Supreme Court takes up the suo moto case on 'remediation of polluted rivers'.

TATA Sons v Cyrus Mistry

Supreme Court bench led by Chief Justice of India assembles to hear the appeals filed by Tata Sons Pvt Ltd against the NCLAT direction to reinstate Cyrus Mistry as Company Chairman.

Senior Advocate Harish Salve starts submissions for Tata Sons.

@RNTata2000 @TataCompanies

Salve : This(Chairmanship) is not a post as understood in service law. In Company Law, this is designation.

#TatasCyrusMistryDispute

Salve : Tata Sons Ltd is a company of considerable vintage. It was created in 1917.

CJI : Was it a public limited company?

Salve : Never. It has always been a private company.

#TataSons
#CyrusMistry

Salve : The curious thing which has happened in the case is that there is a provision in Tata Son's Articles which restricts the transfer of shares. It also has a remarkable feature that the Board could direct a shareholder to sell shares.

#TataSons
#CyrusMistry

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.

Advocate Prashant Bhushan appears.

#SupremeCourt @pbhushan1

Sr. Adv. Kapil Sibal states that he’s appearing for the Intervenors and has nothing to say at the moment.

Bhushan narrates the events to the Bench.

#SupremeCourt @pbhushan1 @KapilSibal

Bhishan: How can a private conversation be made a subject of inquiry ? What is the crime in having a private conversation, even if it’s about the conduct of a SC judge ? Without even saying into me, the HC orders an inquiry ? How can that be done ?

#SupremeCourt @pbhushan1

Bhushan: Your Lordship will need to issue notice and stay the inquiry as the inquiry is completely out of order.

#SupremeCourt @pbhushan1 @KapilSibal

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.

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

Supreme Court considers the suo moto case "IN RE: TO ISSUE CERTAIN GUIDELINES REGARDING INADEQUACIES AND DEFICIENCIES IN CRIMINAL TRIALS".

Sr Advs Siddharth Luthra and R Basant have submitted a draft rules on criminal practice.

The draft rules on criminal practice were submitted by the amicus curiae in March

Luthra : On March 5, 2020, a report on draft criminal rules was submitted after a colloquium with High Courts.

Luthra : After the draft rules have been circulated, we have only received responses of High Courts of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Allahabad and Delhi. As many as 20 High Courts have chosen not to respond.

CJI : We are thinking we will give High Courts to appear within 2 weeks. They may give suggestions to the draft rules or may accept the rules and give a statement regarding willingness to implement the rules in HC.

Warning this thread is gonna be long!
Please bear with me.

Raison D'etre why Punjab has emerging as State driving Farmers' Agitation ...

ARHTIYAS & THE ANATOMY OF A "FARMERS PROTEST"

Contd

2
There are 36K licensed commission agents in Punjab + many more sub agents. These license agents are called Arhtiyas.

These gents earned ₹16K crore commission fee last yr as over the line income. This translates to about 4.5 lacs per agent. That's only frm wht Govt pays them.

3
They also lend money to farmers and others. Their rate, AT its lowest, is 1.5% per month (or 18% per year). Thus, most of the political money is parked with them because they get the best return on investment. This income is manifold of the official income.

Contd ...

4.
- They therefore are the new zamindars, as they have direct control over farmers and their livelihood.

- There are many farmers who are also Arhtiyas and vice versa. They are all the BIG players.

Contd ...

5.
Post demonetization Arhtiyas cycled money of pol parties by channeling cashdeposits to farmers as payment of loan & interest in books & allowed farmers to payback real loan with softer credit ovr 2 yrs. Hence he converted money made 18% + circulated principle twice in 2 yrs.

A long but must read thread. Udaybhan Rathore and myth making in Maratha history: An analysis. This is the thread on Udaybhan Rathore, who he was and how over the time period, his life was portrayed in maratha chronicles and pseudo history. (1/n)

Udaybhan rathore was the head of Bhinai thikana (84 villages) in Ajmer. He was the direct descendant of the famous Rao Chandrasen, Raja of Marwar (4th generation) who resisted Akbar all his life and never made any alliance with mughals like Maharana Pratap. (2/n)

Later in 1783, Maharaja of Jodhpur gave title of Raja to Bhinai family for their military service. Bhinai family and their direct descendant Raja Sh Mayuraj Singh still lives in Ajmer. Anyway coming to Udaybhan Rathore and story of Tanaji. (3/n)

Jai Singh's march on Shivaji and treaty of Purandar (1665) is a well known episode to repeat here. After getting the hill forts from Shivaji under the treaty, Jai Singh didn't have enough man-power to man every one of the small forts because of his next (4/n)

campaign against Bijapur. Jai Singh personally took over a couple of important forts like Kondhana (Sinhgarh), Purandar etc. Others were given to some mughals or their fortification walls destroyed. Jai Singh died in 1667 near Burhanpur while enroute to the north. (5/n)

#Thread on "Kashi (Varanasi), From Birth to Death and Death to Moksha."

Located on the left bank of the Ganga, Varanasi is one of the 7 holy cities of the Hindus. According to the Vamana Purana, two rivers named Varuna and Assi originated since the beginning of the timei

The name Varanasi originates from the two tributaries of the Ganges, the Varuna &the Assi, which flows at its northern & southern boundaries. The land lying between them was named 'Varanasi'. Its original name was derived from the word 'Kashi', 'Kaasha', which means brightness.

By the way, kashi is mentioned in many Vedic literatures. Kaushitaki Upanishad mentioned about the places like Kashyas and Videhas. Ajatashatru has been declared as the ruler of Kashi or Videha in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad. Apart from this, Kashi &Videha are also mentioned in

Shankhayan & Boudhayan Srotasutra.

It also mentions about Kashi joining the Kosala after the independent state got destroyed. It is often referred as adjectives such as 'city of temples', 'religious capital of India', 'city of Shiva', 'city of lamps', 'city of knowledge' etc.

Famous American writer Mark Twain writes: " banaras is older than history, older than tradition, older even than legend and looks twice as old as all of them put together.”

In the Middle Ages it was a part of the Kannauj kingdom and later it was ruled by Pala kings of Bengal.

Many have accused the Narendra Modi government of not doing enough to change the biased historical narratives set in motion during the 54 years of Congress rule.
The #ChauriChaura centenary celebrations is one such initiative to set right, a historical wrong.

Thread begins.

What is the Chauri Chaura incident?
On February 4, 1922 at Chauri Chaura in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, a procession was taken out in support of Gandhi's Non-Cooperation Movement.
The police, on orders from the British government, fired on the peaceful march, triggering an outrage.

First a little background to the incident and why the face-off happened with the British administered police.
The protest was called against the atrocities that was unleashed on the locals when the Non Cooperation movement started in Gorakhpur. Several leaders were arrested.

A group of 2,000 people gathered to protest as part of Gandhi's call for Non Cooperation with the British. The crowd swelled soon.
The police were ordered to fire in the air to disperse the crowd. This further agitated them.
Then the police fired at the protestors, injuring many.