“SpiceJet’s passengers at Dubai airport on Thursday were barred from checking-in over the airline’s failure to clear airport dues,” said multiple industry sources.
This forced the airline to operate empty flights out of Dubai. It is learnt that the airline’s passengers departing from Dubai have been facing similar issues over the past week.
SpiceJet is yet to respond to a request for comment on the development. “We are monitoring SpiceJet. They are going through a challenging time,” said a senior official of the Ministry of Civil Aviation.
On August 12, 2024, Mumbai airport had also issued an advisory to SpiceJet’s passengers about a likely disruption to their flights. The advisory was later withdrawn. Most domestic airports have placed SpiceJet under cash-and-carry restrictions, to ensure that the airline pays its dues in advance before flight departure is permitted.
Meanwhile, the airline also placed 150 cabin crew on leave without pay after failing to pay salaries to most employees for the last two months. In Guwahati, nearly 80 loaders, drivers, and cleaners refused to report for duty for the second day in a row on Thursday, and held a demonstration outside the airport to protest the delay. Later in the evening, the airline released July’s salary for some of them.
“Some of my colleagues are surviving only on a cup of tea. We earn a meagre ₹15,000 per month which the airline is unable to pay us. Many of us haven’t been able to pay rent to our landlords,” said one staff member from Guwahati on the condition of anonymity.
Another staff member from Bengaluru who works in the SpiceJet’s security department described a similar ordeal. “Many of us are surviving only on one meal a day. There are daily threats from our landlords to pay rent. My family is particularly vulnerable because I have a two-month old child, and therefore, I asked my wife to mortgage her jewellery to be able to pay ₹7,000 to the landlord,” he said.
Bill passed to make Muslim marriage registration compulsory in Assam
The 126-member Assam Assembly on Thursday passed a Bill to make the registration of Muslim marriages and divorces with the government compulsory. The Assam Compulsory Registration of Muslim Marriages and Divorces Bill, 2024, introduced in the House by Revenue and Disaster Management Minister Jogen Mohan, will replace the British-era Assam Moslem Marriages and Divorces Registration Act, 1935.
Terming the bill historic, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said the government aimed to do away with the Qazi system apart from preventing child marriage among Muslims. “We have neither touched the Muslim Personal Law nor interfered with Islamic marriage rituals. The Act brings the Sub-Registrar into the picture instead of the Qazis for registration,” he said.
“This Act will now make it mandatory to register marriages with the government and cannot contravene the legal age of marriage of 18 years for girls and 21 years for boys. It will also act as a strict deterrent against teenage pregnancy and improve the overall growth of girls,” he said.
The Chief Minister said all marriages would be registered according to an order of the Supreme Court. He also told the House that the State has 90 Qazis, most of them government teachers.
On August 22, Mohan had said in the statement of object and reasons that the Assam Moslem Marriages and Divorces Registration Act was adopted by the British India government in the erstwhile Assam Province for Muslim religious and social arrangements. He said the 1935 Act largely made the registration of Muslim marriages and divorces informal, not mandatory.
“There remains a scope of registering marriages of an intended person below 21 years (in case of male) and 18 years (in case of female) and hardly any monitoring (is) made for (the) implementation of this Act throughout the State which attracts and invite huge amount of litigation in the criminal/civil court,” the Minister said.
“There is a scope of misuse by an authorised licensee (Muslim marriage registrars) as well as by citizens for underage/minor marriages and forcefully arranged marriages without the consent of the parties,” he said.
Actor and CPI(M) MLA Mukesh among five booked by Kochi Police on petitions filed by woman actor
The Kochi City police have registered five cases, including against actor-legislator M. Mukesh for rape, in four different police stations in connection with sexual harassment allegations levelled by a woman actor against seven persons in the wake of the Hema Committee report.
The first information report (FIR) against Mukesh has been registered by the Maradu police under IPC Sections 376 (rape), which is a non-bailable offence, Sections 354 (assault or criminal force to women with intent to outrage her modesty), and 509 (insult the modesty of a woman by word, sound, gesture or object).
Actor and former general secretary of the Association of Malayalam Movie Artistes (AMMA) Edavela Babu has also been booked for the same charges by the Ernakulam Town North police. V.S. Chandrasekharan, who stepped down as the KPCC legal aid cell chairman and president of the Lawyers’ Congress State committee, has been booked by the Central police under IPC Sections 376 (rape) and 120B (criminal conspiracy).
Actor and former office-bearer of AMMA Maniyanpilla Raju and production controller Noble have been booked under IPC Sections 354 and 509 by the Fort Kochi and Ernakulam Town North police respectively.
All the five accused were among the seven named by the actor in as many petitions filed by the woman actor with the special investigation team (SIT) headed by DIG Ajeetha Begum for probing the sexual harassment cases on Tuesday. Following this, a team of SIT led by Begum recorded the statement of the petitioner at her apartment lasting many hours on Wednesday (August 28, 2024).
The clamour for the resignation of CPI(M) MLA Mukesh is likely to turn shriller with the registration of the FIR. Already, women social activists affiliated with the Left have also demanded his resignation.
Meanwhile, the Nedumbassery police also registered an FIR against a production controller identified as Vichu who was one among the alleged perpetrators named by the woman actor.
In yet another fallout of the Hema committee report, prominent actor Jayasurya has been booked for allegedly sexual harassing a female artiste in the State Secretariat in Thiruvananthapuram during a film shoot several years ago.
The Cantonment police registered a case invoking non-bailable provisions including Sections 354 (outraging the modesty of women), 354A (sexual harassment) and 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) of the Indian Penal Code.
The actor has been accused of misbehaving with his co-worker on the sets of the film De Ingottu Nokkiye in 2008. The complainant had alleged that he groped her near a washroom.
Two YSRCP MPs of Rajya Sabha resign, party set to lose ground in Upper House
YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) Rajya Sabha members Mopidevi Venkataramana and Beeda Mastan Rao have submitted their resignations to Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankar at New Delhi on Thursday (August 29, 2024). The resignations were handed in despite both members not being due for retirement from the House any time soon. Venkataramana is due for retirement on June 21, 2026, while Rao is set to retire on June 21, 2028.
Venkataramana is likely to join the Telugu Desam Party (TDP). It is reported that he was not keen on Rajya Sabha post from the start, but it was thrust on him. He was defeated in the 2019 elections but was inducted into then Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy’s cabinet. As the State government at the time decided to abolish the AP Legislative Council, he was made an RS member.
Venkataramana hoped to contest from Repalle constituency in the 2024 general elections but was denied a ticket. Jagan Reddy also reportedly did not accept the request to field Venkataramana’s brother instead of Evuru Ganesh from Repalle Assembly constituency.
Venkataramana later met his cadre and sympathisers at his constituency, and also announced that he had discussions with TDP leaders over joining their party.
Mastan Rao is yet to announce his future plans.
According to sources, six more YSRCP RS members are likely to submit their resignations shortly. The YSRCP has 11 members in the Upper House in the Parliament, including the two who resigned today.
In June, soon after the drubbing in the general elections, Jagan Reddy reminded the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) that his party has 15 MPs in Parliament, while asserting that his party will extend issue-based support keeping the State and nation’s interests in mind. The current resignations, and likely of six more resignations, and disgruntlement in the party may mar his plans to wield pressure on the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), which is keen on increasing its strength in the Rajya Sabha.
After the YSRCP came to power in the state in 2019, YSRCP leaders were elected to the Rajya Sabha in all 11 seats in the three-phase elections. In terms of numerical strength, it became the fourth largest party in the Rajya Sabha.
Delhi High Court takes exception to Brij Bhushan plea seeking quashing of all proceedings in sexual harassment case
The Delhi High Court on Thursday took exception to former Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) chief and former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh’s filing of a single petition against the order framing charges against him, and also seeking the quashing of the First Information Report (FIR) and charge-sheet and all other proceedings in a sexual harassment case lodged by several women wrestlers.
Justice Neena Bansal Krishna termed Singh’s petition “oblique”. “There can’t be an omnibus order for everything,” she said.
The BJP MP from Kaisarganj is facing charges of sexual harassment and outraging the modesty of several women wrestlers. A Delhi court had on May 10 framed charges against him, noting there was sufficient material on record to frame the accused for the offences punishable under Sections 354 (outraging modesty of a woman) and 354A (sexual harassment) of the erstwhile Indian Penal Code (IPC) with respect to five wrestlers who were named as victim numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5.
During the hearing on Thursday, Singh’s counsel claimed that the complaints against Singh were part of a “hidden agenda” to remove him from his position as the president of the WFI at the time.
Justice Krishna told Singh to submit a detailed note outlining each complaint against him, specifying the instances of the alleged offence, and providing the grounds for challenging each complaint. The judge posted the case for further hearing on September 26.
“Petitioner seeks time to prepare a short note raising all the contentions for seeking quashing of the charge-sheet and all other proceedings emanating therefrom. Two weeks are granted to do so,” the court said. Singh’s plea was opposed by the counsel for the State, and the victims who contended that it was not maintainable.
Many renowned wrestlers, including Sakshi Malik, Vinesh Phogat, Bajrang Punia, and Sangeeta Phogat, had protested for months in New Delhi in 2023, demanding the arrest of the then legislator for allegedly sexually harassing several women grapplers, including a minor. The harassment took place between 2016 and 2019 at the WFI’s office, at Singh’s official residence, and also abroad, the victims have alleged.
The police filed an FIR against the then BJP MP after the intervention of the Supreme Court in May 2023. In June, a 1,000-page charge-sheet was filed at the Rouse Avenue court.
A minor age wrestler, who too had protested against Singh, later withdrew her complaint and changed her statement. During the hearing on the framing of charges, Singh maintained that the case was “false and motivated”.
Transgender identity certificate will be treated as valid documentation for PAN: Centre to Supreme Court
The Centre has told the Supreme Court that a ‘certificate of identity’ issued by the District Magistrate under the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019 will be treated as valid documentation for applying for a PAN card.
A Bench of Justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and Ahsanuddin Amanullah said the Union of India has in principle accepted this request and the Union government may consider incorporating it in the rules as well in order to bring clarity.
“During the pendency of this petition, we sought a reply from Union of India, who has been very supportive in this matter and by and large has accepted all the demands which have been raised in the present petition including the one, that the certificate to be issued under Section 6/7 of the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019 will be acceptable, if it is given by the district magistrate,” the Bench noted.
Sections 6 and 7 of the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019 deal with the issue of certificates of identity and changes in gender. The top court was hearing a 2018 plea filed by a transgender alleging that her attempt to link her PAN with Aadhaar has failed as the PAN card has no ‘third gender’ option, unlike the Aadhaar card.
Reshma Prasad, a social activist from Bihar, had sought direction from the Centre to create a separate third-gender category option on PAN cards to enable transgenders like her to link it with Aadhaar to get an “accurate identity proof”.
Prasad had said she had enrolled for PAN in 2012 selecting the male gender identity category and has been getting the tax return of the year 2015-16 and 2016-2017 in the category of male.
The Aadhaar system, she said, included the category of the third gender after an apex court verdict and she registered as a transgender in the Aadhaar.
In Brief:
Recouping the dent caused by the Hindenburg Research report, Gautam Adani’s networth shot up 95% to ₹11.6 lakh crore last year, which helped him replace Mukesh Ambani to become the richest Indian, a report said on Thursday. Reliance Industries Chairman and Managing Director Ambani’s overall networth increased by 25% to ₹10.14 lakh crore, as per the 2024 Hurun India Rich List. In 2023’s report, Adani’s wealth declined by 57% to ₹4.74 lakh crore, and Ambani was way ahead with a fortune of ₹8.08 lakh crore. It can be noted that Adani’s net worth declined sharply following various allegations levelled by U.S.-based short seller Hindenburg Research.
Evening Wrap will return tomorrow.
