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The Supreme Court on Tuesday told human rights activist Gautam Navlakha that he would have to pay the costs incurred by the National Investigation Agency towards his house arrest in the Bhima Koregaon case, reported Live Law.

On March 7, the agency told the Supreme Court that Navlakha was liable to pay Rs 1.64 crore as the cost of his security.

Navlakha, 70, is among 16 academicians, activists and lawyers who were charged under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act for their alleged role in instigating caste violence at Bhima Koregaon near Pune in January 2018. He has been in jail since August 2018 and under house arrest since November 2022 on grounds of his poor health.

Appearing for Navlakha in court on Tuesday, advocate Shadan Farasat said that paying the expenses was of no difficulty but said that there were disagreements about how they have been calculated.

Additional Solicitor General SV Raju, appearing for the National Investigation Agency, responded by saying that house arrest is an unusual arrangement and that a large number of police personnel were required “round the clock” to facilitate Navlakha’s detention in this manner.

Raju added that the cost of security will continue to increase and Navlakha’s lawyers cannot delay the payment by contesting it before the court. “Every time…

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The Gujarat High Court on Friday reprimanded the state government for filing a first information report against a contractual sanitation worker for “wilfully” entering a septic tank despite a prohibition on manual scavenging, Live Law reported on Saturday.

A division bench of Chief Justice Sunita Agarwal and Justice Aniruddha Mayee was hearing a public interest litigation by Ahmedabad-based nongovernmental organisation Manav Garima that is seeking strict implementation of the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013.

Manual scavenging – or the practice of removing human excreta by hand from sewer lines or septic tanks – is banned under the law, but the practice remains prevalent in several parts of the country.

A sanitation worker had died and another suffered serious injuries while cleaning a septic tank at the Central Salt and Marine Chemicals Research Institute’s Bhavnagar campus in November. The state had booked the surviving worker for illegally and “wilfully” entering the septic tank.

The state government had conducted an inquiry into the incident on the court’s direction and submitted a report stating the actions taken and actions proposed to be taken.

On Friday, the government shared the findings of the inquiry with the court and said that the Bhavnagar Municipal Corporation had not deployed a supervisor at the site…

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Climate activist Sonam Wangchuk on Saturday withdrew his call for a protest march from Ladakh’s Leh to the Line of Actual Control planned for Sunday.

The march was meant to highlight the scale of the alleged Chinese intrusions in Ladakh and the land taken over by Indian corporates. Local tribal leaders were to lead the protest.

Ahead of the protest, the administration of the Union Territory had imposed prohibitory orders against gatherings under section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure in the area.

Under these circumstances, “chances of violence are very high, which could then be used to label this peaceful movement anti-national”, Wangchuk said in a social media post on Saturday.

On March 26, Wangchuk ended his 21-day hunger strike that demanded statehood for Ladakh and the protection of the Himalayan ecology. Wangchuk and other civil society leaders in Ladakh are also trying to press the Union government to implement the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution for Ladakh.

The Sixth Schedule under Article 244 (Administration of Scheduled Areas and Tribal Areas) of the Constitution guarantees certain protections for land and a nominal autonomy for citizens in designated tribal areas. In Ladakh, while more than 97% of the population belong to Scheduled Tribes, Kargil is a Muslim-majority region.

The march on Sunday to the Line of Actual…

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The Union home ministry has cancelled the registration of at least five nongovernmental organisations for allegedly violating provisions of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act, PTI reported on Wednesday quoting unidentified officials.

The organisations whose registrations have been cancelled are Church’s Auxiliary for Social Action, Church of North India Synodical Board of Social Service, Evangelical Fellowship of India, Indo-Global Social Service Society and Voluntary Health Association of India, the newspaper reported.

These organisations will not be able to receive foreign contributions or use their existing funds.

Their registrations under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act were cancelled by the Centre for allegedly using the funds for works that were not related to their mandate, PTI reported.

Foreign Contribution Regulation Act licences of more than 6,600 non-governmental organisations were scrapped between financial year 2016-’17 and 2021-’22, Centre had told Parliament in December 2022.

Nearly 20,700 non-governmental organisations have lost their Foreign Contribution Regulation Act licence in the last 10 years, according to the newspaper.

Last year, the Union government told Parliament that 13,520 non-governmental organisations registered under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act had received Rs 55,741.51 crore in foreign contributions between 2019-’20 and 2021-’22.

Also read:

• Home ministry dodges query on cancelling foreign contribution licences of nonprofits
• Everything you need to know about FCRA, the law that regulates foreign donations to NGOs
• Strict action will be…

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The Election Commission on Wednesday issued a notice to the Kerala government after Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan announced that his administration had withdrawn cases filed against individuals in connection with anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protests in the state, The Hindu reported on Friday.

The chief electoral officer of Kerala has asked the state’s chief secretary to file a response in the matter by Saturday.

Last week, Vijayan had announced that 629 of the 835 cases that have been filed in Kerala in connection with protests against the contentious citizenship law had been withdrawn from trial courts. The government may have to recall the decision to withdraw the cases if the Election Commission finds it to be in violation of the Model Code of Conduct, according to The Hindu.

The Model Code of Conduct is a set of guidelines issued by the Election Commission that political parties and governments are mandated to follow while campaigning.

The Citizenship Amendment Act, approved by Parliament on December 11, 2019, offers an expedited route to citizenship to refugees from six minority religious communities – except Muslims – from Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

After Vijayan’s announcement, Bharatiya Janata Party state unit chief K Surendran alleged that the move was aimed at appeasing and garnering the votes of a particular community.

DAY 19 OF MY #CLIMATEFAST
5000 people fasting with me today. Morning Temperature: – 4 °C
As nature seems to find no serious place in our parliaments & policy making, I’m sharing a cray idea here.
Voting rights to nature.
It may sound weird, just as giving voting rights to… pic.twitter.com/Oa0xi66kzS

— Sonam Wangchuk (@Wangchuk66) March 24, 2024

Educationist and climate activist Sonam Wangchuk have been on a hunger strike for nearly 20 days, demanding a statehood for Ladakh and adopt measures that can protect the fragile and unique ecosystem of the Union Territory. His demands include the implementation of the sixth schedule of the Constitution, separate Lok Sabha seats for Leh and Kargil districts, a recruitment process and a separate Public Service Commission for Ladakh. Braving sub-zero temperatures, scores of Ladakhi people too have joined Wangchuk in his “climate fast” under the open sky in Leh.

END OF DAY 17 OF #CLIMATEFAST
I’m fine, just a bit tired.
More than a 1000 joined me for the fast. Snowfall in the afternoon. Leaders from Kargil visited & announced fast from Sunday the 24th to 27th March in Kargil city.
Hope you too are joining such gatherings & fasts in your… pic.twitter.com/f9HwqzsBSd

— Sonam Wangchuk (@Wangchuk66) March 22, 2024

END OF DAY 15 OF #CLIMATEFAST
Today I’ll introduce you to another…

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Wearing the ‘sindoor’, or vermillion, is the religious duty of a married Hindu woman as it demonstrates her marital status, a family court in Madhya Pradesh’s Indore has said, reported PTI.

The principal judge of Indore family court NP Singh made the remarks while directing a woman to return to her husband’s home with immediate effect, in an order passed on March 1.

The court was hearing a petition of a man seeking restoration of his rights as a husband under the Hindu Marriage Act. His wife, who was seeking a divorce, had separated from him five years ago. The couple got married in 2017 and have a five-year-old son.

During the hearing, the woman alleged that her husband harassed her physically and mentally for dowry. However, the court said the woman had not submitted any police complaints or reports regarding her allegations.

The court said that the woman had not been abandoned by her husband, but she had left him. “She has forsaken her husband,” the court order said. “She is not wearing the sindoor.”

…

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Is speaking favourably about Pakistan a criminal offence in India?

Four men arrested in Karnataka last week for allegedly shouting “Pakistan zindabad”, long live Pakistan, were the latest in a rapidly lengthening list of persons prosecuted across the country in the last few years for allegedly chanting pro-Pakistan slogans.

However, on March 7, the Supreme Court, in a judgment, outlined that extending good wishes to Pakistan, or to any other country, for that matter, is not a criminal offence.

The court stated in the judgment in no uncertain terms that the country’s police machinery is disregarding the fundamental right of citizens to freedom of speech.

Scroll explains what the judgment said and why there is no legal basis for criminalising pro-Pakistan statements.

Supreme Court judgment

The Supreme Court’s judgment, delivered by a two-judge bench comprising Justices AS Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan, stems from a first information report filed in 2022 by the Maharashtra police against Javed Ahmad Hajam, a Kashmiri professor who was at that time teaching at the Sanjay Ghodawat College in Kolhapur.

He had been booked under Section 153A of the Indian Penal Code that prohibits acts that promote disharmony or enmity between different groups based on religion, race, language, caste or community. In other words, it makes it illegal to engage in activities, make statements or…

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Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) has released the interview call letters for the post of Assistant Prosecution Officer. Eligible candidates will be able to download their call letters from the official website bpsc.bih.nic.in.

The interview is scheduled to be conducted from October 30 to November 3 for a total of 594 candidates. A total of 1480 candidates have been declared qualified in the APO Main examination. The Main exam was held from November 12 to 15, 2022.

The recruitment drive aims to fill up 553 vacancies, of which 188 vacancies are reserved for women candidates.

Steps to download BPSC APO Main 2020 hall ticket

1. Visit the official website bpsc.bih.nic.in
2. On the homepage, click on the APO Main 2020 hall ticket download link
3. Key in your login details and submit
4. BPSC APO interview call letter will appear on screen
5. Download and take a printout for future reference

Direct link to BPSC APO Interview call letter 2023.

For more details, candidates are advised to visit the official website here.

…

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इंटरनेट डेस्क। समलैंगिक शादियों को मान्यता देने की मांग को लेकर सुप्रीम कोर्ट ने बड़ा फैसला दिया है। इस फैसले के बाद समलैंगिक शादियां करने वालों को झटका लगा है। इस मामले में सुप्रीम कोर्ट ले सुनवाई करते हुए कहा की समलैंगिक विवाह मौलिक अधिकार नहीं है। कोर्ट ने कहा कि ये विधायिका का अधिकार क्षेत्र है।

सुप्रीम कोर्ट की संविधान पीठ ने 3-2 से ये फैसला सुनाया। सेम सेक्स मैरिज पर फैसला सुनाते हुए चीफ जस्टिस डी वाई चंद्रचूड़ ने कहा कि सुप्रीम कोर्ट विशेष विवाह अधिनियम के प्रावधानों को रद्द नहीं कर सकती।

सीजेआई ने अपना फैसला सुनाते हुए समलैंगिक शादी को मान्यता देने से इनकार कर दिया। उन्होंने कहा कि उनकी राय में संसद को समलैंगिक विवाह को मान्यता देने के मामले में फैसला करना चाहिए। उन्होंने समलैंगिक समुदाय के खिलाफ भेदभाव को रोकने के लिए केंद्र और पुलिस बलों को कई दिशा-निर्देश भी जारी किए।

pc-dw.com

As a horrifying video went viral on Friday of a teacher in Uttar Pradesh’s Muzaffarnagar district ordering students to slap a seven-year-old Muslim classmate, the police said they are investigating the matter.

“We will file the case after seeing the video and recording the statements of the child and his parents,” the sub-inspector at the Mansurpur police station told Scroll.

The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights has also taken cognisance of the incident and “legal action is being taken”, the organisation’s chairperson, Priyank Kanoongo, said on the social media site X.

The child studied in the lower kindergarten at Neha Public School in Khubapur village, his parents told Scroll. His father, Irshad Tyagi, a farmer, identified the teacher as Tripta Tyagi.

In the video, after one student strikes the Muslim boy who is standing in front of the class, the teacher can be heard urging other students to get up and hit him harder. Off camera, a male voice can be heard approving the action.

“When my son came home yesterday he was crying,” said the boy’s mother, Rubina. “We didn’t take it seriously. We thought that the teacher must have punished him for not doing his home work. But when we saw the video we were shocked.”

The video was shot…

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