Indian Polity - Current Affairs for July, 2015

Former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda will launch a hunger strike in New Delhi to highlight the problems being faced by farmers, amid rising numbers of suicides by them, including in his home state Karnataka.

The ruling was given by the apex court while dismissing a plea of the Kerala-based DM Wayanad Institute of Medical Sciences and others. The petitioners had approached the Supreme Court against the decisions of the Medical Council of India and the Central Government to refuse to recommend renewal of permissions for admitting students for MBBS course at their institute for the academic year 2015-16 following adverse inspection reports.

A division bench of Chief Justice L Narsimha Reddy and Justice Anjana Mishra issued the directive to Bihar government after hearing a PIL filed in this regard.

The apex Court dismissed the curative petition filed by the Centre which was seeking a review of the decision in February last year. In February last year, the Court had commuted the death sentence of three persons - Santhan, Murugan and Perarivalan, citing the 11-year delay in deciding their mercy petitions. The three convicts are lodged in a Vellore prison. Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated on 21st May’1921 in Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu.

Prof. Richard Hay and Mr. George Baker have been nominated as members of the Anglo-Indian Community in the Lok Sabha.

In less than a month of launch of Smart City Mission by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, Puducherry has emerged as the first nomination to be received by the Ministry of Urban Development. The Government of Union Territory of Puducherry has nominated its capital city for inclusion in the 100 Smart Cities Mission launched on the 25th of last month. Puducherry which has a population of 6,57,209 has done well in respect of several Stage-1 evaluation criteria and scored 75 of the possible 100 marks.

The court was hearing a batch of pleas against decisions of some states to make Aadhaar cards compulsory for a range of activities including salary, PF disbursements and marriage and property registration. Countering the contention that the scheme of Aadhar based on collecting personal data violates the citizens right to privacy, Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi said that there is no Fundamental Right to privacy so these petitions under Article 32 should be dismissed.

The bench observed that if a court comes to the conclusion that the Right to Privacy is a Fundamental Right then Government cannot waive it, while the Attorney General said, if such issues are arising in the matter then why can't it be referred to a larger bench.

A bench headed by Chief Justice H L Dattu clarified that all cases will be transferred to the CBI from Monday and the agency will file its report before it on 24th of this month. The apex court slammed Madhya Pradesh High Court and said it is washing its hands off the Vyapam scam as it could have ordered a CBI probe.

The observation was made by the bench comprising Justices M A Attar and A M Magray while ruling that the Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest (SARFAESI) Act, 2002 cannot be enforced in the state. It was enacted by Indian Parliament in 2002.

The apex court's order came after the MP government gave its consent to transfer investigation of all Vyapam - related cases from the Special Investigation Team and the Special Task Force to the CBI.

The Beijing-based SCO currently has China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan as members. Along with India, the process to include Pakistan as a member was initiated on 10th July’15.

Madhu Koda, ex-Coal Secretary H C Gupta, former Jharkhand Chief Secretary Ashok Kumar Basu and six others were ordered to be put on trial by a special court on charges of corruption, criminal conspiracy and cheating in connection with a coal block allocation scam case.

He is an Andra Pradesh-cadre IPS officer. Special CBI judge M B Gosavi passed the order on 13th July’15. The court has so far discharged BJP president Amit Shah, Former Rajasthan Home Minister Gulabchand Kataria, Rajasthan-based businessman Vimal Patni, former Gujarat police chief P C Pande, Additional Director General of Police Geeta Johri, Gujarat police officer Abhay Chudasama, Yashpal Chudasama and Ajay Patel from the case. Sohrabuddin, a gangster who the Gujarat police claimed had links with Pakistan-based terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba, and his wife Kausar Bi were allegedly abducted by Gujarat ATS from Hyderabad on their way to Sangli in Maharashtra in 2005.

The new 18-point set of rules notified by Home Ministry said Governors will have to stay in their respective states for at least 292 days in a year. The requests for permission to travel outside the state will have to be sent to Rashtrapati Bhavan anywhere between one week and six weeks before the date of travel.

The 12 acre land adjacent to the Chaityabhoomi in the Indu Mills Compound is the land where the memorial will be built. It is the site where the last rites of Dr. Ambedkar were performed.