Govt cites public trust doctrine
As the Centre brought in the doctrine of “public trust” in the Supreme Court to defend presidential reference on auction of the natural resources with the issue arising out of the 2G case judgment, petitioner NGO, CPIL, accused the government of trying to seek “review” of the verdict in the garb of the reference.
Attorney General Goolam E. Vahanvati said under the public trust doctrine, government has to apply different yardsticks for auction of natural resources like demand for houses for poor, building schools, hospitals and roads. In such cases, land has to be provided on concession rate and the auction could not always be resorted to.
But a bench, which had given the 2G case verdict had said that all natural resources have to be auctioned and it has created problem for the government on allocating the resources by applying the principle of public trust doctrine.
Elaborating further, the AG said the public trust doctrine means judicious use of natural resources in the larger public interest. In this regard, he categorised the resources mainly in three categories; renewable, non-renewable and estimated resources about which no clear assessment could be made such as oil and natural gas. However, former attorney general Soli Sorabjee, engaged by the Centre for Public Interest Litigation, main petitioner in the 2G case to argue for it, questioned the very “maintainability” of the reference and accused the government of attempting to seek “review” of the verdict in the “garb” of the reference.
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CBI: Defence tampered with evidence
Ghaziabad, July 10: The CBI on Tuesday accused the defence of tampering with the evidence in Aarushi-Hemraj double murder case while it was kept in the record of a court here. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) also opposed in a special court here the defence plea seeking the crime scene’s eight photographs on the ground that their negatives were not submitted earlier.
The probe agency said that it had submitted the entire record of photographs along with all the negatives. The defence claimed that the prosecution submitted 23 photographs along with negatives but eight photographs did not match their negatives. Aarushi, 14, was found murdered at her parents’ Noida residence May 16, 2008. The body of her domestic help Hemraj was found the next day on the terrace of the house.
— IANS
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