Nationalist Congress Party leader Ajit Pawar was given the finance and planning portfolio on Friday, nearly two weeks after he broke away from the original party and took oath as Maharashtra's deputy chief minister.
'...by directing these draconian provisions against political and ideological opponents of the ruling group, minorities, and those who dare to dissent through and selective prosecution and prolonged incarceration as undertrials.'
Opposing the transfer of Madras high court Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee to Meghalaya, over 200 advocates of the Madras high court have signed a representation to the Chief Justice of India, N V Ramana and the Supreme Court collegium, seeking to reconsider the decision to shift CJ Banerjee.
In 2017 the Bangladesh supreme court on his watch annulled the 16th amendment to the constitution which empowered parliament to impeach SC judges for misconduct or incapacity. As it upheld the independence of the judiciary, it miffed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who accused Justice Sinha of 'humiliating' the country. He was accused of corruption and misuse of power, allegations that he denied. Prakash Bhandari reports.
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.
A Mohali court on Friday sent to 14-day judicial custody sacked Punjab minister Vijay Singla, who said he worked with 'utmost sincerity', has full faith in his party and will come out clean of corruption charges.
Justice Ruma Pal is to be saluted for her courageous dissent of conviction and reminding her peers that they need to put themselves on self-trial. The alternative is for India to sink further into the cesspool of even greater corruption, says C Uday Bhaskar.
He told PTI in an interview that parties that are still thinking of 'being the leader' of a possible united front against the Bharatiya Janata Party in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls have not understood the gravity of the situation at all.
Contrary to popular belief that liberalisation of the economy would prevent corruption, the deepening of the reforms process since the early 1990s is seen as having increased the opportunities for corruption.
Today, in big cases when bail applications are about to come up for hearing, TV reports are shown which are very "damaging for the accused who has filed the bail application", he said.
On Tuesday, the former minister also claimed that he wanted to table the diary in the assembly.
Former Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan reiterated his allegations of a foreign conspiracy behind his ouster and said he knew that the 'match was fixed' when a no-confidence motion was moved against him.
A triumphant Khan returned to his Lahore home on Saturday after having locked himself in the Islamabad high court premises for hours for fear of re-arrest despite being granted bail on Friday.
'Hamas is going to be prepared. There will be booby traps and tunnels; it's going to be door to door fighting.'
With this kind of coinage, the Opposition seems to be readily conceding the point that Modi is taller than all of them put together. So they need something bigger than themselves, collectively or not, to capture the voter imagination when it is about taking on Modi and the BJP in 2024, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
A Delhi court on Tuesday ordered the release of real estate tycoons Sushil and Gopal Ansal against the jail term already undergone by them in a case of tampering with evidence in the case related to the 1997 Uphaar cinema fire, which had claimed 59 lives.
Inexplicably, the Law Minister does not realise that all these economic crimes are highly damaging to our economy and social fabric.
Khan took strong exception to the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) allegations against him and said the spokesperson of the army's military wing was not even born when he represented Pakistan in the world.
There are alternatives that are preferable to the octopus like Jan Lokpal being proposed. Extremism, whether the Gandhian excess of non-violence or obsession with environment at cost of everything else is dangerous in the long run, says Colonel Anil Athale (retd).
His disqualification to participate in future elections may follow, notes Rana Banerji, who headed the Pakistan desk at RA&W, India's external intelligence agency.
Banerjee slammed the opposition for a "malicious campaign" launched against her, asserting that she does not support corruption.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday said the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) was 'putting pressure' on him to 'frame' the then chief minister of Gujarat Narendra Modi in an alleged fake encounter case in Gujarat when he was being questioned by the probe agency during the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government.
In her first reaction after Chidambaram's arrest on Wednesday evening, Banerjee quoted Rabindranath Tagore and said the "message of justice is crying silently in isolation".
Pakistan still has to acquire the patience you need in a democracy. The patience to accept that even if I do not like the government I have, I must wait till the next election to change it, explains Shekhar Gupta.
He takes over the CBI in challenging times. The perception is that the agency is reduced to being an instrument of blackmail and intimidation by successive governments.
Palanivel Thiaga Rajan was on the hit-list, not because the chief minister was unhappy with his performance, but because there were constant complaints from other ministers that he was sitting on their files far too long, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Reversing the burden of evidence means that the principle of innocent until proven guilty does not apply. It is exactly the opposite: Guilty as charged, until you can convince the judges of the contrary, points out Shekhar Gupta.
Newly-inducted minister Sanjay Rathod, who also served as a minister in the previous Uddhav Thackeray-led state government, had resigned last year after he was linked to a woman's death in Pune.
Former Supreme Court judge Markandey Katju, currently chairman of Press Council of India, on Monday stirred a controversy by alleging that three ex-Chief Justices of India had compromised in giving extension to an additional judge of Madras high court at the instance of the United Progressive Alliance government in the wake of pressure from one of its allies, apparently Dravida Munnetra Kazahagham.
'Modi has shown political courage by instituting several economic reforms which include demonetisation, ushering in GST, eradication of benami transactions...'
ndependent of the political fallout, which Stalin has sought to arrest through the withdrawal of the measures as fast as they were introduced, there are concerns about the way those decisions came to be taken, without adequate application of mind, not in official terms but in political and electoral contexts, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
The Central Bureau of Investigation has booked 16 individuals for posting alleged defamatory material against Supreme Court and Andhra Pradesh high court judges on social media, taking over investigations from the state CID, officials said on Monday.
If the fear of ED could drive the powerful people of today to be honest or at least be minimally corrupt, will it not be a great thing for our nation?, asks Sudhir Bisht.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday criticised a section of the media for distorting her statement on the Judiciary in the Assembly last Tuesday, saying she had merely spoken about a value-based judiciary.
Bhushan was earlier this month held guilty of contempt of court by the Supreme Court for two of his tweets, the first one posted on June 29, related to his comment/post on a picture of CJI Bobde on a high-end bike.
An official of the Supreme Court said this is for the first time that a permission has been granted to register case against a sitting high court judge.
'It is the common people, not lawyers and judges, who are the stakeholders of the judiciary.'
The Supreme Court on Friday termed as "unfortunate" and rued the "new trend" of maligning judges by governments if judicial pronouncements are not as per their liking.
Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Sunday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party of weakening the country by spreading fear and hatred, and said only the Congress can unite the country and take it to the path of progress.
They just wanted their angst noticed, and as a symbol of recognition, Jallikattu, restored without the annual ritual of court cases and adjournments, explains N Sathya Moorthy.
