Judge’s retirement will not hamper Ayodhya verdict

Perhaps for the first time in recent history, a judgment is ready but there is no certainty that it would be pronounced before one of the judges who has prepared it, retires.

Justice Dharam Veer Sharma, one of the three judges on the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court, which heard and reserved the order in the highly controversial and sensitive six-decade-old title dispute of Babri Masjid/Ram Janmabhoomi at Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh, will be retiring on October 1. The uncertain situation has arisen as the Supreme Court, which is hearing a plea for deferment of the High Court’s judgment, has posted it for September 28, three days before Justice Sharma retires. Now, the question is what will happen to the HC judgment if the apex court continues hearing the case beyond October 1? When a counsel asked the SC bench as the matter came up before it on September 22, Justice R V Ravindran quipped: “What will happen? The case will go on”. The other judge on the bench, Justice H L Gokhale observed that “the government could take care of” the fact that the judgment might be delayed indefinitely. Speaking to Deccan Herald, former judge of the apex court Justice Rajinder Sachar said the government can appoint Justice Sharma as an “ad-hoc judge” till the judgment was pronounced. He said there was a precedent in Supreme Court itself. “However, such instances are rare”. Incidentally, there is one precedent in the high court and that happened when Justice Gokhale was CJ of Allahabad HC. In 2007, he recommended the re-appointment of Justice O P Srivastava, who retired on June 9 that year. The President then reappointed Srivastava as additional judge on September 1, 2007. The reason for re-appointing Srivastava was that he was hearing the Ayodhya title suits. He finally retired on August 31, 2008. Justice Gokhale was acting as per Article 224-A of the Constitution under which the CJ has powers to reappoint a judge. The catch here is when he is reappointed, the judge, though amongst the senior most judges, has to become junior-most judge in the HC.  Article 224-A says the CJ of a HC, with the previous consent of the President, can appoint a person who has held the office of the judge of that HC or any other HC. While his allowances are determined by the President, he can have all the jurisdiction, powers and privileges of a judge of that HC.  The other way out – which was perhaps never been experimented – is to ask the bench to deliver the judgment but not make it public and that it would be made public if and when the Supreme Court decides. Justice Sharma, had on September 21, disagreed with the majority order of the HC that rejected the plea to defer the verdict on the Ayodhya title suit cases in order to allow mediation.

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Vedanta's mining project at Niyamgiri hills illegal: Rahul

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi today termed as ''illegal'' Vedanta's bauxite mining project in Orissa's Niyamgiri hills which was denied environmental clearance by the Centre.

"What was going on there is illegal. It is not a issue of corporate versus tribals. The real issue is illegal mining. It is criminal," Gandhi said in reply to a question at a press conference here. Gandhi, while addressing a tribal rally at Lanjjigarh in the Niyamgiri hills on August 26 had said that the denial of environmental clearance to the London-listed group's bauxite mining project, was a victory for the tribals who had opposed it. He had also referred to his 2008 remark that he was their 'sipahi' in Delhi. "I have a soft corner for all Indians. But there are some Indians who do not get the same kind of benefits as others do," he said at the press conference here when asked about his views on land acquisition. Gandhi said, "We cannot allow transfer of land from poor to rich with no benefits going to the poor." He said, "You need to acquire land for development of roads and railways. It is a fact. Harayana has a new land acquisition policy which is helpful for the poor. But in UP people had to give away land for Rs 400 per decimal which is worth thousands". Rahul said, "We are working on a new land acquisition bill where people get to share the benefits." Asked about rising prices of essential commodities, he said that prices were in fact going down and inflation had decreased to 8.5 per cent. "It will be go down further. The monsoons have also been good. Things are looking up."

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Seven militants killed in encounters in J-K

Srinagar

Seven militants were killed in two separate encounters with security forces in Pulwama and Bandipora districts of Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday, a defence spokesman said.

Security forces shot dead five militants in a gunfight in the forest area of Tral in southern Pulwama district and two others in Gurez sector near the Line of Control (LoC) in Bandipora district of north Kashmir, the spokesman said. Official sources said the encounter in Tral, 35 kms from here, began this morning when security forces launched a search operation in Sajan-Dudkulan forest area following information about presence of Hizbul Mujahideen militants. They said security forces confronted the militants and asked them to surrender but the ultras started firing, triggering a gunbattle. The identity of the deceased militants could not be ascertained immediately as the operation in the area was still on when last reports came in, the sources said. In Gurez, two more militants were killed in the ongoing operation this morning, raising the number of slain ultras to 13, the defence spokesman said. The operation began on September six when the troops guarding the LoC intercepted a large group of militants attempting to sneak from across the border. While four militants were gunned down on the first day of the operation, seven more militants were eliminated two days later. Although initially army denied that it had suffered any casualty in the operation, the spokesman today admitted that two jawans laid down their lives on the first day of the gunbattle.

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