NEW DELHI 20 October 2024 SUNDAY `12 PAGES 24  facebook/TheMorningStandard  X.com/TheMornStandard The Sound of Music https://epaper.morningstandard.in PLUS: 12 PAGES Rock n Roller: An Epic Retold MAGAZINE To Herb or Not to Herb is the Question Adding 1 The Centre considers teeth framing a punitive to law to deal with law hoax bomb callers so as to act as a deterrent Matters of Red and White in Britain 2 Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) suggests five-year imprisonment for the culprits 3 Home ministry consults the law and civil aviation ministries to suitably amend the Aircraft Act Exclusive Voices Pushpesh Pant Ravi Shankar Devdutt Pattanaik Sheila Kumar Lost Lustre of a Once Shining Land The Constant That is Conflict Neha Sinha Prabhu Chawla Shankkar Aiyar Anuradha Goyal Swami Sukhabodhananda speaks ‘It Was All Very Instinctive at My End ’ Heaven and Hell are Within You Witness in Maoist case trial examined at his residence T o b y A n t o n y @ Kochi Bomb threats to 30 more flights, regulator shifted DGCA appointed coal secy in fresh shuffle Y e s h i S e li a n d S HE K H A R S I N G H @ New Delhi Guv is bound by cabinet decision on early release of prisoners: HC R S I V A K U M A R @ Chennai Holding that the governor is bound to act as per the recommendations of the state cabinet under Article 161 of the Constitution in the case of premature release of prisoners, the Madras High Court has disapproved Governor R N Ravi’s decision to reject the advice of the government to release a life convict. The governor had rejected the premature release of the prisoner, who has been lodged in jail for more than 20 years. “The power of an appropriate government to issue general or special orders allowing remissions is traceable under Section 432 CrPC and the policies in question are statutory in nature. In the context of the above policy (on premature release), the power under Article 161 can be exercised by the state government, and not by the governor on his own. The advice of the appropriate government binds the Head of the State,” said a division bench of Justices S M Subramaniam and V Sivagnanam in a recent order. The bench elaborated that the law laid down by a catena of judgments of high court is well settled that the advice of the state cabinet is binding on the governor in the exercise of his power under Article 161. The order was passed on a petition filed by Veera Bharathi, a life convict, seeking premature release. He was sentenced to death, along with two others, in 1999 by a court in Virudhnagar district, for rape and murder. The sentence was commuted to life by the HC in 2000. Amid waves after waves of hoax bomb threats shaking up the aviation industry, the government on Saturday shifted the regulator out of the civil aviation ministry . Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) Vikram Dev Dutt was appointed coal secretary as part of a top-level bureaucratic reshuffle. A joint secretary level official is likely to take his place at the earliest, according to sources. The transfers happened on a day when fresh bomb threats forced over 30 flights, including those on international routes, to make emergency landings. The affected carriers included Air India, Vistara, IndiGo, SpiceJet, Alliance Air, and Akasa Air. “The Internet Protocol (IP) addresses from the threats today and the ones earlier this week have been traced to London, Germany Canada and the , US. However, it is possible the Virtual Private Networks (VPN) were used by some to hide their real locations,’’ a source said. In less than a week, hoax bomb threats have impacted close to 70 flights. On Saturday , officials from the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) had a meeting with the CEOs of different airline operators in the civil aviation ministry . They were briefed about the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for tackling threats, which cause fear and inconvenience to passengers and losses for the airlines. The DGCA and the BCAS are expected to issue fresh guidelines to manage the situation. Sources said a note was found in the rest room of one of the airlines warning of a bomb in a flight. However, all the threats were fake. Sources said IndiGo, Akasa, Vistara, Air India, SpiceJet and Alliance Air received five threats each. The civil aviation ministry is reviewing regulations to introduce harsher penalties. The authorities are contemplating a five-year jail term and placing offenders on a no-fly list. At present, hoax bomb threats are dealt with under existing criminal laws. The government is exploring legal options to introduce a deterrent. P7 Key NIA witness Under CrPC 284, trial witnesses are usually taken to a magistrate court near their residence where they are examined. It’s uncommon to see a trial being conducted at the residence of the witness. In a rare occurrence, a witness in the Pantheerankavu Maoist case trial was examined by court at his home in Kannur. Govindan, 85, the 56th witness, was questioned on October 10. Govindan, a key witness of the National Investigation Agency, had conveyed his inability to travel to Kochi for the trial due to age-related ailments. Consequently senior public prosecutor Arjun Ambala, patta requested the NIA court to invoke a provision under Section 284 of CrPC to examine the witness outside court. The court consented and appointed a commission under a judicial first class magistrate in Kannur to examine Govindan as a witness at his residence. “As part of the examination, the prosecution team, including NIA officers, staff of the NIA court, defence counsels and two prime accused, Alan Suhaib and Thwaha Fazal, who are on bail, reached the residence of Govindan. Moreover, arrangement was made for co-accused Melethil Usman and Vijith Vijayan, who are currently in jail, to attend the proceeding by videoconference,” a defence lawyer said. The key NIA witness was slated to testify that first accused Alan knew Usman and Vijith. The NIA said as an LLB student, Alan rented Govindan’s home, and that Usman and Vijith visited him there. J&K statehood step closer with L-G nod PAVING the way for the restoration of statehood for Jammu & Kashmir, the Union territory’s Lieutenant Gover nor Manoj Sinha has cleared the resolution passed by the Omar Abdullah-led Cabinet in this regard. “The restoration of statehood will be the beginning of a healing process, reclaiming the constitutional rights and protecting the identity of people of Jammu and Kashmir,” a statement issued on Saturday read. It noted that the J&K Cabinet has passed a resolution urging the Union government to restore the statehood. The Cabinet, which met under the chairmanship of Chief Minis- THE Group of Ministers (GoM) constituted by the GST Council to look into the demand for lower rates on health and life insurance premium recommended a complete GST waiver on health insurance premium for senior citizens. Sources said the GoM, headed by the Bihar deputy chief minister Samrat Choudhary also recommended , that no GST be levied on health insurance premium where the sum insured is up to `5 lakh. For all other health insurance The Omar Abdullah-led Cabinet’s resolution only mentions full statehood for J&K and does not talk about restoring Article 370, triggering protests from other J&K parties which accused the NC of reneging on its poll promise ter Omar Abdullah in Srinagar on Thursday, had passed a unanimous resolution for restoration of statehood in its original form. The Centre had on August 5, 2019 scrapped J&K’s special status and bifurcated the erstwhile state into two Union territories—Jammu and Kashmir (with legislature) and Ladakh Israeli Prime Minister office said that the drone targeted Benjamin Netanyahu’s private residence; Netanyahu was not home at that time | P9 ton of emotions on display India’s Sarfaraz Khan scored 150, his maiden Test ton, on Day 4 vs New Zealand in the first Test in Bengaluru on Saturday advantage nz Despite Sarfaraz’s heroics, the Kiwis still have the upper hand as they need just 107 runs on Day 5 to go 1-0 up in the series pant support Rishabh Pant also delighted the home crowd but just missed out on a hundred. Pant & Sarafaraz put on a 177-run partnership policies, the GoM has proposed 18% GST. As far as life insurance policies are concerned, most panel members favoured complete waiver of GST on term insurance premium. Term insurance policies offer a sum assured only at the death of the policyholder. These do not have any investment component attached to them. Separately, the GoM on GST rate rationalisation, too, met in Delhi on Saturday and recommended a three-slab structure instead of the existing four-tier tax structure—5%, 12%, 18%, and 28%. Sources said the slabs will be based on pricing with high-value items attracting GST at higher rates. The panel also decided to lower tax rates 28% GST for luxury watches, shoes The GoM also suggested hiking GST on shoes above `15,000 a pair and on wrist watches above `25,000 from 18% to 28%. Sources said some items currently in the 18% slab, such as hair dryers, hair curlers, and make-up preparations could be put in the 28% bracket on 20-litre packaged drinking water bottles, bicycles, and exercise notebooks to 5% from 18%. The proposals include cutting GST on bicycles costing under `10,000 to 5% from 12%. The panel has also suggested higher GST for some luxury items (see box). According to one of the members of the GoM, this would help the government mop up `22,000 crore more, thus making up for the revenue losses due to reduction in GST rates on health and life insurance premiums. The six-member GoM on rate rationalisation is also headed by the Bihar deputy CM. (without legislature). “The Cabinet has authorised the Chief Minister to take up the matter with the Prime Minister and Government of India for restoration of statehood,” an official spokesman said. He said protection of Jammu and Kashmir’s unique identity and the constitutional rights of people remains the corner- stone of the newly elected government’s policy . According to the spokesperson, the CM would be proceeding to New Delhi in the coming days to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other Union ministers in this regard. Before assuming power, Omar had suggested that the first cabinet meeting should pass a resolution on restoration of statehood and hand over the draft of the resolution to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, and other ministers. Omar’s National Conference had contested the Assembly elections on the plank of restoration of Article 370 and statehood. murder-for-hire Hezbollah drone explodes near Netanyahu’s house in Caesarea GoM moots GST relief for health insurance premium D I PA K M ON D A L @ New Delhi Resolution silent on restoration of A370 Faya z W a n i @ Srinagar vinod kumar t sarfaraz on song Brics exploring use of digital currency President Putin has said the 10-nation bloc is exploring the use of digital currencies in trade for which Russia is working with India | P9 1 dead, 4 hurt as 180 rockets fired at Israel In addition to the drone launched at Netanyahu’s private residence in the coastal town, Israel’s military said around 180 projectiles were fired in two separate barrages at northern Israel from Lebanon on Saturday. A 50-year-old man was killed after being hit by shrapnel while sitting in his car in northern Israel and four others were injured, Israel’s medical services said Vikash Yadav’s counsel claims U.S. charges bogus U J W A L J A L A L I @ New Delhi The counsel of former Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) officer Vikash Yadav on Saturday termed the charges brought against his client by the US law enforcement agencies as bogus and part of an international ploy to defame India. “He (Vikash Yadav) is being deliberately framed. It appears that all this is an international plot to defame India and the country’s top intelligence agencies,” advocate R K Handoo told this newspaper. Yadav, a former government officer, was indicted by the US authorities for his alleged role in a foiled murder-forhire plot against Khalistani separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun on US soil. In a completely unrelated case of ex- Clean tortion, Yadav was arrested by the Delhi record Police in December last year and lodged The interim bail in Tihar Jail for four months till he got order by a Delhi regular bail. The extortion-cum-kidnap- court referred to ping case was registered by the Special Yadav as “an Cell of the Delhi Police on the complaint ex-government of a businessman in Delhi’s Rohini. employee having The FIR said Yadav demanded money clean antecedents” in the name of gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, forced the victim to sign a blank cheque, took `50,000 from his cafe and deleted all CCTV recordings there. As for the US indictment, advocate Handoo denied all allegations and said that if anyone reads the charges from a proper perspective, they would understand that all of them are fallacious. “As I understand being his lawyer, Vikash is a decent, well-read, and well-cultured man. I cannot fathom that he can be involved in any such activity Handoo said. ,” Express read 1,418 Number of People killed in Lebanon since late September, according to AFP Junior docs say stir to continue till demands met West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday urged the junior doctors protesting the rape-murder of their colleague at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital to end their fast-unto-death stir. Chief Secretary Manoj Pant in the evening invited the medics for talks with Banerjee for “45 minutes” on Monday at the state secretariat, conditional upon the “withdrawal of the hunger strike. But the protesting doctors refused to end their hunger strike until all their demands were met but agreed to join the talks on Monday. | P8