Law, Legal & Justice – Global Records India

New Delhi hosts first India-Central Asia meeting of NSAs ; asserts connectivity with Central Asian countries remains key priority for India

National Security Adviser (NSA) Ajit Doval on Tuesday said that connectivity with Central Asian countries remains India’s key priority.

Speaking at the first India-Central Asia meeting of the National Security Advisers, in New Delhi, Mr Doval said, peaceful, secure and prosperous Central Asia is in our common interest.

He added that countering terror financing should be everyone’s equal priority and urged all UN members to refrain from providing support to entities involved in terrorist acts.

He also spoke on the security situation in Afghanistan and said that it is an important issue concerning us all.

This is the first time India is hosting a conclave of top security officials from Central Asian countries including Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan focussing on the evolving security situation in Afghanistan and ways to deal with the threat of terrorism emanating from that country.

In an apparent message to Pakistan, Doval said that India should appeal to all UN members to fulfill obligations enshrined in relevant counter-terror conventions.

newsonair.gov.in

India launches ‘Group of Friends’ to promote accountability for crimes against peacekeepers

India, Bangladesh, Egypt, France, Morocco and Nepal are co-chairs of the ‘Group of Friends to Promote Accountability for Crimes Against Peacekeepers’.

India has launched a ‘Group of Friends’ to promote accountability for crimes against peacekeepers, with External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar announcing that New Delhi will soon have a database that will record all crimes against the Blue Helmets.

India, Bangladesh, Egypt, France, Morocco and Nepal are co-chairs of the ‘Group of Friends to Promote Accountability for Crimes Against Peacekeepers’ launched on Thursday during India’s current presidency of the U.N. Security Council.

“UN Peacekeeping today has become more challenging than ever before. Peace operations are also being conducted in an ambiguous and complex environment,” Mr. Jaishankar said in his keynote address at the launch of the Group of Friends.

“Today’s peacekeeper is not mandated to keep the peace but to take on robust mandates in extremely hostile conflict zones. The involvement of armed groups, terrorists and transnational organised crime has adversely impacted their operations,” he said.

Mr. Jaishankar said that the Group of Friends represents the “political will” of member states, particularly of the troop and police contributing countries, to champion the implementation of the provisions of U.N. Security Council resolution 2589, which was adopted in August last year under India’s Presidency of the Council.

Resolution 2589 had called upon member states, hosting or having hosted United Nations peacekeeping operations, to take all appropriate measures to bring to justice perpetrators of the killing of, and all acts of violence against United Nations personnel, including, but not limited to, their detention and abduction.

The resolution had also called on member states to take all necessary measures to investigate such acts and arrest and prosecute perpetrators of such acts in line with their national law, consistent with applicable international obligations, including under international humanitarian law.

Mr. Jaishankar said the UNSC resolution was co-sponsored by more than 80 member states and unanimously adopted by the Council.

“It is, therefore, very befitting that this ‘Group of Friends’ being launched today under India’s ongoing Presidency of the UNSC, will seek to promote accountability in practical terms both within and outside the UNSC,” he said.

He noted that technology can be a force multiplier in achieving these goals. Comprehensive databases and analytical tools for recording and assessing crimes against peacekeepers will be key to addressing impunity.

“India has facilitated the launch of a database that will record all crimes against UN peacekeepers. I am glad to note that it will soon be ready for launch as well,” he said. Mr. Jaishankar said that upholding accountability for crimes against U.N. peacekeepers is a “multi-stakeholders” task.

“It is also a fact that in some cases, the host States do not have the political will or the necessary capabilities to ensure such accountability when crimes are committed against Peacekeepers.” Mr. Jaishankar cited data that shows that in the last three years alone, 68 peacekeepers belonging to 20 countries have lost lives for the cause of peace.

India, among the largest troop-contributing countries to UN peacekeeping, has lost 177 of its peacekeepers in the line of duty, the largest by far from any troop-contributing country.

Mr. Jaishankar also voiced concern that disinformation campaigns about peacekeeping missions and their mandates have also led to an increase of risks for peacekeepers.

“All these factors have seen an exponential increase in the number of crimes committed against peacekeepers in recent years,” he said.

“Peacekeeping is one of the key tools available with the Security Council to maintain international peace and security, to practically stabilise conflict zones and move towards peace building.”

“Peacekeepers from across the world contribute to this endeavour. They venture forth into hostile conflict zones to protect those who are unable to protect themselves. As those member states, who send them in that cause, it is our solemn duty to ‘Protect the Protectors’,” he said.

A concept note on the Group of Friends said that it will seek to facilitate the promotion of accountability for all acts of violence against United Nations peacekeepers; seek facilitation of capacity building and technical assistance to the host state authorities.

It will actively engage and share information with the Secretary-General and assist the member states hosting or those who have hosted peacekeeping operations, in bringing to justice the perpetrators of such acts; serve as an informal platform at the United Nations to exchange information, share best practices and mobilise resources directed at facilitating accountability for crimes committed against peacekeepers; and monitor progress on bringing accountability for crimes against peacekeepers.

The Group of Friends will convene two meetings of its members per year, organise and host one event per year involving Permanent Missions and other stakeholders, designed to inform and galvanise support for promoting accountability for crimes against peacekeepers; and organize and hold other meetings, briefings, and events as needed, based on the annual work plan and developments relevant to safety and security of peacekeepers.

The Group will convene and be moderated by representatives of the Permanent Missions of Bangladesh, Egypt, France India, Morocco and Nepal as co-chairs and include all interested Member States and United Nations partners.

thehindu.com

In a first, deaf advocate Saudamini Pethe enrols with Bar Council of Delhi

The 45-year-old woman lawyer would be arguing her matters in courts through the medium of an Indian Sign Language (ISL) interpreter and seeks to be an inspiration for the deaf youth.

Saudamini Pethe — the first deaf advocate enrolled with the Bar Council of Delhi — wants to work for the rights of the hearing impaired and help them gain access to education, healthcare and justice.

The 45-year-old woman lawyer would be arguing her matters in courts through the medium of an Indian Sign Language (ISL) interpreter and seeks to be an inspiration for the deaf youth to join the legal profession and contribute to the cause of their community.

Pethe, who suffered hearing loss after being infected with meningitis at the age of nine and subsequently taking strong medicines, feels that words like ‘disability’ and ‘impairment’ have negative connotations.

“My aim is to use my law degree to advocate for the cause of deaf rights. To make it possible for the deaf community in India to gain access in every aspect of life, be it education, health care, or career and most importantly get access to justice,” she said.

“I also want to spread more awareness, and empower the deaf by equipping them with the knowledge of their legal rights and become capable of ensuring that these rights are fulfilled. I want to inspire more deaf youth to join the legal profession and contribute to the cause of the deaf,” Pethe, who communicated with PTI through WhatsApp messages, said.

Senior advocate K K Manan, chairman of the Bar Council of Delhi, said “We have given the licence to her to practice, which is rarely given in such a situation. But we would like to settle her so that she can stand on her own feet. So that she can do things on her own. She can earn a livelihood for herself and her family. We have taken all these things into consideration and that is why we did it”.

Born in Mumbai’s Dombivli, Pethe said she has faced many communication barriers and majority of these challenges arose due to lack of accessibility in schools, colleges, public transport or even hiring a cab.

Explaining the challenges she faced to get enrolled as a lawyer, Pethe said from collecting provisional certificate to enrolling at the Bar no communication access was available.

“I had to borrow my son’s precious pre-exam time and take him to interpret for my formalities and filings at the university, at the court to prepare affidavits, and arranging meetings with authorities concerned. I was surprised to find that there was neither any category for the disabled in the bar council form nor any relevant quota. I seriously feel this needs to be addressed on a national level,” she said.

Pethe, who did her masters in English from Mumbai University in 2000, said she learnt the ISL after 2008 while working as a documentation executive at the Noida Deaf Society.

Prior to learning ISL, she used to communicate by reading lips or sometimes by writing.

Presently, she is the director at All India Foundation of Deaf Women and a trustee at the Access Mantra Foundation.

She pursued LLB at the Institute of Law and Research, Faridabad and completed her course in August this year, after which she got enrolled with the Bar in November.

newindianexpress.com

Justice DY Chandrachud takes oath as 50th Chief Justice of India

Supreme Court judge, Justice DY Chandrachud on Wednesday was sworn in as the 50th Chief Justice of India. The oath was administered by President Droupadi Murmu at the Rashtrapati Bhavan.

Justice DY Chandrachud as CJI will have a tenure of more than two years and will demit office on November 10, 2024.

Appointed as SC judge in 2016, Justice DY Chandrachud overturned the verdicts of his father in 2017 and 2018. In the famous Aadhaar verdict, the judge had starked a discordant node by dissenting with the majority and ruling that Aadhaar was unconstitutionally passed as a money bill and violative of fundamental rights. He had also dissented in a case related to the arrest of five human rights activists who had allegedly incited violence at Bhima Koregaon when the other two judges of the bench had allowed Pune police to continue their investigation as per law.

Justice Chandrachud has been a part of many constitution benches that have delivered path-breaking verdicts such as the decriminalisation of same-sex consensual sex by striking down section 377 of IPC which criminalises consensual unnatural sex between consenting adults and recognising “living will’ made by terminally-ill patients for passive euthanasia which have played a major role in strengthening the human rights jurisprudence in the country. He was was also part of the five-judge bench that delivered the famous Ayodhya verdict and that allowed the entry of women into Sabarimala temple.

The judge has also authored judgements that have batted for empowering women and breaking the shackles of patriarchy. In a ruling penned by him, the judge gave a massive boost to the reproductive rights of women by ruling that prohibiting unmarried or single pregnant women with pregnancies upto 24 weeks from accessing abortion while allowing married women to access them during the same period fell foul of the spirit of right to equality. In his most recent judgment, Justice Chandrachud remarked that two finger test re-victimizes & re-traumatizes women who may have been sexually assaulted and asked the centre to ensure that the practice is stopped.

newindianexpress.com

India to contribute $500,000 to UN Trust Fund to counter terrorism

The special conference of Counter Terrorism Committee kicked off on Friday in Mumbai, which witnessed a ghastly attack by Pakistan-based terrorists in 2008 that left 140 Indian nationals and 26 foreigners dead.

India will contribute $500,000 to the United Nations Trust Fund for Counter Terrorism this year to aid capacity-building support to member states in combating terrorism, external affairs minister S Jaishankar announced on Saturday.

The announcement was made during the plenary session of the UN Security Council special meeting of the Counter Terrorism Committee (CTC) in New Delhi.

“India will be making a voluntary contribution of half a million dollars to the UN Trust Fund for Counter Terrorism this year to augment the efforts of Office of Counter-Terrorism in providing capacity-building support to member states in preventing and countering the threat of terrorism,” the minister said.

Jaishankar warned about the threat posed by the misuse of new and emerging technologies for terror activities, stressing the need for the international community to adopt measures to combat the threats.

“Internet and social media platforms have turned into potent instruments in the toolkit of terrorist and militant groups for spreading propaganda, radicalization and conspiracy theories aimed at destabilizing societies,” he said in his keynote address.

Jaishankar underlined that the threat of terrorism is growing and expanding despite the UN Security Council’s significant efforts in the last two decades to combat the menace. Jaishankar said that the technologies have also thrown up new challenges for governments and regulatory bodies given the “very nature of some of these technologies and the nascent regulatory environment.”

“UN Security Council, in the past 2 decades, has evolved an important architecture built primarily around the Counter-Terrorism Sanctions Regime to combat this menace. This has been very effective in putting those countries on notice that had turned terrorism into a state-funded enterprise,” the minister said.

“Despite this, the threat of terrorism is only growing and expanding, particularly in Asia and Africa, as successive reports of the 1267 Sanctions Committee monitoring reports have highlighted,” he added.

The special conference kicked off on Friday in Mumbai, which witnessed a ghastly attack by Pakistan-based terrorists in 2008 that left 140 Indian nationals and 26 foreigners dead. This is the first time such a conference is being held outside of the UN’s headquarters in New York.

President appoints Justice DY Chandrachud as next CJI with effect from November 9

November 9 will be a historical day for the Indian judiciary as it will get its first father-son duo reaching the topmost position in the judiciary.

“In exercise of the power conferred by the Constitution of India, Hon’ble President appoints Dr Justice DY Chandrachud, Judge, Supreme Court as the Chief Justice of India with effect from 9th November, 22,” Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju in his tweet said.

The Minister on October 30 initiated the drill to appoint the next CJI by writing to the incumbent CJI UU Lalit requesting him to recommend his successor’s name.

The CJI on October 10 had recommended to the centre Justice Chandrachud’s appointment as his successor and next CJI.

Justice Chandrachud, son of YV Chandrachud the longest serving CJI , who will swear in as the 50th CJI on November 9, will have a tenure of almost two years and will demit office on November 10, 2024.

November 9 will be a historical day for the Indian judiciary as it will get its first father-son duo to reach the topmost position in the judiciary.

He was the youngest advocate to be designated as Senior Advocate by the Bombay High Court in 1998 at the age of 39 and thereby served as the Additional Solicitor General of India from 1998 to 2000.

He was appointed as an Additional Judge of the Bombay HC on March 29, 2000 and took oath as CJI of Allahabad HC on October 31, 2013.

On 29 March 2000, he was appointed as an Additional Judge of the Bombay High Court. He took oath as the Chief Justice of Allahabad High Court on 31 October 2013.

Ever since his appointment as the SC judge in 2016, he has been part of many constitutional benches that have delivered path-breaking verdicts such as the decriminalisation of same-sex consensual sex by striking down section 377 of IPC which criminalises consensual unnatural sex between consenting adults and recognising “living will’ made by terminally-ill patients for passive euthanasia which have played a major role in strengthening the human rights jurisprudence in the country.

He has also authored judgements that have batted for empowering women and breaking the shackles of patriarchy.

nie

India’s first portal on arrested narco offenders gets operational

It is part of the narcotics coordination mechanism (NCORD) portal that was launched by Union Home Minister Amit Shah on July 30 in Chandigarh

A first-of-its kind database of arrested narcotics offenders has been made operational for use by various central and State prosecution agencies tasked to enforce anti-drugs laws in the country, officials said.

The portal — NIDAAN or the National Integrated Database on Arrested Narco-offenders — has been developed by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB).

It is part of the narcotics coordination mechanism (NCORD) portal that was launched by Union Home Minister Amit Shah on July 30 in Chandigarh during the national conference on ‘Drug trafficking and national security’.

The NIDAAN platform sources its data from the ICJS (inter-operable criminal justice system) and the e-Prisons (a cloud-based application) repository and it is planned to integrate it in the future with the crime and criminal tracking network system or CCTNS, a senior officer said.

The ICJS, an initiative of the Supreme Court e-committee, was created to enable seamless transfer of data and information among different pillars of the criminal justice system, like courts, police, jails and forensic science laboratories, from one platform.

“NIDAAN is a one-stop solution for all narcotics offenders’ related data and will help investigative agencies as an effective tool to connect the dots while probing narcotics cases,” NCB Director General S.N. Pradhan told PTI.

The idea to create such a portal was to enhance the capability of all the law enforcement agencies working against drug crimes, he said.

NIDAAN hosts data about those accused who have been arrested and jailed for drugs offences and those who are “directly or indirectly involved in the produce, manufacture, possession, selling, purchase, transport, warehousing, usage, consumption, inter-state import and export, import into India, export from India or transhipment of any narcotics or psychotropic substance.”

According to the blueprint prepared for the operation and usage of the portal, any agency can search for the crime history, personal details, fingerprints, court cases and appeals made etc. with regard to a drug offender from any part of the country.

The login ID and password for the portal for use by various central and State anti-drugs units can either be obtained from the CCTNS administrator and those agencies who already have login credentials at the ICJS portal can use the same to operate NIDAAN, a senior officer said.

A distinct feature called ‘criminal network’ on the portal can also be accessed by agencies, as part of which specific links of an accused to other crimes, linked police FIRs and those who visited them in jail can also be accessed, the officer said.

The NIDAAN portal is a vertical envisaged under the NCORD and was mooted during a national meeting on drug issues chaired by Home Minister Amit Shah in December last year in Delhi.

Mr. Shah, during the meeting, had also spoken about various other plans for strengthening the coordination mechanism on narcotics issues like asking all states to create a dedicated anti-narcotics task force (ANTF) which can also function as the NCORD secretariat at the State level, the statement said.

The Minister had also directed the agencies to “take some important measures such as creation of a national NCORD portal (NIDAAN being a part of it), constitution of inter-ministerial standing committees (IMCs) to devise effective policies with regard to dual use prescription drugs and precursors, raising of a national narco-canine pool and establishment of drug de-addiction centres in all prisons of 272 most drugs affected districts etc.”

Justice U.U. Lalit appointed 49th Chief Justice of India

He will have a brief tenure as he will demit office on November 8

Justice Uday Umesh Lalit was appointed the 49th Chief Justice of India (CJI) on Wednesday after President Droupadi Murmu signed his warrant of appointment.

Justice Lalit will assume charge on August 27, a day after Justice N.V. Ramana demits office as the CJI. Justice Lalit will have a brief tenure as he will demit office on November 8 after holding the charge as the CJI for a little under three months.

Justice Lalit will be the second CJI who was directly elevated to the apex court Bench from the Bar.

Justice S.M. Sikri was the first lawyer to be elevated directly to the top court Bench in March 1964 and went on to become the 13th CJI in January 1971.

“In exercise of the powers conferred by clause (2) of Article 124 of the Constitution of India, the President is pleased to appoint Shri Justice Uday Umesh Lalit, judge of the Supreme Court, to be the Chief Justice of India with effect from 27 August, 2022,” a Law Ministry notification said.

While Supreme Court judges retire on attaining the age of 65, judges of the 25 High Courts superannuate at the age of 62.

CJI Ramana names Justice U.U. Lalit as successor

Chief Justice Ramana is retiring on August 26, 2022.

Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramana on Thursday, August 4, 2022 recommended to the government the name of Justice Uday Umesh Lalit as his successor and the 49th Chief Justice of India.

Chief Justice Ramana personally handed over a copy of his letter of recommendation dated August 3 to Justice Lalit when they met for tea in the Supreme Court in the morning before court.

The Memorandum says that “after receipt of the recommendation of the Chief Justice of India, the Union Minister of Law, Justice and Company Affairs will put up the recommendation to the Prime Minister who will advise the President in the matter of appointment”.

This is expected to happen shortly.

Justice Lalit, if appointed, would have a tenure of hardly three months. He retires on November 8, 2022.

** e-DAR portal to speed up accident compensation claims

Integrated data and instant information on road accidents will bring relief to victims’ families, check fake claims

A web portal designed by the government in consultation with insurance companies will provide instant information on road accidents with a few clicks and help accelerate accident compensation claims, bringing relief to victims’ families.

The Ministry of Roads, Transport and Highways (MoRTH) has developed the portal named ‘e-DAR’ (e-Detailed Accident Report). Digitalised Detailed Accident Reports (DAR) will be uploaded on the portal for easy access.

The web portal will be linked to the Integrated Road Accident Database (iRAD). From iRAD, applications to more than 90% of the datasets would be pushed directly to the e-DAR.

Stakeholders like the police, road authorities, hospitals, etc., are required to enter very minimal information for the e-DAR forms. Thus, e-DAR would be an extension and e-version of iRAD.