New Delhi: Delhi’s Rouse Avenue court granted bail to RJD leader and former Railway Minister Lalu Prasad, his wife and former Bihar chief minister Rabri Devi and their daughter Misa Bharti in connection with a case related to the alleged land-for-job scam.
The family appeared before Special Judge Geetanjali Goel around 11 a.m.
The 74-year-old former railway minister reached the court on a wheelchair around 10 a.m. A huge number of RJD supporters gathered outside the court as Lalu appeared in the land-for-job scam case.
During the hearing, the Judge Goel noted that the CBI had filed its charge sheet without arrest.
The court, however, granted bail and directed every accused to furnish Rs 50,000 personal bail bond.
The bail plea was not opposed by the CBI.
More details are awaited.
The court had on February 27 issued summons to them in the case which concerns alleged appointments made in the Railways in exchange for land parcels given or sold to Lalu Prasad’s family while he served as the Union Railway Minister from 2004 to 2009.
In its charge sheet, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) said that irregular appointments had been made in the Railways, in violation of the standards and guidelines established by the Indian Railways for hiring.
It is alleged that the candidates gave Lalu Prasad’s family members land at extremely reduced prices — up to one-fifth of the going market rates — directly or through their close relatives and family members.
The CBI had filed the charge sheet in the case on October 10, 2022, against 16 persons including Lalu Prasad’s wife Rabri Devi and daughter and sanction was then obtained to prosecute them.
Special Judge Geetanjali Goel of Rouse Avenue Courts had on February 27 observed that, prima facie, the on-record report shows that offences have been committed under different sections of the IPC and the Prevention of Corruption Act.
Taking cognisance of the said offences, the judge then summoned the accused persons.
Lucknow: A special court here has directed the Lucknow police commissioner and eight other police personnel to appear before it for allegedly making public the identity of a juvenile apprehended in connection with a case of fraud.
The court fixed April 4 for appearance of these police personnel.
Judge Vijendra Tripathi passed the order on Tuesday on a complaint filed by Sunil Kumar, who is ‘peshkar’ (reader) of the Juvenile Justice Board.
Kumar had filed the complaint on the instructions of the board as it had been apprised that the police personnel had willingly disclosed the identity of the juvenile on the Facebook wall of Lucknow police commissioner.
It was apprised to the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) court that the accused was held by the police in a fraud case and was produced in the court which referred the matter to the Juvenile Justice Board after learning that he was a juvenile.
Kumar said in the court that despite the accused being a juvenile, his identity was disclosed on the Facebook wall of the Lucknow police commissioner on February 7 and 8, based on which several newspapers and news channels broadcast the news.
The court was informed that the act of the police was “totally illegal” and against the provisions of the Juvenile Justice Act.
New Delhi: A court here has convicted nine persons in connection with the 2020 North-East Delhi riots, an official said on Tuesday.
The matter pertains to rioting, arson and vandalism in the Gokulpuri area during the riots.
Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Pulastaya Pramachala convicted Mohd. Shahnawaz a.k.a. Shanu, Mohd. Shoaib, Shahrukh, Rashid a.k.a. Raja, Azad, Ashraf Ali, Parvez, Md. Faisal and Rashid a.k.a. Monu under sections related to rioting, theft, mischief by fire, destroying properties by setting them on fire and unlawful assembly.
“I find that the charges levelled against all the accused persons in this case are proved beyond doubt. Hence, accused persons are convicted for offences punishable under the relevant sections of the IPC,” ASJ Pramachala said.
“On the basis of the assessment of the evidence in this case and further reasoning, I am convinced with the version of prosecution against the accused persons. I find it well established that all the named accused persons, in this case, did become part of an unruly mob, which was guided by communal feelings and was having a common object to cause maximum damage to the properties of persons belonging to the Hindu community,” he added.
Special Public Prosecutor D.K. Bhatia represented Delhi Police in the matter.
Republicans in the state, if the case breaks their way, could put a new map in place that would have 11 Republican-leaning districts and three Democratic-leaning ones — a significant boost for Republicans’ hopes of keeping the U.S. House.
Three key North Carolina justices signaled a degree of hostility to the arguments brought by attorneys representing the groups that defended the current congressional maps in the state.
The court is taking up the question of fairness of the state’s maps after the makeup of the court changed last November — now-Justices Richard Dietz and Trey Allen won a pair of state Supreme Court seats that flipped the balance of the court from a 4-3 liberal one to a 5-2 conservative one.
Dietz, Allen and Chief Justice Paul Newby — who was in the minority in last year’s 4-3 ruling — were the only three conservative justices to speak during Tuesday’s hour-long arguments in Raleigh.
Newby suggested in his questioning that there was no way for the courts to properly adjudicate what actually would constitute a “fair” map in the state — and suggested the question might be better left to lawmakers. He pressed Lali Madduri, an attorney who argued on behalf of the plaintiffs, on how lawmakers and judges should interpret metrics used to measure partisan fairness, and if advisers to the court who either make those measurements or draw the lines should be subject to an ethics code.
“How does the General Assembly determine that ‘all voters have equal voting power?’” he asked, implying it wasn’t feasible.
Allen, at one point, seemed to say arguments against gerrymandering could spin out of control. He picked up on a line of questioning from Newby, wondering if the court should apply those principles of fair elections to county and municipal elections — or even school boards or other local offices.
The two Democratic judges left on the North Carolina high bench sought to defend their past majority opinion. Justice Anita Earls pushed Phillip Strach, who represented Republican lawmakers, on his arguments that the court did not have jurisdiction to determine the fairness of the maps and that it was a political question left to lawmakers.
“How can it be left up to the people?” Earls asked. “If the maps don’t fairly reflect the voting strength of the people of the state, aren’t you essentially seeking to prevent voters from exercising control over their own government?”
The newly-conservative majority’s decision to grant a rehearing of the case is something that rarely happens in the state. It will also rehear arguments for a voter ID case on Wednesday.
Tuesday’s arguments, and the court’s subsequent decision, could also imperil a pending U.S. Supreme Court case that has been closely watched because of its potential to sharply constrain or eliminate the power of state courts, governors and election officials to issue important decisions about election administration by advancing what’s known as the Independent State Legislature theory.
At arguments in that case in December, a majority of the justices seemed to coalesce around a middle-ground position that would preserve roles for various actors at the state level and not fulfill the worst fears of Democrats by giving state legislatures something approaching free rein over elections, constrained only by federal law and the U.S. Constitution.
No ruling has yet been issued in that case, but earlier this month, the U.S. Supreme Court justices reacted to the North Carolina high court’s rehearing order and instructed the parties to file briefs addressing whether the state court’s move impacted how the federal court should handle the case. Those filings are due in Washington on Monday.
However, on Tuesday in Raleigh, a lawyer for some of the civil rights groups trying to preserve the state Supreme Court’s earlier ruling, Sam Hirsch, tangled with one of that court’s justices, the newly-elected Dietz, for refusing to address his question about whether the state court should stand aside until the U.S. Supreme Court acts.
“Do you have a view on that?” Dietz asked.
“We will be filing in the U.S. Supreme Court on March 20 our views on the relationship between those two cases. I have nothing to add to that,” Hirsch said, before trying to move on to other aspects of his argument.
“Oh … I’m a justice on the Supreme Court of North Carolina,” Dietz said indignantly. “We’re hearing this case. So, I’m asking for your legal view on that for us. We need to assess that. So, I’d ask you what your view is? … Why can’t you answer my question right now?”
Hirsch demurred again, saying the various plaintiffs in the case need to come to agreement on a position and suggesting they haven’t done so yet, but will be sure to share the filings to the U.S. Supreme Court with the North Carolina justices.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
Vijayawada: A National Investigation Agency (NIA) court in Vijayawada on Tuesday directed Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy to appear before it on April 10 in a case related to a knife attack on him at Visakhapatnam airport four years ago.
During the previous hearing, the court had directed the Chief Minister to appear on March 14. He, however, did not appear.
Adjourning the case to April 10, the court asked the Chief Minister to be present on that day. Chief minister’s personal assistant K. Nageshwar Reddy was also directed to appear.
In earlier hearings too, the judge had observed that the victim too should appear before the court and record his statement.
The court on Tuesday examined CISF Assistant Commandant Dinesh Kumar, who was an eyewitness in the case, which is known as the Kodi Katti case.
The police handed over to the court a ‘kodi katti’ (knife used for rooster fights), another small knife, purse and cell phone.
Jagan Mohan Reddy was injured on his arm when a youth had attacked him with kodi katti at Visakhapatnam Airport on October 25, 2018. His security personnel had overpowered the attacker, later identified as J. Srinivas Rao, who was working at the airport canteen on a contract basis.
The then TDP government had handed over the case to a Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the state police but Jagan Mohan Reddy had refused to record his statement, saying he had no trust in agencies controlled by the state government.
The YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) had moved the state high court, seeking a probe by a central agency into the case. Based on the court direction, the Centre handed over the case to the NIA on December 31, 2018 and the agency registered the case on January 1.
The 32-year-old accused has been lodged in jail since then, waiting for the trial.
Last year, Srinivas’ 75-year-old mother Savithri had written to then Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramana that the case be expedited or her son be granted bail.
UDHAMPUR, MARCH 14: Principal District & Session Judge Udhampur, Haq Nawaz Zargar today awarded two years rigorous imprisonment with a fine of Rs.3,000/- (Rupees Three Thousand Only) to Tirath Ram alias Babu Ram son of Ashok Kumar resident of Mali Tehsil and District Udhampur under section 354RPC and in case of default in payment of fine, he shall undergo a further imprisonment for three (3) months. The period of detention already undergone shall be set off against the sentence imposed hereinabove.
Court observed that the accused-convict has been found guilty of outraging the modesty of the prosecutrix, which is atrocious crime and is not a fit case to release the convicted-accused u/s 562 CrPC or under the Probation of Offender‘s Act. Court Considering the material on record as well as the facts and circumstances of the case, held accused guilty and convicted him for the commission of offence under section 354 RPC.
New Delhi: Former railway minister Lalu Prasad, his wife and former Bihar chief minister Rabri Devi and 14 others are likely to appear before a Delhi court on Wednesday in connection with a case related to the alleged land-for-job scam.
The case relates to alleged appointments made in the railways in return for land parcels gifted or sold to Prasad’s family when he was the minister of railways between 2004 and 2009.
The CBI in its charge sheet alleged that irregular appointments were made in the railways, violating the laid down norms and procedures of Indian Railways for recruitment.
It alleged that as a quid pro quo, the candidates directly or through their immediate relatives and family members sold land to the family members of RJD chief Prasad, then railway minister, at highly discounted rates up to one-fifth of the prevailing market rates.
Special judge Geetanjali Goel had on February 27 issued summons to the accused persons, including Prasad’s daughter Misa Bharti, and directed them to appear before the court on March 15.
“A perusal of the charge sheet and the documents and material on record prima facie shows commission of offences under Section 120B (criminal conspiracy), read with sections 420 (cheating), 467 (forgery of valuable security, will, etc.), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating) and 471 (using forged document as genuine) of the IPC and various sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act. Accordingly, cognizance is taken of the said offences,” the judge had said.
The judge had noted that the charge sheet was filed without arrest in respect of the accused persons except one who is on bail at present.
In July 2022, the CBI arrested Bhola Yadav, who used to be the officer on special duty (OSD) to Lalu Prasad when he was the railway minister, in the case.
The charge sheet was filed on October 10 last year for offences of criminal conspiracy and corruption against 16 accused persons.
The final report also named former general manager of Central Railway Sowmya Raghavan, former CPO Railways Kamal Deep Mainrai, seven aspirants appointed as substitutes and four private individuals.
According to the charge sheet, the case was registered pursuant to the outcome of a preliminary inquiry against Lalu Prasad and others.
It was alleged in the FIR that some persons, although residents of Patna in Bihar, were appointed as substitutes in Group-D posts during the period 2004-2009 in different zones of the railways located in Mumbai, Jabalpur, Kolkata, Jaipur and Hajipur and in lieu thereof, the individuals themselves or their family members transferred their land in the name of family members of Prasad and a company, AK Infosystems Private Limited, which was subsequently taken over by the family members of Prasad.
It was further alleged that about 1,05,292 square feet land situated in Patna was acquired by the family members of Prasad from those persons through five sale deeds and two gift deeds and in most of the sale deeds, payment to the sellers was mentioned to be paid in cash.
The value of the land as per existing circle rate was about Rs 4.39 crore, the CBI alleged.
The land was directly purchased by the family members of Prasad from the sellers at a rate lower than the prevalent circle rate, the CBI said, adding that the prevalent market value of the land was much higher than the circle rate.
It was alleged that the due procedure and guidelines issued by the railway authority for the appointment of substitutes were not followed and later on, their services had also been regularised.
Party operatives believe a favorable ruling in North Carolina could clear the way for a new configuration that nets Republicans four more additional seats. In Ohio, it could help the GOP win between one and three more districts. And nationwide, a dozen other states have active litigation that could shift their balance of power too.
“The cumulative effect of all these fights is significant, and I think could be the determining factor for control of the House following the 2024 elections,” said Marina Jenkins, who was recently named the executive director of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, the party’s mapmaking power center.
The case in North Carolina is an especially unusual one. The state’s Supreme Court invalidated a map drawn by the GOP-controlled state legislature after the 2020 census that would have given Republicans control of as many as 11 of the 14 districts. Instead, the court set into place for the midterms a new map that resulted in the election of an equal number of Democrats and Republicans.
But the justices themselves were also on the ballot.
Republican candidates won both of the state Supreme Court seats up in the midterms, flipping the balance of the court from a 4-3 liberal majority to a 5-2 conservative one. In a rare move, the new conservative majority agreed to rehear the already decided case.
A new ruling in North Carolina could give Republican lawmakers a much freer hand in the state, granting them an opportunity to draw maps similar to their initial proposal. State House Speaker Tim Moore, a Republican, said in February he didn’t expect lawmakers to redraw the lines until summer.
The North Carolina delegation could be scrambled dramatically
A best-case scenario for North Carolina Republicans could shift the delegation from an even split to 11 Republicans and 3 Democrats, though mapmakers may not be that aggressive. Perhaps most at risk is Democratic Rep. Kathy Manning, whose Greensboro-based district was eviscerated in the initial map that GOP legislators crafted. Former GOP Rep. Mark Walker, who represented the seat before it was redrawn to favor Democrats, is rumored to be eyeing a comeback bid, although he has publicly acknowledged he is also considering a gubernatorial run.
Manning said she’s trying to stay hopeful that the new state Supreme Court doesn’t reverse its prior ruling but she knows it could doom her nonetheless.
“Maybe it’s unrealistic to expect that they’re going to put partisanship aside and do what’s right for the state,” she said.
Also on the chopping block: Democratic freshmen Reps. Wiley Nickel, who holds a newly created seat in the south Raleigh suburbs, and Jeff Jackson, who nabbed a safe blue seat in the Charlotte area. Jackson’s seat is likely to shift west in a redrawn map toward Cleveland County. That’s the home base of the state’s speaker, who has long eyed a perch in Congress and would have great influence over any new map.
A redraw could also endanger another freshman, Rep. Don Davis, a moderate Air Force veteran who took over retiring Rep. G.K. Butterfield’s rural northeastern district in 2022.
“Republican judges are gonna call balls and strikes,” said Rep. Richard Hudson (R-N.C.), the chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee.
“I think the current map is a partisan gerrymander and that we need fair and legal maps,” he added. “And if you have fair and legal maps, I think you’ll have more Republican representatives.”
President Joe Biden lost North Carolina to former President Donald Trump by less than 2 points.
Ohio, similarly, saw a back-and-forth battle over its congressional lines. The state Supreme Court twice struck down maps that favored Republicans, though the second ruling came too late to get a new map in place for the midterms.
For now, any future legal challenges would ultimately land in front of a newly made up Ohio state Supreme Court.
Then-state Supreme Court Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor, a Republican, sided with three Democratic justices to strike down the congressional maps. (The court also ruled five times that legislative maps violated the state constitution.) But O’Connor did not run for reelection. And while the partisan balance of the court did not shift, the new conservative majority is not expected to rule the same way.
“The liberal majorities on the Ohio and North Carolina supreme courts overreached,” said Adam Kincaid, the leader of the National Republican Redistricting Trust, “and the voters responded by electing new conservative majorities.”
In Ohio, three Democrats could feel a squeeze under new lines. Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur‘s Toledo-based district already favors Republicans, but could become even redder under a new map. In 2022 she faced flawed opponent, JR Majewski, who misrepresented his military service, leaving Republicans eager to block him this time around. (State Rep. Derek Merrin, who narrowly lost a bid to be speaker of the Ohio House, lives in her district.) In Akron, freshman Rep. Emilia Sykes, a Democrat, is also a clear redistricting target.
A big question is how aggressively Republicans decide to target the Cincinnati-based first district, which elected a Democrat in 2022 for the first time since 2008. Redistricting reform laws in the state prohibit mapmakers from splitting the city between two districts.
The U.S. Supreme Court is watching
Looming over both states is the U.S. Supreme Court.
The high court has already heard arguments surrounding North Carolina’s congressional maps in a case called Moore v. Harper in December, before the state Supreme Court court granted a rehearing.
In that court case, Republican lawmakers challenged the ability of the state court to question their maps, advancing a once-fringe legal theory known as the “Independent State Legislature” doctrine. That theory argues that state courts have little — to no — ability to police legislatures on laws passed around federal elections, including redistricting, under the U.S. Constitution. And while the justices seemed chilly to North Carolina’s arguments in December, at least four of the court’s conservative justices had signaled a friendliness to the theory in the past.
But Tuesday’s rehearing of the case in state court raises the question of what the nation’s highest court will do. Earlier this month, the U.S. Supreme Court directed parties in the federal case to submit briefs on how the rehearing and “any subsequent state court proceedings” would affect the court’s jurisdiction — suggesting that the justices could consider dismissing the case as improvidently granted, which is the court functionally saying it should not have heard the case.
Rick Hasen, a well-known election law professor at UCLA Law, said he was “uncertain” if the high court would do that, given that the underlying issue of the independent state legislature theory is something “I think almost everybody recognizes the court has to resolve before the 2024 elections.”
But should the high court actually do so, another case is waiting in the wings — from Ohio. Lawmakers from that state have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to toss their own state Supreme Court’s rulings out as well, while also advocating for the Independent State Legislature theory. The U.S. Supreme Court has not yet acted on that petition.
If the court does punt on the North Carolina case, it could continue the sense of unevenness in redistricting, Hasen notes, with some state courts wading in on gerrymandering while others don’t. Some Democratic-drawn maps were struck down by their state courts last cycle as illegal partisan gerrymanders.
Hasen said that if the case gets dismissed as improvidently granted, “then that would — for the short term — allow North Carolina to engage in a partisan gerrymander, but would not free New York or Maryland.”
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
SRINAGAR: The High Court of Jammu Kashmir and Ladakh has quashed the detention of two persons from south Kashmir’s Anantnag district lodged in Central Jail Kot Balwal Jammu under the Public Safety Act (PSA).
The detainees – Muhammad Abbas Khan, son of Nazir Ahmed Khan and Hadayat Ullah Kuttay, son of Abdul Razak Kuttay, both residents of Srigufwara Anantnag had been arrested in April last year and subsequently, shifted to Kot Balwal Jail under Public Safety Act.
The detention orders under PSA were issued by District Magistrate Anantnag vide numbers 07 and 08/DMA/PSA/DET/2022 dated 08.04.2022. The duo was accused of being militant sympathizers.
The counsel for both the petitioners’ Advocate Bashir Ahmed Tak challenged the impugned order on the grounds that the allegations made on the grounds of detention are vague and non-existent and that there has been non-application of mind on the part of the detaining authority.
Advocate Bashir Ahmed Tak argued that the detaining authority has not attributed any specific allegation against the detainees. He contended that the detainees were arrested in old cases and on frivolous charges.
The court of Justice Vinod Chatterji Koul accordingly quashed the detention of both persons and ordered their release from the Kot Balwal Jail.
But the ruling could still hand a significant victory to unions and worker advocates. It invalidated a provision of Prop 22 that sets a high bar for the Legislature to pass laws allowing workers to organize.
“We are grateful that the California Court of Appeal has affirmed that companies like Uber, Lyft, Doordash and Instacart can’t keep drivers from joining together in a union through their deceptive ballot measure,” plaintiff and driver Mike Robinson said in a statement.
The legal battle has extended a long-running fight over the status of gig workers in California. In 2019, the state passed a law that made effectively compelled companies to classify their workers as employees, not contractors, by enshrining a California Supreme Court Decision.
After failing to block the law in Sacramento, tech companies fought back at the ballot box by pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into passing Prop 22. A labor-backed coalition then challenged the law as unconstitutional.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
