INDIA – Gujarat High Court Creates Child-Friendly Detention Centers In The Courts
In an effort to safeguard victims and child witnesses of sexual offenses and other serious crimes from unnecessary pressure, the High Court of Gujarat has scheduled to create Vulnerable Witness Deposition Centers (VWDC) across all state district courts. Two such centers were opened on Saturday by Acting Chief Justice AS Dave at Surat and Bharuch district courts. In particular, the centers were designed and developed in 2018 on the basis of the guidelines of the Supreme Court. Interestingly, the centers are fitted with a collection of toys, TV set with a set-top box, and multimedia content for children, along with allied equipment such as a pantry and a laundry room
INDIA – If Taxpayer Uses Aadhaar Number for Filing Returns, PAN Will Be Generated Automatically: CBDT
The Department of Income Tax will automatically issue PAN to a taxpayer using Aadhaar number to file returns as part of a new agreement to connect the two databases. According to a notification published by the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) on 30th August, an individual who furnishes Aadhaar, since they do not have a PAN, “will be considered” to have applied for the allocation of PAN and will not be needed to submit any further documents. The rule came into force on 1st September, it said. The notification stated that the tax department would “obtain demographic information from the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI)” for the allocation of the Permanent Account Number (PAN), a ten-digit alphanumeric identifier provided by it.
INDIA – Sold into Sex Slavery: Women Compelled to Take Numerous Husbands to Tackle India’s ‘Wife Shortage’ Because Parents are Aborting Baby Girls
Women in India are being forced to marry numerous husbands to combat ‘bride scarcity’—because baby girls are being aborted. Most of them come from poor areas and are sold into sexual and domestic slavery, where they may end up being the abused wife of several men in one family. Bridge trade is fueled by an increasing gender imbalance, which the United Nations warned has reached “emergency proportions.” There are supposedly only 700 females in Baghpat to 1,000 males of all ages. Reportedly, the worst of this situation occurs in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.
CANADA – Montreal School Boards to Enforce the Law on Religious Secularism and to Comply With the Quebec’s Bill C-21
On September 3rd, despite a good deal of pressure from Montreal school boards, especially the English-speaking districts, Quebec’s Bill C-21, a secularism law that prohibits certain government officials and educators from carrying religious symbols, is set to come into effect for the coming school year. The English Montreal School Board (EMSB) is the last of three to lastly agree on the new terms of Bill C-21. Throughout the year, many educators, principals and other employees in the education industry have expressed their opposition. Yet, it appears that compliance with them is compulsory, and many are coming to terms.
INDIA – Banks Mergers Are Not A Quick Fix for India’s Economy
With every passing day, India’s economic indicators are turning a little darker. The condition is bad enough to justify using the term “crisis” arriving just as the government spends its fiscal ammunition. This adds pressure on the central bank — both to reduce its policy rate and to guarantee that business lenders pass it on to borrowers. To the extent that more inefficient state-run banks are a drag on credit, New Delhi said Friday (August 27, 2019) that as many as ten of them would be merged into four. A heavy injection of Rs 55,250 crore of taxpayers’ cash into the merged banks will only assist them to provide for the bad loans that will be lumped together. Captain Growth remains elusive. With bank mergers, the benefits will take time to become apparent, even as the pain is clearly worse.
INDIA – New Trend in Lawyers Script; Doubt the Efficacy of Supreme Court in Dealing with A Case and Arguing That Case
Until recently, the trend has been that lawyers have argued their case and waited for the judgment. Most admit the decisions of the Supreme Court (SC), however unpalatable they may be. But some did not mince words in criticizing a decision if it went beyond the defined canons of law and precedents set by the SC. Some prominent senior advocates have begun a new trend. First, they write papers in journals and web portals that raise doubts about SC’s efficacy in dealing with a specific case. And then the same attorneys appear before the SC to argue those cases. Are these hearing-eve articles intended to soften SC judges? Would it not be interpreted as interference in the administration of justice? Would it be incorrect to call this an intellectually surreptitious method of trying to influence the judge’s thinking process? Finally, would it not be an intrusion into the independence of the judiciary? This act seems to have occurred in a petition filed by Last week, by senior advocate Rajeev Dhavan in the Ayodhya land dispute case.
CANADA – Police in Ontario Increases Patrol on Streets As Post-Secondary Students Celebrate the New School Year
Police in southwestern Ontario says there will be an increase in the presence of policemen patrolling the streets close to two post-secondary schools beginning Sunday as the force seeks to assist students to celebrate the new college year responsibly. Police, says there will be additional enforcement for party-related by-laws, parking, open fire, noise, litter, and public urination for the next few weeks. The police initiative emerges as students move to residences at Western University and Fanshawe College over a long weekend. In 2017, the police added that 37 individuals were hospitalized, more than 60 charges were laid, and nearly 1,000 warnings were given after a street party attended by thousands.
INDIA – Ayodhya Case: Supreme Court Ensures A Break for Lawyer Representing Muslim Parties to Prepare Arguments On Friday
The Supreme Court, which chose to hold the day-to-day hearing in the politically delicate Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute case, ensured the Muslim parties’ counsel on Monday that it would give him a break on Friday (September 6, 2019) to prepare arguments. Senior lawyer Rajeev Dhavan, the lawyer of the Sunni Waqf Board and one of the original litigants, M Siddiq, told the 5-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi that he wanted to use the mid-week break to prepare the case. “My lords said I could have a mid-week break, maybe its Wednesday,” said Dhavan.” Take it on Friday, it will be more convenient,” said the bench, which began hearing arguments from the Muslim side on the 17th day of the key trials.
INDIA – Provide Names of Executives Accountable For Pothole Death, Punjab and Haryana HC, Tells L&T Firm Chairman
Punjab and Haryana High Court (HC) directed L&T Chairman A M Naik to provide the names of the directors who had been tasked with overseeing the maintenance of the Delhi-Agra road, where a three-year-old kid (Pavitra) had died in a pothole incident on February 2014. L&T had approached HC to seek a suspension of proceedings against four of its directors, including Naik after the Faridabad court had notified all 15 of its directors of the case. This is probably the first case where HC directed the private company to appoint the executives responsible for maintenance and to investigate their negligence in the event of a deadly accident.
USA – Shooting in Texas Results to New Urgency to Gun Debate in Congress
The deadly shooting spree in West Texas this weekend — the latest in a particularly gruesome summer of massacres — intensified pressure on Congressional Republicans to adopt gun legislation, providing new impetus to a discussion that was already supposed to be at the top of the legislature’s agenda next week, when they return to the Capitol. The attack in Midland and Odessa, Tex., which left Seven (7) dead and 22 injured, comes weeks after a 24-year-old gunman with an assault weapon murdered nine individuals in Dayton, Ohio, in early August. That massacre, hours after one that murdered 22 individuals at Walmart in El Paso, brought gun violence to the Washington discussion just as Congress left town for its annual August recess.
INDIA – Prison Rules Notified Without Submission of the File to L-G; Lieutenant-Governor, Anil Baijal to Delhi HC
Lieutenant-Governor (L-G) Anil Baijal informed the High Court (HC) of Delhi that the City Government had notified the 2018 Delhi Prison Rules (DPR) without submitting the document to him. In an affidavit filed before the HC, Mr Baijal stated that reading of the Delhi Prisons Act, 2000, “clearly shows that the rules had to be applied only after the file had been submitted to the L-G of Delhi.” L-G’s response came from a High Court notice of a petition submitted by social activist and lawyer Amit Sahni claiming that the Delhi Government had not sought the approval of the L-G before the Delhi Prison Rules of 2018 came into effect.
INDIA – Botched-Up Cataract Surgery: Bombay High Court Rejects to Neglect the Order of the Lower Court to “Issue Process” Against the Accused Doctor
The Bombay High Court has lately refused to quash and set aside the order of the Pune Court of “proceeding” against Dr Shrutika Kankaria, who was accused in 2016 of botched-up cataract surgery by a senior citizen. Justice S Shinde said, “It is not desirable at this stage to give detailed reasons, it suffices to say that the prima facie case is made out for issuance of process.” Justice Shinde said, “At this point, neither the defence of the petitioner on the merits nor her challenge to the findings of the expert committee should be taken into account when the Court discovers that the constitution of the expert’s committee is in line with the appropriate laws and procedures.”
USA – Kratom Has Been Connected To Countless Fatalities, But It Is Lawful in Pennsylvania And Is Likely To Stay So
The discussion about whether kratom is a deadly drug for close regulation or health-giving complement to the market is played out extensively in statehouses, in news conferences, and in traditional and social media as advocates of the product use their carefully refined lobbying abilities against those who seek to prohibit it. As many as 5 million individuals in this nation use kratom, which is derived from the leaves of a Southeast Asian tree that is part of the coffee family. It is purchased online, in gas stations and in smoke stores, and is usually brewed as tea, chewed, smoked or ingested in capsules. Advocates say it helps relieve pain, relieves migraines, and can even help with opioid withdrawal.
INDIA – SC Looking For A Way to Avoid Judge’s Crisis
The Supreme Court (SC) collegium does not object to the Centre’s request to reconsider a recommendation to appoint a judge as Chief Justice of Madhya Pradesh if such a step is required to avert a constitutional crisis, judicial sources informed The Telegraph. The pending decision on Justice Akil Kureshi, now serving in the High Court of Bombay and earlier in the High Court of Gujarat, is among the most eagerly awaited since the Narendra Modi administration began its second inning in the Centre. The collegium has the authority to iterate a recommendation, which then becomes binding, but if the Center fails to comply with the reaffirmation, an unsustainable scenario may occur, the sources pointed out.
DUBAI – Employer Is Mandated To Provide Medical Insurance To Staff In The UAE
According to the Abu Dhabi Health Insurance Act, the employer may be liable for offering health insurance to all staff and their family members (employee’s wife and three kids under 18 years of age). Every sponsor shall, from the date of his or her arrival in the State, sign the scheme for any person under his or her sponsorship unless that person is entitled to health insurance coverage by the employer. The expatriates may not be hired, have given residence licenses or have renewed their current licenses unless they are covered by the health insurance system.
INDIA – Collegium Clears The Name Of Vikram Nath For Gujarat High Court Chief Justice
The Supreme Court Collegium approved the appointment of Justice Vikram Nath as Chief Justice of the High Court of Gujarat, superseding a proposal to appoint him Chief Justice of the High Court of Andhra Pradesh. The collegium led by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi reconsidered the proposal at the request of the Government on Friday and chose to approve Nath’s move to the High Court of Gujarat. It also recommended the appointment of Justice JK Maheshwari, Chief Justice of the High Court of Madhya Pradesh, as CJ of the High Court of Andhra Pradesh, due to a collegium resolution on the SC website.
INDIA – SC Refuses To Hear A Petition For The Identification Of Missing People In The Punjab Post Of 1984
The Supreme Court today refused to respond a petition seeking the identification of more than 8,000 missing persons during the military and counter-insurgency period in Punjab starting in 1984. The petitioner organization was told by the Bench of Justices Arun Mishra and MR Shah to approach the High Court of Punjab & Haryana. The PIL concerns the “forced disappearances, extra-judicial killings and mass cremations” of more than 8,000 people who were either murdered by extra-judicial means or kidnapped by safety forces in Punjab during the post-1984 counter-insurgency era.
FRANCE – French Schools To Display Flags In Classrooms
The move, efficient from the beginning of the school year on Monday (September 2, 2019), was adopted as part of the instructional reforms adopted by the Parliament in February. Schools in France are now needed to show the French and EU flags in schools alongside the national anthem. It was suggested by the center-right opposition MP but supported by the centrist government of President Emmanuel Macron. The rule has been controversial. Critics say it’s overly nationalistic. Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer informed Le Parisien at the time: “The civic spirit must be enhanced. Knowing the symbols of your nation is the most natural thing in the country everywhere in the world.”
INDIA – Cash At The Judge’s Door: Witness Identifies A Businessman From Delhi
A witness in the 2008 cash-at-your-door scam on Saturday recognized Delhi businessman Ravinder Singh Bhasin, who is accused of giving bribes of Rs 15 lakh to former Punjab and Haryana High Court Judge Nirmal Yadav. On Saturday, Gurgaon-based contractor Onil Kumar Diwan also confirmed to the Special Court of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) that he had received a call from Justice Yadav for the renovation of her home. The matter will be heard on 7 September. Dewan, according to the CBI, said previously that Ravinder was his neighbor.
INDIA – MP Cop Braves 11 Transfers In 8 Months, Moves Jabalpur HC
Fed up with frequent transfers, a police officer from Madhya Pradesh moved the High Court of Jabalpur against repeated relocations. Sunil Lata has been transmitted 11 times in eight months, producing a record of sorts. Presently in charge of the Sarni Police Station in Betul. In his request, Lata made part of the case to the Secretary (Home), the Director-General of Police (DGP) and the Betul Superintendent of Police (SP) and said that he was faced with a great deal of trouble owing to frequent transfers.
