Briefly state

CBI,Home Ministry fail to file affidavits on convention against torture

Kolkata: Both CBI and Union Home Ministry on Wednesday failed to file an affidavit in the Calcutta High Court on steps taken to ratify the UN Convention against Torture,1984. The court on August 24 had directed the Ministry of Home Affairs to file an affidavit within three weeks on what action it had taken in ratifying the UN Convention against Torture 1984 on a PIL by one Deepak Pralhadkar. The petitioner claimed though the Union government signed the Convention in 1997,it had failed to ratify it. A Danish court recently refused to allow the extradition of Kim Davy,a key accused in the 1995 Purulia Armsdrop case to India on the ground that prisoners were subjected to torture in India. The CBI and Home Ministry sought time on the ground that they were busy with the Delhi High Court blasts.

Give inventory of trees at Botanic Garden,says HC

Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court on Wednesday directed the Indian Botanic Garden Authority to file an affidavit on the inventory of the trees inside the garden in seven days. The Division Bench of Justice Pinaki Chandra Ghosh and Justice Soumen Sen,which is hearing a PIL alleging illegal felling of trees in the garden,said that on several previous occasions the authority has not provided the number of the trees. Advocate Somnath Bose,the counsel of Botanic Garden,said that it was difficult to count the trees and quoted the scientists saying it was difficult to identify a tree without the seeing its flowers. The court then said the scientists have to state the cause for not submitting an affidavit on the inventory of the trees.