The Evening Wrap
26 June 2024
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Arvind Kejriwal sent to 3-day CBI custody in Delhi Excise policy case
A special court in New Delhi has sent Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to a three-day CBI custody after the central agency formally arrested him in the Delhi Excise policy ‘scam’ case. The CBI sought the special court’s permission in Delhi to make the arrest.
The court allowed the agency to arrest the Chief Minister after it was asked to produce the documents for seeking his arrest.
Kejriwal was produced before Special Judge Amitabh Rawat, where the CBI sought his custody for five days to interrogate him. The court allowed three days. Also the court allowed Kejriwal to meet his lawyer for 30 minutes everyday.
The application was moved by the central probe agency after the AAP leader was produced before the court from Tihar central jail. The excise case pertains to alleged corruption and money laundering in the formulation and execution of the Delhi government’s now-scrapped excise policy for 2021-22.
Lt Governor V.K. Saxena recommended a CBI probe into the alleged irregularities. Subsequently, the ED filed a case on August 22, 2022, taking cognisance of the CBI FIR that was lodged on August 17, 2022.
The New Delhi Excise Policy 2021-22, introduced in November 2021, aimed to revolutionise the liquor retail landscape in the capital. Its objectives were to maximize revenue for the state, combat the sale of counterfeit alcohol, and enhance the consumer experience. However, the policy encountered vehement opposition and allegations of procedural irregularities, ultimately leading to its annulment on August 1st, 2022.
Om Birla elected Lok Sabha speaker for second term
BJP MP Om Birla was elected speaker of the 18th Lok Sabha after Prime Minister Narendra Modi moved a motion to elect the NDA nominee for his second term.
“I congratulate you on behalf of entire House and look forward to your guidance for next five years,” said Modi.
“Birla’s work as parliamentarian should be inspiration for new Lok Sabha members,” he added. Pro-tem Speaker B. Mahtab made the announcement after the opposition, which had proposed Congress MP Kodikunnil Suresh as its candidate, did not press for votes to the motion.
Prime Minister Modi, Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju escorted Birla to Lok Sabha Speaker’s chair after his election.
“I congratulate you on behalf of entire opposition and INDIA alliance,” said Gandhi. “The opposition would like to assist you in your work. I am confident you will allow us to speak in the House. By allowing opposition to speak, you will do your duty of defending the Constitution of India.”
Hope suspension of MPs will not be repeated in Lok Sabha: Akhilesh Yadav
Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav on June 26 congratulated Om Birla on being elected the Lok Sabha Speaker and said he hoped that actions like suspension of MPs would not be taken as they hurt the dignity of the House.
Yadav said he also hoped that Birla would be impartial towards the Opposition and give its leaders equal opportunity. “We believe you will move forward without discrimination and as the Speaker, you will give equal opportunity and respect to every party. Impartiality is a great responsibility of this great post. You sitting here are the chief justice of the court of democracy,” Yadav said.
“We expect that the voice of no public representative will be suppressed and actions like suspensions which hurt the dignity of the House will not be taken,” he said.
Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday said he hoped the Opposition would be allowed to raise the voice of people in the House. He also said the Opposition wanted the House to function “often and well” and added that it was very important that cooperation happens with trust.
“I’d like to congratulate you for your successful election… I congratulate you on behalf of the entire INDIA alliance. This House represents the voice of people of India… Of course the government has political power, but the Opposition also represents the voice of India’s people,” the Congress leader said.
“The Opposition would like to assist you in your work. I am confident you will allow us to speak in House,” he said.
Pointing out that this time the Opposition represents significantly more voices of the Indian people than last time, Gandhi stressed that it was very important that the voice of Opposition is allowed to be represented in the House.
“I am confident that you will allow us to represent our voice, allow us to speak, to represent voice of people of India.”
The question, he said, is not how efficiently the House is run, the question is how much of India’s voice is allowed to be heard in the House. “The idea that you can run the House efficiently by silencing the voice of Opposition is a non-democratic idea. This election has shown that the people of India expect the Opposition to defend the Constitution of this country and we are confident that by allowing Opposition to speak, you will do your duty of defending the Constitution of India,” the Congress MP said.
Lok Sabha Speaker’s resolution on Emergency triggers Opposition protests
Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on June 26 read out a resolution condemning the imposition of the Emergency and termed the decision by then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi an attack on the Constitution, triggering a wave of protests by the Opposition in the House.
Birla’s reference to the Emergency, shortly after his election as Lok Sabha Speaker, also saw a face-off between the government and the Opposition in the first session of the Lower House.
“This House strongly condemns the decision to impose Emergency in 1975. We appreciate the determination of all those people who opposed the Emergency, fought and fulfilled the responsibility of protecting India’s democracy,” Birla said amid vociferous protests by Opposition parties.
Opposition MPs, including from the Congress, were on their feet, raising slogans against the reference to the Emergency.
“June 25, 1975 will always be known as a black chapter in the history of India. On this day, then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi imposed Emergency in the country and attacked the Constitution made by Babasaheb Ambedkar,” the Speaker said.
Birla said India was known all over the world as the mother of democracy. Democratic values and debate have always been supported in India. “Democratic values have always been protected, they have always been encouraged. Indira Gandhi imposed dictatorship on such an India. The democratic values of India were crushed and freedom of expression was strangled,” Birla said.
He said the rights of Indian citizens were crushed and their freedom snatched away.
“Those were the times when Opposition leaders were jailed, the entire nation was turned into a prison. The then dictatorial government had put several restrictions on the media and there was restraint on the autonomy of judiciary,” Birla said.
The Speaker urged members to observe silence for a while and later adjourned the proceedings for the day. Soon after the House was adjourned for the day, BJP members staged protests by waving placards and raising slogans outside the Parliament.
Arvind Kejriwal withdraws plea from Supreme Court against HC’s interim stay on bail order
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal withdrew from the Supreme Court on June 26 saying “events are overtaking” him rapidly with the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) reviving a 2022 interrogation to arrest him shortly after the State High Court pronounced a judgment staying the bail granted to him by a trial court in money laundering charges linked to the excise policy case.
“On a 2022 interrogation and notice by the CBI, I [Kejriwal] have been arrested… re-arrested yesterday [June 25] while still under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act [PMLA]… A judgment [of the Delhi High Court] has come… The judgment has all kinds of issues,” senior advocate A.M. Singhvi, for Kejriwal, conveyed to a Vacation Bench of Justices Manoj Misra and S.V. Bhatti.
The Bench allowed Kejriwal’s request to withdraw from the Supreme Court for the time being with liberty to launch a fresh challenge against the State High Court judgment of June 25 to stay his bail in the excise policy case, followed by the unexpected move of the CBI to arrest him.
The Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP’s) national convenor has been in custody, except for a short interval the Supreme Court allowed him interim bail to campaign for votes in the Lok Sabha elections, since his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on March 21. The trial court had allowed him statutory bail under Section 45(1) of the PMLA on June 20. However, the Delhi High Court had paused the operation of the bail order the very next day while reserving its verdict on a stay application filed by the ED.
The Supreme Court, on June 24, adjourned Kejriwal’s challenge of the interim suspension of the implementation of the statutory bail and decided to wait for the High Court judgment. On June 25, the High Court pronounced a final decision to stay the trial court bail.
Singhvi, on Wednesday, said he had no option left but to come back to the apex court with a “substantive” petition challenging all the subsequent developments, including the final judgment of the High Court on June 25.
The ED, in a 73-page reply with detailed annexures filed in the Supreme Court through Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, submitted that the trial judge was “in a hurry and did not afford a reasonable opportunity to the Additional Solicitor General [appearing for
the agency] to oppose the bail”.
Statutory bail under Section 45(1) of the PMLA can be given only after extensive examination of records, investigation papers, complaint, etc. Bail can be allowed only if the trial judge is satisfied that the accused is not guilty of money laundering. Moreover, the Public Prosecutor must be provided an “effective opportunity” to object to the bail plea.
“It is an admitted fact that the Special Judge did not examine the record of the case though specifically requested by the prosecuting agency,” the ED affidavit, which was taken in record by the apex court, submitted.
On the mandatory pre-requisite of examining documents to record satisfaction about the accused’s guilt, the ED said the trial judge, in her own order, went on to note that “it is not possible to go through the documents ‘at this juncture’”. The ED alleged that the trial judge had found “most of the material” placed on record irrelevant and voluminous.
“Prima facie, it clearly appears that no such finding could have been given without perusing the material. Mere volume of the material would not be a valid ground for the judge to refuse to examine the material since such examination is the mandate of law,” the ED reply argued in the Supreme Court.
Tamil Nadu Assembly: Resolution urging Centre to undertake caste-based census adopted unanimously
The Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly, on June 26, unanimously adopted a resolution proposed by Chief Minister M.K. Stalin, urging the Union government to conduct a caste-based census along with the general population census.
“This House considers that a caste-based population census is essential to formulate policies in order to ensure equal rights and equal opportunities in education, economy and employment to every citizen of India. This House, therefore, unanimously urges the Union government to commence the census work immediately, which has been due from 2021, along with a caste-based population census, this time,” the resolution said.
Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) member R. Arul, who spoke during the debate, however, said he would not agree with the Chief Minister’s resolution, as the State government itself could conduct a caste-based census.
Law Minister S. Regupathy however said that though the State government could undertake the exercise of a caste-based census under the Collection of Statistics Act, 2008, the Census Act could override this.
Earlier, addressing the House, Stalin recalled the letter he had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2023, demanding a caste-based census along with the general census. “The decisions and acts of a State government can get legal protection only if they are done on the basis of data collected by the Centre. If State governments collect data through surveys, these may be stayed by the courts in the future,” he reasoned.
Stalin said that as per section 3 of the Census Act, only the Union government could conduct a census. He said though there was an argument that a State government could conduct a caste-based census as per the Collection of Statistics Act, 2008, this Act actually only allowed the collection of data on socio-economic conditions.
In Brief:
Defamation case: Uttar Pradesh court orders personal appearance of Rahul Gandhi on July 2
An MP-MLA court in Uttar Pradesh’s Sultanpur on June 26 asked Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to appear before it on July 2 in a defamation case filed against him for alleged objectionable remarks against Union Home Minister Amit Shah. Complaint lawyer Santosh Kumar Pandey said that one Ram Pratap had demanded that he be made a party in the case. Opposing the plea, Pandey said Pratap is neither a victim nor has anything to do with the matter. Gandhi’s lawyer Kashi Prasad Shukla, who was present in the court, also opposed the petitioner’s plea. However, the court dismissed the prayer and called for personal appearance of Gandhi on the next date of hearing.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange returns to Australia a free man
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange returned to his homeland Australia aboard a charter jet on June 26, hours after pleading guilty to obtaining and publishing U.S. military secrets in a deal with Justice Department prosecutors that concludes a drawn-out legal saga. The criminal case of international intrigue, which had played out for years, came to a surprise end in a most unusual setting with Assange, 52, entering his plea in a U.S. district court in Saipan, the capital of the Northern Mariana Islands. The American commonwealth in the Pacific is relatively close to Assange’s native Australia and accommodated his desire to avoid entering the continental United States.
NATO appoints outgoing Dutch PM Mark Rutte as next secretary-general
NATO appointed Mark Rutte as its next secretary-general on June 26, putting the outgoing Dutch prime minister in charge of the world’s biggest security organisation at a critical time for European security as war rages in Ukraine. Rutte’s appointment was sealed by NATO ambassadors during a meeting at the 32-nation alliance’s headquarters in Brussels. U.S. President Joe Biden and his counterparts will formally welcome him to their table at a summit in Washington on July 9-11.
Evening Wrap will return tomorrow.
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