DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA JOURNALISM OF COURAGE WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 2024, NEW DELHI, LATE CITY, 20 PAGES THE EDITORIAL PAGE A NEW DEALFOR INDIAN BUSINESS Match-fixing monopoly groups vs fair-play businesses — moment has come to choose freedom over fear BYRAHULGANDHI PAGE 10 SINCE 1932 `7.00 (`8 BIHAR & RAIPUR, `12 SRINAGAR) WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM 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’ 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 Tree felling in Delhi: Forest puts figure at 1,670, L-G & DDA said 642 MALLICA JOSHI NEW DELHI, NOVEMBER 5 SAYING THAT the Delhi forest department “grossly under-reported” the number of trees felled for widening a road in the Capital’s Ridge area, the Forest Survey of India (FSI) has estimated the number at 1,670, which is more than double the number reported by the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) and Lt Governor V K Saxena. In separate affidavits to the Supreme Court earlier, the DDA andtheL-Ghadsaidthat642trees were felled for widening the approachroadtotheCentralArmed Police Forces Institute of Medical Sciences(CAPFIMS)inSouthwest Delhi’s Chattarpur area. However, in a report submitted to the Supreme Court on Monday, the FSI said about 1,136 treeswerefelledinsidetheRidge forest area, and another 534 trees outside the forest area. The FSI report said the Delhi forest departmenthadputthefigureat 745 in June this year. The L-G’s office and DDA did notrespondtoquestionsregarding the report. Whencontacted,FSIDirector General Anoop Singh said: “Please refer to the report. It has all the information.” Seeking to explain the difference in numbers, a senior Delhi forest department official said the map submitted by the DDA on the Environment Ministry’s Parivesh portal — where project proposals and forest clearance applications are submitted and can be tracked — may be “incorrect”. “The map includes excess area, and FSI has based its report on this map. It should have been corrected by the DDA and the forest department, but that was not done,” the official said. On May 16, the Supreme Court had asked the FSI to determinethenumberof treescut,assess the environmental damage doneandsubmitareport.TheFSI used a high resolution satellite, CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 RACE FOR THE WHITE HOUSE 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 PAGE14 In new rules, UP to set up its own panel for appointing DGP SPORT MAULSHREE SETH LUCKNOW, NOVEMBER 5 UNDER NEW RULES brought in by the Uttar Pradesh government, the state’s police chief will be selected by a committee chaired by a retired High Court judge. This is a departure from the earlier process, under which the state would send a list of names to the Union Public Service Commission, which would make the final shortlist for the state to select one. The ‘Director General of Police, Uttar Pradesh Selection and Appointment Rules, 2024’, cleared by the state Cabinet on Monday, said the DGP would be selected by a committee chaired byaretiredjudgeof aHighCourt. It has fixed a two-year tenure for the DGP and said only such officers would be eligible who have atleastsixmoremonthstoretire atthetimeof creationof vacancy. Over the past two years, UP has appointed four Acting DGPs. SP chief Akhilesh Yadav targeted CM Yogi Adityanath over the move Even now, the state doesn’t have a regular DGP. It has an Acting DGPinthe1991batchIPSofficer, Prashant Kumar. Officials said the decision wastakencitingaSeptember22, 2006 order which expected states to enact a new Police Act that would be capable of keeping the police system free from pressures, safeguarding the rights of citizens, and establishing the rule of law. Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav took a jibe at Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 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 Justice VR 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 SC upholds UP madarsa Act, strikes down provisions on higher degrees NEW DELHI, NOVEMBER 5 TO HOST 2036 OLYMPICS PAGE 20 JUSTICE DHULIA DISSENTS SETS ASIDE ALLAHABAD HIGH COURT ORDER ANANTHAKRISHNAN G PaneltobechairedbyretiredHCjudge, INDIA SUBMITS LETTER OF INTENT willincludeUPSCrepresentative 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. 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 con- stitutional 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 aside the March 22, 2024 order of the Allahabad High Court which struck down the Act, callingitunconstitutionalandviolative of “the principle of secularism and Articles 14 and 21A of the Constitution”. Thebench,however,heldthe Act’s provisions allowing the Board to award higher degrees like Kamil (undergraduate degree) and Fazil (post-graduate degree)asunconstitutional,saying they are in conflict with the University Grants Commission Act, 1956. The bench said the madarsa Act “regulates the standard of education in Madarsa as recognised by the Board for imparting Madarsa education... (and) is consistent with the positive obligation of the state to ensure that students studying in CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 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 doctrinal error in the Krishna Iyer approachwas,postulatingarigid economic theory, which advocates for greater state control CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 E E X P L A I NE D 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 Chandrachudwrotethemajority ruling for himself, and Justices Hrishikesh Roy, J B Pardiwala, Manoj Misra, Rajesh Bindal, Satish Chandra Sharma and AugustineGeorgeMasih.JusticeB VNagarathnapartiallydisagreed with the majority judgment 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 In Nandurbar, Gavit family members Waqf Bill sent to House in all seats: BJP, Cong, Independents panel to allow every point of view, says Irani ZEESHAN SHAIKH MUMBAI, NOVEMBER 5 NANDURBAR DISTRICT has become a hub of political instability DECISION and opportunism that have recently 2024 MAHARASHTRA come to define Maharashtra’spoliticallandscape,especiallyinthe aftermath of shifting alliances aheadof theAssemblyelections. The Gavit family, led by state Tribal Development Minister VijaykumarGavit,seemstoepitomise the district’s fluid politics. Four members of the Gavit EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE NEW DELHI, NOVEMBER 5 Fromleft:VijaykumarGavit(BJP); SharadGavit(Independent); HeenaGavit(Independent); Rajendra Gavit (Congress) 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 CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 BJP LEADER and former Union MinisterSmritiIranisaidTuesday thattheWaqf (Amendment)Bill, 2024, was referred 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 BJP leader Smriti Irani at the Idea Exchange. Renuka Puri House committee on the Bill met Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla to protest what they called “unilateral” decisions by panel CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Smog knows no borders, Pak minister: Punjabs on both sides need a plan PAGE 1 ANCHOR DIVYA GOYAL GOPAL LUDHIANA, NOVEMBER 5 WITH BOTH sides of the border grappling with a common crisis, Marriyum Aurangzeb, Senior Minister in the Government of Punjab in Pakistan, has told The IndianExpressthatitis“hightime for India and Pakistan, and especiallyPunjabsonbothsidesofthe border, to initiate a joint smog mitigation plan”. Two days ago, the air quality index(AQI)inLahorehitahighof 1900,brieflygivingittheunenviable tag of the world’s most polluted city. In an SOS from across the border, Aurangzeb, who also holds the environment protectionandclimatechangeportfolio inChief MinisterMaryamNawaz Sharif-ledPunjabprovincialgovernment, claimed the “Eastern corridor winds blowing from India towards Lahore” were takingthesmogtodangerouslevels. Speaking to The Indian Express over the phone, Aurangzeb stressed on the need for “smog diplomacy”. “It is a national disaster for both countries, especially both Pakistan Punjab minister Marriyum Aurangzeb (top); stubble burning in Barnala on Sunday. Gurmeet Singh Punjabs. If we look at the data of the past three-four days, the AQI inLahoreshotuptoextremelev- elsforcingustoshutourprimary schools. The direction of the wind from the Eastern Corridor, blowing from India towards Lahore, is affecting us the most. Our point is, this is not political. It’s all based on scientific data and conditions such as wind, over which no one has control. The only way forward is to bring the smog issue to the table and work together,” said Aurganzeb. “Basically both Punjabs need to work together on this. AccordingtowhatourCMhasexpressed, both countries need to have a joint smog mitigation action plan — time-bound with deadlines and sectoral targets... Our CM is of the view that it should not be dealt with through apoliticallensbetweentwocountries... We will be writing a letter toourForeignOffice,mostprobably by today, which I assume will further write to the foreign ministryinIndia...Wearehopefulthat India will respond positively.” Askedif thewindsfromIndia weretheonlyreasonforLahore’s pollutionwoes,shesaid,“No,the winds from India are not the onlyreason...Butyes,datashows that during the paddy harvest season commencing in October till late December, when wind direction and weather changes also happen, and Diwali is celebrated across the border, the smogencapsulatestheentireregion. As soon as wind changes direction, the AQI in Lahore drops to 200 or so.... As I said, both the countries need to ex- plore and study more data on this. It’s not like that I am blaming India or vice-versa,” she said. AurangzebsaidPakistanitself is facing a stubble burning challenge. “The difference between our and Punjab’s paddy stubble problem on the Indian side is of magnitude.Thenumberof farmers and size of farms in India is huge. Here, we are distributing super seeder machines to farmerstomanagepaddystubbleand also making arrests. Yesterday only, we arrested over 100 individuals for stubble burning,” she said, adding that vehicular emission was another reason for Lahore’sdeterioratingairquality.