Supreme Court lifts stay on Santhara ritual of Jains

The Supreme Court on Monday restored the Jain religious practice of a ritualistic fast unto death by staying an order of the Rajasthan High Court, which compared it to an act of suicide.

A three-judge Bench, headed by Chief Justice of India H.L. Dattu, stayed the August 10 order of a Division Bench of the High Court on the basis of petitions filed by members of the Jain community.

The petitions complained that the High Court, based on incorrect observations on Jainism, criminalised the philosophy and “essential” practice of Sallekhana/Santhara, a fundamental component of the Jain principle of ahimsa (non-violence). The court issued notice to the Centre and Rajasthan on the question raised in the petitions whether “essential and integral parts of a religion can be restricted by the State”.

The petitions said the High Court order infringed on secularism. It criminalised Santhara without even consulting any scholars of Jainism or findings to substantiate that the practice was against public health, morality and order, they said.

RSS to push for renaming roads named after Mughals

Now that the decision to rename the Capital’s Aurangzeb Road after the former President, A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, has been red-flagged for violating a central law, efforts are afoot from within the Sangh Parivar to push for amending the 1975-vintage guideline barring such rechristening.

To counter the Citizens for Democracy � which on Saturday reminded the government of its own statement in Parliament as recently as April 21, 2015, about the decision not to change names of existing roads in the Capital because of the logistics involved � RSS activist Rajeev Gupta, who is associated with the Shiksha Bachao Andolan Samiti (SBAS), met Union Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju on Monday to press for changing the guidelines to rename all roads in the city that bear names of Mughal rulers.

Since online petitions are circulating against the renaming of Aurangzeb Road, he has also started one of his own calling for rechristening other roads named after not just Mughal rulers, including Akbar Road, but also those belonging to the Delhi Sultanate � Lodhi Road and Tughlaq Road.

Modi releases audio CDs of ‘Ramcharitmanas’

Describing ‘Ramcharitmanas’ as a great work, which imbibes the “essence of India”, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday released the digital version of a musical production on the epic recorded by All India Radio (AIR).

Mr. Modi said the artistes had performed not just ‘sangeet sadhna, but also sanskriti sadhna and sanskaar sadhna’ (devotion not just to music, but also to culture and tradition).

The Prime Minister mentioned how the Indians, who had travelled to various parts of the world, such as Mauritius, kept alive their link with India over successive generations through the ‘Ramcharitmanas’, an official statement said.

Mr. Modi, while unveiling the set of CDs, said the recordings have been done over a period of 20-22 years and the effort was no small achievement.

He said that he has been informed that AIR has approximately nine lakh hours of audio recordings of various artistes from across the country. He said this was a priceless collection, which should be documented in detail for posterity.

Minister for Information and Broadcasting Arun Jaitley and Chairman Prasar Bharati Board A. Suryaprakash were present on the occasion, the statement added.

Law Commission recommends abolition of death penalty, except in terror cases

The recommendation by the nine-member panel was, however, not unanimous, with one full-time member and two government representatives dissenting and supporting retention of capital punishment. In its last report, the 20th Law Commission said there is a need to debate as to how to bring about the “abolition of death penalty in all respects in the very near future, soonest.”

The panel, while refusing to recommend any single model for abolishing death penalty, said, “the options are many - from moratorium to a full-fledged abolition bill. The Law Commission does not wish to commit to a particular approach in abolition. All it says is that such a method for abolition should be compatible with the fundamental value of achieving swift and irreversible, absolute abolition.”

While supporting death for those convicted in terror cases and for waging war against the country, the report, ‘The Death Penalty’ said that although there is no valid penological justification for treating terrorism differently from other crimes, concern is often raised that abolition of capital punishment for terror-related offences and waging war will affect national security.

The panel also questioned the “rarest of rare” doctrine in awarding death to convicts.

UNGA president-elect sounds ‘positive’ in talks with Sushma

As India’s hopes for the U.N. Security Council expansion process hinge on a vote at the United Nations in the next fortnight, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj met with the incoming president of the U.N. General Assembly Mogens Lykketoft here on Sunday.

The UNGA is required to take a decision to “roll over” the text that contains positions of all countries on the U.N. reform and inducting permanent members into the U.N. Security Council, as India and other countries have demanded. The text for the U.N. reform that has been circulated by the outgoing UNGA president Sam Kutesa, will lapse on September 15, and diplomats at the U.N. are already hard at work to push the decision through “between September 10 and 15.”

Mr. Lykketoft will take charge as UNGA President on September 16 only after that vote or decision is taken to adopt the text. But if it is cleared, as India is confident it will be, he will be responsible for squaring the U.N. reform process in the U.N.’s 70th year, along with an Inter-Governmental Panel (IGN). According to the Ministry of External Affairs, Ms. Swaraj “conveyed India’s expectations to achieve concrete forward movement under the presidency of Mr. Lykketoft on the U.N. Security Council reform negotiations as well as finalisation of the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism.”

RBI declares SBI, ICICI Bank systemically important banks

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Monday declared State Bank of India and ICICI Bank as Domestic Systemically Important Banks (D-SIBs). The RBI had issued the framework for dealing with Domestic Systemically Important Banks (D-SIBs) on July 22, 2014.

The D-SIB framework requires the RBI to disclose the names of banks designated as D-SIBs every year in August starting from August 2015, said RBI in a press

Centre releases Rs 2,000 cr for Employees’ Pension Scheme

Centre has released Rs 2,000 crore to Employees’ Pension Scheme as its contribution for the year 2015-16, Minister of State for Labour and Employment Bandaru Dattatreya said on Monday.

This contribution is in addition to the Rs 250 crore contributed by the government as grant-in-aid in the Employees’ Pension Scheme, 1995 for providing minimum pension of Rs 1,000 to pensioners under the scheme, the Minister said in a statement.

The contribution of central government is calculated at a rate of 1.16 per cent of the monthly wages of the members contributing to the scheme.

It is in addition to the contribution made by employers covered under the Act. Employers contribute 8.33 per cent of the monthly wages of the scheme members.

Since last September, EPS pensioners have been assured of a guaranteed minimum pension of Rs 1,000 per month and it has been necessary to infuse additional amount as grants-in-aid by the Centre to sustain the continuance of the minimum pension.

HDFC Bank, Canara Bank cut base rates; others may follow

HDFC Bank Ltd, India’s second largest private bank, on Monday cut its base, or minimum lending, rate by 35 basis points to 9.35% effective Tuesday.

Separately, Bengaluru-based Canara Bank, the fifth largest public sector bank by assets, said its board had approved a base rate cut by 10 basis points from 10% to 9.9% effective from Thursday. A basis point is 0.01 percentage point.

Ashish Parthasarthy, treasurer at HDFC Bank, said the bank made the decision to cut its minimum lending rate on 31^st August.