WEDNESDAY Senior-most Supreme Court judge Justice Nuthalapati Venkata Ramana was on Tuesday appointed as the next Chief Justice of India 07 APRIL, 2021 JUSTICE RAMANA WILL BE CJI TILL AUGUST 26, 2022 epaper.morningstandard.in facebook.com/TheMorningStandard twitter.com/TheMornStandard APRIL 24 WILDFIRE HC SUMMONS FOREST CHIEF JUSTICE NV RAMANA WILL TAKE OVER AS CHIEF JUSTICE OF INDIA Blaze engulfs 1,793.48 hectares in 1,288 incidents this year in Uttarakhand CHIEF JUSTICE OF DELHI HC FOR A YEAR A CAPITAL VIEW OF NEWS PAGE 8  NEW DELHI  J8.00  PAGES 12 Born on August 27, 1957 into an agricultural family in Andhra, Ramana was enrolled as an advocate on February 10, 1983. He was appointed a permanent judge of the AP High Court on June 27, 2000, elevated as the Chief Justice of Delhi HC on September 2, 2013 and appointed a Supreme Court judge on February 17, 2014 Polling ends in Assam with the third phase; Kerala and Puducherry also complete voting; Trinamool supremo Mamata accuses central forces of intimidating voters and EC of overlooking the excesses despite repeated plaints SPORADIC VIOLENCE IN BENGAL EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ Kolkata/Guwahati/Kochi JUSTICE RAMANA RULED CJI COMES UNDER RTI ACT EXPRESS NEWS SERVCIE duct speedy trial of legislators in all states. Stressing the need to have transparJUSTICE N V Ramana on ency Justice Ramana in one , Tuesday was appointed the of his rulings said that the 48th Chief Justice of India office of the CJI comes unby President Ram Nath der RTI. Kovind. In another ruling, a bench Outgoing CJI Sharad headed by him said the reArvind Bobde, who is retir- striction against grant of ing on April 23, had recom- bail in a stringent law like mended Justice Ramana’s the Unlawful Activities (Prename as his successor, which vention) Act, 1967 per-se t h e P r e s i d e n t d u l y does not oust the ability of accepted. Constitutional Courts to On April 24 the next CJI grant bail on grounds of viowill be sworn into lation of a fundaoffice and he will Restored net mental right like have a term till Authe right to speedy in J&K gust 26, 2022. trial. Through his Justice Ramana A constitution had served as the judgments, Justice bench headed by Ramana had acting chief justice him also rejected echoed for the of Andhra Pradesh the curative petiHigh Court and the rights of common tions filed by the chief justice of citizens of J&K and convicts in the 2012 Delhi High Court, had ordered lifting D e c e m b e r before being elevat- of restrictions on gangrape and murinternet in the ed as a judge of the der case, finally wake of the Supreme Court of paving the way for abrogation of India. their execution. Article 370 Through his I n N ove m b e r judgments, Justice 2019, a bench led Ramana had echoed for the by Justice Ramana had orrights of common citizens dered floor test for then Maof Jammu and Kashmir and harashtra CM Devendra had ordered lifting of re- Fadnavis to prove his majorstrictions on internet in the ity in the House saying there wake of the abrogation of is a “possibility of horse Article 370 of the Constitu- trading” in case of delay . tion and said that indefinite N V Ramana was born in internet ban in Jammu and an agricultural family at the Kashmir is not only a viola- Ponnavaram village in Andtion of the telecom rules but hra Pradesh’s Krishna disalso of the freedom of speech trict. Justice Ramana’s focus and expression guaranteed is also to make law affordaby the Constitution. ble for everyone especially He also directed setting up for people coming from poor of fast track courts to con- background. @ New Delhi AMID sporadic violence and high voter turnout, the third of the eight-phase West Bengal elections concluded on Tuesday in three southern districts, known to be the ruling Trinamool’s forts. In Assam, polling in the third and final phase crossed 80% and the process was by and large peaceful although there were some stray incidents of violence. Kerala recorded a high voter percentage (74.02%), though it was a tad less than the previous Assembly elections in 2016 (77.35%). In West Bengal, actor-turnedBJP candidate Papia Adhikary in Uluberia South was manhandled by alleged Trinamool supporters when she went to meet an injured party worker in a hospital. “The blatant misuse of Central forces continues unabated. Despite us repeatedly raising this issue, @ECISVEEP continues to be a mute spectator while men in uniform are being misused at several places to openly intimidate TMC voters & influence many to vote in favour of one party ,” Mamata tweeted. On the flip side, Trinamool candidate Sujata Mondal in Arambagh, Hooghly, wife of BJP MP Saumitra Khan from Bishnupur, who defected to the ruling party two months ago, was surrounded and chased away by alleged BJP supporters. Her security guard, too, was allegedly assaulted. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee alleged that the Central forces were intimidating her party’s workers and accused the Election Commission of having turned a blind eye to it. In Assam, the police had to use force when two groups of INSIDE Justice Ramana will take over as the 48th CJI on April 24 and will retire on August 26, 2022. He has dealt with several high-profile cases in the apex court. A five-judge constitution bench headed by him had in March last year declined to refer to a larger seven-judge bench a batch of pleas challenging the Constitutional validity of the Centre’s decision to abrogate Article 370 A man brings an 110-year-old voter to a polling booth in Bengal’s Howrah on Tuesday; voters come with precautions to cast ballot at a booth in Assam | BIBHASH LODH & PTI Fight over Lord people clashed over some issues at a polling station in Golakganj constituency in Dhubri district. At Guptipara in Bilasipara West constituency, also in Dhubri district, a group of people attacked security personnel over the distribution of free masks. The police restored order by resorting to caning. Later, all parties came EVM malfunctioning was reported from several polling centres but after the machines were replaced, voting resumed there, an Election official said without sharing the number of units replaced. In Kerala, the Sabarimala issue dominated the day’s political discourse, with the LDF and the UDF trading charges over whom Lord Ayyappa would support during polling. CENTRAL FORCES ASSAULTING PEOPLE, ASKING TO VOTE BJP: DIDI Tarun Bajaj is new revenue secretary, Ajay Seth in DEA EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ New Delhi IN a major bureaucratic reshuffle in the Union finance ministry, the government on Wednesday appointed economic affairs secretary Tarun Bajaj as revenue secretary and brought in Bangalore Metro chief Ajay Seth as the new secretary in the Department of Economic Affairs. Bajaj, a 1988-batch Haryanacadre IAS officer who has served in the P M O, h a s played a big role in the ‘AatmanirbTarun Bajaj har Bharat’ package. Seth, a 1987-batch IAS officer of the Karnataka cadAjay Seth re, became the managing director of Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation since 2018. He has also served in the health & family welfare and the finance departments in the state. Seth is returning to central deputation after 13 years. He was an advisor with Asian Development Bank from 2004 to 2008. Prior to that, he had held the post of director in the economic affairs department. 4EVMs, 4 VVPAT machines found at Trinamool leader’s house, poll official suspended The UDF and the LDF were engaged in a war of words over Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s remarks regarding Lord Ayyappa. Tamil Nadu records over 70% voting, less than 1% EVM malfunctioned B A N B U S E LV A N @ Chennai DESPITE the sudden surge in Covid cases, Tamil Nadu recorded 71.79 per cent polling, largely in keeping with the tradition of staying well above the 70-mark. In 2011 and 2016, the State recorded an impressive voter turnout of over 78 per cent and 74 per cent respectively Of the 6.29 crore eligible vot. ers in the State, 4.51 crore exercised their franchise. Though the Election Commission framed new rules and provided a few extra facilities to maintain social distancing — for instance, a whopping 88,937 polling booths were set up this time as against 66,316 in 2016 — there were reports from across the State of voters not using them. This election also took a big leap in improving transparency by ensuring that VVPAT machines were installed at all polling booths, a first in Assembly elections. However, complaints about malfunctioning EVMs and VVPAT machines were reported. As many as 559 VVPAT machines, 174 ballot units, and 134 control units had to be replaced. “The failure rate was hardly one per cent, and the entire election went off peaceful- ASSAM DEPUTY SPEAKER QUESTIONED, FIVE COPS SUSPENDED FOR FIRING ly said Chief Electoral Officer ,” Satyabrata Sahoo. Asked about Opposition’s allegations that some VVPATs were showing only one particular party’s symbol no matter what button was pressed on the EVM, Sahoo said the allegations were “false”. While a TV channel reported a booth-capturing attempt in Velachery Sa, hoo dismissed it saying no such incident happened. Asked about the complaint filed by Thondamuthur DMK candidate claiming he was being prevented from entering a booth, Sahoo said he had sought a detailed report from the DEO. MAMATA’S SHARE IN MINORITY VOTES IS SLIPPING AWAY: MODI TARGET ROAD REDESIGN PROJECT Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal directs officials to meet govt’s ambitious road redesigning projects by 2023 deadline | P5 P7 Night curfew till month-end after infections spike in city EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ New Delhi AS an emergency measure to control the surge in Covid-19 cases, the Delhi government has imposed night curfew across the national capital. Unusually heavy traffic was seen at several places in the city post 8.30 pm on Tuesday as people scrambled to get home before the curfew began at 10 pm. Barring essential service providers, all public movement has been between 10 at night till 5 in the mor ning. District magistrates have been ordered to strictly implement the curfew orders. “It has been observed that there has been a sudden increase in Covid-19 cases in recent past along with high positivity rate and therefore, it is felt that night curfew needs to be imposed in the territory of NCT of Delhi from 10 pm to 05 am,” said the order issued by the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA). The orders which are effective immediately will continue till the end of this month after which a decision will be taken depending on the situation. Delhi is one of the cities which is showing a worrying upward trajectory in daily number of cases in country The positivity . rate is also high in the city . During the curfew hours, buses, metro, autos, taxis and other modes of transport will be allowed to ferry only those people who are exempted. Departments providing essential services remain exempted. Meanwhile, some residents said there was a need for better implementation of guidelines and heftier fine against violators during the day instead of imposing a night curfew when most of the population is P4 already indoors. Next 4 weeks to be very critical, 5,100 1,03,453 2,340 17,332 jab age cap won’t be lifted soon DELHI COVID WATCH Positive Cases Tests Conducted Recovered Active Cases E X P R ESS N E WS S E RV I C E @ New Delhi Security personnel stand guard at Connaught Place as night curfew was imposed by Delhi government to curb Covid spread on Tuesday | PARVEEN NEGI THE Centre on Tuesday warned the next four weeks are going to be very critical as the Covid-19 situation is worsening faster than it did during the first wave. The Union health ministry also stressed the need to ramp up vaccination while indicating that the age cap for taking the jab won’t be relaxed anytime soon despite it being demanded by some states, since vaccine available is “finite”. Even Western countries have conducted vaccination in phases, Union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan reasoned. “The basic aim is to reduce FLIGHT OF CAPITAL India Inc wary as US moots global minimum corp tax E X P R E SS N E WS S E R V I C E @ New Delhi WHILE the US is leading an international effort to create a global minimum tax on corporate profits, India Inc says the move will have not have any impact on India. On Monday, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen called for a global minimum tax that would apply to multinational corporations, regardless of wh e re t h e y l o c at e t h e i r headquarters. “Together, we can use a global minimum tax to make sure the global economy thrives based on a more level-playing field in the taxation of multinational cor- porations,” she said, adding that it would prevent a “race to the bottom” in which countries cut tax to entice companies. She said this is aimed at “making sure that governments have stable tax systems that raise sufficient revenue to invest in essential public goods and respond to crises.” With the EU and the IMF also supporting the move, experts believe countries like India that have cut tax to attract multinational companies would come under pressure to raise rates. On September 20, 2019, India had announced a massive tax rate cut, lowering the base corporate tax rate to 22% from 30%, and to 15% from 25% for new manufacturing companies. However, India Inc thinks it is not an easy idea to implement. “It is easier said than done. It will be like asking countries to give up their global competitive edge,” said a senior member of the Confederation of Indian Industry . death through vaccination. The other aim is to protect your healthcare system. The aim is never to administer the vaccine to those who want it but to those who need it.” NITI Aayog Member (Health) Dr V K Paul said Covid-appropriate behaviour like wearing masks and staying away from crowds have to be followed in a campaign mode. However, that awareness is yet to sink in, going by the crowds in poll bound states. Officials said the situation can still be controlled with people’s participation. Maharashtra, Punjab and Chhattisgarh still remain states P8 of maximum concern. EXPRESS READ Farmers block BJP MP’s car, break windscreen Kurukshetra: Protesting farmers on Tuesday blocked a BJP MP’s car, smashing its windscreen as he tried to leave a party worker’s home. Kurukshetra MP Nayab Singh Saini said police had a tough time getting him away. In two separate incidents, farmers raised slogans against Women and Child Development Minister Kamlesh Dhanda and state BJP chief O P Dhankar.