Apex court pulls up Orissa on rural job scheme (Lead)

The Supreme Court Thursday asked the Orissa government why a CBI probe should not be ordered into the alleged diversion of central funds meant for rural jobs.

Even as the court issued a show cause notice to the state, Additional Solicitor General Indira Jaisingh said that New Delhi had already asked the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to look into the diversion of funds under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA).

Chief Justice S.H. Kapadia, Justice K.S. Radhakrishnan and Justice Swatanter Kumar asked the Orissa government why the implementation of the operational guidelines under NREGA should not be made mandatory.

The state was asked to be ready with the answer at the next hearing.

The directions came in the wake of Jaisingh telling the court that the central government was struggling to implement the guidelines under NREGA as there was resistance from the state governments.

Appearing for a petitioner NGO, senior counsel Prashant Bhushan told the court that the guidelines provided for various officers to deal with different aspects of NREGA, including the social audit of the rural job scheme.

The petitioner has alleged irregularities in the implementation of the rural job scheme.

Bhushan said that state governments were not enforcing these guidelines.

He also told the court that another area of problem was the processing of the applications by the new job applicants.

At this, Chief Justice Kapadia said that for now the court would only address the issue of diversion of funds.

Jaisingh told the court that there were over 115 million job card holders under the NREGA and wages of 82 percent of them were credited in banks and post offices.

She told the court that monitoring payments in post office accounts was posing problems as these were manually handled. The court was told that 11 lakh bogus job cards were cancelled in Orissa alone.

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Insensitive, callous to demolish night shelters: Apex court (Lead)

Pulling up the authorities, the Supreme Court Thursday said it was the responsibility of the central and state governments to ensure that no deaths occurred due to lack of night shelters and asked that two shelters pulled down in this biting winter be restored within three days.

The apex court bench of Justice Dalveer Bhandari and Justice Deepak Verma said it was "insensitive and callous" on the part of the authorities to demolish night shelters meant for the homeless urban poor when the severity of the winter is increasing.

The bench said this when it was told that two night shelters that were set up on land belonging to the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) were demolished during the last few days.

The court was hearing a petition by human rights organisation Peoples Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) seeking directions to the central government and states to set up adequate number of night shelters for the homeless urban poor.

It directed the DDA to restore within three days the two night shelters pulled down by it and also asked the Delhi government to ensure that all its 64 night shelters were functional and people sheltered there were given good quality blankets.

The court directed DDA to find out which officer was responsible for pulling down the two night shelters and take appropriate action against him.

The court said it was the duty of the central government and the states to ensure that no death occurred on account of lack or absence of night shelters.

"To preserve and protect the lives of the people is the basic responsibility of the welfare state," Justice Bhandari said.

The court said that it was incumbent upon the "welfare state to ensure that no one slept under the open sky".

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Razing night shelters in peak winter insensitive: Apex court

The Supreme Court Thursday said it was "insensitive and callous" on the part of the authorities to demolish night shelters meant for the homeless urban poor when the severity of the winter is increasing.

The apex court bench of Justice Dalveer Bhandari and Justice Deepak Verma said this when it was told that two night shelters that were set up on land belonging to the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) were demolished during the last few days.

The court was hearing a petition by human rights organisation Peoples Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) seeking directions to the central government and states to set up adequate number of night shelters for the homeless urban poor.

While directing the DDA to restore within three days the two night shelters pulled down by it, the court asked the Delhi government to ensure that all its 64 night shelters were functional and people sheltered there were given good quality blankets.

The court directed the DDA to find out which officer was responsible for pulling down the two night shelters and take appropriate action against him.

The court said it was the duty of the central governments and the states to ensure that no death occurred on account of lack or absence of night shelters.

"To preserve and protect the lives of the people is the basic responsibility of the welfare state," Justice Bhandari said.

The court said that it was incumbent upon the "welfare state to ensure that no one slept under the open sky".

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Evidence of wrongdoings in 2G spectrum grant: Supreme Court (Second Lead)

The Supreme Court Thursday said there was prima facie evidence of wrongdoings in the grant of licences for 2G spectrum in 2008 and those for dual-use technology to some telecom operators prior to Oct 19, 2007.

The apex court bench of Justice G.S. Singhvi and Justice A.K. Ganguly allowed the plea of the Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL) for court monitoring of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe in the spectrum allocation scam.

The court said the allegations of wrongdoings in spectrum allocation made in the CPILs plea were supported by reports of the Central Vigilance Commission and the Comptroller and Auditor General.

The judge said the CBI would conduct a comprehensive probe into the scam in coordination with the Directorate of Enforcement and the income tax department covering the period 2001-07.

The investigating agency would submit the first status report of its investigations Feb 10, 2011, the court said.

The court said there was no requirement for setting up a special investigating team to probe the scam.

The judges said the CBI would conduct investigations without being influenced by any person or authority.

The director general of income tax would provide the transcripts of corporate lobbyist Niira Radias telephone taps to the CBI, the court directed.

The court also asked the investigating agency to probe how ineligible companies got the licence for the 2G spectrum and why no action was taken against those telecom operators who failed in their roll-out obligations (ROO).

The CBI would also look into why the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) did not take any action against the grant of licence to ineligible companies and those who failed in their ROO, the judges said.

The court said that the CBI could register FIR in respect of the officials and people who caused huge loss to the exchequer in the controversial transactions.

The CBI would also look into the conduct of the department of telecommunications officials who signed on the loan applications of telecom companies for securing loans from public sector banks, the court said.

Speaking to reporters after the hearing, senior counsel Prashant Bhushan welcomed the court order expanding the scope of the CBI probe into the spectrum scam.

He said that now the investigating agency will probe the 2G spectrum muddle in its entirety, starting from 2001 to 2007.

The probe will go into the role of the department of telecommunications (DoT) officials who signed bank loan papers of telecom operators, he said.

"The apex court order has expanded the scope of the investigations into the 2G spectrum scam," Bhushan told IANS.

He had argued the case on behalf of NGO Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL), which has sought the court monitoring of the CBI probe into the scam.

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High court tells Madhya Pradesh to build night shelters

Taking a cue from the Supreme Court, the Madhya Pradesh High Court Thursday directed the state government to immediately take measures to construct night shelters for the homeless urban poor.

The bench of Chief Justice S.R. Alam and Justice Alok Aradhe directed that the state government must immediately take measures to construct night shelters and submit a report.

The apex court earlier in the day took a serious note of the demolition of night shelters in Delhi and directed the central government, all states and their instrumentalities not to demolish any night shelter without providing an alternative.

The apex court observed that it was the duty of both the central and state governments to ensure, at all costs, that no death took place because of lack of night shelters or basic facilities.

During the hearing before the principal bench of the high court in Jabalpur, a petitioner charged the state of inaction on the issue.

The court was hearing a case between social activist Medha Patkar and the state.

Counsel for petitioner Siddharth Seth highlighted the plight of the homeless and argued that the state was running away from the responsibility of providing night shelters.

Advocate General R.D. Jain argued that the issue could not be taken up by the high court as it was pending before the Supreme Court.

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