Andhra Pradesh high court sentences 5 IAS officers to jail for contempt

Andhra Pradesh high court sentences 5 IAS officers to jail for contempt

TNN | Sep 3, 2021, 05.43 AM IST

VIJAYAWADA: The AP high court on Thursday found five IAS officers guilty of contempt of court and sentenced them with jail term and punishment.

The court, after hearing a contempt petition moved by one Tallapaka Savitramma from Kanupur village of Venkatachalam mandal in Nellore district, found the officials guilty of wilful disobedience of the court’s orders.

While senior IAS officer Manmohan Singh, the then principal secretary for revenue, was sentenced to four weeks in jail and a fine of 1,000, principal secretary for finance SS Rawat was sentenced to one month in jail and 2,000 fine.

Failing to pay the fine will increase the jail term by another week, the court said.

District collector of Nellore Revu Mutyala Raju has been sentenced to two weeks in jail along with a fine of 1,000, while KNV Chakradhar and MV Seshagiri Babu, who previously worked as Nellore district collectors, were fined 2,000 fine each, with a clause to spend a week in jail if they fail to pay the fine.

Savitramma had moved a petition in 2017 after her assigned land was taken away by the state government for the setting up of National Institute for Mentally Handicapped. Considering her petition, the court had directed the government to pay compensation along with others as per the issued GO within three months.

As no compensation was paid, she moved a contempt petition in 2018. The court issued notices to the respondents and after perusal of the counter affidavits filed by them, impleaded the officials who worked as Nellore district collectors during the period of litigation and also the principal secretaries of finance. After impleading the officials, the compensation amount was finally paid on March 30, 2021 — a delay of about three years.

After perusal of the affidavits filed by the officers, the court found Manmohan Singh (then principal secretary for revenue), SS Rawat (principal secretary for finance), Mutylaraju, Chakradhar and Seshagiri Babu, who worked as Nellore district collectors, responsible for delay in payment of compensation to the 62-year-old widow.

Justice Battu Devanand observed that because of the negligence and disobedience of the officials, the old woman suffered a lot. Noting that it was a fit case for contempt of court, he rejected the unconditional apology tendered by the officers. The court also directed the state government to pay `1 lakh to the petitioner towards costs. However, Justice Devanand suspended the operation of the sentence by four weeks after request by the officials.

M’luru man gets 2 doses of Covishield in minutes

M’luru man gets 2 doses of Covishield in minutes

Vinobha.KT@timesgroup.com

Mangaluru:03.09.2021

A 19-year-old daily-wage worker was administered two doses of Covishield within minutes of each other at a crowded vaccination centre in Sullia taluk of Karnataka’s Dakshina Kannada district on Wednesday. He has been under observation though no adverse effect has been reported in the past 24 hours.

The incident took place at a school in the taluk’s Duggaladka village when the centre was chock-ablock with vaccine-seekers due to a mega drive conducted by the government on Wednesday. Sullia taluk health officer Dr B Nandakumar told TOI that the man, despite jabbed back to back, will still have to take another dose after the stipulated gap of 84 days.

The officer said the faux pas occurred when the man didn’t leave the room after taking the first dose, and the nurse on the job didn’t realize she was administering a second dose to the same person. “Soon after realising the mistake, he was made to remain under observation for two-three hours before he was sent home,” he said.

A team of health officers has been checking his vital parameters at his home since Wednesday evening.

Dr Nandakumar said the man was under the impression that two doses of vaccine were necessary to travel. He seemed to have believed rumours that he would be denied ration from the public distribution system if he weren’t fully jabbed. “Hence, he did not leave the room after the first round of vaccination. The nurse, too, could not recognise him due to the facemask and the confusion caused by the milling crowd,” he added.

Dakshina Kannada district administered 49,364 doses of vaccine on Wednesday, and Sullia taluk accounted for 4,321 doses.

Tamil Nadu to close down 32 toll plazas: Highways minister

Tamil Nadu to close down 32 toll plazas: Highways minister

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:03.09.2021

The Tamil Nadu government would close down 32 toll plazas on the national highways, said state PWD and highways minister E V Velu in the assembly on Thursday. The number of toll plazas on NHs would come down from 48 to 16, he said.

In neighbouring Kerala, the number of toll plazas has been reduced to three as per the provisions of the National Highways Fee (Determination of Rates and Collection) Rules 2008. In Tamil Nadu, there should be only 16 toll plazas as per the rule. (The rule says there should be a minimum distance of 60 km between two plazas. However, there are 48 toll plazas in Tamil Nadu at present and 27 of them violate this rule). He was replying to a calling attention motion moved by M H Jawahirullah of MMK on the hike in toll fee.

The sub-section of the rule also says there should not be any toll plaza within 10 km radius of corporations and municipalities. There are five toll plazas – Nemili near Sriperumbudur, Chennasamudram, Vanagaram, Paranur near Chengelpet and Surapattu - that violate this sub-section, he said and added that as per CM M K Stalin’s instruction, action was being taken to close them down.

“We have already communicated this to the Union ministry for road transport and highways. After the assembly session, I will go in person and meet Union minister Nitin Gadkari and insist on closing down the five toll plazas,” said Velu.

FCRA violations: MHA suspends NGO’s foreign funding licence

FCRA violations: MHA suspends NGO’s foreign funding licence

Bharti.Jain@timesgroup.com

New Delhi:03.09.2021

The home ministry has suspended the foreign funding licence of a prominent Kerala-based NGO linked to influential Sunni leader from the state, Sheikh Aboobacker Ahmed, over violation of provisions of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act, 2010 and its rules.

The prime violations cited by MHA in its order suspending FCRA registration of Kozhikodebased Markazul Ighasathil Kairiyathil Hindiyya — which received nearly ₹147 crore from foreign sources between 2018-19 and 2020-21, with a huge chunk coming from charities in the Gulf — include misutilisation and diversion. These relate to purposes other than those declared, misrepresentation of facts and failure to submit annual FCRA returns for the year 2019-20.

Full report on www.toi-.in

JEE exam ‘fraud’: CBI files FIR against pvt institute

JEE exam ‘fraud’: CBI files FIR against pvt institute

Rajshekhar.Jha@timesgroup.com

New Delhi:03.09.2021

CBI has filed an FIR against a private institute and its officials in connection with allegations of irregularities allegedly committed in the ongoing JEE (Mains) Exams 2021 and carried out searches on Thursday at a number of locations in various cities in connection with the alleged manipulation. Several persons are being questioned and multiple arrests are likely, officials said.

The directors and ofrficials of the institute, Affinity Education, were allegedly manipulating the online examination of JEE (Mains) and facilitating aspiring students to get admission in top NITs in consideration of huge amount by solving the question papers through remote access from a chosen examination centre in Sonepat, Haryana. It has been alleged that the accused used to obtain 10th and 12th marksheets, the user IDs, passwords, and postdated cheques of aspiring students in different parts of country as security and once admission was done, they used to collect heavy amount, ranging from ₹12-₹15 lakh from each such candidate.

Full report on www.toi.in

No bail for passport official

GRAFT CASE

No bail for passport official

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Madurai:03.09.2021

The Madras high court on Thursday dismissed the anticipatory bail plea of a passport official who was booked by the CBI for issuing passports illegally to Sri Lankans after taking bribes from travel agents.

The court was hearing the anticipatory bail plea of Madurai regional passport office senior superintendent V Veeraputhiran, who has been accused of entering into criminal conspiracy to provide passports to Sri Lankans, who were ineligible for Indian passports, after taking bribe of 45,000 from travel agents, when he was deputed to the passport office in Tirunelveli district in 2019.

On August 18, the court had granted interim anticipatory bail to the petitioner for two weeks and directed him to cooperate with the inquiry. When the case was taken up for hearing on Thursday, assistant solicitor general L Victoria Gowri submitted that as per the conditions imposed by the court, the petitioner appeared before CBI from August 27. However, the petitioner had not cooperated for inquiry as directed by the court and had produced certain medical records about sustaining spine injuries.

Justice B Pugalendhi observed that the petitioner was instrumental in providing illegal passports to people who were not citizens of India, adding that custodial interrogation is warranted in this case to find out how many such passports were issued, while dismissing the petition.

Legislation to do away with NEET may not have legal sanctity

Legislation to do away with NEET may not have legal sanctity

Julie.Mariappan@timesgroup.com

Chennai:3.09.2021

The TN government’s decision to pass a legislation to do away with National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) and to provide for medical admissions based on marks obtained in the qualifying examination is based on suggestions from a committee led by chief secretary V Irai Anbu.

The legal validity of such legislation, however, is questionable given that the Supreme court had upheld the constitutional validity of uniform entrance examination both at the UG and PG level. It also requires the President’s assent.

A government policy note tabled in the assembly on Thursday said an official committee of secretaries led by the chief secretary was constituted to suggest appropriate measures to implement recommendations of a committee led by retired judge Justice A K Rajan on NEET. The Rajan committee submitted its report on July14.

The government said this would ensure social justice and protect all vulnerable student communities from being discriminated against in admission to medical education.

It is learned the CS-led committee comprising secretaries of health, school, higher education and law suggested the legal route after the Rajan committee reported the challenges faced by the rural students, those of whom studied in government schools, in Tamil medium of instruction. The Rajan committee found a sharp contrast in medical admission of rural and urban students besides repeaters gaining huge access to medical courses than first time applicants. “The fresh bill will be introduced either on Monday or Tuesday. The students will have to appear for NEET on September11 this year,” said a source.

As for the legal validity of the proposed bill, senior advocate K M Vijayan said, “As long as higher education is concerned, in the matters relating to determination of standards of higher education, the powers are vested with the Union government. The states cannot pass a law under Entry 25 of List III, subject to certain entries in List I. These areas are exclusive domains of Parliament.”

There were heated exchanges between the treasury and opposition over the conduct of NEET during the debate on demand for grants for the health and family welfare department in the assembly. While the UPA government introduced NEET, former chief M Karunanidhi strongly opposed it. The examination took place only when the AIADMK was in power, health minister Ma Subramanian said. He was reacting to AIADMK (Pappireddipatti) MLA A Govindasamy, who wondered whether the DMK regime was unwilling to give credit to EPS for 7.5% NEET quota for government school students given that the policy note cited only the recommendation of the commission led by retired judge Justice P Kalaiyarasan.

(With inputs from J Shanmugasundaram)

The legal validity of such legislation, is questionable given the SC had upheld the constitutional validity of uniform entrance exam both at UG and PG level