"Not a single woman (from Sandeshkhali) has lodged any FIR. It was me who directed the police to lodge a suo motu case. Our block president has been arrested," she said.
A bench of justices AS Bopanna and PS Narasimha clarified that the rest of the high court judgment would continue to be in force.
TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee had addressed a public meeting in Kolkata on March 29.
Parliamentary Standing Committee on Law and Justice has made a suggestion for protecting whistle-blowers from the dreaded contempt law, till inquiry into such charges, as part of an effort to ensure accountability of judges. The proposal has been mooted for inclusion in the Judges (Inquiry) Bill 2006 which is expected to be introduced in Parliament shortly.
The CJI also dealt with the principle of affirmative action by the state and said it was meant to achieve broader equality and was not against the right to equality.
In the high courts, only 13.2 per cent women occupied the position of judge.
Springing a surprise, independents backed by jailed former prime minister Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party won the lion's share of 101 seats in the National Assembly in Thursday's election.
The comments gave a false picture to the public that a government could not be questioned or found fault with whatever it did, the petition said.
The bench said it was not questioning the credentials of the election commissioners appointed but the procedure.
As lawyers paralysed the working of courts across the country, Pakistan government has moved to avert a showdown with the judiciary by initiating steps to end the row over the apex court striking down appointments made by President Asif Ali Zardari.
As a fresh confrontation appeared imminent between Pakistan People's Party government and the judiciary, former premier Yousuf Raza Gilani has warned that this time the ruling party will not take any "unconstitutional" move by the Supreme Court against his successor "lying down".
This has affected all political activity of the party, Maken said at a press conference.
Pakistan's former premier Yousuf Raza Gilani on Thursday said the Speaker and parliament had endorsed his stance by not disqualifying him even after his conviction by the Supreme Court and he had thus emerged as the 'ultimate winner' in the standoff between the executive and the judiciary.
"From time to time, complaints are received in the Department of Justice (in the law ministry) against sitting as well as retired judges of Supreme Court and high courts. Department of Justice is concerned only with the appointment and service conditions of the sitting judges of the Supreme Court and high courts," he said.
While accusing Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry of holding secret meetings with him, real estate tycoon Malik Riaz has said there is no free judiciary in the country and it is run by 'don' Arsalan Iftikhar, Chaudhary's son, reports Tahir Ali
A day before he steps down, Chief Justice of India Justice KG Balakrishnan came out in strong defence of his colleagues at a time when the credibility and of judiciary has taken a hit. Excerpts from the outgoing CJI's exclusive interview to CNN-IBN:
Bidhuri, the BJP MP from South Delhi, had faced strong criticism over his "derogatory" comments against Bahujan Samaj Party MP Danish Ali in the Lok Sabha.
Former Delhi University professor G N Saibaba, who was released from the Nagpur Central Jail on Thursday after his acquittal in an alleged Maoist links case, said it's a 'wonder that he could come out alive' despite suffering the 'brutal' jail life.
A Faizabad court had last week cancelled the allotment of farmland to the megastar saying the land transfer was made through fraudulent means and held that he is not a farmer.
'Right to apprenticeship means that anyone below the age of 25 years with a diploma or other qualifications can demand an apprenticeship with a private, a public sector company or a government organisation. And when he/she demands this, it is the obligation of the government to provide it.'
It is a tribute to a system so robustly meritocratic that this team represents India's diversity better than any other institution: The Union Cabinet, our chief ministers, the civil services, the leadership of our armed forces and security agencies, the judiciary and more than all of these, our typical newsroom. That is the biggest message from this breathless rise of Indian cricket, asserts Shekhar Gupta.
The Parliamentary Standing Committee going into the Lokpal Bill has recommended keeping the judiciary and the MPs' conduct in the House out of its purview and rejected the demand for hiving off the anti-corruption wing of the Central Bureau of Investigation to come under its jurisdiction.
In Israel, its constitution committee -- no doubt nudged by Prime Minister Binaymin Netanyahu who has his personal problems with the judiciary -- is set to start voting on changes that would give politicians more power on selecting judges while limiting the supreme court's powers to strike down legislation.
The lawyers' body has moved the top court challenging the Bombay high court's February 9 order dismissing its plea on the ground that it was not a fit case to invoke the writ jurisdiction under Article 226 of the Constitution.
The most important lesson is that you have to build your political proposition, and sell it yourself. You can't leave it to the courts, media, NGOs and civil society and expect them to play the role of the Opposition. That's precisely what Mr Modi's challengers have been doing and we know the results, notes Shekhar Gupta.
'Judges have families; they have their future to worry about.' 'In an atmosphere of fear, the judges are constantly under some kind of psychological pressure.' 'I have seen this is happening across the board in the country today.'
What is the independence of the judiciary if independent and fearless judges are not being appointed, SC judge Rohinton Fali Nariman said.
The committee will consist of retired Supreme Court judges S I Imam and Rohini Marasinghe, and Irangani Perera, retired High Court judge.
Creating a positive reform that does away with an official who constitutes a flawed aspect of Indian democracy will allow the BJP to rightfully claim this as one of its positive legacies, suggests Karan P Shah.
'There were 27 cases against me. I have obtained bail in all the cases. The judiciary has released me,' the freed Kashmiri separatist tells A Ganesh Nadar/Rediff.com
Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, however, said that the appointment of judges would go ahead irrespective of whether new Memorandum of Procedure was in place or not.
Outgoing Chief Justice of India (CJI) N V Ramana on Friday said the appointment of 11 Supreme Court and 224 high court judges, besides recommending the names of more women for judgeship during his tenure as the head of the judiciary, was a reflection of "the coherence and determination" of judges to strengthen the judiciary to further the goal of justice.
In his letter to Sitharaman, Venugopal said media reports have exposed the alleged "quid-pro-quo between BJP and several firms, which in a strange coincidence donated to it, after the Enforcement Directorate (ED), Income Tax Department (IT) and Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and others, raided or searched those enterprises".
It was estimated to be equivalent to increasing the number of judges by 25%, the prime minister told a Conference of Chief Justices and Chief Ministers at Vigyan Bhavan.
A voter's right to know is 'far too important' in democracy than the privacy of a donor, Supreme Court judge Justice Sanjiv Khanna said on Thursday as the apex court scrapped the 2018 electoral bond scheme for funding political parties.
Democracy does not begin and end with elections and the integrity of election process is pivotal for sustaining the democratic form of government, the Supreme Court said on Thursday while striking down as unconstitutional the electoral bonds scheme for political funding.
Justice Beevi was admitted to the private hospital a few days ago due to age-related ailments and breathed her last on Thursday afternoon around 12.15 pm, an official source said.
"When the matter reaches the SC collegium, there is a fully perfect situation, whether the name be accepted or not to be accepted. It's not as if it is a whimsical exercise taken by someone. It's a fool proof arrangement," he said.
"At times judges feel that the delay in the disposal of cases is only because the Bar does not, at times, cooperate," he said at the function to inaugurate 150th anniversary of the Allahabad high court.
Meanwhile, Opposition bloc Maha Vikas Aghadi said the verdict will determine if democracy "exists" in the country and judiciary "functions" independently.
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