NEW DELHI, Nov 28: The Supreme Court today sought a response from the Centre and the State Bank of India (SBI) on a plea challenging the constitutional validity of certain provisions of a law under which a bank declares an account Non Performing Assets (NPA).

A bench, headed by Justice J Chelameswar, issued notices to the Ministry of Finance and the SBI on the plea seeking quashing of some provisions of Securitization and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest (SARFAESI) Act, 2002 and guidelines issued by the Reserve Bank of India.

The plea has been filed by Jivrajbhai P Surani, Virjibhai Kukadia and Bhagwan Bhai Kukadia, the guarantors of the loan taken by the erstwhile M/s JB Diamonds Limited. JB Diamonds Limited has now gone under liquidation.

The plea claimed that between 2008 to 2009, credit facilities was granted to the firm by a consortium bank and till date, interest to the tune of nearly Rs 390.55 crore and other bank charges have been paid.

“However, despite this, the Petitioner’s account has been arbitrarily declared as NPA,” it said.

The petitioners have sought issuance of “a writ of mandamus” to quash Section 2 (1) (o) of SARFAESI Act on the ground that it is ultra vires to the Constitution.

Even NPAs can again become performing assets if the borrower makes certain payment towards the outstanding amount to the creditor banks, the plea said. (PTI)

NEW DELHI, Nov 28: A total of 99 suicide cases have been reported from the armed forces this year besides three cases of fratricide, the government said today.

The data submitted by Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar in a written reply to Lok Sabha show that Army reported the highest number suicides with 76 cases this year followed by Air Force with 23 of its personnel committing suicide.

While Army reported two cases of fratricide this year, Air Force witnessed one such incident.

The Army, which the is the largest of the three Services, has topped the list of suicide cases since 2011 though the number has come down.

While there were 105 cases of suicides recorded by Army in 2011, it came down to 95 in 2012 and 86 in 2013.

Parrikar said the reason for such incidents include “occupational hazards (long tenures of continuous deployment) family issues, domestic problems, marital discord, perceived grievances, personal issues, mental built, financial problems and inability to withstand stress.”

Giving details of the measures taken by the government to prevent such incidents, he said some of them include improvement in living and working conditions, additional family accommodation, liberalised leave policy, provision of psychological counseling and conduct of yoga and meditation as part of unit routine. (PTI)

MUMBAI, Nov 28: One of the four Kalyan youths, who was recruited by the Islamic State (ISIS) to fight for the Jihadist movement in Syria, has returned home from Iraq.   Identified as Arif Majeed, was taken into custody by the National Investigating Agency (NIA) upon his return.   The NIA will conduct inquiry about his three other friends who went with him to Iraq and want to collect other information pertaining to Indian nationals involved in ISIS.   Four youths — Fahad Sheikh, Arif Majeed, Shaheen Tanki and Aman Tandel, had left for Iraq on May 25, this year claiming they were headed for a pilgrimage.   However, the next day, Arif’s father discovered a note from his son saying he had left to join the jihadists in Iraq.

Fahad, an engineer, had actually landed a job in Bandra two days before leaving. He told his family he was going to work and never returned, his family said. (UNI)

NEW DELHI, Nov 28: The government has asked those travelling to India from Ebola-affected countries to carry a certificate stating that there is no evidence of the deadly virus in their body fluids, after a person cured of the disease was found to be carrying the virus in his semen.

In case people having been discharged after being treated for Ebola do not have the certificate from the Health Ministry of the country concerned, they have been advised not to travel to India for a period of 90 days from their discharge, Health Minister J P Nadda told Lok Sabha today.

The Ministry of External Affairs has issued the advisory to the Indian embassies in Abidjan (Ivory Coast), Dakar (Senegal), Abuja (Nigeria), Accra (Ghana) and Niamey (Niger) on November 21 after a person returning from Liberia was quarantined at the Delhi airport.

The man had contracted Ebola there and was cured of it, the ministry had then said, but his semen reported positive for the disease. Health Ministry officials had said body fluids at times carry virus post-treatment.

“All passengers travelling from Ebola-affected countries or who have undergone treatment for Ebola have to produce a certificate from the Ministry of Health of the country that there is no evidence of virus in his/her body fluids,” Nadda said, quoting the advisory.

“Passengers who do not posses the certificate are advised not to travel to India for a period of 90 days from the day he/she is discharged from the treatment facility,” the minister said. (PTI)

NEW DELHI, Nov 28: A bill which seeks to streamline labour laws by exempting large number of small establishments from furnishing returns and maintaining registers was today approved by Parliament, amid government’s assurance that interests of unorganised workers would be protected.

The Labour Laws (Exemption from Furnishing Returns and Maintaining Registers by Certain Establishments) Amendment Bill, 2011 was approved by Lok Sabha after rejection of amendments moved by Saugata Roy (TMC). The bill was earlier passed by Rajya Sabha.

TMC, Congress and CPI-M opposed the bill.

Moving the bill for consideration and passage, Minister of State for Labour and Employment Bandaru Dattatreya assured the House that the government is committed to protect the interests of unorganised workers.

He said his government would do everything to protect the rights of the workers, while pursuing reforms to create more employment opportunities.

The bill provides for changes in the original Act of 1988 to increase the number of laws under which small establishments are exempt from furnishing returns and maintaining registers from 9 to 16.

It amends the definition of ‘small’ establishments to cover units employing between 10 to 40 workers as against the limit of 19 workers at present.

The seven Acts that are added to the list include the Motor Transport Workers Act, 1961, the Payment of Bonus Act, 1965, the Inter-State Migrant Workmen (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1979, and the Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1996.

Earlier, Saugata Roy of TMC opposed the bill, terming it against the interest of workers when their rights are already not being “protected” especially in small scale industries.

He agreed with the need for making labour laws more simple and urged government to give exemption to those factories employing up to 25 persons and not 40.

Sankar Prasad Datta (CPI-M) also opposed the bill by terming as “pro-corporate”.

K Suresh (Cong) too opposed the bill, saying it was pro-business and anti-workers.

Leader of Congress in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge said inspectors were in all departments and it would be wrong to single out labour officials.

Hukum Singh (BJP) said the new law will help end the “inspector raj” which has resulted in “closure” of a large number of small scale workshops across the country.

“The government should bring more amendments to make laws more friendly for employment. We need facilitators not regulators.”

AIADMK and TRS supported the bill. (PTI)

NEW DELHI, Nov 28: A Delhi court today fixed December 15 for considering the charge sheet filed by the Enforcement Directorate against businessman Gautam Khaitan and others, including two Italian nationals, in connection with its money laundering probe in the Rs 3,600-crore VVIP chopper deal.

Special Judge V K Gupta said he needed some time to go through the entire documents filed by ED and fixed the matter for December 15.

According to ED’s prosecutor, the agency has named Khaitan, his wife Ritu, Chandigarh-based firm Aeromatrix and two Italian men, Carlo Gerosa and Guido Haschke, as accused and they have been chargesheeted for the offences under the provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

Khaitan was the first person to be arrested in September this year by ED in the chopper deal case in which CBI is also running a parallel probe.

ED had earlier alleged in the court that Khaitan was “actively involved” in the illegal transactions relating to proceeds of crime and he was one of the beneficiaries of the entire deal.

ED is probing the case in which 70 million euros (Rs 360 crore) were allegedly paid as kickbacks.

It had earlier submitted that Khaitan was on the board of Aeromatrix which was allegedly a front firm for the financial dealings.

ED had lodged a case in July this year against Khaitan, former IAF chief S P Tyagi and 19 others in the VVIP chopper deal case to probe the alleged kickbacks.

The agency had claimed that Khaitan had resigned as one of the directors in Aeromatrix after Italian Police started its probe in the chopper deal.

Khaitan was earlier questioned by CBI in this case. ED had lodged a case in this deal under PMLA, taking cognisance of a more than a year-old CBI FIR.

ED has booked Tyagi, some of his family members, European nationals Carlo Gerosa, Christian Michel and Guido Haschke, six firms — Italy-based Finmeccanica, UK-based AgustaWestland, Chandigarh-based IDS Infotech and Aeromatrix, two companies based in Mauritius and Tunisia, and unnamed persons in its criminal complaint.

The supply of 12 VVIP helicopters from AgustaWestland came under the scanner after the Italian authorities had alleged that bribes were paid by the company to clinch the deal. (PTI)

CHANDIGARH, Nov 28: A whopping Rs 26.61 crore was spent on the arrest of self-styled godman Rampal and security arrangements for producing him in court in the contempt case, the Punjab and Haryana High Court was informed today.

Under heavy security cover, the controversial godman was produced before a division bench of justices M Jeyapaul and Darshan Singh here which adjourned the contempt proceedings to December 23 when Rampal along with two other contemnors Ram Kanwar Dhaka and O P Hooda have been directed to be present before the court again.

After the high court issued directions for submitting a statement detailing the expenses incurred on making security arrangements in connection with the appearance of Rampal and his arrest, the states of Haryana and Punjab, Union Territory Chandigarh and the Centre submitted expenditure to the tune of Rs 26.61 crore with the court.

In an affidavit, Haryana DGP S N Vashisht pegged the total expenditure incurred on the Rampal’s arrest at Rs 15.43 crore.

This expenditure includes Rs 2.19 crore as damage to public property, government property, farm crop, over Rs 7 crore spent on deployment of police officials including two IGP rank officers, over 5,000 other police officials, Rs 1.69 crore spent by railway police, Rs 2.36 crore as transport expenditure and Rs 4.50 lakh expenditure on ‘food for force’ while carrying out operation to arrest Rampal from his Satlok Ashram at Barwala in Hisar.

While Punjab and Chandigarh submitted expenditure of Rs 4.34 crore and 3.29 crore respectively on the arrangements for producing Rampal in the court, the Centre said Rs 3.55 crore was spent till November 20.

Wearing a sleeveless jacket and blue shirt, an unshaved Rampal arrived in the court room around 9:30 am. He appeared to be calm and unnerved during the entire court proceedings.

63-year-old Rampal was arrested on November 19 after a two-week tense standoff between his supporters and the police after close to 15,000 of his followers were evacuated from the sprawling premises. (PTI)

MUMBAI, Nov 28: Twenty-three-year-old Arif Majeed from neighbouring Kalyan, who until now was believed to have been killed while fighting for ISIS in Syria, returned to Mumbai today and is being interrogated by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) here.

In May this year, four youths from Kalyan town — Arif Majeed, Shaheen Tanki, Fahad Shaikh and Aman Tandel — had left India to visit holy places in the Middle East, but disappeared thereafter. They were suspected to have joined the middle-east terror group Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

Arif returned this morning and is being quizzed by the NIA, a police officer said.

His family friend Iftekhar Khan told PTI, “Arif’s father Ejaz received a phone call from security agencies this morning saying his son is in Mumbai.”

Maharashtra ATS, which had earlier questioned the family members of the youths, is also in touch with the NIA over the return of Arif to Mumbai, sources said.

According to police, the four engineering students flew to Baghdad on May 23 as part of a group of 22 pilgrims to visit religious shrines in Iraq.

The next day, Arif had called his family from Baghdad and apologised for having left without informing them. Upon returning to India, other pilgrims had told the police that, Arif, Fahad, Aman and Saheen had hired a taxi to Fallujah, a city west of Baghdad which had emerged as the epicentre of Iraq’s deadly insurgency.

“On August 26, Tanki called up Arif’s family and told them that their son had become a “martyr” claiming that the latter died fighting for ISIS in Syria,” a family friend Ateek Khan had told reporters.

Accordingly the next day, Arif’s family performed ‘Janaza-e-gayabana’ (prayers for the departed soul in absence of the body) in Kalyan.

Recently, Arif’s father Ejaz Majeed had reportedly met the NIA and told them his son had fled from the IS-controlled areas to Turkey after fighting for the militant group for nearly three months and wants to return to India. (PTI)

NEW DELHI, Nov 28: Senior Congress leader Ashwani Kumar today urged the government for an early passage of the ‘Prevention of Torture Bill, 2010’, saying the provisions were approved unanimously by a Parliamentary Select Committee.

In a letter to Home Minister Rajnath Singh, he said its passage was a must for ensuring a “civilised administration” of our criminal justice system as many of our citizens are “humiliated, abused and tortured” in custody.

“It has taken us over 13 years to come up with this progressive law whereby India, which is a signatory to the ‘United Nations Convention Against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment’, will be able to ratify the convention by enacting a domestic law,” he said.

“I believe that this law deserves foremost priority in the scheme of government’s legislative business,” the Congress MP in Rajya Sabha said.

The Prevention of Torture Bill seeks to provide punishment for torture inflicted by public servants. (PTI)