Latest Politics News and Updates

Wednesday, April 1, 2015

349 evacuated Indians reach Djibouti from Yemen's Aden city - Economic Times

NEW DELHI: 349 Indians today reached Djibouti after being evacuated on a Navy vessel from strife-torn Yemen's Aden city late last night and will fly to Mumbai soon.

Evacuation took place after India got permission to dock its offshore patrol vessel INS Sumitra at the Aden harbour as the government launched a massive air and sea operation, christened "Operation Raahat', to bring back its over 4,000 nationals in Yemen.

INS Sumitra, which has been deployed for anti-piracy patrol in the Gulf of Aden since March 11, was the first to undertake evacuation from Yemen.

The ship was re-deployed off the Port of Aden on March 30 and thereafter entered Aden Harbour last evening.

It waited for hours to get local clearances as heavy fighting was reported in the city. While the ship has self-defence weapons, it cannot protect itself against multiple hand-held weapons or shoulder fired missiles.

"The ship evacuated 349 Indians from Aden.... On disembarkation of these personnel at Djibouti, the ship is scheduled to return to Aden to undertake further evacuation, if required," a statement by the Navy said.

Defence sources said the vessel has docked at Djibouti and Minister of State for External Affairs Gen V K Singh (Retd) will interact with the people there.

Indian Navy ships Mumbai and Tarkash also sailed from Mumbai on March 30 as part of Operation Raahat.

The ships will escort two passenger vessels, Kavaratti and Corals, through the piracy risk area off the Coast of Somalia.

These passenger vessels had sailed from Kochi on March 30 to Djibouti.

The two warships will, thereafter, be available for evacuation of Indian nationals from Yemeni ports, as required.

The evacuated Indians will be flown to Mumbai today in Indian Air Force's two C17 Globemasters. The first one is expected to land in Mumbai at around 8 PM IST.

Saudi-led coalition warplanes pounded Yemen's Shiite rebels for a sixth day yesterday, destroying missiles and weapons depots and for the first time using warships to bomb the rebel-held airport and eastern outskirts of the port city of Aden.

Maruti sales decline 1.6% in March - Business Standard

Country's largest car-maker Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) today reported a marginal 1.6% decline in its total sales for March at 1,11,555 units as against 1,13,350 units in the same month a year ago.

The company said its domestic sales increased by 1.4% during the month to 1,03,719 units as against 1,02,269 units in March 2014.

The carmaker expects sales to grow at a faster pace than the forecast of 5-6% growth for the industry in FY16.

Maruti Suzuki, which sells about one in every two cars in India, reported its best-ever annual sales in the year to end-March but is yet to see a strong recovery in the passenger car market, executive director, R S Kalsi, said on Wednesday. It sold 1.29 million passenger vehicles in the fiscal year ended March 31 - a 12% increase from a year ago and higher than its previous peak of 1.27 million in the year 2010-2011.

Sales of mini segment cars, including, Alto and WagonR, rose marginally to 40,159 units in March 2014 as compared to 40,085 units in the year-ago month, MSI said in a statement.

The company said sales of the compact segment comprising Swift, Estilo, Ritz, Dzire declined by 12.5% to 38,710 units in March this year as against 44,251 units last year.

MSI said sales of its compact sedan Dzire Tour rose over two-fold during the month under review at 2,613 units as against 1,271 units in March 2014.

The sales of company's mid-sized sedan Ciaz, which was launched in October 2014, stood at 4,251 units. The company had sold 411 units of SX4 sedan in March 2014. There was no sale of premium sedan Kizashi during the month.

Sales of utility vehicles, including Gypsy, Grand Vitara and Ertiga, declined by 4.3% at 6,218 units in March this year from 6,499 units in the corresponding month last year.

Sales of vans - Omni and Eeco - rose by 20.7% to 11,768 units in March this year as compared to 9,752 units in the same period of previous year. Exports during the month declined by 20.3% to 7,836 units as compared to 11,081 units in March last year, MSI said.

For the 2014-15 fiscal, the company said it posted hihest ever sales ever at 12,92,415 units, up 11.9%, from 11,55,041 units in 2013-14. The previous high was in 2010-11, when the company had sold 12,71,005 units.

The company's domestic sales during the 2014-15 fiscal stood at 11,70,702 units, up 11.1%, from 10,53,689 units in 2013-14 fiscal.

Coal scam case: Temporary relief to ex-PM Manmohan Singh as SC stays ... - The Indian Express

manmohan singh, coal scam, coal block scam FILE - In this Wednesday, May 21, 2014 file photo, outgoing Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh leaves after paying homage to former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi on his death anniversary, in New Delhi, India. (Source: AP)

The Supreme Court on Wednesday stayed the summons against former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who also held the coal portfolio, in a coal block allocation scam case.

A bench led by Justice V Gopala Gowda also stayed the trial court orders of summons against Kumar Mangalam Birla, his company Hindalco, former coal secretary P C Parakh and others in connection with the 2005 allocation of the Talabira-II coal block in Orissa.

The court, while issuing notices to the CBI on a clutch of six petitions in the case, also stayed the proceedings before the trial court.

Opinion: The Hindalco contradiction

It has also issued a notice to the Centre on Hindalco’s petition challenging the constitutional validity of a provision in the Prevention of Corruption Act, which was invoked by the trial court in issuing summons.

Singh and others had moved the court last week seeking quashing of the summons as accused in the case.

A special court had on March 11 summoned Singh as an accused in the case after observing that there was a “conscious effort on his part to somehow accommodate” the Aditya Birla Group flagship Hindalco in the 2005 allocation of the Talabira-II coal block in Orissa.

It had also summoned five other accused namely Kumar Mangalam Birla, chairman of Aditya Birla Group; former coal secretary P C Parakh; Hindalco Group executive president B Shubhendu Amitabh and managing director D Bhattacharya.

Apart from Singh, Birla, Bhattacharya, Parakh and others have also approached the court and sought quashing of the summons.

Singh, in his petition, has argued that the summoning order was not legal and against the principles of the criminal jurisprudence. Apart from challenging the order on various technical grounds, the petition maintained that there was no instance of alleged criminality that could be attributed to any of his acts as coal minister.

It asked for an imminent stay on further proceedings, saying the summons would have grave ramifications on his personal liberty besides causing irreparable damage to his reputation.

The petition said there was nothing on record to point out that Singh has done any act, which may constitute an offence. The former prime minister had taken decisions as a competent authority on allocation of Talabira-II coal block to Hindalco on the representation of Orissa government, it said.

As per the petition, the trial court judge had sought to substitute his own opinion over the views of the functionaries at various levels.

In his petition, Singh has termed as “ridiculous” the logic behind the issuance of summons. It said an administrative decision could be “good or bad” but it was unheard of to introduce criminality into the decision by terming it post-facto as against public interest.

“There is not even a continued…

Bangladesh's Kamal resigns as ICC president, says can't work with those who ... - Hindustan Times

International Cricket Council (ICC) president Mustafa Kamal announced his resignation on Wednesday, accusing colleagues within the game's global body of acting "unlawfully".

"The main reason for my resignation is that I can't work with those who can act unconstitutionally and unlawfully," he told reporters in Dhaka.

Kamal's resignation came days after he threatened to expose "mischievous" designs of some people who had denied him the "constitutional right" to hand over the World Cup trophy.

The World Cup trophy was handed over to Australian captain Michael Clarke by the cricketing body's chairperson N Srinivasan after the final, but Kamal claimed that the ICC's amendment of its rules in January 2015 mandated the president to give away trophies at global competitions.

"I was supposed to give the trophy. It is my constitutional right. But very unfortunately, I wasn't allowed to do so. My rights were dishonoured. After I go back home, I will let the whole world know what's happening in ICC. I will let the whole world know about those guys who are doing these mischievous things," Kamal told Bangladeshi channels.

"I don't know why I was not allowed to present the trophy," he said.

Kamal had hit the headlines after he made a stinging criticism about "umpiring bias" during Bangladesh's quarterfinal loss to India in the World Cup. In that match, India's Rohit Sharma was not given out to a Rubel Hossain delivery - a high full toss which was deemed a no ball, but looked legitimate during television replays. The touch-and-go call triggered protests from Bangladeshi fans.

Kamal insisted that he had not spoken against any country but said that he was denied the opportunity of presenting the World Cup trophy for "speaking the truth".

Kamal had come close to questioning the integrity of the umpires by saying that the ICC should investigate the matter and questioned whether some decisions were "deliberate or not."

A day later, the ICC's chief executive, Dave Richardson, termed Kamal's criticism "unfortunate".

According to reliable sources in the ICC, it was learnt that at an ICC meeting in Melbourne on Saturday, Kamal was categorically told that he won't be allowed to hand over the trophy.

It is learnt that Srinivasan was extremely angry after Kamal voiced his concerns about "umpiring bias" in the India vs Bangladesh quarterfinal match. Kamal had accused India of flexing its muscles, which had led to umpiring bias.

Srinivasan reportedly wasn't one bit amused after hearing Kamal's comments on record. While the former BCCI president didn't say anything in public, he did express his displeasure to the board members.

Peeved at the developments, Kamal left the Melbourne Cricket Ground even before the final between Australia and New Zealand had finished.

Coal scam: Relief to ex-PM Manmohan Singh, others as SC stays trial court order - Zee News

Pic Courtesy: -

New Delhi: In a relief to former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the Supreme Court on Wednesday stayed the trial court order summoning him as accused in a case pertaining to grant of Talabira-II coal block in Odisha in 2005 to Aditya Birla group company Hindalco.

The stay, which also applied to Hindalco Chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla, former Coal Secretary P C Parakh and three others, came after senior counsel Kapil Sibal questioned the legality of the summons to the former Prime Minister citing lack of sanction as required under the CrPC and contended that allocation of a coal block was an administrative act without any criminal intent.

"We issue notice on all six petitions. The trial court order shall remain stayed," a bench of justices V Gopala Gowda and C Nagappan said after hearing arguments by Sibal, who represented the former Prime Minister, and other lawyers in the case.

82-year-old Singh's daughters, Upinder Singh and Daman Singh, were present in the court during the proceedings.

The bench also stayed the proceedings before the trial court and issued notice to the Centre on a plea challenging constitutional validity of section 13 (1)(d)(iii) of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

The other three summoned as accused are Hindalco, Shubhendu Amitabh and D Bhattacharya, its officials. All the six were summoned by Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar to appear before the court on April 8.

"I must confess that I have not been able to find out what is the illegal act done by the petitioner in the case," Sibal said at the outset of the 35-minute proceedings.

Sibal said it is not an illegal act to allot a mine contending that the administrative acts of the Prime Minister cannot be faulted on the ground that he did not follow the recommendations or procedures adopted by the screening committee.

He also referred to the earlier Supreme Court judgement by which all the coal block allocations were quashed on the ground that screening committee procedures were illegal.

"The trial court, in its order, says that you did not follow the screening committee and this is contrary to law," Sibal said, adding that the order summoning the PM does not stand the scrutiny of "public reasoning".

He also said that the trial court order does not deal with the provisions on requirement of prior sanction to prosecute a public servant under the criminal procedure code (CrPC) and the Prevention of Corruption Act.

Referring to the essential ingredients of an offence, Sibal said that "there is no reference of meeting of minds to commit an illegal act by the accused persons".

During the hearing, the bench asked the counsel for Singh to satisfy it on provisions relating to grant of sanction to prosecute a public servant.

Sibal referred to various Supreme Court judgements and said "even if I am the Coal Minister at the relevant time, I don't lose the status of the Prime Minister who has got plenary power. Everyday, I take decisions as minister and reject the advice, should I be sent to Tihar Jail?".

There has to be a meeting of minds to do a criminal act with regard to allocation of Talabira coal mines to a private firm, he said, adding, "Where is the criminal conspiracy? Is it an offence to grant coal mines to a private sector company?"

Sibal said a decision may be "right or wrong" but it cannot be said to be an illegal act and the trial court order does not stand the scrutiny of public reasoning.

"There was no final allocation. There was no communication of the decision. A decision unless communicated, does not become a decision," he said.

Sibal also referred to the December 16, 2014 order of the trial court by which CBI was asked to question the former Prime Minister, and said that "a judge cannot do this. This is not fair. This is maverick."

A judge can reject the closure report and may take cognizance of the closure report but cannot decide the nature of the investigation, he said.

The former Prime Minister had, on March 25, moved the apex court seeking quashing of the summons against him and stay of criminal proceedings in a CBI court.

Singh had sought quashing of the summons on the ground that the March 11 order of the trial court was passed without application of mind.

The former Prime Minister had also sought a stay on the criminal proceedings contending that there was no element of criminality in his decisions taken in the capacity of Coal Minister.

The plea had said that there was nothing on record to point out that Singh had done any act which may constitute any offence, adding that the former Prime Minister had only taken a decision as a competent authority on allocation of Talabira-II coal block to Hindalco on the representation of Odisha government.

The Special CBI court had on March 11 said that prima facie it is clear that the criminal conspiracy which was initially conceived by Birla, Hindalco and its two officials, was carried out further "by roping in Parakh, and thereafter the then Minister of Coal, Manmohan Singh".

It had said that Singh's approval to allocate coal block to Hindalco "prima facie facilitated windfall profits" to the private firm resulting in loss to state-owned PSU Neyveli Lignite Corporation Ltd (NLC).

PTI

First Published: Wednesday, April 1, 2015, 13:09