BSP MLAs case hearing on Mar 24

      New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday decided March 24 for hearing petitions filed by the MLAs of the breakaway BSP faction which challenge the Allahabad High Court verdict that set aside former UP Assembly Speaker Kesri Nath Tripathi's decision to recognise their merger with the Samajwadi Party. A bench headed by Justice K G Balakrishnan also issued notices to BSP legislative party leader Swami Prasad Maurya and others on petitions challenging the High Court verdict.

     On March 2, twenty nine of the 41 BSP MLAs who formed Loktantrik Bahujan Samaj Party (LBSP) had filed four Special Leave Petitions (SLPs) in the Supreme Court challenging the Allahabad High Court judgment of February 28 declaring the defection from their original party as illegal. The four petitions have sought setting aside of the three-judge Bench judgement of the High Court. The appellants including Haji Yaqub, Shailendra Yadav, Uma Kiran, Nawab Kazim Ali Khan, Rajendra Singh Rana, Mehboob Ali, Kameshwar Upadhyay and others have challenged the impugned High Court order which by a majority of 2:1 had set aside the order of Uttar Pradesh state legislative assembly speaker dated September 6 and 8 of 2003 granting them recognition as MLAs belonging to LBSP. These MLAs had defected from the BSP headed by former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati on August 26, 2003 to form a new party to facilitate the formation of the Samajwadi Party government headed by Mulayam Singh Yadav. The petitioners have challenged the order of the High Court saying, "when more than one third elected MLAs of a party leave their original party and form a new party, it is not covered by para 3 of the tenth schedule of the Constitution and hence, they are not hit by the provisions of anti-defection law." The Mayawati government had recommended the imposition of President's Rule in the state and had also recommended the dissolution of the state legislative assembly within one and a half year of elections having been held and such recommendation amounted to thrusting fresh election on a state which was already facing a financial crunch, the petitioners said. Another question of law raised in the SLPs were whether the strength of group to be taken into account for deciding whether it was split or defection was the strength of the group on the day of the defection or the strength of the group on the day of formation of the new party. Some of the MLAs had defected from BSP on August 26, 2003 but the assembly speaker granted them recognition on September 6, 2003 when the total strength of the MLAs was less than one third of the strength of the then undivided BSP

    The bench held that the decision was given in ''undue haste and in violation of the principles of natural justice''. However, it remanded the matter to the Assembly Speaker for final action, with a direction to decide on the issues pertaining to the split in the BSP, the formation of a new outfit, the grant of recognition to the break-away faction and its disqualification in the light of the High Court order. Chief Justice A N Ray dissented with the views of the other judges on the Lucknow bench and upheld Tripathi's decision granting recognition to the rebel MLAs. Forty MLAs had left the BSP and formed a new outfit at the time of the formation of the Mulayam Singh government. The group later merged with Mulayam's party.

Third composite dialogue with Pak on Mar 28 (Go To Top)

     New Delhi: The third round of Composite Dialogue between India and Pakistan will commence in Islamabad on March 28 and will conclude after eight rounds in New Delhi on July 22. According to an official release of the Ministry of External Affairs, the third round will commence with talks on economic and commercial cooperation on March 28 and 29 in Islamabad, which will preceded by Joint Study Group meeting on March 27. The Foreign Secretaries' and Foreign Ministers level review meetings will be held in New Delhi on July 20 and July 21 , respectively. Prior to these meetings, some other outstanding issues will be discussed in the next five months, including Tulbul Navigation Project on April 18-19 in Islamabad, issues relating to Siachen on May 23-24 in New Delhi and Sir Creek on May 25-26. Terrorism and Drug Trafficking issue will figure during the talks on May 30-31 in Islamabad, while promotion of friendly exchanges will be held on June 1-2 in New Delhi. The Composite Dialogue will conclude with the Plenary Session of the Joint Commission and Foreign Ministers Review Meeting in New Delhi on July 22. In the last round of Composite Dialogue between the two countries, several issues, including building up of confidence and trust, increasing people-to-people contacts, several confidence building measures which have been put into place both in terms of connectivity as well as nuclear and conventional CBMs were discussed. The issue of release of prisoners and fishermen, the increased numbers of prisoners and fishermen to whom consular access had been granted over the last year were also reviewed, besides trade and economic relations between India and Pakistan. One of the successes of the second round of the Composite Dialogue was the completion of the Pre-notification of Ballistic Missiles Agreement. India had presented to Pakistan a draft for a Memorandum of Understanding on reduction of nuclear accidents or unauthorized use of nuclear weapons. The issue of early opening of consulates in Mumbai and Karachi was also discussed as were some other outstanding issues and some possible new CBMs.

Police files new case in Jessica Lal murder case (Go To Top)

      New Delhi: Delhi Police on Monday registered a new case in the Jessica Lal murder case following public outcry after a lower court acquitted all the nine accused in the case. Besides announcing this, Delhi Police Commissioner K K Paul also said here today that an appeal will be filed in the Delhi High Court against the lower court judgement soon. The FIR has been filed in the Mehrauli police station under the Indian Penal Code for "destruction of, tampering with and fabrication of evidence" and common intention to commit the crime and conspiracy charge against "unnamed persons". A special team headed by Special Commissioner (intelligence) U C Katna would be appointed to probe the case and the new Station House Officer (SHO) of Mehrauli would be the investigating officer in the fresh case. Paul said an analysis of the judgement of the Sessions Court was undertaken and consultations were held with legal experts including Additional Solicitor General, adding that "We will be going to the Delhi High Court in a day or two". He said a lot of material including in the media has come up in the case after the judgement was announced which has created doubts. The Sessions Court had last month acquitted prime accused Manu Sharma and Vikas Yadav sons of Congress politicians along with seven other co-accused in the case. Model Jessica Lal was shot at point blank range on the night of April 29, 1999 while she was working as a celebrity barmaid in the Tamarind Court Bar owned by socialite Bina Ramani. It was alleged that Lal was murdered by Manu Sharma alias Siddharth Vashist, son of Congress politician and former Union Minister of State for Food and Civil Supplies Vinod Sharma, after she refused to serve him a drink since the bar had closed for the day. The Delhi Police in its primary investigation also indicted Vikas Yadav, the son of former Rajya Sabha Parliamentarian D P Yadav, along with ten others. The sensational murder case had a high profile list of accused which included names like Amardeep Singh Gill, Coca-Cola company officials Alok Khanna, Shyam Sunder Sharma, Amit Jhingan, Yograj Singh, Harvinder Chopra, Vikas Gill, Raja Chopra, Ravinder Krishan Sudan and Dhanraj. They had been charged under sections 120(b), 302, 201 and 212 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The verdict came after a long hiatus of six years in which the case saw numerous twists and turns with a large number of witnesses turning hostile.

Maharashtra's doctors threaten to intensify stir (Go To Top)

     Pune: Striking doctors in Pune on Monday said they would intensify their protest if the Maharashtra Government did not pay heed to their demands. While the strike by doctors of state-run hospitals in Mumbai entered the eighth day, hitting severely the healthcare services, doctors at the B.J. Medical College in Pune have begun parallel Out Patient Departments (OPDs) for ailing patients. The strike began in Mumbai with the doctors demanding more security following repeated attacks but now doctors from other places have also joined the strike and they have expanded their demands to include better working conditions. Doctors from several state-run hospitals in major cities in Maharashtra like Nagpur, Pune, Sholapur and Aurangabad have joined the agitation in a show of solidarity with their colleagues in Mumbai.

     Authorities have issued termination notices to more than 150 striking junior doctors at the state-run hospitals in Mumbai after they refused to call off the protest against alleged assault on one of their colleagues by a patient's relatives. The striking doctors, undeterred by the expulsion letters and invoking of the tough Maharashtra Essential Services Maintenance Act (MESMA) 2005, have vowed to continue with their agitation. MESMA empowers the government to arrest doctors working in state- run hospitals if they refuse to work, but the doctors say they do not come under the ambit of the act. Local reports say over 20 doctors have been assaulted in the past six months. The doctors in Pune organised street plays to highlight their grievances and sought a firm commitment from the authorities before they return to work. "Why are they not taking the strike seriously? We want commitment. We don't want committee. We want action. We have intensified our action. We will be intensifying it further. We don't want the public to suffer and so we have started parallel OPDs (Out Patient Department) for the patients," said Dr. Shawnath Sohe from B.J. Medical College. The health care services have been hit hard by the strike for the past seven days as nearly 2,500 doctors have gone on strike. Patients say the strike has taken a toll on those who require emergency medical attendance.

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