Plea to review verdict on convicts in polls dismissed

November 20, 2013

New Delhi, Nov 20: The Supreme Court today dismissed Centre's plea seeking review of its judgement debarring arrested persons from contesting polls, saying it is not necessary to look into the issue in view of amendment in law by Parliament.sc_copy

The apex court, however, said that the issue of constitutional validity of the amendment will be considered separately after an NGO Lok Prahri opposed Centre's petition and said it has challenged the amendment in Representation of People Act in this regard.

"You challenge it. It will be separately considered," a bench of justices A K Patnaik and S J Mukhopadhyay said.

"As a consequence of amendment a person does not cease to be elector only by reason of his being in police custody or in imprisonment. Therefore, he can contest election to state legislature as well as Parliament," the bench said in its order.

It initially said the review plea of Centre has become infructuous in view of the amendment but it passed the order saying the plea is dismissed after the NGO pressed for the word dismissal.

The apex court in its judgement on July 10 had held that a person, who is in jail or in police custody, cannot contest election to legislative bodies, bringing to an end an era of under trial politicians fighting polls from behind bars. It said that only a voter can contest election and a person in police custody has no right to vote.

Negating the apex court order, Parliament in September passed a bill that maintains the right of those in jail to contest polls, with the government saying the court verdict was wrong and the Legislature has Constitutional duty to correct it.

The Representation of the People (Amendment and Validation) Bill, 2013 was rushed through in the Lok Sabha and passed within about 15 minutes after a brief discussion. The Bill was passed by Rajya Sabha on August 27.

The Amendment Bill seeks to add a proviso to sub-section (2) of section 62 of the RP Act to state that a person cannot cease to be a voter while in detention as his or her right is only temporarily suspended.

The amendment came into effect from July 10, 2013, the day the Supreme Court gave the judgement.

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News Network
April 5,2020

Thiruvananthapuram, Apr 5: Eight more COVID-19 positive cases were reported from Kerala on Sunday, four among whom attended the Tablighi Jamat congregation in Delhi and six people were cured, Health Minister K K Shailaja said.

With this, the total number of affected people under treatment in the state has gone up to 256, she said.

"Out of the eight cases, five are from Kozhikode, and one each from Pathanamthitta, Kannur and Kasaragod districts.

In the case of Kozhikode, four out of the five returned from Nizammuddin meet and one from Dubai.

As of date, 10 people who had returned from Nizammuddin in Delhi have been tested positive," the minister said in a release

A total of 314 cases have been reported from Kerala so far and 56 people have been cured, she said

"We have sent 10,221 samples for testing," she said.

A total of 1.58 lakh people are under observation in the state, out of which 776 are in isolation wards in hospitals.

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Agencies
March 24,2020

New Delhi, Mar 24: Nearly 500 coronavirus cases have been reported in India so far, according to Health Ministry data on Tuesday.

According to the data updated Tuesday morning, the total number of COVID-19 cases rose to 492, including 446 active cases.

The figure includes 41 foreign nationals and the nine deaths reported so far, the Health Ministry said.

West Bengal and Himachal Pradesh reported a casualty each on Monday while seven deaths were earlier reported from Maharashtra (two), Bihar, Karnataka, Delhi, Gujarat and Punjab.

Thirty-seven people have been cured/discharged/migrated, it added.

The number of active cases at 446 saw an increase of 22 from last night's figure.

As cases of the viral infection surged, authorities have put almost the entire country under lockdown, banning gathering of people and suspending road, rail and air traffic till March 31.

Kerala has reported the highest number of COVID-19 cases so far at 95, including eight foreign nationals, followed by Maharashtra which recorded 87, including three foreigners, according to the ministry data.

Karnataka has reported 37 cases of coronavirus patients, while cases in Rajasthan increased to 33, including two foreigners.

Uttar Pradesh has 33 positive cases, including a foreign national.

Telangana has so far reported 32 cases, including 10 foreigners.

Cases in Delhi rose to 31, including one foreigner, while Gujarat has reported 29 cases.

In Haryana, there are 26 cases, including 14 foreigners, while Punjab has reported 21 cases.

Ladakh has 13 cases, while Tamil Nadu has reported 12 cases, including two foreigners.

West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh have reported seven cases each so far.

Chandigarh has six cases, while Jammu and Kashmir has four cases.

Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh have reported three cases each, while there are two cases each in Bihar and Odisha.

Puducherry and Chhattisgarh have reported a case each.

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Agencies
February 7,2020

Jammu & Kashmir, Feb 7: Former Jammu and Kashmir chief ministers Mehbooba Mufti and Omar Abdullah, besides two political stalwarts from NC and its arch-rival PDP were booked under the stringent Public Safety Act (PSA) by the administration on Thursday, officials said.

A magistrate accompanied by police served the order to Mufti at the bungalow where she has been detained, the officials said.

Abdullah was also booked under the PSA, they said.

National Conference general secretary and former minister Ali Mohammed Sagar, who wields a support base in downtown city, was served with a PSA notice public order by the authorities.

Similarly, senior PDP leader Sartaj Madani was booked under the PSA. Madani is the maternal uncle of former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti.

Both Sagar and Madani were detained in the aftermath of August 5 crackdown by the Centre on politicians following abrogation of special status of the erstwhile state, besides its bifurcation into two union territories.

Their six-month preventive custody was ending on Thursday.

Earlier, the officials had said that former NC legislator Bashir Ahmed Veeri was also booked under the PSA but later it turned out that he had been released.

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