Tag: constitutional

No Constitutional provision for Muslim reservation: Amit Shah

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Bengaluru: Two days after the BJP government in Karnataka scrapped four per cent OBC reservation for Muslims, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday defended the move, saying there is no provision in the Constitution to provide reservations on the basis of religion.
Addressing a rally in poll-bound Karnataka’s Bidar, he slammed the Congress for providing reservation on the basis of religion in the state.
Shah said that the reservation for Muslims introduced by the previous Congress-led government in the state was not as per Constitution.
In its last Cabinet meeting before the polls, the Basavaraj Bommai government on Friday scrapped the four per cent OBC reservation for Muslims and distributed it to two dominant communities – Veerashaiva-Lingayats and Vokkaligas.
The Cabinet decided to move OBC Muslims to the 10 per cent Economically Weaker Section (EWS) category.
Shah said the Congress provided reservation to the minority as part of its polarisation politics. “The BJP scrapped that reservation and provided reservations to Vokkaliga and Lingayat communities,” he added.
He also inaugurated the ‘Garota Shaheed Smarak’ and a memorial of Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel during his visit to Karnataka on Sunday. The 20-ft tall statue of Sardar Patel is a symbol of his significant role played by the country’s first Home Minister, he said.
He also highlighted the sacrifice of people in Gorata village who were allegedly killed by Razakars of Nizam, the ruler of Hyderabad State, for hosting a 2.5-ft tall tricolor. Sheh said now, a 103-ft tall tricolour has been hoisted on the same land.

The Union Home Minister also targeted Congress party what he calls vote bank politics. He alleged that the party never commemorated the martyrs of independence and Hyderabad liberation.
“Due to Congress’s politics of polarisation and their greed for vote bank, they never commemorated the people who sacrificed themselves for independence and Hyderabad mukti,” he said.
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#Constitutional #provision #Muslim #reservation #Amit #Shah
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

March 26, 2023
Federal judge says constitutional right to abortion may still exist, despite Dobbs

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Kollar-Kotelly noted that there is some legal scholarship suggesting that the 13th Amendment — which was ratified at the end of the Civil War and sought to ban slavery and “involuntary servitude” — provides just such a right. She is asking the parties in the criminal case, which involves charges of blocking access to abortion clinics, to present arguments by mid-March.
In particular, the judge is asking them to address ”whether the scope of Dobbs is in fact confined to the Fourteenth Amendment” and “whether, if so, any other provision of the Constitution could confer a right to abortion as an original matter … such that Dobbs may or may not be the final pronouncement on the issue, leaving an open question.”
Kollar-Kotelly’s request stems from a year-old case against 10 defendants, who are charged with conspiring to block access to a Washington, D.C., abortion clinic.
One of those defendants, Lauren Handy, contended that the conspiracy charge is no longer legitimate because the Dobbs decision took Congress out of the business of making laws related to abortion access.
“There is no longer a federal constitutional interest to protect, and Congress lacks jurisdiction,” Handy’s attorneys wrote. “The Dobbs court did not indicate that there is no longer a constitutional right to abortion; the court has made clear there never was.”
Kollar-Kotelly, an appointee of former President Bill Clinton, indicated that she viewed this position as overly broad. Dobbs, she noted, confined its analysis to the 14th Amendment alone, although she conceded it contains sweeping statements that could lead one to conclude the justices were convinced nothing in the Constitution protects abortion rights.
“The Constitution does not confer a right to abortion,” Justice Samuel Alito declared in the Dobbs majority opinion, which was endorsed by four other justices.
However, Kollar-Kotelly said that statement may merely be a “heuristic” and the legal effect of the Supreme Court ruling may be narrower.

“The ‘issue’ before the Court in Dobbs was not whether any provision of the Constitution provided a right to abortion. Rather, the question before the Court in Dobbs was whether the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution provided such a right,” she wrote. “That is why neither the majority nor the dissent in Dobbs analyzed anything but the Fourteenth Amendment. In fact, on the Court’s initial review, not a single amicus brief mentioned anything but the Fourteenth Amendment and the unratified Equal Rights Amendment.“
Beyond the 13th Amendment argument that Kollar-Kotelly floated, several Jewish organizations have filed lawsuits arguing that religious freedom protections in the First Amendment or state constitutions may extend to abortion rights.
A Massachusetts-based Satanic temple has also filed lawsuits contending that abortion restrictions in other states violate the group’s religious freedom rights.
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#Federal #judge #constitutional #abortion #exist #Dobbs
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

February 7, 2023
RSS ruling country giving scant regard to constitutional values: Pinarayi Vijayan

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Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Monday attacked the Sangh Parivar saying the RSS, which was banned after Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination, was now ruling the country giving scant regard to the nation’s constitutional values.
Vijayan, who paid tributes to Gandhi on his 75th death anniversary which is observed as Martyrs’ Day, said the whole idea of India was “wounded” when the father of the nation was killed by a “religious fanatic”.
In a Facebook post, Vijayan said Hindu nationalists always considered Gandhi as an enemy as he was “fully aware of the threats posed by majoritarian sectarianism”.
“The Hindu nationalists always considered him as an enemy. Gandhi stood for Hindu-Muslim harmony till his last breath. The India he envisioned is in every aspect antithetical to the Hindutva nation concept of the Sangh Parivar.
When Gandhiji was shot dead by a religious fanatic named Nathuram Vinayak Godse, the idea of India itself was wounded,” Vijayan wrote.
The Chief Minister said the Sangh Parivar was pursuing its political goals in the country by using hate and divisive politics.
“The RSS which was banned for Gandhi’s assassination is now ruling the country giving scant regard to the nation’s constitutional values… Today, in some parts, children are being taught that Gandhi died instead of Gandhi was killed.
This is another proof that the Sangh Parivar is always afraid of Gandhiji,” the Left leader said.

Vijayan said racists eliminated Gandhi for envisioning a secular India and remembering the father of the nation was India’s eternal antidote to the politics of communal division.
“On this day we should take a pledge that we are ready to fight to protect the constitution and secularism of the country,” Vijayan said.
Recently, Vijayan had accused the Sangh Parivar of treating Muslims and Christians as “enemies of the nation” and urged everyone to unite against such divisive actions, drawing sharp criticism from the BJP.
Mahatma Gandhi was shot dead by Nathuram Godse on this day in 1948.
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#RSS #ruling #country #giving #scant #regard #constitutional #values #Pinarayi #Vijayan
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

January 30, 2023