Man held for accepting Rs 30,000 bribe to help secure fire NOC from Rajkot civic body
Rajkot (PTI): A man has been arrested for allegedly accepting a Rs 30,000 bribe to get a fire NOC from the Rajkot civic body for a structure being erected for a property expo, officials said on Saturday.
The Anti-Corruption Bureau laid a trap and detained accused Kaushik Piprotar, a sales executive with a firm selling mechanical appliances for fire protection systems, as he accepted the bribe on Friday, the agency said in a release.
Piprotar had demanded the bribe to help the complainant secure a non-objection certificate (NOC) from the fire department of the Rajkot Municipal Corporation (RMC) for a temporary dome for ‘Property Expo 2024’, the ACB said.
“The accused got in touch with the complainant and claimed that he had contacts with officials in the Rajkot Fire Department. Piprotar said the complainant would have to pay Rs 30,000 over and above the official legal fees if he wanted the fire NOC,” the ACB said.
The accused also claimed that he would make “financial transactions” with officials in RMC's fire department and get the work done, ACB said.
“Since the complainant did not want to pay the bribe, he contacted the ACB. The accused was caught red-handed accepting the bribe of Rs 30,000,” said the anti-corruption agency, adding that a case has been registered under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
A little over two months ago, the then in-charge chief fire officer of RMC was caught by the ACB for accepting a bribe of Rs 1.8 lakh to issue a fire NOC to a building in the city.
Earlier, the RMC’s fire department had come under severe criticism after a massive blaze at a game zone killed 27 persons, including children, on May 25. It was found that the private recreation facility did not have a fire NOC.
Several RMC officials had been arrested in connection with the game zone tragedy.
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Questioning religious practices will break religion, civilisation: SC in Dawoodi Bohras case
New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court on Thursday remarked that if individuals start questioning certain religious practices or matters of religion before a constitutional court then there will be hundreds of petitions questioning different rituals, leading to the breaking of religions and the civilisation.
The nine-judge Constitution bench is hearing petitions related to discrimination against women at religious places, including the Sabarimala temple in Kerala, and on the ambit and scope of the religious freedom practised by multiple faiths, including Dawoodi Bohras.
The bench comprises Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant and Justices B V Nagarathna, M M Sundresh, Ahsanuddin Amanullah, Aravind Kumar, Augustine George Masih, Prasanna B Varale, R Mahadevan and Joymalya Bagchi.
The Central Board of Dawoodi Bohra Community filed a PIL in 1986 seeking the setting aside of a 1962 judgment, which had struck down the Bombay Prevention of Excommunication Act, 1949 -- this law made excommunication of any community member illegal.
The 1962 Constitution bench judgment said, "It is evident from the religious faith and tenets of the Dawoodi Bohra community that the exercise of the power of excommunication by its religious head on religious grounds formed part of the management of its affairs in matters of religion and the 1949 Act in making even such excommunication invalid, infringed the right of the community under Article 26(b) of the Constitution."
Senior advocate Raju Ramachandran, representing a group of reformist Dawoodi Bohras, submitted that a practice which is conducted in response to secular and social actions of an individual cannot be the subject of Constitutional protection under Article 25 of the Constitution and consequently cannot be a ‘matter of religion’ under Article 26 of the Constitution.
Ramachandran told the court that a practice which may have a religious aspect but also significantly and adversely impacts fundamental rights is not immune to restriction under Article 25 of the Constitution or Article 26 of the Constitution.
Responding to the submission, Justice Nagarathna said that if everybody starts questioning certain religious practices or matters of religion before a constitutional court, then "what happens to this civilisation where religion is so intimately connected with the Indian society".
"There will be hundreds of petitions questioning this right that right, opening of the temple, and the closure of the temple. We are conscious of this," she said.
Adding to the response, Justice Sundresh said, "Every religion will break and every constitutional court will have to be closed.
"If the dispute between two entities are allowed then everybody will question everything. In your case there may be a civil wrong committed to you but in another case, another member will say I don't agree. It is regressive. To what extent can we go in a country like ours which is progressive and on the move is the question," he said.
Justice Nagarathna went on that what sets apart India from any other region is that "we are a civilisation" despite having so many pluralities and diversities?
Asserting that diversity is the country's strength, she added, "One of the constants in our Indian society is the relationship of human beings -- man, woman and child -- with the religion."
"Now, how a religious practice or a matter of religion is questioned, where it is questioned, whether it can be questioned, whether it has to be a question within a denomination for a reform or whether the state will have to do or you want the court to adjudicate upon all these aspects. This is troubling us.
"What we lay down, is for a civilisation that is India. India must progress despite all its economy, everything there is a constant in us. We can’t break that constant. That is what is troubling us ," she said.
Ramachandran replied that India is a civilisation under the Constitution and therefore nothing which goes against the grain of constitution can be continued in a civilised society.
He said that's where court's task come in and "it can't throw hands" and say there will be so many petitions.
