13-Aug-2018: New Chairperson of Appellate Tribunal for Electricity
Smt. Justice Manjula Chellur took Oath as Chairperson, Appellate Tribunal for Electricity, Ministry of Power. Prior to this, Smt. Justice Manjula Chellur was Chief Justice of Bombay High Court.
Technical Members Shri I.J. Kapoor, Shri B.N. Talukdar, Judicial Member Justice N.K. Patil and Technical Member Shri S.D. Dubey were present on the occasion. Tribunal Bar Association President Shri M.G. Ramachandran assured the Bench for full cooperation of the Bar Members in day to day business. A large number of advocates and other eminent guests were also present at the function.
Smt. Justice Manjula Chellur was born on 5th December, 1955 in Karnataka. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Allum Sunmangalamma Women's College, Bellary, and went on to earn her law degree from Renukacharya Law College, Bangalore. In 1977, the Supreme Court of India sponsored her on a Gender & Law fellowship to England's University of Warwick. In 2013, Smt. Justice Manjula Chellur received an honorary doctorate from Karnataka State Women's University.
She was the first woman Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court. Smt. Justice Manjula chellur also served as the Chief Justice of Kerala High Court and the first female judge of the Karnataka High Court. She demitted her office as Chief Justice of Bombay High Court upon attaining the age of superannuation on 4th December, 2017.
4-Nov-2017: Cauvery Tribunal Gets Six Months Extension
Union Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation has extended the term of Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal by six months upto May 02, 2018.
Cauvery is an inter‐State basin having its origin in Karnataka and flowing through Tamil Nadu and Puducherry before outfalling in Bay of Bengal. The sharing of waters of the Cauvery has been the source of a serious conflict between the states of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. The genesis of this conflict rests in two agreements in 1892 and 1924 between the erstwhile Madras Presidency and Kingdom of Mysore.
In this regard, Government of India on June 02, 1990 constituted the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal (CWDT) to adjudicate the water dispute regarding inter‐state river Cauvery and the river valley thereof among the States of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Puducherry.
The Tribunal was asked to submit its report by August 05, 2005.The term of the tribunal was extended for one year upto August 06, 2006 and again for six months upto February 05, 2007.
CWDT gave its report and decision u/s 5(2) of the ISRWD Act, 1956 on February 05, 2007. The party States and Central Govt filed application for clarification/further guidance u/s 5 (3) of the above said Act on April 27, 2007, April 30, 2007 and May 03, 2007 and the Tribunal had to submit a further report within one year from May 03,2007. The Central Govt. on the requests made by the tribunal from time to time extended the period of the submission of the said further report upto November 02, 2017. Now the tribunal has again sought an extension and hence the Govt. has extended the period upto May 02,2018.
Meanwhile, the Party States also filed Special Leave Petition (SLPs) against the above mentioned report and decision of the Tribunal before the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court on May 05, 2007 granted Special Leave in the matter.
A Protem Supervisory Committee was constituted for implementation of the final order dated February 5, 2007 as notified vide Notification dated February 19, 2013. The Supervisory Committee consists of the Secretary, Union Ministry of Water Resources as Chairman and the Chief Secretaries of the respective States of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Union Territory of Puducherry as Members. So far eight meetings of this Committee have been held on June 01,2013, June 12,2013, July 15,2013, November 08,2013, September 28,2015, September 12,2016, September 19,2016 and February 17,2017 at New Delhi.
Decision of CWDT has been challenged by party States of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala before Supreme Court by filling Civil Appeals. Supreme Court in its order dated December 09,2016 directed that these Civil Appeals are maintainable and the matter is sub judice in the court.
22-Feb-2017: New head appointed for Cauvery Tribunal
The government has appointed Justice Abhay Manohar Sapre of the Supreme Court as chairman of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal. He was nominated for the post by Chief Justice J.S. Khehar. The post fell vacant following the resignation of Justice Balbir Singh Chauhan.
Last December, the Union Cabinet cleared a proposal to set up a single, permanent Tribunal to adjudicate all inter-state river water disputes subsuming existing tribunals. This is to speed up water sharing disputes among States. The Centre has also proposed to float some Benches to look into disputes.
6-Jun-2017: National Trust under M/O Social Justice & Empowerment launches ‘Inclusive India Initiative’
The National Trust under Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment in collaboration with key partners organised the conference “Inclusive India Initiative: Towards an Inclusive India” for intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDDs). The ‘Inclusive India Initiative’ of National Trust is specifically catering to persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities; with an objective to include these people in the mainstream and in all important aspects of social life, namely education, employment and community ‘Inclusive India’ in about changing the attitudes.
A vision document on ‘Inclusive India Initiative’ was released and a few MoUs of the National Trust signed with key partners were exchanged. Divyangjans are an integral part of our society. They need proper guidance. The National Trust is playing an important role in the welfare of Divyangjans. People should take advantage of all 10 schemes of the National Trust.
Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment provides Skill Development to Divyangjans through “Divyangjan Vitta Vikas Nigam” and make them self-dependent. Now, the Divyangjans are being provided scholarships for studying in India and abroad both. They are being provided Aids and Assistive devices through nationwide camps and so far more than them 5300 camps have been organised by his Ministry where Aids and Assistive devices worth Rs. 500 crores have been distributed to Divyangjans.
In the last Para Olympic Games, Divyangjans have participated exceedingly well and the Ministry of sports have launched a special Portal for future players including Divyangjan players, who will play in the coming Olympic games.
The Inclusive India initiative is an attempt to facilitate the realisation of equal opportunities, protection of rights and full participation of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities into the fabric of society. The three core focus areas of Inclusive India Initiative are Inclusive Education, Inclusive Employment and Inclusive Community Life.
In the domain of Inclusive Education, large-scale awareness campaigns would be executed on pan-India basis, making the schools and colleges inclusive for the children and adults with intellectual disabilities. Association with government and private organisations will be explored for making the infrastructure of educational institutes accessible and inclusive, by providing necessary mobility aids, assistive devices, accessible information and social support.
The initiative will engage at least 2000 corporate sector organisations; public and private, for creating awareness towards inclusive employment for persons with intellectual disabilities, during the current financial year. The efforts towards accomplishing inclusive community life can be made successful, only when the people with intellectual and development disabilities, their families, Civil Society organisations and State Government connect. The Inclusive India Initiative was born out of this very need of creating awareness among general public, ensuring that the people becomes sensitive towards the focus the focus group.
The National Trust is a statutory body of the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, set up under the “National Trust for the Welfare of Persons with Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Retardation and Multiple Disabilities” Act (Act 44 of 1999). The National Trust was envisaged with a core mission of providing opportunities for capacity development of Persons with Disabilities and their families, fulfilling their rights, facilitating and promoting the creation of an enabling environment and an inclusive society.