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NIA can’t investigate marital status, says SC

White spell

Can probe if any criminality involved in conversion Satya Prakash Tribune News Service

Shimla wears a white mantle as it received this year’s first snowfall on Tuesday, bringing down the mercury in the region. AMIT KANWAR PAGE 10

Rintu Amritsar’s first Sikh Mayor Amritsar: The Congress on Tuesday named Karamjit Singh Rintu as Mayor. Rintu is the first Sikh Mayor of the city. Raman Bakshi was named Senior Deputy Mayor, while Younis was declared Deputy Mayor. The announcement was made by minister Tript Bajwa, even as Navjot Singh Sidhu and his supporters stayed away. PAGE 2

Shiv Sena to go it alone in 2019 polls Shiv Kumar Tribune News Service

Faceoff: CEC lying, says AAP New Delhi, January 23 Its 20 MLAs disqualified, the Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) today accused newly appointed Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Om Prakash Rawat of having “lied” in an interview that the AAP MLAs were given two opportunities and sent notices (on September 28 and November 2 last year) for a hearing. “In doing so, the CEC has tacitly admitted to not hearing the AAP MLAs,” claimed AAP leader Raghav Chadha. The disqualified MLAs have filed petitions in the Delhi High Court. In his interview, Rawat had indicated that the MLAs had failed to come up with anything substantial to support their case — a claim countered by AAP leaders. Rawat was reported to have said that if the AAP MLAs wanted to give oral evidences, they should have said so. — TNS

New Delhi: Amid concern over leak of biometric details, the Centre on Tuesday told the SC that Justice BN Srikrishna Committee report on data protection was likely to be ready by March. Based on the recommendations, a law will be put in place, the Attorney General told a five-judge Constitution Bench hearing plea against Aadhaar Act validity. PAGE 7

Mumbai, January 23 The Shiv Sena today decided not to ally with the BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha and Assembly elections, passing a resolution in this regard. Party president Uddhav Thackeray indicated that the party would stick to its hardline Hindutva position to take on the BJP electorally. “We contest on the plank of genuine Hindutva as against the bogus Hindutva of the BJP… We won’t compromise on terrorism. Terrorism is terrorism. Cow killing is cow killing,” Thackeray said. He hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for "soft-pedalling" on the Kashmir issue. “We would have been proud of our Prime Minister had he

Fake call centres busted in G’gram

Jadhav case: ICJ sets time limit

Gurugram: The Gurugram police on Tuesday busted 10 illegal call centres and arrested 33 employees for duping people on the pretext of providing "tempting opportunities." The cyber cell carried out raids after a tipoff that fraudulent call centres in various sectors were cheating gullible customers, both in India and abroad. TNS

The Hague, January 23 The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has fixed April 17 and July 17 as time limits for India and Pakistan, respectively, for filing of written pleadings by them in the Kulbhushan Jadhav case. Jadhav, 47, was sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court on charges of espi-

Panel report on data protection ‘by March’

Will contest on the ❝ plank of genuine Hindutva. Uddhav Thackeray taken (Israeli PM) Benjamin Netanyahu to Srinagar to hoist the National Flag instead of doing it in Ahmedabad,” Thackeray said. The Shiv Sena chief, who was re-elected president of the party today, asked party workers to begin preparing continued on page 7

onage and terrorism in April last year, following which India moved the Haguebased ICJ in May. On May 18, a 10-member bench of the ICJ restrained Pakistan from executing Jadhav till adjudication of the case. The ICJ authorised the submission of a reply by India and of a rejoinder by

Pakistan in the Jadhav case. Pakistan claims its security forces arrested Jadhav alias Hussein Mubarak Patel from its restive Balochistan province on March 3 last year after he reportedly entered from Iran. India maintains Jadhav was kidnapped from Iran. — PTI

Railways demands record ~1.46lakhcr But may not be able to spend all of previous fiscal’s allocation

Budget RUN-UP Mukesh Ranjan

PLAN OUTLAY BUDGETED OUTLAY (2017-18)

ACTUAL EXPENDITURE (EXPECTED)

PROPOSED OUTLAY (2018-19)

~1,31,000cr ~1,00,000cr ~1,46,000 cr

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, January 23 The Railways, which has demanded a record Rs 1,46,000 crore budget to overhaul its image and infrastructure in 2018-19, may face the Finance Ministry’s axe because a large portion of its current financial year’s outlay is likely to remain unused. The Railways may not be able to spend more than Rs 1,00,000 crore by March 31 against an allocated outlay of Rs 1,31,000 crore in 2017-18, ministry officials say. According to them, about a quarter of the allocated budget would remain unused because of tardy progress in laying new tracks and renewal of old ones. Even as the Railways

Infrastructure* Electrification New tracks Track renewal

Plan 3,000 km 3,500 km 3,600 km

Expected to achieve 4,000 km 2,000 km 2,000 km *2017-18

pledged and the Budget made financial provisions, the capacity to execute infrastructure and safety-related projects continues to be an issue which senior officials at Rail Bhawan are grappling to overcome. The Finance Ministry is likely to cut around Rs

10,000 crore in the revised estimate from the gross budgetary support (GBS) of Rs 55,000 crore for this year. Officials say the Railways’ proposed plan for the next fiscal includes Rs 60,000 crore as GBS — the amount which the Finance Ministry

gives as governmental support to the Railways. Officials said the national transport monolith would also not be able to lift the entire loan amount of Rs 30,000 crore from Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) of India. The Ministry of Railways and the LIC had signed an agreement last year for a long-term loan of Rs 1,50,000 crore for the next five years to support the national transporter’s infrastructure projects. Incidentally, this year Rail Bhawan saw a change of guard at the top after a series of train accidents, with Piyush Goyal replacing Suresh Prabhu. And since then, the ministry has witnessed a shift in priorities. Prabhu focused more on generating revenue and spending on new tracks. Goyal has been laying stress on safety and electrification. The overemphasis on safety has its continued on page 7

Today’s issue is of 34 pages, including four-page Jobs and Careers, eight-page Chandigarh Tribune and six-page Life+Style.

New Delhi, January 23 Maintaining that an adult woman was free to marry a man of her choice, the Supreme Court on Tuesday said the NIA couldn’t probe the marital status of Akhila alias Hadiya, who has been at the centre of a storm over alleged ‘love jihad’ in Kerala. “How can we say the marriage is not valid when she says she married someone on her own. She can choose independently. She is 24 years old,” said a three-judge Bench headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra. “Marriage has to be separate from criminal activity, otherwise we will be creating a bad precedent in law,” said the Bench, which also included Justice AM Khanwilkar and Justice DY Chandrachud. However, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) could continue with its probe into the ‘love jihad’ case to find out if there was any criminality involved in religious conversion, as alleged by Hadia’s father Asokan. Whether the person she married was a good human being or a bad one cannot be probed. “NIA can investigate into all other aspects except marriage,” the Bench, which had in August last year

LOVE JIHAD She (Hadiya) is an adult. She appeared before us and said she is married. What can the court do? We can't get into the legitimacy of the marriage… marriage has to be separate from criminal activity, otherwise we will be creating a bad precedent in law. SC Bench

❝

ordered the NIA to probe the matter, clarified. On behalf of Akhila's father, advocate Madhavi Divan said her marriage couldn’t be seen in isolation. “Please note that she was not married at the time of filing of petition (by her father) in the high court. The marriage was only a device to legitimise her illegal confinement.” Akhila had converted to Islam, became Hadiya and married Shafin Jahan. However, their marriage was annulled by the Kerala High Court on May 25, 2017. A Division Bench of the High Court had termed Akhila's marriage with Jahan a “sham”

and placed her in the protective custody of her parents. Jahan had challenged the HC verdict in the top court. The Bench, which had on November 27 sent her back to her Homeopathic Medical College in Tamil Nadu from her parents’ custody, made Hadiya a party to the case filed by her husband after senior counsel Kapil Sibal submitted on behalf of Jahan that she should be heard in the matter. “She may have been brainwashed. But what can we do? Whether she made an independent choice or not only she can tell. If she comes to court and says she has married someone by her choice, that's the end of it,” said the CJI. Giving Hadiya a week from the date of receipt of notice to file her response, the Bench fixed February 22 for further hearing. The Bench said she was not under illegal detention. On behalf of the NIA, Additional Solicitor General Maninder Singh said, “Your Lordships must not give an impression that the NIA is working under pressure.” The Supreme Court on November 27 sent Akhila alias Hadiya to Shivraj Homoeopathic Medical College in Salem, Tamil Nadu, to resume internship/house surgeonship. Edit: Hadiya’s agency upheld

‘Padmaavat’: SC order stays, releaseonJan25 Satya Prakash Tribune News Service

New Delhi, January 23 The Supreme Court today refused to modify its earlier order which had paved the way for nationwide release of “Padmaavat” on January 25, saying its order had to be complied with. A three-judge Bench headed by CJI Dipak Misra dismissed the petitions filed by the Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh Governments that cited possible violence by groups opposed to the Deepika Padukone-starrer controversial film as a ground for modification of its earlier order.

Rajasthan, MP govt plea to modify order dismissed “People must understand that the Supreme Court has passed an order. They must abide by it. It is the obligation of the states to maintain law and order,” it said, refusing to modify its January 18 order, staying orders issued by various states banning the film’s screening. Asking states to implement its January 18 order, the court said it would examine pleas against the film’s screening on a case-to-case basis, if the situation so warranted. Noting that maintenance of law and order was the duty of states, the Bench asked states to provide the security needed for its peaceful screening. More on page 7