Govt's DPCO challenged in SC
New Delhi: The Government’s latest drug price control order (DPCO) has come under challenge. On Tuesday, the apex court allowed NGO All India Drug Action Network to modify its petition demanding more essential drugs to be brought under the ambit of DPCO in order to make drugs available at affordable costs to the general public. The Court allowed the NGO’s senior counsel Colin Gonsalves to challenge the DPCO 2013 and directed the Centre to file its response in four weeks.
Court reserves order on lalu's plea
New Delhi: Supreme Court on Tuesday reserved its decision on the demand by RJD leader lalu Prasad Yadav to transfer the Ranchi court judge hearing the fodder scam case against him on the allegation of bias. The Court, which initially agreed to nominate another judge at the fag end of trial, met with resistance from JD(U) MP Rajeev Ranjan Singh alias lallan who informed the Court that the special treatment meted out to lalu was not justified. The CBI, however, opposed lallan accusing him of playing a political game, as he belonged to lalu’s principal opposition party in Bihar.
CBI wants to probe babus sans Govt nod
New Delhi: Buoyed by the apex court order in the 2G scam waiving sanction to enquire misconduct of officers above Joint Secretary rank, the CBI on Tuesday demanded similar orders to be passed in relation to the coal block allocation scam. The apex bench headed by Justice RM lodha questioned the power of sanction available under Section 6A of DSPE Act to the Centre that allowed top bureaucrats to be insulated from a CBI probe. The Court felt such sanction would be meaningless in a court-monitored probe.
SC asks Centre to produce Radia tapes on AI scam
New Delhi: The Nira Radia tapes have served as added fodder for the Court to examine an aircraft purchase scam in Air India already pending with the Supreme Court. The bench examining the Radia tapes directed Centre’s counsel to produce the portion from the tapes relating to the said illegalities in Air India before the other bench hearing the Air India scam. The CBI, which had a copy of the conversations in the tapes informed the apex court that the contents disclosed a “rot” in the system which required intervention by Court since already many matters worth investigation became time-barred on account of the Centre’s failure to act upon the conversations in time.