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Political Notes |
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Mayawati’s appointment as Chief Minister upheld
The Supreme Court has dismissed a petition challenging the appointment of Mayawati as Chief Minister and of Satish Chander Mishra as Cabinet Minister in Uttar Pradesh on the ground that they were sitting Members of Parliament. A Bench of Justices Arijit Pasayat and P.P. Naolekar said, “There is nothing in the Constitution which would make the appointment of a Chief Minister and Minister, none of whom are members of the state legislature, illegal.” Pande, an advocate, had challenged their appointment. The Bench cited former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda’s case in which the Supreme Court had held that a member of the Legislative Assembly could be appointed as Prime Minister. Deve Gowda was a member of the Karnataka Assembly when he became the Prime Min¬ister.
High Court directs EC to act against Jayalalithaa
The Madras High Court has directed the Election Commission to initiate penal action against former Tamil Nadu Chief Min¬ister Jayalalithaa for having filed “false declarations” before election authorities in 2001 when she filed her nomination in four Assembly constituencies.
A Division Bench, comprising Justices Dharmarao Elipe and S. Palanivelu, said senior politicians should be role models to the general public, and if they venture to commit flagrant violations of the rules and laws, that too knowingly, as in this case, it should not be taken lightly. It sends wrong signals to the public that laws are meant only for the general public and not for the bigwigs who can go scot-free.”
The Bench was passing orders on a public interest litigation petition filed by Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam MP C. Kuppusamy, who said that Jayalalithaa had rendered herself liable for prosecu¬tion for offences under Section 177 (furnishing false information before a public servant) of the IPC.
She had filed nominations in the Andipatti, Krishnagiri, Bhuvanagiri and Pudukottai constituencies, and all the papers were rejected.
The Bench said that Jayalalithaa’s declaration in the third and fourth constituencies - that she had not been nominated from more than two segments - was “false to her own knowledge and amounts to violation of Section 33(7)(b) of the Representation of the People Act.”
Dawood’s brother acquitted
Mumbai police suffered another embarrassment in a high profile case last week when a special court acquitted mafia don Dawood Ibrahim’s younger brother Iqbal Kaskar in the Sara-Sahara case. Iqbal, who does not have a criminal record, was arrested after he landed in India in Feb. 2003. Iqbal had told the au¬thorities that he came back from Dubai to clear his name. After four years behind bars, he has now been acquitted. After the court set him free, Kaskar said on June 13, “the only reason I was framed in this case is that I am Dawood’s brother.”
Iqbal Kaskar and three other Dawood’s accomplices were charged on the basis of a complaint filed in 2002 by a widow who had alleged that she was threatened to vacate her room in the Musafarkhana area in south Mumbai. According to the police, she was among some 400 tenants that Dawood’s aides wanted evicted to encroach on government properties. The gang had allegedly ob¬tained permission from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation to construct an illegal shopping mall on the land reserved for a school.
Bangladeshi who worked for RAW for six years
Delhi Police are searching for a Bangladeshi who has been on the run for the past two years after it was found that he had concealed his nationality to get a job in the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), the country’s external intelligence agency. Diwan Chand Mallick had worked with the agency for six years before disappearing in May 2005.
“We believe he may have run away with some vital documents pertaining to the agency. We tried to trace him , but all our efforts failed,” said a senior police officer, who did not want to be named. “He was holding an extremely sensitive post and this is definitely dangerous as far as national interest is concerned,” he added.
According to a police officer, Mallick aged 30-something, joined the agency in 1999. He went underground soon after the police case was registered. He used to live in Mayur Vihar area of East Delhi.
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