SRINAGAR: Democratic Progressive Azad Party chairman Ghulam Nabi Azad on Sunday said that the time has come for the assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir and it is undemocratic to deprive the people of elected government for a long time.
He was addressing a public gathering in North Kashmir’s Bandipora district where he said that it was during his tenure as Chief Minister that Bandipora was granted district status and since then the development in the district has come to a halt.
“There is no hope, only despair, and anxiety. Someone has to come forward and fight it out for our bright future,” he said.
Azad promised that if the DPAP is elected to power it will ensure the poor are provided free electricity and other benefits so that they won’t face a burden on their budget.
Azad said that he doesn’t make false promises. He said the socioeconomic indicators of Jammu and Kashmir are concerning since it is being pushed to a dark era. He said the economic opportunities are dwindling so is the per capita income. Similarly, no new avenues and job opportunities are created despite thousands of youth every year completing their education. [KNT]
Srinagar: Democratic Progressive Azad Party (DPAP) chairman Ghulam Nabi Azad on Sunday said that the time has come for the assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir and it is undemocratic to deprive the people of an elected government for a long time.
The former Union minister said that DPAP is a party that believes in democratic values and will ensure that various pro-people initiatives are launched to benefit the weaker sections of people in our society if elected to power.
“If the DPAP is elected to power we will ensure the poor are provided free electricity and other benefits so that they won’t face burden on their budget. We will also work to create diverse economic opportunities in various sectors including tourism, agriculture and horticulture so that the economy of common people improves,” he said while addressing a public gathering at Bandipora.
Azad said that when he was the Chief minister of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir, he granted the district status to Bandipora, opened hospitals, colleges and set up a long network of roads to benefit the people.
However, it has been a long time since then and the development in the district seems at a halt now and successive governments have overlooked the growing infrastructural requirements of the district, he said.
Azad said that unlike other people, he would not make false promises and keep people in the dark.
“I will make promises and will deliver on them unlike most of the politicians who visit you and make a number of promises never to deliver,” he said.
The UAE has myriad interests before the U.S. government, including weapons acquisition, and more than a dozen firms actively registered with DOJ to represent government clients.
Otaiba said his favorite event to host is an interfaith Iftar dinner during Ramadan with Christians, Jews, Sikhs, Buddhists and others. Former Trump Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, former Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) and Special Olympics Chair Timothy Shriver have all attended the event, which started before the pandemic.
The dinner in late March drew a lineup of prominent Jewish movers and shakers: Rep. Brad Schneider (D-Ill.), Biden antisemitism envoy Deborah Lipstadt, Israeli Ambassador Michael Herzog and Republican wordsmith Frank Luntz. The menu included salmon, saffron chicken, eggplant and beef kibbeh labanieh, and guests received a box of dates from the UAE as a party favor.
“Everybody leaves feeling good after that,” Otaiba said. “It’s about tolerance, it’s about inclusion, all of the values that we represent and stand for in the Emirates.”
Iftar dinners, however, are relatively mundane compared to many embassy shindigs. The French ambassador’s residence in recent years has held an Améthyste event, an homage to the purple stone. Washington bigwigs who attended last year included Sens. Chris Coons (D-Del.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), senior White House officials Shalanda Young and Mitch Landrieu and Trade Representative Katherine Tai.
The purpose is to bring together Democrats and Republicans, said a French official in Washington who was granted anonymity to discuss the thinking behind the event. But it also hasn’t hidden its connections to K Street influences. Heather Podesta, a mega-lobbyist who that quarter lobbied for companies including Toyota and SpaceX, co-hosted Améthyste in December.
“Any time you put Republicans, Democrats, the media, corporations, nonprofits, entertainment industry, and diplomatic corps in the same room, good things are going to happen,” Podesta said in a statement. “In a town that too often is bifurcated by party, we all need opportunities to know each other better.”
The event’s corporate sponsors included the South Korean conglomerate SK Group and the French investment firm Ardian, which is looking to invest in the U.S., said Steve Clemons, another co-host of the event whose day job is writing a newsletter for the media startup Semafor. Clemons, a familiar face to those operating at the nexus of journalism and the embassy party circuit, became a Chevalier in France’s Legion of Honor in 2021.
In a statement, Ardian did not comment on its involvement in the party. The party also featured Chevron-branded coasters for the energy company, another sponsor. SK Group did not provide a comment. Chevron spokesperson Bill Turenne said in a statement: “Like other brands and news organizations, Chevron is proud to support events in Washington, like Amethyste, that bring Republicans and Democrats together to benefit important charity partners.”
Though denizens of the embassy party circuit say corporate sponsorships date back a number of years, they have at least become more noticeable of late. As part of the festivities around the White House Correspondents’ Association annual dinner, the Swiss commodity company Mercuria is sponsoring Time Magazine’s after-party Saturday night at the Swiss ambassador’s residence.
A representative for Mercuria said in an email: “Mercuria is a Swiss company, so the company often sponsors events at the Swiss embassy. We also sponsor the Soiree Suisse at the Swiss Embassy with other Swiss companies each year.” Spokespeople for the Swiss embassy and Time either declined to comment or did not respond.
One Republican lobbyist said that a company with business with a foreign government or in a foreign country might sponsor an event as a means to build relationships. A defense contractor, for instance, might use the venue to schmooze with a diplomat from a country to whom it hopes to sell military equipment, the lobbyist said.
Alternatively, part of a government’s mission in the U.S. is often wooing companies to show that the country is “open for business” and encourage investment, the person noted.
Asked why more companies are sponsoring events at embassies, Gérard Araud, who was France’s ambassador to Washington from 2014 to 2019, said: “I think it’s money. I think it’s really the foreign ministries are all fighting under budget constraints.” He said that when he was ambassador, he had to get approval from the foreign affairs ministry in Paris for any proposed sponsorship of an embassy event.
POLITICO has partnered with embassies in the past, including hosting an event earlier this month at the home of the European Union ambassador. Thursday’s event took place at the home of Ambassador Karen Pierce.
“POLITICO proudly convenes high-level gatherings of influential people which is why we are so excited to partner with the British Embassy in April to showcase our reporting teams from both here and London for a fantastic audience,” said Brad Dayspring, executive vice president of global communications and brand at POLITICO. “More conversations are needed in Washington, not less, which is why our reporters and editors regularly attend events like these and why we prioritize hosting and connecting people at them.”
One of the quirkiest draws on the embassy party circuit is the Finnish Embassy’s long-running sauna series, which brings together journalists and Hill staffers for a long night of sauna time, conversation and Scandinavian food. The ambassador has his own sauna that he uses to have one-on-ones with top government officials and journalists.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
For Trump, it’s barely a blip. The former president’s polling lead over his 2024 Republican rivals has grown as his legal morass deepens. A recurring joke he made again Thursday about being served a subpoena if he so much as flies over a Democratic-leaning state drew laughs and applause from those attending.
Trump supporters at his campaign rally in downtown Manchester were unfazed by the latest developments in his legal woes, accusing Democrats of weaponizing the judicial system against the former president and dismissing as more noise the civil defamation lawsuit in which Trump is accused of rape.
“It’s just a lot of distraction,” said Bert Sooner, a 60-year-old Republican and Trump supporter from Gilmanton, N.H.
Trump returned to New Hampshire on Thursday for the first time since his legal drama deepened and since Biden launched his reelection campaign.
The former president made no direct mention of the lawsuit brought by E. Jean Carroll, a magazine columnist who alleges Trump sexually assaulted her in the dressing room of a luxury department store in the 1990s, that began Tuesday in Manhattan federal court. Trump has denied Carroll’s account, saying the episode “never happened.” He was admonished by the judge overseeing the proceedings on Wednesday over a social media post in which he called the lawsuit “a made up SCAM.”
Instead, he used a speech on economic policy to hurl insults at Biden — including slapping the “crooked” label he’s long affixed to Hillary Clinton’s name to Biden instead. Trump repeatedly attacked Biden, calling him a “hopeless person” and a “threat to democracy” who “doesn’t have a clue.” And he touted his record on the economy, saying that he left Biden with “a booming economy” but that the president “blew it to shreds.”
Ammar Moussa, a spokesperson for the Democratic National Committee, pushed back immediately.
“Trump’s lies won’t change the fact he holds the worst jobs record of any president since the Great Depression and rigged the economy for the ultra-wealthy and biggest corporations,” Moussa said in a statement. “Trump’s stewardship of the economy was an abject disaster, in stark contrast to the over 12 million jobs the Biden-Harris administration has helped deliver for America in just two years.”
Trump also laid into his potential Republican rivals, citing polling that shows him with double-digit leads to rib Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis — “Ron DeSanctus” — former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, whose name drew immediate and loud boos from the crowd in his home state. A Fox News poll out Wednesday showed Trump with a 32-point lead over DeSantis.
Trump leaned on his polling leads to revive his threats to skip a presidential primary debate. The former president and his advisers have privately raised concerns about the debate slated for August, saying it’s too far in advance of the first nominating contests, according to two people familiar with the conversations.
“Nixon and Reagan and Bush … no, they didn’t debate in the primaries,” Trump said on Thursday. “Seriously, you look at the boards … and you’re looking at these numbers. Why would you do that?”
“But I do look forward to the debate with Joe — Crooked Joe,” he added.
Trump’s legal problems extend beyond the two that bubbled up behind the scenes on Thursday. The former president faces 34 felony charges in New York related to an alleged scheme to bury allegations of extramarital affairs ahead of the 2016 presidential election. And on Monday, the Atlanta-area district attorney, Fani Willis, indicated that more charges might be on the horizon for Trump this summer in a case related to efforts by him and his allies to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in the state.
But in New Hampshire, the former president did not back down.
“I won a second time by far more votes, but it was a rigged election,” he told the crowd to cheers, calling for tighter restrictions on voting, including all-paper ballots, voter ID laws and strictly same-day voting.
“I don’t even care if you help me campaign — you don’t have to help me,” he told the crowd. “I just want help on making sure the vote is cast and counted fairly.”
More concerned about border security and the economy than Trump’s legal troubles, rally-goers who in some cases drove five hours to see the former president erupted at his claims about the 2020 election, unburdened by concerns about what could be contained in the former vice president’s ongoing testimony.
“It doesn’t play at all,” New Hampshire state Rep. John Leavitt, a Republican who endorsed Trump on Thursday and joined him onstage, said of the various investigations and court proceedings surrounding Trump. “It’s in the past.”
Clad in their bright red “Make America Great Again” baseball caps and draped in American flags and denim jackets with Trump’s face plastered across them, voter after voter brushed aside the various legal proceedings against Trump as the latest in a long line of attacks that haven’t stuck.
“I think it’s all B.S.,” said Christine Smith, a Republican from Derry, N.H.
Trump hasn’t held a campaign rally in New Hampshire since 2020 and hasn’t been in the state since late January, when he addressed GOP insiders at the party’s state committee meeting.
On Thursday, he packed The Armory function hall at the downtown DoubleTree hotel to its 750-person capacity, according to security, rallying hundreds of his stalwarts in the same room where DeSantis wowed Republican activists just two weeks ago with a burst of unexpected retail politicking after headlining a party fundraising dinner. Trump aides said the choice of location was a coincidence.
Even in a smaller venue than Trump supporters in this state are accustomed to — the former president typically favors the arena down the street — his supporters were enraptured by his return. They cheered and jeered in all the right places of his speech, which stretched over an hour and a half. Even as the crowd thinned slightly toward the end, dozens of people rushed the stage barriers when Trump began to work the rope line, signing hats and saluting his fans.
Jeffrey Duran, a Republican wearing a black T-shirt with a fake Trump mugshot on it and a hat with the former president’s John Hancock scrawled across the rim, stood toward the back of the fawning crowd and blasted the legal proceedings against Trump as “political persecution.”
“The justice system is being weaponized and used against the American people. If they can do it to him, silence the [former] president, they could do it to anybody. It’s totally un-American,” said Duran, who drove up from New York City to attend the rally. “It backfires on them, on the people who are pointing the fingers at him.”
Lisa Kashinsky reported from Manchester, and Kelly Garrity from Washington
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
Prince Harry’s attempt to arrange a high court showdown with Rupert Murdoch’s newspaper company depends on one thing: did the prince meet a deadline to file his legal paperwork?
This week’s legal hearing at the high court in London has been full of fresh revelations about the relationship between royalty and the media. There have been claims that Prince William struck a secret phone-hacking settlement with Murdoch’s company for a “huge” sum of money; that King Charles tried to stop Harry’s legal cases so he could get favourable coverage in the Sun; and that Piers Morgan was aware Diana, Princess of Wales had been illegally targeted by his reporters.
Harry even claims that his war on the Murdoch newspaper business had the blessing of Queen Elizabeth II, his late grandmother.
But that does not necessarily mean he has a strong case in relation to this week’s hearing. The judge is looking at a much narrower issue, and he has already challenged Harry’s account.
The legal argument boils down to this: when did Prince Harry fully understand that he was potentially a victim of phone hacking? And then did he start his legal claim in time?
Murdoch’s company wants a judge to rule that the prince missed his deadline and therefore the entire case should be thrown out before going to a messy and expensive public trial.
Claimants have six years to bring a case in the civil courts, starting from the claimed wrongdoing or the moment they were aware of the alleged illegal behaviour. As Harry’s barrister David Sherborne argued, it is easy to know exactly when you were run over by a car if you want to start a legal case against the driver. It’s harder to know when you became a victim of phone hacking.
Harry alleges he only became aware of the full scale of phone hacking at the Sun and News of the World in 2019, shortly before he filed his claim.
The court heard that Harry had been relatively ignorant because did not have access to the newspapers that were reporting on phone hacking allegations in the late 2000s. The prince’s barrister said: “He was on active service in Afghanistan and they didn’t have the Guardian.”
Harry’s legal argument partly relies on the existence of a supposed secret deal between the royal household and “senior executives” at Murdoch’s company. Under the alleged deal, the royals would hold off bringing legal cases against the publisher of the Sun, in return for receiving an apology and settlement when all the other legal cases were concluded.
The challenge is that there is apparently no written copy of the deal and leading lawyers who worked with Murdoch’s business deny any knowledge of such a deal.
Sherborne, Harry’s lawyer, told the court that the focus should instead be on whether the leading Murdoch executives Rebekah Brooks and Robert Thomson knew about it.
Emails from 2017 and 2018 released as part of the hearing suggest the queen was kept updated on the case, only for Thomson to fail to reply to one message for several months – suggesting the email had been “lost” in his inbox.
When Thomson did reply, he told the royal household that he had an “understanding” that “we would wait for the civil cases to be resolved” before acting.
Harry says he learned about the supposed secret arrangement in 2012, which Murdoch’s lawyers argue should have been the moment to bring a case and start the six-year legal countdown clock.
Mr Justice Fancourt has already raised questions about “inconsistencies” in Harry’s paperwork, and Murdoch’s company has claimed it is “fanciful” that Harry could not have started on preliminary legal claims at an earlier date.
Sherborne told the court that Harry took his time because evidence was concealed by the publisher of the Sun. The barrister said that if Murdoch’s company succeeded in blocking the trial, it would show that “crime does pay”.
A judgment on whether the case can proceed is expected in July. If Harry is successful, the full trial would take place in January 2024.
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( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )
The end of the road for the Bolt comes at the beginning of a new era for EVs.
Over the next two or three years, the availability of EVs is poised to transition from just one or two models per automaker to a full slate of vehicles, of many styles and at many price points. Vehicles like the tiny, wedge-shaped Bolt are less popular than SUVs and trucks.
That’s true both for customers, who can’t get enough of larger vehicles, and automakers, who need the higher profit margins from larger vehicles to fund the expensive EV transition.
Observers were conflicted over the Bolt’s demise and what it signifies.
In the eyes of some, it was fitting for the compact to go away as GM and other automakers prepare for an onslaught of models. Others were confounded that GM had chosen to discontinue America’s most inexpensive EV while demand is high.
Joel Levin, executive director of Plug In America, a nonprofit group that aims to broaden EV acceptance, said in an email that the move felt “premature.”
“The Bolt is at its peak right now. Sales are high. With great effort and expense, they’ve resolved the battery issues. It’s a great option for consumers that are looking for a long range vehicle at a reasonable price,” he said.
“It will definitely leave a hole in the market,” he added.
The Bolt and its larger cousin, the Bolt EUV, sold 38,000 units last year in the United States. It is the cheapest nationally with a starting price of $26,500. But it ranks as the No. 5 EV seller behind Tesla Inc.’s slate of EVs and the Ford Mach-E SUV.
GM now makes two other EVs, the Cadillac LYRIQ and the GMC Hummer, but both are much larger and more expensive and are so far available only in small volumes.
The Bolt’s decline is coming as GM gears up to bring new mass-market models to showrooms. They include the Chevy Equinox, which will start around $30,000, and the Chevy Blazer, at around $45,000. Both are expected to start production this year.
“The Chevrolet Bolt represents GM’s first serious electric vehicle effort,” said Karl Brauer, an analyst for iSeeCars.com, an automotive search engine. “But the Bolt represents GM’s electric vehicle past, not its future.”
For its part, GM said it was ending production of the Bolt because the factory in which it’s made needs to close for retooling.
The Orion plant, just north of Detroit, is preparing for the making of two electric pickup trucks, the GMC Sierra and the Chevrolet Silverado. “We’ve progressed so far that it’s now time to plan the end of Chevrolet Bolt EV and EUV production,” GM CEO Mary Barra said on a call with investors Tuesday to announce the company’s most recent financial results.
Third time’s not the charm
GM is infamous for killing electric cars.
Way back in 2002, after a short run, it ended production of the EV1, America’s very first mass-produced EV. The opaque reasons behind its termination led to the documentary “Who Killed the Electric Car?” which turned the EV into a political cause and an early actor in the emerging debate over climate change.
Between the EV1 and the Bolt — and another, smaller experiment called the Spark — came another high-profile EV. Like that Bolt, it would come to market with innovative technology and high expectations but meet with disappointing sales.
Even its name was similar: It was called the Volt.
Today, the Volt’s vehicle class is called a plug-in hybrid. When it was introduced in 2010, however, no one knew what to call it. China was the first to introduce the basic idea: a vehicle that runs primarily on a battery, with a backup gasoline engine. When GM introduced its version to American drivers, it called it an “extended range electric car.”
Sales never reached GM’s hopes; the car ended production in 2018 having sold a total of about 177,000 units. By comparison, Tesla sold more than 462,000 EVs in the United States in the last year alone.
What would become the Volt’s successor — the Bolt — was introduced at the Detroit Auto Show in 2015.
It ditched the backup gasoline engine and was pure electric. It was similar in size to another mass-market EV, the Nissan LEAF, which had been introduced in 2010.
However, the Bolt was the first attempt by a U.S.-based automaker to make a pure-electric vehicle intended to be sold in every state, not just to meet regulatory requirements in California.
Its proposition was very similar to what ended up becoming the reality: a range of 200 miles or better with a price around $30,000. At the time, Barra called it “a game-changing electric vehicle designed for attainability, not exclusivity.”
“In some ways, everything about the Bolt seemed like a good idea,” said Mike Ramsey, an auto analyst for the consultancy Gartner, of the Bolt. “It provided a very nice range at a relatively low price.”
While the Bolt had its fans, the compact never generated a ton of excitement.
“Seeing one of these on the road doesn’t evoke any strong emotions in the looks department,” wrote Zander Sutton, an automotive blogger, in a review of the Bolt EUV, which was introduced in 2016. “They were never the prettiest cars on the road … but there’s little to be offended by.”
Any buzz that the Bolt may have generated was sucked up by another entry-level EV that became a global sensation: the Tesla Model 3. It was “a stylish car with better performance and range — albeit at a higher price.” Ramsey said.
Then, in 2021, a safety problem engulfed the Bolt brand. A series of battery fires destroyed 16 Bolts, resulting in a series of recalls that came to encompass every Bolt that GM had sold. Drivers were warned “to park their vehicles outside and away from structures, and to not charge the vehicles overnight.”
“That took most of the wind out of the sails for the Bolt and unfortunately consigned it to a sort of second-tier product,” Ramsey said.
Finally, technology is passing the Bolt by.
In 2020, GM said that all its future models would share a new battery technology, called Ultium. The platform, co-developed with Korean battery maker LG Chem Ltd., is the basis for all of GM’s upcoming slate of EVs, including models now on the market like the Cadillac LYRIQ and the GMC Hummer.
“GM likely was faced with a decision about updating and/or refreshing the Bolt with new electrical systems to support its other services-based ambitions,” Ramsey said, “and decided it would discontinue it rather than not have the capabilities the other EVs in the lineup would have.”
A version of this report first ran in E&E News’ Climatewire. Get access to more comprehensive and in-depth reporting on the energy transition, natural resources, climate change and more in E&E News.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
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Mysuru: Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Tuesday said that it is time for a change in Karnataka as BJP has not done any constructive work in the state.
While addressing the mediapersons, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said, “They (BJP) have not done any constructive work for Karnataka. So it is time for a change”.
“In the last three years from every aspect things have got down in the state be it facilities or infrastructure. People rather listening to politicians know from their own experiences about the governance of the BJP,” she added.
She further stated that a corrupt government is being run in the state of Karnataka which has done nothing for the people.
“Karnataka is running a corrupt government and it is a government that has done nothing for the people. We want a government that works for the people, BJP did not do any work for the people of Karnataka,” she said.
In this regard, Priyanka Gandhi also took to Twitter and said, “Actually the people of the state are fighting the election of Karnataka – against the government with 40% commission, against the betrayal done to Karnataka, against the corruption of BJP. Congress is coming – for employment, for relief from inflation, for the welfare of the poor, for the development of the state”.
Earlier Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday hit out at the incumbent BJP government in Karnataka, claiming the “40 per cent commission government” will be reduced to 40 seats in the May 10 Assembly elections.
Addressing a roadshow in Vijayapura, Rahul Gandhi said, “The Congress will form the government in Karnataka with 150 seats while 40 per cent commission government of the BJP will be reduced to 40 seats”.
Reacting to this Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday hit back at Rahul Gandhi over his allegations of terming the Bommai government in Karnataka as ’40 per cent commission BJP government’ and said if the Congress have evidence they should go to court.
“They can talk about it and should go to court if they have concrete evidence. Neither there’s any probe nor there’s any case. How will people believe in such baseless allegations?” he said.
The Karnataka assembly elections will be held in a single phase on May 10, with the counting of votes scheduled on May 13.
New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Tuesday charge-sheeted former Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi, Manish Sisodia, along with businessman Amandeep Singh Dhall, Hyderabad-based CA Butchibabu Gorantla, and a person named Arjun Pandey in connection with the Delhi liquor policy case.
All four of them have been chargesheeted in the second supplementary charge sheet filed in this matter by the CBI on Tuesday. The charge sheet has invoked sections Indian Penal Code and the Prevention of Corruption Act. The is the first that the CBI has named Sisodia, who’s is judicial custody for nearly two months now, in its charge sheet.
The CBI had earlier filed a charge sheet in the same case against seven persons.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court has told a couple, who are software engineers seeking a divorce, why don’t they give a second chance to the marriage as both of them were not able to devote time to their union.
A bench of Justices K M Joseph and B V Nagarathna said, “Where is the time for marriage? Both of you are software engineers posted in Bengaluru. One goes to duty during the day and the other at night. You have no regret for divorce but have regret for marriage. Why don’t you give a second chance to the marriage.”
Justice Nagarathna said that Bengaluru is not a place where divorces take place so frequently and the couple may give a chance towards their union.
However, the counsels for both the husband and wife told the bench that during the pendency of this petition, the parties were referred to the Supreme Court Mediation Centre in order to explore the possibility of a settlement between them.
The bench was informed that both husband and wife have agreed upon a settlement agreement in which they have decided to dissolve their marriage by a decree of divorce by mutual consent under Section 13B of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 on certain terms and conditions.
The counsels informed the bench that one of the terms was that the husband would pay a total sum of Rs 12.51 lakh towards a full and final settlement of all monetary claims of the wife as a permanent alimony.
The bench noted in its order dated April 18, “When queried by this Court, the parties stated that they have indeed agreed to settle their disputes amicably by parting ways and seeking divorce by mutual consent. They also state that the terms of settlement would be adhered to by them and hence the marriage may be dissolved by a decree of divorce by mutual consent.”
The bench added that in the circumstances, “We have taken on record the settlement agreement as well as the application filed under Article 142 of the Constitution. We have perused the same. On perusal, we find that the terms of the settlement agreements are lawful and there is no legal impediment for accepting the terms of settlement”.
It also took on record that the husband paid a total sum of Rs 12,51,000 to the petitioner-wife who has acknowledged the receipt of the demand drafts.
“In the circumstances, we exercise our power under Article 142 of the Constitution and dissolve the marriage between the parties by a decree of divorce by mutual consent under Section 13B of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955,” the top court said.
It also quashed various other proceedings lodged by husband and wife in Rajasthan and Lucknow under the Dowry Prohibition Act, domestic violence Act and other connected cases.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Siasat staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
