| Welcome to the Evening Wrap newsletter, your guide to the day's biggest stories with concise analysis from The Hindu. We hope you are staying safe. SC to examine when corruption allegations against judiciary can be made public Just a few days on from a widely criticised judgement which held noted human rights lawyer Prashant Bhushan guilty of contempt of court, the Supreme Court today decided to launch a detailed examination into the circumstances under which a person can make public allegations of corruption against the judiciary. A three-judge Bench led by Justice Arun Mishra also decided to hear arguments on laying down a procedure to be adopted if such statements of corruption are made in public against sitting as well as retired judges. The Bench framed the two questions while hearing a contempt case initiated against Bhushan for his remarks on judicial corruption in an interview to Tehelka magazine published in 2009. "In what circumstances can such statements [on judicial corruption] be made? Under what circumstances can these allegations be made public... We need to hear arguments on these issues," Justice Mishra observed, listing the case for hearing on Monday. The Bench referred to the majority judgment delivered by Justice J.S. Verma for a Constitution Bench in 1992 concerning the removal of Justice V. Ramaswami, a Supreme Court judge. That judgment had laid down the procedure to deal with allegations against a sitting judge and said the judge had to be given a fair opportunity to be heard, and the process had to be restricted to a limited circle of high judicial functionaries and parliamentarians. The Justice Arun Mishra bench said today that the 1992 judgment was against publicly making allegations against judges. But senior advocate Rajeev Dhavan, appearing for Bhushan, said the "idea that you [a critic] cannot go to the Press is a bad decision". He suggested that the questions framed could be referred to a larger Bench. He also said Bhushan intends to file a review against the court's August 14 judgment convicting him of contempt. "We intend to file a review. It [judgment] suffers from great imbalances", Dhavan said. Civil society luminaries, lawyers issue statements against Bhushan contempt conviction  File photo of Prashant Bhushan. Over 3,000 legal and civil society luminaries have issued a statement on the judgment against Prashant Bhushan. Further, around 40 eminent lawyers have asked for an open court hearing by a larger bench, saying the independence of the judiciary does not mean that judges are immune from scrutiny and comment. We link to the text of both the statements here. Statement by 3,000-plus civil society luminaries Statement by lawyers Facebook public policy director alleges threat to life The public policy director of Facebook India, Ankhi Das, on Monday registered a police complaint in South Delhi claiming that she has received threats and offensive messages on social media. Das has filed the complaint with the Chittaranjan Park police station and also marked the complaint to senior police officers. Atul Thakur, DCP (South) said they have received the complaint and an FIR will be registered only after preliminary investigation. The Cyber Prevention Awareness and Detection (CyPAD) unit of the Delhi Police is already looking into the matter. In her complaint, Das has said that the threats were in connection to an article published in the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on August 14, 2020. She alleged that the WSJ report was further published in a mischaracterised and distorted manner in India by various publications and widely circulated on social media. She has identified a few Twitter and Facebook accounts in her complaint. "I am under constant fear and threat, especially being a woman. The perpetrators are deliberately operating through online accounts to hide their identity and to further spread misinformation and incite violence against me to meet their agenda," Das said in her police complaint. SC refuses to postpone NEET/JEE The Supreme Court on Monday refused to entertain a petition by students to postpone the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) and Joint Entrance Examination (JEE). The students had sought a postponement due to pandemic-linked risks. But the SC refused the petition after recording the exam authorities' assurance that all necessary precautions would be taken to ensure the safety of the candidates, whose numbers run into lakhs. "Education should be opened up. Covid-19 may continue for a year more. Are you going to wait for another year? Do you know what is the loss to the country and the career peril to the students," Justice Arun Mishra, who headed the three-judge Bench, asked the petitioners. The petition seeking postponement of the NEET and the JEE scheduled in September had been filed by 11 students from 11 States. Legendary classical vocalist Pandit Jasraj dies at 90  Pandit Jasraj performing in New Delhi in 2017. File Indian classical vocalist Pandit Jasraj died on Monday following a cardiac arrest, at his home in New Jersey, his daughter Durga Jasraj said. He was 90. One of India's greatest music legends, Pandit Jasraj leaves behind a storied legacy spanning almost eight decades. Jasraj, who belonged to the Mewati Gharana, was in the U.S. when the coronavirus-led lockdown happened and decided to stay back in that country. "With profound grief we inform that Sangeet Martand Pandit Jasraj-ji breathed his last this morning at 5.15 EST due to a cardiac arrest at his home in New Jersey, USA," a statement issued by his family said. Heavy rains cause flood-like situation in AP, Telangana  A family moves out of flood water in East Godavari agency on Monday. Heavy monsoon rains over the past four days has led to flood-like situations in several parts of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. The water level at Sir Arthur Cotton Barrage (SAC-Dowleswaram) on the Godavari is inching close to the danger mark, with the discharge of nearly 19 lakh cusecs of the flood water. "The river runs at a higher level than adjacent lands ranging from 3.0 meters to 8.0 meters height during the flood. Due to this reason, the entire length of 535 km of flood bank (in East and West Godavari districts) needs continuous monitoring round the clock to …. guard the adjacent habitations and crops", said the Flood Contingency Plan for River Godavari-2020 advisory. Thousands have been evacuated from low-lying areas in East and West Godavari districts of Andhra Pradesh. In Telangana, if cropland gets submerged, farmers could be staring at huge losses. Covid Watch: Numbers and Developments The number of coronavirus cases reported from India stood at 2687133 at the time of publishing this newsletter, with the death toll at 51,785. In Brief: Filmmaker-actor Nishikant Kamat died at the age of 50 on Monday evening in Hyderabad. He was suffering from liver cirrhosis for the last two years. Kamat made his debut as an actor in 2004 in Hava Aney Dey, and as a filmmaker in 2005 with the Marathi film, Dombivali Fast, which won him a National Award. He made his entry into the Tamil film industry with Evano Oruvan (2007), which was a remake of Dombivali Fast, starring R. Madhavan. In 2015, Kamat directed Drishyam, which was among his biggest hits in Bollywood. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow. | 
Post a Comment