Nagpur, Feb 28 : The Bombay High Court today sentenced lawyer Satish Uke to two months of simple imprisonment for committing a criminal contempt of court by making frivolous allegations against judges and others.
The Nagpur bench of the High Court also slapped a fine of Rs 2,000 on him.
A division bench of Justice Prasanna Varale and Justice ZA Haq ordered Uke to surrender before the police by March 3 as he did not attend the hearing today.
The criminal contempt proceedings were initiated against Uke for repeatedly filing applications making frivolous allegations against lawyers, judges, government pleaders and court officials.
The court also restrained Uke from initiating any legal proceeding against the lawyers, judges and court officials.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has recently filed a criminal case against 21 educational institutions in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka and many officials from the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE), an autonomous body under the Human Resource Development (HRD) ministry.
The agency had been sifting through the records of over 600 institutions recognised to run teacher training programmes and found major discrepancies in their documents.
NCTE accords recognition to institutions after its officials, also known as visiting teams (VT), inspects the infrastructure and academic facilities of educational institutions.
According to the NCTE mandate, for admitting 50 students, a college should have a minimum built-up area of 15,000 sq m and land area of 2,500 sq m, including parking space. However, these 21 institutes were not following the mandate.
Officials said there are also instances of institutions providing bogus addresses and some did not even have buildings on the ground.
These institutions are in Bengaluru, Bijapur, Hubli and Chitradurga in Karnataka and Madnapalle, Guthkal, Tadipatri, Kurnool, Nandiyala, Nandikotkur, Dharmavaram, Chittoor, Karveti Nagaram and Kadappa in Andhra Pradesh.
While the CBI has named only 21 institutes so far, officials did not rule out the possibility of more being brought under the lens.
“In spite of several irregularities, they were granted recognition by the NCTE for the academic year 2016-17,” the FIR reads. The agency has booked the accused under Sections for criminal conspiracy, cheating, forgery and criminal misconduct.
“The visiting teams also observed certain discrepancies in documents such as building completion certificates, size of land, and land utilisation certificates. The public servants have collectively failed to conduct proper verification and inspection of buildings and have still issued recognition certificates,” CBI documents said.
Some of the institutes are Kalidas Training Teacher Education in Karnataka, IBMR College of Education in Hubli, Aditya College of Education in Bengaluru, SAS college of Education in Nandikotkur in Andhra.
The CBI said that officials of the Southern Regional Committee (SRC), NCTE, Bengaluru, the office of the Regional Director, Southern Region, NCTE, Bengaluru, and VT officials entered into a criminal conspiracy with the heads of the 21 institutions.
New Delhi : The Supreme Court has upheld the government’s decision to sack two naval officers facing criminal trial in the 2005 Navy war room leak case.
A bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra refused to intervene with the 2013 order of Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) rejecting the contention of senior naval officers, Commanders Vijendra Rana and V K Jha, that the department could not have discharged them without a show-cause notice and an opportunity to present their case.
The bench found no merit in their petition and upheld the government’s decision regarding their dismissal from the armed forces.
“We do not find it a fit case to intervene,” the bench, also comprising A M Khanwilkar and M M Shantanagoudar, said.
Rana and Jha were removed from service in October 2005 after a board of inquiry (BoI) held that they were involved in providing sensitive information regarding defence forces to outside agencies.
The 2005 Navy War Room leak case involves leakage of over 7,000 pages of sensitive defence information from the Naval War Room and the Air Headquarters, having a direct bearing on national security.
The leak of sensitive information came to light when an officer was found in possession of an unauthorised pen-drive containing secrets of defence forces.
A BoI was convened and the sacking of the two officers was recommended. The government accepted the recommendation and dismissed them on October 26, 2005.
The officers challenged the decision before the AFT which too dismissed their plea on June 30, 2010. They then approached the apex court.
The government counsel argued before the apex court that the two officers used to provide sensitive information to unauthorised agencies and endangered the country’s security.
Rana, Jha, former naval officer Kulbhushan Prashar, former IAF Wing Commander Sambha Jee L Surve and alleged arms dealer and Delhi-based businessman Abhishek Verma are facing trial in a special CBI court in Delhi the case for the offence of criminal conspiracy under IPC and under various provisions of Official Secrets Act.
While the accused are out on bail, prime accused Ravi Shankaran is still absconding and has been declared a proclaimed offender by the court.
Smashing long-held bastions of the Congress, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) surged to the dominant position in most of the urban civic bodies, results for which were declared on Thursday. However, despite its impressive gains in cities like Pune, Nagpur, Akola, Amravati and Solapur, the cherry on the cake—the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation—became a closely fought race with its estranged ally the Shiv Sena, with the latter leading by a whisker nin the country’s richest civic body.
The BJP also fared poorly compared to the Shiv Sena in the Greater Mumbai urban agglomeration with the latter coming up trumps in Thane and Ulhasnagar, where the BJP had joined hands with controversial local strongman Pappu Kalani’s son Omi.
The results come as a relief for Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis who led the charge almost single-handedly across the state, including in Mumbai and Thane. However, the Shiv Sena may use its dominance in Mumbai and Thane, which together account for 60 seats in the state assembly’s bench strength, to assert itself even more against its senior ally in the state government.
The Sena, which is part of the Narendra Modi and Fadnavis-led dispensations, has already warned that it has put the BJP on “notice” in what is perceived to be a threat to quit the governments.
While emerging as the single-largest political formation in Pune, the BJP, which was badly splintered among factions, almost snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. It also smashed the Raj Thackeray-led MNS to sail close to the half-way mark in Nashik.
The party also made substantial gains in the Solapur municipal corporation, which is the stronghold of senior Congress leader and former chief minister Sushilkumar Shinde, and has a strong presence of the Muslim community. The BJP also won convincingly in Nagpur, which is the hometown of Fadnavis’ and union surface transport minister Nitin Gadkari, and captured other civic bodies in the Vidarbha region like Akola and Amravati.
On the flip side, while the BJP made gains in Mumbai, it fell short in its ambition of unseating the Sena from power in the country’s largest civic body. The BJP, which had drawn many NCP leaders and defectors into its fold in Pimpri Chinchwad, also lost to the party which had seen former deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar throw his weight into the contest.
A senior BJP leader noted that the factor which had worked most for them was the lack of a strong, credible opposition, with the people yet to get over the anger against 15 years of rule by the Congress and NCP.
“The opposition is weak so the people decide to trust us. Another factor which could have gone in our favour was the fact that people could have chosen the BJP at the local level since the party is in power at the Centre and the state,” he said, admitting that the results had belied their fears about the rural voters punishing the party over demonetisation.
The internal fights and factionalism in the Congress and NCP could have also helped, said the BJP leader. Party leaders also claim that projecting Modi and Fadnavis may have helped draw in first-time, young, urban and aspirational voters who tend to side with those parties promising development rather than identity politics.
The huge silent morchas organised by the Marathas for demands like quotas in jobs and education could also have led to a reverse polarisation by non-Marathas, especially the upwardly mobile and assertive OBCs, for the BJP.
A Shiv Sena source admitted that the party was overtly fixated with Mumbai and Thane and had chosen to focus on the belt at the cost of expansion in other areas which may have led to some of its core and auxilliary voters drifting to the BJP. “The Congress and NCP leaders too were fixated on their pocket-boroughs. For instance, Ajit Pawar directed his attention to Pimpri- Chinchwad than other areas,” he noted.
London, Feb 23 : Britain’s exit from the European Union is likely to positively impact the economic bloc’s long- drawn negotiations over a free trade agreement (FTA)with India, according to a leaked document drawn up by the members of the EU parliament.
The document drawn up by Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) in the EU’s influential trade committee points to British Prime Minister Theresa May’s stringent visa policy towards Indian professionals as a major stumbling block to the FTA, which has been in the works since 1997.
India’s high import tariffs on Scotch whisky from Scotland is seen as another hurdle, which would also no longer be a factor post-Brexit, The Guardian reported.
“Scotland has a major interest in an FTA with India: India has the world’s largest market for whisky, which is highly protected by prohibitive tariffs. Lowering tariffs for Scottish whisky could present an important market opportunity,” the MEPs note.
“In case the UK (including Scotland) would leave the EU, this could possibly facilitate FTA negotiations [for the EU] as tariffs on wines and spirits constitute an obstacle. This as well as financial services, would then become a bit less of an offensive interest of the EU,” they add.
The European parliamentarians also suggest that despite the much-hyped India-UK ties, Britain is likely to struggle to clinch a new trade deal.
“Given the important Indian diaspora living in the UK and the common past, the UK tends to attach particular importance to its economic relations to India, however, trading ties are more important with other EU member states,” say the MEPs.
They point out that as a trading partner of India, Germany is the top EU country (ranked 6th), whereby the UK figures only rank 18 between Kuwait and Iran as a trading partner for India.
While the UK makes up 3.4 per cent of India’s overall exports, it accounts only for less than 2 per cent of India’s exports.
In addition, currently the UK has by far the largest trade deficit in goods with India of any EU member states accounting for 2,611 million euros, while Belgium and Germany have a large trade surplus with India.
The document adds that the visas India has been seeking for its skilled workers is a “political problem” for the UK if it wants a deal: “India has a major interest in mode IV access for its service suppliers to the UK, which would also prove politically difficult (as most of the Indian service providers would certainly like to enter the UK for delivering temporary services).”
The MEPs’ document, leaked to the newspaper, does however see a threat to the EU’s other trade talks in Britain’s withdrawal. In particular, there are concerns that the negotiations with Australia and New Zealand due to start in mid-2017 could be scuppered.
Chennai, Feb 23 : Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami will launch a massive 69 lakh seedling planting initiative tomorrow coinciding with former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa’s 69th birth anniversary.
He will launch the initiative at the Tamil Nadu Government Multi Super Speciality Hospital Campus here, official sources said.
He will also launch a ‘Massive Greening Programme’ in the cyclone Vardah affected areas.
In the past too, massive tree plantation drives had been taken up by the state government on Jayalalithaa’s birth anniversary.
She had passed away on December 5, 2016.
There is “clear evidence” that Russia interfered directly in UK elections, a Labour former minister has said.
Chris Bryant told Parliament some of the top-level decisions affecting security in Britain had also been “compromised by Russian infiltration”.
The former Europe minister’s comments came after it emerged that political parties in the UK have approached the security agencies for help following a cyber attack during the 2015 British general election.
“There is now clear evidence of Russian direct, corrupt involvement in elections in France, in Germany, in the United States of America, and I would argue also in this country,” said Mr Bryant.
“Many believe that some of the highest level decisions affecting security in the United Kingdom, in Germany, in France and in the United States of America are now compromised by Russian infiltration.”
The head of the UK’s new National Cyber Security Centre, Ciaran Martin, said that “informal” talks had been held with the parties and a programme to protect their sensitive online information will be put in place in the near future.
Attempted cyber attacks in the run-up to the May 2015 elections, with a rise in clandestine online activity by Russia across the UK at the time, have been reported by security sources.
There had been persistent and rising reports of the Kremlin’s interference in the West’s political system using cyber attacks, including the hacking of the Democratic Party emails as part of an alleged campaign by Vladimir Putin’s government to help Donald Trump win the US presidential elections.
There are also fears that coming elections in Holland, France and Germany, with right-wing populist parties which have varying degrees of Russian support, may be vulnerable.
Emmanuel Macron, the favourite to become the next French president, has also accused Russia and its state-owned media of using hacking and fake news to interfere with the French presidential race.
These claims of interference have been rejected by the Kremlin.
Mr Martin said: “Across the West we are on the alert and looking at defences in that sort of areas of the electoral process. This is obviously an area of concern.”
Labour former minister Ben Bradshaw has previously claimed it was “highly probable” Russia interfered in the EU referendum through cyber warfare, a claim the Government says there is no evidence for.
Mr Bryant repeated these concerns as MPs considered new powers to tackle money laundering, which many have seen as a crackdown on corrupt money flowing into the UK from Russia and other countries.
Mr Bryant, who was Labour’s Minister of State for Europe between 2009 to 2010, went on to criticise both British and US policy towards Russia in recent years.
He said: “My personal perception was that both David Cameron and President Obama were very reluctant to show a strong arm to Russia, because they thought by pressing the reset button, that was Obama’s view, somehow or other you would manage to get major concessions out of Putin.
“I have to say, that has simply not proved to be an effective strategy.
“In every single regard, Putin has simply taken those moments as a sign of weakness and preceded to use force in greater degree.”
NASA scientists have discovered living microorganisms trapped inside crystals for as long as 60,000 years in a mine in Mexico.
These strange ancient microbes have apparently evolved so they can survive on a diet of sulfite, manganese and copper oxide, said Penelope Boston of NASA’s Astrobiology Institute in a presentation over the weekend at a conference of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
“This has profound effects on how we try to understand the evolutionary history of microbial life on this planet,” she said.
They were discovered in the Naica mine, a working lead, zinc and silver mine in the northern Mexican state of Chihuahua.
The mine is famous for its huge crystals, some as long as 50 feet (15 meters).
The discovery has not yet been published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal, but it has led Boston to believe that living organisms may also have survived in the extreme environments of other planets and moons in our solar system.
She said about 100 different kinds of microorganisms — most of them bacteria — have been found locked in Naica crystals for periods ranging from 10,000 to 60,000 years.
Ninety percent of them have never been observed before now, she said.
The discovery of these ultra-hardy microorganisms has been a windfall for researchers but also a source of concern for astrobiologists thinking about bringing back samples collected on space missions in the solar system.
The extreme conditions under which these microbes have survived raises the possibility that dangerous extraterrestrial organisms could accidentally hitch a ride to Earth on a returning spaceship.
Astrobiologists also worry about the risk that Earth organisms could contaminate other planets in the course of missions to places like Mars, which has already been visited by several US robots.
NASA sterilizes its spacecraft and equipment before launching them into space. But there is always a risk that ultra-resistant microorganisms will survive.
“How do we ensure that life-detection missions are going to detect true Mars life or life from icy worlds rather than our life?” asked Boston.
The concerns are not new. During the Apollo missions of the 1960s and ’70s, astronauts returning from the moon were quarantined.
The microorganisms found in the Naica mine are not even the oldest discovered to date.
Several years ago scientists reported finding microbes in ice and salt that were up to 500,000 years old.
The IT Ministry today launched anti-malware analysis centre that will facilitate free anti-virus for computers and mobile phones in the country with project cost of Rs 90 crore spread over a period of five years.
“I would like ISPs (Internet Service Provider) to encourage their consumers to come on board, there is a free service available. Come and use it in the event some malware has sneaked into the system,” IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said at the launch of Botnet Cleaning and Malware Analysis Centre.
The Indian cyber security watchdog CertIn will collect data of infected systems and send it to ISPs and banks. These ISPs and banks will identify the user and provide them with link of the centre, launched in name of Cyber Swachhta Kendra.
The user will be able to download anti-virus or anti-malware tools to disinfect their devices.
“The project has budget outlay of Rs 90 crore spread over period of 5 years,” CertIn Director General Sanjay Bahl said.
As of now 58 ISPs and 13 banks have come on board to use this system.
The minister directed Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) to also set up National Cyber Coordination Centre (NCCC) by June.
The government has approved Rs 900 crore for NCCC which will monitor and handle cyber attacks on Indian internet space in real time.
“Safety and security is integral. As the Prime Minister said cyber threat is akin to bloodless war. I don’t have slightest doubt cyber security is not only going to be big area of Digital Swachh Bharat but also going to be big area of digital growth, digital employment and digital commerce,” Prasad said.
Goverdhan Peetham Shankaracharya Adhokshajanand Saraswati demanded that Election commission should come forward and stop communal politics.
A Hindu seer in Mathura on Tuesday termed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s remarks on desirability of similar power supply situation in the state during festivals of different religions as one leading to “communalisation of politics” and rued the poll panel’s alleged silence over it.
The statement of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in an election meeting in Fatehpur demanding similar power supply during Diwali & Holi and Ramzan & Id is nothing but communalisation of the politics, said Mathura’s Goverdhan Peetham Shankaracharya Adhokshajanand Saraswati.
The Hindu seer further accused the Election Commission of India of keeping mum over the alleged communalisation of politics by the PM’s statement and termed it as “baffling.” The seer said the silence of election commission is baffling because PM Modi has also given controversial Kabristan and Smashan statement.
He said “the standard of debate set by the Prime Minister now is not only at its lowest ebb but also against the ethics and culture of the country.”
As the Prime Minister he could have eliminated disparity of power supply during festivals, in his recent tenure but he has chosen the controversial issues just for polarisation of votes,” he said adding it shows that Modi can go to any extent for a BJP govt in the state.
Election commission should come forward and stop communal politics Shankaracharya demanded.