Latest news with #SC
New Indian Express
an hour ago
- Business
- New Indian Express
Odisha HC issues norms to regulate sale of SC/ST property
CUTTACK: In a bid to ensure protection of property rights of marginalised communities, the Orissa High Court has issued comprehensive legal guidelines to regulate the sale or transfer of undivided property by members of Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) communities. Justice SK Panigrahi, in a recent order, emphasised that no individual member of the SC/ST community can unilaterally alienate any specific portion of a joint family property unless there has been a formal and legal partition. This must be effected either through a registered agreement or a decree by a competent civil court. In the absence of such a partition, any proposed sale or transfer by a coparcener (equal shareholder) must be preceded by the informed and written consent of all other SC/ST coparceners, the order issued on July 18 and uploaded on Wednesday outlines, placing the onus on the transferer to prove that all interested parties have consented to the transaction. If the intended transferee does not belong to an SC or ST community, the sale will only be valid with prior approval from the competent revenue authority. This authority must ensure the transaction meets several strict conditions like verification of the transferer's partitioned and demarcated share, consent of all other coparceners in case of undivided holdings, assurance that the sale does not jeopardise the livelihood or residence of other SC/ST coparceners and confirmation that the deal does not bypass protective provisions, such as section 22 of the Orissa Land Reforms Act.
GMA Network
2 hours ago
- Politics
- GMA Network
SC: 154 examinees pass the 2025 Shari'ah Special Bar exams
Associate Justice Antonio Kho Jr. announces the results of the 2025 Shari'ah Special Bar Examinations at the Supreme Court main building in Manila. A total of 154 examinees out of 628 passed the 2025 Shari'ah Special Bar Examinations (SSBE), the Supreme Court (SC) announced Friday. In a press briefing, SSBE Chairperson Associate Justice Antonio Kho Jr. said this translates to a passing percentage rate of 24.48%. The examinations were held in the University of the Philippines-Diliman, Ateneo de Davao University, Ateneo de Zamboanga University, and Mindanao State University - Iligan Institute of Technology on May 25 and May 28. Meanwhile, Kho reminded exam passers the clearance procedure is scheduled for July 28. 'We kindly request that you complete the clearance procedures at your earlier convenience. Kapag hindi nagawa itong clearance procedure, it might affect your attendance to the oath taking,' he said. Kho said the oath taking and roll signing ceremonies of the SSBE passers will take place on August 6, 2025 at the Manila Hotel. 'We reaffirm our commitment to making justice more accessible to all Filipinos, including the Bangsamoro and Muslim Filipino communities. And nowhere is this more clearly manifested than in the conduct of this year's SSBE,' Kho said. The exams are administered to allow Muslim professionals to qualify and practice before the Shari'ah Courts in the Philippines constituted under Presidential Decree (PD) 1083 or the Code of Muslim Personal Laws of the Philippines. — BAP, GMA Integrated News
Indian Express
3 hours ago
- Business
- Indian Express
Exclusive: Informed by caste survey, Telangana could provide curated benefits for each sub-caste
The 59 SC sub-castes and 33 ST sub-castes in Telangana will receive tailor-made benefits in education, employment, and need-based financial support to individual families, based on the findings of the state's caste survey, The Indian Express has learnt. While the focus till now had been on Madigas, the largest SC sub-caste, followed by Malas, it will shift to the remaining 57 sub-castes which have been left behind and are not doing well as per the caste survey report. Similar customised schemes will be applicable to nearly 50 sub-castes of the 134 BC castes in Telangana. The 11-member expert committee headed by former Supreme Court Judge B Sudarshan Reddy submitted a 300-page review of the caste survey report to Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy at the Marri Chennareddy HRD Institute last Saturday. Deputy Chief Minister (Finance and Planning, Energy) Bhatti Vikramarka Mallu told The Indian Express that the report places an even greater responsibility on the government to assemble community-specific schemes. 'The report provides an insightful understanding of how people of each caste and sub-caste are faring. Their standing socially and economically… whether they have jobs or not or any means of livelihood. Those are not just statistics in the report; they are people. We now know the numerical strength of each community. We need tailor-made solutions to address each community's issues, down to family units,' Bhatti said. An official explained, 'Based on the numerical strength, we will design not just government schemes and benefits, but provide quotas in education and employment, individual financial assistance, political representation down to Mandal and Zilla Parishad Territorial Constituencies.' There were a few surprises too in the caste survey report. For instance, the BC population has crossed 56 per cent in the state. On July 11, the state government had passed a Bill providing a 42 per cent quota for BCs in local bodies, and another bill providing a 42 per cent reservation in education and employment opportunities, assuming that the BC population hovered between 55-56 per cent and would cross 56 per cent by the 2028 elections. The state government sent the two Bills to the President and the Centre for their consent. As the Telangana government received indications that the President may send back the Bill without approval, Chief Minister Reddy, Deputy CM Bhatti and others rushed to New Delhi to make a powerpoint presentation at the AICC, in a bid to mount pressure. Another surprise was that at least four per cent of Telangna's population declared that they have no caste. According to the finalised data, the state has 1,15,71,457 households and the population surveyed was 3,55,50,759. Of this, the SC population was 61,91,294 (17.42%), the ST population was 37,08,408 (10.43%), the BC population was 2,00,37,668 (56.36%), while other castes were 56,13,389 (15.89%). CM Reddy said that the social, economic, educational, employment and political caste (SEEPC) survey, conducted by the Telangana government through door-to-door visits and self-certification of the people, is a role model for the country. The government has collected 88 crore pages of data in the survey.
New Indian Express
4 hours ago
- Automotive
- New Indian Express
SC to hear plea on end-of-life limit for BS VI-compliant vehicles on July 28
NEW DELHI: The SC on Thursday agreed to hear on July 28 a plea questioning whether BS VI-compliant vehicles should have an end-of-life period of 15 years for petrol variants and 10 years for diesel—treating them on par with BS IV norms—in the Delhi-National Capital Region. A two-judge bench of the apex court, headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) B R Gavai and Justice K Vinod Chandran, agreed to hear the matter after a counsel mentioned it for urgent listing. The petitioner's lawyer submitted that the government cannot override the court's earlier directions on pollution control. 'The government cannot alter the limits already set by the apex court for curbing vehicular emissions to check pollution in Delhi,' the counsel said. The application filed in the top court sought relief for BS VI-compliant vehicles, arguing that these newer-generation models adhere to stricter emission norms and should not be subject to the existing limits of 15 years for petrol and 10 years for diesel vehicles in Delhi and the National Capital Region. The petitioner contended that since the timeline for phasing out older vehicles was previously fixed by the apex court, any modification must come through judicial review. 'The government cannot unilaterally alter the policy,' the plea stated, citing existing orders from the SC and NGT concerning air quality control and vehicular pollution. The petitioner urged the court to examine whether a distinction can be made in policy for BS VI-compliant vehicles, and if the current vehicular age bans require review in light of advancements in automotive technology and emission control systems. Notably, in the backdrop of this petition, it is significant to mention that in 2015, the NGT had ordered a blanket ban on diesel vehicles older than 10 years and petrol vehicles older than 15 years in Delhi-NCR, as a pollution control measure. Plea to mandate 6 airbags in passenger vehicles junked The Supreme Court on Thursday in its order dismissed a petitition to ensure installation of six airbags in passenger vehicles and said the matter was exclusively within the policy domain. A bench comprising Chief Justice B R Gavai and Justice K Vinod Chandran told the petitioner to make a representation to the government.
The Hindu
4 hours ago
- Business
- The Hindu
Political Line Newsletter: Kanwariyas: kings of faith and the mark
'Consumer is king,' the SC said, during a hearing against government directives to eateries along the Kanwar route. The marketplace of faith has many faces The right to equality and the right to practise a profession are guaranteed by the Indian Constitution. The Supreme Court (SC) recently held that eateries along the Kanwar Yatra route must disclose whether they serve or used to serve meat, because that is a question of consumer rights. Kanwar Yatris are expected to abstain from non-vegetarian food, onion and garlic. The Kanwar Yatra is a pilgrimage of Shiva devotees, known as Kanwariyas, who walk to sacred spots along the Ganga, and carry its water as an offering to Shiva temples near their homes. Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand governments had ordered eateries to prominently display their licences as a measure of quality assurance, consumer awareness, and even public order, because in the past some yatris had created a ruckus over the use of onion, garlic, or meat products in places they chose to eat. A group of petitioners had challenged these orders, and argued that they hampered the right to practise a profession, amounted to social profiling, and discrimination against Muslims. Abhishek Singhvi, lawyer for the petitioners, also invoked 'anonymity of the marketplace' against the government orders. The SC decided not to determine these Constitutional questions and asked the eateries to display their licenses. 'Consumer is king,' the Court said. The idea that the consumer is king is a secular notion, and nothing could better express the decapitation of religion by capitalism in modern societies than this motto. But the consumer, typically seen as a soulless seeker of pleasure and gratification, is now blending faith into their market choices. Many people are carrying their faith into the market place. Capitalism is struggling to serve god and mammon at the same time. Muslims, Jews, and Hindus want faith-compliant products and services. People might think Christianity sits closely with modern capitalism, but wait! The clash between the business owner and the consumer, driven by faith, reached all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court for a tentative resolution. In 2012, Jack Phillips, a baker in Colorado, refused to create a custom wedding cake for a same-sex couple. The couple filed a case under the State's Anti-Discrimination Act, which prohibits businesses open to the public from discriminating based on sexual orientation. Colorado Civil Rights Commission held that the baker had violated the law. Phillips took the case to the Supreme Court, arguing that forcing him to create a cake for a same-sex marriage would violate his freedom of speech and free exercise of religion, guaranteed by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The SC held, on June 4, 2018, that Philip's protections under the First Amendment had been violated. The Court did not rule on the question of whether businesses can refuse service based on religious beliefs. Like India's, the SC of the United States too steered clear of triggering a trade war — or a religious one as the case may be! Federalism Tract: Notes on Indian Diversity The growing reach of the state Conducting a census among the six main indigenous tribes in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands will not be tough as the Central Government has already made contact and is running several welfare measures for these tribes, said physician Ratan Chandra Kar. It is not a coincidence that economic and military activities in which the aboriginal people have little involvement are also increasing simultaneously. The mapping of the terrain and people is often simultaneous, with the expansion of modern economic activity. See this story, for instance. Martyrs who ceased to be Kashmir parties and the government used to observe July 13 as Martyrs' Day to commemorate the 22 civilians who were killed in an uprising against the Dogra monarchy in 1931. This year, the Lieutenant Governor's administration tried to stop Chief Minister Omar Abdullah from visiting a memorial site. He defied the order, and visited the Naqsbandh Sahib shrine. The popular movement against the monarchy was a point of contention between the national movement led by the Indian National Congress and Sheikh Abdullah, grandfather of the current Chief Minister Omar Abdullah. In 1931, he co-founded the All Jammu and Kashmir Muslim Conference — Muslims were treated as second-class subjects by Maharaja Hari Singh — which would be renamed the National Conference the next year to be in alignment with the Congress. Congress leadership and Jawaharlal Nehru were sympathetic to the movement for self-rule and Kashmiri identity, but they were also anxious about the interplay of Islamic and Kashmiri identities in Sheikh's politics. The Congress was willing to accommodate Kashmiri nationalism within the rubric of Indian nationalism but was also fixated on keeping it under permissible limits. This led to the fluctuations in the relationship between the Sheikh and the Congress, particularly Nehru. This history of the Centre alternating between suspicion and accommodation of Kashmiri nationalism was brought to an end by the BJP that nullified Article 370 in 2019. For it, any suggestion of autonomy is unacceptable. Hindutva votaries considered the anti-Dogra movement an Islamist insurrection then and now. You could read more about that history here. Hindu nationalists in India considered the native kingdoms a shield of their politics in general. Under the Centre's rule there was always restriction on the observation of the Martyrs' Day. That is a memory that sits uncomfortably with Indian nationalism — under both the Congress and the BJP. Deploying history for the present The recreation of historical events in public memory is part of nation building, and the shifting approaches to the past are a marker of present day politics. The overturning of the Martyrs' Day narrative repurposes the history of the region in tune with Hindutva. The revised history text books of NCERT are another case in point. Departing from earlier text books, the new ones, among other things, also puts the spotlight on episodes of religious discrimination by Mughal rulers. The DMK government in Tamil Nadu and the BJP government at the Centre are both celebrating the mark of a millennium of Rajendra Chola-I's expedition to the north. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will release a commemorative stamp on July 27th. The Cholas were patrons of Shaivism and Rajendra Chola-I took pride in claiming that he brought the Ganga to his kingdom, reportedly forcing the kings he defeated to carry it on their head. You could watch a video commentary on this here. While for Mr. Modi this could be another occasion to demonstrate Tamil Nadu's Hindu heritage, linking it with Tamil identity, for the Dravidian parties, it is the other way around: it is about the antiquity and statecraft of the Tamil people.
