New Delhi: The Jamiat-Ulama-i-Hind on Tuesday told the Supreme Court that arguments made by petitioners’ counsel that the top court should make a declaration about legal validation for same-sex marriage as Parliament is not likely to do anything about it will be a “dangerous proposition”.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, representing the Jamiat, submitted before a five-judge bench, headed by Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud that he was “very worried” at the beginning of the hearing when the petitioners’ side said that Parliament is not going to do anything about it so the court should make a declaration.
He said it would be a wrong step forward if there were to be a declaration on the premise that Parliament is not likely to pass a law on same-sex union and emphasised that any law of this nature requires public discourse, which includes discourse within and outside parliament.
“I say that it is a very dangerous route to take,” Sibal contended before the bench, which also comprises Justices S.K. Kaul, S.R. Bhat, P.S. Narasimha and Hima Kohli.
Sibal said after the declaration by the court there will be no scope for debate in the Parliament — one that same-sex union is a fundamental right; two, it has to be recognised.
However, the top court said the Parliament can overrule a declaration. Sibal replied that “once your lordships have declared, the Parliament can’t overrule it. I hope that stage has not come for Parliament to overrule what your lordships decide.”
He said the court is now deciding two things — sexual unions and recognition by the state of sexual unions.
Sibal said if question arises whether that sexual union is akin to a marriage and, if yes, is it founded in any provision of the Constitution, and for it to result in certain rights, it can only be done through recognition by the state through legislation, and stressed that there can’t be a declaration from the court.
The top court observed that it takes Sibal’s point that “don’t go into an area where you declare a right to marry.”
Sibal, in the context of acceptance, said it is also at three levels – first by two individuals themselves, then by the family, and thereafter by the society. He argued that nobody can dispute the fact that same-sex couples have a separate sexual identity and even the government has not disputed it.
The top court will continue to hear a batch of petitions seeking legal sanction for same sex marriages on Wednesday.
Tehran: Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator said on Tuesday that the United States dealt a “fatal blow” to the rule of law at the international level by its “unlawful” withdrawal from a 2015 nuclear deal five years ago.
Ali Bagheri Kani, Iran’s deputy foreign minister for political affairs, made the remarks in a post on his Twitter page one day after the fifth anniversary of the US unilateral pullout from the nuclear deal in 2018, Xinhua news agency reported.
Ever since its withdrawal, the US has failed to reverse its “wrongful” deeds, said the Iranian official, stressing that Iran will continue its “legitimate” remedial measures under the nuclear pact.
The full implementation of the nuclear deal, the main precondition for which is the “effective and lasting” removal of the sanctions, could be resumed should “the reneging party”, the European Union, and E3 group of France, Britain and Germany demonstrate “credible” political will to that effect, he said.
Kani said the opportunity to resume the full implementation of the nuclear deal would not be available forever.
Iran signed the nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), with world powers in July 2015, agreeing to put some curbs on its nuclear programme in return for the removal of the sanctions on the country.
The US, however, pulled out of the deal on May 8, 2018 and reimposed its unilateral sanctions on Tehran, prompting the latter to reduce some of its nuclear commitments under the deal.
The talks on the JCPOA’s revival began in April 2021 in Vienna. However, no breakthrough has been achieved after the latest round of talks in August 2022.
SRINAGAR: Starting from May 1, 2023, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) will implement new rules to combat fake and promotional calls and SMS to telecom customers.
TRAI will require telecom companies to set up an AI filter to prevent pesky calls and messages, providing much-needed relief to customers who have been constantly receiving unsolicited spam.
The AI filter will help customers avoid such messages and calls, as TRAI has made it mandatory for telecom companies to include the filter in their calls and SMS services.
Leading telecom providers like Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio have announced their intentions to introduce AI filter services.
Xi Jinping’s phone call with Volodymyr Zelenskiy was a long time coming, but it should not have come as a surprise. Beijing is on everyone’s shortlist when it comes to prospective peacemakers in Ukraine. The French president, Emmanuel Macron, is no exception. “I know I can count on you to bring back Russia to reason and everyone back to the negotiating table,” Macron told the Chinese leader during their meeting in Beijing this month.
Though Xi replied that he would call the Ukrainian president, he was in no rush. He has no illusions about the difficulty of serving as mediator in a war where Ukraine and Russia are in diametrically opposing positions. Yet China’s recent success in bringing about the normalisation of relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia may entice him to help engineer a diplomatic solution to the biggest war fought in Europe since 1945. But what would that solution look like?
The Chinese have repeatedly stressed, most explicitly in the 12-point peace proposal they released on the one-year anniversary of the war, that peace in Ukraine can be restored only through negotiations that “ultimately reach a comprehensive ceasefire”. Despite conventional wisdom, Beijing was not advocating a ceasefire that would freeze the current battle lines as new borders (an arrangement that would leave large swathes of Ukrainian territory in Russian hands), but rather the beginning of a political process that would “ultimately” lead to a permanent cessation of the fighting. Moreover, the proposal said nothing about the territorial terms of a settlement and indeed stressed the need for both sides to show restraint – a formulation repeated in China’s readout of Xi’s conversation with Zelenskiy. Most importantly, it stressed the need to respect the “sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of all countries, regardless of whether they were weak or strong, rich or poor”.
The phraseology is pertinent: China is meticulous about its diplomatic language, especially in public statements. Beijing certainly wants to preserve its “no limits friendship” with Moscow, but has been careful not to adopt a stance so favourable to Russia that Ukraine would be unwilling to accept China as a mediator.
Xi doubtless realises by now that Russia cannot achieve its territorial objectives – which, at minimum, are to partition Ukraine – by winning the war militarily, and that the fighting can only end through an agreement based on mutual compromise by the two parties. As important as Russia is for Beijing, Xi also wants to protect Chinese economic interests in Ukraine over the long term: China remains Ukraine’s largest foreign trading partner and has ploughed money into major infrastructure projects, including the modernisation of Mykolaiv port and the construction of a new subway line in Kyiv.
The US and some of its European allies will probably dismiss Xi’s overtures to Zelenskiy as yet another stunt to obscure Beijing’s political and economic support for Putin during the war – for instance by importing Russian crude oil, which reached a 33-month high in March, and refusing to support UN resolutions condemning Russia’s invasion. This, in part, explains Washington’s rejection of Beijing’s 12-point plan.
Yet China’s careful moves to position itself as the broker of a diplomatic settlement in Ukraine ought not to be dismissed summarily. Xi would not have wasted time having a long conversation with Zelenskiy to no end. Nor would the Chinese have announced their readiness to send “a special representative for Eurasian affairs to Ukraine and other countries” purely as a public relations gambit. China also would not go to such lengths if it didn’t have support from Russia and Ukraine for a diplomatic initiative. Tellingly, Zelenskiy was quick to characterise his call with Xi as “meaningful” and positive, and the Russian foreign ministry commended Xi for his “readiness to strive to establish” a diplomatic track.
We should be under no illusions: while China may be interested in jump-starting a negotiating process between Kyiv and Moscow, reaching an agreement that ends the war will not happen quickly, and it may even be unattainable. Xi can read the battlefield and the positions of the combatants as well as anyone,and he understands the blunt reality that there will be more, not less, war over the short term. The Ukrainian military is in the closing stages of preparing for a major counteroffensive against Russian positions in the south and east. The US and its Nato allies continue to coordinate efforts to ensure that Kyiv possesses the weaponry – including tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, mine-clearing equipment and air defence systems – required for a successful campaign. The Russian military has spent months solidifying its defensive positions in the roughly 20% of Ukraine it controls, even as the Wagner mercenary group tries to capture Bakhmut after an eight-month slog. Neither Ukraine nor Russia will therefore rush to the bargaining table any time soon. And even if they do eventually sit down for talks, efforts at mediation could prove to be a fool’s errand given how far part Russia and Ukraine are on the minimal terms for a deal.
Still, Xi’s call with Zelenskiy, and Kyiv and Moscow’s positive reaction to it, might at least stimulate creative thinking about ways to end the war. Without that, the death and destruction will drag on indefinitely.
Rajan Menon is the director of the grand strategy programme at Defense Priorities, a professor emeritus at the Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership at the City College of New York, and co-author of Conflict in Ukraine: The Unwinding of the Post-Cold War Order
Daniel R DePetris is a fellow at Defense Priorities and a syndicated foreign affairs columnist for the Chicago Tribune and Newsweek
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( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )
Jaipur: Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Wednesday said the BJP and the RSS have the “dangerous intention” of bringing one-party rule to the country, and cited Russia and China as examples.
Addressing farmers at a Kisan Sabha in Bikaner’s Jasrasar, he said BJP leaders keep talking about a “Congress-free” India.
“What is the meaning of BJP leaders talking about Congress-free India. What it means — a one-party rule. It is very dangerous intention of the RSS as well of the BJP. If the country does not understand this in time the coming generations will suffer and elections will be held like in Russia and China,” he said.
Under the one-party rule, elections will be fake and only one party will come to power again and again, he said.
It will also mean an end to the practice of politicians going to the poorest of the poor, to the Dalits, farmers and elders to seek their votes to become MLAs, MPs and Sarpanches, the Congress leader said.
China is a one-party system. Russia is not, but one party now dominates its parliament.
Gehlot said the agenda of the central government is taking a “dangerous turn” and the country needs to understand that.
The meeting was also addressed by AICC in-charge for Rajasthan Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, PCC president Govind Singh Dotasra, former leader of opposition Rameshwar Dudi and others.
Gehlot said Prime Minister Narendra Modi should break his silence over the issues related to the Adani group being raised by the Congress party.
He said PM Modi should also clarify his relationship with industrialist Gautam Adani.
Earlier, Gehlot inspected a ‘Mahangai Rahat Shivir’ being run by his government and interacted with the beneficiaries of various schemes of the state government.
Critics have accused conservative opponents of Biden policies of filing their lawsuits in particular divisions in the district, seeking to guarantee they’re heard by a sympathetic judge. The Biden administration, for example, has accused Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton of “judge shopping” in recent cases he’s filed in the district challenging various administration policies.
The lawsuit that Pittman agreed to transfer on Monday was brought by a for-profit college trade association that wants to block a new Biden administration policy that makes it easier for student loan borrowers to have their debts forgiven when they are misled or defrauded by their college.
Career Colleges & Schools of Texas, which filed the case in February, is trying to block the Education Department’s rewrite of federal standards — known as “borrower defense to repayment” — that govern when the agency discharges a student loan based on a college’s misconduct. The group argues that the policy, which is set to take effect July 1, is an illegal and unfair effort by the Biden administration to provide more loan forgiveness to borrowers while sticking colleges with the bill.
In a six-page decision, Pittman rejected arguments by the Austin-based association that it should be able to pursue the case in the Fort Worth division of the Northern District of Texas on behalf of member schools in that area that would be affected by the new policy even though the group itself doesn’t have any office or employees there.
Pittman ruled that connection to the district was too far removed. Career Colleges & Schools of Texas “may have an interest in assisting various burdened parties in the division, but it does not have any presence,” Pittman wrote, concluding that “venue is improper” in his district.
The Biden administration had asked that the case be moved either to Austin where the college group is based or federal district court in Washington, D.C. Pittman ruled that Austin would be the “more appropriate” venue because it still “affords some ‘respect’ to Plaintiff’s original choice of forum — even though it was an incorrect one.”
The Justice Department declined to comment. An attorney representing Career Colleges & Schools of Texas said that the organization would not comment on pending litigation.
The Northern District of Texas is widely seen a one of the nation’s most conservative with GOP appointed judges who have demonstrated a willingness to strike down major Democratic policies.
Pittman, for example, was the judge who first blocked Biden’s sweeping student debt relief program last fall. His colleague Judge Reed O’Connor is a George W. Bush appointee who notably struck down the Affordable Care Act in 2018.
More recently, another judge in the district, Matthew Kacsmaryk, a Trump appointee, authored the controversial ruling earlier this month that overturned the Food and Drug Administration’s decades-old approval of a common abortion pill. That decision is on pause while the Supreme Court hears an emergency appeal.
Josh Gerstein contributed to this report.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
Negotiations between labor and Rutgers management remain underway, with both parties still negotiating at the governor’s office. In a union update Monday evening from Trenton, Rutgers AAUP-AFT President Rebecca Givan said the union did not receive or exchange any offers.
“The governor briefly told us he was unhappy we were here because it meant we were on strike and also happy we were here because it meant we want to work to get a contract,” Givan said from a conference room in the Statehouse.
Rutgers AAUP-BHSNJ President Catherine Monteleone said during the update that the “right people” were not present to negotiate with her respective union, although that’s expected to be fixed by Tuesday.
Bryan Sacks, vice president of the Rutgers Adjunct Faculty Union, PTLFC-AAUP-AFT, said the “speed of this process is being accelerated” with the involvement of the governor’s office.
The strike encompasses Rutgers’ New Brunswick, Newark and Camden campuses, impacting approximately 67,000 students. The strike involved three unions: the Rutgers AAUP-AFT, which represents full-time faculty, graduate workers, postdoctoral associates, and Educational Opportunity Fund counselors; the Rutgers PTLFC-AAUP-AFT, which represents part-time lecturers; and AAUP-BHSNJ, which represents workers at Rutgers’ health sciences schools. There are approximately 9,000 striking workers.
Holloway also alleged in the Monday evening email that protestors entered and disrupted a class where there was a “critical exam” that was underway. A university spokesperson did not respond to questions for more details on the incident.
The unions wrote a response Tuesday morning which did not directly address the allegation but said that “[O]ur picket lines have been and will continue to be a peaceful, nonviolent expression of our determination to make a better Rutgers for our students and workers.”
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
Hyderabad: Communist Party of India (CPI) National Secretary K Narayana on Monday said the party would organise a padayatra from April 14 to May 15 throughout India against PM Modi government’s rule.
“A call has been given by CPI from April 14 to May 15, to launch a padayatra to meet the people. We will go to every village, meet the people and explain the dangerous rule of the PM Modi government in all aspects including corporate, development and all common problems.
We are conducting this program throughout India,” CPI National Secretary K Narayana told ANI in Hyderabad.
“We want to explain the dangers coming from the Prime Minister to the country, the Constitution, democracy and secularism. We also want to unite all anti-BJP forces,” he added.
Speaking on PM Modi’s degree he said, “I am unable to understand how he is lying being a Prime Minister. He is lying about everything including his graduation certificate.
This is not about the qualification or the Prime Minister, the question is why is he hiding his graduation certificate unethically and lying about it.”
He also appreciated KCR’s decision to participate in the bid for the Vishakhapatnam steel plant and said, “Telangana Chief Minister KCR is ready to participate in the bid for the Visakhapatnam steel plant.
Around 32 students died during the agitation ‘Visakha Ukku Andhrula Hakku’. It is a prestigious public sector undertaking.” Telangana state government is ready to participate in the bid.
We welcome the decision and congratulate Telangana CM. CPI and our trade unions will support KCR to keep the public sector, he further said.
When asked about how the rule would interact with state laws, a senior administration official said “the federal civil rights law is the law of the land.” Schools that choose to enforce categorical bans on transgender students from playing sports would risk losing federal funds.
“Every student should be able to have the full experience of attending school in America, including participating in athletics, free from discrimination,” Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said in a statement. “Being on a sports team is an important part of the school experience for students of all ages.”
The administration’s rule also comes as House Republicans are expected to imminently bring their restrictive transgender sports bill — H.R. 734 (118) — to the floor for a vote. Dozens of women’s rights and gender justice advocates have been urging the Biden administration to quickly release the rule to combat this legislation and an onslaught of legislation in the states. But they wanted the White House to ensure all transgender students can fully participate in sports.
While the proposal is billed as a compromise, the rule may not go far enough for advocates on behalf of transgender students nor those who say allowing transgender students to play on sports teams compromises competition in women’s sports. The Education Department said the proposal takes into consideration “the importance of minimizing harms to students whose participation on teams consistent with their gender identity would be limited or denied.”
But the rule includes flexibility for schools to develop team eligibility criteria so long as it does not impose sweeping bans or is premised on the “disapproval of transgender students or a desire to harm a particular student.” A school must be able to show that its eligibility requirements “serve important educational objectives, such as ensuring fairness in competition or preventing sports-related injury.”
Additionally, the department acknowledged sports governing bodies vary in their participation criteria, and that school athletic teams vary in their level of competition and that there are differences when it comes to grade level.
The Education Department emphasized that under its proposed rule, “elementary school students would generally be able to participate on school sports teams consistent with their gender identity where considerations may be different for competitive high school and college teams.”
The department said the rule, which was promised last June, was created with input received during its public hearing, during which the Office for Civil Rights received more than 280 live comments and roughly 30,000 written comments.
The agency proposed Title IX regulation will be open for public comment for 30 days from the date of publication in the Federal Register. The department also said it is expecting to publish its final Title IX rule on addressing sexual misconduct in May.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
Thane: Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray on Wednesday slammed the Maharashtra government saying that “Mughal rule” was prevailing in the state , and declared that he would contest the next Assembly election from Thane, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s bastion.
He was speaking at a rally organised by the Shiv Sena (UBT), Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Congress — which comprise the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi coalition — in protest against an alleged attack on a woman worker of the Sena (UBT) in Thane city two days ago.
Sena (UBT) leader and Thane MP Rajan Vichare, NCP leader Jitendra Awhad and Thane city Congress chief Vikrant Chavan participated in the protest march to Thane police commissioner’s office besides thousands of workers of the three MVA parties.
Aaditya Thackeray in his speech said that the Shinde-led Shiv Sena was not a party at all.
“It is a stolen party. How can a gang of thieves be a party?….There is now Mogalai' in the state," said Thackeray, a former state minister. The word isMogalai’ is often used to denote tyranny in Marathi.
“There is no chief minister of Maharashtra, whoever there is, he is the Chief Minister of Guwahati and Gujarat,” he said in a jibe at Shinde, who had taken his flock of Shiv Sena MLAs first to Surat and later to Guwahati after rebelling against Uddhav Thackeray’s leadership last June.
Saying that the Shinde government would not last long, Aaditya said once it falls, everyone including “traitor” leaders and officials who have misused their positions will face consequences.
“I would contest from Thane and win,” said Aaditya, who had won the 2019 Assembly election from Worli in south Mumbai. Chief Minister Shinde, notably, represents the Kopri Pachpakhadi constituency in Thane city.
A woman worker of the Shiv Sena (UBT) was assaulted, but instead of booking the assailants, the police in Thane registered FIRs against her for alleged defamation, Thackeray said.
Roshni Shinde, activist of the Sena (UBT), had alleged that she was assaulted over a `derogatory’ Facebook post about the chief minister and his ally, the BJP.
The chief minister kept quiet even after this atrocity took place in his city, Aaditya Thackeray further said.
He also targeted Shinde over big-ticket industrial projects going to Gujarat instead of Maharashtra.
`Nari Sanman Yatra’ will be taken out in every district of Maharashtra to fight for women’s honour, Thackeray announced.
