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Supreme Court appoints ex-judge Madan Lokur as one-man panel to prevent stubble-burning smog
Former Supreme Court judge Justice Madan B. Lokur has been tasked with protecting Delhi-NCR (National Capital Region) from pollution caused by stubble-burning in neighbouring Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh this winter. In this endeavour, he will be aided by student volunteers from the National Cadet Corps, the National Service Scheme, and the Bharat Scouts and Guides. A Supreme Court Bench led by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sharad A. Bobde on Friday appointed Justice Lokur as a one-man committee to monitor and prevent instances of stubble-burning by farmers in the three States. Student forces will patrol highways and fields in the three States and ensure that no fires are started in the fields. When Haryana counsel protested that these were just schoolchildren, Chief Justice Bobde responded, "This does not involve a great knowledge of fires... Why can't the NCC go and see who is lighting the fires?" The Chief Secretaries of the three States will provide facilities to the committee and provide the student volunteers with adequate transportation to aid their vigil. Existing mobile teams and nodal officers of the States will report to the committee. The Supreme Court's own Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority (EPCA) would consult with the committee on issues related to stubble-burning. The court made it clear to Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati that the formation of the one-man committee was not meant as an adverse comment on the functioning of the EPCA. The committee will file its status reports with the court at least every fortnight. Hathras victim's brother wants case to be heard in Delhi The elder brother of the 19-year-old Scheduled Caste victim of alleged gang-rape and murder in Hathras has demanded that the case and the family be shifted to Delhi. Speaking to reporters in the village on Friday, he said, "We demand that the case be heard in a Delhi court. We would also like to look for employment opportunities in Delhi. It would be better if the government could help us in providing protection and finding employment in Delhi," he said.  Members of the Valmiki community stage a protest in Thane on October 16, 2020 against the U.P. government over the Hathras gang rape and murder. Later, Sub-divisional Magistrate (SDM) Anjali Gangwar, who is in-charge of the security and daily needs of the family, met the father of the victim. "We are providing ration to the family and fodder to the cattle. Their regular medical checkup is also being done," she said. She added that when the victim's father asked if they could work in the fields, she said they could start their normal life under police protection. Hyderabad floods: Telangana seeks immediate aid of ₹1,350 crore The Telangana government has requested the Centre to release ₹1,350 crore as immediate assistance so that it could take up relief and rehabilitation work in the areas affected by incessant rain over the last coupe of days. Of this, ₹600 crore is proposed as assistance for farmers and ₹750 crore will be spent on relief and rehabilitation work in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) area. Preliminary estimates put the losses incurred on account of the deluge at around ₹5,000 crore. Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking immediate release of ₹1,350 crore. The letter followed a high-level meeting convened by Rao to review the situation arising out of the recent rains. The rains and floods resulted in 50 deaths, including 11 in the GHMC area, and crops in over 7.35 lakh acres were submerged. Supreme Court seeks AG's view on bail conditions that 'trivialise' trauma of sexual assault victims The Supreme Court on Friday decided to seek the views of Attorney General K.K. Venugopal on courts imposing problematic bail conditions for sex crime offenders – conditions that often end up further harassing and objectifying the victims. A Bench led by Justice A.M. Khanwilkar decided to take into "consideration the position" of Venugopal, the government's topmost law officer and constitutional authority, after nine women lawyers brought to the court's attention a bail order passed by the Madhya Pradesh High Court in a sexual assault case recently.  Representational image. The High Court, as a condition for grant of bail, had ordered the accused man to visit his victim at home on 'Rakshabandhan' and "allow" her to tie a 'rakhi' on him. The Bench has now scheduled a hearing on November 2. The nine lawyers, led by advocate Aparna Bhat and represented by senior advocate Sanjay Parikh, said the High Court order was a "trivialisation of her (victim's) trauma". Parikh said there were many such instances of court orders which objectified women already traumatised by the crimes committed against them. Health Ministry deputes teams to states reporting surge in Covid-19 cases The Union Health Ministry on Friday deputed teams to Kerala, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and West Bengal – all states that have been reporting a surge in new Covid-19 cases in recent days. A Ministry release said the teams would support the states' efforts towards strengthening containment, surveillance, testing, infection prevention and control measures, and efficient clinical management of the positive cases. They shall also guide in effectively managing the challenges related to timely diagnosis and follow-up.  Workers wearing personal protective equipment sanitise a Durga Puja pandal in Kolkata on October 16, 2020. "Each team comprises a Joint Secretary (nodal officer for the respective State), one public health expert to look after the public health aspects, one clinician to look after infection prevention practices and clinical management protocol being followed by the State,'' said the Ministry. In the past 24 hours, the country has reported 895 case fatalities, and of these, nearly 82% were concentrated in Maharashtra, Karnataka, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Odisha and Delhi. More than 37% of the new fatalities were reported from Maharashtra (337), the Ministry noted. Covid Watch: Numbers and Developments The number of reported coronavirus cases from India stood at 74,26,395 at the time of publishing this newsletter, with the death toll at 1,12,960. Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad took to Twitter on Friday to announce that he has tested positive for Covid-19 and is undergoing home quarantine. The 71-year-old Congress leader, who had recently hit the headlines for being a part of a group of 23 Congress leaders who had questioned the party's leadership, tweeted that all those who came in contact with him should follow the protocol. In Brief: Professor G.N. Saibaba has announced that he will be going on a hunger strike from October 21 to demand basic prisoners' rights such as access to medicines, letters from his family and friends, clothes, and reading material. Saibaba is 90% physically disabled and is lodged at the anda cell of Nagpur Central jail under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. Wicketkeeper-batsman Dinesh Karthik on Friday stepped down as captain of the Kolkata Knight Riders team, handing over the reins to his English deputy Eoin Morgan hours before the IPL match against Mumbai Indians in Abu Dhabi. Karthik told the KKR management that he wanted to "focus on his batting and contributing more to the team's cause. "We are fortunate to have leaders such as DK, who have always put the team first. It takes a lot of courage for someone like him to take a decision such as this," team CEO Venky Mysore said in the statement. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow. | 
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