Nirbhaya case: SC declines DCW appeal for urgent hearing to stop juvenile from walking free

December 20, 2015

New Delhi, Dec 20: The juvenile offender of the horrific December 16 gangrape case is all set to walk free on Sunday as the Supreme Court refused the dramatic post-midnight move of the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) to stay his release by giving an urgent hearing.

Nirbhaya caseA vacation bench comprising Justices AK Goel and UU Lalit in their order pronounced at 2 am, posted the matter for hearing on Monday.

However, DCW chairperson Swati Maliwal and the lawyers of the women's panel hoped that since the matter has become sub judice, the government and Delhi Police will not release the juvenile offender.

"The matter has been posted for hearing on Monday as item number 3. The matter has now become sub judice. I hope that government and the Delhi Police will wait for one day and not release him," Maliwal told reporters outside the residence of Justice Goel.

The Special Leave Petition filed by DCW against the order of the Delhi High Court, which refused to restrain the release of the convict, was referred by the Chief Justice of India TS Thakur before the vacation bench.

Lawyers associated with the case, including senior advocate Guru Krishna Kumar and Devdutt Kamath, had rushed to Justice Goel's residence at around 1.30 am after Maliwal was told by the Registrar that the matter has been assigned to the vacation bench.

"CJI had refferred matter to Vacation Bench. Registrar General taken our case to Judge. On our way dere. Appeal for case to be heard tonight," Maliwal had tweeted earlier. The grounds which has been taken in the appeal against the High Court order says that no mental assessment of the state of mind of the juvenile offender has been taken into account for his release.

Advocate Kamath said that there are intelligence reports that even during his stay in the provision home, the convict was unremorseful of his action and he has been further radicalised. So at this stage, it cannot be said that he is not a threat to the society.

The SLP has also stated that though the High Court was of the view that there was a need for mental assessment of the convict, there was no direction that before his release the authorities should go for a health and mental assessment of the offender.

Further, it is submitted in the petition that there is also likely to be threat to his own life as reports are appearing that there is anger and tension between two groups in his own village. "Therefore it is also in his own interest and for the protection of his life that he should not be dumped and left unprotected," it said.

In the petition, Kamath said there are other legal points raised to challenge the High Court order. Guru Krishna Kumar is to appear for DCW in the case. The High Court had yesterday refused to restrain the convict's release citing that there is no legal provision for the action.

Maliwal reached the Chief Justice of India's residence around midnight and later arrived at the Registrar's office in the apex court premises. A day before his scheduled release, the juvenile convict was moved out of Delhi today even as distraught parents of the victim were detained today after they held a protest against allowing him to walk free.

The convict, who is now 20 years old and was known to be the most brutal of the attackers, has been taken to an undisclosed location from a correction home in North Delhi amid concerns that there was a threat to his life.

Sources said the juvenile has been kept under observation of an NGO under the protection of Delhi Police. The parents of the gangrape victim, along with 40 Delhi University and Jawaharlal Nehru University(JNU) students, were detained by the police as they staged a protest against the release of the juvenile convict. The police action was condemned by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

"I am shocked to learn that Nirbhaya's parents have been detained. They shud immediately be released. Police action against Nirbhaya's parents is unacceptable. I have asked Chief Secretary to talk to Police Commissioner and get them released," Kejriwal tweeted.

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Keiko Derico
 - 
Thursday, 7 Apr 2016

Thoughtful commentary , For what it's worth , you are looking for a PA PUB 12 , my business partner saw a blank form here

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News Network
March 18,2020

Mar 18: Madhya Pradesh Congress Party sought in the Supreme Court on Wednesday that the trust vote in the state assembly be deferred till by-polls for the vacant seats are concluded, saying "heavens are not going to fall" if its government led by Kamal Nath is allowed to remain in office till then.

A bench, comprising Justices D Y Chandrachud and Hemant Gupta, was hearing cross petitions filed by former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister and senior BJP leader Shivraj Singh Chouhan and MP Congress on the ongoing political crisis in the state after 22 rebel MLAs of the ruling combine purportedly offered to resign.

"Heavens are not going to fall if Congress government is allowed to continue till by-polls and the Shivraj Singh Chouhan's government must not be saddled on the people," said senior advocate Dushyant Dave, appearing for Congress.

"Let them face re-elections and then hold trust vote... You (BJP) have engineered it. My petition raises the frontal attack that you have launched a conspiracy," he said.

Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for Chouhan, vociferously opposed the submission saying that the party which killed the democracy by imposing emergency in 1975 is now referring to "lofty ideals" of B R Ambedkar.

He said that after the resignations of 22 Congress MLAs, out of which six resignations have been accepted, the state government should not be allowed to continue even for a day.

"It is lust of power because of which all these lofty arguments are being made.

"It is unheard of that a person who had lost majority says that he wants to continue for six months and there should be re-election before the trust vote.

Rohatgi said the Kamal Nath government wanted to stay in power by hook or crook.

Earlier in the day, the Madhya Pradesh Congress told the bench that a probe is needed on the resignation letters of its rebel MLAs that have been submitted by BJP leaders to the Speaker of the state Assembly.

Dave said the Governor has no business to send messages at night asking the Chief Minister or Speaker to hold floor test.

"The Speaker is the ultimate master and the Madhya Pradesh Governor is overriding him," he said.

The party alleged that resignations of its rebel MLAs were extracted by force and coercion and they did not act as per their free will.

It also said that its rebel MLAs were taken away in chartered flights and are currently incommunicado in a resort arranged by the BJP.

The advancing of arguments will resume after lunch.

The Madhya Pradesh Congress Legislature party (MPCLP) had Tuesday moved the Supreme Court seeking direction to the Centre and the BJP-led Karnataka government to grant it access to communicate with its rebel MLAs allegedly kept at Bengaluru.

Earlier on Tuesday, the court had asked the Kamal Nath government in the state earlier in the day to respond by Wednesday to a plea by senior BJP leader Shivraj Singh Chouhan seeking immediate floor test in the Assembly.

MPCLP, in its plea filed by Govind Singh, an MLA and chief whip of Congress legislature party, urged the apex court to declare as illegal the action of the Centre, Karnataka government and the MP BJP of illegally confining its MLAs in Bangaluru.

The plea, filed through senior lawyer Devdutt Kamat, said the trust vote would be a "sham" if 22 MLAs did not take part in it as almost 10 per cent of constituencies go unrepresented.

The plea filed by Chouhan and nine BJP lawmakers was moved in the top court just after the Speaker cited coronavirus concerns and adjourned the House till March 26 without taking the floor test apparently defying the directions of Governor Lalji Tandon.

The plea alleged that the Speaker, the Chief Minister and the Principal Secretary of the Assembly have "flagrantly violated the constitutional principles and have deliberately and wilfully defied the directions" issued by the governor asking the government to prove the majority on the floor of the house on March 16 when when the budget session was to commence.

On Saturday night, Tandon wrote to Nath asking him to seek a trust vote in the Assembly soon after the Governor's address on Monday, saying his government was in minority.

After the Speaker accepted the resignation of six Congress MLAs on Saturday, the party now has 108 legislators.

These include 16 rebel legislators who have also put in their papers but their resignations are yet to be accepted.

The BJP has 107 seats in the House, which now has an effective strength of 222, with the majority mark being 112.

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News Network
March 29,2020

Mumbai, Mar 29: Virologist Minal Dakhave Bhosale led from the front to create India's first coronavirus testing kit even when she was in the last stage of her pregnancy.

Bhosale's efforts paid the price with her team delivering the testing kit in a record time of six weeks.

Bhosale gave birth to a baby girl just a day before submitting the kit to the authorities for evaluation.

"It was like giving birth to two babies," Bhosale told PTI over the phone.

The virologist said both the journeys - that happened in parallel - were not without challenges.

"There were complications in the pregnancy while work on the test kit was on. The baby was delivered through cesarean," she said.

Bhosale said she felt that it was the right time to serve the people to help them in combating the coronavirus threat.

"I had been working for five years in this field and if I don't work in emergency situations when my services are needed the most, then what is the use?" she said.

Though Bhosale was not able to visit the office due to the pregnancy, she was guiding a team of 10 persons working on the project at Mylab Discovery in Pune.

The strong bonds forged with the team over the years and their support made it possible, she said.

Company's co-founder Shrikant Patole said just like drug discovery, test kits too go through a lot of quality checks to improve the precision.

He credited Bhosale for the success of the project.

The COVID-19 testing kit delivered by Bhosale's team will reduce the time taken for delivering a result to 2.5 hours from the prevalent practice of eight hours.

A pioneering approach to testing without compromising on the results was adopted, Bhosale said.

The Maylab test kit will cost Rs1,200, a quarter of Rs 4,500 per kit that the government has been spending on testing so far.

"I'm happy that I could do something for the country," Bhosale said.

As of Friday, only 27,000 of the 1.3 billion people were tested for the virus in the country.

According to experts, high scale testing is essential because it alone can ensure an early diagnosis of COVID-19 and lower down the fatalities.

The company is confident of ramping up the capacity at its plant in Lonavala to deliver 100,000 kits a week, Patole said.

He said the authorities are helping the company, including giving priority for shipping of the raw materials.

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News Network
May 13,2020

New Delhi, May 13: With an increase of 3,525 COVID-19 cases reported in the last 24 hours, India's tally of positive coronavirus cases rises to 74,281 cases, as of Wednesday, said the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

The tally is inclusive of 47,480 patients who are active coronavirus cases and 24,385 patients who have been cured/discharged and one patient migrated.

With an increase of 122 deaths due to COVID-19 reported in the last 24 hours, the number of deaths in the country now stands at 2,415.

According to the ministry, Maharashtra has the most number of positive COVID-19 cases with 24,427 positive cases that include 5,125 patients recovered and 921 fatalities.

Gujarat has reported 8,903 COVID-19 cases inclusive of 3,246 recovered patients and 537 deaths due to the coronavirus.

Tamil Nadu reported 8,718 positive coronavirus cases with 2,134 patients recovering from the disease and 61 succumbing to the infection.

Delhi's tally of COVID-19 cases stands at 7,639 cases with 2,512 patients recovering and 86 patients died due to coronavirus.

Meanwhile Arunachal Pradesh (one case reported--now recovered), Goa (seven cases reported--all seven recovered), Manipur (two cases reported--both recovered) and Mizoram (one case reported--now recovered) have reported no new cases of COVID-19.

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