Shah Rukh Khan heckled by MLC: ‘You may be superstar, But…?'

New Delhi, Jan 29: The Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed the plea by Mukesh Kumar Singh, one of the four death row convicts in the Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case, challenging the rejection of his mercy petition by the President.

A three-judge bench headed by Justice R Banumathi said that expeditious disposal of mercy plea by the President doesn't mean non-application of mind by him.

The court also said that alleged sufferings in prison can't be grounds to challenge the rejection of mercy petition.

The bench said all relevant material including judgments pronounced by trial court, high court and Supreme Court were placed before the President when he was considering the mercy plea of the convict.

The bench also comprising justices Ashok Bhushan and A S Bopanna rejected the contentions of the counsel appearing for Singh that entire materials of the case were not placed before the President when he was considering his mercy plea.

The bench, while referring to two files placed before it by the Centre on Tuesday, said that as per the January 15 covering letter which was sent by the Delhi government to the Ministry of Home Affairs, all relevant documents were sent.

The bench noted that detailed judgements of trial court, high court and the Supreme Court, curative petition filed by Singh, his past criminal history and his family background were sent to the Home Ministry by the Delhi government.

"All the documents were taken into consideration by the President while rejecting the mercy petition," the bench said.

The bench also dealt with submissions advanced by the convict's counsel, who had argued that the mercy plea was rejected at "lightning speed".

The bench said that if a mercy petition is expeditiously dealt with, it cannot be assumed that it has been adjudicated upon in a pre-conceived mind.

Jun 8: The Shiv Sena has sought to take a different stand on Bollywood actor Sonu Sood’s help in ferrying migrants back home in the midst of the nationwide lockdown induced by the coronavirus pandemic. On Sunday evening, the actor met Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray at his residence ‘Matoshree’. The CM’s son and Maharashtra minister Aaditya Thackeray and MLA Aslam Shaikh were also present during the meeting.

Sonu Sood’s visit to the Shiv Sena supremo’s residence came after Sanjay Raut, one of the most vocal leaders of the party, criticised the actor and sought to draw a BJP link to his help to migrants in order to show the ruling dispensation in poor light.

“Sood is an actor whose profession is to deliver dialogues scripted by someone else and make a living out of it. There are many people like Sood who would promote any political party if paid well,” Raut wrote in Shiv Sena mouthpiece Saamna.

Referring to the actor’s help to migrants, Raut wondered if the sudden generosity of “Mahatma” Sood in Mumbai was at BJP’s behest and said that he would “soon meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and become the celebrity manager of Mumbai.”

As Raut’s remarks fuelled a controversy in political circles, Aaditya Thackeray tweeted in praise of Sood in an apparent attempt to distance the party and its leadership from the leader’s remarks.

“This evening Sonu Sood met up with Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray ji along with Minister Aslam Shaikh ji and me. Better Together, Stronger Together to assist as many people through as many people. Good to have met a good soul to work for the people together.”

“The CM was glad to meet Sonu Sood and discussed the work everyone is doing for the people during covid relief. Misunderstandings don’t exist but what does is a commitment to help people,” Aaditya tweeted.

Sonu Sood too sought to downplay Raut’s remarks and expressed gratitude to all political parties for having supported him. “They (Shiv Sena) are also supporting it and it’s not about any particular party. We have to support all the people who are suffering. Every party from Kashmir to Kanya Kumari has supported me,” the actor told reporters after his meeting with the Chief Minister.

Sonu Sood has earned immense praise for providing help to stranded migrant workers during the Covid-19 lockdown. He has launched a helpline for migrants and has helped hundreds of migrants return to their native places in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Karnataka.

New Delhi, Jul 14: India's COVID-19 tally breached the 9 lakh mark as 28,498 new coronavirus cases were reported in the last 24 hours, informed the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Tuesday.

As per the Health Ministry, there are a total of 9,06,752 coronavirus cases in the country of which 3,11,565 patients are active cases.

5,71,459 patients have been cured/discharged while one patient has been migrated, the Ministry informed further.

553 more deaths due to COVID-19 were reported in the last 24 hours in the country, taking the number of patients succumbing to the virus to 23,727.

The Centre further informed that India's recovery rate from COVID-19 stands at 63.02 per cent while the recoveries and deaths ratio stood at 96.01 per cent and 3.99 per cent respectively.

As per the Ministry, Maharashtra -- the worst-affected state from the infection -- has a total of 2,60,924 COVID-19 cases and 10,482 fatalities. While Tamil Nadu has a tally of 1,42,798 cases and 2,032 deaths due to COVID-19.

Delhi has reported a total of 1,13,740 cases and 3,411 deaths due to COVID-19.

As per the information provided by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) 1,20,92,503 samples have been tested for COVID-19 till July 13, of these 2,86,247 samples were tested on Monday.