I think thief returned Rafale documents now: Chidambaram

Agencies
March 9, 2019

New Delhi, Mar 9: Taking a swipe at Attorney General K K Venugopal's fresh remark on Rafale documents, senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Saturday said that from "stolen documents" they became "photocopied documents" as the "thief" may have returned them.

His jibe came a day after the attorney general said that the Rafale documents were not stolen from the Defence Ministry and that what he meant in his submission before the Supreme Court on Wednesday was that petitioners in the application used "photocopies of the original" papers, deemed secret by the government.

"On Wednesday, it was 'stolen documents'. On Friday, it was 'photocopied documents'. I suppose the thief returned the documents in between on Thursday," Chidambaram said in a series of tweets.

"On Wednesday, the Official Secrets Act was shown to the newspaper. On Friday, the 'Olive Branches Act' was shown. We salute common sense," the former finance minister said.

Venugopal's comments in the apex court on Wednesday that Rafale fighter jet deal documents were stolen had caused a political row, with Congress president Rahul Gandhi targeting the government over stealing of such sensitive papers and seeking a criminal investigation.

Venugopal had sought dismissal of a petition for a review of the Supreme Court's earlier judgment on the Rafale deal on the ground that the fresh plea relied on documents "stolen" from the Defence Ministry and that investigations were going on to find out if it was a crime and violative of the Official Secrets Act.

"I am told that the opposition has alleged what was argued (in SC) was that files had been stolen from the Defence Ministry. This is wholly incorrect. The statement that files have been stolen is wholly incorrect," Venugopal told PTI on Friday, in an apparent damage-control exercise.

The Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday sparred over the attorney general's fresh remarks, with the opposition party dubbing it a "lie" and the ruling party slamming Gandhi for his attack on the government over the issue.

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News Network
February 11,2020

New Delhi, Feb 11: AAP leader Sanjay Singh on Tuesday said his party will register a "massive win" in the high-stakes Delhi Assembly election, counting for which began amid tight security at various centres set up to carry out the exercise.

Initial trends suggested the ruling Aam Aadmi Party marching ahead, but the Bharatiya Janata Party leaders maintained that their party would win.

The counting began at 8 am and will be held in multiple rounds, Delhi Chief Electoral Officer Ranbir Singh said.

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News Nerwork
June 7,2020

New Delhi, Jun 7: Rain lashed some parts of the Delhi-NCR on Sunday morning.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has predicted partly cloudy sky with possibility of development of thunder lightning for three days from June 10 onwards with minimum and maximum temperature will hover around 29° Celcius and 42° Celcius respectively.

Strong surface winds during day time have been predicted for today by IMD.

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Agencies
June 4,2020

New Delhi, Jan 4: The Supreme Court on Thursday extended till June 12 its earlier order of May 15 asking the government not to take any coercive action against companies and employers for violation of Centre's March 29 circular for payment of full wages to employees for the lockdown period.

A bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan, S K Kaul and M R Shah reserved the verdict on a batch of petitions filed by various companies challenging the circular of the Ministry of Home Affairs issued on March 29 asking the employers to pay full wages to the employees during the nationwide lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic.

In the proceedings conducted through video conferencing, the top court said there was a concern that workmen should not be left without pay, but there may be a situation where the industry may not have money to pay and hence, the balancing has to be done.

Meanwhile, the apex court asked the parties to file their written submissions in support of their claims.

The top court on May 15 had asked the government not to take any coercive action against the companies and employers who are unable to pay full wages to their employees during the nationwide lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The Centre also filed an affidavit justifying its March 29 direction saying that the employers claiming incapacity in paying salaries must be directed to furnish their audited balance sheets and accounts in the court.

The government has said that the March 29 directive was a "temporary measure to mitigate the financial hardship" of employees and workers, specially contractual and casual, during the lockdown period and the directions have been revoked by the authority with effect from May 18.

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