BENGALURU FRIDAY MAY 03, 2024 `9.00 PAGES 38 LATE CITY EDITION SUPREME COURT ORDERS 33% QUOTA FOR WOMEN IN SC BAR ASSOCIATION The court said the order must be implemented from the 2024 election to the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) set to be held on May 16 FIVE SEATS IN THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE AT LEAST 1 OFFICE BEARER SHOULD BE WOMAN Apart from six office bearers, the SCBA has six senior executive members and nine executive members. As per the court order, at least two senior executive members and three executive members should be women. The order was passed by a bench comprising justices Surya Kant and K V Viswanathan while hearing a case involving SCBA against its former Secretary B D Kaushik | P9 ■ ■ One post of the office bearers of the SCBA should be reserved for women by turn and on rotation bases, the bench said in its order For the upcoming elections, the post of Treasurer shall be reserved for women, it said. However, this will not preclude eligible women members of SCBA from contesting for other office-bearer positions May 19 WHEN RESULTS OF THE SUPREME COURT BAR ASSOCIATION ELECTION WILL BE OUT CHENNAI ■ MADURAI ■ VIJAYAWADA ■ BENGALURU ■ KOCHI ■ HYDERABAD ■ VISAKHAPATNAM ■ COIMBATORE ■ KOZHIKODE ■ THIRUVANANTHAPURAM ■ BELAGAVI ■ BHUBANESWAR ■ SHIVAMOGGA ■ MANGALURU ■ TIRUPATI ■ TIRUCHY ■ TIRUNELVELI ■ SAMBALPUR ■ HUBBALLI ■ DHARMAPURI ■ KOTTAYAM ■ KANNUR ■ VILLUPURAM ■ KOLLAM ■ TADEPALLIGUDEM ■ NAGAPATTINAM ■ THRISSUR ■ KALABURAGI LOOKOUT NOTICE AGAINST Nomination for Amethi, Rae Bareli ends today BJP drops tainted Brij Bhushan, ‘ABSCONDER’ PRAJWAL fields his son Karan in Kaiserganj day’s nomination. The party will also hold a rally today,” WITH barely hours left for fil- said a leader. ing of nomination papers for According to sources, Conthe Amethi and Rae Bareli g ress chief Mallikar jun seats, the Congress is continu- Kharge has conveyed to the ing to keep the suspense on Gandhis that not contesting whether Rahul Gandhi and from Uttar Pradesh would not his sister Priyanka will con- augur well for the party’s test from the prestigprospects in the Hindi ious seats. heartland. Rahul repThough there was resented Amethi for n o of f ic ial wo rd , three straight terms sources said that Rafrom 2004 to 2019 behul is likely to enter fore he was defeated the fray from Rae by Union minister Bareli. That decision Smriti Irani by over was taken after much 50,000 votes in 2019. deliberations within Irani, who is seeking Family the party leadership. a second term from bastion However, sources said Amethi, has chalRae Bareli is Priyanka may not lenged Rahul to concontest the general prestigious for test from the seat. A the Congress elections. section of the leaders as it was held O n We d n e s d ay, believe that if Rahul by Indira Congress leader does not take up the Jairam Ramesh said Gandhi thrice, challenge, it will only her husband the decision would be vindicate the BJP’s announced by Thurs- Feroze Gandhi charges of him runtwice and day evening. Yet, ning away from the Sonia from there was no official seat. announcement till go- 2004 to 2024 According to sourcing to the press. es, Rahul was not However, posters of keen on Priyanka’s Rahul have come up in both electoral debut as he did not Amethi and Rae Bareli as the want all the three members of local leadership is hopeful the family in Parliament. The that one of the Gandhis will BJP and Prime Minister contest from Amethi. “We re- Narendra Modi have been ceived a message from the constantly attacking the Conhigh command in the evening g re s s ove r i t s dy n a s t y to make preparations for Fri- politics. P R E E T H A N A I R @ New Delhi His father Revanna seeks anticipatory bail as rape charges invoked Prajwal flew to Germany on diplomatic passport: MEA EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ Bengaluru/Kalaburagi MORE trouble seems to be brewing for Hassan MP Prajwal Revanna and his MLA father HD Revanna in the alleged sex videos case as the Special Investigation Team (SIT) issued a lookout notice against Prajwal while a Hassan court allowed SIT to invoke rape charges against Revanna, who has moved a special court seeking anticipatory bail. Further, another woman has filed a complaint of sexual harassment against Prajwal. As Prajwal failed to appear before the investigation officer despite being served a notice, the SIT issued a lookout notice against him on Thursday term, ing him an ‘absconder’. As per the lookout notice, law enforcement agencies have been requested to arrest him wherever he is sighted. The notice has been issued to all immigration points at airports, sea ports and also border checkposts. Prajwal, who is said to be in Europe, on Wednesday sought a week’s time to appear before the SIT through his advocate. It is said Prajwal has booked a return ticket to Bengaluru from Munich on May 15 and will be landing in the city in the wee hours of May 16. However, the MP is said to have flown to Dubai from Munich on Wednesday . Continuing the probe, the SIT on Thursday recorded the statement of one of the victims before a magistrate under Section 164 of CrPC. The SIT has managed to identify some of the victims. But the investigators are not getting much cooperation from them. It is said that some victims have threatened to commit suicide if they are forced to give statements. Besides, the investigation agency has also issued a notice to Naveen Gowda from Belur in Hassan district, who is accused of distributing pen drives containing videos and photographs of the MP with the victims. Poornachandra Tejaswi MG, a supporter of Prajwal, has filed a complaint against Gowda, who is said to be a close aide of a minister, in the Hassan CEN police station for circulating the videos on April 23. P4 MODI SOUGHT VOTES FOR ‘MASS RAPIST’, SAYS RAHUL Shivamogga: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi apologise to every woman of the country for seeking votes for NDA candidate Prajwal Revanna, whom he referred to as a “mass rapist”. Rahul said, “It is not a sex scandal, but mass rape. On the stage, Modi supported the mass rapist. Modi told Karnataka that if the people vote for the mass rapist, it will help him.” |P4 Y E S H I S E L I @ New Delhi SUSPENDED Janata Dal (Secular) MP Prajwal Revanna, who is in the eye of a storm over his alleged sexual harassment of women, travelled to Germany on a diplomatic passport without political clearance, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said on Thursday . “No political clearance was either sought from or issued by MEA in respect to his travel to Germany… Obviously, no visa note was issued either,” MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said on Thursday . Diplomatic passport holders can travel to over 100 countries, including Germany, without visa. “The ministry has not issued visa note for Revanna for travel to any other country,” the MEA spokesperson said, adding that parliamentarians are entitled to have diplomatic passports. Prajwal is the sitting MP from Hassan, from where he is seeking re-election. Diplomatic passports are issued to diplomats, government officials and individuals who are authorised to undertake official travel on behalf of the government. Under international law, diplomatic passport holders enjoy certain privileges and immunities, including immunity from arrest in the host country . CBI not under control of Union: Centre tells SC Don’t enrol voters for post-poll schemes: ECI Pak eager for ‘shehzada’ to be India’s PM: Modi India rebukes report on religious freedom New Delhi: The CBI is not under the “control” of the Union and the government can’t supervise either the registration of offence by the agency or its investigation, the Centre told the Supreme Court on Thursday. This came as opposition parties have been accusing the government of misusing central probe agencies. New Delhi: The Election Commission on Thursday issued an advisory to all national and state political parties to immediately cease and desist from any activities that involve registering people for postelection beneficiary-oriented schemes through advertisement, survey or mobile application |P7 Anand (Gujarat): Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said Pakistan is eager to make the Congress ‘shehzada’ the next PM of India. His comments came amid reports that Chaudhry Fawad Hussain, a former minister in Pakistan, shared a video featuring Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on his social media |P7 New Delhi: India has flayed the US Commission on International Religious Freedom report, saying it continues to publish propaganda on the country |P9 B O S K Y K H A N N A @ Bengaluru FOR the first time in 123 years, Bengaluru experienced a dry spell in April. But now after a gap of 159 days, parts of the city received light to moderate rain on Thursday . According to India Meteorological Department (IMD) Bengaluru director N Puviarasan, from 1901 to 2024, it was the first time that the city IMD observatory recorded no rain in April. There were reports of light to moderate rain in parts of the city on Thursday evening. But IMD’s observatories did not record any rain. However, cloud formation and sudden change in weather conditions in the evening gave hope to Bengalureans of a respite from the scorching summer. Puviarasan said some places in the city will receive rain due to local convection. However, thundershowers will occur after five days. Formation of Clumino-nimbus clouds and thundershowers happen due to local convection. He said while there will be a respite from rising temperatures for south interior Karnataka, the heat wave alert will continue for north interior Karnataka. P2 BJP rushes to save Sikri fort from Kargil veteran’s Hand N A M I TA B A J PA I @ Lucknow KNOWN for being the seat of the famous Sufi saint Salim Chishti and the fort of Mughal Emperor Akbar, Fatehpur Sikri is the youngest parliamentary constituency in Uttar Pradesh. It was carved out of Agra in 2008. BJP’s Rajkumar Chahar had won it in 2019 with a thumping five lakh-plus vote margin. But this time around, the contest seems to be evenly poised between the BJP and the Congress. Sikri goes to polls on May 7. Congress candidate Ram Nath Sikarwar — popularly known as Fauji Baba — is giving a tough fight to Chahar, who is reeling under anti-incumbency besides intra-party rebellion. In 2019, Chahar was a giant killer, having defeated Raj Babbar, the then state president of the Congress. But now Chahar, the national chairman of the BJP’s Kisan Morcha, is caught in a double whammy . Apart from Sikarwar, Chahar is also facing a tough challenge from Rameshwar Chaudhury son of sit, ting BJP MLA Babulal Chaudhury . Rameshwar has raised the flag of revolt and is contesting as an independent. He is believed to have better clout than Chahar among the Jat voters. The BJP recently expelled Rameshwar after all efforts to pacify him failed. Chahar also has to deal with grumpy Kashtriyas because of a perceived slight against the community by the BJP’s candidate in Gujarat’s Rajkot, Parshottam Rupala. Since Sikarwar is a Kshatriya, he is getting resonance from the community . To save the seat, senior BJP leaders like Rajnath Singh, a prominent Thakur face, and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath are holding multiple rallies in Sikri and Agra to placate the Kshatriyas. The BJP has also roped in retired Air Chief Marshal R K S Bhadoria, another Thakur from Bah who recently joined the party , to pacify the Thakurs. Bhadoria held a roadshow for the BJP can- Rajkumar Chahar THE BJP on Thursday dropped Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, who faces criminal charges of sexually harassing women wrestlers during his stint as the president of Wrestling Federation of India (WFI), and instead fielded his younger son Karan Bhushan Singh from Uttar Pradesh’s Kaiserganj Lok Sabha constituency . The saffron party also named Dinesh Pratap Singh as its candidate from Rae Bareli, a Gandhi family bastion that elected Congress leader Sonia Gandhi five consecutive times. Dinesh Pratap Singh, currently serving as a minister in the Yogi Adityanath cabinet, was the BJP’s candidate from the Rae Bareli parliamentary seat in 2019 as well. Even though he lost to Sonia Gandhi last time, he managed to bring down her victory margin to 1.67 Rajput lakh votes from 3.52 lakh in 2014. He was earlier card with the Congress and he joined the BJP in 2018. By fielding Brij Bhushan, the sitting MP in Kaiserganj, was Dinesh Singh forced to resign as WFI president over the sexual and Karan harassment scandal after the wrestlers launched a Bhushan(pic), protest. By denying ticket to Brij Bhushan, the BJP BJP hopes to has sought to send out a message of distancing itplacate self from tainted leaders. Rajput With Brij Bhushan, the total number of MPs community benched by the BJP in UP in the ensuing election voters, who has touched 15. A six-time MP, Brij Bhushan has were upset won not only from Kaiserganj but also neighbourwith the party ing constituencies like Gonda and Balrampur. An influential regional leader, he has sway over halfa-dozen Lok Sabha seats in and around Gonda in central UP . Brij Bhushan has formidable clout in Kaiserganj and adjoining districts as he owns over 50 educational institutions in the region. He had been pitching hard for a seat for himself while the BJP reportedly gave him two options — to field his wife Ketaki Singh or elder son Prateek, an MLA from Gonda Sadar. Ketaki Singh was BJP’s Gonda MP in 1996. EXPRESS READ B’luru sees dry April for the first time in 123 years Light to moderate rainfall brought some temporary relief from the scorching heat for residents of Bengaluru on Thursday evening | NAGARAJA GADEKAL N A M I TA B A J PA I @ Lucknow Ram Nath Sikarwar ILLUSTRATION: MANDAR PARDIKAR didate. Chahar is mainly relying on the Modi-Yogi factor to stay afloat. As for the Congress, its leadership is trying to put in more effort to wrest the seat. Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi is scheduled to hold a roadshow in Fatehpur Sikri on Friday . Besides, Sikarwar has his own following. He resides in the Kheragarh village, often stays in a village temple and travels in a four-wheeler. A Kargil war hero, he retired from the Army in 2004. His popularity especially among the deprived , sections, is giving Chahar more worries. The BSP has fielded Ram Niwas Sharma, a Brahmin, making it a quadrangular contest. Sikri has 1.75 lakh Jats, 3.5 lakh Thakurs, 3 lakh Brahmins, 1.4 lakh Kushwahas, 1.25 lakh Nishads, and Muslims and Vaishyas at 1 lakh each. WITH THIS ISSUE CITY’S BEST WEEKEND GUIDE 38 PAGES, INCLUDING 24 OF INDULGE (TABLOID)
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