Anubhav sinha on kashmir files

A plea seeking a review of the judgement that upheld the Centre’s 2016 decision to demonetise Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 currency notes was filed in the Supreme Court on Sunday. A five-judge Constitution bench, in a 4:1 majority verdict, on January 2 had given its stamp of approval, saying the decision-making process was neither flawed nor hasty. The review plea was filed by lawyer ML Sharma, one of the 58 petitioners who had moved the top court challenging the demonetisation exercise announced on November 8, 2016. Sharma, in his review plea, contended that the bench did not consider his “written arguments” in its verdict on the batch of pleas which led to “serious injustice and miscarriage of justice”. “It is, therefore, most respectfully prayed that … may be pleased to: (i) Review the Judgment…,” it said. Observing that the scope of judicial review in matters of economic policy is ”narrower”, a five-judge Constitution bench headed by Justice S A Nazeer, since retired, had said … [Read more...] about Plea Seeking Review of Verdict on Demonetisation Filed in Supreme Court

The FBI is reportedly widening its investigation into Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton after new details in claims by former staffers that he helped a real estate developer in return for renovations to his million-dollar home and a job for his alleged mistress. Last fall, a number of senior staffers accused Texas's highest-ranking attorney of committing crimes to assist Nate Paul, later alleging that the developer or companies owned by him had a hand in work done on Paxton's home. All of those making accusations quit or were fired; four later sued the attorney general under the state's whistleblower law. The latest details have emerged in an updated court complaint filed Thursday. The lawsuit accuses Paxton of abusing his position to help Paul and claims the former deputies have information to suggest Paul "was involved in" the remodelling of a house in an affluent area of Austin, owned by Paxton. It also claims Paul employed the attorney general's alleged mistress as a … [Read more...] about Texas AG Paxton Faces Deeper FBI Scrutiny After Details From Ex-Aides

An FIR was registered on Sunday against Yoga guru Ramdev for allegedly promoting enmity and outraging religious feelings over his provocative remarks at a meeting of seers in Rajasthan’s Barmer district, police said. The FIR was registered at Chauhatan police station based on a complaint filed by a local resident, Pathai Khan, a police officer said. According to Chauhatan police station SHO Bhutaram, the case was registered under IPC sections 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence), 295A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs) and 298 (uttering, words, etc., with deliberate intent to wound the religious feelings of any person). At the meeting of seers on February 2, Ramdev accused Muslims of resorting to terror and abducting Hindu women while comparing Hinduism to Islam and Christianity. He alleged that the two faiths were … [Read more...] about Ramdev Booked for Provocative Speech at Seer’ Meet Rajasthan

The Delhi High Court will on Monday hear a bail plea by JNU student and activist Sharjeel Imam in a UAPA case related to the alleged conspiracy behind the 2020 riots here. Imam, who was arrested in February 2020, was on Saturday discharged along with 10 others in the 2019 Jamia Nagar violence case, with the court saying they were made ”scapegoats” by police. The plea, which was filed in April 2022 against a trial court order refusing to grant bail to Imam in the matter, is listed before a bench of Justices Siddharth Mridul and Rajnish Bhatnagar. In this case, Sharjeel Imam and several others, including Umar Khalid, have been booked under the anti-terror law Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and provisions of the Indian Penal Code for allegedly being the ”masterminds” of the February 2020 riots in the North-East Delhi, which left 53 people dead and over 700 injured. The violence had erupted during the protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the … [Read more...] about Delhi Riots Case: HC to Hear on Monday Sharjeel Imam’s Bail Plea in UAPA Case

Violence broke out in South Sikkim district’s Namchi on Sunday as supporters of the ruling Sikkim Krantikari Morcha (SKM) allegedly vandalised an office of the opposition Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF), police said. The incident happened at Damthang Road amid the 48-hour bandh called by the SDF, protesting the Supreme Court’s observation on the Sikkimese Nepali community. Soon, a police team reached the spot and controlled the situation, officials said, adding that adequate forces were deployed in the area. On Saturday, the first day of the bandh, the SDF headquarters on Bypass Road was vandalised. Police said they arrested three persons in connection with the vandalism and are on the search for the others involved in it. Those arrested have been booked under IPC section 147 (rioting), police said. Ten SDF members were also arrested in Gangtok for burning the effigy of Chief Minister Prem Singh Tamang. Among those arrested were youth leader Arun Limbu and former minister … [Read more...] about Violence in Sikkim Amid SDF’s Bandh Over ‘Immigrant’ Row

A 16-year-old girl died on Saturday after being mauled by a shark in a river in Western Australia’s state capital Perth after she jumped in the water to swim with a pod of dolphins. Police said they were called to the scene of the attack on Saturday afternoon local time near a traffic bridge in the Swan River, in the Fremantle port area of Perth. The girl was pulled from the water with critical injuries and she died at the scene, police said in a statement. Police believe the victim was with friends and jumped off a jet ski to swim with a pod of dolphins in the river when the shark attack occurred. Authorities were not sure what kind of shark attacked the girl, the Australian Broadcasting Corp reported. People were being urged to take extra caution in the Swan River around Fremantle in the wake of the mauling. The last fatal shark attack in Western Australian waters was in November 2021 when a 57-year-old man was killed by a great white shark at Perth’s Port … [Read more...] about Girl killed in shark attack on Australia’s west coast

For the 26th time in two years, the Texas attorney general Ken Paxton recently filed a lawsuit in federal court challenging a Biden administration policy. The suit, which seeks to wipe out a new Labor Department rule about the investment of pension trust assets, wasn’t filed in Austin, the state capital, or in Dallas, where the Labor Department’s regional offices are, or anywhere else with a logical connection to the dispute. It was filed in Amarillo. Why Amarillo? By filing there, Mr. Paxton had a 100 percent chance of having the case assigned to Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk — appointed to the bench by President Donald Trump in 2019 and a former deputy general counsel to the First Liberty Institute, which frequently litigates religious liberty cases before the Supreme Court. “Forum shopping” has long been a problem in civil litigation. Clever lawyers use procedural rules to file in courts deemed most likely to be sympathetic to their claims. But what Mr. Paxton and other plaintiffs are … [Read more...] about Don’t Let Republican ‘Judge Shoppers’ Thwart the Will of Voters

On Wednesday, the city of Memphis remembered the life of Tyre Nichols, a young man who was beaten by at least five Memphis police officers and died three days later. Stories like this are terrible, they’re relentless, and they renew one of the most contentious debates in the nation: Are there deep and systemic problems with the American police? How we answer that question isn’t based solely on personal experience or even available data. It often reflects a massive partisan divide, one that reveals how we understand our relationships with the institutions we prize the most — and the least. Every year Gallup releases a survey that measures public confidence in a variety of American institutions, including the police. In 2022, no institution (aside from the presidency) reflected a greater partisan trust gap than the police. A full 67 percent of Republicans expressed confidence in the police, versus only 28 percent of Democrats. Why is that gap so large? While I try to avoid … [Read more...] about ‘Bad Apples’ or Systemic Issues?

In Albany, an outbreak of the coronavirus erupted among nurses and patients in the cancer unit of a hospital. Across the state, nurses at hospitals in the Buffalo area bought their own masks and face shields out of concern about the quality of supplies in stock. And when an emergency room nurse in New Rochelle began her shift, she was asked to care for 15 patients, after her co-workers called out sick. The accounts recall the early days of the pandemic, when the virus ravaged New York — but these scenes took place over the past several weeks. Nurses and other health care workers in the state have begun to warn about the conditions in hospitals, as virus patients are checking in at an alarming rate. “We’re worse off in some ways than we were in the beginning,” said Shalon Matthews, an emergency room nurse in New Rochelle. “We need staff, we need help, we need resources. I’m fearful for my patients and I’m fearful that the same thing that happened back in March, it’s … [Read more...] about Nurses Are Anxious and Angry in 2nd Wave: ‘We’re Not Prepared’

WASHINGTON, March 18 - Congressional leaders, concerned that many nonprofit hospitals are not providing enough charity care to justify their tax-exempt status, say they will set standards for the industry if it does not do so itself. The chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, who had already been examining nonprofit groups like United Way and the American Red Cross, is broadening his focus to include nonprofit hospitals, with an eye to legislation that would clarify standards for their tax exemptions. Representative Bill Thomas, Republican of California, the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, began investigating the financial practices of nonprofit hospitals last year. The commissioner of internal revenue, Mark W. Everson, said tax officials often found little difference between nonprofit and for-profit hospitals "in their operations, their attention to the benefit of the community or their levels of charity care." Huge … [Read more...] about Nonprofit Hospitals Face Scrutiny Over Practices