QBullet: Delhi Votes Today; UK Court Orders Ambani to Pay $100 Mn
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1. Delhi Votes Today in a Poll of Many Firsts
Going hi-tech with QR code-enabled voter slips and webcasting of critical polling booths, the election commission has geared up Saturday, 8 February’s Delhi Assembly polls that will be held amid tight layers of security.
Over 14.7 million voters are eligible to exercise their franchise on Saturday. There are a total of 13,751 polling booths across 2,689 locations in the national capital.
Delhi chief electoral officer (CEO) Ranbir Singh said, “Elaborate arrangements have been made to ensure smooth polling on Saturday. It will be a tech-driven election that will improve the voting experience for people. Over one lakh polling officers will be conducting the exercise across Delhi. Security has been tightened in all critical or sensitive areas, including Shaheen Bagh.”
(Source: Hindustan Times)
2. UK Court Orders Anil Ambani to Pay USD 100 Mn in Conditional Order
Former billionaire Anil Ambani, once the sixth richest man in the world, declared to a UK court on Friday, 7 February, his “net worth was zero” and that he was bankrupt.
Three Chinese banks — Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd (ICBC), China Development Bank and the Export-Import Bank of China — are suing Ambani in the high court here for more than $700 million (over Rs 5,000 crore) , including interest, for defaulting on a loan they gave Reliance Communications (RCom) — now in insolvency proceedings — in February 2012, which RCom defaulted on. The banks claim Ambani provided a personal guarantee for the loan, but Ambani disputes this.
(Source: The Times of India)
3. SC Stays Proceedings Against ‘Minor’ Accused in Kathua Gang Rape, Murder Case
The Supreme Court Friday, 7 February, stayed the proceedings before the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) against a ‘minor’ allegedly involved in the sensational gang rape and murder of an eight-year-old nomadic girl in Kathua.
A bench of Justices N V Ramana, Ajay Rastogi and V Ramasubramanian stayed the proceedings after Jammu and Kashmir administration claimed that the Jammu and Kashmir High Court had erroneously affirmed the order of a trial court holding him as juvenile at the time of the offence in 2018.
“Having heard senior advocate P S Patwalia, appearing on behalf of the petitioners and after perusing the averments made in the application for stay, we direct that the further proceedings pending before the Juvenile Justice Board at Kathua, titled as...shall remain stayed,” the bench said, listing the matter for further hearing on 16 March.
(Source: Hindustan Times)
4. Kerala Withdraws ‘State Calamity’ Status on Coronavirus Infections
The Kerala government on Friday, 7 February, withdrew the ‘state calamity’ status it had declared after three novel coronavirus (nCov) infection cases were reported in the state, as no new cases have been reported so far.
The decision to withdraw the declaration was made after 67 of the 72 people who returned to the state from China — the epicentre of the outbreak — tested negative for nCov infection and the condition of the three positive cases remained stable.
After a meeting of the state’s disaster management authority, Health Minister K K Shailaja said as no fresh positive cases were reported in the state so far, the decision to withdraw the ‘calamity’ status was taken. However, she added that the high state of surveillance and response would continue.
(Source: The Indian Express)
5. 61 Coronavirus Cases on Japanese Cruise Ship, Indian Crew in Quarantine
A resident of West Bengal who is among several Indian crew members onboard a luxury cruise currently quarantined near Yokohama port, Japan, with 61 confirmed cases of coronavirus cases, has appealed to Indian authorities for help, saying the infection on board the ship is spreading. The 30-year-old belonging to Hatipa village in Uttar Dinajpur district has also put up videos on social media, reaching out to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, urging them to get the Japanese government to separately quarantine those infected and uninfected on board the Diamond Princess.
In one of his social media posts, the 30-year-old said, “We are in fear. We are nearly 200 Indian crew on board. We have not tested positive. We want to disembark and be properly quarantined.” He said he was speaking directly, breaking protocol, because he was scared. “If I do not speak out, tomorrow I don’t know if I will be alive or dead,” he said in Hindi.
(Source: The Indian Express)
6. Won’t Allow Outsiders to Settle in Assam: Modi
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday, 7 February, sought to mollify Assam’s worry that changes in the Citizenship Act will result in an influx of more outsiders to the state, and cautioned people against “certain sections” trying to mislead them.
“Certain sections of society are trying to mislead the people of Assam and north-east over the Act. Rumours are being spread that outsiders will be allowed to settle in Assam, but this is not correct. I am here to assure all that anti-As sam and anti-national mentality won’t be tolerated and no outsider will be allowed to settle in the region,” the PM said on his first visit to Assam after passage of the Citizens hip Amendment Act (CAA).
(Source: The Times of India)
7. BJP Leader Vijayvargiya Detained for Pro-CAA Rally in Kolkata
BJP national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya and two other party leaders were on Friday, 7 February, stopped by police in Kolkata from taking out a pro-CAA rally and were taken into preventive custody.
Police said the rally, scheduled to start at 2 PM, was being held without permission, but the saffron party asserted that it has informed the authorities about it.
(Source: Hindustan Times)
8. Expect 80% of Individual Taxpayers to Move to New Slab Regime: Govt
The government said Friday that its estimates show that about 80 per cent of individual taxpayers would switch to the new tax regime announced in the Union Budget last week and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that the new tax regime is the first step towards a no-exemption lower tax system in India. Revenue Secretary Ajay Bhushan Pandey said that the Income Tax department had run a simulation on about 5.8 crore tax returns.
It showed that 69 percent of existing tax payers will benefit from the new slabs while 11 per cent would see no change in their tax outgo by switching to the new system. Thus, the government’s expectation is that 80 percent will switch to the new system, which some experts had criticised as being too complicated since it had more income slabs.
Under the new system, tax payers who forgo deductions and exemptions such as those for housing loans, rent and so on, will have to pay income tax at lower rates.
(Source: The Indian Express)
9. Minor’ Spends 42 Days in Jail for Anti-CAA Stir
A 15-year-old boy spent 42 days in jail in connection with the December 19 anti-CAA violence in Lucknow after police told him “ umar badha ke batao (add years to your actual age)”, forcing him to say he was 18 “out of fear”, his lawyer alleged.
The minor’s advocate, Yashab Husain Rizvi, said when he was assembling documents to prepare a reply to a recovery notice served to the minor by the government seeking compensation for damages allegedly caused by him, his Aadhaar card revealed his age as 15 years.
(Source: The Times of India)
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