English हिन्दी
Connect with us

India News

Unnao case: CJI Gogoi to take up rape victim’s letter tomorrow; Supreme Court registry under lens again

Published

5 years ago

on

Supreme Court

By Rajesh Sinha

The role of Supreme Court registry is under a lens again for failing to put up to Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi a letter from Unnao rape victim apprehending threat to her life.

Learning of the letter from reports, CJI Gogoi, taking suo motu cognisance, said he will hear the matter tomorrow, Thursday, Aug 1. The CJI assured that a judicial order would be passed to ensure the safety and better conditions for the rape survivor, said media reports. 

Calling it a “highly volatile situation”, CJI Gogoi said he was informed about the letter only on Tuesday (July 30). The CJI asked why the court registry had not brought the letter to his attention.

 “The letter has not been placed before me and newspapers flashed that CJI did not act,” Justice Gogoi said.

The letter written on July 12 came to light almost two days after a truck collided with their car on July 28. The collision, which happened near Rae Bareli, claimed the lives of two of the aunts of the victim. One of them was a key witness in the rape case in which the prime accused is a four-time BJP MLA from UP’s Bangermau, Kuldeep Singh Sengar. He was arrested last year in April.

In the letter, the rape survivor’s family complained that they were facing threats and intimidation from henchmen engaged by the accused and pleaded for providing adequate security. The letter stated that it was annexing a video-recording of the criminal intimidation and the photographs of the aggressors.

On Sunday, July 28, a truck rammed into the car in which the rape survivor was travelling near Rae Bareilly, killing her two aunts and leaving her and her lawyer critically injured.

Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi is understood to have sought a report from the Supreme Court registry regarding the delay in forwarding the letter sent by family of Unnao rape survivor seeking protection from threat. 

This is not the first instance of the questions arising about Supreme Court registry’s role. Several other instances were reported this year itself.

Delay in issuing notice on petition by rape survivor’s mother

A report in The Telegraph said that the SC registry had also delayed issuing notice to Kuldeep Singh Sengar in the petition filed by the rape survivor’s mother seeking transfer of trial of the case from Unnao to Delhi citing intimidation from the accused.

The bench of Justices SA Bobde and Abdul Nazeer had issued notices to the CBI and 14 respondents, including the BJP MLA on April 16. In the normal course, the matter ought to have been listed after four or six weeks. But in this case, it had not come up for hearing till date, The Telegraph reported.

The Supreme Court registry staff had not sent copies of the notice issued by the bench in April until June 28, the Telegraph report suggested.

Ideally, the copies should have reached all the respondents by registered post within a week or 10 days.

A report in The Hindustan Times said the notices were sent by the Supreme Court registry only on June 26, over two months after the court order. The report said that according to the mother’s lawyer, RK Reddy, the matter has not been listed since then.

According to an office report of the Supreme Court registry prepared on July 26, four suspects are yet to receive the court notice as the addresses given in the petition are “insufficient,” the HT reported,

None of the respondents, including the CBI, has so far filed any response to the plea to transfer the case, said The Telegraph. Notices could not be served by the registry on two of the accused apparently because their addresses could not be tracked by the postal department.

In the transfer petition, the mother had detailed how her husband died in custody and the relentless threats the family was facing to pressure them to withdraw the allegations against the BJP legislator.

SC decides to depute CBI, police officers to keep tab on wrongdoings in registry

Earlier this month, on July 8, CJI Gogoi, in his administrative capacity as head of the judiciary, taking note of allegations of listing of cases out of turn before various benches of the apex court, decided to appoint senior superintendents of police and superintendents of police from the CBI and Delhi Police to keep a tab on suspect listing of cases and other activities of employees and lawyers.

Also Read: Unnao rape: Murder case against BJP MLA Sengar and others after rape victim’s car crash

Recently, two members of the court staff were dismissed by the chief justice on the allegation of changing an order in a case related to an industrialist.

The apex court has also appointed a one-man enquiry panel after lawyer Utsav Bains made a sensational allegation that middlemen were active in getting cases listed as per their own wishes. The panel is headed by former Supreme Court judge Justice AK Patnaik.

However, just a week after this, another instance cropped up on July 15 and the CJI came down heavily on the Registrar (Listing) over the deletion of a matter against specific directions.

In the morning, an Advocate pointed out that her matter which had been listed for Tuesday after being ‘mentioned’ on Friday happens to have been omitted from the causelist.

Dates for hearing Rafale deal review plea and contempt case against Rahul Gandhi

In May, a Supreme Court bench led by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi had deferred a plea seeking review of its December 2018 judgment in the Rafale deal case to May 10 – because the Supreme Court registry had not tagged it along with the hearing on the contempt case against Congress president Rahul Gandhi, as specifically ordered by the court. 

Also Read: Unnao case: CBI books BJP MLA Kuldeep Sengar, 10 others for attempt to murder

The Supreme Court registry had on its own listed it for a separate hearing instead.

On April 30, CJI Gogoi-led bench had dictated its order in open court that the two cases be listed for hearing on Monday, May 6. But in the copy of the order uploaded on the website of the Supreme Court, the two cases were to be listed separately: review petition on May 6 and contempt case on May 10, a day before the court recesses for summer vacation.

Tampering with order to exempt Anil Ambani from personal appearance in Ericsson contempt plea

On January 7, the apex court had turned down a request from industrialist Anil Ambani lawyers seeking exemption from his personal appearance in a contempt plea moved by Ericsson India against him. 

Justice Nariman’s order was: “…personal appearance of the alleged contemnor(s) not dispensed with”.

However, when the order was uploaded on the website it read: “personal appearance of the alleged contemnor(s) dispensed with”.

This had been brought to the Court’s notice by Ericsson counsel and a corrected order was uploaded on the website on January 10.

After a preliminary inquiry, it was found that the omission of the word “not” in the order was not accidental. The two employees found responsible were sacked in an order passed by the CJI.

Related Topics:
Continue Reading

India News

Padma Awards 2025: Full list of Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan, Padma Shri awardees

The awards recognize outstanding achievements across all fields, with a focus on public service. The recipients are selected by a committee appointed by the Prime Minister.

Published

36 mins ago

on

January 26, 2025

By

The central government announced the recipients of the prestigious Padma Awards on Saturday. These awards, conferred annually on the eve of Republic Day, represent India’s highest civilian honours. They are presented in three categories: Padma Vibhushan (for exceptional and distinguished service), Padma Bhushan (for distinguished service of a higher order), and Padma Shri (for distinguished service).

The awards recognize outstanding achievements across all fields, with a focus on public service. The recipients are selected by a committee appointed by the Prime Minister.

This year, a total of 199 awards were presented: 7 Padma Vibhushan, 19 Padma Bhushan, and 113 Padma Shri. The President of India bestows these awards at a formal ceremony in Rashtrapati Bhawan, typically held in March or April.

List of Padma Award Winners 2024:

Padma Vibhushan:

  • Duvvur Nageshwar Reddy
  • Justice (Retd.) Jagdish Singh Khehar
  • Kumudini Rajnikant Lakhia
  • Lakshminarayana Subramaniam
  • MT Vasudevan Nair (Posthumous)
  • Osamu Suzuki (Posthumous)
  • Sharda Sinha (Posthumous)

Padma Bhushan:

  • A Surya Prakash
  • Anant Nag
  • Bibek Debroy (Posthumous)
  • Jatin Goswami
  • Jose Chacko Periappuram
  • Kailash Nath Dikshit
  • Manohar Joshi (Posthumous)
  • Nalli Kuppuswami Chetti
  • Nandamuri Balakrishna
  • PR Sreejesh
  • Pankaj Patel
  • Pankaj Udhas (Posthumous)
  • Rambahadur Rai
  • Sadhvi Ritambhara
  • S Ajith Kumar
  • Shekhar Kapur
  • Shobana Chandrakumar
  • Sushil Kumar Modi (Posthumous)
  • Vinod Dham

Padma Shri:

  • Advaita Charan Gadanayak
  • Achyut Ramchandra Palav
  • Ajay V Bhatt
  • Anil Kumar Boro
  • Arijit Singh
  • Arundhati Bhattacharya
  • Arunoday Saha
  • Arvind Sharma
  • Ashok Kumar Mahapatra
  • Ashok Laxman Saraf
  • Ashutosh Sharma
  • Ashwini Bhide Deshpande
  • Baijnath Maharaj
  • Barry Godfray John
  • Begam Batool
  • Bharat Gupt
  • Bheru Singh Chouhan
  • Bhim Singh Bhavesh
  • Bhimawa Doddabalappa Shiilekyathara
  • Budhendra Kumar Jain
  • C S Vaidyanathan
  • Chaitram Deochand Pawar
  • Chandrakant Sheth (Posthumous)
  • Chandrakant Sompura
  • Chetan E Chitnis
  • David R Syiemlieh
  • Durga Charan Ranbir
  • Farooq Ahmad Mir
  • Ganeshwar Shastri Dravid
  • Gita Upadhyay
  • Gokul Chandra Das
  • Guruvayur Dorai
  • Harchandan Singh Bhatty
  • Hariman Sharma
  • Harjinder Singh Srinagar Wale
  • Harvinder Singh
  • Hassan Raghu
  • Hemant Kumar
  • Hriday Narayan Dixit
  • Hugh and Colleen Gantzer (Posthumous)
  • Inivalappil Mani Vijayan
  • Jagadish Joshila
  • Jaspinder Narula
  • Jonas Masetti
  • Joynacharan Bathari
  • Jumde Yomgam Gamlin
  • K. Damodaran
  • K L Krishna
  • K Omanakutty Amma
  • Kishore Kunal (Posthumous)
  • L Hangthing
  • Lakshmipathy Ramasubbaiyer
  • Lalit Kumar Mangotra
  • Lama Lobzang (Posthumous)
  • Libia Lobo Sardesai
  • M D Srinivas
  • Madugula Nagaphani Sarma
  • Mahabir Nayak
  • Mamata Shankar
  • Manda Krishna Madiga
  • Maruti Bhujangrao Chitampalli
  • Miriyala Apparao (Posthumous)
  • Nagendra Nath Roy
  • Narayan (Bhulai Bhai) (Posthumous)
  • Naren Gurung
  • Neerja Bhatla
  • Nirmala Devi
  • Nitin Nohria
  • Onkar Singh Pahwa
  • P Datchanamoorthy
  • Pandi Ram Mandavi
  • Parmar Lavjibhai Nagjibhai
  • Pawan Goenka
  • Prashanth Prakash
  • Pratibha Satpathy
  • Purisai Kannappa Sambandan
  • R Ashwin
  • R G Chandramogan
  • Radha Bahin Bhatt
  • Radhakrishnan Devasenapathy
  • Ramdarash Mishra
  • Ranendra Bhanu Majumdar
  • Ratan Kumar Parimoo
  • Reba Kanta Mahanta
  • Renthlei Lalrawna
  • Ricky Gyan Kej
  • Sajjan Bhajanka
  • Sally Holkar
  • Sant Ram Deswal
  • Satyapal Singh
  • Seeni Viswanathan
  • Sethuraman Panchanathan
  • Sheikha Shaikha Ali Al-Jaber Al-Sabah
  • Sheen Kaaf Nizam (Shiv Kishan Bissa)
  • Shyam Bihari Agrawal
  • Soniya Nityanand
  • Stephen Knapp
  • Subhash Khetulal Sharma
  • Suresh Harilal Soni
  • Surinder Kumar Vasal
  • Swami Pradiptananda (Kartik Maharaj)
  • Syed Ainu Hasan
  • Tejendra Narayan Majumdar
  • Thiyam Suryamukhi Devi
  • Tushar Durgeshbhai Shukla
  • Vadiraj Raghavendracharya Panchamukhi
  • Vasudeo Kamath
  • Velu Assaan
  • Venkappa Ambaji Sugatekar
  • Vijay Nityanand Surishwar Ji Maharaj
  • Vijayalakshmi Deshamane
  • Vilas Dangre
  • Vinayak Lohani

Note that “(Posthumous)” indicates the award was given posthumously.

Continue Reading

India News

Republic Day 2025: RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat says respect differences, live in harmony

Attempting a task without understanding, he warned, is akin to acting like a “lunatic,” leading to wasted effort and potential problems. This concept extended beyond culinary skills to encompass all aspects of life, highlighting the need for informed action and diligent work ethics.

Published

55 mins ago

on

January 26, 2025

By

At the 76th Republic Day celebration in Bhiwandi, Maharashtra, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat on Sunday asserted the importance of unity and understanding in a diverse society. His speech, delivered after unfurling the national flag at a local college, extended beyond the celebratory aspects of the day, focusing on the responsibilities inherent in Indian citizenship.

Bhagwat’s central theme revolved around the need for societal cohesion, a concept he presented as crucial for harmonious coexistence. He acknowledged the presence of diversity within India, contrasting the nation’s approach with global conflicts often fueled by similar differences.

He argued that while individual distinctions and specializations should be respected, they should not overshadow the paramount importance of mutual respect and collaborative living. His analogy extended to the familial and community levels; just as a family requires harmony for its well-being, so too does a town and, ultimately, the nation. Internal conflicts, he implied, undermine the collective good.

He further emphasised the critical role of knowledge and dedication in achieving individual and societal success. Bhagwat used the simple act of cooking rice as a powerful metaphor. He explained that simply possessing the ingredients – rice, water, and heat – is insufficient; the knowledge of how to combine them properly is essential for a successful outcome.

Attempting a task without understanding, he warned, is akin to acting like a “lunatic,” leading to wasted effort and potential problems. This concept extended beyond culinary skills to encompass all aspects of life, highlighting the need for informed action and diligent work ethics.

His message extended into the realm of interpersonal relationships, highlighting the importance of faith and dedication. He contrasted the impersonal service received at a hotel with the welcoming hospitality often found in a home.

At a hotel, a simple request for water might be met with indifference or even hostility. However, at home, a similar request is usually met with generosity and warmth. This difference, he explained, lies in the presence of faith and dedication; actions rooted in trust and commitment invariably yield more positive results. Bhagwat concluded by emphasising that such faith and dedication are vital not only for personal fulfilment but also for building strong, harmonious communities and a thriving nation.

Continue Reading

India News

Congress chief Kharge extends Republic Day greetings, slams Modi govt, says secularism being targeted by Goebbelsian propaganda

He claimed that minorities are being systematically targeted, and those advocating for secularism are subjected to what he termed “Goebbelsian propaganda,” a reference to Nazi Germany’s manipulative propaganda techniques. He further asserted that weaker sections of society – Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes, the poor, and minorities – are treated as second-class citizens.

Published

1 hour ago

on

January 26, 2025

By

On India’s 76th Republic Day, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge delivered a message that was as much a celebration of the Constitution’s 75th anniversary as it was a scathing critique of the current political climate.

He began by honouring the architects of the Constitution, mentioning Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Patel, B.R. Ambedkar, Subhas Chandra Bose, Rajendra Prasad, Maulana Azad, and Sarojini Naidu, acknowledging their monumental contribution to shaping India’s republic.

He extended his appreciation to the nation’s armed forces, paramilitary personnel, security forces, scientists, teachers, farmers, and the diverse workforce – including daily wage earners, gig workers, artists, writers, and sportspersons – for their indispensable roles in nation-building and preserving India’s rich cultural tapestry.

However, the celebratory tone was quickly overshadowed by a stark assessment of the nation’s democratic health. Kharge expressed deep concern over what he characterized as a decade-long erosion of democratic principles and institutions. He alleged a deliberate and malicious campaign fueled by religious fundamentalism, designed to fracture Indian society along religious lines.

He claimed that minorities are being systematically targeted, and those advocating for secularism are subjected to what he termed “Goebbelsian propaganda,” a reference to Nazi Germany’s manipulative propaganda techniques. He further asserted that weaker sections of society – Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes, the poor, and minorities – are treated as second-class citizens.

The Congress president directly accused the ruling government of political interference in autonomous institutions, asserting that the control over independent bodies is perceived as a mark of power. He claimed that federalism is being systematically undermined, with the rights of opposition-governed states being curtailed.

The functioning of Parliament, he stated, has significantly deteriorated due to what he described as the tyrannical tendencies of the ruling government. Universities and self-governing institutions, he continued, face constant intrusion, and a large segment of the media has been co-opted as a propaganda tool. The suppression of dissent through the targeting of opposition leaders, he argued, has become the government’s primary policy.

The ongoing crisis in Manipur served as a stark illustration of his concerns, with Kharge highlighting the state’s prolonged turmoil and the lack of accountability at the highest levels of power.

He concluded his message with a fervent call to protect the Constitution’s fundamental values of justice, liberty, equality, and fraternity, emphasizing that these tenets are being systematically undermined by what he called an authoritarian regime.

He urged citizens to be prepared to make sacrifices to defend the Constitution, viewing this as a fitting tribute to their ancestors. His statement ended with the powerful slogan: “Jai Bapu, Jai Bheem, Jai Samvidhaan. Jai Hind.”

Continue Reading

Trending

© Copyright 2022 APNLIVE.com