NEWS

The Centre on Tuesday moved the Supreme Court seeking four weeks’ time beyond the six weeks granted by it to the PM-led National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) to finalise the quantum of ex-gratia to be paid to the kin of more than four lakh persons who have succumbed to Covid-19.

A bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan and M R Shah on June 30 had ruled that the Centre cannot shy away from the responsibility cast on it under the Disaster Management Act to provide compensation to the families of those who died in a national disaster, the Covid-19 pandemic being declared so under the DM Act.

BJP on Tuesday fielded its chief Oppministers and senior leaders across the country to counter the Congress allegations against the government over alleged Pegasus phone tapping.

The party held press conferences at 18 state capitals as CMs of the BJP ruled states alleged that Congress has become a party to an “international conspiracy” to defame the country and PM Modi.

Questioning the timing of the expose which came a day before the start of the Parliament session, in which it has been reported that phones of around 40 journalists, political leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, doctors etc were being tapped, Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath said this would definitely hurt the country’s image abroad.

Alarming rise in candidates with criminal antecedents despite its repeated orders to restrict them from contesting polls prompted the Supreme Court on Tuesday to frown at the lack of attempt by the legislature to stop criminalisation of politics but it realised that ingenuity of ‘realpolitik’ may impede judicial interventions in this regard.

“The legislative branch is not going to take any step in this regard, neither in the foreseeable future nor in the distant future, that much is certain,” said a bench of justices RF Nariman and BR Gavai.

A political row broke out over the Pegasus spyware case on Monday with home minister Amit Shah responding to Congress's demand that he step down by saying reports of alleged surveillance were part of a choreographed attempt to defame India.

“Today the monsoon session of Parliament has started. In what seemed like a perfect cue, late last evening we saw a report which has been amplified by a few sections with only one aim - to do whatever is possible and humiliate India at the world stage, peddle the same old narratives about our nation and derail India’s development trajectory,” the home minister said.

Shah said the development agenda would not be derailed. “Key bills for the welfare of farmers, youngsters, women and backward sections of society are lined up for debate and discussion," he said.