The brothers were booked under the UP Gangsters Act in connection with the murder of the then BJP MLA from Ghazipur, Krishnanad Rai, on November 29, 2005 and the kidnapping-murder of Varanasi-based trader Nand Kishore Rungta in 1997.
Chief Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra has written to Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad requesting for expedited action on the electoral reform proposals pending with the government, including the one which seeks an enhanced two-year jail term for those furnishing incorrect information in their poll affidavit.
The ECI data covers 20,421 bonds worth Rs 12,769 crore. The ADR data, however, collated information on 27,811 bonds worth Rs 16,492 crore. The gap is nearly Rs 4,000 crore and involves over 7,000 bonds.
'The BJP lacks a credible mass leader who matches Mamata Banerjee's popularity.' 'Given the division of votes among Opposition parties, the West Bengal government's dole-giving strategy, and the consolidation of the poor, significant sections of scheduled caste groups and Muslim minorities behind the ruling party, it will be difficult to dislodge the Trinamool from power.'
For the last four years since abrogation of Article 370, Kashmir-based political parties have been struggling to forge an alternate narrative to the one forcibly snatched from them. The BJP is bound to go hammer and tongs at them now that their armoury is reinforced with the Supreme Court judgment, notes Mohammad Sayeed Malik, the veteran commentator on Kashmir affairs.
"When BJP was untouchable in politics, Balasaheb Thackeray stood by that party," Uddhav said.
Crucial reforms in Muslim personal law, especially laws related to inheritance and adoption, need to be initiated forthwith; historically speaking, without the State's backing, hardly has any reform taken place or allowed to prevail, asserts Mohammad Sajjad.
All 13 candidates in the fray in Indore against Lalwani, who won by a potentially record margin votes, lost their security deposit, indicating they were clearly rejected by the voters. If a candidate gets fewer than one-sixth of the total valid votes cast in a constituency, his/her security deposit is seized by the EC.
The high court had held that Returning Officer "illegally rejected" 429 postal ballots during the counting of votes, while the victory margin was only 327.
The Committee of Administrators instructed Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) to appoint a new electoral officer in place of DN Chaudhari and conduct the state elections by stipulated deadline of September 28.
The EC is believed to have told the Governor that Soren should be 'disqualified' as a legislator for violating electoral norms, they said.
In a far-reaching verdict, the Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that the appointment of the Chief Election Commissioner and the election commissioners will be done by the President on the recommendation of a committee, comprising the Prime Minister, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha and the CJI, to maintain the "purity" of the electoral process.
'This means the remedy will be worse than the disease. The thing which you want to avoid will happen.'
The top court said it needs to go through the case files and posted the matter for hearing at 3:30 pm on Wednesday
The "opaque" electoral bonds scheme for funding political parties will "destroy democracy" as it promotes corruption and does not allow a level playing field between the ruling and opposition parties, the petitioners challenging the validity of the scheme told the Supreme Court, which on Tuesday observed election funding was a "complicated issue".
Freebies being doled out by the Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan governments ahead of the assembly polls Friday came under scrutiny by the Supreme Court which sought responses from the two states, the Centre and the Election Commission on a PIL alleging misuse of public money.
The Uddhav Thackeray faction on Monday approached the Supreme Court challenging the decision of the Election Commission recognising the Eknath Shinde-led bloc as the real Shiv Sena and allotting the 'bow and arrow' poll symbol to it.
Elections in Jammu and Kashmir can be held "anytime from now" as the work on updation of voters list is almost over, the Centre told the Supreme Court on Thursday but remained non-committal about setting a time-frame for restoration of statehood to the Union territory (UT).
A revealing excerpt from Mani Shankar Aiyar's fascinating new book, The Rajiv I Knew.
Megha Engineering and Infrastructures Limited was the top donor to the Bharatiya Janata Party at Rs 584 crore and the Bharat Rashtra Samiti at Rs 195 crore.
Right to Information activist Anjali Bhardwaj said the VVPAT system should be re-calibrated to be fully voter-verifiable.
Law Minister Kiren Rijiju on Saturday invoked the constitutional 'Lakshman Rekha' guiding different institutions, including the executive and the judiciary, and wondered that if judges become part of administrative appointments, who would carry out judicial work.
It said that enacting a law that a minister, who is also a lawmaker, gets suspended automatically, if he or she is in judicial custody for over 48 hours, falls within the domain of the legislature.
A bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud took note of the submissions of senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Thackeray, and sought response of the faction led by Maharashtra Chief Minister Shinde.
May 30 was the deadline to submit the details as per a Supreme Court directive.
In a major relief for Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik, Election Commission on Tuesday decided not to disqualify him as a legislator, weeks after the Supreme Court had said that he may lose membership of the Senate for making a false declaration about his citizenship.
The litigation in the present case relates to the existence of two birth certificates of Abdullah Azam who allegedly gave the wrong date of birth while filing his nomination papers for the 2017 poll.
Asserting that the dharma yudham is on, Panneerselvam, popularly known as OPS said he and his followers would go to the people to seek justice.
'A political party taking the law into its hands is objectionable, especially in the context of the 2002 incidents in Gujarat.'
'However, to establish a quid pro quo, one can potentially see several things, like whether they got any benefits from the party that they gave money to. That is something that people (of India) will gauge. But to finally establish that there was money paid as consideration, it would require an investigation, a proper investigation, to be able to come up with such conclusions.'
Union minister and Bharatiya Janata Party leader Raosaheb Danve on Monday claimed 12 members of Parliament of Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena are in touch with the Chief Minister Eknath Shinde faction and are ready to cross over.
The state Election Commission also issued certain guidelines for not using the coming festive days for political purpose in the seats where polling would take place in next phases.
Terming it a "very sorry state of affairs", the apex court said the state was just trying to find some excuse or the other.
Writing his views in a separate verdict while concurring with the opinion of Justice Sanjiv Khanna, who was heading the bench, Justice Datta said the question of reverting to "paper ballot system", on facts and in the circumstances, does not and cannot arise.
This is for the first time that the Thackeray family has lost control of the party that was founded in 1966 by Balasaheb Thackeray on the principles of justice for the sons of the soil.
The judges reserved the verdict on Monday after the rival lawyers concluded their arguments on the suspension of the three-year sentence handed down to the 70-year-old PTI chairman by Additional District and Session Judge, Islamabad, Humayun Dilawar on August 5.
Standing by his remarks, Sakshi Maharaj had told the Commission that the statement was not made in a public or an election meeting but at a saints' conclave and hence could not be considered violative of the model code.
He furnished an undertaking before a bench of Justices Surya Kant and KV Viswanathan pursuant to a March 14 order by the apex court.
The apex court observed that it respects the local sentiments but asserted authorities cannot let the law of the land not prevail especially when there is nothing affecting the personal rights or personal laws.
Fadnavis on Saturday said the ruling Eknath Shinde-BJP coalition in Maharashtra is a legitimate government.
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