NEWS

The Supreme Court on Friday lashed out at the Centre for rendering 15 major tribunals defunct by not filling the large number of vacancies of presiding officers, judicial and technical members for long and gave a 10-day time to “clearly specify whether it wanted to continue tribunals or close them down”.

Pointing out the vacancies of 20 presiding officers, 110 judicial members, 111 technical members in tribunals, a bench of Chief Justice N V Ramana and Justice Surya Kant said, “Our own suspicion is that some lobbies are working to ensure these vacancies are not filled... We do not know what is the stand of the government on this sorry state of affairs.”

There was no sign of let up as trading of charges continued between the treasury and Opposition in the Lok Sabha with the introduction of two Bills amid the din and repeated adjournments. While the government alleged that the Opposition did not have any intention to debate any issue but a “mindset to create disorder”, the Opposition maintained that they wanted a discussion on the Pegasus issue and intensified efforts to put up a fiercer offence.

The Opposition MPs were also agitated over their protests not shown or heard on the Lok Sabha TV and had earlier complained to Speaker Om Birla. On Thursday, the television screens placed inside the House were showing the protesting MPs and their placards but the MPs later realised that the telecast version had blocked their protests.

Nearly a month after he held the first meeting with his new council of ministers, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to hold a three-day conclave next week ahead of several key state polls.

In their first major meet since the inception of PM Modi’s bigger and bolder cabinet where he dropped 12 key leaders in a bid to revitalise his government, the new ministers will meet for three days from Tuesday for three days after 6 pm in the parliament annex, top BJP sources said.

Two days after he rejigged the entire cabinet - his first reshuffle in his second term - PM Modi had on July 8 chaired the first meeting of his new council of ministers and stressed the need to focus on the government’s last-mile delivery, keeping the principles of Deen Dayal Upadhyaya in mind.

Two years after the abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution, which revoked the special status of Jammu and Kashmir, the situation in the Valley remains peaceful on August 5, according to officials.

While most shops in parts of Srinagar are shut, including the Lal Chowk city centre, shopkeepers in many areas have alleged that the police were forcing them to keep their establishments open. Many of them claimed that the police broke open the locks of their shops, news agency PTI reported.

The public transport, too, remained off the roads in several districts, according to officials. However, shops in other parts of Kashmir such as the Anantnag district and parts of Budgam, Ganderbal and Kupwara were open.