Recently Delhi high court rejected the bail plea of 17 persons including former telecom minister A. Raja and Kanimozhi as they have been charged on grounds of criminal conspiracy, breach of trust, cheating and forgery. Earlier the telecom ministry issued licenses to the telecom operators on first come first serve basis instead of regular biding process.
The Supreme Court on Monday sent a notice to anti corruption crusader Anna Hazare seeking response to the public interest litigation filed by lawyer M L Sharma. The petition asked for a CBI investigation to find more on alleged misuse of funds received from the government for rural development as per the report of Justice Sawant Committee in 2005. The bench comprising Justices Aftab Alam and Ranjana P Desai had issued notices to the Centre and Maharashtra government apart from Anna Hazare. Sharma pointed out in his petition that Hind Swaraj Trust, a public trust had been floated by Anna Hazare and his associates in village Ralegan Siddhi in 1995 with a capital of just Rs 500. Even before the trust was registered the centre had contributed Rs 45 lakh towards the trust for 1994-95 followed by Rs 65.85 lakh from the state government for 1995-96. Sharma alleged that this amounted to criminal breach of trust related to public funds and fraud as it is not possible for a trust that was not even formed to spend that much amount within a short span of time. Anna Hazare had received around one crore rupees from Council for Advancement of People’s Action and Rural Technology in the name of rural help. The level of consumption of these funds received from the consolidated fund of India, could be revealed only after an investigation.
A bench comprising Justice G. S. Singhvi and Justice H. L. Dattu on Thursday,13th October faulted Govt. for the 2 G Scam. They were hearing the bail pleas of two corporate executives of Unitech Wireless Pvt. Ltd and Swan Telecom nam, Sanjay Chandra and Vinod Goenka , the accused in 2G Scam case and said that the Government could have avoided the scam if they had acted according to the letter by Prime minister dated November 2, 2007 directing the allocation to be done through auction. It is clear from the correspondence between the prime minister and the then telecoms minister Raja, that decision of the telecoms department to decline the auction mode had been informed earlier itself. It could have been possible to take a decision even after Raja had issued the Letters of Intent (LoI) on January 10 as the allocation had been completed much later. The Additional Solicitor General Raja who was opposing the bail pleas said that charges against the accused would have stayed the same even though interference would have prevented the further execution.
The Central Bureau of Investigation, as part of its investigation on the kickbacks -for-loans scam calculated around Rs.12,000 crore, registered a Preliminary Enquiry (PE) against the DB Realty on charges of availing loan without satisfying the eligibility rules. The DB Realty had supposedly availed loan of Rs. 300 crore without meeting the norms. The CBI had initiated the PE after examining the balance sheet of DB Realty that did not go with the real figures. It was found that numbers had been inflated through forged documents. During the investigation, the CBI has arrested many senior officials of public sector financial institutions and had also probed into the involvement of other benefited private companies.
Patent reform has been the topmost agenda in US Economic Reforms. The key priorities of Obama Administration, mainly stimulation of economic growth and generation of employment opportunities, recognized technological innovation as a means to reinstate economic momentum. The patent reform is considered as an essence to foster innovation, encourage competition among countries, and stimulate job growth and to guard companies from misuse and abuse of the patent system. The Smith-Leahy America Invents Act (Smith-Leahy Act/AIA), signed by President Obama on September 16, 2011 is the fulfillment of long cherished dream of American entrepreneurs. The new speedy process enables American entrepreneurs to bring their inventions to market more rapidly there by generating more job opportunities. Better assurances are offered to patent applicants and owners under this law. Additional steps were introduced by the president, to utilize the ideas from American’s universities and research labs.
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rashant Bhushan, the lawyer activist of Team Anna had been attacked on Wednesday, 12th October in his Supreme Court chamber, leaving the nation in shock. He was getting ready for a TV interview when three people dressed in lawyer’s gown barged into his chamber and assaulted him. The assaulter had entered the chamber claiming they had got prior appointment. Mr Bhushan had been immediately taken to hospital. After condemning right wing, Sri Ram Sene for the assault on him, Bhushan insisted a ban on such organizations that exercise goondaism.
California Governor Jerry Brown signed in to two important transgender rights bills on Monday making it easier for transgender folks to get court ordered gender change and birth certificates and spreading awareness about their rights.
The former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko was sentenced to seven years imprisonment by Ukrainian Court on Tuesday for abuse of office during her ruling. She was also banned from holding any government posts for three years after her imprisonment and fined with $190 million for the damages caused.