SC agrees to hear plea related All India Football Federation
New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to list for hearing a plea on issues related to the All India Football Federation (AIFF), including objections raised to certain aspects of its draft constitution.
A bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and justices P S Narasimha and J B Pardiwala took note of submissions of senior advocate Rahul Mehra, who had filed a PIL on the issue in the Delhi High Court, that the matter needed a hearing.
"It will not be deleted (from the cause list) on the next date of hearing," said the bench while declining the submission that the matter be kept high on the board.
"The matter is urgent and has not been heard for quite some time," Mehra submitted.
On February 9, the top court had said it must bring the curtain down on issues plaguing the AIFF, including those pertaining to approval of its draft constitution.
The bench had asked senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, assisting it as an amicus curiae (friend of the court), to have a meeting with the counsels of all stakeholders and find out key objections to the draft constitution of the AIFF.
The top court had also directed the termination of the mandate of a three-member committee of administrators appointed by it in May last year to manage the affairs of the AIFF.
It had modified its earlier orders to facilitate the revocation of the suspension which was imposed on the AIFF by international football federation FIFA and the holding of the Under-17 Women's World Cup 2022 in India.
On May 18 last year, the bench had appointed the panel headed by Justice (retired) Anil R Dave and had ousted the NCP leader Praful Patel-led management committee that had exceeded its tenure by over two-and-half years. The Dave-headed committee had former chief election commissioner S Y Qureshi and former Indian football team captain Bhaskar Ganguly as its members.
However, this came in the way of the holding of the Under-17 Women's World Cup 2022 as no elected AIFF body was at the helm.
On August 16 last year, FIFA had suspended India for "undue influence from third parties" and said the tournament "cannot currently be held in India as planned." The country, however, later hosted the FIFA event from October 11-30 last year.
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Congress standing with CM Siddaramaiah, will support him, says party President Kharge
Bengaluru (PTI): Congress President M Mallikarjun Kharge on Friday said the party is standing with Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and will support him as he faces a probe by Lokayukta police in the Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA) site allotment case.
Rejecting BJP's demand for Siddaramaiah's resignation, he noted that "neither a chargesheet is filed, nor he is convicted," and said, "let the law take its own course, and when a situation comes, the party will examine."
"When the Godhra incident happened, whether (Narendra) Modi ji had resigned (as the then Gujarat CM)? Several cases were also pending against him at that time, even against Mr Shah (Union Home Minister Amit Shah)," Kharge said in response to a question on BJP questioning CM's moral right to continue, with FIR slated to be registered against him.
Speaking to reporters here, he said: "Don't target a particular person to damage his image, through him the party will also be damaged. Your (BJP) interest is to damage the Congress party, not the individual. He may be here today or may not be, the party will continue. Just to destroy the Congress party and the Congress party's base votes, they want to destroy, that is why they are doing this."
Let the law take its own course, and when a situation comes, the party will examine it at that time, he further said. "Now nothing is there, (but) every day I'm seeing that MUDA, MUDA. Crores of rupees (have been) swallowed by industrialists, Rs 16 lakh crore of their debt have been written off, and now you are taking one small issue and fighting. That too neither chargesheet is filed, nor he is convicted. Every day this is news. I'm fed up seeing all these things."
Asked whether the Congress high command will stand with the Chief Minister, even after the registering of FIR, Kharge said: "that is a hypothetical question. We are standing with him, we will support him, because he represents the party, not (an) individual."
A Special Court here on Wednesday ordered a Lokayukta police probe against Siddaramaiah in the case, setting the stage for filing of an FIR against him.
The order of the Special Court Judge, Santhosh Gajanan Bhat, came a day after the High Court upheld the sanction granted by the Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot to conduct an investigation against Siddaramaiah on the allegations of illegalities in the allotment of 14 sites to his wife B M Parvathi by MUDA.
The Special Court exclusively to deal with criminal cases related to former and elected MPs/MLAs issued the order directing the Lokayukta police in Mysuru to initiate an investigation on the complaint filed by RTI activist Snehamayi Krishna.
In the MUDA site allotment case, it is alleged that compensatory sites were allotted to Siddaramaiah's wife in an upmarket area in Mysuru, which had higher property value as compared to the location of her land which had been "acquired" by MUDA.
The MUDA had allotted plots to Parvathi under a 50:50 ratio scheme in lieu of 3.16 acres of her land, where it developed a residential layout.
Under the controversial scheme, MUDA allotted 50 per cent of developed land to the land losers in lieu of undeveloped land acquired from them for forming residential layouts.
It is alleged that Parvathi had no legal title over this 3.16 acres of land at survey number 464 of Kasare village, Kasaba hobli of Mysuru taluk.
