USA Judge: Two Indian-origin women have been appointed as judges to the criminal and civil courts by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio. Judge Archana Rao has been appointed to the Criminal Court while Judge Deepa Ambekar, 43, was reappointed to the Civil Court in New York. Rao was first appointed as an Interim Civil Court Judge in January 2019 and has been serving in Criminal Court. Prior to her appointment, she served with the New York County District Attorney’s Office for 17 years, most recently as the Bureau Chief of the Financial Frauds Bureau. She received her Juris Doctor degree from Fordham University School of Law. Ambekar was first appointed as an Interim Civil Court Judge in May 2018 and has been serving in Criminal Court. Prior to her appointment, she served with the New York City Council as a Senior Legislative Attorney and Counsel to the Committee on Public Safety. She received her Juris Doctor degree from Rutgers Law School.[PTI Source]
Action against strike: The Centre on Tuesday ordered public sector undertakings including state-run banks to decline casual leave to employees on January 8, Wednesday to discourage employees from participating in the Bharat Bandh. If they do, the government cited Supreme Court verdicts that had backed action against employees for the “grave misconduct”. “Any employee going on strike in any form would face the consequences which, besides deduction of wages, may also include appropriate disciplinary action,” the department of personnel and training, which acts as the government’s human resource manager, said in a directive to all government offices.
Death warrant: A Delhi court on Tuesday issued a death warrant against the four convicts in the December 2012 gangrape case and said that they would be executed on January 22 at 7 am in Tihar Jail. Additional Sessions Judge Satish Kumar Arora further said the convicts have 14 days to use their legal remedies. The gangrape had taken place on a moving bus on the intervening night of December 16-17, 2012 in South Delhi. The woman and her friend, who was accompanying her, were brutally assaulted and thrown out of the bus. After spending several days at a hospital in the city, the woman was shifted to Singapore, where she succumbed to injuries on December 29, 2012. The death warrant, also known as a black warrant, addressed to the office of the Tihar jail chief, was issued against Mukesh (32), Pawan Gupta (25), Vinay Sharma (26) and Akshay Kumar Singh (31), all of whom are on death row.
Read more: Tihar Jail Hanging Rules and Procedures
JNU violence: Calling the attack on students of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) by a masked mob “unfortunate”, Vice-Chancellor M Jagadesh Kumar Tuesday said the campus has its own security and if there were a law and order situation, they do not rush to the police immediately. Meanwhile, Delhi Police had registered FIR against JNUSU president for plundering in the server room.
Boycott call against Dipika: Actor Deepika Padukone drove down to Jawaharlal Nehru University to join a protest by students against the recent violence on campus on Tuesday evening, triggering a sharp reaction from some Bharatiya Janata Party leaders including one who suggested that people boycott her movies.
Pakistan: Pakistan’s lower house of Parliament and a key panel of the upper house on Tuesday passed three crucial bills to give extension to Army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa for another three years, signaling the dominance of the powerful army, which has ruled the country for more than half of its 72 years of existence. Gen Bajwa, a close confidant of Imran Khan, was to retire on November 29 last year at the end of his three-year original term but the Prime Minister gave the 59-year-old Army chief another extension of the same length, citing the regional security situation through a notification on August 19.
UAE Visa: The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has announced a five-year multiple-entry visa scheme for all nationalities, in a move that is geared towards promoting tourism in the country. “Today we approved the change of the tourist visa system in the country so that the duration of the tourist visa is five years, multi-use for all nationalities. We receive more than 21 million tourists annually and our aim is to establish the country as a major global tourist destination,” UAE’s Vice-President and Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed said in a tweet in Arabic.
Uttarakhand High Court: The Uttarakhand High Court on Tuesday asked the CBI not to file a charge sheet against former Chief Minister Harish Rawat in the sting video case without its permission. Hearing a petition challenging an FIR alleging sale and purchase of MLAs by Harish Rawat in the case, Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia made it clear that the CBI will file a charge-sheet in connection with it only after the court’s permission. The high court posted the matter for hearing on March 2.
Puerto Rico: Governor Wanda Vazquez declared a state of emergency and activated the National Guard on Tuesday after a series of earthquakes including one of magnitude 6.4 struck the Caribbean island. The temblors killed at least one person, knocked out power across much of the island and caused significant damage, authorities and media reported.
Moscow: Russian President Vladimir Putin said enormous progress had been made in Syria as he met on Tuesday with President Bashar al-Assad on a surprise visit to Damascus, Russian news agencies reported. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the agencies that in talks with Assad, Putin had underlined “that a huge distance has been travelled towards restoring Syrian statehood and the country’s territorial integrity.”
Maharashtra: Home Minister Anil Deshmukh on Tuesday said protesters at the Gateway of India were asked to move their agitation over the JNU violence to Azad Maidan as the iconic British-era monument is not a site for staging demonstrations. Later Protest against the JNU violence was called off here after the demonstrators were shifted from the Gateway of India to Azad Maidan.
TODAYS MARKET
- SENSEX-40869.47 (192.84)
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- GOLD (MCX 10 GM)-40674.00 (202.00)
- SILVER (MCX 1 KG)-48130.00 (584.00)
- USD ($) / INR(Rupees Icon)-71.64 (0.43)
GDP: India’s GDP growth is seen dipping to an 11-year low of 5 percent in the current fiscal, mainly due to poor showing by the manufacturing and construction sectors, government data showed. But the country’s per-capita monthly income is estimated to have risen by 6.8 percent to Rs 11,254 during 2019-20, government data on national income showed on Tuesday.
Tax simplified: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday said the government is taking various steps to simplify taxation system and eliminate harassment of honest taxpayers. Addressing an event organised by Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT), the finance minister said the government is open to suggestions for the betterment of GST filing system.
Refunding to R-com: The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected a plea that challenged a tribunal order asking the government to refund around Rs 104 crore to Reliance Communication, the defunct telecom company. “We don’t find any merits in the appeal,” said a bench of justices R F Nariman and S Ravindra Bhat about the government’s plea. The Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT), had on December 21, asked the government to return Rs 104 crore to the company after encashing bank guarantee of Rs 908 crore against spectrum charges of Rs 774 crore.
Tuesday, Jan 07, 2020
New Delhi 16 °C