OUTSIDERS SHOULD BE BARRED FROM JNU: DELHI HC

Outsiders should be barred from entering the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) campus for things to improve there, the Delhi High Court said on Wednesday, noting students from other varsities are interfering in its functioning.

“We have to shut down the campus for the students of other universities. If JNU campus is closed for outsiders, things will improve,” Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva observed.

“Everyday we are reading in the newspaper about protests in the Jawaharlal Nehru University campus,” the court said and asked the varsity and the JNU Students Union (JNUSU) President, present in the court, that “is this the way an educational institution functions”.

“I want that a meaningful dialogue between students and the college administration should take place so that the things are settled within the boundaries,” the judge said.

The court said students from other universities interfere in the functioning of JNU and they run their political agenda on the campus.“JNU from last many decades was known for its own culture inside the campus. It never allowed others to interfere in their functioning, but today the outsiders are more active in this campus,” the court noted.

Only bona fide students of JNU should be allowed to decide how their university will function, it added. The court’s observation came during hearing of a plea by the JNU administration seeking direction to restrain its students from demonstrating within 100 metres of the administrative block.

India and Pakistan routinely accuse each other of sending spies into their countries and it is not uncommon for either to expel diplomats accused of espionage, particularly at times of high tension. However death sentences have rarely been passed in such cases in recent years, and trials of alleged spies have largely gone through civilian courts.

As New Delhi stepped up its offensive over the death sentence, the Nawaz Sharif government deployed senior ministers to defend the action.

Pakistan’s minister of state for information Marriyum Aurangzeb told reporters the country will not bow to pressure from India to release Jadhav. Federal minister Tariq Fazal Chaudhry also said no law was broken or changed to arrest or sentence Jadhav.

Earlier in the day, local media reported that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa also agreed not to bow to any pressure over the death sentence to Jadhav.

Samaa TV quoted an official source as saying that the Army chief called on Sharif “and took him into confidence regarding ... Jadhav.”

But in a somewhat tempered message of hope, Pakistan’s national security adviser Nasser Janjua spoke of the need for India and Pakistan to engage to resolve disputes.

“Pakistan and India cannot remain enemies forever,” he was quoted as saying by the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan (APP).

After repeatedly turning down India’s request, Pakistan foreign office made a conditional offer that New Delhi will have to investigate the “evidence” against Jadhav.

India hasn’t accepted the condition as that would tantamount to accepting that Jadhav is guilty.

“Due to the fortnightly revision of fuel prices, petroleum dealers were applying brakes on uplifting of fuel. If the prices go up, on the 1st or 15th of every month there would be a rush to uplift products, else, the upliftment would be impacted. This would result in losses for OMCs and we wanted that this price predictability should go away. So dynamic pricing will be a good bet,” said a senior official from an oil marketing company on the condition of anonymity.

Shares of IOCL fell 0.07% to ₹408.90 on BSE, BPCL rose 1% to ₹717.60, HPCL rose 1% to ₹542.45 while India’s benchmark Sensex fell 0.49% to 29,643.48 points.

Although state-run fuel retailers have the capability to revise prices on a daily basis, what needs to be monitored is how consumers react to price volatility, industry experts say.

“If there is heightened volatility in global markets due to geopolitical developments, it could get reflected in domestic retail prices too. Therefore, companies are doing the right thing in testing the model in pilot projects to see its impact and consumer response. In the medium- to long-term, daily price revision may be a good idea as is practised elsewhere,” said RS Butola, a former chairman of Indian Oil Corp.

Indian Oil Corp. chairman B Ashok and Hindustan Petroleum Corp. chairman and managing director MK Surana didn’t immediately respond to phone calls.

Besides global fuel prices and currency exchange rate, central and state taxes account for a major part of the fuel price. It accounts for half of retail petrol price and 46% of retail diesel price. The central government collected ₹64,509 crore from petrol as excise duty in 2016-17 up to end-February, 20% more than what was collected in the whole of FY2016. Excise receipts from diesel jumped 36% in the same period to ₹1.37 trillion.

The NGT slapped an interim fine ₹5 crore on the Foundation for environmental damage while efforts were made to ascertain the exact costs of the damage.

An initial four-member committee had recommended that the Foundation pay ₹100 to ₹120 crores as compensation for the restoration work.

The green court had later asked an expert panel of seven members to estimate the damage to the floodplains and how much it would cost to fix these damages. This committee observed that the festival had ‘completely destroyed, not simply damaged’ the riverfront area between DND flyover and the Barapulla drain, which had served as the main event site.

“The ground is now totally levelled, compacted and hardened and is totally devoid of water bodies or depressions and almost completely devoid of any vegetation.

“Huge amount of earth and debris have been dumped to construct the ramps for access from the DND flyover and from the two pontoon bridges across the Barapulla drain,” the report said.

It said the floodplain was severely harmed and “almost all its natural vegetation” was lost, affecting the natural habitat of a large number animals, insects and other organisms. But her 33-year-old son took a straight hit in the head, dying instantly.

Jolly fired several rounds towards Khurana, his primary target, but missed. After a while, his pistols jammed and 38-yearold Amit seized the opportunity to wrestle him down.

Khurana joined his son to keep Jolly pinned down. But the assailant took out his knife, stabbed the duo frenziedly to get out of their clutches, and ran to a room on the first floor of the three-storey home. He locked himself inside.

When police reached the house, in response to neighbours’ call, they found the suspect in the room with multiple head wounds akin to knife cuts. He was arrested and murder charges were pressed against him, Noida police superintendent Dinesh Yadav said.

Khurana’s employee Rajinder is kept in the intensive care unit and he underwent a 13-hour surgery on Wednesday. Amit was discharged on Tuesday night while Khurana was sent home the day after.

“Jolly has a deep head cut … and is on ventilator support now. Doctors said his limbs have stopped functioning, which suggests the nervous system is affected,” a hospital spokesperson said.