Hearing on puja grant plea today
New Delhi: The Supreme Court will hear on Friday the petition challenging the West Bengal government’s decision to grant `28 crore to 28,000 puja committees in the state for Durga Puja celebrations.
A Bench headed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi was informed that the Calcutta High Court had refused to interfere with the Mamata Banerjee government’s decision to grant `10,000 each to 28,000 puja committees in the state this year.
The plea said that with the decision to grant money to the puja organisers, the state government was indulging in practices which were against the principles of secularism, which is part of the basic structure of the Constitution.
The plea said there was no provision of law by which State exchequer could be utilised for giving gifts to puja organisers.
It also said that the high court had failed to appreciate that the State fund which consist payment of various taxes by citizens cannot be utilised for any religious purpose.
Illegal industrial units in Delhi to be sealed
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday expressed concern over the fact that even after 14 years of setting up a monitoring committee to stop illegal industrial units in Delhi, around 5,000 of them were still operating in residential areas.
The committee, headed by the chief secretary of Delhi, assured the Bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta that such illegal units would be sealed within 15 days and their electricity and water connection will be disconnected.
The committee in its report also said that 15,888 illegal units were closed down till August this year.
In its report, the committee said that if the 21,960 industrial units, which were allotted alternative plots for shifting from residential and non-conforming areas, had not closed down or shifted from residential areas, they would be sealed within 15 days.
The Bench has listed the matter for hearing on November 26 and has asked the committee to ensure that its decision to seal these industrial units within 15 days was complied with.
Amrapali directors face contempt action
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday initiated contempt proceedings against three directors of the Amrapali Group and directed that they be placed under police surveillance for the next 15 days.
Two days ago, the apex court had directed that the real estate group’s Chairman and Managing Director Anil Kumar Sharma and directors Shiv Priya and Ajay Kumar be taken into police custody till they hand over all the documents of the group’s 46 firms.
The court clarified on Thursday that they would not be kept in police lockup for the night and instead be taken to a hotel in Noida, where their phones will be seized.
The directors were released last night from police custody after nine properties of Amrapali Group, where bulky documents of the group companies are stashed, were sealed in compliance with the SC order.
A Bench of Justices U U Lalit and D Y Chandrachud asked the trio to present themselves before the SHO of Noida Sector 62 police station before 8 am on Friday. The court fixed a 15-day limit for forensic auditors to collect, collate and catalogue the documents from 2008 till now.