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SC cracks down on public schools

          New Delhi: Cracking down on the crass commercialism being espoused by educational institutions in New Delhi, the Supreme Court today laid down strict guidelines to stop it. A three-judge bench of the apex court said that henceforth schools run privately would have to comply with conditions set down at the time of allotment of land. Chief Justice V N Khare directed the Director, Education to go into the land allotment letters and find out whether the conditions therein had been complied with or not by the schools. According to a national news agency report, the apex court also directed that it is mandatory for every recognized unaided school to file yearly financial statements disclosing its income from fee collected from students and other expenses as well as the profit and surplus before the authorities.

India, UK to boost defence interaction (Go To Top)     

          New Delhi: India and Britain have decided to boost joint interaction between armed forces of the two countries and develop potential for collaboration in the edevelopment of futuristic weapons system and defence research. A decision to this effect was taken on Tuesday at a two-day meeting of the Indo-UK Defence Consultative Group, which with the two sides also discussing strategic and security interests. A ten-member British delegation, led by Kevin Tebbit, Permanent Under Secretary for Defence, arrived on Monday on a four-day visit. The delegation includes Air Vice Marshal David Hobart, Assistant Chief of Defence staff, Brig Ian Rees, Defence Advisor, Patrick Jones, Adviser Science and Technology. The Indian side is led by Defence Secretary Ajay Prasad.

Bilkis Banu case deferred till May 1 (Go To Top)

          Ahmedabad: A court in Dahod district on Tuesday deferred to May 1 the hearing on the bail application of 14 people accused in the Bilkis Banu gangrape-cum-massacre case of the post-Godhra communal riots. The bail hearing of the 14 accused, including a local BJP worker and an advocate, was deferred as the CBI could not submit all the required documents before the court. The CBI on April 19 filed a detailed chargesheet in the case against 20 people in which it named six policemen including two deputy superintendents of police and two doctors as accused persons who "suppressed evidence or attempted to destroy it." A court in Ahmedabad also issued non-bailable warrants against the two doctors recently after they failed to appear and sought their presence before the court on April 30. The CBI opened a pandora's box of alleged complicities, conducted by several Gujarat police officials and Government servants while probing the case under Supreme Court's directives in December 2003.

SC quashes bailable warrants against President and CJI (Go To Top)

          New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday quashed bailable warrants issued by an Ahmedabad magistrate against the President, the Chief Justice of India and two other jurists on a fictitious complaint. A three-judge bench, comprising Justices N Santosh Hedge, S P Sinha, S H Kapadia, said formally court orders are quashed after examining the other side as well but in this case the warrants were issued on a false complaint and were, therefore, set aside. The court, however, said that the criminal proceedings against the people involved in the case would continue independently. The court, meanwhile, directed the CBI which has been assigned the task of investigation the case to find out whether any such incident of framing innocent people in false cases had occurred in Gujarat and file within 10 weeks its report in the court. Besides, petitioner Vijay Shekhar, a ZEE TV correspondent who exposed the case in a sting operation was asked to inform the court about any such incident of which he has knowledge. The Gujarat High Court was directed to send periodic progress report in the case and asked to keep vigil on the functioning of the lower judiciary in the state.

Four kids killed, 21 injured in train-bus collision (Go To Top)

          Siliguri: Four children were killed and about 21 injured, many of them seriously, when a bus carrying them was hit by a train at a level-crossing between Banarhat and Keron in Alipurduar Division of NE Frontier Railway (NFR) on Tuesday. The accident took place about 1020 a.m. 30 km from New Jalpaiguri station. Sources said three children died on the spot, while one died on way to hospital. The injured were admitted to a nearby hospital, where the condition of a few was stated to be critical, the sources said. The 625UP Inter-City Express from Siliguri Junction was heading for Alipurduar on the broad guage line. Officials from Alipurduar division have rushed to the spot to take stock of the situation. Rail traffic has attected been disrupted on both the up and down lines.

India, Pak issue more visas (Go To Top)

          Islamabad: The thaw between Pakistan and India has had more benefits than one. If official statistics are to be believed the governments of the two countries are in a race to outdo each other on the visa front. With 30,000 visas issued over the past three months, Pakistan is claiming "victory" over India insofar as numbers are concerned. Pakistan officials say that they have issued 19 visas for every 10 issued by India. The total number of visas issued during this period by India and Pakistan stood at around 10,000 and 19,000 respectively, Pakistan foreign officials were quoted by Online News as saying. The number of visas issued by both sides in the first quarter of 2004 was 10 times higher than the visas issued in the first quarter of 2003.