Right to protest cannot be anytime, everywhere: SC

“The right to protest cannot be anytime and everywhere”, the Supreme Court said as it dismissed a plea seeking review of its verdict passed last year in which it had held the occupation of public ways during the anti-CAA protests at Shaheen Bagh here was “not acceptable”.

The top court said there may be some spontaneous protests but in case of prolonged dissent or protest, there cannot be continued occupation of public place affecting the rights of others.

A bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Aniruddha Bose and Kirshna Murari said, “We have perused the review petition and record of the civil appeal and are convinced that the order of which review has been sought, does not suffer from any error apparent warranting its reconsideration.”

The bench, which has passed the order recently, said it has considered the earlier judicial pronouncements and recorded its opinion that “the Constitutional scheme comes with a right to protest and express dissent but with an obligation to have certain duties”.

“The right to protest cannot be anytime and everywhere. There may be some spontaneous protests but in case of prolonged dissent or protest, there cannot be continued occupation of public place affecting rights of others”, the bench said, while dismissing a plea by one Shaheen Bagh resident Kaniz Fatima and others seeking review of last year’s verdict of October 7.

The top court, which considered the matter in the judges’ chambers also rejected the prayer for open court hearing in the matter.

The apex court had on October 7, last year held that public spaces cannot be occupied indefinitely and demonstrations expressing dissent have to be in designated places alone.

It had said occupation of public ways in the anti-CAA protests at Shaheen Bagh locality here was “not acceptable”.

Observing that democracy and dissent “go hand in hand”, the apex court had said constitutional scheme comes with the right to protest and express dissent, but with an obligation towards certain duties.

Isro, MapmyIndia team up

In order to give a tough competition to Google Maps, Indian Space Research Organisation and desi navigation solutions provider MapmyIndia have joined hands to offer the country an indigenous satellite-based mapping service.

MapmyIndia CMD and co-founder Rakesh Verma said, “Our agreement with Isro will provide consumers with the best indigenous mapping service with satellite imagery. It will provide the country a powerful alternative product that will end the monopoly of one player (Google Maps) and boost the government’s Atmanirbhar Bharat drive.”

We’ve a ramshackle judiciary, most regret moving court: Ex-CJI

In an admission that the judicial system is cumbersome and often fails to deliver justice on time, former Chief Justice and Rajya Sabha MP Ranjan Gogoi said people regret their decision to approach the court and it is the rich and corporate world denizens who are better suited to take their chances in court.

Appealing to members of the judiciary to take immediate steps for a roadmap to improve the situation, Justice Gogoi said the present system is not working for more than one reason and changes were needed in the way judges are selected and trained. He also said that delay in appointment of judges is one of the problems.

Responding to a question on if he would file a case against people targeting him and making allegations, Gogoi said, “If you have to go to court, you will only be washing dirty linen in court and you will not get a verdict. I have no hesitation to say so. Who goes to court. You regret it if you go to court. You go to court as a corporate to take a chance. If you succeed then crores of rupees would come...”

“We want to have five trillion dollar economy but we have ramshackle judiciary-...In 2020 when the functioning of every organisation was at lower ebb, including judiciary, there was addition of 60 lakhs cases at subordinate judiciary and around three lakhs cases added in various high courts and six to seven thousand in Supreme Court. Time has come when we should have a roadmap. This is something for the judiciary to work out which is not being done,” he said.

He also expressed concern over the present time when people with “power and loud voice” try to target and malign others, including judges.

6.3 quake in Tajikistan jolts N India

Strong tremors were felt across the northern plains, including in Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan and the National Capital Region after an earthquake measuring 6.3 on the Richter scale struck Tajikistan in central Asia, the National Centre for Seismology said. While preliminary readings by NCS had stated the earthquake had a magnitude of 6.1 and its epicentre was Amritsar, this was later revised to Tajikistan. No immediate loss of life or damage to any property was reported, officials said.

J L Gautam from NCS said the initial report came as soon as tremors were felt across northern India, with the earthquake’s epicentre roughly being placed in Amristar. “We had a preliminary magnitude of 6.1 on the Richter scale and that it had occurred at a depth of 10 km below the surface. The epicentre was identified to be around Amritsar, but it was later revised after some time to be accurately placed in Tajikistan. The magnitude was also revised to 6.3,” said Gautam.

According to the revised estimate, the quake was found to have occurred at a depth of 74 km below the earth’s surface at a longitude of 38 degrees north and 73.58 degrees east.

Northern India has been recording minor earthquakes over the last two weeks as well.

Punjab releases 23 gharials in Beas

The Punjab government on Friday released 23 captive-bred gharials from Morena, Madhya Pradesh in the Beas Conservation Reserve.

The gharial reintroduction in the Beas Conservation Reserve is a key project of the government of Punjab which aims to establish a breeding population of critically endangered gharial in the rivers of the state.

Gursharan Singh, DFO (wildlife) Hoshiarpur, said a joint team of the wildlife division Hoshiarpur and WWF-India has been formed for daily monitoring of gharials for next one month. Gitanjali Kanwar, coordinator, WWF-India, said post release, monitoring is one of the vital aspects of the gharial reintroduction. The surveys will focus on understanding dispersal, habitat preference, population ecology and general wellbeing of the released gharials.

In the phase-1 of this project, 47 juvenile gharials were released in the Beas Conservation Reserve in batches during 2017-2018 in Amritsar and Tarn Taran district. Field surveys conducted, so far, jointly with WWF-India indicated that gharials have dispersed both upstream and downstream of the release sites in the Beas Conservation Reserve.

About 40-50% of the reintroduced gharials can be spotted in the Beas Conservation Reserve any time depending on the water levels and season of survey.

Retail inflation at 16-mth low, factory output up 1%

Retail inflation slowed to a 16-month low in January on the back of cooling of some food items, while industrial output growth clawed back into positive territory in December, bringing some cheer for an economy battling a record slump due to the impact of the deadly pandemic.

Retail inflation, as measured by the consumer price index, eased to 4.1% in January, slower than the 4.6% recorded in the previous month. It has moderated sharply from the 7.6% posted in the year-ago period. Rural inflation was at 3.2% in January, while in urban areas it was higher at 5.1%.

Inflation in the food and beverages segment slowed to almost one-and-a-half year low of 2.7%, while vegetable prices fell 15.8% year-on-year during the month. But prices of some protein items continued to be in double digits. Meat and fish prices rose an annual 12.5% in January, while egg prices were up 12.9% and oils and fats at 19.7%. Core inflation (excluding food and fuel) remained at 6.5%, while inflation in health, personal care and transport also remained high during the month.

Inflation for fuel components rose to 10-month high of 3.9% in January compared with 3% in the previous month and 3.7% in January last year. Some economists said the lower retail inflation print may help reinforce the central bank’s accommodative monetary policy stance although a cut in interest rates is not seen for now.

Separate data showed industrial output growth rose an annual 1% in December after a downwardly revised contraction of 2.1% in November. It was marginally above the 0.4% growth recorded in December 2019. During the April-December 2020, industrial production contracted 13.5% compared to a growth of 0.3% in the same period last year.

Eastern Ladakh Dis-engagement

Under the India-China agreement on the disengagement process in eastern Ladakh, the Chinese army will pull back its troops to east of Finger 8 areas in the northern bank of Pangong lake, defence minister Rajnath Singh said in Parliament on Thursday, in what is seen as a significant step to dial down tensions in the key face-off site.

Reciprocally, the defence minister said, Indian troops will be based at their permanent location at Dhan Singh Thapa post near Finger 3 areas.

Singh’s statement clearly implied that the areas between the Indian position in Finger 3 and Finger 8 will effectively become a no-patrolling zone till a resolution on future deployment is reached, defence experts said.

The Chinese military built several bunkers and other structures in the areas between Finger 4 and 8 and had blocked all Indian patrols beyond Finger 4, triggering strong reaction from the Indian Army.

In the nine rounds of military talks, India was specifically insisting on withdrawal of Chinese troops from Finger 4 to Finger 8 on the North bank of Pangong Lake.

Dr Laxman Behera, associate professor at the National Security Centre in Jawaharlal Nehru University, described as significant the announcement that Chinese army will pull back troops to Finger 8 areas. “I think it will be a major step in taking forward the overall disengagement process though it came very late,” Behera said.

Around five months ago, Indian troops occupied a number of strategic heights in the Mukhpari, Rechin La and Magar hill areas around the southern bank of the Pangong lake after the Chinese military attempted to intimidate them in the area. “A similar action would be taken in the South bank area by both sides. These are mutual and reciprocal steps and any structures that had been built by both sides since April 2020 in both North and South bank areas will be removed and the landforms will be restored,” the defence minister said.