Supreme Court judge S Ravindra Bhat retires
New Delhi (PTI): Supreme Court judge Sanjay Kishan Kaul on Friday praised his outgoing colleague Justice S Ravindra Bhat for contributing tremendously to the judiciary.
Heading a ceremonial bench to bid farewell to Justice Bhat on his last working day as a top court judge, Justice Kaul said Justice Bhat was precise and succinct in his judgements and has contributed a lot, especially in cases of constitutional issues.
Justice Bhat was elevated as a judge of the apex court on September 23, 2019 and is retiring after a tenure of over four years.
"He (Justice Bhat) has been a person who has contributed tremendously to this court, to each court where he has gone," Justice Kaul said.
"So, in the usual way, we have all assembled here. We all contribute and go out of this court," said Justice Kaul.
He also recalled his association with Justice Bhat, which dates back to 1979.
Justice Bhat's tenure as a judge has seen a lot of "jurisprudential developments" and he has done so from his mind and heart, Justice Kaul said.
"This is a process. I am sure he will find some more time for things which are of passion to him," he said, adding, "This is an occasion when the Bar should be bidding farewell to one of the very, very great and honourable judges of this court".
Justice Bhat said his career as an advocate and later, as a judge has been extremely rewarding.
"I wish to record my gratitude to all my colleagues who have shown nothing but great warmth and cordiality and to the members of this great bar for the cooperation and the daily quest for justice," he said.
"And I wish that everyone adopts an approach of enquiry, fierce independence, empathy and compassion. I think these are hallmarks of not only a judge but every good human being and every legal practitioner," he added.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta also highlighted Justice Bhat's immense contribution to the judiciary and wished him on his last working day.
Supreme Court Bar Association president and senior advocate Adish Aggarwala wished Justice Bhat good luck on behalf of the body.
Several other advocates also wished Justice Bhat on his last working day.
During his over four-year tenure, Justice Bhat was part of several landmark verdicts. He was also part of the five-judge Constitution Bench that refused to accord legal recognition to same-sex marriages earlier this week.
In the same-sex marriage case, Justice Bhat, who authored an 89-page judgement for himself and Justice Hima Kohli, had disagreed with certain conclusions arrived at by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud in his separate verdict, including on applicability of adoption rules to queer couples.
He was also part of a five-judge Constitution Bench that had upheld last year the 10 per cent reservation introduced in 2019 for economically weaker sections (EWS) in admissions and government jobs that excluded the poor among the SC, ST and OBC categories.
Born on October 21, 1958 in Mysuru, Justice Bhat obtained his LL.B degree from the Campus Law Centre, University of Delhi, in 1982. He enrolled as an advocate with the Delhi Bar Council in 1982.
He was appointed as an additional judge of the Delhi High Court on July 16, 2004 and as a permanent judge on February 20, 2006.
He was appointed as the chief justice of the Rajasthan High Court on May 5, 2019, before moving to the Supreme Court.
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Bank account in Ramgarh tracked for fraudulent fund transactions across 24 states, 4 arrested
Ramgarh (Jharkhand) (PTI): Jharkhand police on Thursday said it has unearthed a network of interstate cyber frauds and arrested four miscreants for fraudulent transactions through a bank account in Ramgarh district after complaints of 274 suspected transactions in 24 states.
The states where complaints for fraudulent transactions were registered included Maharashtra, Karnataka, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh.
The action followed inputs received through 'Samanvaya portal', a centralised, web-based platform launched by the Union Home Ministry to curb cybercrime.
"We arrested four cyber miscreants after a current account with Kuju (Ramgarh) branch of the State Bank of India was found to have registered suspected financial transactions in 24 states with the help of the Pratibimba portal of the Home Ministry through the Samanvaya portal," Ramgarh Superintendent of Police Mukesh Kumar Lunayat said.
During the probe, police found that the account was opened under the MSME Udyam Registration scheme in the name of Shree Ganesh Enterprises, he said.
The account had been linked to as many as 274 complaints from different states related to cyber fraud and illegal fund transfers.
The registered proprietors of the enterprise were identified as Rahul Gupta (37), Ravi Kumar Verma (34), and Ajay Sharma (33), all residents of Ramgarh district, a statement from the Ramgarh police said.
During interrogation, Rahul Gupta and Ravi Kumar Verma revealed that they had opened multiple current accounts at the behest of Ritesh Agrawal alias Munna (40) and Sonu Kumar Jha (34).
They admitted receiving Rs 1.2 lakh in exchange for facilitating the opening of these accounts.
"The accused further confessed to sharing OTPs, activating mobile banking services, and handing over control of the accounts to the main operators through WhatsApp and Telegram groups. These accounts were then allegedly used to route fraudulent transactions.
Police said mobile data analysis of the accused led to the recovery of crucial digital evidence, including details of SIM cards, bank accounts, passbooks, ATM cards, QR code scanners, Aadhaar cards, and PAN cards shared through messaging platforms.
A total of four accused have been arrested so far and sent to judicial custody.
A case has been registered at the Cyber Crime Police Station under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) 2023 and Sections 66C and 66D of the Information Technology Act, 2000.
Further investigation is underway, the police said.
