Chief Justice of India (CJI) D.Y. Chandrachud on August 7 announced in open court that the Supreme Court will appoint an all-women committee of three former High Court judges headed by Justice Gita Mittal, a former Chief Justice of the Jammu & Kashmir High Court, to provide the “healing touch” in violence-torn Manipur.
Other members of the broad-based committee would be Justice Shalini Phansalkar Joshi, a retired Bombay High Court judge, and Justice Asha Menon, a former Delhi High Court judge. “This will be a broad-based committee which will be constituted to supervise, intervene and monitor relief and rehabilitation, restoration of homesteads, religious places of worships, better relief work, etc,” CJI Chandrachud, heading a three-judge Bench, said.
Chief Justice Chandrachud said the court also intends to appoint retired Maharashtra cadre IPS officer Dattatray Padsalgikar, who had served in the National Investigation Agency, the Intelligence Bureau, and in Nagaland, to monitor the overall investigation of cases registered during the violence. Over 6,500 First Information Reports (FIR) have been registered from May to July in Manipur.
The Manipur Government, represented by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, said it has transferred 11 FIRs concerning crimes committed against women and children, including the Thoubal sexual violence incident, to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
As for the other cases, which would remain with the Manipur Police, the State government said it has formed 42 Special Investigation Teams (SIT). The top court, however, said it wanted eyes from outside the State to keep an eye on the State Police probe into these cases, which include serious offences like murder, arson, etc.
The apex court said it would direct Directors General of Police (DGP) from six States to name six DIG rank officers. These DIG officers would take charge of six SITs each and monitor their work. Similarly, the court said it would enforce multiple layers of monitoring of the investigation.
In the case of the 11 FIRs, the court said it would order five Deputy Superintendent of Police/ Superintendent of Police-level officers from other States to be made a part of the CBI. “They will be nominated by their State DGPs. They will be deputed to the CBI. They will carry on the investigation under the supervision of a Joint Director of the CBI,” the Chief Justice explained.
A recent State Government status report had said there had been 150 deaths, including 59 deaths between May 3 and May 5. Another 28 people lost their lives between May 27 and May 29. Thirteen more died in the violence on June 9. The report showed that 502 people were injured in the clashes. There were 5,107 cases of arson. It said that 252 people had been arrested, with another 12,740 arrests made as a preventive measure.
Demolition drive halted in Haryana’s violence-hit Nuh after HC order
A suo moto cognizance was taken by Justice Gurmeet Singh Sandhawalia against the ongoing demolition drive in Nuh. A notice was served to the government seeking details of the drive and future action plan.
The demolition has been stayed till further orders, Mohd Arshad, Advocate, Ex- Executive Member Punjab & Haryana High Court Bar Association said. Earlier today, Deputy Commissioner of Nuh Dhirender Khargata said the demolition drive was immediately halted in Haryana’s Nuh in adherence to Punjab and Haryana High Court order.
Haryana authorities on Sunday razed several illegal structures in violence-hit Nuh including a hotel from where stones were allegedly pelted on a religious procession during the clashes last week, officials said earlier. As many as 162 permanent and 591 temporary structures have been demolished in the district so far.
Different teams of the administration, accompanied by the paramilitary and the police, also removed alleged encroachments in Punhana, Pinganwa, Nagina, Tauru and Ferozpur Jhirka. Till Saturday, 147 people have been arrested and a total of 56 FIRs registered, officials said, adding eight people arrested on Friday were residents of Bharatpur and Alwar districts in Rajasthan.
A 50-member team from Gurugram police scoured the Nalhad hill on Sunday from where hooligans had allegedly opened fire on devotees. Six people, including two home guards and a cleric, died in the communal clashes that erupted in Nuh after the Vishva Hindu Parishad procession was attacked by mobs on Monday.
Rahul Gandhi attends Lok Sabha as his disqualification is revoked
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s Lok Sabha membership suspension was revoked on August 7 and his status as the MP from Kerala’s Wayanad was restored after the Lok Sabha Secretariat issued a notification in the wake of the Supreme Court staying his conviction in a defamation case.
As per the notification by the Lok Sabha, “the suspension ceases to operate subject to further judicial pronouncements”. He was accorded a warm welcome by Congress and other Opposition MPs on his arrival in Parliament after his Lok Sabha membership was restored. Gandhi reached the Parliament House complex around 12 noon and headed straight to the Mahatma Gandhi statue and paid floral tributes. MPs of the Congress and the Opposition INDIA bloc welcomed him at gate number one of Parliament, raising slogans.
A copy of the Supreme Court order that stayed Gandhi’s conviction by a Surat court in a criminal defamation case was formally handed over to the Lok Sabha Secretariat, the party’s leader in the Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said on August 5.
Chowdhury had conveyed his disappointment over the Lok Sabha Secretariat’s response to his request that Gandhi be immediately reinstated so that he can participate in the no-confidence motion against the Modi Government, which begins on August 8.
In a relief to Gandhi, the Supreme Court, in an interim order on Friday, stayed his conviction in the criminal defamation case over the ‘Modi surname’ remark. The stay on Gandhi’s conviction has paved the way for his reinstatement as a Lok Sabha MP, though he failed to get any relief from either the sessions court or the Gujarat High Court.
The apex court issued notices to the Gujarat Government and the complainant in July on an appeal of the Congress leader challenging the Gujarat High Court order. The Gujarat HC had in its order declined to stay his conviction in the criminal defamation case in which Rahul Gandhi was sentenced to two years in jail by the Surat court over the ‘Modi surname’ remark.
T.N. Minister Senthilbalaji arrest case: Supreme Court affirms ED’s power of police custody
The Supreme Court on August 7 dismissed appeals by Tamil Nadu Minister V. Senthilbalaji and his wife, Megala, against a Madras HC judgment upholding the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) power to gain his custody. The court held that no habeas corpus petition would lie after a judicial order of remand.
The judgment by a Bench of Justices A.S. Bopanna and M.M. Sundresh said the ED has the power of police custody. The Minister had argued that an ED officer was not a police officer and had no power of custody.
Balaji, who continues to be a Minister without portfolio in the Tamil Nadu government even after his arrest on June 14, and his wife assailed a Madras High Court order upholding his arrest by the probe agency in a money laundering case arising out of the alleged cash-for-jobs scam in the State’s transport department.
The Madras High Court, on July 14, upheld the legality of his arrest by the ED and his subsequent remand in judicial custody in a money-laundering case linked to a cash-for-jobs scam.
In Brief:
Three-quarters of children in South Asia are already facing dangerously high temperatures, the highest level worldwide, as the impact of climate change grows, the United Nations warned on August 7. About 460 million children are exposed to extreme heat in South Asia, or 76% of children, compared to a third of children globally, the United Nations children’s agency said. “With the world at global boiling, the data clearly show that the lives and well-being of millions of children across South Asia are increasingly threatened by heat waves and high temperatures,” said Sanjay Wijesekera, UNICEF Regional Director for South Asia.
Evening Wrap will return tomorrow.
