SC notice to Centre on legalising foreign funding to political parties
New Delhi, July 2: The Supreme Court on Monday sought the Central government's response on a plea challenging the amendments to Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act which it said were introduced to bail out the BJP and Congress after a high court held them guilty of taking foreign funding.
A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justice A.M. Khanwilkar and Justice D.Y. Chandrachud issued notice to the government on the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) plea seeking declaration that the amendments in FCRA 2010 by Section 236 of Finance Act, 2016 and by Section 217 of the Finance Act, 2018 are "void, illegal and unconstitutional".
The amendments to the FCRA, the petitioner contended, were introduced with retrospective effect to overturn a Delhi High Court order holding the Bharatiya Janata Party and Congress guilty of accepting donations from overseas companies.
The plea against the Delhi High Court judgment was rejected by the top court, said the plea.
The amendments to the FCRA 1976, the PIL said, have "opened doors to unlimited political donations from foreign companies, thereby legitimizing financial contributions received from foreign sources".
Contending that the amendments were contrary to the principles of the separation of powers, it said that the amendment made in FCRA 2010 "vide the Finance Act 2016" was already under challenge before the top court and when matter is sub-judice, the Parliament by the Finance Act, 2018 has now made amendments with retrospective effect from 1976.
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Six doctors booked for misleading father of child who died due to ‘wrong treatment’
Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar (PTI): A case has been registered against six doctors of a private hospital in Maharashtra’s Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar for allegedly misleading the father of a child who died under their care, police said on Friday.
The accused doctors also allegedly tampered with the evidence, they said.
According to a release by the police, a 5-year-old kid was admitted to Vedant Hospital in the city’s Sutgirni area on April 26. The boy underwent a surgery at the hospital the same day.
The child died on May 6 after being under treatment for nearly 10 days.
The boy’s father Avinash Aghav has alleged that his son died due to wrong treatment at the hospital. He also claimed that evidence was destroyed and papers related to the treatment were not given to him, the release said.
The complainant has accused the hospital of tampering with the CCTV footage of the premises from April 26 to April 28, the release said.
The doctors – Arjun Pawar, Shaikh Ilyas, Ajay Kale, Abhijit Deshmukh, Tushar Chavhan and Nitin Adhane – were booked on Wednesday for causing death by negligence and destruction of evidence under the Indian Penal Code, the release added.
The police release did not explain the time gap between the death of the child and the registration of the case against the doctors.
