A Bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan will shortly hear a plea by Former CJ of Andhra Pradesh HC Justice V. Eshwaraiah against an order passed by HC directing for an investigation into his private telephone conversation regarding charges of misconduct against sitting SC judge.

Supreme Court Bench headed by CJI SA Bobde will shortly consider today a batch of PILs seeking removal of farmers protesting at Delhi borders against farm laws.

#FarmersProtests #SupremeCourt #FarmLaws2020

Solicitor-General Tushar Mehta submits that he has received a message from Sr. Adv. Harish Salve to be unmuted.

#FarmersProtests #SupremeCourt #FarmLaws2020

CJI: Why are you commenting on the Courtmaster ? We are asking is Mr. Salve appearing in the matter.

SG: I just received a message.

CJI: We don’t have any information of him appearing.

#FarmersProtests #SupremeCourt #FarmLaws2020

Adv. Dushyant Tiwari begins submissions: You have already passed a judgement in the Amit Sahni case (Shaheen Bagh judgement). Please look at Para 19.

#FarmersProtests #SupremeCourt #FarmLaws2020

SG once again requests the Court to unmute Salve.

Courtmaster informs CJI that no AOR has informed of Salve’s appearance.

#FarmersProtests #SupremeCourt #FarmLaws2020

#Thread on #HijabCase judgment of Karnataka HC. Relevant observations :
"The Holy Quran does not mandate wearing of #hijab or headgear for Muslim women. Whatever is stated in the above sūras, we say, is only directory , because of absence of prescription of penalty or penance.."

"...for not wearing #hijab, the linguistic structure of verses supports this view.

"This apparel at the most is a means to gain access to public places & not a religious end in itself. It was a measure of women enablement and not a figurative constraint" - Karnataka High Court

#Hijab at most a cultural practice.

"Regard being had to the kind of life conditions then obtaining in the region concerned, wearing hijab was recommended as a measure of social security for women & to facilitate their safe access to public domain"- Karnataka High Court

"At the most the practice of wearing this apparel may have something to do with culture but certainly not with religion" - Karnataka High Court in #HijabVerdict

"Thus, it can be reasonably assumed that the practice of wearing hijab had a thick nexus to the socio-cultural conditions then prevalent in the region. The veil was a safe means for the women to leave the confines of their homes" - Karnataka High Court in #HijabRow case

Kerala High Court resumes hearing of Bail Application of M Sivasankar, Former Principal Secretary of Kerala Chief Minister

Sivasankar is presently in ED's custody for alleged involvement in the Kerala Gold Smuggling case. He is also being investigated by the NIA and Customs Department.

Senior Advocate Jaideep Gupta is arguing for Sivasankar.

He denies ED's allegations that Sivasankar contacted customs officials to clear the baggage alleged to be containing smuggled gold.

Gupta claims statement made by co-accused Swapna Suresh about Sivasankar's involvement are not credible as the same were made after her arrest.

Gupta points out that the correspondence between Sivasankar and Swapna does not disclose any knowledge on the latter's part.

He also tells Court that all of Swapna's statements categorically denied his client's involvement in gold smuggling, until before her arrest.

Delhi High Court is hearing a petition by Elsevier against Sci-Hub and LibGen seeking restraining orders on publication of articles which infringe the copyright of Elsevier.

LibGen is unrepresented before the court today as well.

Sr. Adv. Amit Sibal submits that these rogue websites call themselves pirate websites who do not concern themselves with copyrights.

Sibal: I have gone through the application of Sci-Hub, and it states that they are aware of copyright laws, but find them "oppressive".

#SciHub #LibGen

Sibal: A majority of the material we produce is available on subscription basis, while some material is available publicly.

Ever heard of Gollala Mamidada village in Andhra?
Affectionately called "Konaseema Ayodhya", this town has a famous Lord Rama temple. Set in the midst of lush greenery, the towering double Gopurams are a sight for the ages.

A thread.

The delta area of the Godavari river is called the Konaseema. This island is created as the Godavari splits into its distributaries the Vruddha Godavari, Vasishta Godavari, Gautami and Nilarevu, just below the city of Rajahmundry. Gollala Mamidada is located here

Located around 45 km from Rajamundry (and 20 kms from Kakinada), this little village is famous for the Sri Kodanda Rama Swami Temple. Kodandam is the bow of Lord Rama, and he is worshipped in AP/TG mostly as Kodanda Rama.

This isnt an ancient temple like the others around here, but relatively new.
The construction started in 1889 by two local brothers Dwarampudi Subbi Reddy and Rami Reddy donated land and built a small shrine to Lord Rama. A larger temple was constructed in 1939

The most stunning feature of this temple are the towering double Gopurams. Rising vertically to the heavens, they lord over the neighbouring hinterland, and are said to be visible for over ten kilometres.

A car with a 12 month waiting period in the 80s ruled the Indian roads for over 3 decades

A thread on Ambassador cars 🧵

1/

1956, UK - Morris Motors manufactured and sold 3 variants of Morris Oxford car

It sold the rights and tooling for these cars to Hindustan Motors, a subsidiary of CK Birla group to manufacture and sell these cars in India

2/

1956 - Morris Oxford Series 1 model was branded as Hindustan 10, Series 2 as Landmaster and Series 3 model as the Ambassador

3/

Out of the 3 cars, Ambassador was the best both in terms of looks, space and ruggedness required for Indian roads. It cost around 14000 Rs in 1958 when the production started

It was positioned as the family car given the kind of space available for bigger Indian families

4/

At that time, there were not many indian automobile brands. Standard 10 and Mahindra's Jeep were the only major car brands available.

The government controlled production and was encouraging domestic production. This helped all these 3 players

5/

MUST READ TILL END:
FB POST BY MR PRABEER BASU,
IAS-1976(BIHAR)
" Received a hurtful post from an old friend and colleague. He was on my daily Broadcast list of WhatsApp. He requested that I do not send him any of my posts on 'political' issues. I gave him a long explaination
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on why I write and what I write. But he was not convinced.

Being alerted by him thus, I felt I should clarify to all who read my posts on what exactly I think and do.

The charge against me is that I wrongly support our current Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi..
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and that it establishes I am not rational and impartial anymore.
Let me try and explain.First and foremost,I do not write on 'political' issues. I write on 'national' issues. For example, I have no opinion on whether Rahul Gandhi should be President of his party or not.
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Similarly, I have no views whether BJP is a better party than Congress or vice versa.
Even after 36 years in the IAS I have no MLA, MP or anyone involved in politics whom I can classify as my friend or even acquaintance.
>5

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So, naturally I don't care which party wins or loses as long as the winning party runs an honest government doing good to my nation.
Now, why I speak in favour of Shri Modi:

1. Ever since the beginning of my service I realised that Planning Commission was not serving..

>6

#FarmReforms
#FarmBills

Who Is Protesting and Why?

Reforms have proved controversial. In Sept, BBC wondered whether they were a “death warrant” for farmers.

Some worry whether reforms might lead to the end of wholesale markets and guaranteed

Currently, the government offers a minimum support price that acts as a safety net for farmers. Even though the government has promised to retain such a price, farmers fear its withdrawal over time.

There is an added fear that big private players will offer good money to farmers in the beginning, kill off their competition and then pay little for agricultural produce.

Farmers might go from the local monopsonies of APMCs to the national oligopoly of Amazon-like behemoths.

It is important to remember that the government offers price support only for the staple crops of the Green Revolution.

Other crops do not qualify, nor do fruits and vegetables.

Unsurprisingly, the overwhelming number of protesters are farmers from India’s northwest, the region that has benefited most from the old system. In particular, they belong to Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh, the birthplace of the Green Revolution.

Most elite Indians (primarily savarna white collar urban english medium educated folks like me) land on Western shores convinced that we are just as advanced and developed as these countries as a people. It's just "corruption" in India holding us back. Then reality hits. /1

We see that the West works better on a daily level, but not because of some mythical genetic or societal immunity to this mythical "corruption" villain. Cos there is corruption in Western politics too. They seem to have institutions and systems built over ages to minimize it.

But most Indians who reach these shores are engineer/mba/doctor types. Trained in secondary vocational type disciplines. So our default approach is to find a quick engineering type solution. We have almost zero exposure to sociology, psychology, economics, anthropology, etc.

I remember being like that. Engineer-MBA who thought that because my vocabulary and exposition skills were above average and my quant skills were above average, I deserve a seat at the table on any discussion. Be it climate change, public health, efficacy of vaccines, etc.

For anything, I thought I knew the best. Why was this Obama fellow not trying my absolutely brilliant healthcare reform plan that I have posted on a blog with nice tables and graphs and references to IIT and IIM slang? Does he not know I'm from an IIM? <1% acceptance rate!