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The Hindu
27-05-2025
- Business
- The Hindu
First batch of five electric buses arrives in Puducherry; trial run in a few days
After a long wait, the first batch of five electric buses, including a prototype, have arrived in Puducherry from Hyderabad. Another bus is expected this week. The low-floor buses supplied by Evey Trans Private Limited, a subsidiary of Olectra Greentech, reached Puducherry on Monday (May 26, 2025) and is aimed at strengthening the public transport sector's shift to electric vehicles. Commuters in Puducherry and its suburbs can now expect an improved and hassle-free travel experience, thanks to the modern features of these electric buses, officials said. The charging station for the electric buses is being established by Evey Trans Private Limited on a 25,000 sq. ft. site belonging to the Puducherry government on Maraimalai Adigal Salai. A major portion of the work is completed, and the facility will be ready in the next two weeks. According to Transport Commissioner A.S. Sivakumar: 'As many as five buses have arrived, while another bus is expected this week. The remaining 19 buses will be inducted in a phased manner before July-end. These buses have been brought in under the FAME-II scheme of the Government of India.' 'The 25 buses (10 AC and 15 non-AC) are 9-metre buses and will be run under Gross Cost Contract (GCC) in Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model. The ₹23-crore seed funding from the Smart City project will be utilised for the payment on per km basis along with ticket revenue. The buses will ply on 15 tentative routes within urban areas, and will be operated under a Viability Gap Funding model.' The prototype of the bus will be on a trial run for a few days to assess its technical and mechanical strength. It will ply on designated routes for a few days without any passengers to check single charging range and other practical aspects. The buses will then be formally flagged off by the Lt. Governor and Chief Minister, and be available for city residents. Tentative routes The buses will ply on two routes — the first one starts from the railway station and ends at the airport, and goes through the old bus stand, new bus stand, Indira Gandhi square, Rajiv Gandhi square, and Jeeva colony. The second route starts from Puducherry to the airport, and will ply through the railway station, Government General Hospital, Ajantha signal, Karuvadikuppam, and Lawspet. With the charging station being set up by the operator getting ready, Evey Trans Private Limited has planned to charge the buses at a facility run by another private operator near the toll gate at Morattandi. This company already operates electric buses from Puducherry to Chennai, and the facility will be used for charging buses overnight, Mr. Sivakumar said. The upcoming charging station includes allied infrastructure with annual fleet-level guaranteed operations of 200 km per day per bus, for a period of 12 years. The operator is to foot the electricity cost and all maintenance costs of the buses. The Puducherry Road Transport Corporation (PRTC) or Puducherry Urban Transport Agency (PUTA) will be responsible for the fare collection and passenger tax on tickets, while all other permissions and clearances, including registration, insurance, stage carrier permit, Motor Vehicle Tax, and GST on kilometre charges, will be borne by the operator. An escrow account has been created and all revenue generated and the income accruing from the operation of the buses will be deposited into the account. This would help in rationalising the prices that would be paid on a per kilometre usage. The battery-operated buses have a life of 6-7 years and cover over 200 km in one charge. It takes around six hours to charge the buses.
The Hindu
24-05-2025
- The Hindu
Supreme Court sets aside life imprisonment in murder case on grounds of insanity
The Supreme Court set aside the life imprisonment of a man in a case of murder on the ground that there is 'reasonable doubt' that he committed the crime in a fit of insanity. The Court dismissed the Chhattisgarh Police's argument that a medical examination on the man had found him normal. However, a Bench of Justice A.S. Oka, who retired on May 24, said the medical check on the man, Dashrath Patra, was conducted five years after the crime, and thus 'meaningless'. The trial court had sentenced Patra to life imprisonment for bludgeoning a man to death in 2018. The State High Court had confirmed the punishment. The top court order said the onus of proving a defence of insanity lay on the accused. 'The burden to prove legal insanity is on the accused. It is enough if a reasonable doubt is created about the mental state of the accused at the time of the commission of the offence. The standard of proof to prove insanity is only a reasonable doubt,' the Court observed in the recent order. The Court, in its order, referred to judicial precedents which settle the law on the defence of insanity. 'Even if the accused was not able to establish conclusively that he was insane at the time he committed the offence, if the evidence placed before the Court raise a reasonable doubt about the ingredients of the offence, including mens rea [intention] of the accused, the Court would be entitled to acquit the accused,' the Bench quoted from past decisions. In the current case, the top court found witness testimonies that Patra suffered from bouts of insanity. Under Section 84 of the Indian Penal Code, a person is exonerated on the ground of unsoundness of mind if he, at the time of doing the act, is incapable of knowing the nature of the act or that it is contrary to law. 'The law lays down that no act done by a lunatic is an offence. The reason is that a lunatic is not in a position to defend himself. The right to defend a charge is a fundamental right guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution,' the Court noted.
The Hindu
16-05-2025
- Politics
- The Hindu
Supreme Court strikes down ex post facto environmental clearances to building projects, constructions
The Supreme Court on Friday (May 16, 2025) held the grant of ex post facto or retrospective Environmental Clearances (EC) by the Centre to building projects and constructions a 'gross illegality' and an anathema against which the courts must come down heavily. A Bench of Justices A.S. Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan, in a judgment, restrained the Union government from granting ex post facto clearances in any form to regularise illegal constructions. The court struck down the 2017 notification and 2021 Office Memorandum (OM) of the Centre, which in effect recognised the grant of ex post facto ECs, and connected government circulars, orders and notifications as illegal and completely arbitrary. However, the Bench clarified that ECs already granted till date under the 2017 notification and the 2021 OM would be unaffected by the judgment. Accusing the Centre of 'crafty drafting' to clear illegal constructions through retrospective ECs, the court said the government was only protecting project proponents who had committed gross illegality by commencing construction or operations in these illegal constructions without obtaining prior EC. 'Before undertaking a new project or expanding or modernising an existing one, an EC must be obtained… The concept of an ex post facto EC is in derogation of the fundamental principles of environmental jurisprudence and is an anathema to the EIA Notification of January 27, 1994,' Justice Oka observed. The judgment said the government had issued the 2017 notification despite a clear declaration of the law in favour of prior EC by the Supreme Court in the Common Cause judgment the very same year. 'The reason why a retrospective EC or an ex post facto clearance is alien to environmental jurisprudence is that before the issuance of an EC, the statutory notification warrants a careful application of mind, besides a study into the likely consequences of a proposed activity on the environment,' Justice Oka explained. The effect of granting an ex post facto clearance would amount to giving permission to complete the construction of a project which had started without prior EC. In cases in which the construction was already completed and activities had begun, the retrospective EC would facilitate continuation. Thus, in effect, the ex post facto EC regularised something which was illegal with retrospective effect. Referring to the 2021 OM, the court said the Union government had not 'cleverly' avoided the words 'ex post facto', but the provisions had the effect of allowing a retrospective regime. 'The 2021 OM talks about the concept of development. Can there be development at the cost of the environment? Conservation of the environment and its improvement is an essential part of the concept of development. Therefore, going out of the way by issuing such OMs to protect those who have caused harm to the environment has to be deprecated by the courts… Even the Central government has a duty to protect and improve the natural environment,' Justice Oka underscored.
