SC notice to Maharashtra, Trimbakeshwar temple trust
New Delhi, June 19: The Supreme Court has sought a response from Maharashtra and the Trimbakeshwar Sansthan Trust on a plea for increasing the number of trustees from the general public to six with two seats reserved for females in the Board of Trustees of the historic Trimbakeshwar Shiva Temple in Maharashtra.
A vacation bench of Justice S. Abdul Nazeer and Justice Indu Malhotra on Monday issued notice to the state and the trust along with state's Charity Commissioner and Trimbakeshwar Municipal Council and sought their response on the plea while posting the matter for hearing in July.
The plea filed by one of the trustees of the temple, Lalita Sandip Shinde, sought to increase the number of general public trustees to six from four so that the participation of public in the administration of the trust is in majority.
At present, the trust has four members from the general public, two ex-officio members nominated by the District Judge and the Chief Executive Officer of the municipal corporation and one member each from Tungars, Purohits and Pujaris.
The petition, filed through advocate Anand Misra, said the people from public are in minority in the trust and that the representative of the District Judge is unconnected with the public life.
The petition stated: "The petition prays inter alia for a direction to increase persons appointed from the public to six with two seats reserved for females and that in place of a Civil Judge nominated by District Judge, the District Collector be made ex-officio trustee and President of trust to make it a proper representative body."
It added that replacing District Judge nominee by District Collector would make the trust President better accessible to general public and would make it easy for the trust to coordinate with other government departments.
Asking for reservation of seats for female candidates in the quota allotted to general public, the plea contended that the move would result in better gender representation of the trust and would go on a long way towards gender equality in management of affairs of temple and trust.
"Issue directions commanding Respondents No. 1 (state of Maharashtra) and No. 2 (Charity Commissioner) to modify the scheme of management of Board of Trustee of Respondent No. 4 (Trimbakeshwar Sansthan Trust) inter alia increasing the number of trustee from general public from four to six with two seats reserve for females in the interest of justice," the petition stated.
Trimbakeshwar is an ancient Hindu temple in the town of Trimbak in Nashik district. It is dedicated to Lord Shiva and is one of the twelve Jyotirlingas.
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Centre moves SC for withdrawing CRPF security to Unnao rape survivor, SC seeks her reply
New Delhi, Sep 24: The Supreme Court on Tuesday sought responses from the 2017 Unnao rape survivor and her family members on the Centre's plea seeking withdrawal of CRPF security cover provided to them following the court's order in 2019. Expelled BJP leader Kuldeep Singh Sengar is serving a life term for kidnapping and raping the minor girl in Uttar Pradesh's Unnao area in 2017.
Taking note of the sensational rape case and the threat to lives of the survivor and others, the apex court on August 1, 2019, directed that the rape survivor, her mother, other members of the family and their lawyer be provided CRPF security.
A bench of Justices Bela M Trivedi and Satish Chandra Sharma asked that the application of the Centre to be served on the victim and her family members. The bench also observed that since there is hardly any threat perception, it would like to close the case.
The Centre's counsel said no security cover is needed according to the threat analysis of the victim and her family members.
Advocate Ruchira Goel, appearing for the Uttar Pradesh government, submitted that everything, including the trial, was transferred to Delhi after the incident following the apex court's order.
The bench asked Goel where the victim resides at present. She replied that the woman and her family stay in Delhi.
On May 14, the top court had asked the Centre to file a separate application seeking withdrawal of CRPF security cover provided to the survivor, her family members and their lawyers.
The Centre submitted that the security cover may be provided by either the Delhi or Uttar Pradesh police and the CRPF be permitted to withdraw.
In 2019, the top court transferred all five cases registered in connection with the Unnao rape incident from a Lucknow court to a court in Delhi with the direction to hold trial on daily basis and complete it within 45 days.
The Supreme Court also directed the Uttar Pradesh government to provide Rs 25 lakh as interim compensation to the rape survivor.
The court had added that the CBI will have to complete within seven days the investigation into the accident in which the survivor and her lawyer were critically injured and two of her aunts killed.
Her father was arrested at the behest of Sengar in a case under the Arms Act and died in custody on April 9, 2018.
Sengar has sought the quashing of the trial court's December 2019 judgment that has sentenced him to imprisonment for the remainder of his life. His appeal is pending in the Delhi High Court.
On March 13, 2020, Sengar was sentenced to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment in the case of death of the woman's father in custody. He was also slapped with a fine of Rs 10 lakh. The court had awarded a 10-year jail term to Sengar's brother Atul Singh Sengar and five others in the case.
