Aadhaar deadline extended till December 31: Centre tells SC

Agencies
August 30, 2017

New Delhi, Aug 30: The Supreme Court on Wednesday said it will resume hearing the Aadhaar case in the first week of November, after Attorney General K K Venugopal informed the apex court that the Centre will extend the deadline to furnish Aadhaar details to avail benefits of various social welfare schemes till December 31.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra said there was no urgency to hear the matter after the AG told the bench that the Centre will extend the September 30th deadline.

Senior advocate Shyam Divan, representing various petitioners, mentioned the matter before the bench, also comprising Justices Amitava Roy and A M Khanwilkar, and sought early hearing on the batch of petitions which have also challenged the Centre’s move to make Aadhaar mandatory for availing benefits of of various social welfare schemes.

When Divan referred to the deadline of September 30, Venugopal said, “We (Centre) will extend it to December 31”. “The urgency is not there. It will be listed in the first week of November,” the bench said.

The court has been hearing a clutch of petitions challenging the validity of the 12-digit biometric identification system since 2015. On August 24, a nine-judge constitution bench ruled that privacy is a fundamental right, subject to reasonable restrictions.

“The right to privacy is protected as an intrinsic part of the right to life and personal liberty under Article 21 and as a part of the freedoms guaranteed by Part III of the Constitution,” the bench observed.

The five-judge constitution bench hearing the Aadhaar-related matters had referred the privacy matter to a larger bench. The nine-judge bench ruling is likely to have an impact on the Aadhaar case as it runs against the government’s stand that privacy is a fundamental right, but a wholly qualified one.

The government has, however, welcomed the court verdict and claimed it had always supported the view that privacy is a fundamental right.

Former Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi, however, expressed surprise over the government’s reaction. He told The Indian Express that “the government should not have diluted their stand in court”.

He added that had he still been in office as Attorney General, he would have admitted that the government had lost the case.

Comments

George
 - 
Wednesday, 30 Aug 2017

SC didnt make aadhar mandatory?

Hari
 - 
Wednesday, 30 Aug 2017

Aadhar is not at all safe. First and foremost it given to private firm. How can we trust a private firm

Kumar
 - 
Wednesday, 30 Aug 2017

Still thousands of people are there without aadhar and they are protesting against it.

Ganesh
 - 
Wednesday, 30 Aug 2017

Actually aadhar is not necessary. But they need to loot in that. govt gave contract to private MNC. Thats why govt threatening by linking and givng deadline and then by changing the deadline

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News Network
March 14,2020

Bengaluru, Mar 14: Infosys carried out evacuation at one of its satellite offices here on Friday after an employee came in contact with a suspected case of COVID-19, according to the company.

"We have taken a decision to evacuate one of our satellite buildings in Bengaluru as a precautionary measure, as one of our employees had been in contact with an individual with suspected COVID-19," the company said in its statement.

"Employees have been directed to work from home, and there is no impact on our client deliverables as a result of this temporary evacuation," it added.

On the other hand, Google also informed media on Friday that an employee at its Bengaluru office has tested positive for the COVID-19 and the firm has directed all its employees in that office to work from home as a precautionary measure.

"We can confirm that an employee from our Bangalore office has been diagnosed with COVID-19. They were in one of our Bangalore offices for a few hours before developing any symptoms. The employee has been on quarantine since then," Google had said in a statement. The search engine giant has asked colleagues who were in close contact with the employee to quarantine themselves and monitor their health.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic.

Coronavirus, which originated in the Wuhan city of China, has so far spread to more than 100 countries infecting over 1,20,000 people. India has reported two deaths and 82 confirmed cases of the deadly coronavirus.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) had declared the coronavirus outbreak a 'pandemic' and expressed deep concern.

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Agencies
February 8,2020

Mumbai, Feb 8: Anil Ambani, the brother of Asia’s richest man has pleaded poverty in his dispute with three Chinese banks seeking $680 million in defaulted loans.

“The value of my investments has collapsed,” Anil Ambani said, according to a court filing by the banks in a London lawsuit.

“The current value of my shareholdings is down to approximately $82.4m and my net worth is zero after taking into account my liabilities. In summary, I do not hold any meaningful assets which can be liquidated for the purposes of these proceedings.”

The lawsuit was filed by three state-controlled Chinese banks which argue that they provided a loan of $925 million to Ambani’s Reliance Communications Ltd. in 2012 with the condition that he personally guarantee the debt. The comments were disclosed on Friday as Ambani sought to avoid depositing hundreds of millions of dollars with the court ahead of a trial.

The embattled Indian tycoon says that while he agreed to give a non-binding “personal comfort letter,” he never gave a guarantee tied to his personal assets -- an “extraordinary potential personal liability.”

The 60-year-old is the brother of Mukesh Ambani, who’s worth $56.5 billion and is the wealthiest man in Asia. Anil, on the other hand, has seen his personal fortune dwindle over recent years, losing his billionaire status. His Reliance Communications filed for bankruptcy last year.

The banks asked Judge David Waksman to force Ambani to put up $656 million into the court’s account.

Representatives for Ambani’s Reliance Group said they couldn’t immediately comment. They said the group will issue a statement once the court issues the final order.

Ambani’s lawyer, Robert Howe, said the court shouldn’t order his client to make a payment he can’t make. The tycoon argues that an order requiring him to do so would hinder his ability to defend himself in the case, Howe said.

“There’s no evidence of some giant pot of gold that he can pull $1 million, let alone $10 million, let alone $100 million,” Howe said.

Bankim Thanki, an attorney representing Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd., China Development Bank and the Export-Import Bank of China, said in a filing that Ambani’s statements are “plainly a yet further opportunistic attempt to evade his financial obligations to the lenders.”

Ambani was caught up in another legal wrangle last year when India’s Supreme Court threatened him with prison after Reliance Communications failed to pay Rs 5.5 billion ($77 million) to Ericsson AB’s Indian unit. The judges gave him a month to find the funds, and his brother, Mukesh, stepped in just in time to make the payment.

Anil said in a filing that he recognized that the judge would want to know if he could satisfy any order to put up funds from outside resources, including his family.

“I can confirm that I have made enquiries but I am unable to raise any finance from external sources,” he said. Judge Waksman had said in an earlier ruling that he believed Ambani’s defence would be shown to be “opportunistic and false.”

Ambani’s lawyer told the judge that as a result of the comments the tycoon’s relatives were unlikely to lend any funds.

There is a “very substantial risk they will never get it back,” Howe said.

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News Network
April 15,2020

Bengaluru, Apr 15: As many as 17 new positive cases of COVID-19 have been reported in Karnataka, taking the total number of cases in the state to 277, including 75 discharged and 11 deaths, the state government said on Wednesday.

Of the 17 new cases, nine are workers of a pharmaceutical company in Mysuru, the government stated.

Meanwhile, a 65-year-old from Chikkaballapur, who had tested positive for COVID-19, lost his life on Wednesday.

"He was referred to a Bengaluru hospital with complaints of H1N1 positive, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease with obstructive sleep apnea and a past history of diabetes and hypertension," the government stated.

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