October 10th, 2013

ALB20131010

Abhyaas Law Bulletin

For the quintessential CLAT aspirant
The Scoop Of The Month

Union Cabinet approves creation of Telangana

The Editors Column Dear Student, Welcome to the October edition of the Abhyaas law Bulletin. The Union Cabinet approved the creation of a new state of Telangana from Andhra Pradesh. It has also constituted a GoM to prepare the bill. There are widespread protests in the 13 districts of the Seemandhra region following the cabinet decision. The Union Government also withdrew the controversial ordinance that would allow convicted MPs and MLAs to continue in office pending an appeal. The Government had to finally give in after differences within the Congress party and widespread public anger.

The Union Cabinet decided in principle to create the 29th state of the Indian Union by carving out from Andhra Pradesh the state of Telangana. Two months after the Congress Working Committee and the UPA coordination panel approved the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh state, which was formed in 1956, the Union Cabinet directed that a Group of Ministers be formed to formulate the Telangana Bill and work on related legal and administrative matters. Union home minister Sushilkumar Shinde announced the decision after the two-hour Cabinet meeting concluded. However, he did not say how long the process of formation of the new state will take. There was also no word on under whose administrative control Hyderabad will function as the joint capital for 10 years. In a way, the Union Cabinet has only endorsed the full text of the CWC resolution on the creation of Telangana state. GoM on Telangana to submit report in 6 weeks Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde on said a 10-member Group of Ministers (GoM) would give its report within six weeks comprising recommendations on various crucial issues (Contd..)

The draft report of the JPC on 2G spectrum allocation cleared Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister P. Chidambaram of any wrongdoing and blamed the then Communications Minister A. Raja.
Chief Justice of India P. Sathasivam said Fundamental Rights and the Directive Principles of State Policy needed to be balanced and harmonized if they were to reap social order and empower people. Happy Reading !

(Rakesh Dubbudu) Index: Page 2: National Page 3: National & International Page 4: Spotlight

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October 10th, 2013 National: including the boundary of the new State, so that the bill on the new State could be tabled in Parliament in the winter session. The GoM includes Ministers for Home, Finance, Law, Water Resources, Human Resource Development, Urban Development, Road Transport and Highways, Power and Personnel Ministers, besides the Planning Commission Deputy Chairman. It would make recommendations on the boundaries of Telangana, division of bureaucracy and sharing of assets and resources, including river water and irrigation projects. The Cabinet note says that the GoM would work out the various legal and administrative measures to ensure the safety and security of residents of all the regions of the State. The GoM has also been mandated to go into the various issues which concern both States (Telangana and Andhra Pradesh) and suggest appropriate measures to address them. It will also work out the modalities for provision of special financial disbursements required for the setting up of a new capital for the residuary State of Andhra Pradesh and to meet the special needs of the backward regions and districts of the two States. Since the Cabinet has recommended that the city of Hyderabad will function as the common capital for both the States for a period of 10 years, the GoM would have to look into the legal and administrative measures required to ensure that both State governments function efficiently from Hyderabad. The GoM will also study issues related to law and order in the region. Supreme Court pulls up Uttarakhand High Court The Supreme Court has pulled up the Uttarakhand High Court for passing an order ignoring the law, and quashed the appointment of Ravinder Kumar as managing director of the Uttarakhand Peyjal Sanshadhan Vikas Avam Nirman Nigam. A Bench of Justice H. L. Gokhale and Justice J. Chelameswar said: The fact of pending charge-sheets against Mr. Ravinder Kumar ought to have been placed before the Selection Committee. In the absence of such a very vital material being placed before the Selection Committee, the Committee went into the aspect of determining the merit without having the benefit of this vital material which was against respondent No.4. If these charge-sheets were made available to the Committee, it would have taken its decision after considering the same. Writing the judgment, Justice Gokhale said: The Principal Secretary to the Water Supply Department is the Chairman of the Nigam. It was his responsibility to place these charge sheets before the Selection Committee of which he is a member. If the Secretary of the department suppresses the relevant material, obviously the selection will not be on merit. This in fact raises a serious doubt about the integrity of the then Chairman of the Nigam. The Bench said: We are equally or more appalled at the manner in which the concerned division bench of the High Court has handled the matter. The High Court has totally ignored the law on this aspect. The relevant rule No. 5 was brought to the notice of the High Court. Submissions were made thereon, and yet the High Court held that the law permitted the selectors to ignore altogether the charges. Delhi gangrape: All four accused sentenced to death All the four convicts in December 16 gang rape and murder case were awarded death penalty by Delhi court. Earlier, the victims family demanded nothing less than capital punishment, the convicts -- Mukesh (26), Akshay Thakur (28), Pawan Gupta (19) and Vinay Sharma (20) -- had begged for mercy before Additional Sessions Judge Yogesh Khanna, who had held them guilty of gang rape and cold blooded murder of a defenseless 23year-old girl in a premeditated manner. Having also been convicted for murder, the statute provides a minimum of life sentence and maximum of death penalty. Demanding gallows for the four, the Delhi Police had claimed there was no scope for sympathy for their barbaric crime and pressed that some crimes are so outrageous that the society also demands strict punishment. The defense counsel had, however, sought a chance for their reformation and went to the extent of quoting Mahatma Gandhi saying, Only God can give life and only He has the right to take it away. The juvenile accused was on August 31 convicted and sentenced to a maximum of three years in a reformation home.

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October 10th, 2013 Why fast-track VIP cases, SC poser to high court The Supreme Court deprecated the practice of giving preference to cases of VIPs and declined to interfere with an order of the Delhi High Court refusing to extend the former Haryana Chief Minister, Om Prakash Chautalas interim bail on medical grounds in the teachers appointment scam. A Bench of Justices H.L. Dattu and S.J. Mukhopadaya, however, granted time till September 23 for Mr. Chautala to surrender before the jail authorities concerned. Mr. Chautala was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment last January. 75% funding of unknown: NGO six national parties remain Indian-American nominated to key post Indian-American Middle East expert Puneet Talwar has been nominated by U.S. President Barack Obama to a key diplomatic post as the Assistant Secretary of State for Political Military Affairs. Mr. Talwar has been a Special Assistant to President Obama and Senior Director for Iran, Iraq and the Gulf states since 2009, is the second IndianAmerican to be nominated to this position. Syria agrees to sign Chemical Weapons Convention

Association for Democratic Reforms(ADR), an NGO working for transparency, has highlighted that as much as 75 per cent of the funding of the six national parties is from unknown sources. Arguing that full transparency was not possible under the current laws, ADR said because a very large per cent of the income of political parties cannot be traced to the original donor, full details of all donors should be made available for public scrutiny under the Right to Information Act. An analysis of the Income Tax returns and statements filed with the Election Commission by the Congress, BJP, BSP, NCP, CPI and CPM by ADR has shown that their sources of funding remain largely unknown. Total income of these political parties between 200405 and 2011-12 was Rs. 4,895.96 crores. Out of this Rs. 3,674.50 crores, which is 75.05 per cent of the total income, is from unknown sources. With 91.58 per cent of funding from unknown sources, the Nationalist Congress Party tops the list; while Congress takes the second place with 82.5 per cent; with 73 per cent of the income of BJP, the principal opposition party, being also from unknown sources. The percentage for BSP, CPM and CPI stood at 61.8, 53.8 and 14.7 respectively. At present, political parties are not required to reveal the name of individuals or organizations giving less than Rs.20,000 because of which political parties use this route to hide their source of funding. Advocating complete transparency in the functioning of the political class, founder member of ADR Trilochan Sastry asked: Why can't the public get to know about the funding of parties when this is the practice in many countries, including smaller ones like Nepal and Bhutan?

Syria has pledged to eliminate its chemical weapon stockpile under international supervision, a move that is likely to encourage diplomacy, which has now been backed by the United States following Russias bold intervention to end the crisis. Syrias Foreign Minister Walid Muallem had declared that his country was ready to take all steps leading to elimination of its chemical weapons arsenal an initiative that would culminate in Damascus signing the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC). We will open our storage sites, and cease production, Mr. Muallem told Lebanons alMaydeen TV. We are ready to open these facilities to Russia, other countries and the United Nations. We intend to give up chemical weapons altogether.
Morocco unveils judicial reforms Moroccos Islamist-led government has unveiled a charter outlining a raft of long-awaited judicial reforms including a strengthening of the judiciarys independence that have been a priority of the ruling party. The charter was presented by the justice ministry, some two years after the kingdom adopted a new constitution in the face of sweeping Arab Spring protests with key provisions for judicial reforms. The government has come under growing pressure to implement those provisions, by modifying the penal code and improving judicial procedures. Apart from strengthening the independence of judges, the charter aims to bolster the protection of human rights, enhance effectiveness of the judiciary and expand its institutional capacities.

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October 10th, 2013

This month in pictures:

Arundhati Bhattacharya took charge as the first woman chairperson of SBI.

Mamnoon Hussain was sworn in as the President of Pakistan.

Ravindra Kumar, Editor of The Statesman is the new president of the Indian Newspaper Society.

Ashok Vemuri is the new President and CEO of iGATE.

German chancellor Angela Merkel makes a hat-trick win in 2013 elections.

Tokyo will host the 2020 Summer Olympics.

Spotlight: NLU, Jodhpur

National Law University, Jodhpur is an autonomous law university. The Institute offers under-graduate and post-graduate courses in various streams of law. The degrees offered at the under-graduate level are - B.B.A,LL.B. (Hons), B.A.,LL.B. (Hons) B.Sc.,LL.B. (Hons). All of these are ten semester courses and open only for students on fully residential basis. Since 2008, the admission to these courses is through the nation-wide Common Law Admission Test, the first of which took place in 2008. Established in 2001, National Law University boasts of being the first institution of its kind in the country where study of law is coupled with other disciplines such as Science, Management Science and Policy Sciences. It introduced for the first time the degree of B.B.A., LL.B. (Hons) (i.e. Management and Law) in the country. The intake capacity of all the three undergraduate degree programmes B.B.A., LL.B. (Hons), B.Sc.(Technology), LL.B. (Hons), B.A., LL.B. (Hons), put together is 100 students. The National Law University, Jodhpur was set up in November 1999 (by the passing of the National Law University Act,1999 by the State Legislature of Rajasthan) under the leadership of Dr. N.L. Mitra. We dont wish to print this journal, save paper, avoid printing.

Feel free to write to: lawprep@abhyaas.in

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