887

Supreme Court to hear plea seeking to declare virtual court hearing as fundamental right

The Supreme Court on Friday said that it will hear in July a plea seeking to declare virtual court hearing as a fundamental right.

A bench headed by Justice L Nageswara Rao declined to give an urgent listing in the matter as it is said that there are various matters before the court. The court said that it will list in July.

The matter was mentioned by Senior Advocate Sidharth Luthra.

Various petitions were being heard by the top court seeking virtual hearing as a matter of right.

886

Tamil Nadu earns Rs 13,914 crore from property registrations in FY22

The Tamil Nadu government has earned Rs 13,913.65 crore in property registration revenue in FY22, an increase of 31% over the Rs 10,643.08 crore collected in the previous year.

This is the highest-ever revenue collected in the past 10 years. The number of properties registered during FY22 increased 11.22% to 29,98,048 from the 26,95,650 documents registered during 2020-21, said the stamps & registration policy note prepared by Tamil Nadu’s commercial taxes and registration department.

885

Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann never met me over coal crisis, says Union Minister Pralhad Joshi, 'AAP has a habit of lying'

Union Coal Minister Pralhad Joshi on Friday said the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has a habit of lying. He was reacting to a comment made by the party's Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha.

Earlier in the day, Chadha said Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann met Joshi over the coal crisis and the latter assured of no coal shortage in the country. "Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann went to meet Union Coal Min (Pralhad Joshi) in Delhi, a few days ago; the latter assured of no coal shortage. Still, more than 16 states incl Punjab, are seeing only 1-2 days of coal supply left. Centre has to fulfil its responsibility," he said.

884

Disruption in electricity supply in parts of South Mumbai reported once again

On  Friday, yet again there was a disruption in electricity supply in parts of South Mumbai. Now, the permanent solution to these persistent power failures is an expensive procedure of replacing the old worn out power supply cables spread beneath the surface of Mumbai. Mumbai's power demand is galloping at 3800Mw and more while that of the island city was crossing 900-950Mw.

This exercise of replacing the power distribution cables will come at a cost as BEST officials claim that they haven't made capital expenditure in improving the assets of their Supply Division for a long time. This includes replacing the old underground cables that were laid 70-80 years ago, with new ones at a cost of Rs 3500 crore.

807

Tamil Nadu CM MK Stalin charges Centre of ‘disguising’ fuel price cut

A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi said non-BJP ruled States were not passing on fuel duty cut to people, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin accused the Centre of “disguising” fuel prices cut only to hike them by several times after Assembly elections were completed in a few States. In contrast, the DMK Government, soon after coming to power, had fulfilled its electoral promise by reducing the State tax on petrol by Rs 3 per litre (as against the promise of Rs 5 per litre), he argued.

Modi’s charge echoed in the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly on Thursday when Congress floor leader K Selvaperunthagai raised it.