The Evening Wrap: Supreme Court gets five new judges

Five judges were appointed to the Supreme Court on February 4 with the Centre clearing the names recommended by the Collegium on December 13 last year. Law Minister Kiren Rijiju, in a tweet, announced the appointment of Justice Pankaj Mithal, Chief Justice, Rajasthan High Court; Justice Sanjay Karol, Chief Justice, Patna High Court; Justice P.V. Sanjay Kumar, Chief Justice, Manipur High Court; Justice Ahsanuddin Amanullah of Patna High Court; and Justice Manoj Misra of Allahabad High Court as Supreme Court judges. At present, the Supreme Court is functioning with 27 judges, including the Chief Justice of India. Its sanctioned strength, including the CJI, is 34. Their appointments come amidst strong observations by a Supreme Court bench questioning the delay on part of the government in appointing and transferring judges based on the recommendations of the Supreme Court Collegium. However, a senior government functionary said the five appointments have nothing to do with the bench’s observation and were made after the Centre took a considered decision. The appointments came in due course, he added. Without naming Adani Group, SEBI says measures are in place to address excess volatility Amid a raging controversy over a meltdown in Adani group stocks, regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) said it is committed to ensuring the stock market’s integrity and all necessary surveillance measures are in place to address any excessive volatility in individual shares. Without naming the Adani group specifically, the capital markets watchdog said in a statement that unusual price movement in the stocks of a business conglomerate has been observed in the past week. Officials confirmed that the statement has been issued in the wake of the Adani matter only. “As part of its mandate, SEBI seeks to maintain orderly and efficient functioning of the market and has put in place a set of well-defined, publicly available surveillance measures (including the ASM framework) to address excessive volatility in specific stocks. This mechanism gets automatically triggered under certain conditions of price volatility in any stock,” SEBI said. Stock exchanges BSE and NSE have put three Adani group companies — Adani Enterprises, Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone and Ambuja Cements — under their short-term additional surveillance measure, which basically means that intra-day trading would require a 100% upfront margin and is aimed at curbing speculation and short-selling in these stocks. SEBI further said that in all specific entity-related matters, if any information comes to its notice, then, as per extant policies, the same is examined and after due examination, appropriate action is taken. Regulators, independent of the government, will do their job: Nirmala Sitharaman on Adani Facing questions on whether the ongoing Adani Group issue could snowball into a major financial crisis and what steps the government was taking on this front, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that regulators would do their job. “You had the Reserve Bank commenting on this on Friday. Though not regulators, the banks and LIC themselves had come out to say what their level of exposure is [to the Adani Group],” she said. “So the regulators will do their job,” she said. “And the regulators are independent of the government. They are left to do what is appropriate. To keep the regulated market in prime condition, the SEBI is the authority, and it has the wherewithal to keep the markets’ prime condition intact,” she added. When asked if the withdrawal of the Follow on Public Offer by Adani Enterprises would have any impact on the economy or dent India’s image, the FM pointed to the fact that $8 billion had come into India over the last two days and said that proved the inherent strength of the economy was intact. “The macroeconomic fundamentals of our economy and image, none of it is affected. FPOs come in and FPOs get out,” she added. Police roped them as scapegoats, says court while discharging student activists in Jamia violence case “Delhi Police roped them as scapegoat”, said a Delhi court while discharging student activist Sharjeel Imam, Safoora Zargar, Asif Iqbal Tanha and eight others in a case connected to the incidents of violence at Jamia Millia Islamia University on December, 2019. The court maintained that the police was unable to apprehend “actual perpetrators” and the chargesheet filed by the police was “ill-conceived”. “Dissent is an extension of right to freedom of speech and expression, it is therefore a right which we are sworn to uphold,” it added. Additional Sessions Judge (Saket Court), Justice Arul Varma was hearing the case in which 12 persons were booked by Delhi Police under sections 143, 147, 148, 149, 186, 353, 332, 333, 308, 427, 435, 323, 341, 120B and 34 of IPC. “There were admittedly scores of protestors at the site. It cannot be gainsaid that among the multitude, some anti-social elements within the crowd created an environment of disruption and did create havoc. However, the moot question remains: whether the accused persons herein were even prima facie complicit in taking part in that mayhem? The answer is an unequivocal ‘no’,” the court said. It added that marshalling the facts as brought forth from a perusal of the chargesheet and three supplementary chargesheets, this Court arrive at the conclusion that the police were unable to apprehend the actual perpetrators behind commission of the offence, but surely managed to rope the persons herein as scapegoats. The court maintained that the prosecution has been launched in a perfunctory and cavalier fashion against the accused persons except Mohd Ilyas alias Allen. While maintaining that the dissent is nothing but an extension of the invaluable fundamental right to freedom of speech and expression contained in Article 19 of the Constitution of India, the court added that the liberty of protesting citizens should not have been lightly interfered with. The court also said that there is a need for the investigative agencies to discern the difference between dissent and insurrection. The court, thus, discharged Mohammad Qasim, Mahmood Anwar, Shahzar Raza Khan, Mohd Abuzar, Mohd Shoaib, Umair Ahmad, Bilal Nadeem, Sharjeel Imam, Asif Iqbal Tanha, Chanda Yadav and Safoora Zargar. However, it framed charges against Mohd. Ilyas as his photographs of hurling a burning tyre have been clearly shown in a newspaper. In Brief: Veteran playback singer Vani Jairam, who has sung over 10,000 songs across several Indian languages, died in Chennai on February 4. She was 77. According to Chennai police sources, Jairam was alone at her home when she passed away. Her domestic aide, Malarkodi, who came in on Saturday morning, found the house locked from the inside and there was no response when she rang the doorbell. She went to the neighbour’s house, and they, in turn, called Jairam’s sister Uma, and alerted the police. Thousand Lights Police personnel got to her house and opened the door using an extra key from Uma, who had also reached by then. Police sources added that it seemed initially that Jairam had fallen and hit her head on a table. There was a slight injury mark on her forehead. The body was sent to the Government Royapettah Hospital for a post-mortem. The police are treating this as an unnatural death, and have begun an investigation. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow. [logo] The Evening Wrap 04 FEBRUARY 2023 [The Hindu logo] Welcome to the Evening Wrap newsletter, your guide to the day’s biggest stories with concise analysis from The Hindu. [[Arrow]Open in browser]( [[Mail icon]More newsletters]( Supreme Court gets five new judges [Five judges were appointed to the Supreme Court on February 4 with the Centre clearing the names recommended by the Collegium]( on December 13 last year. Law Minister Kiren Rijiju, in a tweet, announced the appointment of Justice Pankaj Mithal, Chief Justice, Rajasthan High Court; Justice Sanjay Karol, Chief Justice, Patna High Court; Justice P.V. Sanjay Kumar, Chief Justice, Manipur High Court; Justice Ahsanuddin Amanullah of Patna High Court; and Justice Manoj Misra of Allahabad High Court as Supreme Court judges. At present, the Supreme Court is functioning with 27 judges, including the Chief Justice of India. Its sanctioned strength, including the CJI, is 34. Their appointments come amidst strong observations by a Supreme Court bench questioning the delay on part of the government in appointing and transferring judges based on the recommendations of the Supreme Court Collegium. However, a senior government functionary said the five appointments have nothing to do with the bench’s observation and were made after the Centre took a considered decision. The appointments came in due course, he added. Without naming Adani Group, SEBI says measures are in place to address excess volatility Amid a raging controversy over a meltdown in Adani group stocks, regulator [Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) said it is committed to ensuring the stock market’s integrity and all necessary surveillance measures are in place to address any excessive volatility in individual shares](. Without naming the Adani group specifically, the capital markets watchdog said in a statement that unusual price movement in the stocks of a business conglomerate has been observed in the past week. Officials confirmed that the statement has been issued in the wake of the Adani matter only. “As part of its mandate, SEBI seeks to maintain orderly and efficient functioning of the market and has put in place a set of well-defined, publicly available surveillance measures (including the ASM framework) to address excessive volatility in specific stocks. This mechanism gets automatically triggered under certain conditions of price volatility in any stock,” SEBI said. Stock exchanges BSE and NSE have put three Adani group companies — Adani Enterprises, Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone and Ambuja Cements — under their short-term additional surveillance measure, which basically means that intra-day trading would require a 100% upfront margin and is aimed at curbing speculation and short-selling in these stocks. SEBI further said that in all specific entity-related matters, if any information comes to its notice, then, as per extant policies, the same is examined and after due examination, appropriate action is taken. Regulators, independent of the government, will do their job: Nirmala Sitharaman on Adani Facing questions on whether the ongoing Adani Group issue could snowball into a major financial crisis and what steps the government was taking on this front, [Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that regulators would do their job](. “You had the Reserve Bank commenting on this on Friday. Though not regulators, the banks and LIC themselves had come out to say what their level of exposure is [to the Adani Group],” she said. “So the regulators will do their job,” she said. “And the regulators are independent of the government. They are left to do what is appropriate. To keep the regulated market in prime condition, the SEBI is the authority, and it has the wherewithal to keep the markets’ prime condition intact,” she added. When asked if the withdrawal of the Follow on Public Offer by Adani Enterprises would have any impact on the economy or dent India’s image, the FM pointed to the fact that $8 billion had come into India over the last two days and said that proved the inherent strength of the economy was intact. “The macroeconomic fundamentals of our economy and image, none of it is affected. FPOs come in and FPOs get out,” she added. Police roped them as scapegoats, says court while discharging student activists in Jamia violence case [“Delhi Police roped them as scapegoat”, said a Delhi court while discharging student activist Sharjeel Imam, Safoora Zargar, Asif Iqbal Tanha and eight others in a case connected to the incidents of violence at Jamia Millia Islamia University]( on December, 2019. The court maintained that the police was unable to apprehend “actual perpetrators” and the chargesheet filed by the police was “ill-conceived”. “Dissent is an extension of right to freedom of speech and expression, it is therefore a right which we are sworn to uphold,” it added. Additional Sessions Judge (Saket Court), Justice Arul Varma was hearing the case in which 12 persons were booked by Delhi Police under sections 143, 147, 148, 149, 186, 353, 332, 333, 308, 427, 435, 323, 341, 120B and 34 of IPC. “There were admittedly scores of protestors at the site. It cannot be gainsaid that among the multitude, some anti-social elements within the crowd created an environment of disruption and did create havoc. However, the moot question remains: whether the accused persons herein were even prima facie complicit in taking part in that mayhem? The answer is an unequivocal ‘no’,” the court said. It added that marshalling the facts as brought forth from a perusal of the chargesheet and three supplementary chargesheets, this Court arrive at the conclusion that the police were unable to apprehend the actual perpetrators behind commission of the offence, but surely managed to rope the persons herein as scapegoats. The court maintained that the prosecution has been launched in a perfunctory and cavalier fashion against the accused persons except Mohd Ilyas alias Allen. While maintaining that the dissent is nothing but an extension of the invaluable fundamental right to freedom of speech and expression contained in Article 19 of the Constitution of India, the court added that the liberty of protesting citizens should not have been lightly interfered with. The court also said that there is a need for the investigative agencies to discern the difference between dissent and insurrection. The court, thus, discharged Mohammad Qasim, Mahmood Anwar, Shahzar Raza Khan, Mohd Abuzar, Mohd Shoaib, Umair Ahmad, Bilal Nadeem, Sharjeel Imam, Asif Iqbal Tanha, Chanda Yadav and Safoora Zargar. However, it framed charges against Mohd. Ilyas as his photographs of hurling a burning tyre have been clearly shown in a newspaper. In Brief: [Veteran playback singer Vani Jairam, who has sung over 10,000 songs across several Indian languages, died in Chennai on February 4](. She was 77. According to Chennai police sources, Jairam was alone at her home when she passed away. Her domestic aide, Malarkodi, who came in on Saturday morning, found the house locked from the inside and there was no response when she rang the doorbell. She went to the neighbour’s house, and they, in turn, called Jairam’s sister Uma, and alerted the police. Thousand Lights Police personnel got to her house and opened the door using an extra key from Uma, who had also reached by then. Police sources added that it seemed initially that Jairam had fallen and hit her head on a table. There was a slight injury mark on her forehead. The body was sent to the Government Royapettah Hospital for a post-mortem. The police are treating this as an unnatural death, and have begun an investigation. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow. First Day First Show Stay up-to-date on all things cinema with the "First Day First Show" cinema & entertainment newsletter. Every week, we bring you movie reviews, news from regional cinema, Bollywood, Hollywood, and beyond, as well as updates from the streaming platforms. Whether you're a cinephile or just looking for your next great binge-watch, we've got you covered. 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