NEW DELHI, Nov 24: A portal for filing RTI applications to help people access information about the Supreme Court was operationalised on Thursday.
At the outset of the hearing, the CJI, who was sharing the bench with Justices Hima Kohli and J B Pardiwala, said the portal will start functioning soon.
“Before we start with the mentioning (of cases), I wanted to say that the RTI portal is ready. It will start working in 15 minutes. In case, there are some problems, please bear with us. If there is some problem, get back to me…I will be more than happy to look into it,” the CJI said.
The bench headed by the CJI had been hearing a plea filed by law students Akriti Agarwal and Lakshya Purohit seeking a mechanism to file RTI applications online in the apex court.
Earlier, the CJI, while hearing the PIL on November 11, had said that the portal was “practically ready” for launch.
The online portal will streamline responses of the Supreme Court under the Right to Information Act.
Earlier, RTI applications with respect to the top court were being filed through post only. (Agencies)

The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to form a constitution bench to conduct proceedings on pleas related to polygamy and nikah-halala, practised among Muslims.

A bench headed by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud said that it will form a new bench to deal with the issues. The court direction came when advocate Ashwini Upadhyay this morning mentioned the plea seeking to ban Nikah Halala and Polygamy.
Advocate Upadhyay informed the court that two judges -Justices Indira Banerjee and Justice Hemant Gupta– have been retired and a new bench has to be formed.

The five-judge bench of justices Indira Banerjee, Hemant Gupta, Surya Kant, MM Sundresh and Sudhanshu Dhulia were hearing the matter.

The court was dealing with a petition seeking the declaration of polygamy and nikah-halala, practised among Muslims, as illegal and unconstitutional.

The practice of nikah-halala requires a divorced woman to marry someone else, consummate the marriage and then get a divorce in order to again marry her first husband under Muslim personal law.

On the other hand, polygamy is the practice of having more than one wife or husband at the same time.

ISLAMABAD,: Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday chose Lt Gen Asim Munir as the new Army chief (COAS) to replace incumbent General Qamar Javed Bajwa.
Bajwa, 61, is scheduled to retire on November 29 after a three-year extension. He had ruled out seeking another extension.
Lt Gen Sahir Shamshad Mirza had been picked as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (CJCSC). Both officers have also been promoted to four-star generals.
The CJCSC is the highest authority in the hierarchy of the armed forces but the key powers including mobilisation of troops, appointments and transfers lie with the COAS which makes the person holding the post the most powerful in the military.
Information minister Marriyum Aurangzeb tweeted the announcement on the next army chief on Thursday morning. “The summary about (appointments) has been sent to the President,” she wrote.
Defence minister Khawaja Asif told the media after the appointments that the “advice” had been forwarded to President Arif Alvi, adding that all matters had been settled according to the law and the Constitution. He hoped that the President would not make the appointments “controversial” and would endorse the advice of the premier.
New COAS (Chief of Army Staff) Lt Gen Munir is from the Frontier Force Regiment, and has led the nation’s elite spy agencies- the Inter-Services Intelligence that focuses on security and military intelligence.
He has served under Bajwa’s direct command in the often-troubled northern areas that border Afghanistan, China and India.
Imran Khan had removed Munir as ISI chief within eight months of his appointment and replaced him with an officer considered close to him.
Lt Gen Munir was due for retirement on November 27. But now with his appointment as army chief, he will serve for another three years. (Agencies)

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, whose Bharat Jodo Yatra entered Madhya Pradesh on Wednesday, will address a mega rally at Mhow in Madhya Pradesh, the birthplace of Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar on Saturday, the Constitution Day.

Priyanka Gandhi, who is in Indore, may also join the rally, ANI quoted sources. In his address, Rahul will highlight the need to “Save Constitution Save Democracy” as he launches an attack on the Modi government in the centre.

Besides Priyanka, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge will also join Rahul on Saturday. According to the report, Kharge has changed his plans to reach Mhow on Saturday though he was earlier scheduled to be in Gujarat on the day.

The new Congress president’s Gujarat schedule has been moved to Sunday and Monday, where he will oversee the last leg of the party’s campaign. He will hold a press conference on Monday.

Meanwhile, the Yatra had entered Bodarli village in Burhanpur district on Wednesday wherein a large number of Congressmen carrying the tricolour in their hands joined the foot march.

Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole handed over the tricolour to his Madhya Pradesh counterpart Kamal Nath to formally launch the 12-day-long yatra here. The Yatra will cover a distance of 380 km before entering Rajasthan.

On reaching the state, Rahul lashed out at the ruling BJP government in Madhya Pradesh, stating “all democratic routes are shut” in the state.

“What I want to say is, we started the Bharat Jodo Yatra because all democratic avenues are shut. The Lok Sabha, the electoral route, the press — everything is closed. All the institutions — the RSS/BJP have cornered them, filled them with their own men. The judiciary is under pressure. The courts are under pressure. So we thought there is only one option. Hit the road, embrace the people, listen to the farmers, listen to the labourers, the small traders, and join them,” he added.

Rahul added that the yatra was against hatred, violence and fear being spread in the country. He also targeted the central government on the issues of unemployment and inflation, Gandhi alleged, “The BJP first spreads fear in the minds of youth, farmers and labourers and when it sets in, they convert it into violence.

Former chief ministers Kamal Nath and Digvijaya Singh too have joined Rahul in the Yatra. Others include the Leader of the Opposition in the MP Assembly Govind Singh, and former union ministers Suresh Pachouri and Arun Yadav.

New Delhi, Nov 24: The Supreme Court on Thursday questioned the process adopted for appointing Arun Goel as an Election Commissioner (EC), and said his file got clearances in “haste” and with “tearing hurry”.
As the apex court observed that the file pertaining to Goel’s appointment was cleared with “lightning speed”, the Centre through Attorney General R Venkataramani asked the court to “hold its mouth” and requested it to look into the matter in its entirety.
“What kind of evaluation is this? Although, we are not questioning the merits of Arun Goel’s credentials but the process,” a five-judge Constitution bench headed by Justice K M Joseph said.
The top-most law officer told the bench, which was making a volley a comments on the issue, “Please hold your mouth for a while. I request to look into the issue in entirety”.
It perused the original file of Goel’s appointment as an EC, which was placed before the bench by the Centre in pursuance of Wednesday’s direction given by the top court.
The bench said 1985-batch IAS officer Goel got voluntary retirement from service in a single day, his file was cleared by the Law Ministry in a single day, a panel of four names were put up before the prime minister and Goel’s name got the nod from the President within 24 hours.
The bench is hearing a batch of pleas seeking a collegium-like system for the appointment of ECs and the Chief Election Commissioner. (AGENCIES)

Taking a jibe at the centre’s newly introduced Agnipath scheme once again, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Wednesday said that the one who wants to serve the country will “never want to become Agniveer”.

The SP chief, while addressing Ex-Servicemen Conference in poll-bound Mainpuri asserted that no one was given a job after the recruitment rally under the scheme in Uttar Pradesh’s Farrukhabad. The party has fielded the wife of Akhilesh Yadav, Dimple Yadav on the seat for the by-poll scheduled to be held on December 5.

“Recruitments were done in Farrukhabad, but no one got a job. The government is saying that it is saving the budget through these schemes, but when the country itself will not survive, how can the budget survive,” Akhilesh claimed.

Seeking the support of the ex-servicemen in the forces, the SP chief said that people believe them and that their support will have an impact on the people.
“I am hopeful that our party workers are working, our leaders are working hard and if you support us, there will be no worries for us. The people believe that when you say something, they trust you,” he said.

The Mainpuri seat, considered a stronghold of the Samajwadi Party, will be going to by-polls on December 5 which was mandated due to the demise of Samajwadi Party founder Mulayam Singh Yadav on October 10 this year.

The party released a list of star campaigners for the by-poll which comprised of Shivpal Yadav, Akhilesh’s uncle and Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (Lohiya) chief. The other prominent names that are part of the list are Akhilesh, Jaya Bachchan, Azam Khan and others.

The result of the by-poll will be declared on December 8.