Justice Financial News

D Y Chandrachud on Sunday said the fact that only 6.7 per cent court infrastructure at the district level is female-friendly needs to be changed. Speaking at the 'National Conference of the District Judiciary', Chandrachud said it should be ensured that courts provide safe and accommodating environment for all members of the society. «We must without any question, change the fact that only 6.7 per cent of our court infrastructure at the district level is female-friendly. Is this acceptable today in a nation where at the basic level of recruitment in some states over 60 or 70 per cent of the recruits are women? Our focus areas are on increasing accessibility measures which can be understood by carrying out infrastructural audits. »Opening in-court medical facilities, creches and technological projects like e-seva Kendras and video conferencing devices. These endeavours aim to increase access to justice.

Mammootty on Sunday denied the presence of any 'power group' in the film industry and called upon everyone working in the field to be vigilant so that nothing untoward happens there. The veteran actor, in a Facebook post, praised the state government's initiative to constitute the Justice Hema Committee and requested it to implement the recommendations of the panel by enacting necessary legislation if there were any legal hurdles. Breaking his silence on the report and the subsequent allegations that rocked the cinema world, Mammootty said that he wholeheartedly welcomes and supports the recommendations and solutions in the committee's report and urged all associations in the film industry to join hands in implementing them. He said that the police was vigorously investigating the complaints of sexual harassment and abuse raised by several women, so let the agency carry on with its probe honestly.

Film Employees Federation of Kerala on Saturday said it won't protect members who were found to be facing allegations with regard to the Justice Hema Committee report and they would be suspended from it if arrested. Film Employees Federation of Kerala (FEFKA) itself would provide relevant information to police in this connection if it comes to know about any such complaints, it's general secretary B Unnikrishnan said here. FEFKA is the apex body of 21 trade unions working at various levels of the Malayalam film industry. Unnikrishnan admitted that some of the Association members were also facing allegations.

Mamata Banerjee's leter on August 29 is factually incorrect and is a step to cover up delays in setting up fast track special courts for rape cases. In a letter dated August 30, Union Minister for Women and Child Development, Annapurna Devi, said that West Bengal has established 88 Fast Track Courts (FTCs), which are not the same as the Fast Track Special Courts (FTSCs) covered under the Central Government Scheme. «The FTCs are set up and funded by the State Governments in consultation with the concerned High Courts to handle a broad spectrum of cases such as civil cases involving senior citizens, women, children, disabled persons, litigants affected by HIV-AIDS and other terminal illnesses; and civil disputes related to land acquisition and property/ rent disputes pending for over five years including cases of heinous crimes. In the FTCs in West Bengal, a total of 81,141 cases were pending as on 30.06.2024. On the other hand, Fast Track Special Courts (FTSCs) are specifically dedicated to deal with Rape and POCSO Act cases. lnspite of pendency of 48,600 rape and POCSO cases in West Bengal, the State has not operationalized additional 11 FTSCs which may be exclusive POCSO Courts or combined FTSCs dealing with both Rape and POCSO cases, as per the State's requirement,» she added.

Donald Trump has been going through some rough patches over the course of the last two weeks, as Kamala Harris, his Democrat adversary seems to be hard-charging into key swing states, including Republican stronghold areas, and garnering a lot of support, mostly among Hispanic voters, according to previous ET reports. Meanwhile, Harris' popularity ratings have also been going upwards, which is an alarm for the Trump camp.

Narendra Modi espousing a secular civil code for the nation during his Independence Day speech, vice president Jagdeep Dhankhar on Friday stressed on the need for a uniform civil code (UCC), saying it is a «constitutional ordainment» as it is mentioned in the Directive Principles. UCC will be a big contributor to the cause of gender justice, he said. «Uniform civil code is a constitutional ordainment. It is in Directive Principles (of State Policy). The Supreme Court has severely that it is being delayed but UCC, which has been on the shelf for too long, is a small measure of justice to your (women) segment… It will help in several ways but majorly it will help your gender,» Dhankhar said while addressing students of Bharati College, a women's college affiliated to the University of Delhi. Article 44 of the Constitution, under the Directive Principles of State Policy (DPSP), suggests that there should be a UCC in the country. However, provisions listed under DPSP are not binding on the government and hence not justiciable.

special session of the West Bengal assembly will be held from Monday to pass an anti-rape legislation in the wake of the rape and murder of a PG medical student in RG Kar hospital on August 9. The special session will start on Monday and the proposed bill will be tabled on Tuesday in all likelihood, sources said. Ahead of the special session, the state cabinet already passed the proposal and has set up a committee comprising state law minister Moloy Ghatak, finance minister-MoS (independent charge) Chandrima Bhattacharya, and state chief secretary, finance secretary and law secretary, sources said. The committee will frame the new legislation with emphasis on time-bound completion of trial and death penalty for the culprit.

Kolkata by the BJP West Bengal unit, its state president Sukanta Majumdar on Friday said that the law and order has completely collapsed in the state and that chief minister Mamata Banerjee must take responsibility. BJP state president said, «The situation is such that even after death, there is no relief. There is a syndicate raj prevailing in the hospitals.

Also read: Why does the accusing finger always turn towards the oppressed? In this situation of sympathy shortage, certainly a live victim (unlike the Kolkata doctor who was assaulted and murdered on 9 August) better be insane with optimism. The American writer James Baldwin once wrote that “the victim who is able to articulate the situation of the victim has ceased to be a victim: he or she has become a threat". This is what happened in February 2017 when a Malayalam movie star was assaulted by a group of men when she was travelling from Thrissur to Kochi.

₹4.26 trillion over the last two financial years and rolled out 5G networks in record speed require some return on capital. “In 21 months, 5G has been rolled out, 450,000 base stations have been set up. Telcos have spent close to ₹4.26 trillion in the last two fiscals.

Poland’s electoral authority says that the former governing nationalist conservative party violated campaign funding rules in the 2023 parliamentary vote

Caste census was the predominant issue raised by the Opposition members at the first meeting of the parliamentary panel on the welfare of OBCs, with BJP ally JDU supporting their demand to call Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) officials to gather more information on OBCs, sources said. Incidentally, Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India is the head of the census organisation, which operates under MHA — necessitating the presence of ministry officials at the meet. At the first meeting of the panel, which was reconstituted earlier this month and headed by BJP MP Ganesh Singh, DMK floor leader in the Lok Sabha, TR Baalu, raised the caste census issue. He was supported by Congress Manickam Tagore and Trinamool Congress' Kalyan Banerjee. JDU's Giridhari Yadav also supported the demand.

Prosecutors in Thailand has indicted a former national police chief in connection with an alleged cover-up of a 2012 traffic accident involving the Thai heir to the Red Bull energy drink fortune that killed a police officer

Google an illegal monopoly in a landmark ruling this month, it was not immediately clear what consequences the world's largest search engine provider would face. But one result is coming into focus: Google's antitrust defeat opened the door to more lawsuits. On Wednesday, Yelp, the popular online service that lets people find and review local businesses, sued Google in federal court in San Francisco. Yelp claims that Google used its dominance as a general, or all-purpose, search engine to gain an unfair advantage in local search services. Yelp is seeking unspecified monetary damages and an order for Google to stop its anticompetitive practices in a jury trial.

West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee's «If you burn Bengal, Assam, North-East, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, and Delhi too shall burn!» remarks, Union Minister Giriraj Singh on Thursday compared Mamata Banerjee to North Korea' Supreme Leader Kim Jong-Un and said Mamata can't tolerate her opposition similar to him. Taking the reaction further, Singh said that this can't be the language of a democratic person. On West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee's speech, Union Minister Giriraj Singh said, «This can't be the language of a democratic person, of a Chief Minister. North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un doesn't tolerate his Opposition. Similarly, Mamata Banerjee doesn't tolerate the words of her Opposition.»

Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered billionaire Elon Musk on Wednesday to name a legal representative for his messaging platform X in Brazil within 24 hours or face the site's suspension in the country, a court decision showed. Earlier this month, X announced it would close its operations and fire its staff in Brazil due to what it called «censorship orders» from Moraes, while adding the firm's service would remain available for users in Brazil. The Supreme Court posted a screenshot of Wednesday's court decision on its X account, tagging Musk's and X's Global Government Affairs accounts.

A Brazilian Supreme Court justice is threatening to shut down the local activities of X, formerly Twitter, unless its billionaire owner Elon Musk names an in-country legal representative within 24 hours

Executives with military shipbuilder Austal say settling an accounting fraud investigation is the best outcome for the company and that new financial controls have been put in place

The Supreme Court is keeping on hold the latest multibillion-dollar student debt relief plan from the Biden administration, while multiple lawsuits make their way through lower courts

Uttarakhand High Court on Wednesday granted default bail to 50 accused in a case related to the Haldwani violence in February on the ground that no charge sheet was filed even after 90 days of the incident. On February 8 this year, violence erupted in Banbhoolpura area of Haldwani after the authorities demolished encroachments including a madrasa and a place meant for offering namaz within its precincts.

Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday slammed the Uttar Pradesh government after the bodies of two teenage girls were found hanging from a tree in Fatehgarh and said even expecting justice under a BJP dispensation is a crime. The Dalit girls, aged 18 and 15, had left their homes around 10 pm on Monday to visit a nearby temple on the occasion of Janmashtami but did not return, police said. Their bodies were found hanging from a tree in a mango orchard outside a village in Fatehgarh on Tuesday, with the police launching an investigation into what it prima facie believed to be a case of double suicide.