1. Gokulraj murder case | Madras HC upholds conviction, life sentence
The Madras High Court upheld the conviction and life sentence (till death without any remission) imposed by a trial court on S. Yuvaraj (43) of Theeran Chinnamalai Gounder Peravai and seven others for beheading Scheduled Caste engineering graduate V. Gokulraj in 2015 on mere suspicion that he was in love with a girl belonging to Kongu Vellalar community.
A Division Bench of Justices M.S. Ramesh and N. Anand Venkatesh reduced the life sentence of just two convicts M. Prabhu and P. Giridhar, arrayed as accused numbers 13 and 14, alone to five years of rigorous imprisonment after convicting them for only two charges, including the offence of harbouring an offender, under the Indian Penal Code.
The Bench dismissed a plea filed by the victim’s mother and the prosecution against the trial court’s decision to acquit five other accused and held that the trial court had given plausible reasons for not finding any reason to convict them.
2. A new International Convention Centre at Chennai to be named after Karunanidhi
Chief Minister M.K. Stalin on June 2 announced that an International Convention Centre would be set up in Chennai in the name of former Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi. The centre would be set up on 25-acre land with a capacity to hold international trade exhibitions, technological conferences, events by international institutions and international film festivals.
Releasing the logo for the centenary celebrations of Karunanidhi, Mr. Stalin said, “The new convention centre can accommodate 5,000 persons. There will be world-class conference and exhibition halls, star-status hotels, media halls, parks and international vehicle parking.”
3. Teachers appointed before July 29, 2011 need not clear TET to continue service: Madras HC
Striking down a 2020 rule, the Madras High Court ruled that those appointed as secondary grade teacher or graduate teachers / B.T. Assistants before July 29, 2011 must be allowed to continue in service and receive increments and incentives even if they had not cleared the Teachers Eligibility Test (TET).
Justices R. Mahadevan and Mohammed Shaffiq, however, made it clear that those teachers must necessarily clear TET for promotional prospects.
The judges said TET must be made a mandatory criterion for the post of B.T. Assistant even by promotion from secondary grade teachers and that TET would not be mandatory only for continuance in service without promotional prospects.
4. Stop industries from shifting out of Tamil Nadu: EPS to CM Stalin
Continuing his criticism of Chief Minister M.K. Stalin over his recent official visit to Singapore and Japan, AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami urged the DMK government to take steps to prevent industries from shifting their operations from Tamil Nadu to other States.
In a statement, Mr. Palaniswami pointed out that a conglomerate comprising Foxconn, which was to have invested ₹1.54 lakh crore and provided jobs to over 25,000 people in Tamil Nadu, left for Gujarat “because the DMK government refused to provide land and subsidies.”
5. Committee formed to monitor removal of gypsum from Sterlite plant
Thoothukudi Collector K. Senthil Raj has formed a nine-member Local Management Committee headed by the Sub-Collector, Thoothukudi, for monitoring the removal of gypsum from the Sterlite Copper plant that remains closed for the past five years.
The plant was sealed nearly five years ago after 13 people were killed in police firing during the anti-Sterlite agitation in May 2018.
Subsequently, the district administration removed 14 materials, including sulphuric acid, phosphoric acid, hydrofluorosilicic acid, isopropyl alcohol, liquefied petroleum gas, high-speed diesel, light diesel oil, heave furnace oil, lubricants, liquid oxygen, liquid nitrogen, rock phosphate, copper concentrate and gypsum from the 500-acre plant. However, 1.25 lakh tonnes of gypsum still remains on the premises.
