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THE TIMES OF INDIA, KOLKATA THURSDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2015 11TIMES NATION
New Delhi: Desperate tomake Aadhaar usage univer-sal to optimize implementa-tion of welfare schemes, theCentre on Wednesday told theSupreme Court that it wasready to promise in writingthat it would be completelyvoluntary for citizens to ob-tain and use the unique iden-tification (UID) number.
Attorney general MukulRohatgi told a five-judgebench comprising Chief Jus-tice H L Dattu and justices M
Y Eqbal, C Nagappan, ArunMishra and Amitava Roy thatthe Centre was ready to file anundertaking that “enrollingfor Aadhaar card will bemade voluntary and that itwould not be insisted upon byauthorities in extending ben-efits under beneficialschemes to citizens”.
Rohatgi said when a three-
judge bench of the SC had al-lowed Aadhaar to be volunta-rily used for two schemes –subsidy on LPG and rationunder public distributionscheme – there was no ratio-nale to stop its voluntary usefor other schemes.
The Centre said the Aad-haar card was an easy meth-od for identification of indi-
viduals eligible for benefitsunder the schemes though ci-tizens not possessing the UIDnumber could produce otheridentity documents to availsimilar benefits.
The AG clarified thatthough the Centre was readyto give the undertaking, a billwas pending in Parliamentsince 2013 intending to makeAadhaar mandatory for im-plementation of all welfareschemes. The receptivenessof the bench made petition-er’s counsel Shyam Divan toquestion the move. “The gov-ernment under the Constitu-tion must be taking steps toprotect the citizen’s privacyrather than attempting toplay with it... No court likeours would give the govern-ment a free run to violate pri-vacy of citizens,” Divan said.The arguments will continue.
But RemindsSC That BillIs Pending
Aadhaar voluntary, vows govt
WELFARE DILEMMA: The attorney general said when the SC had allowed Aadhaar to be voluntarily used for LPG subsidy and PDS,there was no rationale to stop its voluntary use for other schemes
New Delhi: The SupremeCourt on Wednesday came tothe rescue of writer-colum-nist Shobhaa De asking her torespond to the showcause no-tice issued by Maharashtra as-sembly for her tweet on a gov-ernment order on Marathifilms, and hoped her responsewould be considered objective-ly and proceedings dropped.
De had criticized Maha-rashtra’s order to multiplexesto dedicate at least one screento Marathi films during peakhours, calling it ‘Dadagiri’. Abench of justices Dipak Misraand Prafulla C Pant asked Deto clarify in her reply that herstatement was not on the pro-ceedings of the assembly.
For full report, log on towww.timesofindia.com
SC buffer forShobhaa De
Single parents can adopt a child since the 2011 guidelines andthese provisions have been retained in the 2015 guidelines.The issue has become mired in controversy with WCD min-
ister Maneka Gandhi saying Missionaries of Charity was unwill-ing to be part of government’s “secular unified agenda” and Ben-gal CM Mamata Banerjee putting her weight behind the charity.
“The guidelines, formulated after almost a year-long stake-holders’ consultation process are aimed at streamlining andspeeding up the adoption process,” the ministry said. It added thatduring consultation, many organizations had given feedbackbased on which this system had been designed with the underly-ing objective that a child must find a home as quickly as possible.
Feedback led to rules�Continued from P1
New Delhi: Former Chief ofNaval StaffAdmiral (retd)Radhakrish-na HariramTahilianipassed awayhere onWednesday. Tahiliani, whohas also served as governor ofSikkim, was 85.
His son Tarun Tahiliani isa well-known fashion design-er. His wife Jaswanti Tahilia-ni had died of cancer.
Born in 1930, the Admiralwas commissioned in the Na-vy on September 1, 1950 andserved as the 11th Chief ofNaval Staff from December 1,1984 to November 30, 1987.
A distinguished graduateof the French Test PilotSchool and an outstanding pi-lot, Tahiliani was the first toland on the deck of INS Vik-rant on a Hawker Sea HawkFighter on May 18, 1961, ush-ering carrier-based aviationinto the Indian Navy.
He had commanded thecarrier-borne squadron IN-AS 300 during the Indo-Pakwar in 1971. His career includ-ed command of INS Trishuland the Aircraft Carrier INSVikrant. Tahiliani was in-strumental in the procure-ment of the second aircraftcarrier INS Viraat along withits fighter complement of SeaHarrier aircraft. PTI
Former Navy chiefTahiliani dies at 85
Mumbai: Senior Shiv Senaleader Sanjay Raut onWednesday ventured wherefew have in the recent past,reminding Narendra Modiabout his Godhra past whilecountering the PM’s criti-cism of the Sena’s role in the
recent controversies inMumbai. The country firstcame to know of him (Modi)because of the Godhra car-nage, Raut said.
The BJP was muted in itsresponse. Senior BJP leadersare meeting on Thursdaymorning, ostensibly to dis-cuss the party’s programmeto mark the completion of its
first year in office, but partyleaders said the question ofwhether to snap ties with theSena or continue with the al-liance might come up. TOI,in its edition dated October12, had reported how Sena-BJP ties were at break-pointbecause of serious differenc-es over several issues.
In an interview to a Ben-
gali daily, Modi had termedthe Dadri lynching and theSena’s attacks on Pakistanisinger Ghulam Ali’s concertand ORF Mumbai chairmanSudheendra Kulkarni forhosting former Pakistan for-eign minister Khurshid Ka-suri as “unfortunate”. Boththe parties sought to under-play Raut’s comments later.
Under PM fire, Sena rakes up [email protected]
Dhaka bus to be back on track: Amid security threats in Ban-gladesh, Tripura has decided to start Agartala-Kolkata Volvo ser-vice via Dhaka from Friday. “Since the service is based on interna-tional protocol...we shall run our Volvo through Dhaka to Kolkataat least twice a week,” said minister Manik Dey. TNN
New Delhi: The SupremeCourt on Wednesday extend-ed anticipatory bail of socialactivist Teesta Setalvad andher husband Javed Anand tillDecember 8 in a case of al-leged embezzlement of fundsmeant for Gujarat riot vic-tims, but it also agreed tohear CBI’s plea for cancella-tion of bail in an FCRA viola-tion case.
A bench of Justices A RDave, F M Ibrahim Kalifullaand V Gopala Gowda extend-ed the protection granted tothe couple but asked them tofile their response withinfour weeks on CBI’s petition.The cases was posted forhearing on December 1. TNN
Teesta bailextended
