Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala) [India], September 14 (ANI): After the continuous reports of stray dog attacks in Kerala, the state has decided to seek permission from the Supreme Court to kill violent and rabies-infected dogs.
New Delhi [India], September 9 (ANI): The Supreme Court on Friday told the Kerala government that a solution must be found to address the stray dog issue menace and balance the same with animal rights.
New Delhi [India], March 31 (ANI): The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the former union minister Sharad Yadav to vacate the official bungalow allotted to him as a Member of Parliament in Lutyens Delhi till May 31, 2022.
New Delhi Jan 28 PTI The Supreme Court Friday refused to lay down any yardstick for granting reservation in promotion to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in government jobsA three-judge bench headed by Justice Nageswara Rao said states are obligated to collect data on inadequacy of representation of SCsSTsOn the basis of arguments we have divided submission into six points One is yardstick In the light of Jarnail Singh and Nagaraj we have said we cannot lay down any yardstickWith respect to the unit for collecting quantifiable data we have said that the State is obligated to collect quantifiable data said the bench also comprising Justices Sanjiv Khanna and B R Gavai The apex court said the collection of information regarding inadequacy of representation of SCsSTs cannot be with reference to the entire service or class but it should be relatable to gradecategory of posts to which promotion is sought Cadre which should be the unit for collection of quantifiable data in relation to promotional posts would be meaningless if data pertaining to the representation of SCSTs is with reference to the entire service the bench said With regard to proportionate representation and test of adequacy the top court said it has not gone into this aspect and it has left it to the states to assess inadequacy of representation of SCsSTs in promotion of post by taking into account relevant factors The apex court had reserved its verdict on October 26 2021 The Centre had earlier asked the court to lay down a definite and decisive ground for the Union of India and the states to implement reservation in promotions to SCs and STs in government jobs Attorney General K K Venugopal appearing for the Centre had submitted that SCSTs have been sidelined from the mainstream for years and we have to bring an equaliser in form of reservation in the interest of the country to give them an equal chance If you dont lay down a definite decisive ground that the states and union will follow therell be a multitude of litigations There will never be an end to this issue as to what is the principle on which reservation has to be made AG had said The bench had mentioned earlier that it would not reopen its decision on the issue of the grant of reservation in promotion to SCs and STs and said it was for the states to decide how they are going to implement the same Venugopal had referred to the apex court judgements right from the Indra Sawhney verdict of 1992 popularly known as the Mandal Commission case to the Jarnail Singh verdict of 2018 The Mandal judgement had ruled out quota in promotions Venugopal had said that till 1975 35 per cent SCs and 062 per cent of STs were in government employment and this is the average figure In 2008 the figure of SCs and STs in government employment rose to 175 and 68 per cent respectively which are still low and justified such quota he had said In 2018 a five-judge Constitution bench had refused to refer to the 2006 judgement in the M Nagraj case in which the creamy layer concept was extended to the SCs and STs to a larger seven-judge bench for reconsideration It had also paved the way for a grant of quota for promotions in the government jobs to SCs and STs and had modified the 2006 judgement to the extent that the states will not be required to collect quantifiable data reflecting the backwardness among these communities to justify the quota in promotions PTI PKS SA
New Delhi [India], January 28 (ANI): The Supreme Court will pronounce on Friday its judgement on the issue of the grant of reservation in promotion to the Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) in government jobs.
New Delhi Jan 25 PTI A high court under its powers of revision cannot convert a finding of acquittal of an accused into conviction the Supreme Court said on Tuesday A bench of Justices M R Shah and Sanjiv Khanna said the high court has power to examine whether there is manifest error of law or procedure etc however after giving its own findings it has to remit the matter to the trial Court andor the first appellate Court If the order of acquittal has been passed by the trial Court the High Court may remit the matter to the trial Court and even direct retrial However if the order of acquittal is passed by the first appellate court in that case the High Court has two options available i to remit the matter to the first appellate Court to rehear the appeal or ii in an appropriate case remit the matter to the trial Court for retrial the bench said The top court was hearing an appeal filed against an order of the Madras High Court which in exercise of its revisional jurisdiction under Section 401 CrPC set aside the order of acquittal passed by the first appellate Court and convicted the accused The apex court also said the right provided to the victim to prefer an appeal against the order of acquittal is an absolute right PTI PKS SA
New Delhi Jan 25 PTI The Supreme Court on Tuesday left it for the Centre to take a considered view on the suggestions given by the Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights DCPCR for the need to provide effective access to vaccination and targeted tracking of pregnant women and lactating mothers in case of Adverse Event Following Immunization AEFI A bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and Sanjiv Khanna said that the court is conscious of the fact that the suggestions which have been made on behalf of DCPCR are issues of policy but these have emanated from a statutory body and hence can be considered with the same sense of cooperation by the Centre as has been during the hearing of the petition It said that the three suggestions which have been made by the DCPCR would undoubtedly require the involvement of application of mind and domain knowledge by experts in the area and the court may not be in the best position to make decisions unaided by an expert determination The bench said We are of the view that having regard to the inclination shown by the union government it would be appropriate the three ideas which have been outlined earlier are duly placed before the concerned expert group as set out in the affidavit of the Centre so that the suggestions can be factored in at the policy-making level at an appropriate stage The top court said that it appreciates the steps taken by the DCPCR in moving these proceedings and equally a sense of responsibility with which suggestions have been made and discussed both by DCPCR and the Union government during these proceedings We leave it open to the Union of India to take a considered view after evaluating the suggestions we dispose of the petitions the bench said During the hearing advocate Vrinda Grover appearing for DCPCR submitted that the affidavit of the Centre is substantially concerned with the issues which have been raised in the petition with the object of ensuring that vaccination for pregnant women and lactating mothers is taken up on priority The bench noted that the decision to facilitate vaccination for pregnant women was announced on July 2 2021 whereas the decision for vaccination of lactating mothers was taken a little earlier on May 19 2021 The court has been apprised of the fact that taking these decisions the government has been guided by its experts group as well as the consensus which has evolved at the international level through the World Health Organization WHO it said Grover highlighted concerns that persist according to her and need to be addressed at a suitable level by the government She said that the women who visit the vaccination centre may not necessarily be aware of the need to make such a voluntary declaration and if she is not duly informed by the personnel at the vaccination centre the recording of the status either as a pregnant woman or a lactating mother may remain to be incorporated in the datasheet She said instead that if the CoWIN portal at the time of registration can be suitably modified to incorporate a declaration this would facilitate the entire process particularly the subsequent monitoring of the health of the pregnant woman or lactating mother as the case may be Grover further suggested to upgrade and support the surveillance which has been instituted by the government for monitoring AEFI targeted tracking of pregnant women and lactating mothers can be considered to further bolster the process of monitoring She emphasised that when adequate data sets become available the publication of data will enhance the confidence of the process of vaccination Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati appearing for Centre responded to the suggestion submitted that each of the three suggestions has been carefully evaluated by the expert group of the Union government She said that in the ongoing process where decisions are continuously evolving the government has certain concerns over the implementation of the suggestions at the present stage but is open to further deliberations within the expert bodies which exist at the present point of time Bhati said that with the process of walk-in registration the registration in the CoWIN portal has been rendered of subsidiary importance but added that the reason why it was believed that a verbal declaration at the time of vaccination would suffice was to ensure that no person is dissuaded from seeking vaccination by introducing an additional column at the time of registration She said that there exists a robust mechanism for targeted tracking which has been put in place by the Centre and as regards the publication of the data it has been submitted that at this stage any such proposal may be premature but the union government is duly seized of the issue Bhati added that the raw data may not be appropriate and is being published after due scrutiny and assessment by expert agenciesIn its affidavit the Centre has said that the pregnant and lactating women are informed about the risks of COVID-19 during pregnancy as also the benefits and likely side effects of the vaccination as per the advisory and Standard Operating Procedures SOP It has said that the guidelines issued for monitoring of adverse events following the COVID-19 vaccine allow for reporting of any suspected adverse event irrespective of the time interval between the day of vaccination and the day of onset of symptoms PTI MNL MNL RKS RKS
New Delhi Jan 21 PTI The Supreme Court Friday allowed the Gujarat governments appeal and upheld its demand of purchase tax to the tune of Rs 48099 crore and the penalty on ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel India Limited previously known as Essar Steel Ltd ESL for wrongly availing the tax exemption The apex court said the states exemption notification should be strictly construed and given meaning according to legislative intendment and there cannot be any addition or subtraction from the statutory provisions A bench of Justices M R Shah and Sanjiv Khanna delivered the verdict on the appeal of the Gujarat government against the 2016 decision of the High Court by which it had upheld the common order passed by the Gujarat Value Added Tax Tribunal Ahmedabad in favour of the private firm It set aside the verdicts of the tribunal and the high court which had held that ESL now known as ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel India Limited was entitled to the exemption from payment of the amount of sales tax as per the original entry number of the 1992 state notification The impugned common judgement and order passed by the High Court as well as that of the Tribunal quashing and setting aside the demand of purchase tax from the respondent state are hereby quashed and set aside It is held that the respondent -- Essar Steel Ltd - the eligible unit was not entitled to the exemption from payment of purchase tax under the original Entry No2552 dated March 05 1992 firstly on the ground that it did not fulfill the eligibility criteriaconditions mentioned in the original Entry No2552 dated March 05 1992 and secondly that there was a breach of declaration in Form No26 furnished by the respondent eligible unit Essar Steel Ltd Justice Shah writing the judgment said The apex court restored the order passed by the Assessing Officer levying the demand of purchase tax and imposing the penalty on the firm A notice on May 30 2005 was issued by the Deputy Commissioner of Sales Tax for initiating levy of purchase tax of Rs 48099 crores and for levying penalty for the period 1995-1996 to 2005-2006 on the ground that the ESL availed tax exemption wrongly The state government had come out with a scheme known as The Scheme for Special Incentives to Prestigious Units for attracting investments in core sector industries A notification was issued in 1992 and under it the purchase tax exemption was granted to Essar Steel Ltd on raw materials Naphtha and natural gas The exemption was made available to steel manufacturing units and the unitsentities engaged in generating electricity were specifically excluded from this exemption by placing them in the list of industries Not Eligible for this incentive the 53-page verdict noted It was alleged that Naphtha and natural gas purchased by the eligible unit ESL was sold to Essar Power Ltd EPL which was ineligible as per the scheme EPL used these raw materials for the generation of electricity which came to be sold to the ESL under the power purchase agreement The state government had said that the electricity generation companies were as such put in the not eligible list and therefore the EPL was not eligible for tax exemption and thus through the circuitous methodology or modus operandi the EPL got the benefit of exemption though not eligible In the present case it is an admitted position that after furnishing a declaration in Form No26 the goods - raw materials processing materials or consumable stores so purchased were to be used by ESL but the respondent - ESL after purchase of raw materials Naphtha and Natural Gas and after availing the benefit of exemption from the payment of purchase tax did not himselfitself used the same but instead sold the same to another entity EPL and the said another entity EPL used the said raw materials for generating the electricity which thereafter came to be sold to the respondent - ESL pursuant to the power purchase agreement it noted The submission that there was no breach of conditions as Naphtha and Natural Gas which were transferred to EPL for generating the electricity was finally used by ESL in the production of steel cannot be accepted the bench said PTI SJK SJK RKS RKS
New Delhi Jan 19 PTI The Supreme Court on Wednesday pulled up state governments for failing to disburse claims to the next of kin of COVID-19 victims and issued a show cause notice to the Andhra Pradesh chief secretary as to why contempt action be not initiated against him The top court asked the chief secretaries of Andhra Pradesh and Bihar government to remain present virtually at 2 PM and explain why the disbursals of ex-gratia amount of Rs 50000 for COVID-19 death are less in their states A bench of Justices MR Shah and Sanjiv Khanna said that it will pass orders at 2 PM and asked the state legal service authorities to reach to the families who have lost their near and dear ones to COVID-19 to facilitate registration and disbursal of claims like it was done during the 2001 Gujarat earthquake The top court said that it rejects the COVID-19 death toll given by Bihar and said that these are not actual figures but government figures We are not going to believe that only 12000 people died in the state of Bihar due to Covid We want your chief secretary to be here virtually at 2 PM the bench told the counsel appearing for the Bihar government The top court was hearing a batch of pleas by advocate Gaurav Kumar Bansal and intervenors represented by advocate Sumeer Sodhi seeking ex-gratia assistance to family members of COVID-19 victims PTI MNL MNL DV DV
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