TODAY'S PAPER.

11 AUGUST 2017

The Career Empire

Judiciary | LL.B Entrance | IAS.
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MCQ OF THE DAY

Question 58: Choose the correct statement:

Which among the following is/ are correct with respect to

Constitutional Amendment bill?

1. It can be initiated only by the introduction of a Bill in either House of Parliament.

2. The prior permission of President is required for introduction of the bill.

3. There is a provision for a joint sitting in case of deadlock between the two Houses.

4. It can be introduced by private members of any house.

Which of the above statement is/are correct?

(a) 1 and 4

(b) 2 and 4

(c) 1, 2 and 3

(d) All of the above

Today's legal newspaper

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THE CAREER EMPIRE-RAJOURI GARDEN 11 AUGUST 2017

1. Parliament passes Banking Amendment Bill

empowering RBI to deal with
willful defaulters:
Parliament has passed the Banking
Regulation (Amendment) Bill, 2017 with
the Rajya Sabha approving it on
Thursday, the Lok Sabha has already
passed it.
Replying to a debate on the Bill,
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said, the
wilful defaulters will not be spared and
prosecution s are being launched
against them. He said, the government’s
decision has shaken the defaulters and
they have started rushing to banks to
resolve the issue.

He said, the Non-Performing Assets,

NPAs in the banks stand at 6.41 lakh
crore in the public sector banks while total stressed assets are at 8.02
lakh crore. He said, every account figuring in HSBC, Liechtenstein and
Panama is being investigated and the Government in touch with
concerned countries in this regard. The Minister also said that
infrastructures in Debt Recovery Tribunal, National Company Law
Tribunal is being expanded to deal with stressed assets.

Participating in the debate, Jairam Ramesh of Congress demanded

that NPA defaulters should be punished. He charged the Government
with shying away from responsibility. Sukhendu Sekhar Roy of
Trinamool Congress alleged that the bill would not serve it’s intended
purpose.

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AIR Correspondent reports, the bill seeks to amend the Banking
Regulation Act, 1949 to insert provisions for handling cases related to
stressed assets of banks. Stressed assets are loans where the
borrower has defaulted in repayment or where the loan has been
restructured.

The bill will replace the Banking Regulation (Amendment) Ordinance,

2017 which was promulgated on 4th of May this year. The legislation
will enable the Central government to authorize the Reserve Bank of
India (RBI) to direct banking companies to resolve specific stressed
assets by initiating insolvency resolution process.

The RBI has also been empowered to issue other directions for
resolution, and appoint or approve appointment, authorities or
committees to advise banking companies for resolution of stressed
assets.

2.Delhi Assembly passes NSIT, minimum wages

Bills:
The Delhi Assembly on Thursday passed two amended Bills to give the
Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology (NSIT) the status of a university
and to hike minimum wages in the Capital.

Speaking about the NSIT Bill, 2017, Deputy Chief Minister and
Education Minister Manish Sisodia told the House that upgrading the
institute to a university would make it a “facilitator, a centre for
integrated learning, a research centre and support for incubation”. Also
passed on Thursday was the Minimum Wages (Delhi) Amendment Bill,
2017, which included strict penalties on employers who did not pay
minimum wages to their workers. Punishments include fines of up to
Rs. 50,000 and one-year prison sentences.

3.Aamby Valley: SC declines Sahara plea

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The Supreme Court on Thursday declined a plea by the Sahara group
to postpone the publication of the auction notice of their prized Aamby
Valley property in Pune to pay back investors. A Bench of Justices
Deepak Misra, Ranjan Gogoi and A.K. Sikri refused the application to
delay the advertisement of the auction notice scheduled for August 14
by a month, till September.

4.HC: gender bias in JAG recruitment

Questions logic of Army’s legal wing

Not recruiting married women in the Judge Advocate General (JAG)

arm of the Indian Army amounts to “hostile and 100% discrimination”
the Delhi High Court said today.

The observation by a bench of the Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and
Justice C. Hari Shankar was made during the hearing of a Public
Interest Litigation (PIL) petition by a lawyer claiming that there was
institutionalised discrimination against married women by not inducting
them in the JAG service.

The court also questioned the government about its logic behind
“ousting married women” from the JAG, the legal branch of the Army.

“Today, women are fighter pilots and you say they [married women] are
not fit for the JAG. What is the logic behind ousting married women?
That is hostile discrimination. It is 100% discrimination,” the Bench
said.


5. Court quashes PIL on Haryana land dispute:
Plea had sought CBI probe into matter

The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Wednesday dismissed a

Public Interest Litigation seeking a CBI probe into the Gwal Pahari land
dispute and directed that all title related cases would be settled in civil
court.

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Ruling out any scam in the Gwal Pahari land, the High Court also
protected the rights of land owners till the time the title was decided.
The court said that there was status quo on possession, mutation and
ordered that third party rights would not be created.

The controversy was kicked off after then Gurugram Deputy

Commissioner T.L. Satyaprakash had passed an order earlier this year
declaring as “illegal” the mutation of the land, a property under dispute
between the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram and a private firm. The
decision was seen by many as “favouring” the private firm and the
issue was raised by the Opposition in the Haryana Assembly.
Cancelling the mutation, the court said: “Mutation was carried out in
violation of orders of two Financial Commissioners of Revenue as well
as the civil court.

Hence this mutation no. 3249, its process and procedure are all void ab
initio .” It further said that quashing the mutation on the basis of its legal
validity “will neither change the possession nor alienate the land from
the real ownership”.

Advocate Charu Wali Khanna appearing for the petitioner said that
unmarried women were not allowed to marry after joining the JAG.

To this, the Central Government’s standing counsel Kirtiman Singh said

the bar applied to unmarried men and women only during the nine-to-
ten month training period.

The Centre had to face tough questions on another PIL petition, which
claimed that only gainfully employed men were recruited in the
Territorial Army, the second line of defence after the regular Army. Both
the pleas were heard together.

6.No more vehicle insurance without pollution

certificate: SC
This will help in curbing emissions: SC

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In a decision with far-reaching consequences, the Supreme Court on
Thursday directed that vehicles without valid pollution under control
(PUC) certificates would not be eligible for the annual insurance.
A Bench of Justices Madan B. Lokur and Deepak Gupta accepted the
recommendations of the Environment Pollution (Prevention and
Control) Authority (EPCA) for mandatory linking of PUC certificates with
annual insurance.

EPCA recommendation

This recommendation was made by the EPCA in its report on

assessment of the Pollution Under Control programme in Delhi and the
National Capital Region. This report was submitted in the Supreme
Court in April this year.
The court passed the order on a petition for stringent steps to curb air
pollution.
The Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways was a party in the
case and had responded positively to the EPCA report.
The court agreed with the EPCA that the linkage between PUC
certificates and vehicle insurance would go a long way in ensuring
compliance and a subsequent dip in vehicular emission levels.

‘Important step’

“This is an important step forward. The EPCA investigation has shown

very poor level of compliance with the PUC programme. In Delhi, only
23% of vehicles come for PUC tests. With mandatory linking of annual
vehicle insurance with valid PUC certificate, the compliance level can
improve significantly — especially as the Supreme Court has directed
its enforcement nationwide,” Sunita Narain, director-general, Centre for
Science and Environment, said.

The court also directed the linking of PUC centres with an online
network and data centres to prevent manual tampering. It asked the
State governments to audit PUC centres and set up a strong oversight
system to ensure credible tests and emission results.

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7 .HC grants anticipatory bail to Kumaraswamy:
The High Court has granted anticipatory bail to the former Chief
Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy in a case against him for alleged misuse
of his office to show a favour to a mining company.

8.Mehbooba meets Rajnath over Article 35A:

The Home Ministry held a series of consultations with the Law Ministry
on Article 35A, which has been challenged in the Supreme Court by the
way of a public interest litigation (PIL) petition last month.
J&K Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti met Home Minister Rajnath Singh
on Thursday and is learnt to have discussed the subject

9. Row over conservation reserve reaches court:

Ramgad Minerals and Mining Ltd., Hosapete, which had secured
prospecting mining lease for gold mining in the reserve forest, has filed
a petition questioning inclusion of around 800 hectares of forest land in
the “conservation reserve” as it has impacted its mining area.
10. Rajiv Gandhi assassination case: SC to hear
Centre's plea on August 14:
The Supreme Court has agreed to hear on Monday a plea of the
Centre challenging the Tamil Nadu government's decision to release
the convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.
The Centre had filed the plea in 2014. A bench headed by Justice
Ranjan Gogoi yesterday considered the submission of Prabu
Ramasubramaniam, the counsel for convict A G Perarivalan, that the
case be heard as the convicts are in jail for the last two decades.
The lawyer said the matter had been listed quite a few times in the
past, but it got deleted from the list. Besides Perarivalan, six other
persons--Murugan, Shantan, Robert Pais, Nalini, Jayakumar and
Ravichandran--were convicted in the case.
The apex court had in 2014 stayed the Tamil Nadu government's
decision to release the convicts and had set up a five-judge

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Constitution Bench to deal with the issue relating to the power of states
and the Centre to grant the benefit of remission and pardon to convicts.
The apex court had held that the state government cannot unilaterally
determine remission of sentences in cases where the probe had been
conducted by central government agencies.
The Constitution Bench, however, had said the issue, whether convicts
in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case can be granted remission or
not, would be handled by a three-judge bench. The bench has been set
up, but no hearing has taken place so far.

11. Allahabad HC directs CBSE to revise marks of all

candidates who appeared in NEET 2017:
The Allahabad High Court today directed the CBSE to revise marks
awarded to all candidates who had appeared in the NEET exam this
year and decide the 'merit/rank accordingly' in view of incorrect reply
for one of

the 180 objective type questions provided in the answer key.
The Division Bench comprising of Justice Tarun Agarwala and Justice
Ashok Kumar passed the order while allowing a writ petition. The
petitioner had moved the court with the contention that he was
'dismayed to see that the official answer to question number 172 of test
booklet Y was incorrect" following which he provided a representation
against the OMR grading.

12. Three-judge Supreme Court bench to hear

petitions in Ayodhya land dispute:
The Supreme Court will today start hearing a batch of petitions
challenging the Allahabad High Court verdict in the Ayodhya land
dispute case. The Apex court on Monday constituted a three-judge
bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra to hear the case. Justices Ashok
Bhushan and Abdul Nazeer are the other members of the bench, which
would adjudicate the dispute over ownership of Ram Temple-Babri
Masjid land.
The Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court had in 2010 ruled a
three-way division of the disputed 2.77 acres of land in Ayodhya. The
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three-judge bench of the high court, by a 2:1 majority, had said the land
be partitioned equally among the three parties, the Sunni Waqf Board,
the Nirmohi Akhara and Ram Lalla.
On 21th of last month, a bench headed by Chief Justice JS Khehar had
said that it would soon take a decision to list the matter for early
hearing. The court's remark had come on a plea of BJP leader
Subramanian Swamy who sought urgent listing and hearing of the
matter.