November 10th, 2012

ALB20121111

Abhyaas Law Bulletin

For the quintessential CLAT aspirant
The Scoop Of The Month The Editors Column

UPA goes for a major Cabinet Reshuffle

Dear Student, Welcome to the November edition of the Abhyaas Law Bulletin. Ending months of speculation over the proposed Cabinet reshuffle, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh finally made the expansion cum reshuffle of his Cabinet. Many new faces were inducted while the younger ones were given important responsibilities. Andhra Pradesh got a lions share and is now represented by 11 MPs in the cabinet. Arvind Kejriwal continued his attack on the politicians and exposed the alleged shady deals of both Robert Vadra and BJP President Nitin Gadkari. While the Government ordered an enquiry into Nitin Gadkaris Purti group, the Haryana Government gave a clean chit to Robert Vadra. Kejriwal also alleged that Mukesh Ambani was influencing the PM and he chooses the ministers than the PM himself. Barrack Obama became the only president of the United States to win a second term under difficult circumstances. He defeated his Republican rival Mitt Romney by an impressive margin in the electoral college by winning most of the swing states. The Nobel Prizes for 2012 are announced and we will look at the complete list of winners next month. Happy Reading !

Salman Khurshid and Pawan Kumar Bansal emerged as the two big winners from Prime Minister Manmohan Singhs revamp of his Council of Ministers on 28th October.
Mr. Khurshid, the new External Affairs Minister, is now in the charmed circle, entering the key Cabinet Committee on Security and becoming a part of the big four in the government, along with those who hold the Finance, Home and Defence portfolios. Mr. Bansal, the first Congress Railway Minister in 17 years (if one omits C.P. Joshis one month), will now preside over the reforms the lifeline of the economy is crying out for. But the reshuffle also saw a significant loser. S.Jaipal Reddys move from Petroleum and Natural Gas to Science and Technology is being read by his friends as a punishment for his standing up to a major industrial house; by his detractors as his just deserts for holding up decision-making. Facelift In his attempt to give his government a facelift in the run-up to 2014 as the Prime Minister described it ,he sent out four key messages: one, he was willing to give major responsibilities to younger ministers; two, he was keen on moving reforms forward; three, he sent a positive signal to Andhra Pradesh, inducting five ministers and (Contd)

(Rakesh Dubbudu)
Index: Page 2: National Page 3: National

Page 4: Spotlight

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November 10th, 2012 National: elevating a sixth to the Cabinet to counter the negative impact of Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddys growing influence and the Telangana movement on the Congress base in the State. And, four, by appointing a Muslim foreign minister, he underscored Indias essential plurality. Asked about his objective in the changes made, the Prime Minister said he had tried to put together a combination of youth, experience and relevance of portfolios. Complete List of Ministers: Shri A. K. Antony - Minister of Defence Shri Sharad Pawar - Minister of Agriculture Minister of Food Processing Industries Shri P. Chidambaram - Ministry of Finance Shri Ghulam Nabi Azad - Minister of Health and Family Welfare Shri Sushil Kumar Shinde - Minister of Home Affairs Shri M. Veerappa Moily - Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Dr. Farooq Abdullah - Minister of New and Renewable Energy Shri S. Jaipal Reddy - Minister of Science and Technology, Minister of Earth Sciences Shri Kamal Nath - Minister of Urban Development, Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Shri Ajit Singh - Minister of Civil Aviation Shri Vayalar Ravi - Minister of Overseas Indian Affairs Shri Mallikarjun Kharge - Minister of Labour and Employment Shri Kapil Sibal - Minister of Communications and Information Technology Shri Anand Sharma - Minister of Commerce and Industry & Minister of Textiles Shri C. P. Joshi - Minister of Road Transport and Highways Kumari Selja - Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment Shri G. K. Vasan - Minister of Shipping Shri Pawan K. Bansal - Minister of Railways Shri M. K. Alagiri - Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers Shri Praful Patel - Minister of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises Shri Shriprakash Jaiswal - Minister of Coal Shri Salman Khursheed - Minister of External Affairs Shri V. Kishore Chandra Deo - Minister of Tribal Affairs, Minister of Panchayati Raj Shri Beni Prasad Verma - Minister of Steel Shri Jairam Ramesh - Minister of Rural Development Shri K. Rahman Khan - Minister of Minority Affairs Shri Dinsha J. Patel - Minister of Mines Shri Ajay Maken - Minister of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation Shri M. M. Pallam Raju - Minister of Human Resource Development Shri Ashwani Kumar - Minister of Law and Justice Shri Harish Rawat - Minister of Water Resources Smt. Chandresh Kumari Katoch - Minister of Culture Ministers of State (Independent Charge) Smt. Krishna Tirath - Ministry of Women and Child Development Prof. K. V. Thomas - Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Shri Srikant Jena - Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation and Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers Smt. Jayanthi Natrajan - Ministry of Environment and Forests Shri Paban Singh Ghatowar - Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region and Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs Shri Jyotiraditya Madhavrao Scindia - Ministry of Power Shri K. H. Muniappa - Ministry of Micro Small and Medium Enterprises Shri Bharatsinh Solanki - Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation Shri Sachin Pilot - Ministry of Corporate Affairs Shri Jitendra Singh - Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports and Minister of State of the Ministry of Defence Shri Manish Tewari - Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Dr. K. Chiranjeevi - Ministry of Tourism

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November 10th, 2012 Black money probe: first international success for ED For the first time, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has been able to convince Switzerland to give it access to attach the accounts of an Indian company, City Limouzines, under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The company was allegedly involved in running a racket of ponzi schemes in various cities and has stashed away crores of rupees in black money in its Swiss bank accounts. The company used to offer astronomically high interest rates on investments and plundered investors of crores of rupees. The ED has attached two bank accounts held by Sayed Mohamed Masood, chairperson of City Limouzines and other companies of the City Group. The balance in both the accounts is $1.25 million. Officials said huge transactions took place from both the accounts. They said more domestic and international attachments were likely in the near future. So far, during the investigation of the cases against the directors of the City group of companies and Mr. Masood, the ED has issued 14 attachment orders and attached Rs.130-crore worth of movable and immovable assets in the name of the directors and the Masood family. Apart from Mr. Masood, his wife Chand Masood Sayed, daughter Jabeen Masood Sayed and son Jibran Masood were also found to own property worth crores of rupees, now being seized by the ED. The group of companies was under investigation in various States. Mr. Masood and the directors of the company have been booked for cheating and criminal conspiracy. Even the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Mumbai Police had been conducting investigation against the companies for more than two years. ED officials said the breakthrough was achieved after they were able to convince Switzerland that the money in the accounts were proceeds of crime. Honour for Aamir, Star India CEO for Satyamev Jayate The National Commission for Scheduled Castes will honour actor Aamir Khan and Star India CEO Uday Shankar for their efforts to create awareness on social discrimination through television show Satyamev Jayate.Aamir Khan made his debut on the small screen with the social issue-based show where he highlighted female foeticide, dowry, inter-caste marriage and other issues. The show, which was on air for 13 weeks on Star India, was a narrative of real stories from across the country that touched millions of people. Supreme Court declines to interfere with sale of liquor by State The Supreme Court declined to interfere with an order of the Madras High Court dismissing a public interest writ petition questioning Tamil Nadus liquor policy of taking over retail liquor vending in the State through TASMAC. A Bench of Justices D.K. Jain and Madan B. Lokur dismissed a special leave petition filed by Traffic K.R. Ramaswamy against the High Court judgment. Senior counsel M.N. Krishnamani, appearing for Mr. Ramaswamy submitted that the State government through TASMAC directly involving in marketing and selling of liquor violated Article 47 of the Constitution, dealing with Directive Principles of State Policy. (Article 47 says: the State shall endeavour to bring about prohibition of the consumption, except for medicinal purposes, of intoxicating drinks and drugs which are injurious to health. Justice Jain asked the counsel, where is the constitutional prohibition {under Article 47} that the State should not engage in sale of liquor. If you go by the Directive Principles, then no public servant can drink. Can it be done? Otherwise no public sector can function. When counsel expressed concern that the State had opened liquor shops at every nook and corner in the State and this was responsible for increasing number of accidents due to drinking, Justice Jain observed in lighter vein there is a liquor shop in the name of every God. Supreme Court orders release of journalist held for blast on Israeli diplomats vehicle The Supreme Court ordered the release on bail of journalist Sayed Mohammad Ahmed Kazmi, arrested on March 7 in connection with the explosion in the vehicle carrying the wife of an Israel Embassy diplomat in the capital on February 13. He was remanded in custody under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. A three-judge Bench of Chief Justice Altamas Kabir and Justices S.S. Nijjar and J. Chelameswar granted bail to Kazmi, subject to the satisfaction of the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) upon such conditions as may be deemed fit and proper, including surrender of passport, reporting to the local police station, and not leaving the city limits where the appellant would be residing.

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November 10th, 2012

This month in pictures:

Justice Sharad Bobde was sworn in as the CJ of Madhya Pradesh High Court.

Justice Yatindra Singh took over as the CJ of Chattisgarh High Court .

Dr. C.L.Laxmipathi Gowda, scientist of (ICRISAT), received the 2012 International Crop Science award .

Aishwarya Rai was conferred with the French Honour Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters.

Sachin Tendulkar was awarded with the Order of Australia Honour.

Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull won the 2012 Indian Grand Prix.

Spotlight: GNLU, Gandhinagar

Gujarat National Law University (GNLU) is a statutory university established by the Government of Gujarat under the Gujarat National University Act, 2003. This University is based in the city of Gandhinagar, which is the capital of Gujarat and is located 30 kilometers north to the metropolitan city of Ahmedabad. The University started its official functioning in the year 2004 and has five batches of 160 students each, currently under training. This University was formed in the year 2003 on the five year integrated LL.B structure preferred by the Bar Council of India. This University offers its students a course of five years, and upon graduation provides the degrees, B.A, LL.B (Hons.), B.Com, LL.B (Hons.), B.B.A, LL.B (Hons.), and B.Sc., LL.B (Hons.). GNLU also offers LL.M course which is devised with a view to producing competent teachers and researchers. The total intake for the UG Course is 160 and the admission is through national level CLAT. The University has its curriculum based on the National Law School model and follows a two semester per year pattern. The University also encourages and includes additional project work, report writing, research and analysis in its syllabus. Moot courts and other legal events are held regularly in the university, as a part of the curriculum as well as an extracurricular activity.

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