Hindustan Times (Amritsar)

Amarinder brings Khaira, 2 other rebel AAP MLAs into Congress fold

- Abraham Thomas letters@hindustant­imes.com

The ruling Congress in Punjab got a shot in the arm when three rebel Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLAs, including former leader of opposition (LOP) Sukhpal Singh Khaira, Jagdev Singh Kamalu and Pirmal Singh Khalsa, joined the party on Thursday ahead of next year’s assembly polls in the state.

The MLAs were welcomed into the party fold by chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh minutes before he left for Delhi in a helicopter for a one-on-one meeting with three-member committee constitute­d by the Congress to resolve infighting in

the Punjab unit.

Amarinder’s wife, Patiala MP Preneet Kaur, was also present at the helipad where the three legislator­s met the chief minister

and posed for photos which were posted on social media by the state Congress from its official handle promptly.

The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) to allow changes in name or date of birth in school certificat­es issued by it even after the publicatio­n of results.

The court took the decision while hearing a batch of petitions challengin­g the Central Board of Secondary Education’s Examinatio­n Byelaws of 2007 that did not look into any request for correction or change in name or date of birth of the candidate or name of parent(s).

The byelaws underwent amendments in subsequent years after which such changes were permitted only “before publicatio­n of result” and provided there was a court order or gazette notificati­on.

A three-judge bench of the Supreme Court found this condition as “arbitrary” and “unreasonab­le” and carved out two categories of requests – first requiring correction or change in name or parent(s) name or date of birth based on public documents and second, where change of name, parent(s) name or date of birth is not backed by any document and is purely based on choice of a person to be known by a different name.

The bench in its 132-page judgment observed, “An individual must be in complete control of his/her name and law must enable (him/her) to retain as well as to exercise such control freely for all times.”

“Such control would inevitably include the aspiration of an individual to be recognised by a different name for a just cause,” the bench in its judgement observed.

 ??  ?? Punjab CM Capt Amarinder Singh with Sukhpal Singh Khaira and two other rebel AAP MLAs in Chandigarh.
HT PHOTO
Punjab CM Capt Amarinder Singh with Sukhpal Singh Khaira and two other rebel AAP MLAs in Chandigarh. HT PHOTO

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