New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed a PIL seeking registration of an FIR against senior BJP leader Kailash Vijayvargiya and others over his controversial remark on clumsily attired women.
A bench of Justices KM Joseph and BV Nagarathna rejected the plea which sought a mechanism at the central and state level to deal with people making such remarks.
The bench said if the petitioner, Delhi resident Anjale Patel, and others had grievances over the statement, they could approach an appropriate forum including the lower court.
On April 6, Vijayvargiya, a BJP general secretary, had said “badly dressed” women looked like “Shurpnakha”. In Ramayana, Shurpnakha is the sister of demon king Ravan.
Vijayvargiya came under fierce attack from women’s groups who called his comments, made at a function in Indore, “sexist and misogynistic”.
Advocate Satya Mitra, appearing for the petitioner, sought registration of an FIR against the BJP leader under section 354 (outraging the modesty of woman) and section 500 (punishment for defamation).
He said there should be a mechanism, either at the Centre or state level or both, to deal with and take action against those making such statements.
The bench said although it is dismissing the petition, it should not be construed that it is approving the statement.
Mumbai: Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut on Friday played down NCP chief Sharad Pawar’s meeting with industrialist Gautam Adani, saying that political leaders do meet people from the corporate sector.
The Adani Group chairman met the Nationalist Congress Party chief a day before.
“Sharad Pawar or for that matter every big political leader meets people from the corporate sector,” Raut said in response to a question by reporters here.
The meeting assumed some significance as earlier this month Pawar had said the Supreme Court-appointed panel will be more useful than a Joint Parliamentary Commitee for looking into US-based Hindenburg Research’s allegations against the Adani group.
The NCP chief, thus, appeared to be breaking ranks with opposition leaders who have been demanding a JPC on the Adani issue.
Later Pawar said he will not oppose the demand for a JPC.
Raut, incidentally, also met Pawar after the latter’s meeting with Adani.
“We keep meeting, and Pawar is a key leader of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (the alliance of Sena (UBT), NCP and Congress). What is surprising if we or Congress leaders meet Pawar. We had a discussion on many issues in the country and state,” the Rajya Sabha MP said.
Chandigarh: Grief and anger echoed through the villages of four soldiers from Punjab who were among the five killed in a terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch, with their family members demanding that the Army give a befitting reply to the “cowardly act”.
The soldiers’ families were inconsolable as they waited for them to come home one last time.
Havildar Mandeep Singh, Lance Naik Kulwant Singh, Sepoy Harkrishan Singh and Sepoy Sewak Singh, all from Punjab, were killed after their vehicle was attacked by unidentified terrorists and caught fire because of likely use of grenades.
The fifth soldier killed in the attack hailed from Odisha.
The bodies of the four soldiers from Punjab are being sent to their native places by road, according to officials.
In Moga district’s Charik village, Kulwant’s brother said on Friday that the government and the Army should give a befitting reply to the attack.
Holding Kulwant’s four-month-old son in his arms, he said his brother loved his family and had asked him to ensure timely vaccination of his son.
Kulwant, who had recently visited his family, also leaves behind a one-and-a-half-year-old daughter and his wife.
Villagers said Kulwant’s father was also in the armed forces and was killed in the Kargil war when he was about two years old.
“His father was martyred in the Kargil war. The entire village is in a state of shock,” a villager said.
Former village head Bakshish Singh said the entire village is pained by the loss of their brave son but at the same time, is proud of the supreme sacrifice he has made for the country.
In Bagha village in Bathinda, Sepoy Sewak Singh’s elder sister’s tears won’t stop.
A villager, who was among the mourners, demanded that the Army give a befitting reply to the “cowardly act” of terrorists.
At Sepoy Harkrishan Singh’s house in Talwandi Barth village in Batala, villagers hailed his supreme sacrifice for the motherland.
Harkrishan had recently visited his family. Hours before he was killed, he spoke to his wife and two-year-old daughter on a video call, the villagers said.
Havildar Mandeep Singh belonged to Ludhiana district.
Speaking to reporters in Moga district, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann announced an ex gratia of Rs 1 crore each and a government job to the kin of the four soldiers.
“We received the very sad news of five soldiers being martyred in the incident (terrorist attack), out of which four were from Punjab,” he said.
These heroes displayed the utmost dedication in defending the country’s unity and their sacrifice will inspire their fellow soldiers to perform their duties with far more devotion and commitment, he added.
During the country’s freedom struggle, Mann said, Punjabis contributed 90 per cent.
“To keep this freedom intact, our brave jawans are guarding the borders,” he said.
Governor Banwarilal Purohit said he was deeply saddened to hear the news about the loss of lives of the soldiers. He said their sacrifice for their motherland will not go in vain and they will always be remembered and revered by the people of the country.
New Delhi: President Droupadi Murmu on Friday greeted citizens on the eve of Eid-ul-Fitr and urged all to take a pledge to promote brotherhood and harmony in the society on this occasion.
“Eid marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan. This festival spreads the feelings of love, compassion and affection. Eid gives us the message of solidarity and mutual harmony,” a statement issued by the Rashtrapati Bhavan quoted the President as saying.
This festival is imbued with the spirit of harmony and inspires us to build a peaceful and prosperous society, Murmu said.
“On this occasion, let’s take a pledge to promote feelings of brotherhood and harmony in the society,” she said.
“On the auspicious occasion of Eid-ul-Fitr, I extend my heartiest greetings and best wishes to all citizens living in India and abroad, especially our Muslim brothers and sisters,” she added.
New Delhi: A group of more than 1,800 scientists, science teachers and educators has written an open letter raising concerns about the chapter on “Theory of Biological Evolution” being dropped from the NCERT textbook for Class 10.
The signatories to the letter include scientists from noted institutions such as the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) and IITs, among others.
As part of its curriculum rationalisation exercise, the NCERT had last year announced that the chapter “Heredity and Evolution” will be replaced with “Heredity” in the Class 10 science textbook.
Among the topics dropped from the chapter are ‘Evolution’, ‘Acquired and Inherited Traits’, ‘Tracing Evolutionary Relationships’, ‘Fossils’, ‘Evolution by Stages’, ‘Evolution Should Not Be Equated With Progress’ and ‘Human Evolution’.
The new books as per the rationalised curriculum have hit the market now with the commencement of new academic session.
Demanding that the theory of Darwinian evolution be restored in secondary education, the signatories, who are part of the “Breakthrough Science Society”, have said that understanding the process of evolution is “crucial in building a scientific temper” and depriving students of this exposure is “travesty of education”.
“Knowledge and understanding of evolutionary biology is important not just to any sub-field of biology, but is also key to understanding the world around us. Evolutionary biology is an area of science with a huge impact on how we choose to deal with an array of problems we face as societies and nations from medicine and drug discovery, epidemiology, ecology and environment, to psychology, and it also addresses our understanding of humans and their place in the tapestry of life,” the letter said.
“Although many of us do not explicitly realise, the principles of natural selection help us understand how any pandemic progresses or why certain species go extinct, among many other critical issues,” it added.
The scientists noted that in the current educational structure, only a small fraction of students choose the science stream in grade 11 or 12, and an even smaller fraction of those choose biology as one of the subjects of study.
“Thus, the exclusion of key concepts from the curriculum till grade 10 amounts to a vast majority of students missing a critical part of essential learning in this field,” the letter said.
Dropping of several topics and chapters by the NCERT has been caught in controversy with several chapters, which were not notified by the council last year, found missing from the new textbooks.
While earlier the NCERT had claimed that not mentioning certain changes in the rationalisation booklet could have been an “oversight”, later it said “minor changes need not be notified”.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed with a cost of Rs 25,000 a plea which sought a direction to the Centre to issue a public apology to a relative of Narayan D Apte, who was hanged in November 1949 for his role in the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, for being responsible for his “custodial murder”.
The plea also challenged the constitutional validity of a law which granted ex-post facto powers to a special judge to grant pardon to an accused saying it was used to “falsely implicate” Vinayak Damodar Savarkar in the Gandhi murder trial.
“Everybody can just walk-in in this court and file whatever they want?” a bench of Justices S K Kaul and A Amanullah wondered.
The bench also referred to one of the prayers made in the petition, filed by Abhinav Bharat Congress’ through its founding president Pankaj K Phadnis, which said in “partial atonement of injustice” done to Savarkar, the Centre may be directed to form an empowered committee of eminent persons for giving overseas scholarship to meritorious students for undertaking post graduate studies as envisaged by Savarkar in 1944.
“I think we should impose cost,” the bench told the counsel who was appearing for the petitioner.
“You cannot waste our time like this,” the apex court observed, adding, “The habit of walking in this court without anything….we will not allow this”.
The counsel said the petition is not for either Nathuram Godse or Savarkar and it was only for Apte.
The bench dismissed the plea with a cost of Rs 25,000 to be deposited in the lawyers’ welfare fund.
The petition had challenged the constitutional validity of the Bombay Public Security Measures (Delhi Amendment) Act, 1948, which amended section 13 of Bombay Act 6 of 1947 by introducing sub section 2 (A).
It said this granted ex-post facto powers to a special judge to grant pardon to an accused and the powers were used to falsely implicate Savarkar in the Gandhi murder trial and “eliminate him as contender for being Prime Minister in independent India.”
“The murder trial of such an esteemed person (Mahatma Gandhi) had to be conducted in a manner that ought to have set standards for criminal trials in Republic of India. Respondent failed to do so to promote his own vested interests” it claimed.
The plea alleged that the three victims of the “legal mistrial” were Savarkar, D S Parchure and Narayan D Apte.
Carroll said his client has told him that as many as 54 women at the CIA over the past decade have said they were been victims of sexual assault or misconduct by colleagues, and that their cases were improperly handled. POLITICO could not independently verify that assertion.
“This is the CIA’s Me Too moment,” said Carroll, who is a partner at the firm Hughes Hubbard & Reed LLP and is representing the victim pro bono.
The investigation started when one female CIA employee approached the committee in January and said that the agency had not punished a male colleague who had allegedly physically assaulted her and tried to forcibly kiss her repeatedly, according to Carroll and a copy of the complaint the woman made to local law enforcement.
She said that she quickly reported the attack to numerous offices at the CIA, but nothing was done.
She also said she was told by officials in the CIA’s security office that if she reported the incident to law enforcement, they would not protect her anymore from the alleged assailant. She said she was warned that moving forward with the allegation could end her career at the agency, according to Carroll and the complaint.
He said the CIA also threatened the women who were going to Congress with adverse consequences if they spoke out.
The CIA denied that the agency had tried to prevent the women from speaking to Congress. “This idea that there’s some threatening [of] officers who want to talk to HPSCI, that’s not true,” said the senior CIA official, referring to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. “We haven’t threatened or blocked anybody.”
Carroll said that the committee’s staff have been busy talking to the women, comparing it to “client intake.”
Local county law enforcement is pursuing the first woman’s case as a misdemeanor, according to a document viewed by POLITICO, which is not sharing more details about the case in deference to her security concerns.
“We greatly appreciate the assistance of local law enforcement,” Carroll said. “If federal law enforcement had taken a similar interest, the charge would be felony sex assault.”
In a joint statement to POLITICO, Turner and Himes said: “Sexual assault is a heinous crime. Our committee is committed to addressing this matter and protecting those who are serving their country. We have been in contact with Director Burns, and he is fully committed to working with us on this issue.”
When asked for comment, CIA spokesperson Tammy Kupperman Thorp said in a statement that there “can be no tolerance for sexual assault or harassment at CIA.”
“The Director and senior CIA leaders have personally met with officers to understand their concerns and to take swift action,” she said. “We have established an office to work closely with survivors of sexual assault, and we are committed to treating every concern raised by members of the workforce with the utmost seriousness.”
She added that Burns and the agency’s senior leadership team is fully engaged on the issue and tracking it closely. “We are committed to supporting the House Intelligence Committee’s investigation and are keeping the Committee updated on our progress,” she said.
The senior CIA official, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly about the agency’s inner workings, disputed that the CIA impedes alleged victims who want to approach law enforcement. The official said the agency is required by law to refer allegations of criminal sexual misconduct to law enforcement, and they do so. But the official added that in some cases, law enforcement declines to prosecute and so the CIA “takes appropriate action.”
At the same time, the person said that even before the letter from Congress, “we obviously recognize that we have to make some changes and improvements.” The official said that the “reporting process is difficult for some people to navigate” and that the agency is in the process of hiring an expert from the outside with decades of experience on combating sexual assault in the workforce to lead its new “Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office.” The official said there are only a “handful of officers” who currently work in the office but that they expect to increase staffing.
Despite the congressional investigation, the official said the issue did not seem to affect many employees. “While one incident is too many, this may not be a pervasive problem throughout the agency. We take every single one of these allegations seriously, but it does not appear to be really widespread.” The official declined to comment on any specific cases or share the numbers of how many sexual misconduct allegations have been made.
Kevin Byrnes, a partner with the law firm FH+H, who is the Equal Employment Opportunity lawyer for the first woman who complained to the committee, said he represents several other female CIA employees who are alleging they were sexually assaulted or harassed in the workplace.
He said the agency’s security division and EEO office discourages people from filing complaints by claiming it’s not in the best interests of the women or would trigger disclosure of classified information. The CIA also requires victims to file a complaint within 45 days.
CIA employees go through the EEO process to vindicate their rights, according to Byrnes, as well as to secure changes in their working conditions and obtain payment for attorneys’ fees and compensation for pain and suffering.
But the office “has been a mechanism for deflection and interference with … complaints,” he said.
The senior CIA official said that the agency is working to fix how the EEO process works and is receiving recommendations for improvements. The person conceded that there have not yet been any tangible improvements made to that process.
A second woman who has spoken to committee staff in recent months alleged she was raped by a colleague at the CIA, according to Carroll. He said that the agency did not properly punish the alleged perpetrator. A third woman said that the same thing happened when she was sexually assaulted by a colleague at work, he added.
Allegations of sexual assault by CIA officers have surfaced publicly at times in the last 15 years. In 2009, two women said they were drugged and raped by Andrew Warren, the CIA’s former station chief in Algeria. A search of his residence found a dozen videotapes of him engaging in sexual acts with women, including some in a semi-conscious state. He pled guilty to the assault and served five years in prison.
Two years ago, former CIA officer Brian Jeffrey Raymond pled guilty to a number of federal charges, including sexual abuse. He was accused of drugging and sexually assaulting dozens of women he had met on dating apps over a 14-year period.
Raymond was arrested in Mexico City after local authorities responded to a naked woman screaming from his balcony. He was working for the U.S. embassy in Mexico City at the time.
BuzzFeed also reported in late 2021 that the agency had accumulated evidence that at least 10 employees and contractors had committed sex crimes that involved children, but despite many of the cases being referred to law enforcement, only one person was charged with a crime.
Erin Banco contributed to this report.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
New Delhi: The Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad will host Qualifier 2 and the final of the ongoing Indian Premier League on May 26 and 28 respectively, the BCCI said on Friday.
Chennai’s M.A. Chidambaram Stadium will stage the Qualifier 1 and the Eliminator on May 23 and 24 respectively, the IPL said in its advisory after the sport’s apex body in the country finalised the schedule for the league four biggest matches.
The 16th IPL began on March 31 at the Narendra Modi Stadium, the world’s biggest cricketing arena. The venue also hosted the final of the league’s last edition in 2022.
The 2022 edition was played across four venues in Mumbai and Pune but the play-offs and the final were held in Kolkata and Ahmedabad.
In this edition, the league reverted to the usual home and away format.
The league phase concludes on May 21 with a clash between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Gujarat Titans in Bengaluru.
New Delhi: The NHRC has sent a notice to the West Bengal police chief and the Howrah police commissioner over an alleged attack on a Ram Navami procession, officials said on Friday.
In a statement, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) observed that the allegations, if true, amount to a failure of authorities to exercise due diligence to avert the incident.
The commission has taken “cognisance of a complaint alleging an attack by miscreants on Sri Ram Navami Shobhayatra despite permission from the authorities in the area under Shibpur Police Station, Howrah District, West Bengal on 30th March, 2023,” it said.
The alleged armed attack was done with the malafide intention to ruin the peaceful yatra and to cause grievous injuries to its participants in order to frighten and deter them from organising such an event in the future, the rights panel said.
It added that the police allegedly refused to accept a written complaint to take action in the matter against the “miscreants”.
The Constitution of India entitles all persons to the freedom of conscience and the right to freely profess, practise and propagate religion, the statement said.
“The State is answerable, if these rights are abrogated without substantive reasons. Accordingly, it has issued notices to the Director General of Police, West Bengal, and the Commissioner of Police, Howrah, directing them to inquire into the matter, and submit a report within two weeks. They have also been asked to ensure that proper legal procedure is followed in the investigation in the matter, and no one is subjected to hardship due to any illegal action of the police,” it said.
The report must contain the details of the FIR registered, the status of the investigation, and the arrest, if any, in the matter. It should include the number of people injured, the treatment given to them, and also the details of the destruction of property, if any. It should also mention the safety measures taken to avoid such incidents, the statement said.
(Except for the headline, the story has not been edited by Siasat staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
New Delhi: Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Friday said Congress workers and leaders should not do anything that damages the party, in remarks seen as a veiled attack on his former deputy Sachin Pilot who has been questioning the state government’s alleged inaction in “corruption” cases.
Gehlot, who arrived in Delhi on Friday afternoon, said they should work towards ensuring that the Congress government is repeated in the state.
The veteran Congress leader said he is here for personal obligations and would be meeting some friends before returning to the state on Saturday.
“It is easy to ignite fire, but very difficult to douse it….I talk about ‘mehngai raahat’ (relief from price rise). Congress leaders and workers should work towards strengthening the party and work towards bringing its government once again in the state and how they can contribute towards it. They should not do anything which harms the party,” he told reporters at the airport here.
“I feel that if due to some remark one faces some loss, one should not worry about one’s personal loss as the party high command would compensate you. But, one should not say or do anything that should harm the party and organisation as no one will be able to compensate for the damage caused,” he said in a veiled reference to remarks made by Pilot, who sat on a fast recently seeking action on alleged corruption during the BJP’s Vasundhara Rajes previous government.
Pilot sat on a protest in Jaipur last week demanding action against those involved in corruption during the previous Raje government.
The Congress had termed it “anti-party activity”. But Pilot went ahead with his fast dharna. The Congress has so far not acted against Pilot for protesting against his own party’s government.
Gehlot said his government has brought in several new schemes and more are coming. The people of the state feel that our government will be repeated, he said.
“We have talked to 100 MLAs and everyone said that whatever was asked for (from the state government) was received and work is going on everywhere in the state,” he said.
Asked about surveys being conducted by the party ahead of the assembly elections later this year, he said many such exercises will be held to assess the work of MLAs.
On former Congress president Rahul Gandhi vacating his official bungalow after being disqualified as MP, Gehlot said, “Whenever there is a conspiracy, the conspirator completes the entire conspiracy. The moment the case was filed, they decided what to do. The case was earlier not heard for four years, but suddenly everything was expedited as part of a conspiracy. It was a conspiracy.”
He said neither Prime Minister Narendra Modi nor Home Minister Amit Shah knows about the Gandhi family which has made sacrifices for the nation.
“The entire Congress family and workers want them to continue to provide leadership to the party,” the chief minister noted.
Gehlot expressed concern over the issue of unemployment and price rise in the country, saying, “We want to address that, as it is affecting people. We are also providing jobs in the government and non-government sectors in Rajasthan.”
“We have launched a number of schemes for the welfare of people and we are now launching ‘Mehngai raahat camps’ that will provide some help,” he noted, adding that these camps will function in villages across the state.
He said a scheme to provide gas cylinders at Rs 500 was launched on April 1 and people are getting cheaper cylinders. “We will provide benefits to all, be it of the Congress or the BJP.”
