Nirbhaya case convict moves SC with fresh curative petition
New Delhi: In a last ditched effort, one of the convicts in the Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder case, Pawan Gupta, has moved the Supreme Court with a curative petition against the dismissal of his review plea rejecting his juvenility claim.
The top court had on January 31 dismissed his review plea against the rejection of his appeal on January 20.
The review plea was taken up for consideration in-chamber by a bench comprising Justices R Banumathi, Ashok Bhushan and AS Bopanna and was dismissed.
Pawan's counsel A P Singh confirmed filing of the curative petition on Tuesday.
While dismissing his appeal on January 20, the top court had said there was no ground to interfere with the Delhi High Court order that rejected Pawan's similar plea.
The apex court had said that the convict's claim was rightly rejected by the trial court as also the high court.
It had said the matter was raised earlier in the review plea before the apex court which rejected the claim of juvenility taken by Pawan and another convict Vinay Kumar Sharma and that order has attained finality.
Pawan's counsel had earlier argued that as per his school-leaving certificate, he was a minor at the time of the offence.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Delhi Police, had said Pawan's claim of juvenility was considered at each and every judicial forum and it will be a travesty of justice if the convict is allowed to raise the claim of juvenility repeatedly and at this point of time.
The trial court had on March 5 issued fresh black warrants for the execution of all the four convicts in the case Mukesh Kumar Singh (32), Pawan (25), Vinay (26) and Akshay (31) in Tihar Jail at 5.30 am on March 20.
All the convicts have exhausted their legal remedies and constitutional remedies with the filing of their mercy petitions, which have been rejected by the President.
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Several organisations oppose proposal of changing Mount Abu's name
Jaipur, May 6 (PTI): Protests against a proposal to change the name of Mount Abu to 'Aburaj Teerth' and banning non-vegetarian food and alcohol in Rajasthan’s only hill station are mounting with locals saying it will severely impact the town's economy.
A letter from the department of local self government to the nagar parishad commissioner on April 25 had sought a "factual comment" of the commissioner regarding renaming Mount Abu as 'Aburaj Teerth' and prohibiting meat and liquor consumption in the open.
Looking at the religious significance of Mount Abu, a proposal to change the name to 'Aburaj Teerth' was passed in the board meeting of the Nagar Parishad in October last year. The proposal was sent to the state government, where it is pending.
After this, several MLAs of the ruling party wrote letters to Chief Minister Bhajanlal Sharma to change Mount Abu's name due to its religious significance and ban liquor and meat consumption in the open.
Local businessmen argue that Mount Abu is known worldwide by this name and changing the name will create confusion. Moreover, prohibiting non-veg food and liquor consumption will drastically reduce the number of tourists, they argued.
Twenty-three organisations, including Mount Abu Hotel Association, Laghu Vyapar Sangh, Sindhi Seva Samaj, Valmiki Samaj, Muslim Auquaf Committee, and Nakki Lake Vyapar Sansthan, handed over a memorandum, addressed to the chief minister to Sub Divisional Officer Dr Anshu Priya on Monday.
The SDM said that the proposal is pending at the state government level.
Saurabh Gangadia, secretary of Mount Abu Hotel Association, said that nearly five to six thousand tourists visit Mount Abu daily, and most of them come from neighbouring Gujarat, which is a dry state.
"The entire economy of Mount Abu is run on tourism activities and such a move to declare Mount Abu a 'Teerth' and prohibiting liquor and meat will destroy the economy," he said.
He claimed that nearly 15000 people were directly or indirectly associated with tourism-related activities in Mount Abu and if the number of tourists drops, it will have a negative impact on their livelihood.
"With a sharp decline in tourists, there will be an increase in unemployment and migration and business units will shut down," Dinesh Mali, secretary of Street Vendors Committee, said.
"There is absolutely no need to change the name and take such steps which have the potential of causing great harm to the economy and its people," he added.
The local business stakeholders said that the name 'Mount Abu' is internationally established and it features in global travel books, Google Maps, Wikipedia, tourism portals, travel advisories, foreign tour packages, international directories and academic texts.
According to the tourism department, the history of Mount Abu can be traced back to the Puranas. Known as "Arbudaranya" or "the forest of Arbhuda" in the Puranic Age, Mount Abu is described to have served as a retreat for sage Vashistha.
A popular mythological story associated with Mount Abu mentions a serpent named Arbhuda, who had saved the life of Nandi, Lord Shiva's mount, here.
