kozhikode l tuesday l july 30, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l city EDITION S.C. refuses stay on Patna hc order nixing hike in caste-based quota The D Y Chandrachud-led bench, however, agreed to hear 10 petitions of the Bihar govt against the Patna High Court’s adverse verdict No interim relief, final hearing in Sept The SC said it will list the petitions for final hearing in September. “We will list in September. No interim relief [at this stage],” CJI Chandrachud said. The HC had on June 20 set aside Bihar’s amended reservation laws that raised the quotas for Dalits, tribals, and backward classes from 50% to 65% in public employment and educational institutions, saying it violated the Consitituion 50% HC ORDER erroneous, CLAIMS BIHAR GOVT ■ In its plea before the SC, the Bihar government termed the HC order erroneous, claiming it transcended beyond the legitimate scope of judicial review by substituting ‘opinion of State’ with its own opinion ■ The Nitish Kumar-led government’s amendments followed a caste survey, which put OBCs and EBCs at 63% and SC/STs at 21% of Bihar’s population Cap on reservations laid down by THE top COURT in the Indra Sawhney case CHENNAI ■ MADURAI ■ VIJAYAWADA ■ BENGALURU ■ KOCHI ■ HYDERABAD ■ VISAKHAPATNAM ■ COIMBATORE ■ KOZHIKODE ■ THIRUVANANTHAPURAM ■ BELAGAVI ■ BHUBANESWAR ■ SHIVAMOgGA ■ MANGALURU ■ TIRUPATI ■ TIRUCHY ■ TIRUNELVELI ■ SAMBALPUR ■ HUBBALLI ■ DHARMAPURI ■ KOTTAYAM ■ KANNUR ■ VILLUPURAM ■ KOLLAM ■ TADEPALLIGUDEM ■ NAGAPATTINAM ■ THRISSUR ■ KALABURAGI Chakravyuh rap by Rahul to put the Centre on the mat Uses Mahabharat metaphor to pin down govt, says Budget hasn’t addressed people’s concerns P r ee t h a N a i r @ New Delhi shooting for the stars Sarabjot Singh and Manu Bhaker advanced to the bronze-medal playoff in the mixed 10m air pistol event on Monday. If the duo finishes third, Bhaker will become the first Indian to win two medals at a single Olympic Games | Ap | P11 No third-party mediation in China border dispute: EAM Y E SHI S E LI @ New Delhi INDIA-China relations are not great at the moment and there are ongoing border disputes. However, that doesn’t mean New Delhi is looking for thirdparty mediation, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said in Tokyo on Monday . “We have a problem, (but) it is for the two of us to talk it over and to find a way,” Jaishankar said while talking to reporters at a press conference in Tokyo on the sidelines of the Quad foreign ministers’ meet. Recalling his meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi twice this month, Jaishankar said: “Obviously other , countries in the world would have an interest in the matter, because we are two big countries and the state of our rela- Foreign minister S Jaishankar at a press conference in Tokyo on Monday | PTI oN Ukraine & Russia The external affairs minister said India will be in constant touch with both Ukraine and Russia. Engagements by countries talking to both sides are important to resolve the conflict, he added tionship has an impact on the rest of the world. But we are not looking to other countries to sort out what is really an is- SC nixes ED plea, says order on Soren bail well reasoned SUCHITRA KALYAN M OHANTY @ New Delhi THE Supreme Court on Monday refused to interfere with a Jharkhand High Court order granting the state’s Chief Minister Hemant Soren bail in a money laundering case linked to an alleged land scam. While dismissing the Enforcement Directorate’s plea challenging the HC’s June 28 order, a bench of justices B R Gavai and K V Viswanathan termed HC’s order ‘very well reasoned’, adding: “We don’t want to observe anything more... if we observe, you (ED) might be in difficulty .” The SC, however, added that the observations made by the HC while granting bail to Soren should not influence the trial court in the case. During the hearing in the SC, Additional Solicitor General S V Raju, appearing for the ED, claimed the probe agency has evidence to show the CM’s office was directly dealing with the issue concerning the land in question. The bench observed that the HC considered these aspects before granting bail. In Ranchi, Soren welcomed the SC order. He claimed his imprisonment was orchestrated. He lamented the wasted time during his five-month incarceration, stressing that many important issues could have been addressed. sue between us.” Last week, Jaishankar and Wang met in Laotian capital Vientiane, where they took part in the meetings of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). During their meeting, both sides agreed on the need to give strong guidance to complete the disengagement process following the military standoff in eastern Ladakh in May 2020. Earlier this month, on July 4, the two foreign ministers met in the Kazakh capital city of Astana on the sidelines of the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO). Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, or Quad, is an informal strategic forum comprising four nations — India, the US, Japan and Australia — to ensure security in Indo-Pacific. Making a strong pitch for caste census and legalised minimum support price (MSP) for crops, Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi in his fierce speech in the Lok Sabha on Monday argued that the Union Budget had failed to address the needs of poor and the marginalised communities. In an hour-long speech during the discussion on the Union Budget, the Congress leader invoked the Mahabharat to allege that the chakravyuh of six persons had trapped the country, which led to an uproar. “In the 21st century, there is a new chakravyuh and that symbol is worn by the prime minister on his chest. What was done with Abhimanyu is being done with youth, women, farmers and the MSMEs. “This chakravyuh attacked and destroyed small and medium businesses. This was done through demonetisation and tax terrorism. The Budget did nothing to end this tax terrorism,” Rahul said. In his all out attack, Rahul said by removing indexation, the BJP stabbed the middle class in the back and by enhancing long-term capital gains tax, it stabbed the middle class in the front. He claimed the INDIA bloc would pass bills on caste census and legal guarantee for MSP if it captures power. The House witnessed uproar after Rahul displayed a picture of the ‘halwa ceremony’ held ahead of the Budget. “I wanted the budget to take up the caste census. Though the Budget was prepared by a 20-member committee, no Dalits, OBCs or Adivasis were in the pic- Pocso-related allegations Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi speaks in the Lok Sabha, in New Delhi on Monday | PTI In the 21st century, another chakravyuh has been prepared... What was done with Abhimanyu is being done with India, with its youth, women, farmers Rahul Gandhi Heated exchanges There were heated exchanges between Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Rahul over the latter’s remarks that youth have been trapped in the Agniveer chakravyuh and that there are no provisions in Budget for pensions for Agniveers ture,” he said, prompting intervention from Speaker Om Birla, who asked him to read the rules of the House, Parliamentary Affairs minister Kiren Rijiju echoed Birla. “Chakravyuh has three forces. First is the idea of monopoly that , two people should be allowed to own everything in India. One element is financial power. Second is the institutions, agencies (CBI, ED, I-T) and the third element is political executive,” Rahul added. Cyber fraudsters on prowl with fake banking apps T o b y A n t o n y @ Kochi Beware! Cyber fraudsters are devising innovative methods to deceive gullible people. Their latest tactic: Crafting fake banking apps that eerily resemble genuine ones. Recently , a woman from Kalamassery fell prey to this ruse and lost `9.3 lakh due to unauthorised transactions on her debit and credit cards after installing a fake banking app. According to the police, the victim had been an ICICI Bank account holder for several years. This month, she received a call from someone claiming to be a bank official. The caller informed her about a new banking app and its benefits. “Subsequently the victim received , an SMS containing a link to an app named ICICIbank.apk. Trusting its legitimacy, she installed the app by clicking on the link. The installed app appeared to have all her online banking account features,” explained a police officer. It wasn’t until a week later that the woman realised she had been deceived. She began receiving notifications of unauthorised transactions made through her debit and credit cards. Nearly `5 lakh had been deducted from her debit card, and five transactions totalling `4.3 lakh were made from her credit card. “The app the victim installed was fake; it was a remote screen-sharing app. Using this app, the perpetrators accessed her debit and credit card details, including PINs and OTPs,” ● More on P4 said the officer.  Housing scheme Muslims biggest beneficiaries among minorities houses sanctioned to the minorities under the PMAY-U SCHEME Zoroastrianism 1,127 Jainism 10,457 Buddhism 19,707 Sikh 49,670 1,73,350 Christian Muslims 13,45,820 16,00,131 Total houses sanctioned Pa r v e z S u lta n @ New Delhi A Rajya Sabha question seeking to quantify the beneficiaries among the minorities under the Pradhan Mantri Awas YojanaUrban (PMAY-U) threw up an interesting bunch of data. The government’s written response to the unstarred question last week said Muslims constitute 12.74% of the total pucca houses sanctioned for the minorities under the scheme launched in 2015 across the country. The overall figure for minorities under the scheme stood at 15.15%. In all, 1.18 crore houses were approved by the government, of which 1.14 crore units have already been grounded for construction. And 85.04 lakh units have already been completed or delivered. Of the 16 lakh houses sanctioned for the minorities, the share of Muslims is 13.45 lakh. Christians came a distant second with 1.73 lakh houses (1.64%). Sikhs have been sanctioned 49,670 houses (0.47%) and Buddhists 19,707 (0.19). Jains and Zoroastrians were at the bottom of the list with 10,457 dwelling units (0.10%) and 1,127 (0.01%), respectively . The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs released the data on July 22 in response to a question by Satnam Singh Sandhu, Chancellor of Chandigarh University and nominated member of the Rajya Sabha. The Centre is set to launch PMAY-U 2.0 to address the housing needs of 1 crore urban poor and middle class families with an investment of `10 lakh crore. “This will include a Central assistance of `2.2 lakh crore in the next five years,” finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced in her Budget speech. Heavy rain forecast in state Yellow alert issued for Malappuram, Kozhikode, Wayanad, Kannur, Kasaragod, Ernakulam, Idukki and Thrissur on Tuesday HC: Book complainants making false charges in matrimonial disputes E x p r e s s n e w s s e r v i c e @Kochi The Kerala High Court has condemned the practice of women filing frivolous complaints against husbands, specifically in cases where allegations of sexual harassment of minor daughters are made as a result of matrimonial disputes. The court emphasised that all Pocso Special Courts should take appropriate action if they find that a complaint or information provided by the complainant is false. Following a trial, if it is found that there is no substance, the Pocso court should direct the police to register a case against the complainants. Justice P V Kunhikrishnan issued the order on the petition filed by a man seeking to quash the Pocso case registered against him on his wife’s complaint under the provisions of the Pocso Act and the Juvenile Justice Act. The court expressed concern, stating that in this particular case, a minor girl Court aged three years was being used by her observation mother as a weapon to fight against her The High Court stated that false husband. The court also observed that there is allegations can an increasing trend of parties in marital lead to family relationships engaging in indefinite breakdown, custody battles fights due to misunderstandings. If there is no chance for a reunion, a and long-term cordial separation is preferable. But it psychological effects on the child seldom happens, said the court. Furthermore, the court observed that false allegations of sexual exploitation of child by a father due to matrimonial disputes can have severe and farreaching consequences for all parties involved. Such actions can cause emotional distress for the accused, child, and other family members. The accused may have to face the trauma of criminal charges, even if the allegations are later proven false. It may lead to social ostracisation and damaged reputation, the court stated.