November10th 2011

ALB20111106

Abhyaas Law Bulletin

For the quintessential CLAT aspirant
The Scoop Of The Month EC disqualifies UP MLA Umlesh Yadav for not including Paid News expenditure The Editors Column Dear Student, Welcome to the November edition of the Abhyaas Law Bulletin. This month was also eventful like the last month. Election Commission disqualified a sitting MLA from UP for not including the paid news expenditure in her election expenses following a report of PCI. The media also reacted strongly to PCI chairman Justice Katjus remarks on media in general. None of the accused got bail in the 2G scam case even as the CBI filed a charge sheet. Former Karnataka CM B S Yeduyurappa was arrested for his involvement in land de notification case. He got a bail after spending 23 days in jail. There is no end in sight on the Telangana issue as the central govt and congress postponed the decision once again. The inaugural indian grand prix was won by Vettel even as the supreme court is hearing a case on tax subsidies given to F1 organizers by the Mayawati Government. On the international front, Libyan dictator Muammar Qadhafi was brutally killed by the rebel NTC with the help of NATO forces. Julian Assange, the founder of wikileaks is facing extradition to Sweden to face prosecution in a rape case as a UK court allowed his extradition. Happy Reading !

The Election Commission delivered a historic verdict on October 20th by disqualifying Uttar Pradesh MLA Umlesh Yadav from contesting again for three years for not including in her official accounts of expenditure the amount she spent on advertisements in two Hindi dailies that were masquerading as news items. Umlesh Yadav is the wife of liquor baron and billionaire strongman D.P. Yadav and mother of Vikas Yadav, the convicted murderer of Nitish Kataria. She was elected from Bisauli in 2007 on the ticket of the Rashtriya Parivartan Dal. The EC Chief Election Commissioner S.Y. Quraishi and Election Commissioners V.S. Sampath and H.S. Brahma disqualified Ms. Yadav from contesting any election for Parliament or the State legislatures or Councils for three years, under Section 10A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, for suppressing expenditure of Rs. 21,250 (the amount spent for issuing the advertisements) in her election accounts. The ban will take effect from October 20, 2011. Apart from being the first political victim of the (Con td .)

Index: Page 2: National Page 3: International Page 4: Spotlight

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National: paid news phenomenon, Ms. Yadav is also the first sitting legislator to be disqualified for excessive expenditure. The EC rejected her contention that she did not authorise or incur the expenditure for the publication of the advertisement or paid news, and, quoting the various verdicts of the Supreme Court, maintained that it ought to have been included in her election expenditure under Section 78 of the Representation of the People Act. The Commission heard the case following a reference made by the Press Council of India (PCI) on March 31, 2010. The PCI, in its order, held the two newspapers guilty of ethical violations. It cautioned the media to refrain from publishing advertisements masquerading as news and decided that its adjudication along with all the case papers be sent to the Election Commission of India for such action as deemed fit by them. According to the EC, the PCI had then observed: The format of the impugned material was such that it would appear as a news report to the layman and the word ADVT printed at the lowest end rather appeared to accompany a small boxed appeal by the candidate. There was beyond doubt a possibility of confusing the voters when the elections were just a day away and all campaigning had stopped. The act was not only unethical by journalistic standards but also in violation of the election laws. In the EC pipeline next are the cases against former Maharashtra Chief Minister and MLA from Bhokar Ashok Chavan and former Jharkhand Chief Minister and Singhbhum MP Madhu Koda. The Commission has already fixed November 4 as the date for hearing the complaint against Mr. Chavan. The BJP has alleged that he encouraged paid news and did not show, in his election expenditure, the money spent for getting publicity. Mr. Koda is facing a similar charge: that he did not submit proper election expenditure accounts in the 2009 Lok Sabha poll and used paid news. The complete order of the election commission can be read here, http://eci.nic.in/eci_main/recent/Disqualification_ case_Umkesh_Yadav.pdf PIL filed against Nuclear Liability Act A public interest litigation petition has been filed in the Supreme Court challenging the constitutional validity of the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act, 2010, that indemnifies nuclear manufacturers/suppliers and caps the financial liability of operators. The petitioners Common Cause; Centre for Public Interest Litigation; former bureaucrats; the former Chief Election Commissioner, N. Gopalaswami, and university professors have filed the petition seeking a safety reassessment and a comprehensive long-term cost-benefit analysis of all nuclear facilities in India. The petition also sought a stay on all proposed nuclear plants till the safety and cost-benefit analysis were carried out. It highlights how under the pressure of foreign countries and the multi-billion dollar nuclear industry, the government had been pushing forward an expensive, unviable and dangerous nuclear power programme without proper safety assessment or thorough comparative cost-benefit analysis vis--vis other sources of energy, especially renewable sources. The petition said: Most of the nuclear reactor and equipment imports, for which orders are being made, are of extremely dubious quality and do not meet safety standards. The recent Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan has turned out far graver than originally feared. The reactors and overheated spent-fuel pools have spewed out radioactivity that has now spread over hundreds of square kilometres. The petitioners want costs and risks factors to be thoroughly factored in and the highest level of safety to be ensured before a plant is cleared for commissioning. They pointed out that four 700 MW Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors, two at Rawatbhata in Rajasthan and two at Kakrapar in Gujarat, were under construction. Two reactors in Kudankulam in Tamil Nadu and two reactors in Haripur district of West Bengal are under construction based on Russian design and the nuclear plant in Tamil Nadu had met stiff opposition from people in the area.

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Nitish: include Corporate Sector, PPP projects under RTI Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar called for inclusion of the corporate sector as also projects under the public-private partnership mode within the ambit of the Right to Information Act. Stressing that right to information was a basic right that underpinned good governance, apart from helping eradicate corruption, he said that while the corporate sector must be covered under the legislation since a large number of small investors bought shares and they had a right to know what was happening within the companies, projects under the PPP mode involved investment of large amount of public money. People have a right to have information about the PPP projects being implemented. Delivering the valedictory address of the 6th annual convention of the Central Information Commission, Mr. Kumar urged public authorities to disseminate information in a pro-active manner by putting them in the public domain on their own and said they should also put out information on how and why a decision on any scheme or project was taken. The Right to Information Act mandates both ways of information sharing: pro-active dissemination by bringing out and sharing the information voluntarily in the public domain and the second is the reactive disclosure of information against an application submitted by the information seeker. Mr. Kumar also suggested that Central and State Information Commissions take steps to create public awareness on how to make use of the Act, and set up advisory councils consisting of activists to ensure that it was implemented more effectively. He further urged introduction of a Central law to promote the right to public services on the lines of a law enacted in Bihar and several other States under which government officials were bound to provide various services to the public within a set of timeframes, failing which they were liable for fine and disciplinary action. The central government has since then put out a draft Citizens right to grievance redressal bill. It might be introduced in the winter session of the parliament. International Occupy Wall Street movement raises $300K The Occupy Wall Street movement has close to $300,000, as well as storage space loaded with donated supplies in lower Manhattan. It stared down city officials to hang on to its makeshift headquarters, showed its muscle with a big Times Square demonstration and found legions of activists demonstrating in solidarity across the country and around the world. Could this be the peak for loosely organised protesters, united less by a common cause than by revulsion to what they consider unbridled corporate greed? Or are they just getting started? There are signs of confidence, but also signs of tension among the demonstrators at Zuccotti Park, the epicentre of the movement that began a month ago. They have trouble agreeing on things like whether someone can bring in a sleeping bag, and show little sign of uniting on any policy issues. Some protesters eventually want the movement to rally around a goal, while others insist that isnt the point. Were moving fast, without a hierarchical structure and lots of gears turning, said Justin Strekal, a college student and political organiser who travelled from Cleveland to New York to help. Egos are clashing, but this is participatory democracy in a little park. Even if the protesters were barred from camping in Zuccotti Park, as the property owner and the city briefly threatened to do last week, the movement would continue, Mr. Strekal said. He said activists were working with legal experts to identify alternate sites where the risk of getting kicked out would be relatively low. Theyve amassed mounds of blankets, pillows, sleeping bags, cans of food, medical and hygienic supplies even oddities like a box of knitting wool and 20 pairs of swimming goggles (to shield protesters from pepper-spray attacks). Supporters are shipping about 300 boxes a day, Mr. Strekal said. The space was donated by the United Federation of Teachers, which has offices in the building. Close to $300,000 in cash also has been donated, through the movements website and by people who give money in person at the park

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This month in pictures:

Legendary Assamese singer Bhupen Hazarika passed away

Muammar Qadhafi, the libyan dictator was killed by rebel NTC forces.

Former karnataka CM Yeduyurappa was arrested in the land denotification case.

Sebastian Vettel won the inaugural Indian Grand Prix Spotlight: GNLU, Gandhinagar

A court in UK orders extradition of Julian Assange to sweden in a rape case

Indian-American activist Vijaya Lakshmi Emani was awarded posthumously with Presidential Citizens Medal by Barack Obama

Gujarat National Law University (GNLU) is a statutory university established by the Government of Gujarat under the Gujarat National University Act, 2003. This University is based in the city of Gandhinagar, which is the capital of Gujarat and is located 30 kilometers north to the metropolitan city of Ahmedabad. The University started its official functioning in the year 2004 and has five batches of 160 students each, currently under training. This University was formed in the year 2003 on the five year integrated LL.B structure preferred by the Bar Council of India. This University offers its students a course of five years, and upon graduation provides the degrees, B.A, LL.B (Hons.), B.Com, LL.B (Hons.), B.B.A, LL.B (Hons.), and B.Sc., LL.B (Hons.). GNLU also offers LL.M course which is devised with a view to producing competent teachers and researchers. The total intake for the UG Course is 160 and the admission is through national level CLAT. The University has its curriculum based on the National Law School model and follows a two semester per year pattern. The University also encourages and includes additional project work, report writing, research and analysis in its syllabus. Moot courts and other legal events are held regularly in the university, as a part of the curriculum as well as an extracurricular activity. Feel free to write to: lawprep@abhyaas.in We dont wish to print this journal, save paper, avoid printing.

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