Cancellation of bail on 2G case

SC notice to Unitech MD

The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear CBI’s plea for cancellation of bail granted to Sanjay Chandra, MD of Unitech Ltd, in 2G case for allegedly trying to “sabotage the trial” and issued notice to him.

A bench headed by Justice G S Singhvi granted two weeks time to Mr. Chandra to file his response on CBI’s petition alleging that he had misused the relief given to him by approaching the then CBI prosecutor A K Singh and trying to “materially interfere” with the prosecution in an “attempt to influence” the conduct and outcome of the trial.

The CBI has sought recall of the apex court’s November 23, 2011 order by which he was granted bail.

It has alleged that conduct of Mr. Chandra was questionable during the period of bail as he was found holding discussion with the prosecutor about crucial witnesses.

“It is apparent the freedom granted to accused by means of enlargement from custody has been misused by him and that allowing him to continue unabated will be detrimental to the conduct of this trial and to the greater public interest,” CBI has said in its application.

His conversation with the prosecutor, who was removed from the case, reflected that the entire strategy of CBI in dealing with the case was compromised, the agency has said.

The CBI said it had registered a Preliminary Enquiry report which named Chandra and prosecutor Singh.

The investigation also suggested that the conversation took place between the two when the statement of crucial witness A K Srivastava, Department of Telecom’s former Deputy Director General (AS) was being recorded in the court, it has said.

The agency has also stated that the CFSL report has also confirmed that the recorded conversation was neither tampered with nor any editing was done and it was the voice of Chandra and Singh.

PAN card application fee

Foreign citizens/NRIs can now pay PAN application fee in any currency using Credit /Debit Card

As per information uploaded on NSDL website Facility for payment of PAN application fee in Indian Rupees & foreign currency by foreign citizens/NRIs using ‘Credit Card/Debit Card’ is now available for those applicants who apply PAN online.

Foreign Citizen /NRI if If communication Address is within India can pay by any of the following methods :-

   - Demand Draft

 - Cheque   - Credit Card / Debit Card  +

– Net Banking

If any of addresses i.e. office address or residential address is a foreign address, the payment can be made only by way of Credit Card / Debit card and Demand Draft payable at Mumbai.

Cash-at-door: Order to frame charges against ex-judge (retired peacefully)

Cash-at-door: Order to frame charges against ex-judge

A CBI special court Wednesday ordered the framing of charges against retired high court judge Nirmal Yadav accused of corruption and conspiracy in the Rs.1.5 million cash-at-door scandal.

Justice (retired) Yadav will have to be present in the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) special court here Aug 12 when charges would be framed. She had been exempted from court appearance till now.

The Punjab and Haryana High Court was hit by a scandal after a packet containing Rs.1.5 million was found Aug 13, 2008 at the doorstep of the Sector 11 house of a newly-appointed judge Nirmaljit Kaur. She complained to police and got a case registered.

Yadav was also a judge in the high court here when the scandal came to light.

The police later arrested then Haryana additional advocate general Sanjeev Bansal, property dealer Rajiv Gupta and Delhi-based hotelier Ravinder Singh in this connection.

Police claimed Bansal and Gupta told them that the money was meant for Justice Nirmal Yadav.

The two claimed that another packet containing Rs.1.5 million was separately delivered to Yadav at her Sector 24 official residence later, since the first packet was wrongly delivered to the other woman judge, police said.

A case was registered by the Chandigarh Police initially and later the investigation was handed over to the CBI.

Despite objections from Yadav, the Supreme Court had set up an independent enquiry into the case. The high court , in 2011, directed Yadav to appear before the trial court.

Yadav was later transferred to the Uttarakhand High Court from where she retired in 2012.

The CBI filed a charge-sheet against Yadav for corruption, conspiracy, destruction of evidence and creation of false evidence.

(Source: IANS)

Now, everyone will start asking like this!

2G case: AIIMS team checks Dayalu Ammal’s health

A four-member team of medical experts from New Delhi’s AIIMS carried out a check on Dayalu Ammal, the wife of DMK president M Karunanidhi, here on Saturday to ascertain whether she is in a good condition to depose before a CBI court in the 2G telecom scam.

A key prosecution witness in the case, Dayalu Ammal, 84, is one of the directors of Kalaignar television. She has sought exemption from appearing and deposing before the trial court on grounds of her old age and ailments.

The medical team arrived at her Gopalapuram residence at around 11.30 am and completed their work by 2 pm. The team will submit its report to the apex court which earlier this month ordered the director of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) to set up a medical board to examine her health condition.

 The court passed the order on a petition filed by her daughter Selvi seeking an order to exempt her mother from appearing before the trial court as prosecution witness on health grounds.

Selvi’s counsel Abhishek Manu Singhvi submitted to the court that Dayalu Ammal had been diagnosed with cognitive and behavioural abnormalities and was suffering from Alzhemier’s disease.

The case relates to the receipt of Rs 200 crore by Kalaignar TV Pvt Ltd, in which Dayalu Ammal owns 60 percent stake. The remaining stakes were shared equally by Karunanidhi’s daughter (by another wife) Kanimozhi and channel CEO Sharad Kumar.

The Rs 200 crore received by Kalaignar TV is alleged to be a bribe from Dynamix Realty through Kusegaon Fruits and Vegetables Pvt Ltd and Cineyug Films Pvt Ltd, connected to Shahid Usman Balwa of Swan Telecom.

Former telecom minister A Raja is also an accused in the case.

Though Karunanidhi’s wife holds more than a majority stake in Kalaignar TV, the CBI has not termed her as an accused as she was just fulfilling a legal responsibility after delegating day-to-day operations to CEO Kumar.

(Source: IANS )

Regulation on clinical trials

SC seeks firm set-up to regulate new drugs’ clinical trials

The Supreme Court Friday asked the central government to discuss with states all facets of a legal framework to regulate and monitor clinical trials of new drugs by foreign firms across India.

A bench of Justice R.M.Lodha and Justice Madan B. Lokur also asked petitioner Swasthya Adhikar Manch, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), NGOs and other organisations to submit their suggestions for strengthening the legal regime to regulate clinical trials so as to minimise the harm to the patients upon whom the new drugs were being tested.

The court asked the union health secretary to call a meeting of the chief secretaries/health secretaries of the states and union territories and report to it on the outcome as it directed the next hearing Sep 24.

The court’s order came on a public interest litigation by Swasthya Adhikar Manch of Indore and others who sought a halt to “unethical” clinical trials by multinational drug companies of their new products in India and treating of Indian patients as guinea pigs.

Complimenting the NGO and others for focusing on the issue, Justice Lodha said: “Your efforts have brought some changes. They (government) have become conscious of difficulties or the problems people are facing.”

Noting that the central govenment has taken some measures to strengthen the mechanism to regulate the clinical trials, the court said: “What we are interested in is that what has happened in the past should not get repeated. Arrest the recurrence of death and side effects because of clinical trials.”

The court’s observation came after Additional Solicitor General Siddartha Luthra told the court that the government was bringing amendments to the law that will put in place a stringent regulatory mechanism and provide for punitive punishment for those violating it.

He told the court that amendments would be effected in the monsoon session of parliament.

Making clear that it was up to the government to take the call to put in place a strong legal regime to regulate the clinical trials, the court said that alternatively it will have to step in.

In the course of the hearing, the court asked Luthra why can’t there be a committee to oversee the clinical trials.

“Why don’t you consider constitution of an oversight committee to oversee all such clinical trials?” it asked.

“Technology must grow”, Justice Lodha said, adding that “regulation has to be in such a way that no harm is caused (to the patients tht was begin tested upon) or it is minimized”.

The court’s observation came in response to Luthra’s submission that the available medicines had to develop to treat new strains of diseases. He said that people suffering from ailments defying treatments volunteer to be tested on new medicines.

Senior counsel Colin Gonsalves, appearing for one of the petitioners, said the statutory provision for regulating clinical trials was good but was not being enforced.

On the other hand, senior counsel Sanjay Parikh told the court that there was nothing new in the government response and it was same as it had given to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health.

“New chemical entities that have not been tested should not be allowed to be tested in India as they were resulting in deaths,” Parikh said, alleging that in fact it were the drug companies that were authoring reports on their drugs on which the drug controller was putting his signatures.

(Source: IANS)

An interesting Land-grabbing case 

A lady who was in need of loan for her son's business had approached a person who promised her to obtain a bank loan.  As the process was getting delayed, he has introduced her to a Bank Manager who has given her Rs. 50,000/- loan after taking her land documents (the land was situated near chennai sub-urban area and was having a value of Rs. 1,50,000/- during that period).  When she tried to obtain the documents from the lender after a year.  He simply told her that the land has been sold as she has not paid interest and principal in time.  When she approached me, I asked her as to whether she has signed any document and/or visited Registrar office.  She said that she has signed some loan documents and not visited any registrar office to execute any deed.  I asked her to lodge a criminal complaint against the lender and his accomplice.  Unfortunately, there was no land-grabbing cell operating at that time in Tamil Nadu Police Department.  As usual, they asked her to go to Civil Court and obtain remedy.   Meanwhile, I had a thought that there must be some document registered which is why the lender is so adamant.  When checked through the Registrar office concerned, no encumbrance (that time General Power of Attorney Document was not reflected in Encumbrance Certificate, hence, that needed to be checked personally).  To be on a safer side, the lady's self-acquired plot of land was settled to her younger son by way of a Settlement Deed. After registration of settlement deed, obtained an Encumbrance Certificate to verify the registration. In the EC, there was a Sale entry (luckily the Sale Deed was registered a day after our Settlement Deed).  A copy of the Sale Deed was obtained and it was seen from the document that the lady has appointed the lender as her Power Agent and by virtue of that document he has sold the land.  As I had some sort of premonition or something learned through practice, I have drafted the Settlement Deed in Tamil in which a sentence was included ''The land being settled herein is not encumbered in any manner and I have not executed any General Power of Attorney Deed and if there is any such GPA it will not have effect after this Settlement Deed, etc..''.  After learning that the land was sold illegally by the lender, a Legal Notice was issued to him and the buyer, which did not invoke any response (other than that the Buyer of the land  threatened my clients and me when his negotiation to buy us failed), hence, a Private Complaint was lodged at Magistrate Court to direct the police to investigate the case and register complaint. During the admission stage, the Magistrate asked as to how the ''Prohibition of charging exorbitant interest Act'' (in Tamil ''கந்து வட்டி தடுப்பு சட்டம்'', which was enacted during that time by Tamil Nadu Govt after the suicidal death of one famous film producer) will be applicable in this case. As the act defined the ''exorbitant interest'' as the one in which the lender charges his borrower any money or material (in Tamil ''பணமாகவோ அல்லது பொருளாகவோ''), my submission was admitted and the police were directed accordingly.  (Even my colleagues were having negative thoughts that the case will not stand!).  When the Buyer learned this, he paid my clients a reasonable amount which was reached after several negotiation meetings!  Thereafter, the case was withdrawn and also the Settlement Deed cancelled.  This case ran for about 2 1/2 years and I have endured several threatening as well as resisted several offers of money (At one time, the accused were even offering 1/2 of what they were asked to pay the legitimate owners!).   

Looking back, feeling satisfied that if you are right, everything will be right! Listening to inner-voice helps, always!

A point of mention that the TN Govt has initiated several steps to safeguard the interest of the innocents.  (i)  There is a separate cell operating at TN Police department to handle land-grabbing cases, (ii)  General Power of Attorney document registration is to be made at the concerned registrar office where the property is located, (iii)  GPA entry endorsement is reflected in Encumbrance Certificate, which will alert the buyers regarding the existence of such document, (iv)  Registration fee for GPA (for appointing an Agent who is not a family member) enhanced to Rs. 10,000/-. 

Stay for hearing BCCI matter by CIC

CIC adjourns BCCI hearing

The Central Information Commission today adjourned a crucial hearing on declaring the Indian cricket board as public authority under RTI Act after the sports body produced a stay from the Madras High Court.

The Commission had constituted a Full Bench to hear the matter and issued notice to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and all its member units to bring along with them details of land, buildings, stadiums allotted by state government among others.

The Board was also asked to produce Income Tax exemptions received by it.

The hearing was scheduled to start today at 4 PM but BCCI produced the stay granted by Madras High Court after which the transparency panel decided to adjourn the matter till stay is vacated or an appropriate order is received from higher bench of the High Court or Supreme Court.

“Matter of bringing BCCI under purview of RTI Act is of utmost national importance when BCCI conducts cricket matches with teams controlled by it named as ‘Indian team’ getting all types of recognition and facilities from Union and state governments,” RTI applicant Madhu Agrawal had pleaded before the Commission.

(Source: IANS)