DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA ● REG.NO. MCS/067/2018 - 20 RNI REGN. NO. 1543/57 JOURNALISM OF COURAGE WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 2024, MUMBAI, LATE CITY, 22 PAGES `5.00 ● WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SINCE 1932 America votes, Decades of dispute later, SC: world waits Not all pvt property can be taken over by state for ‘common good’ ‘JUSTICE IYER CAST NET TOO WIDE, ENDORSED AN IDEOLOGY’ 06/11/2024 110 138 171 78 8-1: Majority view draws distinction between individual and community, flags India’s arc of economic progress BUSINESS AS USUAL BY UNNY ANANTHAKRISHNAN G NEW DELHI, NOVEMBER 5 RACE FOR THE WHITE HOUSE Sanjay Kumar Verma at the state Police Headquarters in Mumbai. Ganesh Shirsekar MOHAMED THAVER MUMBAI, NOVEMBER 5 THE ELECTION Commission of India(ECI)onTuesdayappointed Sanjay Kumar Verma, a 1990batchIPSofficer,whowasserving as the Director General of Police (LegalandTechnicalwing),asthe new police chief of Maharashtra, ahead of the Assembly elections. Later in the day, Verma took charge as the DGP and said, “I would like to thank the Election Commission for giving me such a significant responsibility. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 AMERICANS VOTED Tuesday in what appeared to be a tight presidential contest between Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris. No matter who wins, history will be made. Harris, 60, would become the first woman to win the presidency. Trump, 78, would become the first President to win non-consecutive terms in over a century. AP PAGE18 SETS ASIDE ALLAHABAD HC ORDER SC upholds UP madarsa Act, strikes down terms on higher degrees ANANTHAKRISHNAN G NEW DELHI, NOVEMBER 5 NOTING THAT the Uttar Pradesh Board of Madarsa Education Act, 2004 is “consistent with the positive obligation of the state to ensure that students studying in recognised Madarsas attain a minimum level of competency” to “effectively participate in society and earn a living”, the Supreme Court Tuesday upheld the constitutional validity of the Act. In doing so, the three judgebench of Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra set asidetheMarch22,2024orderof the Allahabad High Court which struckdowntheAct,callingitunconstitutional and violative of “the principle of secularism and CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 E E X P L A I NE D Sanjay Kumar Verma takes over as DGP of Maharashtra The state, religious ● tolerance THE SC has underlined that the practice of religious tolerance by the state is a facet of secularism. While the state can regulate secular aspects of practising religion, the Constitution is for equal treatment of majority and minority institutions. WHY THE SC UPHELD VALIDITY OF U.P. MADARSA ACT PAGE 17 Waqf Bill sent to House panel to allow every point of view, says Irani EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE NEW DELHI, NOVEMBER 5 NCP(SP) chief Sharad Pawar with party’s Baramati candidate Yugendra Pawar during a rally at Supe village. Pavan Khengre ‘May not become MP again’: Pawar hints at retirement AJAY JADHAV PUNE, NOVEMBER 5 HINTING AT his retirementfrom parliamentary politics and desire to pass on the baton to the youth, NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar on Tuesday urged voters to support the party’s Baramati candidate Yugendra Pawar and ensure his victory. “I have contested 14 elections from Baramati. You always elected me. It was because of you I became legislator, minister, then chief minister four times. Then, you sent me to the Lok Sabha as MP. I decided not to contest the general elections and became a Rajya Sabha MP. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 BJP LEADER and former Union Minister Smriti Irani said Tuesday that the Waqf (Amendment)Bill, 2024,wasreferred to a Joint Committee of Parliament “so that every political point of view, and citizens at large… can depose… and give their point of view”. Irani’s remark at the Idea Exchange programme of The Indian Express came on the day Opposition members of the House committee on the Bill met Lok Sabha SpeakerOmBirlatoprotestwhat theycalled“unilateral”decisions by panel chairman and BJP MP Jagdambika Pal. BJP leader Smriti Irani at the Idea Exchange. Renuka Puri Speaking on the introduction of the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, Irani said, “That daywehadunanimity and the numbers in the House. But we still had it considered for the JPC so that every political point of view, and citizens at large, can depose before the JPC, CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 In Nandurbar, Gavit family members in all seats: BJP, Cong, Independents PAGE 1 ANCHOR ZEESHAN SHAIKH MUMBAI, NOVEMBER 5 NANDURBAR DISTRICT has become a hub of political instability and opportunism that have recently come to define DECISION Maharashtra’spolitical landscape, 2024 MAHARASHTRA especially in the aftermathof shifting alliances ahead of the Fromleft:VijaykumarGavit(BJP);SharadGavit(Independent); HeenaGavit(Independent);RajendraGavit(Congress) Assembly elections. The Gavit family, led by state Tribal Development Minister VijaykumarGavit,seemstoepitomise the district’s fluid politics. Four members of the Gavit family — including Vijaykumar’s daughter and former BJP MP Heena — are set to contest the AssemblypollsfromNandurbar’s all four constituencies, with two representing arch rivals BJP and Congress,andtheothertwocontesting as Independents against former allies. Atthecentreof theGavitclan is Vijaykumar Gavit, 69, a sixtimeMLAfromNandurbar(once as an Independent, thrice with the undivided NCP, and twice with the BJP) who has served as a Cabinet minister in Maharashtra undervariousgovernments for over two decades. In Gavit’s home turf of Nandurbardistrict,wherenearly 70% of the population are tribals and which has long been ranked at the bottom of the state’s Human Development Index, residents have a per capita income at just one-tenth of the CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 IN A landmark ruling that has implications on the citizen’s right to hold property, a ninejudge bench of the Supreme Court Tuesday ruled that not all private property can be deemed “material resource of the community”forredistributionunder Article 39(b) of the Constitution. The phrase “material resource” in Article 39(b) of the Constitution “may include privately owned resources... not all privately owned resources fall within the ambit of the phrase”, the majority opinion of the SC said. Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud wrote the majorityrulingforhimself,andJustices Hrishikesh Roy, J B Pardiwala, Manoj Misra, Rajesh Bindal, Satish Chandra Sharma and Augustine George Masih. Justice B V Nagarathna partially disagreed with the majority judgment while Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia dissented. CJI Chandrachud is set to retire November 9. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 The nine-Judge bench: (from left) Justices Satish Chandra Sharma, Manoj Misra, Sudhanshu Dhulia, Hrishikesh Roy, Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud, Justices B V Nagarathna, J B Pardiwala, Rajesh Bindal and Augustine George Masih. JUSTICE DHULIA DISSENTS 2 verdicts flag: There was no need to be so harsh on previous judges ANANTHAKRISHNAN G NEW DELHI, NOVEMBER 5 EVEN WHILE agreeing with the majority view that all private property would not constitute material resource of the community under Article 39(b) of the Constitution, Justice B V Nagarathna, in a separate judgment, took exception to the criticismof JusticeVR Krishna Iyer’s interpretation of the law in the 1977 judgment in State of Karnataka v Shri Ranganatha Reddy. Incidentally, Justice Iyer’s view was subsequently endorsed by Justice O Chinnappa Reddyinthe1982decisioninthe case Sanjeev Coke Manufacturing Company vs Bharat Coking Coal Ltd. Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia, whodeliveredadissentingjudgment, too, recorded his “strong disapproval on the remarks made on the Krishna Iyer Doctrine, as it is called, and said “thiscriticismisharsh,andcould have been avoided”. JusticeNagarathnatermedas “unwarranted and unjustified”, the majority view that “the doc- trinal error in the Krishna Iyer approachwas,postulatingarigid economic theory, which advocates for greater state control over private resources,astheexclusive basis for constitutional governance”. She went on to express her disillusionment over what she saidwasthemajority’sviewthat “theKrishnaIyerdoctrinedoesa disservice to the broad and flexible spirit of the Constitution”. Incidentally, the final version of themajorityopinionavailableon the SC website, however, does CONTINUED ON PAGE 2