The Supreme Court on November 18, 2022 refused National Investigation Agency’s (NIA) plea to recall its November 10 order to shift activist Gautam Navlakha from Taloja Jail to house arrest in Navi Mumbai, asking if “the might of the state cannot keep an eye on an ailing, 70-year-old man”.
Appearing before a Bench of Justices KM Joseph and Hrishikesh Roy, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta and Additional Solicitor General S.V. Raju jointly urged that Navlakha, charged under the UAPA in the Bhima Koregaon case, had “misled” the court to understand the house arrest premises was a residential property with a library occupying the ground floor. Instead, they said, the building was an “office” of the Communist Party.
They said a recce by the NIA revealed a “kitchen door” leading outside and a collapsible grill door. They even revealed that karate classes were held on the terrace where “fit people” attend and could pose a security threat to the police guard. They also said a CCTV camera was not put up in one of the entrances to the house arrest premises.
“The facts are very, very disturbing… The building belongs to the Communist Party. You were misled to believe he was going home,” Solicitor General said gravely. Justice Joseph pointed out that the Communist Party was a recognised political party of the country.
Mehta shot back, saying “if that does not shock Your Lordships, nothing can!”
“We are certainly not shocked… It is something of common knowledge that Communist Party is recognised,” Justice Joseph said.
“I am not aware…” Mehta replied.
“If you are not aware, we cannot do anything,” Justice Joseph said.
The court said the kitchen door should be locked and sealed. The NIA could also lock the grill exit and keep the key with it, adding “then throw the key into the Arabian Sea”.
“With all the might of the state, you are not able to keep a 70-year-old ailing man in house confinement? That is the perception we are getting here,” Justice Roy asked the law officers.
The Solicitor General said though all were to be treated equal under Article 14, “some were more equal”. He said there were other inmates in Taloja of Navlakha’s age and ailments, and they were treated by the jail.
Mehta said the “70-year-old man has ISI and Jammu and Kashmir terrorist links”. Justice Roy asked whether the state was saying it could not “take care of such hardened persons”.
Mehta said it was his “perception that naxalites cannot be treated with kid gloves”.
“Absolutely right, you have every right to project your perception,” Justice Joseph responded.
The court said it would take a serious view if the NIA was “trying to find a loophole to defy the court’s order”.
When Raju asked time till Monday to come up with more “suggestions” to make the house-arrest premises escape proof, the court said “you are delaying the implementation of our order. Do you think we cannot see through this?”
Senior advocate Nitya Ramakrishnan, for Navlakha, said her client was neither a “Houdini” nor a “trapeze artist” to squeeze his way out through a two-inch grill door. She said the kitchen door to the outside was already locked and a second CCTV camera had been installed. The karate classes were discontinued. She said Navlakha was not a resident of Mumbai and the facility, which was used as a residential unit, had been open to them.
Supreme Court Benches to hear 10 bail and transfer pleas each everyday before normal work: CJI
Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud on Friday, November 18, 2022, pressed the accelerator on hearing and disposing off pending pleas for bail and transfer petitions in the Supreme Court.
The Chief Justice said that every one of the 13 Benches of the court currently functioning in the top court would hear 10 cases each of bail and transfer petitions first thing every morning and finish off their pendency before Christmas holidays start in December.
Transfer petitions mostly relate to matrimonial and family cases. Litigants usually seek inter-State transfer of their cases. For example, a separated wife or husband may seek transfer of their divorce case to a court nearer to the place of their residence or the city where they work for convenience. These cases do not pose complicated legal issues but tend to pile up in the apex court. The uncertainty causes distress to litigants.
“There are around 3,000 transfer petitions pending here. Every one of the 13 Benches will take up 10 transfer petitions everyday. They will deal with 650 petitions every week. In five weeks, all the transfer petitions will be over,” Chief Justice Chandrachud addressed the lawyers in the courtroom.
The CJI said the decision was taken in a Full Court meeting of all the Supreme Court judges. The CJI said 10 bail cases would also be similarly taken up every day by all the 13 Benches.
“Transfer petitions deal with family matters and bail cases deal with personal liberty,” Chief Justice Chandrachud explained. The top judge said the regular cases on the day’s list of each Bench would be taken up after hearing the 20 transfer and bail cases.
Bhima Koregaon case: Bombay High Court grants bail to Anand Teltumbde but stays order for a week
The Bombay High Court on Friday granted bail to Dr. Anand Teltumbde, an accused in the Bhima Koregaon caste violence case of 2018. A bench of Justices A.S. Gadkari and Milind Jadhav however stayed its order for a week to enable the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to file appeal before the Supreme Court.
The court observed several offences under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) were not made out and granted bail on a bond of ₹1 lakh and two sureties.
Teltumbde had surrendered before the NIA office in Mumbai on April 14, 2020 after the Supreme Court denied him any relief. He was initially taken into NIA custody and is now lodged at the Taloja Central jail.
He has been the managing director and CEO of Petronet India Limited, an Indian Institute of Management graduate who taught at the Indian Institute of Technology. He has been booked in the Elgar Parishad case for his alleged links to the banned Communist Party of India (Maoists). He has been charged with several sections of the Indian Penal Code and the UAPA.
Dr. Teltumbde and 15 others were booked by Pune police where an offence was registered on January 8, 2018, alleging that they were spreading hatred through provocative songs, plays and speeches at Shaniwar Wada on December 31, 2017, which led to violence following the incident at Bhima-Koregaon.
Months after withdrawal, Govt reintroduces draft Data Protection Bill for public comments
Three months after the withdrawal of the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill from the lower house of the Parliament, the central government has now come up with a new draft Bill seeking views from the public.
For the record, the central government during the recent Monsoon session of Parliament withdrew the Bill from the Lok Sabha several months after it was introduced. The Union Minister for Railways, Communications, Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw today tweeted, “Seeking your views on draft Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2022.” He also posted a link of the draft Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2022.
Vaishnaw had earlier said that the Bill was withdrawn because the Joint Parliamentary Committee recommended 81 amendments in a bill of 99 sections. “Above that it made 12 major recommendations. Therefore, the bill has been withdrawn and a new bill will be presented for public consultation,” he had said.
The purpose of this Act, the draft said, is to provide for the processing of digital personal data in a manner that recognises both the right of individuals to protect their personal data and the need to process personal data for lawful purposes.
COP27 U.N. climate talks go into overtime
UN climate talks that were supposed to end Friday were extended by a day in an effort to break a deadlock over creating a fund for developing countries devastated by the fallout from global warming.
Representatives from nearly 200 countries have gathered at the COP27 in Egypt for two weeks with the aim of driving forward action on climate change as the world faces a worsening onslaught of extreme floods, heat waves and droughts.
But wealthy and developing nations were still struggling to find common ground on creating the fund and on a host of other crucial issues with only hours before the summit in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh was due to end.
“Today we need to shift gears again, time is not on our side,” Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, who chairs the COP27 talks, told delegates. “I remain committed to bringing this conference to a close tomorrow in an orderly manner.”
The daunting list of urgent tasks includes finding agreement—and funds—for the emissions cuts needed to limit average warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius from pre-industrial levels, which scientists say is a safer guardrail to avoid the most dangerous impacts.
For many developing countries—and small island states threatened by sea level rise—the defining issues at the conference is money for the “loss and damage” caused by climate change.
A cascade of climate-driven extremes in recent months—from floods in Pakistan and Nigeria to heatwaves and droughts across the world—have shone a spotlight on the ferocious impacts of a warming world for developing nations that are also struggling with debts and surging inflation.
In a bid to find a compromise, the European Union proposed late Thursday the creation of a fund for the most vulnerable nations but warned it was its final offer.
The EU proposal indicated that the bloc, previously fearful of open-ended climate damages liability, has “shifted significantly”, said Rachel Cleetus, lead economist at the Union of Concerned Scientists’ climate programme.
But she said all eyes were now on the United States and China, the world’s top two polluters, fresh from a thaw in their climate relations after a meeting between Presidents Joe Biden and Xi Jinping earlier this week in Bali.
“It’s crunch time,” Cleetus told AFP. “There’s no time anymore for the U.S. to sit on the sidelines. They have to come out with what their position is to show that they’re being constructive.”
Cleetus added that China should also make its position clear, particularly on the issue of whether it would contribute to such a fund and pledge not to draw from it. “We think China and the US can really unlock this in these last 24 hours,” Cleetus said.
Earlier in the week, the G77 and China bloc of 134 developing countries proposed creating the loss and damage fund at the COP27 meeting, with other details to be agreed later.
European Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans told reporters on Friday that the EU offer had two “very important” conditions that differ from the G77 proposal.
He said the fund should be for “the most vulnerable” nations and the money should come from a “broad funder base”—code for countries including China that have become wealthier since they were listed as developing countries in 1992.
“I have to say this is our final offer,” Timmermans said. “This is where the (EU) member states can find an agreement and I have to thank all of them for the courage to go this far. But this is it.”
Timmermans said he had explained the EU proposal to U.S. delegates who were “very interested in seeing” that reaffirming the need to step up efforts to cut emissions to reach the 1.5°C target be reflected in the conclusions.
Pakistan’s climate minister Sherry Rehman, whose country chairs G77+China, expressed a willingness to “working with each other to find common ground”.
“It is up to all of us to steer a path that sends a powerful message from this COP that the implementation COP actually turned into a historic actionable COP,” she said.
She said the G77 had zeroed in on one of the options put forward in a draft loss and damage text “with a few changes that have been submitted and we are working on with each other”.
Developing nations have been relatively united in calling for the loss and damage fund at this COP. Some small island states said they had discussed walking out if they do not see progress. But the AOSIS coalition of small island states has also indicated it wants to see China, India and other major polluters contribute.
In Brief:
Nancy Pelosi to step down as top U.S. Democrat after Republicans take House
Democrat Nancy Pelosi, the trailblazing first female speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, said on November 17 that she will step down as party leader when Republicans take control of the chamber in January. “I will not seek reelection to Democratic leadership in the next Congress,” Pelosi said in an emotional speech on the House floor. “The hour has come for a new generation to lead the Democratic caucus.” The 82-year-old Pelosi’s departure from party leadership marks the end of an era in Washington and comes after Republicans secured a slim House majority in last week’s midterm elections. Democrats retained Senate control.
External Affairs Ministry driver arrested by police for ‘leaking’ confidential information
Delhi Police Crime Branch arrested a driver working in the Ministry of External Affairs in connection with an espionage case where he allegedly leaked confidential information to a Pakistan-based person, police said on November 18. The suspect would allegedly pass “confidential and sensitive” information related to national security to a person based in Pakistan. The source further added that the driver was honey-trapped by an ISI person. Delhi Police, however, refused to share any details of the case citing concerns over national security.
Evening Wrap will return tomorrow.
