President Pranab Mukherjee may turn down 5 more mercy pleas

February 15, 2013

President-rejects

New Delhi, Feb 15: The Union home ministry is learnt to have recommended rejection of mercy petitions in five more cases as it seeks to speedily dispose of all the cases of death row convicts pending with it.

Seeking to have a swift closure on the cases of those who have filed mercy pleas against capital punishment awarded to them, the ministry has sent all the pending files to President Pranab Mukherjee for a final call.

Sources said that seven cases involving the fate of nine people have been sent to the President, with the ministry recommending rejection of the mercy pleas in five cases. It has and left the two remaining ones open for commutation of death sentence to life imprisonment with the rider that the life term means jail for the entire life of the convict and not just 20 years or 14 years in prison.

The President had sent the files to Union home minister Sushilkumar Shinde on October 30 for his review and opinion. Shinde sent the files back within 100 days in a major shift from the pattern where decisions on mercy petitions were indefinitely delayed with files shuttling between the home ministry and the Rashtrapati Bhavan.

Though the case-wise recommendations for convicts were not known as both the home ministry and Rashtrapati Bhavan continue to remain tightlipped on mercy petition files, the seven cases relate to multiple murders, including one in which a rape convict out on bail killed five members of the victim's family.

While two files were sent to Rashtrapati Bhavan on February 9 (the day Parliament House attack case convict Afzal Guru was hanged), the remaining five files were dispatched last month.

The mercy files, which have been pending for years while moving to and fro between Rashtrapati Bhavan and the home ministry, saw unprecedented movement of late, resulting in two quick hangings (Ajmal Kasab and Afzal Guru) within less than three months. Mukherjee had rejected the mercy plea of Kasab on November 5, and Guru on February 3.

The files, which are now with President Mukherjee, include the longest pending case of Gurmeet Singh of Uttar Pradesh, who was convicted for killing 13 members of a family on August 17, 1986. The others cases are of Suresh and Ramji, also from UP, who were convicted for killing five members of their brother's family and Dharampal from Haryana, who had murdered five members of the family of a girl he had raped in 1993. He had murdered the family while on bail in the rape case.

The other cases are of Sonia, daughter of a former Haryana MLA, and her husband Sanjeev, who drugged and killed eight of her family in Hisar in 2001, including her parents. Sunder Singh from Uttarakhand is convicted for rape and murder on June 30, 1989, Jafar Ali from Uttar Pradesh who was convicted for killing wife and five daughter in 2002 and Praveen Kumar of Karnataka, convicted for killing four members of a family on February 23, 1994.

Mukherjee has so far disposed of mercy petitions of eight death row convicts in five cases.

The President has also rejected the mercy petitions of Saibanna Ningappa Natikar (Karnataka: convicted for killing wife and daughter) and mercy petitions of slain forest brigand Veerappan's associates Gnanaprakash, Simon, 'Meesai' Madaian and Pilavendran, who were sentenced to death for killing 22 police personnel in 1993.

However, the mercy petition of Atbir (Delhi), who was convicted for murder of his step-mother, step-sister and step-brother over property, was commuted to life imprisonment by the President.

Strained mercy:

1,455 persons awarded death penalty in India from 2001 to 2011

Sentences for 4,321 persons were commuted from death penalty to life imprisonment during the same period.

Highest number of death penalty was imposed in Uttar Pradesh (370) followed by Bihar (132), Maharashtra (125), Karnataka and Tamil Nadu (95 each), Madhya Pradesh (87), Jharkhand (81), West Bengal (79), Delhi (71), Gujarat (57), Rajasthan (38), Kerala (34), Odisha (33), Haryana (31), Assam (21), Jammu & Kashmir (20), Punjab (19), Chhattisgarh (18), Uttarakhand (16), Andhra Pradesh (8), Meghalaya (6), Chandigarh and Daman & Diu (4 each), Manipur and Himachal Pradesh (3 each), Tripura and Pondicherry (2 each) and Goa (1)

No death penalty imposed in Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Nagaland and Sikkim and Union Territories of Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Lakshadweep\

Sentences of 4,321 persons were commuted from death penalty to life imprisonment in the country during 2001-11

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Govt to rename NIFM as Arun Jaitley National Institute of Financial Management

News Network

February 11,2020

New Delhi, Feb 11: The government has decided to rename National Institute of Financial Management (NIFM), Faridabad, as Arun Jaitley National Institute of Financial Management, an official statement said on Tuesday.

Set up in 1993 as a registered society under the Department of Expenditure, NIFM trains officers of Finance and Accounts Services recruited by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) as also officers of Indian Cost Accounts Service. The Union Finance Minister is the President of the NIFM Society.

"Aligning the vision and aspiration of the Institute for the future with the vision and contribution of late Arun Jaitley, the Government has decided to rename National Institute of Financial Management (NIFM) as the Arun Jaitley National Institute of Financial Management(AJNIFM)," the statement said.

NIFM has become a premier resource centre to meet the training needs of the central government for senior and middle level of management in the fields of public policy, financial management, public procurement and other governance issues for promoting highest standards of professional competence and practice.

Padma Vibhushan awardee Jaitley was the Union Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs during May 26, 2014 to May 30, 2019.

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Coronavirus: India temporarily suspends e-visa facility for people in China

News Network

February 2,2020

Beijing, Feb 2: India on Sunday temporarily suspended e-visa facility for Chinese travellers and foreigners residing in China in view of the virulent coronavirus that has killed more than 300 people, infected 14,562 others and spread to 25 countries, including India, the US and the UK.

“Due to certain current developments, travel to India on e-visas stands temporarily suspended with immediate effect," the Indian Embassy announced.

“This applies to holders of Chinese passports and applicants of other nationalities residing in the People's Republic of China. Holders of already issued e-visas may note that these are no longer valid," the announcement said.

“All those who have a compelling reason to visit India may contact the Embassy of India in Beijing or the Indian consulates in Shanghai or Guangzhou, as well as the Indian Visa Application Centres in these cities," it said.

On Sunday, India airlifted a second batch of 323 stranded Indians and seven Maldivian citizens from coronavirus-hit Wuhan city, taking the total number of people evacuated to 654.

Air India's jumbo B747 made two flights to Wuhan city - the ground zero of the coronavirus epidemic. In the first flight on early Saturday, 324 Indians were evacuated and on Sunday another 323 Indians and seven Maldivian citizens were flown back.

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It's not surprising for countries to restrict. it just feels wrong to treat them that way specially those who are not really infected. It could really hurt their feelings.

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SC to consider plea against mass terminations and pay cuts in IT, ITeS, BPO companies

Agencies

May 9,2020

New Delhi, May 9: The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to consider a plea raising the issue of mass termination and the illegal salary cut of employees in IT/ITES/BPO/KPI by their employers during the lockdown due to the spread of the coronavirus.

A bench comprising Justices Ashok Bhushan, S.K. Kaul and B.R. Gavai, taking up the matter through video conferencing, agreed to examine the issue and listed it for May 15.

The petition, argued by senior advocate Devadatt Kamat, was filed by National Information Technology Employees Sena (NITES) through advocate-on-record Amit Pai, and sought implementation of directions issued by the Centre on March 29 and similar advisories issued by several other states mandating payment of wages/salaries to the employees and also directed not to terminate them during the period of lockdown.

A directive was issued by the Union Ministry of Labour and Empowerment to all Chief Secretaries of state governments to issue advisories to public and private companies to not lay off employees or implement pay cuts during lockdown.

In the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) report published on April 19, it was noted that "several companies across the country have started to terminate its employees without any reasonable cause and have started withholding their salaries. It is submitted that in such testing times, the rights of the employees ought to be protected by necessary orders/directions to the companies through the Respondents to effectively implement the lockdown and to contain the spread of the virus", said the plea.

On March 29, the Centre issued an order directing all states and Union Territories to issue orders, requiring all the employers in the industrial sector and shops and commercial establishments to pay wages on the due date without any deduction during their closure due to the lockdown.

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