Delhi gang rape: SC to deliver verdict on convicts' plea
New Delhi, July 8 : The Supreme Court on Monday will pronounce its verdict on pleas filed by the three death row convicts in the 2012 Delhi gang rape case.
A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justice R. Banumathi and Justice Ashok Bhushan would deliver the judgement at 2 p.m. on the review petitions of Vinay Sharma, Pawan Gupta and Mukesh Singh.
The fourth accused, Akshay Thakur, has not filed a review petition yet.
The convicts' counsel pleaded that the police had implicated the "innocent" persons after failing to arrest the real culprits.
It was contended that the death penalty was not the solution as it was against the principle of non-violence. Further, the convicts were not habitual offenders with a criminal history.
The top court had, in its May 5, 2017 verdict, upheld the death sentences awarded to the four convicts by a trial court and confirmed by the Delhi High Court.
They were convicted for raping and assaulting a 23-year-old para-medical student inside a moving bus on December 16, 2012, which led to her death 13 days later in a Singapore hospital.
The rapists, six in all, had comitted the crime on the woman who had boarded the bus with her male friend to go home after watching a movie.
One of the accused, Ram Singh, committed suicide in Tihar Central Jail here.
The sixth, a minor, was sent to a correction home and has been released after serving his probation period.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Centre doubles fines for stubble burning
New Delhi, Nov 7: The Centre has doubled the fine for farmers burning crop residue in view of the deteriorating air quality in the Delhi-NCR region, the penalty going up to Rs 30,000 for those with more than five acres of farmland.
According to the notification, which was published on Wednesday and comes following the Supreme Court's tough stance on the issue, farmers with less than two acres of land will now have to pay environmental compensation of Rs 5,000, up from Rs 2,500. And those with land between two and five acres will be fined Rs 10,000 instead of Rs 5,000.
Unfavourable meteorological conditions combined with vehicular emissions, paddy-straw burning, firecrackers, and other local pollution sources contribute to hazardous air quality levels in Delhi-NCR during late autumn and winters.
According to a Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) analysis, the city experiences peak pollution from November 1 to 15 when the number of stubble-burning incidents in Punjab and Haryana increases.
Major factors behind stubble burning include the paddy-wheat cropping system, cultivation of long-duration paddy varieties, mechanised harvesting that leaves standing crop stubble in the field, labour scarcity, and the lack of a viable market for crop residue.
Studies estimate that during peak burning periods, farm fires contribute up to 30 per cent of PM levels in the Delhi-NCR region and surrounding areas.
However, according to senior environmentalist Sunita Narain, the episodic burning of crop residue by farmers in winter is not the primary concern for poor air quality in Delhi-NCR. Instead, the persistent and major sources of pollution within the city, including transport and industries, are more worrisome.
