Vol. 65 No. 226 | FRIDAY | JANUARY 21, 2022 | 1 4 P a g e s | SC: Quota not at Schools reopen 24th with jabs odds with merit OVER 75% HNIS PLAN TO BUY RS 5 CRORE PROPERTIES UTTAR PRADESH POLL TO BE REFERENDUM ON YOGI RULE SANJAY JOG Mumbai Court upholds Jan 7 order allowing reservation for OBCs in NEET admissions for 2021-22 FPJ NEWS SERVICE New Delhi Observing that reservation is not at odds with merit but furthers the distributive impact of social justice, the Supreme Court on Thursday upheld its January 7 order allowing reservation for Other Backward Classes (OBC) in the NEET undergraduate and postgraduate admissions for 2021-22. High scores are not the sole criteria for merit, which must be seen in the context of social and economic background. Therefore, role of reservation cannot be negated in remedying backwardness, a bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and AS Bopanna concluded. The court also observed that the definition of merit cannot be narrowed down to performance in competitive exams; the merit of a person was a sum of “lived experiences” and his or her struggle to overcome cultural and social setbacks. Open competitive examinations only provide formal equality of opportunities but are not reflective of excellence, capability and potential of an individual, Undertrial is found hanging near jail toilet FAISAL TANDEL Mumbai A 35-year-old undertrial was found hanging near the toilet of the new barrack in Arthur Road Jail early on Wednesday Jail sources . claimed that he was depressed over family issues and had confided so to an inmate. Sources said the deceased had been identified as Mohammed Hanif Mohammed Iqbal Shaikh, 35. “Shaikh was spotted hanging by another inmate from the barrack, who informed the authorities. He had reportedly tied a kerchief to the toilet window and had hanged himself using a blanket. The bathroom tap was kept running to give the impression that he was using the bathroom,” said a police officer from the prison. Police said Shaikh had been arrested in a theft case by the JJ Marg police. “He was sent to jail custody and after a negative RT-PCR test report, he was quarantined on December 18, 2021. In the last week of December, he was shifted to Arthur Road Jail. He was then kept in the new barrack,” said the police officer. N B Vayachal, Superintendent, Arthur Road Jail, has confirmed the incident. “All procedures were carried out in the presence of a magistrate, judge, tehsildar and local police,” Vayachal said. CONTD. ON NATION PAGE High scores are not the sole criteria for merit, which must be seen in the context of social and economic background. Definition of merit cannot be narrowed down to performance in competitive exams; the merit of a person was a sum of “lived experiences” and his or her struggle to overcome cultural and social setbacks. Justice Chandrachud said. The court also reasoned that affluence of certain individual members of a socially backward group or ‘creamy layer’ could not be used against the entire group to deny it the benefits of reservation. “It may be that individual members of an identified group which are being given reservation are not backward or individuals belonging to non-identified group may share characteristics of a backward group with members of an identified group. The individual difference may be a result of privilege, fortune and circumstances but it cannot be used to negate the role of circumstances,” the court explained. CONTD. ON NATION PAGE THE TAG OF TELEVISION WILL ALWAYS BE A PART OF ME: AAMNA SHARIF EDIT The Maharashtra cabinet has given the go-ahead for schools to reopen on January 24, Public Health Minister Rajesh Tope announced on Thursday . “From January 24, all schools in the state, from preprimary to Class 12 will be reopened as it was approved by the state cabinet today (Thursday). It will be done in consultation with the district collectors, the district guardian ministers, chief executive officers and education officers,” said Tope. Further, Tope announced that vaccination for children in the 15-18 years age group would be launched in schools with adequate care, after their reopening from January 24. The issue was discussed at the cabinet which gave its consent for the same at its meeting held today . “A presentation was made on the corona situation at the Cabinet meeting. The cabinet suggested that emphasis should be placed on the vaccination of both eligible beneficiaries and children in the 15-18 years age bracket. Even today some , districts in the state are lagging in the administration of the first and second vaccine doses. It was decided that the divisional commissioners should pay special attention to increasing the pace of vaccination in these districts,” he said. The cabinet’s approval for allowing CONTD. ON NATION PAGE Plan to resume colleges SANJAY JOG Mumbai Maharashtra Higher and Technical Education Minister Uday Samant has said that his department would soon send a proposal for the reopening of colleges to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray Samant’s state. ment on Thursday was in response to the rising demand from various organisations and academicians. “I will discuss the reopening of colleges in the state with CM Uddhav Thackeray and a proposal will be for- warded to him for final approval,” said Samant. His latest announcement came days after he had said that non-agricultural and technical universities colleges in the state would be shut till February 15. Samant, who had held meetings with divisional commissioners, district collectors and vice chancellors, had then said that the decision had been taken for the safety of the students and it would also be applicable to deemed, private and self-financed universities in the state. CONTD. ON NATION PAGE Masks banned for under-5, COVID METER use of antivirals strict no-no 3,17,532 9,287 New Delhi Use of antivirals or monoclonal antibodies is not recommended for those less than 18 years of age, irrespective of severity of Covid infection, and if steroids are used, they should be tapered over 10 to 14 days, subject to clinical improvement, the government said on Thursday reports PTI. , In the 'Revised Comprehensive Guidelines for Management of COVID-19 in Children and Adolescents (below 18 years)', the health ministry also said that masks are not recommended for children aged five years and below. Those aged 6-11 years may wear it depending on the Fresh cases in 24 hours, the highest in 8 months ability of the child to use a mask safely and appropriately under direct supervision of parents, it said. Those aged 12 and above should wear a mask under the same conditions as adults, the ministry said. The guidelines were reviewed by a group of experts in view of the current surge that is mainly attributed to the Omicron variant of the coronavirus. The ministry has categorised cases as asymptomatic, mild, moderate and severe. In asymptomatic and mild cases, antimicrobials are not recommended for therapy or prophylaxis. CONTD. ON NATION PAGE Samajwadi Party he an, nounced that he will contest UP polls on his own. Until now, he has announced candidates in four dozen assembly seats in the state and hopes to play the spoiler by cornering the Dalit votes, many of which went into the BJP kitty in the last Assembly election. Feeling let down, Azad accused Akhilesh Yadav of ignoring Dalits and not accommodating them in the alliance CONTD. ON NATION PAGE BHAVNA UCHIL Mumbai Ravan to challenge Yogi in Gorakhpur RASHMI SHARMA / Lucknow Failing to find a berth in an SP-led Opposition alliance, 35-year-old Dalit leader Chandra Shekhar Azad, alias Ravan, has decided to take on Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in Gorakhpur. The flamboyant leader has often said that his fight is against BJP/RSS ideology . After the lawyer-turned activist’s political outfit, the Azad Samaj Party failed to , forge an alliance with the 40,000+ Fresh cases of Omicron, 491 deaths in a day 3 years’ RI for man who flashed kids A special court on Wednesday sentenced a 32-year-old washerman to three years of rigorous imprisonment for sexually harassing two girls aged 9 and 10 in 2019, by flashing them. He had committed the offence even as another case lodged in 2017 was pending against him for sexual offence on a child. CONTD. ON NATION PAGE Fresh cases in KERALA with positivity rate of 40% 5708 New cases in MUMBAI 12 SC JUDGES ARE DOWN W ith several judges in the top court infected with Covid-19, the functioning has been badly hit. Chief Justice N.V. Ramana waits till evening to ascertain which judges are available next day for constituting different benches. Instead of threejudge Benches, he has resorted to setting up Benches with two judges. In the course of a mentioning by senior lawyer C.A. Sundram for an early hearing of the matter of the Sterlite Industry, Justice D.Y. Chandrachud said the situation was not encouraging to entertain his request. On Thursday, the Supreme Court functioned with just 20. Can’t claim right to have sex with spouse WILL EXCEPTION TO RAPE LAW BE UNCONSTITUTIONAL IF IT'S GENDER-NEUTRAL, ASKS COURT W New Delhi hile hearing a batch of petitions seeking criminalisation of marital rape, Justice C Hari Shankar of the Delhi High Court said on Thursday “Even in a , marriage, howsoever elevated the expectation of sexual relationship, you cannot claim the right to have sexual intercourse with a partner.” To this, amicus curiae Rebecca John, who is assisting the court, added, “There is a fair expectation of sexual relationship in a marriage. Expectation cannot be penalised. The spouse has a right to resort to civil remedies. But if the expectation becomes a physical act based on coercion and force, then that sexual act must become an offence.” “Not every man in a marital relationship is sought to be punished. Not every act in a relationship is sought to be punished. What is sought to be brought under the purview [of law] is the act of sexual relationship with wife against her consent,” she said, reports India Today’s news portal. PTI ADDS: The court was deliberating upon the challenge raised to the exception under the rape law that protects a husband from prosecution for a non-consensual sexual act with his wife and asked whether the same could be unconstitutional if the law was gender-neutral. Under the exception given in Section 375 of the IPC, sexual intercourse or sexual acts by a man with his wife, the wife not being under fifteen years of age, is not rape. "Suppose section 375 (definition of rape) of the IPC was gender-neutral. According to you will the exception be unconstitutional even then?" Justice C Hari Shankar asked the amicus curiae. To this, senior advocate Rebecca John said she will endeavour to answer it on Friday "Let me nuance it. I . will try to answer both questions one way or the other. I will come back to answer these questions tomorrow," John said. She added that if the exception goes, all that the court is doing is, one, upholding bodily integrity of woman; two, giving fair play to the definition and, three, putting people to notice that this is no longer part of prohibition and no longer gives you immunity "Therefore, a marital part. ner's 'no' must be respected. We are not talking about trivial cases. Rape by itself is a serious offence," she said. CONTD. ON NATION PAGE 280c. 180c. Sunrise: 07:15 am Sunset : 06:25 pm ONLINE OPTION ALSO OPEN CHAITALI DHARAMSHI / Mumbai After Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray accepted the proposal by the education department to reopen physical classes in Maharashtra for pre-primary and Classes 1 to 12, the BMC education department late on Thursday issued the official circular for reopening of Mumbai schools from January 24. Parents who are not willing to send their kids to school can opt for online classes. For schools, it is mandatory to conduct both modes, the circular said. Principals from around the city are glad about the decision and are completely prepared to reopen. “Logistics is not an issue. We are prepared for reopening as we were expecting a decision on this. Students are going to be overwhelmed meeting their peers and teachers and we can- not let our guard down. To be able to settle them by following protocols, we would like to reopen them in phases. Settle two classes at a time and after a gap of 2 to 3 days, call the next set of classes,” said Prachi Ranadive, Principal, Shishuvan International School. CONTD. ON NATION PAGE Aaditya, Awhad say ‘no’ to salt pan land development SANJAY JOG Mumbai Maharashtra Environment Minister Aaditya Thackeray and Housing Minister Jitendra Awhad have strongly opposed the opening up of salt pan lands spread over 5,500 acres in Mumbai for residential and commercial development. Their opposition came to the fore after the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) received a bid for the appointment of a consultant to prepare a plan for the development of affordable housing on salt pan lands in the city This is a crucial issue in . the run-up to the upcoming elections to the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation and also for the adjoining Thane and Navi Mumbai civic bodies. Incidentally the Congress, NCP government in 2004 had appointed the MMRDA as the implementing agency for development of salt pan lands in Mumbai. In Mumbai, salt pans are largely lo- cated in central Mumbai at Wadala, in the eastern suburbs at Turbhe, Kanjurmarg, Bhandup, Nahur and Mulund and in the western suburbs of Malvani and Dahisar and in the distant suburbs of Mira-Bhayandar and Virar in Palghar district. “Being asked about allowing residential/ commercial construction on salt pan lands, I reiterate that there will be no residential or commercial construction allowed on salt pan lands. There is more than enough space other than these lands to construct on", Aaditya tweeted. According to Awhad, “Salt pan lands in Mumbai should not be given for construction purpose, residential or commercial, it will prove disastrous for Mumbai.” He further noted, “The salt pan lands come under the Central government but development on them will need permission from the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation and the state Housing Department. I have held discussions with Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and Environment Minister Aaditya Thackeray and there was a unanimous decision to save these salt pan lands and deny any proposal for construction on them.” CONTD. ON NATION PAGE