{"id":169880,"date":"2021-08-23T00:40:42","date_gmt":"2021-08-22T19:10:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/?p=169880"},"modified":"2021-08-23T00:40:42","modified_gmt":"2021-08-22T19:10:42","slug":"gujarat-hc-puts-brakes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/2021\/08\/23\/gujarat-hc-puts-brakes\/","title":{"rendered":"Gujarat hc puts brakes"},"content":{"rendered":"

‘Love Jihad’ Law<\/strong>
\nBy Insaf<\/strong><\/p>\n

\nGujarat High Court gives a ray of hope. It has stayed the operation of some sections of the anti-conversion law, saying it is to \u2018protect people from unnecessary harassment.\u2019 On Thursday last, dealing with two petitions challenging the constitutionality of the Gujarat Freedom of Religion (Amendment) Act, 2021, which penalises forcible or fraudulent religious conversion through marriage, the court noted: \u201crigors of section 3,4, 4a to 4c, 5, 6, and 6a shall not operate merely because the marriage is solemnised by a person of one religion with another religion without force, allurement or fraudulent means and such marriages cannot be termed as marriage for the purpose of unlawful conversion.\u201d. The sections deal specifically with prohibition of forcible conversion, laying down of punishment for violation with imprisonment of up to four years or seven years, declaring of the marriage as void, seeking prior permission of district magistrate in case of conversion and laying burden of proof on the person who has caused the conversion.
\nBrakes indeed have been put so far on the \u2018love jihad\u2019 law, which was passed in the Assembly in April to stop the \u201cemerging trend in which women are lured to marriage for the purpose of religious conversion.\u201d But it is no secret that the BJP-ruled State, like two others Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, has its own agenda, the intent is certainly not honest. The law stands challenged on grounds that it goes against basic principles of marriage and violates Article 25 of the Constitution, which guarantees the right to propagate, profess and practice any religion, plus violates the right to privacy. And while the order is only interim, all eyes will be on the final verdict. But hope remains as the court rightly stated the law kept a \u201csword hanging\u201d on interfaith couples and that it can\u2019t be read (from the Act) that interfaith marriage is permissible.
\nWill there be light at the end of the tunnel?<\/p>\n

Setback For WB
\nIt\u2019s a major setback for West Bengal government. The Calcutta High Court seems to have knocked down Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to size? On Thursday last, it ordered a court-monitored CBI probe into cases of murder and rape in aftermath of Assembly polls, much in line with what an NHRC panel, formed on its direction, had sought after its fact-finding mission. The panel submitted its report on 13 June, which Mamata trashed as \u2018biased\u2019 and pursuing BJP\u2019s line of \u2018political vendetta.\u2019 But the court has differed saying \u201cthere are definite and proved allegations that complaints by victims of violence were not registered.\u201d It ordered setting up a SIT too to probe all other offences related to post-poll violence. Plethora of PILs were filed as hundreds are said to have been subjected to assault, made to flee their homes, and property destroyed. The BJP has hailed the verdict saying it \u201chighlighted the politicisation, inaction and failure of the state\u2019s police and administration\u201d. The ruling TMC is contemplating going in for an appeal. But with both investigations to be court-monitored and CBI asked to file a report in next six weeks, there\u2019s not much Mamata can do. But nothing can be put past the firebrand leader. Fear is that the TMC-BJP fight will get murkier.<\/p>\n

Naga United Govt
\nNagaland yearns for an early solution.North Block would need to get its act together. No more dilly-dallying as Monday last political parties in this north-eastern State resolved to come together and form an all-party government. The reason: enable an early solution to the vexed Naga political issue (NPI) and achieve \u2018an honourable and acceptable solution\u2019. The decision to form the Nagaland United Government (NUG) was unanimously taken by ruling People\u2019s Democratic Alliance (PDA) partners\u00a0\u2013\u00a0Nationalist Democratic Progress Party (NDPP) and BJP and two Independent MLAs supporting it and signed by principal Opposition party, the Naga People\u2019s Front. This is on lines of an all-party government, seen in 2015 when 8 Opposition Congress MLAs merged with then ruling NPF. The 5-point resolution adopted maintains they will aim at \u2018promoting Naga peace talks with a positive approach\u2019 in greater interest of \u2018achieving peace\u2019 and \u2018move forward under a positive environment\u2019, conducive towards \u2018finding a political solution at the earliest time possible.\u2019 How soon, is the big question, as the NPI has been hanging fire for decades: Recall, the NSCN(IM), firm on its demand for a separate flag and constitution of the Naga people, has been engaged with the Centre since 1997, signed the Framework Agreement on 3 August 2015; working committee of Naga National Political Groups (seven) too has held separate dialogues with Centre since 2017 and entered into \u201cAgreed Position.\u201d Talks were said to have concluded on 31 October 2019, but the final solution is still pending! Will Prime Minister Modi be able to deliver, what his predecessors couldn\u2019t? It\u2019s anybody\u2019s guess.
\nReleasing Caged Parrot
\nThe Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court seems to be at its wits end viz the CBI. Exasperated over the agency\u2019s \u2018stereotype\u2019 defence mechanism before courts, it made \u2018an attempt to release the \u201cCaged Parrot (CBI).\u201d Though it didn\u2019t concede to a request for CBI probe into an alleged chit fund, while hearing a PIL on Tuesday last, it did issue 12-point instructions to change its structure to improve its functioning. It should be a statutory body such as Election Commission of India or CAG, it observed as it was dismayed over the agency \u2018dragging its feet\u2019, for conducting an inquiry on grounds that \u2018resources and manpower available were restricted and it can\u2019t conduct the same! Among others, the bench suggested separate budgetary allocations; its chief should have powers equivalent to a govt secretary; its Central Forensic Science Lab should be equipped with more modern facilities i.e. at par with FBI or Scotland Yard. It directed, one, CBI chief to send a proposal to the Centre within 6 weeks requesting a raise in the agency\u2019s divisions, wings and staff and two, the Centre to pass orders on the issue within three months of receiving the proposal. Will it yield results or end up being a shot in the dark?<\/p>\n

Bihar \u2018Taps\u2019 Potential
\nBihar has done wonders. From being among bottom five States viz rural tap water supply (with just 1.84% households having connections), it has moved up among the top four (86.96%) in two years since the launch of Centre\u2019s Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM). Of 4.73 crore tap water connections provided so far across the country, JJM figures show 1.46 crore are in Bihar i.e. every third new connection is in Nitish Kumar\u2019s State. Interestinglythe credit can\u2019t go to the Centre! Bihar Water Resources minister claims 8.44 lakh tap water connections and not 1.46 crore were provided under the central scheme. The rest were thanks to Nitish\u2019s schemes including Har GharNal Ka Jal scheme.And if these numbers are discounted, the national figure will drop to 3.36 crore instead. Politics between JD(U) and partner BJP aside, Bihar has beaten states such as UP (1.96% now 12.29%), Assam (1.76% -16.69%), West Bengal (1.21%-11.13%) and joined the league of top-four States: Goa (100% connections), Telangana (100%) and Haryana (99.24%). What should make Bihar ecstatic is that it\u2019s now ahead of the more-prosperous States such as Maharashtra (65.08%), Gujarat (84.06%) and Tamil Nadu (34.74%).For Bihar it\u2019s literally water under the bridge.Guess, others should take a cue. \u2014 INFA<\/p>\n

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‘Love Jihad’ Law By Insaf Gujarat High Court gives a ray of hope. It has stayed the operation of some sections of the anti-conversion law, saying it is to \u2018protect people from unnecessary harassment.\u2019 On Thursday last, dealing with two petitions challenging the constitutionality of the Gujarat Freedom of Religion (Amendment) Act, 2021, which penalises […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-169880","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-features"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169880"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169880\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}