QBullet: SC to Deliver Aadhaar Verdict; BJP Calls for Bandh in WB
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1. SC to Deliver Aadhaar Verdict Today, to Decide on Validity, Mandatory Linking
A five-judge bench of the Supreme Court will decide on Wednesday the constitutionality of Aadhaar, the controversial biometric identity card project that the government claims plugged leaks in welfare schemes but which critics dub as intrusive and violating privacy.
The Constitution Bench, comprising Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Misra and justices AK Sikri, AM Khanwilkar, DY Chandrachud and Ashok Bhushan, reserved its verdict on May 10 after hearing the petitions for over 38 days starting 17 January this year.
(Source: Hindustan Times)
2. Supreme Court Leaves It to Parliament: Bar From Polls Those Who Face Criminal Charges
The Supreme Court Tuesday said it was not within its powers to disqualify politicians facing criminal cases from contesting elections and recommended to Parliament to enact “a strong law” to deal with this since “the nation eagerly waits for such legislation” to “usher in an era of immaculate, spotless, unsullied and virtuous Constitutional democracy”.
“Though criminalisation in politics is a bitter manifest truth, which is a termite to the citadel of democracy, be that as it may, the Court cannot make the law,” a five-judge Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra ruled.
(Source: The Indian Express)
3. Congress Is Now Looking for Allies Abroad, Says PM Modi
A day after his party colleagues referred to the role of a foreign hand in the ongoing Rafale controversy, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said that after failing to forge an alliance in India, the Congress is looking for an ally abroad and accused the grand old party of indulging in vote-bank politics, which, he said, has destroyed the country over the past seven decades.
He acknowledged the attack directed at him by the Congress in recent days and said that “there is not an abuse in the dictionary that has not been used against me... but the more muck you throw at me, the more the lotus blooms,” referring to the Bharatiya Janata Party’s symbol.
(Source: Hindustan Times)
4. India, Society of Over Billion People, Lifting People out of Poverty, Says Us President Donald Trump
US President Donald Trump on Tuesday lauded India’s efforts to lift millions of its citizens out of poverty as he addressed world leaders at the 73rd session of the UN General Assembly.
“There is India, a free society (of) over a billion people, successfully lifting countless millions out of poverty and into the middle class,” Trump said in his second address to the General Debate of the UN General Assembly that opened here Tuesday.
(Source: Hindustan Times)
5. Manmohan Singh: ‘Judiciary’s Primary Duty to Save Secular Spirit of Constitution’
Nearly two years after the Supreme Court declined to re-examine its 1995 judgment which held that Hindutva relates to a “way of life” and not just a religious practice, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Tuesday said that the original (1995) judgment had made India’s political discourse “somewhat lopsided”, and that “many believe” the “decision requires to be overruled”.
Delivering the A B Bardhan memorial lecture at the Constitution Club in the national capital, Singh said the judiciary should never lose sight of its “primary duty to protect the secular spirit of the Constitution” — a task, he said, that has become more demanding because “political disputes and electoral battles are increasingly getting laced with religious overtones, symbols, myths and prejudices”.
(Source: The Indian Express)
6. West Bengal Bandh Today: Govt Deploys Police, Warns Private Schools
As many as 4,000 police personnel on the streets, 427 pickets and the setting up of special control rooms — these are among the measures taken by the state government ahead of a 12-hour bandh proposed by BJP to protest the killing of two men in Islampur.
The BJP had called for the statewide bandh on Wednesday, to which the government had responded by saying it would ensure normalcy.
(Source: The Indian Express)
7. IIT-Roorkee Students Rescued as 10 Die of Rain in Himachal Pradesh
A group of 40-45 students of IIT-Roorkee, five Indian-born US nationals and two German trekkers were rescued on Tuesday from the icy heights of Himachal Pradesh as rains hit a pause button in the hill state. Skies also cleared in Punjab and Haryana that had been witnessing continuous rainfall from the past three days.
Two persons died when their car slipped off the road and rolled down a hill in HP’s tribal Kinnaur district, taking the toll in rain-related deaths to 10 in the state, an official said on Tuesday. Devesh and Rajveer, both residents of Pangi village,died after their car slipped of the road and rolled down a hill amid rainfall, he added.
(Source: Hindustan Times)
8. Sent to Protect Her, UP Cops Beat Woman, Mock Her for Muslim Friend
A police team sent to rescue a woman and her Muslim friend from a mob that included members of the VHP turned attackers in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh. A purported video of the woman being escorted away in a car shows police hitting the woman and taunting her for being with a Muslim man.
The video was shot by a policeman driving the car and shows a woman, her face covered with a scarf, sitting in the rear, next to a woman constable and another policeman. A male voice is heard using a derogatory reference to Muslims and “Sharam nahi aati (Don’t you feel ashamed)” when the woman constable slaps her on the head repeatedly.
(Sources: The Indian Express)
9. CBI Seeks Info From Nigeria on Accused Nitin Sandesara for Rs 5,300 Crore Fraud
The CBI has asked the Interpol wing of Nigeria to confirm if absconding promoter of Gujarat-based Sterling Biotech, Nitin Sandesara, being probed in a Rs 5,300 crore banking fraud case, has moved in that country, officials said on Tuesday.
The move came after reports that Sandesara along with his family members, also accused in the scam, have fled from the United Arab Emirates to Nigeria with which India does not have any extradition treaty.
(Source: Hindustan Times)
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