the commission has no jurisdiction to embark on such an inquiry. Salve submitted that a public notice was issued by the commission of inquiry and proceedings were taking place on a day-to-day basis. The Bench said it may take up the Pegasus cases next week and pass a comprehensive order. It tagged the petition with the Pegasus cases pending before it. Justice Kant said any decision in the Pegasus issue would likely have a pan-India impact. The Supreme Court issued a pre-admission notice to the Centre on August 17 on petitions seeking an independent enquiry into the charges that the government used the Israeli-based spyware to snoop on journalists, activists, dissenters, parliamentarians, Ministers and other citizens. After issuing the notice, a Bench of CJI Ramana, Justices Kant and Aniruddha Bose said it would consider the further course of action, including the formation of a committee to inquire into the allegations, in due time. The notice was issued after the government, represented by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, stood firm by its two-page affidavit, denying all and any allegations. Mehta had said any revelation about any software allegedly used by government to counter terrorism would compromise national security.
Won’t take action against Narayan Rane in FIR till Sept. 17, Maharashtra govt tells HC
The Maharashtra government told the Bombay High Court on Wednesday that no coercive action would be taken till September 17 against Union Minister Narayan Rane in the FIR registered at Nashik for making a ‘slap’ remark against Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray. Rane moved a division bench of justices S.S. Shinde and N.J. Jamadar to quash the FIR registered at the Nashik cyber police station on Tuesday and sought no coercive action against him. Advocate Satish Maneshinde, appearing for Rane, told the court that there were multiple FIRs against him, and he would amend the petition with all the details. Senior advocate Amit Desai, representing the government, said no action would be taken against him in the Nashik FIR till September 17. Rane, Minister for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, in the petition filed through advocate Aniket Nikam has urged that he is innocent and falsely implicated in this crime. The plea mentions, The investigation in the said crime is completed and nothing remains to be investigated. FIRs at various police stations against Rane for the same series of transactions is nothing but causing harassment and multiplicity of litigation. On Monday, while addressing a ‘Jan Ashirvad Yatra’ of the BJP in Raigad district, Rane said Thackeray forgot the year of Independence during his August 15 address to people and had he been present at the spot, he would have slapped the Chief Minister.
Supreme Court directive to HC on Asthana’s appointment as Delhi Police chief
The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the Delhi High Court to decide the legality of Gujarat cadre IPS officer Rakesh Asthana’s appointment as Delhi Police Commissioner preferably within two weeks. A Bench led by Chief Justice of India (CJI) N.V. Ramana allowed NGO Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL), represented by advocate Prashant Bhushan, to intervene in the case in the High Court. The order was passed when Bhushan’s case, also challenging the Asthana appointment, came up for hearing before the apex court Bench. The identical case pending before the High Court has been filed by a Delhi-based advocate, Sadre Alam. As soon as the hearing began before the CJI Bench, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta informed the Supreme Court about Alam’s case in the High Court. He said the apex court should allow the High Court to decide that petition first. Bhushan initially resisted. He said the petition in the High Court was filed after his client had moved the apex court. It was a word to word, copy-paste of the CPIL’s plea. There is this spectre of ambush petitions filed in collusion with the government in order to disable genuine petitions, he submitted. Mehta retorted, Less said the better about professional PIL litigants who file surrogate petitions. However, Justice D.Y. Chandrachud assuaged the situation by highlighting how the court has given Bhushan’s client permission to intervene in the High Court proceedings. We have given you the liberty to file a substantive petition in the High Court so that you don’t have to, if such a situation arises, wait for the other petitioner [Alam], though he is the dominuslitis, to file an appeal in the Supreme Court, he explained to Bhushan. Meanwhile, the CJI raised the issue of his participation in the CPIL case. He referred to how the CPIL petition alluded to the fact that his views based on law in a high-powered meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Opposition leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury had led to Asthana’s exit from the list of contenders for the CBI Director post in May. The CJI had at the time informed the committee about the Supreme Court judgment that only officers with a minimum residual tenure of six months ought to be considered for appointment as CBI Director. Asthana was scheduled to retire in July, leaving him with less than six months of service. During the hearing, Bhushan said the appointment of Asthana, merely four days before his superannuation, was egregious and a brazen violation of every law, every norm. The CPIL said the Centre violated the apex court’s directions in the Prakash Singh judgment as Asthana did not have a minimum residual tenure of six months before retirement. The Centre did not bother to form a Union Public Services Commission panel for the appointment of the Delhi Police chief. Again, the government ignored the criterion laid down by the court in the judgment that candidates should have a minimum tenure of two years. The CPIL petition has urged the court to cancel the order of the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) headed by the Prime Minister on July 27, granting Asthana inter-cadre deputation from Gujarat to AGMUT cadre. It has asked the court to direct the government to take steps for a fresh appointment strictly in accordance with the directions of the apex court in the Prakash Singh case. The central government did not have the power under Rule 3 of All India Services (Conditions of Service- Residuary Matters) Rules, 1960 to relax Rule 16(1) of the All India Services (Death-Cum-Retirement Benefits) Rules, 1958 to give extension to Rakesh Asthana, the CPIL noted.
There are forces that want to end my career, alleges J& Kashmir cricket captain Parvez Rasool
Once the posterboy of cricket in Kashmir, earning praise from Prime Minister Narendra Modi, cricketer and captain of the J&K team Parvez Rasool, who hails from the small town of Bijbehara in south Kashmir, is distraught by an e-mail written by a Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI)-appointed sub-committee member seeking to nail him down. I fail to understand why I am being targeted. It’s clear the intention is to tarnish my image and ruin my future. It seems there are forces who want to end my career. The mail of a sub-committee member talking about ‘nailing me down’ has disturbed me mentally, Rasool, the first cricketer from Kashmir to play for Team India (in 2014) and join Indian Premier League (IPL) teams, told. Rasool was referring to the email he received inadvertently from Brigadier Anil Gupta, member, administration, J&K Cricket Association, on July 26, in which he addresses coach Majid Dar with a short message: Do we have any proof to nail him down, a copy of which is with them. In a subsequent email, though, Brig. Gupta praises Rasool, saying, JKCA has high regards for your cricketing achievements and wish you all the best for the future. However, Brig. Gupta also accuses Rasool of not returning equipment belonging to the JKCA. Earlier, in another mail, Brig. Gupta asks Rasool to return a pitch roller or face police action. Please keep me out of this as I reiterate that I have not taken any machinery from the JKCA. In case you have any receipt, please enlighten me…I assure you my support for the betterment of J&K cricket, as a cricketer who has given his life to it, reads the reply from Rasool, who alleges unnecessary victimisation after a new sub-committee was constituted in the JKCA. Three months ago, a three-member administrative sub-committee was constituted by the BCCI to look after the affairs of the JKCA and resolve the long-pending dispute between 30 cricket clubs and 20 district-level teams in the Union Territory. It is headed by Brig. Gupta, a BJP spokesperson according to his Twitter account; advocate Sunil Sethi, also a BJP leader who shot into limelight during the Amarnath land row agitation in 2008; and former cricketer Mithun Manhas, who owns the Jammu Cricket Club. However, the committee’s functioning came in for criticism from several members of the JCC. A joint letter by them to Brig. Gupta demands strict compliance with the Lodha Committee recommendations, which bars any politician from being a member of the BCCI committees.
Covid Watch: Numbers and Developments
The number of reported coronavirus cases from India stood at 3,25,15,843 with the death toll at 4,35,854. Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Wednesday said more than two crore additional Covid-19 vaccine doses are being made available to States this month to vaccinate all school teachers on priority before Teachers’ Day on September 5. Schools across the country were closed in March last year ahead of a nationwide lockdown to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus infection. The Centre had allowed the reopening of schools as per the Covid-19 situation in October last year. While several States began partial reopening of schools, there was a complete closure again in April when an aggressive second wave of Covid-19 hit the country. With an improvement in the COVID-19 situation again, several States have begun reopening schools now, even as concerns have been expressed over the staff and teachers not being completely vaccinated. In addition to the plan to provide vaccines to every state this month, more than 2 crore vaccine doses are being made available. We have requested all states to try to vaccinate all school teachers on priority before Teachers’ Day, which is celebrated on September 5, Mandaviya said in a tweet in Hindi. In line with the announcement made by the Union Health Minister, more than 2 crore additional vaccine doses will be dispatched to the States from August 27 to 31 to vaccinate school teachers and non-teaching staff on a priority basis, an official release said.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
India anticipated Taliban takeover: Gen. Rawat India anticipated the takeover of Kabul by the Taliban, said Chief of Defence Staff Speaking at a think tank event, he observed that India was ready to deal with a possible upsurge in terror activities that may be an indirect outcome of the victory of the Taliban. Everything that has happened was something that had been anticipated, only the timelines have changed. From the Indian perspective, we were anticipating the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, said Gen Rawat at the event titled The India-US Partnership: Securing the 21st Century by the Observer Research Foundation. The event was attended by the Commander of US Indo-Pacific Command (US-INDOPACOM) Admiral John C. Aquilino, who also met the Tri-Service chiefs and Defence Secretary Dr Ajay Kumar. Gen. Rawat expressed India’s concern over a possible increase in terror activities following the arrival of the Taliban fighters in Kabul. India’s contingency planning had been ongoing and the Indian forces were prepared for that, he asserted. He expressed surprise over the fast pace at which the Taliban moved into various cities of Afghanistan and captured Kabul. The timeline has surprised us because we were anticipating this happening, may be a couple of months down the line.
Kamala Harris reaches Hanoi after ‘Havana syndrome’ delay.
Vice-President Kamala Harris began a visit to Vietnam on Wednesday to stress U.S. commitment to Asia, a trip critics have slammed as tone-deaf given the parallels with the superpower’s evacuations from Saigon and Kabul. Ms. Harris will meet the communist state’s President and Prime Minister in Hanoi, a day after accusing regional giant Beijing of intimidation in the disputed South China Sea. Her arrival was delayed due to what U.S. officials called an anomalous health incident in Hanoi, an apparent reference to the so-called Havana syndrome, which has afflicted U.S. diplomats in several countries including China and Russia. It is not clear what causes the syndrome and it has led to unproven allegations that Russians or others used sonic or other high-intensity. The visit, the first to Vietnam by a sitting U.S. Vice-president, comes after a two-day stop in Singapore, where Ms. Harris took aim at China and sought to shore up U.S. credibility in the wake of the Taliban’s stunning return to power. But the Vietnam leg of the Asian tour has sparked criticism after the chaotic evacuation of Kabul prompted comparisons with the trauma of 1975 Saigon, when U.S. Helicopters ferried final evacuees from the embassy roof in the last days of the Vietnam War. Ms. Harris used a speech in Singapore to say Beijing continues to coerce, to intimidate and to make unreasonable claims to large areas of the South China Sea. We need to find ways to pressure and raise the pressure, frankly, on Beijing to abide by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, she added. China hit back at the accusations through its state media on Wednesday, accusing the U.S. of hypocrisy in attempting to coerce and intimidate countries in the region in its scheme to contain China. China claims almost all of the resource-rich South China Sea, through which trillions of dollars in shipping trade passes annually, with competing claims from four Southeast Asian states including Vietnam.
