The Supreme Court, on Thursday, ordered the Magistrate to release Congress party spokesperson Pawan Khera on interim bail till Tuesday in a case of denigrating the Prime Minister, a constitutional authority, during a press conference.
Khera was deboarded from a flight from Delhi to Raipur and detained. He is scheduled to be produced before the jurisdictional Magistrate later this evening.
A Special Bench led by CJI DY Chandrachud issued notice to Assam and Uttar Pradesh governments in a plea by Khera to transfer and club multiple FIRs registered against him in one jurisdiction. The Court listed the case for hearing on this point on Monday.
Chief Justice Chandrachud said some level should be maintained during public discourse.
The Court was shown the video of the press conference by Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati, appearing for Assam. Senior advocate A.M. Singhvi, for Khera, who is the chairperson of the media and publicity department of the All India Congress Committee, said the use of language by his client though inadvertent was erroneous.
Singhvi said he himself would not stand by the use of such language during a public discourse. He said Khera has tendered his unconditional apology. His words were not meant to be personally offensive. He said the wrong sections have been applied against him. Offences which Khera has been booked under, if found guilty, would mean imprisonment of up to a minimum of three to five years.
Mr. Khera has been variously booked under IPC Sections 153A (promoting religious enmity), 153B (imputations or assertions prejudicial to national integration), 295A (outraging religious feelings), 500 (defamation), 504 (intentional insult to provoke breach of peace), 505 (statements amounting to public mischief), 120B (criminal conspiracy)in Uttar Pradesh and Assam.
Bhati countered that Khera’s verbal expressions in the video did not reveal that his words were unintentional. He has denigrated a constitutional authority, and “none less than the Prime Minister”, Bhati said.
Earlier in the day, Khera was reportedly de-boarded from the IndiGo flight 6E204 en route to Raipur on February 23. A delegation was headed from Delhi to Raipur, where the 85th plenary of the party is scheduled to commence on Friday. Supriya Shrinate, Randeep Singh Surjewala and K.C. Venugopal were the other Congress leaders accompanying him.
Khera said he was asked to de-board the plane for baggage reasons. “I don’t know why I have been de-planed. I was told that they need to check my baggage, I told them that I only have a handbag, but they still insisted that I leave the plane,” he said. “I have now been told that the DCP will meet me on tarmac.”
Meanwhile, the Congress party expressed chagrin at the “dictatorial” move. “This is a dictatorial attitude. The dictator got ED raids done before the session and now he has come down to this kind of act,” the Congress tweeted.
The incident signalled a “murder” of democratic India, senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh tweeted. “Freedom of Speech is slowly weakening in India, but Freedom AFTER Speech is fast becoming extinct. My colleague @Pawankhera was deplaned from a Raipur-bound flight. After ED raids, another attempt to derail Congress Plenary. Murder of Democratic India is the right acronym for Him,” he wrote.
AIADMK leadership row: Supreme Court upholds Madras High Court decision, paves way for EPS to be interim general secretary
The Supreme Court on Thursday affirmed a Madras High Court Division Bench decision upholding the conduct of a Special General Council meeting of AIADMK on July 11 last year, which appointed former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami as interim general secretary and expelled rival O. Panneerselvam from the primary membership of the party.
A Bench led by Justice Dinesh Maheshwari also directed that an interim order of the apex court on July 6, 2022 in the case was “absolute”. The interim order had permitted the July 11 meeting to be held. It had further directed that no restrictions should be placed on the agenda of an earlier General Council meeting held on June 23, 2022.
The court’s judgment would allow Palaniswami, represented by senior advocate Aryama Sundaram and advocates Balaji Srinivasan and Rohini Musa, to continue as the party’s interim general secretary for now.
Panneerselvam was represented by senior advocates Ranjit Kumar and Guru Krishnakumar in the top court. The July 7 meeting saw the General Council pass several decisions/resolutions by amending the party by-laws.
These resolutions included the creation of the post of ‘interim general secretary’ to be elected by the general council, abolishment of the posts of Coordinator and Joint Coordinator, reinstatement of the post of party general secretary to be elected by the primary members of the party, removal of Panneerselvam from primary membership and holding of elections to the post of general secretary within four months.
Palaniswami had last year assured the Supreme Court that the polls to the post of general secretary would be kept on hold for the time being when the dispute was on. Srinivasan said that Thursday’s judgment would allow the resolution to be “operationalised”.
A Single Judge of the High Court had ordered status quo on August 17, saying that the General Council meeting could not have been held on July 11 without the joint consent of the then Coordinator, Panneerselvam, and then Joint Coordinator, Palaniswami.
Panneerselvam had contented that the General Council meeting was held “clandestinely and undemocratically to take decisions to alter the structure of the party”.
In a subsequent intra-court appeal filed by Palaniswami, the Division Bench of the High Court, on September 2, set aside the August 17 status quo order of the Single Judge.
The Division Bench had justified that the Single Judge’s decision would cause the party to undergo “irreparable hardship” as the two leaders were at “loggerheads” with each other and their rivalry should not affect the functioning of the party itself.
The Division Bench had however reasoned that the “balance of convenience” lay in favour of Palaniswami as the requisition for the July 11 meeting was made by 2,190 members out of the 2,665 members of the General Council.
“This amounts to more than 80% of the General Council members. The requisition was to be made by the members for deciding the issue of the ‘single leadership’... The requisition was followed with an agenda being signed and requested by 2,432 General Council Members… Thereafter, the July 11 meeting was attended by 2,460 members, and 2,539 members have filed affidavits before the Election Commission of India affirming their support to the resolutions passed at the General Council Meeting,” the Division Bench had observed in its September 2 verdict.
Besides, the Division Bench said Panneerselvam had per se only challenged the holding of the Special General Council meeting on July 11 and not the resolutions passed in the meeting.
The Supreme Court agreed with the Division Bench’s line of reasoning by not dealing with the resolutions made in the meeting.
“Though several submissions were made on behalf of the appellants (Panneerselvam camp) assailing the validity and correctness of the resolutions said to have been adopted in the meeting held on July 11, and in counter, the respondents (Palaniswami camp) have attempted to justify the resolutions… we have chosen not to deal with any of those contentions,” Justice Maheshwari read out from the judgment on Thursday.
Recruitment of Agniveers: Only going online, no change in exam syllabus, says top Army official
There is no change in the syllabus or the test pattern that will be used for the online common entrance examination (CEE), the first level of screening in the recruitment procedure for Agniveers, a top Army official said on Thursday.
Lt Gen N.S. Sarna, Director General of Recruiting, Indian Army, during a media interaction held at the South Block here, said the decision to go for an online examination format was driven by multiple factors, including that the youth are now very “technologically aware” and the proliferation of mobile phones and its penetration has gone deep into the villages, making new technology accessible to people.
The Army had recently announced a change in the Agniveer recruitment process and candidates wanting to join the force will now have to first appear for an online common entrance examination (CEE), followed by physical fitness and medical tests.
Earlier, candidates for Agniveers and others had to undergo physical fitness test, followed by medical tests, and appearing for the CEE was the last step.
Lt. Gen. Sarna said the process to hold the online CEE as the “first screening process” is also to help candidates, and facilitate the Army in recruiting “youths who are both technologically aware and physically fit… Candidates earlier had to stand in long queues for the screening process, and even during rallies a large number of them had to take part. Now, the change in the recruitment process will help potential candidates, and the Army will be able to manage it better with easing of the administrative process,” he said.
The process will become “easy, simple and more streamlined”, Lt. Gen. Sarna said. The Army had recently issued notifications on modification in recruitment procedure for Agniveers and others. The notifications for registration have been uploaded on the ‘Join Indian Army’ website.
The army has announced modification to the recruitment procedure for “junior commissioned officer/other ranks/Aginveers”, the Defence Ministry said in a statement on February 16.
Online registrations for applications are now open from February 16 to March 15 where candidates can apply according to their age, educational qualification, physical criteria and other qualification requirements, the statement said.
According to the modified recruitment procedure, a computer-based online CEE will be conducted before the recruitment rally.
“This will be the first filtering level in the recruitment process. But, I would like to assure candidates that there is no change in the syllabus or the pattern of the examination (CEE)...it will just be an online version of the earlier exam, when they used to answer MCQs (multiple choice questions) on paper,” Lt. Gen. Sarna said.
He said the Army has identified 176 locations across the country, which can be expanded if needed, and candidate can choose five centres where they wish to appear for the online CEE. “Out of these five options, one centre will be allocated,” the Army official said.
The computer-based online CEE is planned to be conducted at 175 to 180 examination centres all over India, between April 17-30, the ministry had earlier said.
The DG-Recruiting of the Army said “bonus points” will be given to candidates who are 10th pass and have completed two-year course of ITI, and those who have done NCC and have A, B or C certificates, outstanding sportspersons, and also diploma holders.
The Army had recently put out advertisements regarding the change in the recruitment process in various newspapers. The recruitment will be carried out in three stages, the statement said. In stage one, all candidates who have registered and applied online will undergo the CEE.
In stage two, the shortlisted candidates will be called for a recruitment rally at a location decided by respective Army Recruitment Offices where they will undergo physical fitness test and physical measurement test.
Finally, in stage three, the selected candidates will undergo medical tests. Lt. Gen. Sarna said the online CEE will make the process “more transparent and fair”. Educational videos on ‘How to register’ and ‘How to appear’ in the online entrance exam have been uploaded on the Join Indian Army website, and on YouTube, he said.
Cost of fee for the online CEE is ₹500 per candidate where 50% of the cost will be borne by the Indian Army. Candidates are required to pay ₹250 during online registration of application, he said.
The changed procedure will focus on enhanced cognitive aspects during recruitment and will result in wider and better outreach across the country, the ministry had earlier said in the statement.
It will also reduce large crowds assembling at recruiting rallies and reduce the administrative commitments in their conduct besides reducing the number of candidates going for medical examination, it said.
Environment Ministry seeks report on Kaziranga rhino estimation
The information was requested for on the basis of a representation the Ministry received on January 27 from environmental activist Rohit Choudhury, alleging anomalies in the estimation of the rhinos in the national park.
The activist lives near the 889.51 sq. km national park that houses the bulk of the greater Indian one-horned rhinoceroses on earth. He cited documents received via the Right to Information to conclude that the number of rhinos in Kaziranga could have been inflated.
“…The undersigned is directed to request that a factual report on the matter may kindly be forwarded to the Ministry urgently,” the letter from Rakesh Kumar Jagenia, the Deputy Inspector-General of Forests (Wildlife) to Assam’s Chief Wildlife Warden on February 17, read.
A copy of the representation from Choudhury was attached along with the letter.
According to the activist, data sheets from the enumeration across the 84 compartments of the national park showed that the actual count of rhinos was 2,042. But this figure was “adjusted” after a sample survey in some randomly selected compartments to show 2,613 rhinos — an increase of 200 from the 2,413 rhinos estimated in 2018.
The Assam Forest Department and the Kaziranga authorities denied doctoring data and said the estimation was consistent with the rhino’s average annual growth of 2.7% in the national park.
The State’s wildlife officials said the allegations were a misrepresentation of facts, and intended to tarnish the image of Kaziranga.
In Brief:
India’s Goods and Services Tax (GST) revenues grew 12.7% in January 2023 to hit almost ₹1.59 lakh crore, the second highest monthly collections on record, as per revised figures from the Finance Ministry. Earlier estimates of GST revenues for January had pegged collections at about ₹1.56 lakh crore till the evening of January 31 — 10.6% higher than GST receipts in January 2022. Based on the updated GST collections, the Finance Ministry’s monthly economic review released on February 23 said that total GST revenues between April 2022 and January 2023 now stand at ₹14.9 lakh crore, 23.1% higher than the same period of 2021-22.
Evening Wrap will return tomorrow.
