Himachal Pradesh will go to polls on November 12, the Election Commission said on Friday, however no announcements were made regarding the poll schedule for Gujarat.
Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar made the announcement in a press conference. According to the schedule, the counting of votes for Himachal Pradesh polls will take place on December 8. The CEC said that elaborate arrangements have been made to ensure maximum participation of voters in the "festival of democracy". Weather in Himachal Pradesh was also cited as one of the reasons for the early announcement of elections in the hill State.
Over 55 lakh voters are eligible to exercise their franchise for 68 assembly seats in Himachal Pradesh. There are 1.86 lakh first-time voters, 1.22 lakh aged 80-plus and 1,184 voters who are above 100 years of age.
Briefing on measures taken by the ECI for ease of voters, the CEC said that many technological interventions have been made to encourage voter participation. Each polling station will have ramps, volunteers, drinking water, waiting shed, toilet with water facility and adequate lighting arrangements and all polling stations will be on the ground floor.
There will also be women-only polling stations, where even security staff will be women, the CEC said. The ECI is planning to have at least one such polling station in each Assembly constituency. The ECI also plans to have persons with disabilities as polling staff, he added.
Himachal Pradesh has a 68-member assembly and the BJP had won a clear majority by winning 44 seats in the 2017 elections. The Congress managed to win 21 seats, Independents bagged two seats and the CPI(M) was victorious on one seat. In percentage terms, the BJP won 48.79% of the total valid votes, followed by the Congress (41.68%) and Independents (6.34%).
Gyanvapi case | Varanasi court rejects plea seeking carbon dating of ‘Shivling’
The Varanasi district court on Friday dismissed an application filed by some of the Hindu plaintiffs seeking a scientific investigation of the disputed structure found inside the Gyanvapi mosque.
District judge A.K. Vishvesha concluded that as per Supreme Court’s May order, the area around the structure was to remain sealed, which was one of the arguments the Masjid Committee had made before the court. The Hindu side have claimed the disputed structure was a Shivling and the Anjuman Intezamia Masjid Committee has insisted it is part of the wuzu khana’s fountain.
The Masjid panel has challenged in the Supreme Court, the order by which the video survey was conducted and the disputed structure found.
Vishnu Jain, representing the Hindu side said, "The Muslim side said that Shivling is not a part of the suit property and its carbon dating cannot be done. We have given our clarification on both of these points. The court will deliver its verdict on October 14.
Earlier on September 29, the Hindu side demanded a scientific investigation of the 'Shivling' by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) and the carbon dating of 'Argha' and the area around it. The court had reserved the order in the Gyanvapi Mosque-Shringar Gauri case after hearing both sides' arguments.
Akhlaq Ahmed, representing the Muslim side had said that the plea by the Hindu side is not maintainable as it is against the order of the Supreme Court that stated protecting the structure."
Bombay High Court acquits former DU professor G.N. Saibaba in Maoist links case
A 90% physically disabled, wheelchair bound convict, Prof. G.N. Saibaba was acquitted by the Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court.
A division Bench of justices Rohit Deo and Anil Pansare acquitted accused Mahesh Tirki, Pandu Pora Narote, Hem Keshwdatta Mishra, Prashant Rahi, Vijay Nan Tirki and G.N. Saibaba. Pandu Narote, 33, also lodged at Nagpur Central Jail, died on August 26 due to swine flu.
Former Delhi University professor G. N. Saibaba. File. | Photo Credit: PTI
The judgement holds the sessions court order of conviction null and void and set it aside in the absence of valid sanction under the UAPA.
"Empirical evidence suggests that departure from the due process of law fosters an ecosystem in which terrorism burgeons and provides fodder to vested interests whose singular agenda is to propagate false narrative," the judgment says.
The National Investigation Agency immediately moved the Supreme Court seeking a stay on the acquittal; however, it was declined. The apex court has however allowed the Central agency to move an application before the registry requesting for urgent listing.
A special sitting of a Bench of Justices M. R. Shah and Bela Trivedi is scheduled to hear Maharashtra’s appeal against the acquittal on October 15
Prof. Saibaba's left hand is on the verge of failure and there is acute pain spreading in both hands. He suffers from pancreatitis, high blood pressure, cardiomyopathy, chronic back pain, immobility and sleeplessness.
Does electoral bond system provide from where the money comes, Supreme Court asks Centre
The Supreme Court asked the government whether the electoral bonds' system reveals the source of money pumped in to fund political parties even as the Centre repeatedly maintained that the scheme is "absolutely transparent".
"Is it transparent? Does the system provide from where the money comes?" Justice B.R. Gavai, heading a Bench comprising Justice B.V. Nagarathna, quizzed the government.
"The methodology of receiving money is absolutely transparent… It is impossible to get any black or unaccounted money in… To say that this (electoral bonds scheme) affects democracy may not hold water. We will take Your Lordships through this step-by-step," Solicitor General Tushar Mehta replied for the government.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, for the petitioners, said the scheme affected the very idea of free and fair elections provided under Article 324 of the Constitution.
Urging to refer the case before a larger Bench, Sibal said the court should consider the cardinal issue of the impact of electoral bonds on Article 324.
Justice Gavai indicated that the court should first hear on whether the case should be referred to a larger Bench. He said it was the prerogative of the Chief Justice of India to form a larger Bench, if required.
Bhushan flagged three important and interconnected issues highlighted in the petitions challenging the scheme. He said, besides the question of validity of electoral bonds, separate petitions have questioned whether or not political parties came under the ambit of the Right to Information Act.
He said the third issue was the challenge to the retrospective amendments made to the Foreign Contributions Regulations Act by which subsidiaries of foreign companies would not be treated as foreign sources.
Attorney General R. Venkataramani said there should be a "threshold hearing" on the question of reference to a larger Bench. He and Mehta urged the court to list the case in January. They said several Constitution Benches were scheduled in the interim.
But Sibal and Bhushan pressed for an earlier date. "Or in the meantime the elections will held...That is the problem," Sibal said. "Anyway it has been pending for seven years… We can have it in January?" Justice Gavai suggested, but the petitioners requested for an earlier hearing considering the importance of the issue. The court finally scheduled the hearing on December 6.
U.K. PM Truss sacrifices Finance Minister Kwarteng in fight to survive
British Prime Minister Liz Truss fired her Finance Minister Kwasi Kwarteng, shortly before she was expected to scrap parts of their economic package in a desperate bid to survive the market and political turmoil gripping the country.
Kwarteng said he had resigned at Truss’s request after rushing back to London overnight from IMF meetings in Washington. Truss, in power for only 37 days, will hold a news conference later, Downing Street confirmed.
“You have asked me to stand aside as your Chancellor. I have accepted,” Kwarteng said in his resignation letter, which he published on Twitter. Truss, in response, said, “As a long standing friend and colleague. I am deeply sorry to lose you from the government.” Jeremy Hunt, a former foreign and health secretary, replaced Kwarteng.
Kwarteng is the country’s shortest serving chancellor since 1970, and his successor will be the fourth finance minister in as many months in Britain, where millions are facing a cost of living crisis.
In Washington, Kwarteng was told by the head of the International Monetary Fund of the importance of “policy coherence”. His flight back to London was carried live by television news channels. He was fired minutes after arriving back in Downing Street.
In Brief:
Rape and sexual assault attributed to Moscow’s forces in Ukraine are part of a Russian “military strategy” and a “deliberate tactic to dehumanise the victims”, U.N. envoy Pramila Patten said in an interview. “All the indications are there,” the U.N. special representative on sexual violence said when asked if rape was being used as a weapon of war in Ukraine. “When women are held for days and raped, when you start to rape little boys and men, when you see a series of genital mutilations, when you hear women testify about Russian soldiers equipped with Viagra, it’s clearly a military strategy,” she said. “And when the victims report what was said during the rapes, it is clearly a deliberate tactic to dehumanise the victims.” The United Nations has verified “more than a hundred cases” of rape or sexual assault since the beginning of the war, Patten said.
Evening Wrap will return tomorrow.
