13:44 Women who entered Sabarimala seek 24X7 security, hearing Friday: The Supreme Court will hear on Friday a plea of two women seeking 24X7 security after they recently entered the Sabarimala temple in Kerala. Senior advocate Indira Jaising listed the matter before a bench comprising Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and justices L N Rao and S K Kaul on Thursday.
In the plea, one of the women, who had been attacked by her mother-in-law following her entry into the hilltop shrine, has sought security for both the women.
The plea sought directions to all authorities to allow women of all age groups to enter the temple without any hindrance and to ensure security and safe passage, including police security to women wishing to enter the temple in future. It also pointed to danger to her life and liberty.
It sought directions declaring all authorities not to conduct the rite of purification or to shut the temple on account of any woman of the age of 10-50 having entered the temple.
“Issue directions to declare that the rite of purification diminishes the dignity as human beings and violates their fundamental right,” it said.
It also sought directions declaring that any form of prevention of women aged between 10 to 50 years from visiting the hilltop shrine is contrary to the September 28, 2018 judgment of the apex court.
On September 28 last year, a five-judge Constitution bench, headed by then Chief Justice Dipak Misra, in a 4:1 verdict paved the way for entry of women of all ages into the Sabarimala temple, saying the ban amounted to gender discrimination.
Two women of menstruating age group had stepped into the Sabarimala temple of Lord Ayyappa, breaking a centuries-old tradition and defying dire threats from the Hindu right. Kanakadurga, 44, and Bindu, 42, stepped into the hallowed precincts guarded by police three months after the apex court’s historic judgment lifting the ban on entry of girls and women between 10 and 50 years of age into the shrine of Lord Ayyappa, its “eternally celibate” deity.
Following the entry of the women into the shrine, the chief priest had decided to close the sanctum sanctorum of the temple to perform the ‘purification’ ceremony. The top court has said it may not start hearing pleas seeking a review of the Sabarimala verdict from January 22 as one of the judges was on medical leave.
IMAGE: Kanakadurga (left) and Bindu Ammini were the first women to enter Sabarimala temple, which traditionally bans the entry of women of menstrual age. Photograph: Sivaram V/Reuters
13:05 SC sets aside restrictions on Maharashtra dance bars :
Mumbai Dance bar matter: The Supreme Court relaxes the stringent conditions set by the Maharashtra government for getting licences for running dance bars and upheld the time of five-and-half hours for dance performances.
The court modified the provisions of licencing under the 2016 order and overruled the ban on the functioning of dance bars in the state. The court said there cannot be total prohibition on dance bars. No licence has been granted by Maharashtra since 2005. “There may be regulations but that should not amount to total prohibition,” the court said. The modifications include:
— Supreme Court allows orchestra in dance bars.
— Tips can be given but showering of cash and coins is not allowed inside bars.
— Court quashes conditions of Maharashtra government of putting CCTV cameras in dance bars of Mumbai, says it violates privacy.
— SC quashes provision of giving licence to people of good character as ‘vague’.
— SC quashes provision mandating that Maharashtra dance bars should be 1 km away from religious places and educational institutions.
— SC quashes provision saying there must be partition between bar rooms and dance floor.
— SC upholds condition fixing timing of dance bars in Maharashtra from 6 pm to 11.30 pm.
— Court has upheld a rule of the Maharashtra government by which working women should have contract so they can’t be exploited, however quashed a rule of monthly salary for bar dancers.
More details awaited.
12:48 The forgotten heroes of Indian democracy: Ornit Shani drew applause from the audience while she described the amazing story of the making of India’s first voters list. The Israeli academic spoke about the forgotten bureaucrats who drew up the first electoral rolls, the crucial exercise of making every vote equal and how those first electoral rolls laid the plinth of Indian democracy.
Ornit Shani discussed her fascinating book (Penguin) at the Times Lit Fest last month with journalist Vikram Doctor, whose grandfather Ambassador AV Padmanabhan was among the civil servants who worked on that historic enterprise — India’s first electoral rolls.
12:46 UP: Police remove woman’s body from pyre to probe cause of death; husband booked: Police have pulled out the body of a 50-year-old woman from the funeral pyre at a village in Muzaffarnagar and booked the husband and four others suspecting a foul play behind her death.
The incident took place at Godhna village in the district Wednesday evening, police said. Police reached the spot on the basis of information received from a villager and pulled out the body from the funeral pyre that had already been lit, allegedly by the woman’s in-laws, Station House Officer Amardeep Lal said.
The woman’s brother lodged a complaint, alleging that her in-laws had killed her and were secretly trying to cremate the body in order to destroy evidence, he said.
The body was sent for post-mortem and five people, including the woman’s husband, identified as Vijaypal, were booked, the SHO said, adding that all the accused have gone absconding. The complainant alleged that the in-laws used to harass the woman and she was killed over domestic dispute. A case has been registered and efforts are on to nab the accused, the SHO said. — PTI
12:42 Jaitley accuses ‘compulsive contrarians’ of subverting democracy: Terming opposition parties as ‘Compulsive Contrarians’, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley Wednesday accused them of manufacturing falsehood and subverting democracy by weakening an elected government.
Jaitley, according to sources, is in the US for a medical checkup. “The Compulsive Contrarians had no qualms about manufacturing falsehood. They could concoct arguments even if they went against the general interest of the country. They could masquerade corruption as crusade. They could adopt double standards whenever it suited them,’ he said in a Facebook post titled ‘The Compulsive Contrarian and his Manufactured Logic’.
Citing the tirade mounted by political parties on host of issues including 10 per cent reservation for economically weaker sections and the Rafale defence deal, Jaitley said that the ‘Compulsive Contrarians’ believe that this Government can do no good and hence its every act must be opposed.
“Nations are built by those with positive mindsets and a national vigor, not by the Compulsive Contrarians. Didn’t left-liberals find fault with the various actions that Gandhiji took during the freedom movement? Weakening a Sovereign Elected Government and strengthening the unelectable is only a subversion of democracy,’ he wrote. — PTI
12:28 BJP’s health update: Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad discharged from AIIMS Delhi after sinus treatment.
BJP chief Amit Shah under treatment at AIIMS for swine flu.
BJP General Secretary (Organization) Ram Lal admitted to Noida based hospital due to high fever.
Arun Jaitley in US for medical treatment.
11:44 Section 144 in Panchkula ahead of Ram Rahim’s sentencing:
Police have imposed Section 144 across Panchkula in view of the pronouncement of quantum of punishment on Thursday to Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim by the CBI Special Court of Jagdeep Singh, which has convicted him in the case pertaining to the murder of journalist Ramchander Chhatrapati.
Speaking to ANI, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Kamaldeep Goel on Thursday said: “We have imposed Section 144 across the city. The CBI Special court is in Sector 1. We have also restricted the vehicular movement on all four roads connecting to the court premises.”
Section 144 of Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) prohibits assembly of five or more persons, holding of public meetings, and carrying weapons.
“Today no one is being allowed to park his vehicle inside the court. Each and every person, entering the court will be frisked. Moreover, we have deployed scores of security personnel near the borders. All the vehicles are being thoroughly checked before entering Panchkula,” said Goel.
Sirsa-based Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim will be produced in the court through video conference from Sunaria jail in Rohtak, where he is currently serving 20-year prison term since 2017 for raping two of his women followers.
Three other accused, who were also convicted in the journalist’s murder case, will be produced in the court from Ambala jail through video conference.
The Dera chief has been found guilty of orchestrating the killing of Chhatrapati, a Sirsa-based journalist after the scribe wrote against Ram Rahim in his newspaper titled ‘Poora Sach.’ The scribe was shot in 2002, and the case was registered in 2003. — ANI
10:58 NIA raids in Punjab, UP against ISIS-inspired group : The NIA Thursday carried out searches at eight places in western Uttar Pradesh and Punjab in connection with its probe against an ISIS-inspired group, which was allegedly planning suicide attacks and serial blasts, targeting politicians and government installations, in Delhi and other parts of north India.
The agency has arrested 12 people in this connection since December 26 last year. The fresh raids come five days after the National Investigation Agency arrested Muhammad Absar (24) from Hapur on January 12.
The NIA said that searches were being conducted based on inputs from interrogation of the people arrested for allegedly being part of ‘Harkat ul Harb e Islam’ module of global terrorist group ISIS.
The agency had earlier said it had seized a locally made rocket launcher, material for suicide vests and 112 alarm clocks to be used as timers besides recovering 25 kg of explosive material — Potassium Nitrate, Ammonium Nitrate and Sulphur.
The group had allegedly purchased remote-controlled cars and wireless doorbells to use their circuits in assembling remote-controlled improvised explosive devices. Besides, the NIA had also seized steel containers, electric wires, 91 mobile phones, 134 SIM cards, 3 laptops, knife, sword, ISIS-related literature during the searches conducted earlier. — PTI
10:32 Minimum temp in Delhi 4.2 deg C, fog delays 11 trains: It was a cold foggy Thursday morning in the national capital with the minimum temperature settling at 4.2 degrees Celsius, three notches below the average in the season.
Railways officials said 11 north-bound trains, including the Purushottam Express, Bhubneshwar-Delhi Duranto, Poorva Express, Brahmputra Mail, were running late by an average of 2-3 hours.
The fog dropped visibility in various parts of the city. The visibility was 400 metres at Safdarjung at 8.30 am and 250 metres at Palam at 7.30 am, said a MeT department official. Relative humidity was 100 per cent in the morning. As per forecast of the department, the day will be marked with clear skies. Haze and smoke will occur later in the day, the weatherman said. The maximum temperature would be around 22 degrees Celsius. On Wednesday, the maximum and minimum temperatures were 21.3 degrees Celsius and 4.5 degrees Celsius, respectively. — PTI
10:27 Megalithic ruins found in Maharashtra : In Maharashtra, an exciting discovery, in fact, quite a bone-chilling one, literally. 3000-yr-old artefacts, including the remains of a human skeleton of the Megalithic times have been unearthed in Nagpur’s Gorewada forest during excavations by Pune’s Deccan College Post Graduate & Research Institute in tie-up with Forest Development Corporation of Maharashtra.
10:15 6.0 quake strikes Nicobar, no tsunami warning : Earthquake measuring 6.0 on the Richter scale strikes Nicobar Islands region, says the IMD. The Indian Tsunami Warning center says there is no threat of a tsunami. The earthquake struck in the Nicobar region under the sea near Cambbell Bay at 8.23 am. Andaman and Nicobar islands are prone to big earthquakes.
10:04 Gurmeet Ram Rahim’s sentencing in journalist’s murder case today:
The Special Court of CBI in Panchkula on Thursday will pronounce the quantum of punishment to Gurmeet Ram Rahim, convicted in the murder of journalist Ramchander Chhatrapati along with three others, through video conference.
Sirsa-based Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim will be produced in the court through video conference from Sunaria jail in Rohtak, where he is currently serving a 20-year prison term since 2017 for raping two women followers.
Three other accused, who were also convicted in the journalist’s murder case, will be produced in the court from Ambala jail through video conference.
The CBI Special Court agreed to pronounce the punishment through video conference after Haryana government on Tuesday filed an application in this regard.
The Dera chief has been found guilty of orchestrating the killing of Chhatrapati, a Sirsa-based journalist after the scribe wrote against Ram Rahim in his newspaper titled ‘Poora Sach.’ The scribe was shot in 2002, and the case was registered in 2003. — ANI
09:51 Kumaraswamy offering money, ministerial posts to BJP MLAs: Yeddy : BJP state unit chief and former Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa has alleged that Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy was indulging in horse-trading by offering money and ministerial posts to his MLAs.
“We are not indulging in any poaching. It is Chief Minister Kumaraswamy who is indulging in horse-trading. He himself is offering money and ministerial posts to our MLAs,” Yeddyurappa said in Bengaluru on the intervening night of Wednesday and Thursday.
BJP MLAs from Karnataka who have camped themselves in Gurugram since Monday evening said that they were in the Garden City to strategize for the coming Lok Sabha polls and had not run away fearing poaching by the ruling Congress-JDS alliance.
The charges of horse-trading were triggered after three Karnataka Congress MLAs visited Mumbai earlier on Monday, reportedly along with some BJP MLAs. This was followed by the Congress’ allegation that the BJP was trying to poach the ruling party’s MLAs to destabilise the JDS-Congress alliance government in Karnataka.
Yeddyurappa has refuted these charges, saying that his party had nothing to do with the three Congress lawmakers’ Mumbai visit, and accused the Congress-JDS alliance of making a poaching bid.Chief Minister Kumaraswamy has also accused Yeddyurappa of fabricating stories, adding that there was no need for the Congress-JDS alliance to poach on any party’s lawmakers. — ANI
09:44 IMD: Earthquake measuring 6.0 on the Richter scale strikes Nicobar Islands region.
09:35 Over a month later, navy detects 1 body in Meghalaya mine:
The navy has detected the body of one the miners more than a month after operations to search and rescue 15 miners trapped in a deep coal mine in Meghalaya.
The body was detected at a depth of more than 200 feet inside the “rat-hole” mine.
Efforts are on to rescue the remaining 14 miners.
Around 200 rescue personnel of the Indian navy, the Coal India, the National Disaster Response Force, the Odisha fire service and private pump maker Kriloskar are involved in the search operations.
08:41 US service members killed in Islamic State-claimed attack in Syria:
Two United States service members were among those killed in a fiery explosion at a market in the northern Syria town of Manjib, the US military officials said.
Prior to Wednesday’s attack, only two US service members had been killed in action in Syria since the start of the campaign in 2014.
Two US service members — one Department of Defense civilian and one contractor supporting the DoD were killed — and three service members injured while conducting a local engagement in Manjib, the US Central Command said.
Initial reports indicate an explosion caused the casualties, and the incident is under investigation, it said.
In accordance with DoD’s policy, the names of the service members are being withheld until 24 hours after notification of next of kin is complete, CENTCOM said.
“US service members were killed during an explosion while conducting a routine patrol in Syria today. We are still gathering information and will share additional details at a later time,” according to a tweet from the spokesperson for the Operation Inherent Resolve.
Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the deadly explosion.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group, at least 15 people, including a US serviceman, were killed in the rare attack in Manbij. It said the cause of the explosion was a suicide bomb outside a restaurant.
“The President (Donald Trump) has been fully briefed and we will continue to monitor the ongoing situation in Syria,” White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said.
The explosion took place in a market wedged along a crowded street thick with cars. Video that Hawar identifies as from the scene shows people gathered on a crowded sidewalk when the fiery blast occurs.
The attack comes less than a month after Trump announced that US troops would withdraw from Syria. — PTI
08:23 British PM Theresa May wins confidence motion:
Embattled British Prime Minister Theresa May won a confidence vote on Wednesday and averted a general election, a day after her government suffered a historic parliamentary defeat over her Brexit divorce deal with the European Union.
Her government won by 325 votes to 306 — a majority of 19.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn argued that May’s “zombie” administration had lost the right to govern during a six hour debate on his motion.
His party has not ruled out tabling further no-confidence motions.
After her victory May told MPs that she would “continue to work to deliver on the solemn promise to the people of this country to deliver on the result of the referendum and leave the European Union”.
She invited leaders of all parties to have individual meetings with her on the way ahead for Brexit, starting tonight, but called on them to approach them with a “constructive spirit”.
“We must find solutions that are negotiable and command sufficient support in this House,” she added.
May also reiterated a promise to return to the Commons on Monday to give MPs another vote on her plans.
“The House has put its confidence in this government,” she said.
“I stand ready to work with any member of this House to deliver Brexit and ensure that this House retains the confidence of the British people.”
May’s divorce deal to leave the EU was overwhelmingly rejected by MPs on Tuesday, triggering a no-confidence motion against her government and leaving the country with no plans for Brexit on March 29.
00:42 Raja Krishnamoorthi appointed to key House committee:
Indian-American Raja Krishnamoorthi on Monday was appointed as the member of a key United States House committee handling intelligence related issues.
Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, appointed Krishnamoorthi, 45, to the panel. Krishnamoorthi from Illinois, Congresswoman Val Demings of Florida, Sean Patrick Maloney of New York and Peter Welch of Vermont are the four new Democratic members of House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence for the 116th Congress.
“Members of Congress take a solemn oath to protect the American people and support and defend the Constitution,” said Pelosi in a statement.
“Our new Members of the Intelligence Committee bring exceptional judgment, expertise and determination to our mission to honour that oath and, guided by the strong, principled leadership of Chairman Adam Schiff, will restore the long tradition of bipartisanship and integrity of this critical committee,” she said.
Krishnamoorthi was born into a Tamil-speaking family in New Delhi. His family moved to Buffalo, New York when he was three months old. Krishnamoorthi attended Princeton University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering.
He then received a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School. Early this week, Pelosi had appointed Indian-American Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal to the House Education and Labor Committee. — PTI
Source: Rediff