Top Headlines 30th March 2021: President Gives Assent to GNCTD Amendment Bill

President Gives Assent to GNCTD Amendment Bill Enhancing Powers of Delhi Lieutenant Governor

On Sunday, the President of India, Ram Nath Kovind granted assent to the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2021, which enhances the powers of the Delhi Lieutenant Governor over the elected government of the GNCTD. This bill was passed by the Parliament on March 24, amid a walkout by the opposition in the Rajya Sabha.

The Bill object is to enhance the powers of Lieutenant Governor of Delhi by declaring him to be the "Government of Delhi". It also provides that the opinion of the LG "shall be obtained" on all such matters as may be specified by the LG, before taking any executive action on decisions of the Council of Ministers of the Delhi Government. In furtherance, the Bill also prohibits the Legislative Assembly from making any rule to enable itself or its Committees to: (i) consider the matters of day-to-day administration of the NCT of Delhi and (ii) conduct any inquiry in relation to administrative decisions.

The Rohingya Case before the Supreme Court: calls for Article 21 in a Time of Genocide

The Supreme Court of India, on Friday reserved orders in a plea seeking interim directions to restrain the central government from deporting Rohingya refugees detained in Jammu and Kashmir. The application further urged the court to order the release of the detained refugees and to direct the government of J&&K and the Union Home Ministry to grant these persons identification cards through the Foreigners Regional Registration Office.

By and large the Rohingya, who are a mostly Muslim ethnic group, constitute the world's most persecuted minority. The Rohingya represent the largest single group of "stateless" people and live without citizenship and access to basic legal rights.

J&K HC Dismisses Mehbooba Mufti's Plea for Issuance of Passport

In his above mentioned case, it may be noted that when the question as to the issuance of a passport in favor of a citizen of India arises, the concerned passport Authority, upon receipt of an application from an individual, has to seek an appropriate report from the Police/ CID authorities concerned.

On this basis, the Police Verification Report (PVR) received by the Passport Officer, Srinagar/ respondent No.4 did not recommend grant of passport in favor of Mufti and thus, the passport office had, refused the issuance of a passport in favor of Mufti. Consequently, on this background the Apex Court stated that, "I do not find any reason to interfere with the course of action adopted by the respondents in this case, as a sequel thereto, the petition of the petitioner is hereby dismissed, along with the connected CM(s)."

Supreme Court: Refusal to Stay Electoral Bonds Undermines Transparency 

In this case, the Supreme Court has dealt a severe blow to transparency in electoral process by rejecting applications seeking stay of electoral bonds ahead of assembly polls in various Indian states. In 2019, the Election Commission of India made an astonishing move by filing a counter-affidavit in the case expressing its serious reservations about the electoral bonds scheme. The ECI called the anonymous bond scheme a "retrograde step as far as transparency of donations is concerned"

According to the Court, since the law mandates political parties to file audited statement of accounts and the Companies Act requires financial statements of registered companies to be filed with the Registrar of Companies, the purchase as well as encashment of the bonds, happening only through banking channels, is always reflected in documents which are accessible to the public. The bench said that the donor information could be obtained by doing a "match the following" on the basis of public records of companies and parties.

Former UP Shia Waqf Broad Chairman Moves to the Apex Court Seeking Removal Of 26 Verses From The Holy Quran

A Petition has been filed before the Apex Court in the matter concerning the removal certain verses from the holy Quran that are allegedly negative, promote terrorism and create the menace of Islamic Terrorism in India.

Rizvi states, in his plea, that Islam is based on the concepts of equity, equality, forgiveness and tolerance is drifting away from its basic tenets of equity, equality, tolerance and forgiveness. Although, owing to extreme interpretations of the verses of the Holy Book, the religion of Islam is drifting away from its basic tenets with a fast pace and nowadays is identified with militancy, fundamentalism, extremism and terrorism. Following this, an FIR was registered in Bareilly against Waseem Rizvi for allegedly hurting the religious sentiments of Muslims with his petition in the Supreme Court seeking removal of some verses of the Quran which he claimed promoted terrorism.

Bombay HC: DRT Cannot Adjudicate Civil Rights Claimed in Security Interest which do not fall under the preview of Section 13/17 SARFAESI

A division bench of the Bombay High Court (Nagpur Bench) has delivered an elaborate judgment on the issue of the jurisdiction of the civil courts vis-a-vis the Debts Recovery Tribunal with respect to the security interest under the SARFAESI Act.

The bench held that the bar under Section 34 of the SARFAESI Act, is not absolute, but is restricted to examination by the DRT of the actions of the secured creditor under Section 13 of the SARFAESI Act and the rights available under Section 17 of the SARFAESI Act. DRT cannot embark on adjudication of the civil rights claimed vis-a-vis the security interest, such as right of partition, specific performance, reliefs under Sections 31 and 34 of the Specific Relief Act, preemption, redemption, declaration in respect of a property. On this basis the HC concluded some points, one of them being, Jurisdiction of the Debts Recovery Tribunal, to decide all matters relating to Sections 13 and 17 of the SARFAESI Act, is exclusive.