India Legal: Issue 15 September 2014

NDIA EGAL
L
STORIES THAT COUNT
Medical Crimes:
Can victims ever get justice?
September 15, 2014 `100
www.indialegalonline.com
I
The putrefying Ganges is Indias national disgrace. Can Modi deliver on his
campaign promise to revive the worlds holiest river?
Baby-killer Sisters:
In cold blood
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CRY ME A RIVER
lWho will be hit worst by Courts
Coalgate crackdown?
lDoshipura: Shia-Sunni imbroglio
l
At Last: weeding out antiquated bills
l
Bribes-for-bank-loans scam surfaces
Vanishing Birds:
Can laws save them?
ALSO
14
40
44
32
74
AND
Should parents encourage kids to play with tablet APPS?
26 36 60
NLY a writer of childrens books like
Chambers can so appealingly conjure up the
mystery, the majesty, the living force of a river
and bring home with such dynamic brutality
the reality of how each one of us dies a thousand
deaths when we take part in the killing of a river. We
do not even know it, but every Indian alive today, and
those who lived a generation before us, is guilty of
strangling and torturing the river Ganges to death.
She is writhing in agony before our very eyes. We are
spending money on keeping her lungs gurgling on life
support systems, like ICU doctors who put a patient
on whom theyve given up, on a respirator and then
wash their hands clean with a detergent.
But like Lady Macbeth we will have the smell of
blood on our hands and all the perfumes of Arabia
would not make our hands smell better. It is not my
purpose here to go into the wondrous mythology of
the Ganges, the endless verses composed by our rishis,
the ecological havoc which hangs over our heads as
Maa Ganga dies and dies, choked and poisoned by the
effluents of mans greed and the instinct to plunder. If
you are unaware of this, go study it. Ponder it. If you
dont care, maybe you need to read this cover story. Or
maybe you dont.
Awareness of the poisoning of the artery that flows
through Indias heart and provides succor to the
inhabitants of the Indo-Gangetic plain, as she
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
MAA GANGA WILL
TEST MODIS
LEADERSHIP
INDERJIT BADHWAR
o
I thought how lovely and how strange a river is. A river is a river, always there,
and yet the water flowing through it is never the same water and is never still. Its
always changing and is always on the move. And over time the river itself changes
too. It widens and deepens as it rubs and scours, gnaws and kneads, eats and bores
its way through the land. Even the greatest riversthe Nile and the Ganges, the
Yangtze and the Mississippi, the Amazon and the great grey-green greasy Limpopo
all set about with fever treesmust have been no more than trickles and flickering
streams before they grew into mighty rivers.
Do I change like a river, widening and deepening, eddying back on myself
sometimes, bursting my banks sometimes when theres too much water, too much
life in me, and sometimes dried up from lack of rain? Will the I that is me grow and
widen and deepen? Or will I stagnate and become an arid riverbed? Will I allow
people to dam me up and confine me to the wall so that I flow only where they
want? Will I allow them to turn me into a canal to use for their own purposes?
Or will I make sure I flow freely, coursing my way through the land and ploughing
a valley of my own?
Aidan Chambers, This is All: The Pillow Book of Cordelia Kenn
3
INDIA LEGAL September 15, 2014
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
journeys tortuously to the Bay of Bengal to merge into
the Indian Ocean, is nothing new. She shares her
bounty with 40 percent of Indias populationabout
500 million souls living in 11 states. Her decline was
first noticed in 1854 when the British first built the
Haridwar Dam and hastened as we poisoned,
despoiled and raped her with the kind of banality that
is the ultimate root of all evil.
The issue of the environmental desecration of the
Ganga, hastened by climate change in which the
Gangotri Glacier has been receding for the last 30
years, cannot be repeated often enough for the sad
and simple reason that the civilization which she nur-
turedand civilizations are known to be born and
disappear as rivers vanish or change coursedoes not
see this as an issue. Notwithstanding all the Ganga
Bachao movementsGanga Seva Abhiyanam, Pune-
based National Womens Organization (NWO) and
Ganga Calling-Save Ganga, supported by Indian
Council for Enviro-Legal Action (ICELA)saving the
Ganges is not a national issue.
I repeat, I cannot repeat this often enough. As a
newsperson, I hold my own profession guilty for not
raising the issue ad nauseam, ad infinitum. Ignoring it
and, instead, ostrich-like burying our heads into
repeat stories on Bebos Bollywood love affairs, is not
going to make the problem disappear. The subject is
on par with drilling climate change problems into our
mindsstarting with our toddlers, just as we brain-
wash them on subjects like caste and superstitious
bafflegabor the necessity of combating Aids or the
campaign to eliminate smallpox, malaria or TB. We
Gomukh
Gangotri
Tehri
Devprayag
Rishikesh
Haridwar
Garhmukteshwar
Bithoor
Kanpur
Allahabad
Varanasi
Patna
4
September 15, 2014
visage of Vajpayees Golden Quadrilateral highway
scheme, and the no-nonsense, goal-oriented Sree-
dharan was the face of Delhis proudest achievement
since construction of the Red Fortthe Metrofor
which he should have been given the Bharat Ratna?
Even if Modi does nothing else in his first term but
simply cleans up the Ganges or even a part of it, India
will reward him not just with a Bharat Ratna, but the
world will see him not only as a great but also grand
leader. And he will be able to put the shadow of the
2002 riots behind him. In America, in the 1930s dur-
ing the Great Depression, President Franklin Roose-
velt created brigades of workers nationwide, who were
given regular wages to create parks, restore monu-
ments and perform public works. Through these proj-
ects, the alienated American youth became stakehold-
ers in the American dream and were able to make a
living in a shattered economy.
Modis thinking on the Ganga is correct. But he
must think out-of-the-box. Why cant he take a page
out of Roosevelts book and create paid brigades of
youth workers, including unemployed Muslim youths
(Governor Jagmohan did this successfully in Kash-
mirs Srinagar when he cleaned up the dying Dal
Lake) and create Clean Ganga Brigades under a spe-
cial dispensation headed by a honest figure?
As a measure of demonstrating the new regimes
commitment to accountability, Modi should also set
up a special inquiry commission with a time-bound
period to investigate why the `20,000 crore already
spent by previous regimes on the Ganga Action Plan
produced no result, who siphoned off the money, and
track down the fraud and mismanagement and rec-
ommend prosecution of the guilty.
Thats what leadership is all about, and the people
expect nothing less than that from Modi and they will
back him as he brings the Ganges back into national
focus. Cleaning up the Ganges symbolizes everything
to be destroyed: Poverty, filth, human degradation,
sloth, corruption, communal passions. And there is a
lot to be preserved: poetry, philosophy, universities,
artists, singers, loud raucous laughter, rock-hewn
temples, countless masjids, from where muezzins call
out above the ring of rickshaw bells, and the morning
and evening aartiscling-cling-ding-ding-clap-clap.
(The lead story that appears on page 20 is writer
Rashme Sehgals live follow-up report on whether
current schemes to clean the Ganges under the new
budgetary allocation will work)
editor@indialegalonline.com
should repeat the Clean Ganga Mantra, as we do the
Gayatri Mantra, or Bismillah ir-Rahman ir-Rahim till
our heads swim.
As penitence, as would probably be decreed by a
vengeful god, we should be punished by having our
heads dunked into the filthy waters of the Ganges
until we choke and gurgle for mercy and be given a
breather only under the condition that we will repeat-
edly be similarly submerged or water boarded (in the
lingo of American torturers) unless we join in the
awareness campaign to liberate our life-giving river.
I admit I indulge in passionate hyperbole. But this
is because the only formula for change is revolution,
when all reason has fled or been sacrificed at the altar
of corruption, waste, fraud and neglect. All these have
played a major role in the plunder of the Ganges by
the combined forces of the government and industry.
The formula for change is simple: Either youre
part of the Ganga problem or youre part of the solu-
tion. Theres no miracle involved here. It requires a
tectonic attitudinal mind change; the kind that
occurred when Rachel Carsons book Silent Spring
awakened the world to environmental issues, or the
political will backed by people power that ultimately
led America to clean up the mighty Hudson river, and
England, the Thames. Both waters, which had turned
into sewers, now bubble with marine life.
That is why candidate Narendra Modi was such an
attractive choice as PM for many Indians. He elevated
reviving and cleaning the Ganges to a national politi-
cal platform. It was also the demand of his voters in
Banaras, the city of the gods, now gone stale with the
stench of the river as evening falls on a hot summer
afternoon. The disgusting odor drives out the redo-
lence of incense and deafens us to the gently resonant
tinkling of the evening aarti.
So, Mr Modi allocates another `2,000 crore in his
first budget for the Ganga cleanup. Fine! But wheres
the passion? Wheres the grand design? Wheres the
potent face of the Ganga cleanup as Khanduri was the
Murshidabad
Mayapur
Kolkata
5
SEPTEMBER 15, 2014
LEAD
The Ganga disgrace
For centuries, the Ganges purified us of our sins, while we discharged our filth into
it. Now, with Narendra Modi making the river cleaning his governments top
priority, RASHME SEHGAL probes if its a case of too little, too late
20
Legal fraternity joins the issue
VIKAS SINGH, Former Additional Solicitor General, and
SHAILENDRA SINGH, senior advocate, Supreme Court, provide their
perspectives on the scrapping of the collegium system
12
Power sources plugged off
With the Supreme Court declaring all coal block allocations since 1993
illegal, the Indian economy is sure to take a hit, writes VISHWAS KUMAR
Patients agony, doctors apathy
Despite numerous cases of negligence, why do medical professionals
enjoy a certain degree of legal immunity? AKSHAT AGARWAL points out
the changes that are required in the legal framework. Also, a case study on
the landmark case of Dr Kunal Saha, who won `6-crore compensation
14
26
OPINIONS
SUPREME COURT
RIGHTS
VOLUME. VII ISSUE. 25
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6
September 15, 2014
44
The big clean-up
operation
A staggering 300 antiquated laws are set to be
weeded out, some of them as old as 150
years. ANITA KATYAL reports
GOVERNANCE
60
Birds on
the brink
RAMESH MENON
decries the negligence,
which has endangered
the existence of our
winged friends
PHOTO ESSAY
54
Grounding
pilots flight
DGCAs new rule of six-month notice period
severely hampers pilots career. SHOBHA JOHN
writes that a similarly strict approach is required to
rein in airlines who dont pay their staff for months
FOCUS
Grave matters
The conflict between Shias and Sunnis is being
played out in Varanasi too, over a few plots of
land. AJAY AGARWAL describes the political
implications of the strife
CONTROVERSY
A L S O
Cover Design: ANTHONY LAWRENCE
40
New
meaning
to freedom
MANYATA DUTT, wife of Sanjay Dutt, writes
that her husbands incarceration has, for the
first time, opened another dimension to life
MY SPACE
58
R
E
G
U
L
A
R
S
Letter from the Editor ............ .........................................................3
Letters..............................................................................................8
Quote-Unquote...............................................................................9
Ringside........................................................................................10
Supreme Court ..................................................................................16
Courts................................................................................................18
Briefs .................................................................................................77
Consumer Corner..............................................................................78
Is That Legal?....................................................................................80
Wordly-wise .......................................................................................81
People ...............................................................................................82
Cover Photograph: ANIL SHAKYA
32
Banks and
bribedom
The arrest of Syndicate Bank CMD and
Bhushan Steel owner exposes the nexus
between big corporate houses and public
sector banks in procuring large loans, which,
in many cases, are never paid back. A report
by VISHWAS KUMAR
CRIME
36
Animal
instincts
Two Kolhapur sisters, sentenced to death
for killing several toddlers, could become
the first women in independent India to be
hanged. RITU GOYAL HARISH writes that a
psychological study should be done of such
criminals to assist in crime prevention
Justice BS Chauhans
land-acquiring spree......48
A transport scam that
never was.......................51
A small-town boys rise as
a brain scientist...............66
Sania Mirzas current great
form...............................68
The US questionable
human rights record......70
Rape cases on American
campuses......................72
Toddlers addiction to
tablet apps....................74
7
Please email your letters to:
editor@indialegalonline.com
Or write to us at:
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Nagar, Noida (UP) - 201309
A sham effort
The battle between the executive and the
judiciary (War over Judges, August 31, 2014) is
nothing new. It has been going on ever since
Indira Gandhi was the prime minister. She rode
roughshod over all fair procedures and planted
her own favorites. The collegium period was only
a hiatus when the judges practised the same.
Now, it is the center which is trying to get back
its hold over appointments and transfer of
judges. I am doubtful whether we will get to see
meritorious and scrupulous judges
Mohini Mathur, Delhi
A lax executive
The entire slugfest between the
judiciary and the executive over
death sentences is due to the
inordinate delay by the
president of India in deciding on
mercy petitions (Lord, Have
Mercy, August 2014). This
excessive delay has given a
handle to death convicts to
approach the Supreme Court
and seek commutation to life
sentence. The case of Renuka
Shinde and Seema Gavit is
another example.
Ranjana Thakur, Meerut
A handy tool
I enjoyed reading the story,
Cybermentary! My Dear Watson
in the August 31, 2014, issue.
Sleuths and lawyers need to be
techno-savvy to cull out
unsavory email exchanges. I
would myself take help of the
software tool, Systools
MailXaminer, for unearthing
email information in case of
data leak in my office. Thanks
for keeping me updated.
Ramesh Khanna, Mumbai
LETTERS
www.facebook.com/indialegalmagazine
www.twitter.com/indialegalmag
Interpreting the law
Merely bringing in the new juvenile bill (What is
the Age of Innocence, August 31, 2014) will not
solve the problem. Lowering the age for
juveniles to be treated as adults for heinous
crimes will put enormous pressure on the
judiciary dealing with cases, where children
between 16 and 18 years are involved. It cant
simply go by the law book, but will have to tread
with caution while convicting them. Reasons for
the crime, social background and mental state of
the accused, etc, will need to be
considered as well before the judgment. The new
law will have to stand the test of time.
Saswati Sengputa, Kolkata
Warning signals
Those who swear by Narendra Modis charisma
(Silent PM, August 31, 2014) should take a leaf or
two from the recent outcome of assembly bypolls
in Bihar, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Punjab.
The results have been less than impressive for
the BJP, whose political fortunes are being
steered by Modi. Yes, local factors do play a role
in assembly elections, but one thing is clear: the
Indian electorate is looking for other options if
they look credible. The UP by-elections in 11
assembly constituencies should clear the air.
Raj Shekhar, Gurgaon
8
September 15, 2014
I played a big part in it. I have
corrupted the youth, audience,
and Bollywood!
Emraan Hashmi, on making kissing a
usual affair in Bollywood. Delhi Times
I would be delighted if he could show me what
industrial development projects I missed while
driving through Rajarhat.
Ratan Tata, on West Bengal finance minister Amit Mitras
comment that he was not being properly briefed about
development in the state. Business Standard
"I blame the BCCI for
creating the IPL monster and
pushing their cricketers
towards money rather than
getting them to think about
their technique. I can't see
any Gavaskars, Vengsarkars,
Azharuddins or Tendulkars
being produced by India."
Arjuna Ranatunga, former
captain of Sri Lanka, on India's
series defeat in England.
NDTV Sports
Neither will I take bribe nor
will I allow anyone else to
take bribe.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi,
on corruption during his Jammu
and Kashmir tour. Jagran Post
By killing transparency and
competition, crony capitalism
is harmful to free enterprise,
opportunity and economic
growth.
RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan,
on crony capitalism, reported by
The Economic Times
The RJs should ensure
their language and
content is not
objectionable. Those of
us who are sitting inside
the house should
be respected
Samajwadi Party
MP Jaya Bachchan,
on radio jockeys
making fun of
MPs, India Today
It is not easier to do mass
entertainers. In fact, at some level,
playing to the gallery is more difficult
because there is less conviction in
the character.
Ajay Devgn, reacting to the impression that
he has increasingly moved into commercial
cinema in the last five years. Sunday Express
No other person has won so
many medals at the World
Championships or at other
international events. Womens
boxing in India got popular
because of me.
Boxer Mary Kom, miffed at not being
informed about the last minute
postponement of Asian Games trials in
Patiala. International Business Times
9
QUOTE-UNQUOTE
The man who passes the sentence should swing the sword. If you would
take a mans life, you owe it to him to look into his eyes and hear his final
words. And if you cannot bear to do that, then perhaps the man does not
deserve to die.
George RR Martin, A Game of Thrones
VERDICT
10
September 15, 2014
COLUMN/
judicial appointments/shailendra singh
Whatever the brouhaha over the
collegium system, the new judicial
appointments commission will have
to prove its efficacy
O
UT of chaos comes order. The recent passing of
the Judicial Appointments Bill 2014 in parlia-
ment was one such upheaval. But why did it
evoke such strong passions? What did it
replace? Here is a lowdown on the issue.
The bill replaced the collegium system for appointment of
judges to the higher judiciary. The collegium system had a five-
member committee, which included the chief justice of India
(CJI) and four seniormost judges of the Supreme Court (SC).
However, it had no constitutional validity.
The system has been full of controversy and criticized by
the executive as it vests too much power with the judiciary.
Senior judges are appointed by the collegium and the executive
can only ask it to reconsider a recommendation. It also
received a lot of flak for its vagueness and unaccountability
and charged with nepotism as critics felt it ignored meritori-
ous candidates. Some of its critics included the Law
Commission of India chairman, Justice AP Shah, and senior
Supreme Court lawyer Harish Salve.
However, CJI RM Lodha said he was the first batch of
judges from the system while Justice Nariman was the last. If
the collegium has failed, then its products (the judges) too are
failures and the judiciary as a whole has failed the country,
Heres the
LOWDOWN
Lodha retorted. As an institution, the collegium had its limi-
tations in selecting persons. After all, judges too come from
the same society. But to carry on a campaign just because of
allegations against one or two judges is unfair, he stated.
What does the constitution say about it? Article 124 says
that the president has the right to appoint Supreme Court
judges after consulting with the CJI and other SC judges.
Similarly, Article 217 says the president has the right to
appoint high court judges after consultation with the CJI and
the governor of the state.
But various governments wanted to do away with the col-
legium system. Finally, the Judicial Appointments Bill was
passed in parliament. According to the bill, a six-member
Judicial Appointments Commission will recommend the
president on the appointment and transfer of judges. These
include the CJI, the law and justice minister, two seniormost
judges of SC and two eminent persons. Critics, however, say
there is greater scope for politicians to interfere in judicial
appointments now. This will compromise the entire judicial
delivery system. One hopes fair play and justice will prevail.
The author is an advocate in
Supreme Court and Delhi High Court
IL
UNI RAJEEV TYAGI
12
September 15, 2014
IL
while the judges-appointing-judges
system has belied expectations,
scrapping it is not the answer
COLUMN/
judicial appointments/vikas singh
T
HIS is a crucial juncture for the Indian judiciary,
when the present executive is keen to do away
with the collegium system by bringing in the
National Judicial Appointments Commission Bill
2014. The basis for bringing in the bill is the wide-
ly-held perception that the collegium system has failed.
While I also feel the collegium system has not lived up to the
expectations of the people of this country, replacing it with the
National Judicial Appointments Commission Bill is not an
answer.
As the head of the Indian judicial family, the chief justice of
India can take certain important pre-emptive steps, which will
completely thwart the initiative of the government to abolish
the collegium system.
The need of the hour is to understand whether the collegium
system is the right one or not and then separately consider the
reason why it has failed in India.
In my view, the system is perfect for the independence of the
Indian judiciary but the way it is being operated at the moment
leaves a lot to be desired. Urgent steps are required to be taken
to ensure the proper working of the existing system.
In my view, the shortcomings of the present system are: (1)
lack of credibility in the shortlisting of candidates; (2) lack of
objectivity in making a comparative analysis; (3) bias or nepo-
tism in the actual selection; and (4) delay in filling up the
vacancies.
According to me, immediate steps need to be taken in the
appointment of judges to the higher judiciary, and these, inter
alia, should ensure the system meets the aspirations of the peo-
ple of India and is able to thwart criticism from any quarter.
The collegium at the high court should invite names from the
bar associations as well as from the state government.
The collegium should provide for certain basic eligibility cri-
teria like the minimum age, minimum return of income, etc. for
any person to be considered for appointment as a judge of the
high court.
Not all is bad with
COLLEGIUM
All the names before the collegium should be referred to a
select panel of two eminent lawyers of the said high court who
shall rate the names on the question of integrity as well as pro-
fessional competence and any other criteria which may be
required by the said panel to rate the names.
If the direct junior or a relative of any of the member of the
collegium is on the list being considered for appointment, the
said member of the collegium should be asked to recuse him-
self and the next junior judge should be opted by the collegium.
The collegium should consider each and every name before it
and then decide the most suitable for appointment as a judge
of the high court.
The system should provide that for any vacancy that is to
come up in the next three months, the collegium should rec-
ommend the names at least two months in advance so that the
notification for such appointment is ready on the date of the
retirement of the judge and there is no vacancy of any judge in
any high court for even a single day.
In so far as the promotion from the lower judiciary is con-
cerned, there should be no quota fixed for them and the col-
legium should appoint only such persons who meet the basic
benchmark as fixed by the collegium for appointment as a
judge of the high court. Seniority amongst the additional
judges should be a criterion for elevation to the high court but
it should have very little weightage in the appointment.
A
s far as appointment to the Supreme Court is con-
cerned, the five-judge collegium of the apex court
should also take assistance of an eminent lawyers
panel constituted by it to consider the names of the judges of
the high court as well as the name of any member of the Bar by
rating the candidates on such criteria as the collegium system
would want the panel to so rate them.
In the appointment to the Supreme Court, regional repre-
sentation should only be a guiding factor for appointment and
merit and unimpeachable integrity should be the main criteria
for appointment to the highest court of the land.
According to me, immediate steps should be taken by the
Supreme Court to reinvent the collegium system. This will help
restore the faith of the people of this country in the system. The
initiative will also ensure there is no attempt by the govern-
ment to interfere in the matter of appointment of judges.
I strongly feel that adding the law minister in the collegium
system is only going to worsen things.
I have a lot of expectations from the present Chief Justice of
India RM Lodha. In his short tenure, he has been able to send
the message across about maintaining the independence of the
judiciary, much more strongly.
The author is a senior advocate of Supreme Court and
former additional solicitor general of India
13
will the scs decision declaring all
allocations between 1993 and
2010 illegal deal a body blow to
the economy?
By Vishwas Kumar
SUPREME COURT/
coal allocations
P
RIME Minister Narendra Modi faced his
first major economic challenge on Aug-
ust 25. Thats when the Supreme Court
(SC) declared all coal block allocations
made by the government of India (GOI)
between 1993 and 2010 illegal. This will have major
ramifications on coal supply, vital for the production
of power and steel, needed for a resurgent economy.
A bench, comprising Chief Justice RM Lodha,
Justices Madan Lokur and Kurian Joseph, said it
would appoint a high-level committee of retired
judges to identify those companies who would be
affected by its order. On its next hearing on Sep-
tember 1, 2014, the bench will create a committee to
identify those whose allocations will be cancelled. It
will also address the route through which these allo-
cations may be made in future.
The SC said: All (coal) allocations were done in an
illegal manner and suffer from the vice of arbitrari-
ness. It added that no objective criteria were followed
Digging
the dirt
14
September 15, 2014
and guidelines were breached in these alloca-
tions. The coal block allocation done by a
screening committee was not fair and trans-
parent, it added.
All allocations, done in all 35 meetings of
the committee, were ad hoc, casual and
hence, unfair, it said. While 194 allocations
were made through the screening committee,
36 went through the government dispensa-
tion route. These coal blocks were allotted to
private companies, mainly in Jharkhand,
Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, West Bengal,
Odisha and Madhya Pradesh.
HUMUNGOUS LOSS
Incidentally, the scam came to light when the
Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG)
tabled a report in parliament in 2012, which
said the governments decision to not auction
194 coal blocks resulted in a huge loss to the
THERE will be many nervous
people on September 15. Thats
when former CAG Vinod Rais new
book Not Just an Accountant is
scheduled for release. It is touted to
be the mother of all tell-tale books
and would acutely embarrass
former PM, Dr Manmohan Singh.
CAGs audit reports on the 2G
spectrum scam (`1.76 lakh crore)
and the coal scam (`1.86 lakh
crore), were dubbed by opposition
political parties, including the BJP,
as the mother of all scams. Both
scams occurred during the 10 year
rule of the Congress-led UPA
government.
Rais book has alleged that UPA
functionaries deputed politicians to
get him to leave out names from
the auditors reports on Coalgate
and Commonwealth Games scams.
Rai did not reveal the names of the delegates. But according
to BJP leader Subramanian Swamy, the four persons whose
names were not included in the CAG report are: Congress
Chief Sonia Gandhis political aide Ahmed Patel, Congress
treasurer Motilal Vora, Singhs principal secretary Pulok
Chatterjee and advisor TKA Nair.
Rai told a news channel: The book
will have details of how the ex-PM
succumbed to what he himself once
described as compulsions of coalition
politics. Everything cannot be sacrificed
only to remain in power. Governance
cannot be sacrificed at the altar of
compulsion of coalition politics.
For Singh, this couldnt have come at
a worse time. Already, two books have
been critical of Singhs leadershipone
by his media advisor, Sanjaya Baru, and
the other by ex-coal secretary,
PC Parakh. Both books are already
bestsellers.
Congressmen are playing down
Rais allegations. Former I&B minister
Manish Tewari termed his remarks as
the latest bout of his sensationalism
and told a channel that sensationalism
has been a staple of the former CAG.
He also questioned why Rai did not
bring these allegations to public notice while he was in office
and dared him to an open debate on the Coalgate and
Commonwealth scams.
The BJP, on the other hand, wants Rai to disclose the
name of UPA politicians who asked him to tamper with
the Coalgate reports.
public exchequer. At first, the loss was
pegged at `10 lakh crore, but was brought
down to `1.86 lakh crore.
While competitive bidding for coal blocks
was recommended in 2004, the government
never used this route and instead allocated
the blocks through recommendations made
by state governments and politicians to a
screening committee. Many companies got
undue benefits due to coal blocks allocated to
them for captive use.
Of the 194 blocks allotted, in 15, private
players did not even start production till
2011. The CAG report mentions various com-
panies which benefited from allocations
without bidding during 2004-2006: Tatas,
Jindals, Essar, Abhijeet, Laxmi Mittals
Arcelor and Vedanta.
The number of people who had their
hands in the till is truly shocking.
Hot Potato
15
IL
SUPREME COURT
E
ven as the Modi
g o v e r n me n t
mulls over brin-
ging in more stringent
legal provisions to curb
tobacco consumption, a
PIL in the Supreme
Court pointed out that
an amount of `30,000
crore was spent annually on curing illnesses from tobacco
use. Arguing that the money squandered was around 25
percent of the countrys public health spending, the peti-
tion sought a total ban on cigarettes and beedis and wanted
harsher punishment for smokers. It also cited a spike in
deaths related to tobacco.
When the three-judge bench said the onus lay on the
legislature to frame laws against tobacco consumption, the
counsel for the petitioner reminded that it was only after
an apex court order in 2001 that parliament had passed the
Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act in 2003, put-
ting restrictions on tobacco products. But the act wasnt
implemented properly, the PIL said. The bench asked the
center and the states to respond to the PIL.
I
t has been 67 years since India attained freedom
from the British yoke, but English remains the
official language for all proceedings in the higher
judiciary. In fact, Article 348 of the constitution man-
dates so.
A PIL sought that the Supreme Court ask the center
to make changes in Article 348 so that Hindithe
rashtra bhashabecomes the official language for all
the proceedings in the apex court and high courts. It
said that the British legacy should be done away with.
The apex court, while taking up the petition, asked the
center to respond on the issue.
Batting for Hindi
New law for
cheque-bouncing
D
ragging a person to court for the offense of cheque
bouncing will now be an onerous task, as the Supreme
Court has altered the basic rule under Section 138 of the
Negotiable Instruments Act. Henceforth, a case for cheque boun-
cing due to inadequate funds must be initiated only at the place of
the drawee bank branch.
It may not be too difficult for a person to start prosecution at the
bank branch of the place where he stays, but the process will entail
considerable time and money for someone who receives a cheque
from a distant place, and it gets bounced. Already lakhs of cheque
bouncing cases have piled up in courts, and the new law will lead
to mass inter-state transfer of such cases.
Aware that the judgment will create problems, a three-judge
bench of the apex court said that the new law will not apply to
cases where summons have already been issued to the accused
and recording of evidence has begun.
Call for
tobacco ban
Illustrations: Aruna
16
September 15, 2014
THIS is an issue that has tormented would-be mothers in
India for years, thanks to an archaic law. But now there is
hope, as the Supreme Court has decided to look into the
issue. A PIL filed in the apex court condemned the Medical
Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act, 1971, for imposing a
20-week cap on abortion and said that it infringed upon
the rights to equality, health and life of women. The PIL
wanted the legal limit for abortion increased to 28 weeks.
It clarified that with rapid advances in medical science, the
foetus could be removed at any stage without threat to a
pregnant mothers health. The court referred the matter to
the center, enquiring if any fundamental law was being
breached by carrying out MTP, and listed the final hearing
for November.
EVEN as the Congress is trying to get its house in order
after the Lok Sabha defeat, the foreign funding issue in the
elections haunts it. The partys plea against the Delhi High
Court judgment holding the Congress and BJP prima facie
guilty of flouting laws under Foreign Contribution
(Regulation) Act (FCRA) was rejected by the apex court.
The Supreme Court instead issued notice to the center
and the election commission to respond to the matter with-
in eight weeks after observing that FCRA needed to be
interpreted properly. The only respite for the Congress: It
could approach the apex court in case any coercive action
was taken following the high court order. The Congress and
BJP were pronounced guilty by the Delhi High Court on
March 28 for receiving donations from the subsidiaries of
the UK-based Vedanta Resources Plc.
T
he apex court takes up an ava-
lanche of petitions from different
parties every day, but what if it has
to look into a PIL requesting that the SC
look into its own rule book?
The Supreme Court Bar Association
(SCBA) appealed to the apex court that
the New Supreme Court Rules, 2013,
should not be implemented with effect
from August 19 as it was not consulted
while framing them. It wanted the court to
enter into an effective and meaningful
discussion with the SCBA. It also pointed
out that some changes in the Supreme
Court Rules, 1966, had taken away the
fundamental rights of the SCBA. The rules
should not be enforced till the outcome of
the petition, SCBA said.
A two-judge bench deferred the hearing
for September 5.
Right to abort
EXPRESSING total confidence in the Gujarat governments
ability to provide justice, the Supreme Court dismissed a PIL
filed by suspended IAS officer Pradeep Sharma, seeking
transfer of cases against him from the Gujarat police to the
CBI. The counsel for Sharma alleged that the state govern-
ment was victimizing his client as his elder brother, a senior
Gujarat cadre IPS officer, did not kowtow to the state govern-
ments line in several cases.
The Gujarat government had charged Sharma for financial
bungling and started a probe. He was also slapped criminal
charges in 2008 for his complicity in a land scam.
The apex court found no basis in Sharmas contention and
refused to intervene. It also rejected his appeal for a probe
against the Gujarat government for keeping him and a lady
under surveillance in the Snoopgate controversy.
In favour of Gujarat
Congress gets reprieve on funding
Questioning
unto itself
17
COURTS
I
n a crucial move to empow-
er women, a full bench of
the Bombay High Court
(HC) held that daughters were
entitled to equal rights in ances-
tral property. Previously, the
Hindu Succession Act of 1956
did not give equal rights in
ancestral property to daughters.
This changed, when Section 6 of
the act was amended in Sept-
ember 2005. According to the
amendment, only daughters
born after September 9 , 2005,
were entitled to the rights.
However, the HC dismissed the
dispute of daughters being born
before or after the aforesaid
date and said, their being alive
to claim the right was more
important.
Justice served
after 38 years
Illustrations: Aruna
T
he Delhi High Court
convicted two Anand
Margis and upheld
their 10-year jail term for a
1975 assassination attempt on
the then Chief Justice of India
(CJI) AN Ray.
Santosh Anand Avdhoot
and Sudevanand Avdhoot were
convicted 38 years after the
criminal appeals were filed in
the court. However, Rajan
Dwivedi, the third convict, who
was charged with conspiring
with the two to kill the CJI, was
set free. Appeal against the
trial courts judgment was filed
in the high court in 1976 but
the hearing commenced only
in 2006, after a lapse of three
decades.
Court advocates
womens right
T
alk about being ungrateful. In
a poignant case, the Allahabad
High Court pulled up a woman
for not looking after her sister and
mother after her fathers death, des-
pite the government helping her out in
her time of need.
It all started on November 24,
2005, when the father of the girls died
in harness while working for a power
corporation. On compassionate grou-
nds, one of the sisters was given a job
there in 2006. She later married and
started living separately and conve-
niently forgot her widowed mother
and her unmarried, unemployed sis-
ter. This, despite Uttar Pradesh
recruitment rules of 1974 saying: It is
incumbent upon the person being
appointed under the dying in harness
rules to maintain the other family
members, failing which such person
can be preceded under the UP
Government Servant (Discipline and
Appeal) Rules 1999. The rules clearly
state that such a persons services can
be terminated.
This sister then filed a counter affi-
davit, stating that she was prepared to
maintain the petitioners (mother and
sister), but as she had two minor chil-
dren, it would not be possible to pay
50 percent of her wages, as she was a
Class-IV employee.
But in a verdict proclaimed by
Justice Suneet Kumar on August 8,
2014, she was told in clear terms that
the job was given to enable the family
of the deceased employee to tide over
the sudden crisis resulting from the
death of the bread-earner. Such
appointments are made purely on
humanitarian consideration... it is not
a source of recruitment, the court
said. The court ruled that a monthly
sum of `5,000 would be paid to the
mother from this sisters salary.
Where is your duty?
18
September 15, 2014
A morbid river
runs through it
the modi government has shown intent in cleaning up and
conserving the river a with high budgetary allocation. but is it
too little too late?
By Rashme Sehgal in Varanasi
LEAD/
polluted ganga
20
September 15, 2014
TALL ORDER
The task of cleaning up
the Ganga is daunting
and the government will
face myriad and
complex issues once it
gets on to the job
G
anga, Indias holiest
river, is the recipient of
financial munificence
from the NDA govern-
ment. When the BJP
prime ministerial can-
didate Narendra Modi
said in May: Ma Ganga aur Benaras se mera
rishta purana hai, little did the inhabitants of
Varanasi realize how much the governments
purse strings would be opened to save the
river. But `20,000 crore has already been
spent on various clean-up projects of the river,
with little to show for it.
Further, in this budget, finance minister
Arun Jaitley set aside over `2,000 crore to
help set up the Integrated Ganga Conser-
vation Mission, called Namai Gange.
Another `100 crore has been allocated for
developing ghats and beautifying the river-
front in a slew of cities, including Kedarnath,
Haridwar, Kanpur, Varanasi, Allahabad and
Patna. And under the Clean Ganga Mission,
six new sewage treatment plants will come up
in Allahabad (Uttar Pradesh), Beur, Karmali-
chak and Saidpur (Bihar) and Budge Budge
and Barrackpore (West Bengal) at a whop-
ping cost of `1,058 crore.
DEADLY COCKTAIL
But would this amount be enough to clean the
highly polluted and noxious river? Experts say
it is just a drop in the ocean. According to a
2013 Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB)
report, the amount of sewage deposited in the
river is 2,723 million liters per day (mld).
Some experts claim it is actually 5,000 mld.
Combine this with over 800 polluting indus-
triestanneries, sugar, pulp, paper and
chemicalswhich spew toxic effluents into
the river and what you get is a deadly cocktail
of poison, stretching all the way from
Gaumukh to the Bay of Bengal.
So, how will the Ganga be cleaned? Manoj
Misra of the Yamuna Jiye Abhiyaan along
with other environmentalists put together
five key points to help restore the river to its
original glory. Misra says: The river and
21
trickle? In Varanasi alone, a large numbers of
houses and parks are being developed along
the river bankfrom Rajghat to Ramnager
and up to Assi Ghatreducing the width to
half its size. Moreover, dams have reduced the
water flow, he laments.
WATER FIT FOR DEATH
The water quality of the Ganga is extremely
bad. Varanasi-based Dr Hemant Gupta, a
gastroenterologist and endoscopist, revealed
that patients are spending up to `15,000 a
day on medicines but are still to be cured. A
number of diseases have been triggered off by
drinking impure water. If this is not the
equivalent of a super bug, then what is? But
when I went public with this disclosure, med-
ical authorities denied it, he claims.
Gupta, along with Panchganga Found-
ation, a group of Varanasi citizens working to
revive the Ganga and its tributaries, tested the
water recently at 18 ghats. The study threw up
shocking impurity levels: the bacterial count
sewer must never meet. Modi needs to ensure
that water withdrawn from the river should
never go back into it. Gangas tributaries need
to be given equal importance.
Environmental lawyer Ritwick Datta has
called for the creation of a river regulation
zone, along the lines of a coastal regulation
zone, to help end encroachments along the
river bank. Professor Vikram Soni of Jamia
Millia Islamia says Modi needs to come up
with a strong legislation to ensure that indus-
trial units do not discharge effluents into the
river. Effluents must be brought to second
recycling levels before flowing into the river,
he maintains.
Dr BD Tripathi, environmental scientist at
the Benaras Hindu University (BHU) and a
member of the National Ganga River Basin
Authority, believes that efforts will bear fruit
only if the rivers ecological flow is main-
tained. But how can this be done when a
huge quantum of water is being diverted for
irrigation, thereby reducing the Ganga to a
Are Gangas problems intractable?
We have to understand the river in a
holistic manner. It emanates from the
Himalayas, which comprise largely of
sedimentary rocks. These are inherently
weak and only suitable for constructing
micro-dams. Construction of large dams
has seen a direct increase in landslides
and I have been warning successive
governments about this. Also, the larger
the landslides, the more impure the water
quality becomes.
Does that mean water in Tehri Dam,
which provides drinking water to
large parts of Uttarakhand and NCR,
is not pure?
In Tehri Dam, the storage of dead water is
400 meters, while live storage is 200
meters. Water in the lower portion of the
reservoir, which does not get circulated, is
known as dead storage. Both organic and
inorganic matter gets deposited here. The
ions of these elements increase water
density, resulting in contamination of the
reservoir. This also causes a tremendous
increase in pressure. This impure water
creates major drinking water problems for
villagers living downstream.
What is the relationship between
large dams and landslides?
When the reservoir in large dams is full,
voids in the rock are saturated with water.
When water is released by the dam, water
inside the pores comes out with increasing
pressure. In the Uttarakhand floods of
2013, heavy landslides enhanced the drag
forces, which in turn increased water
velocity. Micro-dams are the right solution.
They help generate 3,000 MW of electricity,
apart from ensuring regular flow in the river.
So the situation in the river has been
steadily deteriorating?
It is a dying river and we are to blame for it.
BOD (Biochemical Oxygen Demand) levels
have gone up from 5-8 million liters in
1985 to the present 12-15 million liters and
the oxygen content has come down from
7 million liters to 4 million liters.
Not a single person from the river
engineering side has been consulted
regarding work being done on the
Himalayan rivers. `20,000 crore has been
How should the Ganga be cleaned? That is the question
vexing eight IITs, which have prepared a comprehensive
Ganga River Basin Management Plan, and river engineers
led by Professor UK Choudhary, the head of the MM
Institute of Technology for Ganga Management. Opposed to
the centers decision to hand over the management of
Ganga to IITs, Choudhary says his institute is better
equipped. Excerpts from an interview with Rashme Sehgal:
Quacks, not doctors, spoiled
Ganga project
22
September 15, 2014
LEAD/
polluted ganga
at Shivala Ghat was 6.75 lakh/100 million
liters, at Chowki Ghat it was 8.7 lakh/100 mil-
lion liters, at Trilochan Ghat it was 8.5 lakh/
100 million liters, while at Dasaswamedh
Ghat it was 6.71 lakh/100 million liters. The
scenario was worst at Kanpur, with bacterial
levels in its ghats ranging from 12-14
lakh/100 million liters.
The pathogenic micro-organisms found
in the river included strains of aeromonas,
salmonella and shigella sonnei. Other bacte-
ria included E-coli, citrobacter, klebsiella,
proteus, providential and enterobacter. These
were even showing multi-drug resistance, a
dangerous sign, warns Gupta. These bacteria
can cause various diseases, such as sep-
ticemia, meningitis, fever, kidney complica-
tions, to name a few.
Even the tributaries of the Ganga are pol-
luted. Studies conducted by Pantnagar
University highlight the rapid deterioration of
ground and surface water in Ramganga and
other tributaries after SEZs were set up in
CORE ISSUE
Dams along the Ganga in
the hilly regions have led
to landslides and
polluted the river
spent on the Ganga project by people who
are little more than quacks. IIT engineers
only know how to deal with static water
bodies as opposed to dynamic water
bodies. River engineers understand the
origins of a river, its function in the
mountains, why its quality is
deteriorating.... They understand the kind
of action and reaction that takes place
between water, rocks and air; how
atmosphere, temperature and pressure
along with rainfall are getting affected by
dams. The environmental conditions in
these areas have been altered and yet,
none of the reports brought out by IITs
highlight these factors.
We are presently withdrawing 10,400
cumex (cubic feet per second) of water
from the river. While 6,200 cumex is being
withdrawn from the western Ganga, 420
cumex of drinking water is being supplied
to Delhi. When I was a member of the Tehri
Dam committee, I had expressed my
reservations about water being carried
such long distances to the capital. If water
levels keep decreasing, the Ganga will
never be cleaned or rejuvenated. The river
needs a minimum level of velocity, but if
this keeps declining, pollution levels will
keep increasing. Less velocity means more
meandering and more sedimentation
and erosion.
What about sewage
treatment plants
(STPs) and industrial
effluents?
The STPs in Varanasi are
not properly located. They
should have been on the
sand bed side, which is
the convex side. But
theyre on the concave
side, which is where
villages and towns are
located. The convex side is the north,
south and east of Varanasi and total
pollution levels could have been
transferred using the law of gravity. I had
proposed the theory of three gradients way
back in 1995. But it was rejected by the
Central Pollution Control Board because
they claimed it would choke the sand bed.
But the sand bed is permeable. If you do
not understand river dynamics, all your
attempts are simply going to go down
the drain.
Are you happy with the `2000 crore
allocated for Ganga cleaning by the
Modi government?
They first need to change their
technological inputs. They need to develop
smaller dams with a height of 4-5 feet so
that there is no deterioration in water
quality. These dams can be built at a
distance of 100-kilometer intervals. If you
build three such barrages, you have still
ensured a flow of 70 percent as opposed
to the 5 percent flow today. Your irrigation
potential remains the same and the river
flow is also constant. Unless experts are
brought in to provide expertise, there will
be no river left in the years to come.
DAM OF
CONTENTION
The water in
Tehri reservoir
has been
contaminated
over the years
23
UNI
Udham Singh Nagar district after the forma-
tion of Uttarakhand.
POWERFUL LOBBIES
Col (retd) Pramod Sharma, who heads the ex-
servicemens association in Udham Singh
Nagar, claims: Leading industrial houses,
such as Tata, Ashok Leyland, Birlas and Bajaj
have set up industries here. They have efflu-
ent treatment plants, but do not run them in
order to maximize profits.
A corrupt local bureaucracy has turned a
blind eye to these goings-on, resulting in the
steady deterioration of our water quality. Our
organization consisting of ex-servicemen,
farmers and children of freedom fighters is
fighting for this cause but has little impact as
strong lobbies work against us.
Sadly, this is the sorry state of affairs all
over India. A recent UN report ranked Indias
water quality as 120th among 122 nations. If
that was not damning enough, a World
Resources Report warned that 70 per cent of
Indias water supply was polluted by untreat-
Cleaning up the Ganga
caught the attention of the
Supreme Court recently.
The countrys highest court
felt that the Center was
taking no initiative to make
the river pollution-free. It
observed that while the
government showed
earnestness on all other
issues, there seemed to be
no plan of action for the
Ganga. While casting
doubts on the governments
intention to fulfil its poll
promise related to the
Ganga, the apex court
asked it to submit a
plan of action by
September 3, 2014.
Even as the Union
government was caught
scrambling to unveil a
concrete blueprint,
Union Minister for Water
Resources, River
Development and Ganga
Rejuvenation Uma Bharati
reiterated that cleaning up
the river was indeed a top
priority for the government.
Claiming that her ministry
had set 2017 as the
deadline for the mission,
Bharati stated that her
ministry would free the river
of most of its pollution and
ensure that at least one
stream of the Ganga flows
uninterrupted.
The minister backed up
her promise by informing
that with 2015-16 being
slated as water
conservation year, there
will be a significant leg-up
in its efforts to cleanse
the Ganga.
However, the
governments intention,
vision and action will
become clear once its
submits the roadmap to
the apex court.
Still caught
napping
ed sewage. Already, salinity, iron, fluoride and
arsenic have adversely affected groundwater
resources across 200 districts, and 18 major
rivers are polluted. Water activist Rajinder
Singh says: The Ganga and Yamuna provide
water to 700 million Indians, all of whom are
reconciled to inadequate and incompetent
management of our water resources.
Attempts to cleanse the Ganga go back to
the late prime minister Rajiv Gandhi's `1,700
crore Ganga Action Plan. Many activists have
been at the forefront to clean up the river,
including Mahant Virbhadra Mishra, profes-
sor of hydraulics at BHU, and IIT professor
GD Aggarwal, who even went on a fast-unto-
death in 2013 to commit the government to
a cleanup.
Has any person, official or engineer, been
made accountable for the failure of the Ganga
Action Plan? Crores of rupees have been
poured into these schemes without any
accountability, points out Aggarwal.
Its time this sacred river is accorded the
respect it deserves.
WILL GANGA SURVIVE?
Water from the biggest
drain in Kanpur, Sisamau,
entering Ganga with
all its pollutants. The
sight and smell here is
nauseating
24
September 15, 2014
IL
LEAD/
polluted ganga
NO
HOLDS
BARRED
N
D
IA

E
G
A
L

E
L
STORIES THAT COUNT
Markandey Katju: The story behind the accusation
August 15, 2014
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EDITORIAL
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STORIES THAT COUNT
Ramesh Menons
account of Modis war room
JULY 31, 2014
`100
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5
0
Budget 2014 is a smorgasbord of snackssmall
feel-good sopsrather than the much awaited
feast of radical measures for national
economic reconstruction
BUT W
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THE MAIN DISH?
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DEATH
TRAP
patients who are victims of
medical negligence
suffer twice over in their fight
for justice
By Akshat Agarwal
N
amrata Bhargav wondered why she
was experiencing severe abdominal
pain since delivering a baby through
a caesarean section about six
months back. Initially, she dis-
missed it as something normal, thinking it to be the
after-effects of surgery. But when the pain persisted,
she got worried. Unable to even breastfeed her
newborn due to the incapacitating pain, Namrata
decided to get a few tests done.
Following a CT-scan, she was horrified to know
that there was a large cotton gauze, the size of a hand
towel left inside her abdomen during her caesarean
operation, causing an infection in her intestinal wall.
And what was more shocking was that it happened
at Fortis Hospital in Noida, that boasts of the best
of amenities.
These shocking cases of medical negligence are
on the rise. Horror stories of objects being left by
careless surgeons inside patients and rodents attack-
ing infants in hospitals are hitting the headlines on a
regular basis.
There are few professions which have as much
esteem and reverence attached to them as the med-
ical profession. As a profession that deals with
extremely sensitive matters of life and death, it is also
one where utmost care and commitment is required.
However, with the growth in professional medicine
RIGHTS/
medical negligence
Amitava sen
26
September 15, 2014
in the country, cases of medical malpractice or
negligence are rising correspondingly.
S
ince a certain degree of medical expert-
ise is assumed to be possessed by all
professionals in the field, their offering
of a service can be seen as an implicit under-
taking to the patient of their adequacy and
skill. Moreover, the fact that human lives are
involved, makes this a delicate situation: a
mistake or an oversight on the part of the pro-
fessional can cause severe damage to the per-
son of the patient. There have been many
cases where the sheer carelessness of a trained
individual responsible for the care of the
patient has caused injury or death. In the US
alone medicalnewstoday.com reports that
1,95,000 deaths occur every year due to med-
ical malpractice or negligence. Malpractice in
India is perhaps just as prevalent, but lack of
reportage and documentation means that no
reliable figures are available.
Legally, such an act of negligence can be
the subject of a civil suit for the recovery of
damages. In cases where it leads to the death
of the patient, criminal proceedings under
Section 304A of the Indian Penal Code can be
brought against the accused healthcare
providers for negligently causing death.
However, it is no easy task to fight such a
case. The law provides certain protections to
medical professionals, on the grounds that
such cases cannot be treated at par with ordi-
nary cases of negligence. In Jacob Mathew vs
State of Punjab, the Supreme Court laid down
certain guidelines to be followed by the
authorities if a complaint of criminal negli-
gence comes up.
One, the police cannot proceed against a
doctor who has been accused of medical neg-
ligence without obtaining a second opinion
from a medical professional, preferably a gov-
ernment doctor. Two, the court will be bound
to follow this procedure: it must seek the
opinion of a qualified doctor to ascertain
whether there has been negligence or not, as
judicial officers can hardly be expected to be
familiar with the nitty-gritty of medicine and
medical procedures.
Finally, the police cannot arrest a doctor
accused of negligence in a routine manner.
This protects doctors from the constant
fear of arrest. The court reinforced this idea in
Martin DSouza vs Mohammad Ishfaq, where
it said: While this court has no sympathy for
doctors who are negligent, it must also be said
that frivolous complaints against doctors have
increased by leaps and bounds in our country,
particularly after the medical profession was
placed within the purview of the Consumer
Protection Act.
The bench, consisting of Justices M Katju
and RM Lodha (now chief justice of India)
went on to say in its judgement: This (guide-
lines) is necessary to avoid harassment to doc-
tors, who may not be ultimately found to be
negligent. We further warn the police officials
not to arrest or harass doctors unless the facts
clearly come within the parameter laid down
in Jacob Mathews case, otherwise the police-
men will themselves have to face legal action.
The same apex court, however, has also
shown its willingness to grant large sums as
compensation where legitimate cases of negli-
gence have been proved. In a milestone
The Consumer Protection Act
(COPRA) was passed in 1986 and
hailed as a huge step forward for
consumer interests in India. The act
lays down the rights that all
consumers have: including the right
to safety, choice and information. It
also established a framework of
consumer forums at the district,
state, and national level. These
together form a fast track
redressal mechanism for
consumer complaints.
A consumer is defined under
COPRA as any individual who buys
or hires any good or hires or avails of
any service for a payment.
In the milestone case of Indian
Medical Association vs VP Shantha,
the Supreme Court held that
healthcare was a service unless it
was for free. Thus, a patient going to
a clinic or a hospital is a consumer
when he pays for the services
provided there, or if the clinic or
hospital usually accepts payment for
services. Any hospital, clinic or
dispensary that works free of cost
does not come under the definition
of services under COPRA and action
cannot be taken against them.
In todays era of privatised
healthcare, where large private
hospitals often charge huge sums
for their services, the act protects
the interests of patients and offers
them recourse in any deficiency in
the services they have availed.
The procedure for filing a
complaint under COPRA is simple:
A complaint can be filed, for a token
cost, at the district forum for claims
up to `20 lakh, at the state forum for
claims up to `1 crore, and at the
national forum in case the claim
exceeds `1 crore. These forums are
intended to provide a fast-track
alternative to minimize the agony
associated with long-drawn civil
cases and have the same powers as
civil courts and are empowered to
order payment of damages.
Rights of patients
27
there are a lot of frivolous and vexatious com-
plaints against doctors, from which they must
be safeguarded. However, it is essential that
this be balanced with the interests and rights
of patients.
The creation of a specialised tribunal is a
solution suggested by many medical experts,
and that includes the Indian Medical
Association. Unlike consumer forums, which
deal with the consumer complaints in gener-
al, such a forum would deal specifically with
medical cases. This would allow for the
appointment of medical experts as adjudica-
tors, instead of their current role as amicus
curiae or friends of the court. Such a frame-
work can be created under the Consumer
Protection Act through an amendment.
Until concrete steps are taken towards the
creation of such a steady mechanism, the
hundreds of cases of medical negligence cur-
rently in the backlog, as well as the new cases
arising every day, will continue to be a tough
battle for the victims. Perhaps more ominous-
ly, until greater accountability and harsher
punishment for negligent professionals are
enforced, the indifferent attitude of doctors,
even in the highest places, will continue to
endanger life and limb in India.
judgement in October 2013, the Supreme
Court awarded Dr Kunal Saha `6 crore as
damages for the death of his wife Anuradha
due to the negligence of a prominent doctor
in Kolkata. She had a minor skin infection
and the doctor prescribed steroidsto be
taken twice a day. Normally, it should be
given only once a week. This led to an allergic
reactionher skin started peeling offand
finally, her death.
A
fter a gruelling 15-year legal battle,
wherein the NRI doctor fought tire-
lessly for justice, the court ruled in his
favor. But Dr Saha had a significant advan-
tage over the average litigant, as his medical
knowledge helped convince the Supreme
Court. Moreover, he had the resources to fight
the protracted case, which most of those who
fall victim to medical negligence do not have.
Nevertheless, this case set a precedent, where
large sums, hitherto unheard of in Indian
medical jurisprudence, could be awarded.
As increasing cases of negligence in India,
even in expensive private hospitals, continue
to rise, it becomes imperative to evolve a suit-
able mechanism for dealing with such com-
plaints and claims. There is no doubt that
RIGHTS/
medical negligence
IL
Medical negligence, as
the term suggests, is
negligence in the field of
medicine. It occurs when a
healthcare provider, by
some act or omission, fails
to fulfil a duty owed to a
patient, and thereby causes
harm to the patient. The
healthcare provider here
might be a surgeon, a
nurse, or any professional
working in the medical field.
These are the essential
factors for a claim of
medical negligence:
A duty was owed: A
legal duty exists whenever
a hospital or healthcare
provider undertakes care
or treatment of a patient
(for a payment)
A duty was breached:
The provider failed to
conform to the relevant
standard care
The breach caused an
injury: The breach of duty
was a direct and proximate
cause of the injury
Damage: Without
damage (losses which may
be pecuniary or otherwise),
there is no basis for a
claim, regardless of
whether the medical
provider was negligent.
Likewise, damage can
occur without negligence,
for example, when
someone dies from a
fatal disease
What is medical
negligence?
Anil Shakya
28
September 15, 2014
At the end
of the
TUNNEL
dr kunal sahas legal battle is seminal for
all affected by doctors laxity. he has got
more than `11 crore for his wifes death
By Dinesh C Sharma
W
HEN lawyers of a Kol-
kata-based corporate
hospital handed over
a cheque of `1.06
crore to an NRI doc-
tor in a sparsely crowded court room in the
Supreme Court on July 7, it brought the cur-
tains down on the longest running case of
medical negligence in the judicial history of
the country.
Dont get bemused with the amount. The
cheque was not the compensation amount
nor was it the interest on compensation
awarded by the Supreme Court in October
last year. The `1 crore plus paid by the
Advanced Medicare and Research Institute
(AMRI) to Dr Kunal Saha was the amount
arrived at after the hospital had deducted
TDS (tax deducted at source) from the
RIGHTS/
medical negligence/case study
HAPPINESS CUT SHORT
Saha with his deceased wife in
happier times
29
compensation amount. Saha, arguing him-
self in court, contended that holding back
part of the compensation and the interest on
it amounted to contempt of the court.
The judgesJustice V Gopala Gowda and
Justice CK Prasadagreed and categorically
stated that compensation for wrongful dea-
th of a patient cant be construed as income
and no income tax should be deducted from
an award of compensation. AMRI lawyers
were forced to hand over the cheque to Saha
in the courtroom itself. With this, AMRI has
paid more than `11 crore in compensation
and interest but they still owe me several
lakhs of rupees as there is discrepancy in cal-
culation, Saha maintains. However, he is sat-
isfied with the latest development in the legal
battle that began in 1998.
Saha is no ordinary litigant. He himself is
a doctor and has lost his wife, Anuradha, who
was a child psychologist based in the US, due
to medical negligence caused by the doctors
of AMRI when she was admitted there
during a social visit to Kolkata in May 1998
(read the story Death Trap). The personal
tragedy turned Kunal into a crusader as well
as champion of a cause with hardly any tak-
ers of medical negligence in the Indian
healthcare system.
In the past 16 years, Saha has taken on the
Indian medical world and jurisprudence con-
cerning medical cases and set new bench-
marks. In this long battle, he has stood up to
the high and mighty of the system. These
include Dr Ketan Desai of the Medical
Council of India (MCI), the state medical
council, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata
Banerjee who appointed one of the doctors
convicted in the case as her chief medical
adviser, the Supreme Court administration
for corruption in listing cases, and even a
judge of the West Bengal high court.
T
he compensation amount of `11 crore
which Saha has got from the case
(including the interest amount, the
actual amount being `5.96 crore) is minis-
cule, compared to `77 crore which he had
originally claimed. It is not the amount
which is important but the judicial principles
which have been established through this
case, he said in an interview. Anuradhas
case has brought new hope to countless vic-
tims of medical negligence across the country
and has shown a new pathway for calculation
of compensation for loss of human life.
In any case, Saha is not taking even a sin-
gle rupee back to the US, where he is based.
He had already declared that he would dona-
te any compensation amount awarded by
Indian courts to People for Better Treatment
(PBT), a patients rights group he set up in
Kolkata to address the problem of negligence
and malpractices in the Indian health sys-
tem. Saha had filed a sworn affidavit to this
effect in the court. Now, he says, he has spent
more than `11 crore to fight the case for 15
years, which involved innumerable visits to
India, legal costs, payment to attorneys and
experts, and so on.
RIGHTS/
medical negligence/case study
Dr Kunal Saha says higher compensation
will not help families hit by medical
negligence but will act as a deterrent to the
reckless practice of medicine in India.
LIFE-LONG CAUSE
Kunals personal tragedy
made him a crusader
for people hit by
medical negligence
30
September 15, 2014
IL
Future prospects of the victim must
be considered for determination of
compensation: Even if a child or
young student dies from negligence,
his potential income in future, not
income at the time of death, should
be considered for calculation of
compensation.
Enhanced compensation should be
paid for long delay in the legal
system: Claim made in the original
petition must be proportionately
increased considering inflation and
devaluation of money for the long
period of delay in every case.
Compensation claim may be
changed even without pleadings:
Original claim may be increased at
any stage during litigation even
without amendments or pleadings.
Interest must be paid from the date
of filing of case: Appropriate rate of
interest must be added in all cases
of medical negligence from the
day of filing the case.
Multiplier method cannot be used
in medical negligence cases:
Formula of multiplier method
generally used under Motor Vehicle
Act (MVA) with restricted compensa-
tion cannot be used in medical
negligence cases.
Status of doctor or hospital should
be taken into consideration: The
status of treating doctors and
hospital should be taken into
account for determining the
quantum of compensation.
Enhanced compensation should be
paid for medical negligence cases
against more reputed doctors
and hospitals.
Legal and travel expenses must be
paid: Appropriate level of lawyers
fee and legal expenses must be
reimbursed by the guilty doctors
or hospital.
Hospital must pay compensation:
While doctors may be punished for
their negligent act, hospitals must
pay the lions share of
compensation for vicarious liability.
Calculating compensation
The role of state medical councils is crucial
for medical negligence cases. Since consumer
courts lack the necessary expertise, they go by
recommendations of the state medical coun-
cils and the MCI acts as an appellate authority
for state councils. However, state councils and
MCI rarely go against members of their own
community as it happened in the case of Saha.
Therefore, he is fighting to reform the system
by insisting that non-doctors should also be
involved in the process, as is the practice in
the US and the UK.
Saha says higher compensation is not
going to help families suffering from medical
negligence but it is necessary to inflict a
strong deterrent effect on reckless practice of
medicine by many Indian doctors and hospi-
tals. Its a long haul before he can rest.
The experience of the case is seminal for
all concerned with medical negligence in
India. First, the National Consumer Disputes
Redressal Commission (NCDRC), the apex
body for all consumer complaints including
medical negligence under the Consumer
Protection Act of 1986, dismissed the case
after hearings, which went on till 2006. It
based its judgment on the recommendation
of the West Bengal Medical Council.
When Saha appealed in the apex court
against the verdict, it overturned the judg-
ment and found that Anuradha had indeed
died due to negligence of doctors at AMRI,
and convicted four leading doctors. Two of
them are since dead and one is elevated to the
post of chief medical advisor of the West
Bengal government.
Among other things, the apex court ruled
that overdose or wrong dose of a medicine too
amounts to negligence, as Anuradha had died
due to wrong dose of a powerful steroid.
However, the court did not fix the compensa-
tion and referred the case back to NCDRC
solely for the purpose of determining the
quantum of compensation. The consumer
court, which had found no negligence earlier,
then awarded compensation of `1.72 crore
but went beyond its brief and, surprisingly
enough, held Saha too party guilty of negli-
gence. It deducted 10 per cent of the amount
for contributory negligence on the part of
Saha himself as, according to the consumer
court, he interfered in the treatment.
Saha went back to the apex court, which
heard the case once again and after lots of
twists and turns, hiked the compensation
amount in October 2013 to `6.08 crore with
interest since 1999, which comes to over `11
crore. In the process, the court established
several new principles of law for calculating
compensation in such cases (see box).
T
hankfully, the NCDRC has learnt its
lessons, as reflected in its judgment
in the case of death due to negligence
by an elevator company. Though it was not a
case of medical negligence, the consumer
court used principles laid down in the
Anuradha Saha case and awarded compensa-
tion of over `3 crore to the victims family in
February 2014.
31
Ramifications of the Supreme Court verdict in Anuradha Saha case
CRIME/
public sector fraud
I
T was an unholy nexus that saw
the exchequer losing crores of
rupees. And considering that gov-
ernment banks were involved, it
was worrisome. The recent
arrests by CBI of Sudhir Kumar
Jain, suspended CMD of
Syndicate Bank, which has over `10,000 crore
assets, and Neeraj Singal, owner of Bhushan
Steel, a public limited steel manufacturing
company worth `9,000 crore, show a shock-
ing disregard for public probity and morality.
Both were held for exchanging a bribe of
`50 lakh in lieu of a loan worth `100 crore.
The scandal blew the lid off rampant corrup-
tion in government-controlled banks while
awarding high risk loans (which have less
chance of recovery) to wealthy businessmen
under the influence of middlemen.
But why would Jain and Singal, both
The Great
Bank
the arrests of syndicate bank cmd and owner of bhushan steel highlight
the infiltration of middlemen in the public sector
By Vishwas Kumar
Robbery
presiding over huge fortunes, jeopardize their
future over an amount as little as `50 lakh?
According to a CBI insider, it was a case of des-
perate times calling for desperate measures.
STRUGGLING COMPANY
Singals company was struggling with huge
debts, totalling `40,000 crore, taken over a
period of time. These were mostly from public
sector banks like State Bank of India (SBI) and
Punjab National Bank (PNB). The company
was not in a position to return these huge
loans and the resultant interests. In these
circumstances, the company urgently needed
fresh funds to carry on day-to-day operations.
But no responsible bank was likely to bail
it out, unless some middleman convinced
top bosses to extend credit limits and over-
look the debts.
These middlemen operate under the garb
32
September 15, 2014
DUBIOUS NEXUS
(L-R) Jain of
Syndicate Bank
and Singal of
Bhushan Steel
had no
scruples about
cheating the pub-
lic of `100 crore
of loan or financial consultants. As the CBIs
case reveals, Singal got in touch with Pawan
Bansal, the MD of Altius Finserv Private
Limited (AFPL), a Mumbai- and Delhi-based
loan and financial consultant. AFPL opened
negotiations with several friendly bankers
and finally got a positive response from Syndi-
cate Banks Jain. As per the banks rules, any
decision to extend a big credit limit could only
be taken by Jain.
Negotiations now started between Jain,
Bansal and Singal, which lasted over six
months. Finally, a deal was struck, where the
bank would extend a `100-crore credit limit in
lieu of `50 lakh bribe being paid in advance to
Jain. They were, however, unaware that the
CBIs anti-corruption unit was listening and
recording their telephone conversations and
also keeping a watch over their movements.
Finally, on August 2, much to their astonish-
ment, CBI sleuths swooped down on them and
arrested them.
EASY BAIT
But why did Jain agree to the offer of Singal
and Bansal? To understand that, one must
know how CMDs of public sector banks are
appointed. In 2013, Delhis power circles were
abuzz with rumors that the Ministry of
Finance was in a hurry to fill vacancies for the
post of CMD of these banks. It was alleged
that if money was paid, the appointment of
these top bankers could be facilitated.
The ministry has a major say in the
appointment of top bankers, even though
there is a so-called independent panel, the
Public Enterprise Selection Board, to do so.
Similarly, it was alleged that there was even a
rate for the appointment of bank board mem-
bers. These are people who will scrutinize the
CMDs performances.
According to the CBI, Jains appointment
as CMD on July 8, 2013, lacked transparency
and smacks of unfair practices.
Those who were appointed by paying bribes
obviously indulged in corrupt practices to
get their money back. Doling out risky loans
was the easiest way to do so.
33
CRIME/
public sector fraud
the Banking Appointment Board. This high
score helped to propel Jain to the post, even
though he had scored only 62 out of 70 marks
in the Annual Confidential Report, the report
added. The sub-committee also picked up can-
didates for seven other top bank posts. The
CBI is now awaiting the finance ministrys nod
to probe them too. Takru, however, has denied
any favoritism.
The agencys allegation lends credence to
the rumors swirling around in 2013 that mid-
dlemen were active in the appointment of top
bankers and board members in government
banks. Those who were appointed by paying
bribe obviously indulged in corrupt practises
to get their money back. Doling out risky
loans was the easiest way to do so.
LOAN BROKERS
Besides this, providing loans is an important
tool for any bank to earn profit. All bankers
A confidential advisory sent by CBI direc-
tor Ranjit Sinha to Finance Minister Arun
Jaitley hints at collusion with finance ministry
officials in his appointment. The CBI advisory,
according to an Indian Express report, men-
tions the role of Rajiv Takru, secretary, finan-
cial services, who was chairman of the sub-
committee that recommended Jains appoint-
ment at its meeting on February 11, 2013.
Takru is now secretary, Ministry of Deve-
lopment of North East Region.
The unfair practises cited by CBI is a
reference to Takrus sub-committee giving SK
Jain 29 marks out of 30 in his interview with
Loan brokers with good connections with
bankers help in reducing interest rates by a
few percentages or enable companies to get
loans loans without adequate collateral.
A
n
i
l

S
h
a
k
y
a
CASH-HUNGRY COMPANY
The premises of Bhushan
Steel in Sahibabad
34
September 15, 2014
IL
In 2009, Bhushan Steel acquired controlling
interest in Queensland-based coal and explo-
ration company, Bowen Energy. It further tied
up with Japans Sumitomo, a steel manufac-
turer, to start a plant in West Bengal in 2007.
It borrowed heavily from banks to fuel this
rapid expansion and growth. Initially, the
company met the repayment schedule. How-
ever, profits started declining in proportion to
the global decline in steel prices.
And then came the double whammy. A
huge scandal broke out in the UPA-II govern-
ments award of mines and coal blocks. The
Supreme Court stepped in and multiple inves-
tigative agencies launched probes. These
developments hugely impacted businesses.
Caught in a classic debt trap, Bhushan
Steel was on verge of defaulting loans. If the
loan was declared a NPA, it would prevent
other banks from lending money to the com-
pany. Till now, the company had prevented its
loans from being declared NPA by paying
minimum amounts of interest. However, it
urgently needed money to even meet the next
round of interest. It was this urgency that
forced Singal to seek the help of Bansal for a
loan from Syndicate Bank.
This is a classic case of biting off more than
one can chew.
have annual targets for providing different
types of loans, be it car, personal, housing,
commercial, etc. They often lure customers by
offering incentives such as easy payment
schedules and varying interest rates. But there
are customers who come with special require-
ments. These include businessmen who have
to negotiate terms and conditions from the
bankers. It is here that loan brokers with good
connections with bankers play a role. They
could, for example, help in reducing interest
rates by a few percentages or allow loans with-
out adequate collateral. With rampant brib-
ing, everybody benefits, be it the banker, the
businessmen or the broker. Of course, the
bank loses out.
In most cases, such businessmen default
on these loans and banks are unable to recover
them as there is a long, winding legal process
to recover them. In most cases, there is noth-
ing left for the banks to recover, as the busi-
nessmen gradually strip their companies of all
valuable assets. These are either transferred to
another company or put in the name of family,
friends or close associates.
Such junk loans, also called Non-Per-
forming Assets (NPAs), led to Syndicate
Banks net profits declining. Two months
before Jain was arrested, some of Syndicate
Banks board members raised the issue of ris-
ing NPAs during the Annual General Meeting
(AGM) held at Manipal, Karnataka. The min-
utes of the AGM reveal that the net profit for
2012-13 was `2,004 crore. This declined to
`1,711 crore in 2013-14 due to the rise of NPAs.
Net NPA percentage, as compared to net
advance, stood at `1.56 percent in 2013-14 as
compared to 0.77 percent in 2012-13, indicat-
ing that there was a steady growth in NPAs.
STEEL YOURSELF
Lets look at Bhushan Steel now. The company,
founded by Brij Bhushan Singal in Sahibabad,
UP, in 1989, started as a value-added steel
manufacturer. Singals younger son Neeraj,
who now runs the company, aggressively expa-
nded into steel manufacturing, with major
plants located in Odisha. From the time when
the Chinese construction boom started till
2011, when steel prices touched an all-time
high, all steel companies, including Bhushan
Steel, made handsome profits and expanded.
HIGHS
Between 2006-2010, debt repayments: `55 crore-`316
crore a year
Cash from operations during the same year: `400
crore each year
Annual growth rate: 53%
LOWS
From 2010-11, debt repayment obligation more than
trebled to `1,118 crore
Several loans taken, including for phases I&II of the
Odisha plant, led to operating cash flows of `994 crore
In 2013-14, interest burden shot up to `1,663 crore
In 2013-14, profits shrank 93% to `59 crore
Accumulated loans of Bhushan Steel: `40,000 crore
No of banks it took loans from: 51
Fluctuating fortunes of
Bhushan Steel
35
while the mercy petition of
two kolhapur sisters who
murdered 10 kids
was rejected, why wasnt
their psychological
condition evaluated?
By Ritu Goyal Harish in Pune
V
ERY rarely do women commit
crimes so heinous that society
feels a sense of revulsion.
Serial killers and half-sisters
Renuka Shinde, 41, and
Seema Gavit, 39, are two such persons and
they will go down the annals of history as the
first women to be hanged in independent
India. Though President Pranab Mukherjee
rejected their mercy petition early this
month, their execution has been stayed by
the Bombay High Court till the disposal of
their petition seeking commutation of death
sentence to life imprisonment. The next
hearing is on September 9.
Given the enormity of their crimes, there
are few sympathizers. How could they find
CRIME/
Kolhapur murders
any sympathy? After all, they kidnapped and
murdered over 13 toddlers, using them to
distract crowds when in danger of being
caught while stealing. Even the advocate,
who was representing them, was shocked at
their cold-bloodedness.
HORRIFIC ACTS
So vile were their acts that it attracted the
censure of a Supreme Court (SC) Bench of
KG Balakrishnan and GP Mathur, who said:
They had been a menace to society and peo-
ple in these cities were completely horrified
and they could not send their children even
to schools. One would hardly have expected
such barbarity from women.
It all started in 1990, when Renuka, who
KILLER
SISTERS
36
September 15, 2014
sentenced the sisters to death. Their appeal
was rejected by the Bombay High Court; and
by the Supreme Court in 2006.
The SC Bench observed: They very clev-
erly executed their plans of kidnapping the
children, and the moment they were no
longer useful, they killed them. The appel-
lants had not been committing these crimes
under any compulsion, but they took it very
casually and killed all these children, least
bothering about their lives or the agony of
their parents.
Even those meant to help them found it
difficult to sympathize with them. One of
them was Pune-based advocate Asim Sarode,
who assisted them in filing the application
for clemency with the president after the
was married to one Kiran Shinde, was caught
stealing at a temple in Pune. She ingeniously
used her son to defend herself and pleaded
with the crowd that she was a mother and
couldnt possibly be a pickpocket. She was let
off. This gave the gang, which included
Shinde, the idea of using children as pawns
in their acts. Thus began their journey from
being petty thieves to murderers (See Box).
Between 1990-1996, Renuka, Seema and
their mother, Anjana, kidnapped more than
13 children from Pune, Nashik, Thane,
Kalyan and Kolhapur.
In 1996, the trio was charged with the kid-
napping of 13 children and murder of 10 of
them. Anjana died before the trial began. The
district and sessions court in Kolhapur
The prosecution, citing an instance of their

mercilessness, narrated that once, when Seema was
caught trying to snatch a purse, Anjana flung a
kidnapped toddler, Santosh, to the ground, resulting
in a grievous head injury. In the resulting commotion,
Seema escaped
In another instance, they chopped the body of a child,

stuffed it into a gunny bag and then, sat and watched a
movie with the bag at their feet, awaiting disposal
They were also charged with the kidnapping and

murder of Kranti, the daughter of Anjanas second
husband, Mohan Gavit (Seemas father), but were not
convicted for the same
Since the focus has been on murders, theres no

account of how much they actually stole in all these
years; the lawyers also have no knowledge about it.
ANIMAL INSTINCTS
37
SISTERS IN ARMS
(L-R) Seema Gavit and
Renuka Shinde, who killed
toddlers to distract attention
during their stealing bids
SC rejected their appeal. Sarode says: I am a
human rights lawyer and I advocate that
death penalty wont stop violence. But meet-
ing them shook my faith in this belief.
DEADLY DUO
Whenever he would meet the two sisters, he
would spend sleepless nights, restless at how
inhuman humans could be. At one point, he
even called his wife and asked her to keep a
watchful eye over their own toddler.
It created a fear in my mind when I met
them, he says. The sisters, he says, showed
no remorse or shame. Neither on their face
nor in their body language, did I see any
repentance for what they had done to so
many children, he adds.
Even inside jail, the sisters were scheming
and plotting. After their mother died, they
blamed her for the murders, reveals Sarode.
During his meetings with them, they seemed
more concerned about the money they had
stashed away from their crimes. They even
blamed Shinde for turning approver in the
case. He used to drive the getaway vehicle
and took the opportunity to escape punish-
ment. He was also in an illicit relationship
with Seema, says Sarode.
They were a nuisance inside the prison
too and indulged in high-handed behavior
with other inmates. Their dadagiri was get-
ting out of hand and the only solution left for
the police was to separate the two, says
Sarode. As a result, Seema was shifted to
Nagpur Central Prison.
The gravity of their offense is serious and
the lack of remorse only made their case
worse. In 14 years of practise, I have met
many prisoners who confess to killings, due
to circumstances, etc. But these two never
did, he adds.
PSYCHIATRIC PROFILING
Even so, as he was required to assist them, he
did. He explains: Everyone should get legal
aid. Let people put their side before the court
and let the court take a decision. It was not
done out of sympathy for them.
But this case is a lesson for authorities in
dealing with similar cases. Despite nearly
two decades of incarceration, no effort was
made by the establishment to evaluate the
psychological condition of the sisters or con-
duct any psychiatric profiling. Cops are not
working from a sociological angle at all. The
sisters should have been analyzed for psycho-
logical dysfunction. The police can take
lessons from such offences for the future,
stresses Sarode.
Citing Justice VR Krishna Iyer, Sarode
says: The rarest of rare cases should not be
based on the discretion of judges alone.
These should also take into account the psy-
chology of the criminal. He laments the lack
of initiative in making changes in the system.
Till such time as the underlying cause for
these crimes is found, no lasting change will
take place.
Meeting them created fear in my mind
Neither on their face, nor in their body
language, did I see any repentance for what
they had done to so many children.
-- Advocate Asim Sarode, who assisted the sisters in filing
an application for clemency with the president
38
September 15, 2014
IL
CRIME/
Kolhapur murders
a simmering dispute
between the shias and
sunnis has forced the courts
to pull up an apathetic uttar
pradesh government for not
performing its duty
By Ajay Agarwal
S
HIAS and Sunnis, the two main sects
of Muslims, have always been at logger-
heads. Their friction is now subsuming
parts of the world and erupting into
bloody fighting, killing thousands of
innocent people. India, largely peaceful
compared to the rest of the world, too
has had pockets of disturbances between these two com-
munities. In a small part of UP, Mohalla Doshipura in
Varanasi, the schism between them over land issues has
simmered for over a century. And there seems little solu-
tion to it, with the UP government not showing much
enthusiasm in implementing the Supreme Courts order
dated September 23, 1983, favoring the Shias, leading to
a festering problem for close to 31 years.
It all started in 1893, when a baradari was construct-
ed by the Shias on Plot No 247/1130 in this mohalla.
Eight other plotsNos 245, 246, 246/1134, 247,
248/23/72, 602, 602/1133 and 603were situated
around this baradari and had structures, such as Zanana
Imambara, Imam Chowk, Sabil Chabutra and a
mosqueall exclusive properties of the Shia Waqf.
IN FAVOUR OF SHIAS
These plots are of particular significance for the Shias,
numbering close to 4,000 here. During Moharram, the
Shias hold majlis (religious discourses) and recitations,
take out processions, etc, in these plots. But some of the
plots have been a bone of contention between them and
the majority Sunnis, who allege that part of the plots was
a graveyard.
In 1879, a suit was filed by the Sunnis regarding Plot
No 246, but the verdict was in favor of the Shias. The
Maharaja of Varanasi too filed a suit against the Sunnis
and a decree was passed restraining them from the
CONTROVERSY/
shia-sunni conflict/varanasi
Much ado
about graves
40
September 15, 2014
A poster from theapricity.com
favor of the Shias. Its order said: There is no
question of there being any gap or inadequa-
cy of the material on record in the matter of
proof of Shias entitlement of customary
rights over the plots, structures in question.
Whatever be the position as regard their
titles to the plots or structures, we have
already indicated that this decision even
upholds their titles to two main structures,
Zanana Imambara and Mardana Imambara
(Baradari). It further restrained the Sunnis
from interfering with the rights of the Shias
and asked the magistrate of Varanasi to take
action if these orders were violated.
However, despite this judgment, there
were violations. In order to find a permanent
solution, a committee with representatives
from both the communities was formed
under the chairmanship of the divisional
commissioner. He submitted his report on
December 9 that year, wherein it was opined
that shifting of two graves in plot No
602/1133 to the south of the grave of
Maulana Hakim Badruddin was feasible.
On September 23, 1983, the high court
ordered that a boundary wall 12 feet in
height be constructed around some of the
plots where the Shias performed their func-
tions and ceremonies. Also, the two
ROW OVER
GRAVEYARD
The Doshipura
Navapura Kabristan.
The mohalla has been a
battleground between
Shias and Sunnis
property. The Sunnis filed another suit
directing the Shias to demolish the structure
on Plot No 245 and hold the majlis only on
the 9th and 12th day of Moharram. The Shias
appealed and a trial court rejected the suit of
the Sunnis. The Shias right over the property
was, thus, confirmed.
It was in January, 1954 that the Shia com-
munity approached the Muslim Waqf Board
to get the property registered. The Waqf
Board declared that the property belonged
exclusively to the Shia Waqf. A gazette notifi-
cation in this regard was issued on January
23, 1954.
However, the issue rose up again when
from 1960-1966, the UP administration
passed orders restraining the Shias from car-
rying out religious functions on the occasion
of Barawafat. Constant back and forth
appeals through the years have reportedly
seen the Sunnis trying to claim the said plot,
either through encroachments or by alleging
that part of the said plot was a graveyard.
REDRESSAL FROM COURTS
Aggrieved over these restraints, one Gulam
Abbas and two others filed a writ petition in
the Allahabad High Court in 1978. In
November 1981, the high court decided in
41
graves, when shifted near the grave of the
maulana, should have the exact dimension of
the old, open spaces. All this, said the high
court, should be done under the supervision
of the District Magistrate (DM) of Varanasi
and in the presence of representatives of the
Shias and Sunnis and be completed, prefer-
ably before Moharram. It further said that
the Shia community would bear the entire
cost of the operation. However, the UP gov-
ernment said the task of shifting the graves
was stupendous and would lead to a law and
order problem. The high court dismissed this
and detailed the procedure by which the
graves could be shifted.
FLOUTING THE LAW
On September, 28, 1984, the high court
passed an interim order before Moharram
restraining the Sunni community from going
to any of the eight plots (except Plot No 246
on which the mosque stands) or the struc-
tures there for performing any religious prac-
tices. But this order was violated from
December 7-9 that year when the DM grant-
ed permission to the Sunni Community to
perform two ritualsreading Fatiha and lay-
ing Chaddarat the grave of Hakim
Badruddin. The high court slammed the UP
administration and said the apparent
encroachment could be the result of a lack of
proper understanding of the courts order or
due to its misinterpretation on the part of
concerned authorities. It also came down
heavily on the Sunni community and said it
had no right whatsoever over the eight plots.
Further, it told the DM and the police not to
misunderstand the said order and carry it out
in letter and spirit.
However, in an order dated March 7,
1986, the high court said that instead of cor-
doning the two graves (of two persons called
Lal Mohammad and Shakina), they should
now be permanently enclosed on all sides
with a brick wall and sealed off. The wall
should be constructed by the state govern-
The courts have repeatedly told the Sunnis
they have no right over the eight plots and
have reminded the UP administration to
follow the judicial order in letter and spirit.
CENTER OF
ATTRACTION
The Shia-Sunni schism
in Doshipura has now
acquired political
overtones. Modi has
already reaped
the harvest
42
September 15, 2014
CONTROVERSY/
shia-sunni conflict/varanasi
without delay and that Sunnis should not
interfere or obstruct the operation.
While this problem has festered, it has
also acquired political overtones, with the
victory of Modi in Varanasi being seen partly
due to Shias support there. Mulayam Singh
Yadav has realized the importance of catering
to the Shias. One hopes that all these will
bring about some settlement between the
two communities on the contentious issue. IL
ment at its expense within four months from
this order. It also said that the compound
wall or wire fencing surrounding the open
space in the remaining plots (except Plot No
246 where mosque stands) be deferred and
the Shia community could withdraw the
`1,32,250 deposited by it.
Not happy with the orders of the
Allahabad High Court, the Sunnis filed a writ
petition in the Supreme Court in 1983. But
here too, they were found wanting. In the
Abdul Jalil & Ors vs State of UP & Ors, case,
the Supreme Court lambasted their attempt
to review an earlier apex court decision,
where the case was dismissed. It said the
attempt of Sunnis to portray the shifting of
the two graves as a desecration sounded iron-
ical when they themselves had denied similar
rights to Shias. It further stated that the deci-
sion to shift the graves was in the interest of
maintaining public order. It said exhumation
of a body for the purpose of crime detection
was applicable to all, irrespective of personal
law governing the dead. It cited two histori-
cal instances of such grave removal: the grave
of Mumtaz Mahal was removed from
Burhanpur to Taj Mahal in Agra and the
grave of Jahangir was removed from
Kashmir to Lahore. It criticized the Sunnis
for not staggering their ceremonies during
Moharram to avoid a conflict with those of
the Shias. Saying this, the Supreme Court
dismissed the Sunni petition on November
15, 1983.
FLAK FROM JUDICIARY
But it was the UP government that came in
for criticism for its lax attitude. The Supreme
Court advised it in 1984 that there was no
problem in carrying out the graves shifting
as per its 1983 order. Technical difficulties in
doing so, said the court, could be surmount-
ed by first dismantling the stony super struc-
ture of the graves to the proposed site and
then digging the bones and putting them in
the new graves. It questioned the UP govern-
ments statement that four shops near the
place, where the graves were to be shifted,
were 15-20 years old. It said that a survey had
revealed that this was not true and that the
plot had been vacant. It categorically said the
shifting of the graves should be undertaken
1879: A suit with regard to Plot No
246 in Mohalla Doshipura of Varanasi
decided in favor of the Shias
1893: A baradari was constructed on
Plot 247/1130 by the Shias. There were
eight other plotsNos 245, 246,
246/1134, 247, 248/23/72, 602,
602/1133 and 603near it
The Sunnis filed suit directing the
Shias to demolish structure on Plot No
245 and hold the majlis only on the 9th
and 12th day of Moharram
The Shias appeal and the trial court
rejects the suit of the Sunnis
January 1954: The Shia community
approaches Muslim Waqf Board.
1960-1966: UP administration
passes orders restraining the Shias
from carrying out religious functions
1978: One Gulam Abbas and two
others file a writ petition in the
Allahabad High Court over the right of
the Shias over these plots
November 1981: High court decides
in favor of the Shias
1983: The Sunnis file writ petition in
Supreme Court; SC lambasts them
September 23, 1983: HC orders a
boundary wall be constructed around
some of the plots where the Shias
performed their functions and
ceremonies; UP government contends
that the shifting of graves would lead
to a serious law and order situation
November 15, 1983: SC dismisses
the Sunni petition
September, 28, 1984: HC passes an
interim order before Moharram
restraining the Sunni community from
going to any of the eight plots
December 7-9, 1984: DM grants
permission to Sunnis to perform
two rituals at the grave of
Hakim Badruddin
March 7, 1986: HC says the two
graves of Lal Mohammad and Shakina
be permanently enclosed on all sides
with a brick wall and sealed off
Early September: Case coming up
in the SC
Bad Blood
43
W
hat is the first image
that comes to your
mind when you think
of a lawyer? A person
in stately black robes,
weighed down by
tomes? Followed by a lackey with a bag of
gilt-edged legal books? This weighty affair
could well be a thing of the past if the present
government has its way.
Legal books are set to get a tad lighter, as
the BJP-led NDA government, in a welcome
move, is doing away with archaic and irrele-
vant laws. This could see as many as 300 laws
being removed.
It follows from a directive of Prime
Minister Narendra Modi, who, in his first
meeting with top bureaucrats, made it clear
that laws, which delay decision-making,
must be identified and removed. Modi set up
a committee on August 27 to identify the
obsolete laws within three months. This will
certainly make the legal process swifter.
Modis directive has already got the gov-
ernment up and running. During the budget
session of parliament, Law Minister Ravi
Shankar Prasad introduced the Repealing
and Amending Bill, 2014 in the Lok Sabha.
This will see 36 antiquated acts being
repealed. Of these, 32 are amendment acts,
which were passed to change existing laws,
while the remaining four have already out-
lived their utility.
in order to speed-up decision-making, the modi
government is weeding out close to 300 laws
By Anita Katyal
Out with
the old
Illustrations: Amitava Sen
44
September 15, 2014
GOVERNANCE/
obsolete laws
The Amendment Acts, which are sought
to be repealed include amendments to the
Representation of the People Act, Marriage
Laws, Election Laws, Divorce Laws and
Anand Marriage Act and the Evidence Act.
The standalone Acts which will be repealed
through the Bill are the Foreign Jurisdiction
Act, 1947, and Sugar Undertaking (Taking
Over of Management) Act.
The Bill is one of those periodical meas-
ures by which enactments which have ceased
to be in force or have become obsolete or the
retention whereof as separate Act is unneces-
sary are repealed or by which the formal
defects detected in enactments are correct-
ed, said the Statement of Objects and
Reasons of the Bill.
After Modis directive, Cabinet Secretary
Ajit Seth sent out an 11-point action plan to
all ministries on improving governance. Each
department was asked to identify and repeal
at least redundant 10 rules and acts. Prasad
too has written to all the ministries and the
Law Commission to identify antiquated laws,
which can be removed from the statue books.
Enthused by his initial effort, he has prom-
ised to continue this exercise, which has been
at a standstill since 2001.
Addressing Supreme Court lawyers on
Independence Day, Prasad said he had
assured the prime minister that as many as
300 antiquated laws would be repealed in
the winter session of parliament. The Prime
Minister directed me that new laws are to be
made, but equally, outdated laws need to be
scrapped. I am pursuing this very, very
strongly, stressed the law minister.
WELCOME MOVE
The legal fraternity, as expected, has wel-
comed this move. It is, indeed, a good move.
These old laws must go, they are no longer
relevant. these laws are like deadwood,
remarks eminent advocate PP Rao.
Senior Supreme Court lawyer Indu
Malhotra says that some of the laws enacted
during the British period were still alive.
Many were over a hundred years old and had
lost their relevance. You cannot have laws
which are so datedlaws need to be in sync
with changing times, she adds.
For instance, she explains, Indias rape
laws dated back to 1860 and were amended
only after public outcry over the Nirbhaya
case. Similarly, Section 377 of the Indian
Penal Code, criminalizing gay sex, is at least
150 years old, she says. This law is absolutely
absurd after all, this is a consensual rela-
tionship. You cant describe it as a crime,
Malhotra says vehemently. These laws need
to be removed and replaced with a modern
and progressive legislation, she adds.
Surprisingly, there are laws which can be
used for the same crime, thus creating confu-
sion and unnecessary complications in the
delivery of justice. Take maintenance in
divorce laws. Malhotra says a litigant can
pursue a case under Section 125 of the Indian
Penal Code, the Hindu Marriage Act and the
Domestic Violence Act. There is bound to be
confusion when there are parallel lawsthis
is what happens when you bring new laws
without repealing old ones, she maintains.
SPORADIC EFFORTS
Various governments have attempted to
weed out obsolete laws over the years but
these efforts have, at best, been sporadic and
erratic. As many as 285 old laws were first
repealed in 1960 on the recommendation
Indias rape laws date back to 1860 and
were amended only after public outcry over
the Nirbhaya case. The law criminalizing
gay sex is at least 150 years old.
45
IL
The Indian Fisheries Act, 1897
The Employment of Manual Scavengers and
Construction of Dry Latrines (Prohibition) Act, 1993
The Delimitation (Amendment) Act, 2003
The Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act, 2005
The Parliament (Prevention of Disqualification)
Amendment Act, 2006
The Personal Laws (Amendment) Act, 2010
The Administrators-General (Amendment) Act, 2012
Some other enactments to be repealed
of the Law Commission, which had studied
all the British statutes which had become
irrelevant. But the pace of striking down
these laws slackened subsequently.
The Congress-led UPA government also
attempted to move ahead with this agenda. It
even suggested that laws should have a sun-
set clause or an expiry date so that a legisla-
tion no longer valid after 20-50 years, is
automatically struck off the statue book. But
these efforts did not move beyond the discus-
sion stage.
Congress spokesperson and senior lawyer
Abhishek Singhvi admitted that though sev-
eral attempts were made to identify obsolete
laws, the real problem is implementation.
There is one detail most people ignore.
Identification and repeal of old laws is easy,
but in 80 per cent of the cases, this requires
some minor amendment in an existing law so
as to adapt it for contemporary use, he says.
Simply deleting a law is an easy and quick
process, he says, but modifying it requires
time, often difficult in a hectic parliament
schedule.
It was the NDA government which took
serious note of this issue in 1998. It even set
up a special commission under the chair-
manship of PC Jain to identify laws which
could be removed. While collating these
obsolete laws, the commission found that
governments had been slow to repeal them
as they feared it could revive any pending
matter settled by those enactments.
NEW BEGINNINGS
The commission had recommended the
removal of 1,382 old laws, of which only a
few hundred were repealed. These include
those passed during the British rule and
others which were enacted to deal with spe-
cial situations in the post-Partition period.
These include the Exchange of Prisoners
Act, 1948, the Resettlement of Displaced
Persons (Land Acquisition) Act, 1948, and
Indian Independence Pakistan Courts
(Pending Proceedings) Act, 1952.
But more needs to be done. For exam-
ple, there is the Oudh Taluqdars Relief Act,
1870, which is still alive even though the
province of Oudh and taluqdars do not exist
anymore. Prasad recently admitted that
some of these laws were both absurd and
laughable.
Shockingly, even laws enacted during
the World War are alive, despite their
absurdity. Prasad said that Modi was sur-
prised to learn the existence of a law in
Gujarat which mandates that the police
prepare a daily record of any subversive
material which had been airdropped. This
act was enacted during the World War and
is a classic example of a law which needs to
be deleted.
Continuing with such laws can also be
troublesome, as they can be misused. Take
the case of the Sarais Act, 1867, which says
that sarais (lodges) must provide toilet
facilities to the public. Prasad said a five-
star hotel in Mumbai was harassed by
overzealous litigants, who insisted that the
hotel management allow all outsiders to use
its toilets, as the hotel technically qualified
as a sarai under the Sarai Act.
But it is also important to see that this
exercise is not rushed through. In its hurry
to deliver, the government must not leave
any gaping loopholes which could create
more problems for litigants.
Various governments have attempted to
weed out obsolete laws over the years but
these efforts have been sporadic and erratic.
285 old laws were first repealed in 1960.
GOVERNANCE/
obsolete laws
46
September 15, 2014
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E
W
S
KAPILS COMEDY HOUR
LAUGHING AT OR LAUGHING
TOGETHER? 47
ESSAY
IS KISS-AND-TELL
JOURNALISM TREACHERY? 16
CROSS-B0RDER
INVASION
PAKISTANI SERIALS 44
THE CRITICAL EYE
D
I
G
I
T

R
A
J
Majboori ka
naam Gandhi
HINDI SECTION
PLUS
WHICH JOURNOS ARE
USING THE RTI EFFECTIVELY?
RADIO:
WHERES THE NEWS?
WHY IS ANNUS
SAFAR SUHANA?
Inderjit Badhwars
years with iconic
Watergate muckraker
Jack Anderson
Social media
has radically
transformed news
gathering. Is it a new
barrier to government
accountability?
Baat pate ki
PLUS
WHICH JOURNOS A
USING THE RTI EFF
RADIO:
WHERES THE NE
WHY IS ANNUS
SAFAR SUHANA?
Social media
has radically
transformed news
gathering. Is it a new
barrier to government
accountability?
RETROSPECTIVE
WHY THIS IMPUNITY?
Justice BS Chauhan has
been involved in several
questionable property
deals, but has not been
punished for these
SPECIAL REPORT/
judicial irregularities/justice bs chauhan
Some are more
equal than others
in the eyes of the law, everyone is equal. but a case
of a senior judge shows how rules can be
subverted with impunity
By Ramesh Menon
48
September 15, 2014
In a surprising move, Noida Authority
made the allotments, but cancelled these
within hours. It defended this behaviour say-
ing that a news item in The Times of India
suggested that there were irregularities in the
allotment. When this was challenged, Justice
Chauhan in July 2007 upheld the cancella-
tion and asked for a CBI investigation.
According to the interlocutory applica-
tion filed in his special leave petition (SLP) in
November 2007, Delhi-based lawyer Kamal
Kapoor, whose allotment was among the 625
that were cancelled, claimed that Justice
Chauhan had in a letter on January 13, 2005,
written to a Noida official demanding allot-
ment of two plots in the housing scheme.
However, he did not get the plots.
But that wasnt the end of the matter. The
SLP pointed out that on April 6, 2005,
Justice Chauhan wrote another letter to a
Noida official with a copy to CEO, Noida,
indicating that Tata Consultancy Services be
appointed to conduct the draw of lots for the
residential plots that he was interested in. He
still persevered and on April 29, 2005, he
shot off a letter to deputy CEO, Noida, refer-
ring to the conversation he had regarding
Justice Chauhan managed to get allotment
of Plot K-1 in Sector 18, Noida, for a cinema
hall, but got it converted into a shopping
complex in collusion with Noida officials.
R
ECENT weeks have
seen a hullabaloo over
judicial accountabi-
lity. And it is time for
judges to unemotion-
ally examine what is
happening within th-
eir own fraternity. This is all the more imper-
ative when irregularities are being brought to
the attention of the court.
Justice Markandey Katju, chairman of the
Press Council of India, raised a hornets nest
recently when he made wild allegations ques-
tioning the integrity of the late Justice Ashok
Kumar. There are many others who havent
been pulled up by the judiciary or even inves-
tigated in spite of serious charges. While
insiders are well aware of numerous contro-
versies within the judiciary, this still hasnt
become a subject of public debate. When
Justice BS Chauhan was the chief justice of
the Orissa High Court, it was Justice Katju
who recommended his elevation as a
Supreme Court judge ignoring numerous
allegations against him.
Justice BS Chauhan, retired from the
Supreme Court (SC) this year and is present-
ly chairman, Cauvery Water Disputes Tribu-
nal. He was a senior judge of the Allahabad
High Court when he passed an order asking
the CBI to inquire into irregularities in the
allotment of residential plots by Noida
Authority. Was he taking a high moral
ground when he did so? Investigations into
his likely intent make for interesting reading.
Letter by Justice Chauhan to a Noida executive,
pursuing his request for two plots
Application of Beena Singh with Justice
Chauhans address on it
Letter by the judge to Noida Authority,
saying he is sending in two applications
49
the plots in Noida. He
said he was sending one
Sunil Chaudhary with
two application forms for
allotment in the housing
scheme.
When CNN-IBN sni-
ffed a news story here
and planned to air it,
Justice Chauhan got
Swatantra Singh, the
registrar-general, High
Court of Judicature at
Allahabad, to shoot off
three letters on July 30,
2007, to the managing
director of the channel,
saying that he had not
written three such letters
and that they were all
forged. Kapoor said he
wished that Justice Cha-
uhans stand had been
true, but he had to prove
irregularities to ensure the dignity of the
judiciary was maintained.
To buttress his allegations, Kapoor
attached copies of the letter showing that
application 152139, dated December 30,
2004, was in the name of Beena Singh,
whose residential address was 474, Sector
15A, Noida. This, incidentally, was the resi-
dence of Justice Chauhan. The second appli-
cation form, 0163503, dated December 31,
2004, was in the name of Raj Kumari, sister-
in-law of Justice Chauhan.
Both applications were filed on the last
date of the scheme and did not carry the PAN
number of the applicants. In the draw of lots
on July 2, 2005, neither of these names got a
plot. As the application carried his address,
Justice Chauhan should have ideally with-
drawn from hearing the writ of Kapoor chal-
lenging the cancellation of allotment after
the draw. Instead, he chose to ignore the SLP
of a successful allottee and heard a PIL filed
by Manav Sewa Samiti upholding the cancel-
lation of computerized draw.
DIVERSE INTERESTS
Interestingly, Justice Chauhan was a stand-
ing counsel for Noida Authority before he
was appointed judge. In 1979, he had got a
plotPlot No F-1 in Sector 6in an auction
for a cinema hall. The Noida Authority found
that it was not a proper place for a hall and
another site in Sector 5 was offered. Kapoors
SLP said that Justice Chauhan managed to
get allotment of Plot K-1 in Sector 18 for a
cinema hall, but got it converted into a shop-
ping complex in collusion with officials.
After the allotment in Sector 18, he should
have surrendered the plot which he got in
Sector 6. But the same was also leased to him
by changing the user from commercial to
industrial purposes and sold subsequently to
Mirza Tanners Ltd, the petition said.
BY HOOK OR BY CROOK
For execution of the lease deeds, Justice
Chauhan formed a partnership firm, M/s
Chaudhary Ajab Singh & Co., where he was
one of the partners. According to a judgment
on May 1, 1987, passed by the Additional Dis-
trict Judge III Ghaziabad, Justice Chauhan
had procured a benami residential plot, Plot
No 427 in Sector 15 A, which measured 456
square meter. The judgment observed that
Justice Chauhan had got the lease deed of the
plot executed in the name of the firm to avoid
paying income tax and seriously reflected
upon the conduct of the plaintiff.
The judgment said: He has admitted to
have evaded income tax. This income certifi-
cate has no correlation with the disputed
plot. The plaintiff has not been able to prove
that he is the real owner of the disputed plot.
He is, therefore, not entitled to the relief
of declaration.
The CBI enquiry did not find anything
out of order in spite of the fact that many of
those who had been allotted flats were VIPs.
Justice Aftab Alam of the Supreme Court at
that time said that this application should
not have been filed as it was in bad taste,
being filed by a lawyer. Kapoor demanded a
judicial inquiry into the conduct of Justice
Chauhan, as he was associated with the allot-
ments and chose to hear the case and cancel
the allotment when he was not favoured.
So why shouldnt this case be probed too?
Should the courts not have taken notice of it?
In the eyes of the law, everyone is equal, but
it seems some are more equal than others.
POINT OF LAW
Justice Aftab Alam
questioned the SLP filed
by Kapoor, saying it was
in bad taste
SPECIAL REPORT/
judicial irregularities/justice bs chauhan
50
September 15, 2014
IL
WHEN Justice BS
Chauhan was the high
court judge, Sadhna
Chaudhary , an additional
district judge, who was
also his classmate,
alleged that he had
exploited and harassed
her. She said he had
also approached her for
some favours. Her
petition against Justice
Chauhan before the
Allahabad High Court
was dismissed and no
investigations were
ordered by the judiciary
into the serious
allegations. In fact,
her services were
terminated.
Improprieties galore
india has been rocked
again and again by
mind-numbing scams.
but heres a story that
will gladden your heart
By India Legal Team
CASE STUDY/
delhi transport /corruption inquiry
I
T was a scam that never was. The Delhi Transport
Department was alleged to have been involved in a
`100 crore scam with a private company, contracted in
2006 to conduct fitness tests on commercial vehicles. It
was also alleged that former Delhi chief minister Sheila
Dikshit, then transport minister Haroon Yusuf and other trans-
port officials were involved in the scam. But it turned out to be
a dud scam, as a two-member inquiry committee instituted by
Lt Governor Najeeb Jung last October revealed that there was
no loss to the exchequer.
The allegation was that Environmental Systems Products
A SCAM That Never Was
51
Anil Shakya
1998, the Supreme Court, in the MC Mehta vs
Union of India (UOI) judgment, had given a
series of directions for control of pollution in
Delhi. One of them required the Delhi govern-
ment and UOI to set up automated inspection
and maintenance facilities for commercial
vehicles. Under the Motor Vehicles Act, all
commercial vehicles in Delhi needed to under-
go annual inspection and certification by a
competent technical authority.
However, manual inspection of a vehicle
was not only considered slow, but unviable due
to subjective views. To resolve the issue, the
Ministry of Surface Transport advised the
Transport Department to seek the assistance
of Automotive Research Association of India
(ARAI), a Pune-based NGO funded by
the ministry.
Initially, ARAI appointed ESP Inc as proj-
ect consultant. Later, ESP was awarded the
project itself by ARAI through global tender-
ing. Delhi Transport Department was never
made a party to this agreement.
After the installation of two I&C lanes in
Burari in July 2005, ARAI and ESP Inc were
to operate and maintain them for a year, as per
the agreement. But after July 2006, the equip-
ment started breaking down frequently and
was in immediate need of repair and mainte-
nance. However, ESP expressed its inability to
do so free of cost.
After negotiations, the Transport Depart-
ment and ESP agreed to sign a fresh contract
in February 2008. The key terms of it were
India Pvt Ltd (ESPIL), a private company, part
of US-based ESP Inc, which was contracted by
the Transport Department, had collected
crores in the name of conducting a loaded
mode emission (LME) test without actually
doing it. However, the committee, comprising
of Justice (retd) Mukul Mudgal and bureau-
crat Ramesh Chandra, found that ESPIL had
not charged any money from vehicle owners
for this test, but only for two other tests
automated inspection & certification (I&C)
and third party technical inspection (TPTI).
Moreover, the LME test was not mandatory,
but had to be done only on 20 percent of vehi-
cles, as the Transport Department wanted to
collect empirical data.
HONEST DEALINGS
In its report on June 10 this year, the commit-
tee said: Correspondence of ESPIL with the
Transport Department, read along with the
supplementary agreement, makes it clear that
ESPIL had offered to install the LME setups
and carry out LME tests free of cost. This is
further established by the fact that the fee
receipts issued by ESPIL illustrate that the
money charged from the vehicle owner was for
the automated I&C test and TPTI. It said that
it had arrived at the conclusion that no
amount was ever collected from vehicle own-
ers by ESPIL specifically for the LME test.
Allegations of corruption were based on a
case registered by the anti-corruption unit of
the Delhi government in December 2012
against ESPIL. Subsequent raids led to the
arrests of senior company directors, Nitin
Manawat and PC Tamta, and some transport
officials. The LG, however, refused to grant
permission to prosecute transport officials and
ordered that an inquiry into the issue.
GLOBAL TENDERING
So how did this multi-crore scam turn out to
be a hoax? The report shows this in detail. In
ESPIL says it was targeted by transport
officials who stand to lose out, as the new
technology eliminates the need for physical
inspections by officials.
CASE STUDY/
delhi transport /corruption inquiry
52
September 15, 2014
that ESP should maintain and operate all the
three automated I&C lanes and should be paid
as per inspection fee rates under the Central
Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989.
In February 2011, the Transport Depart-
ment entered into an agreement with ESPIL
(and not ESP), whereby it would set up equip-
ment to test LME free of cost, if it was allowed
to carry out the TPTI test. The fees for the
automated I&C test, LME and TPTI were
worked out as follows: heavy commercial vehi-
cle for `1,600; light commercial vehicle,
`1,200; medium motor vehicle, `900; taxi,
`600; and auto-rickshaw, `350.
PROTOCOL FOLLOWED?
According to the report, in August-September
2012, the then motor license officer at Burari,
Anil Chikara, for the first time, brought to the
notice of the then commissioner of transport
that the LME test being conducted by ESPIL
at Burari was not as per the required technical
protocol. An inspection of the facility was
conducted and ESPIL representatives said
there was delay in the installation of some
equipment as the required civil works had not
been completed. However, the LME test was
being carried out partially.
The committee found that the reason for
delay in installation of machinery was not
attributable to ESPIL. Civil works at the site
was being done by an agency of the Delhi gov-
ernment at a very slow pace due to lack of
funds, manpower and difficulty in procuring
sanctions from various local authorities. The
committee also found out that ESPIL charged
fees for conducting two tests and not for the
LME test. Moreover, the committee argued
that the LME test was not mandatory, but only
done to compile empirical data.
Meanwhile, ESPIL alleged that the compa-
ny was targeted by some transport officials,
who were hand-in-glove with touts operating
in granting fitness certificates for commercial
vehicles. It alleged that technology eliminated
physical inspections by officials and therefore,
the transport inspectors role was reduced to
awarding certificates.
Due to this controversy, which started in
February last year, fitness certification of all
commercial vehicles registered in Delhi is now
again being done manually without any tests
for emissions, brakes, suspension, speed gov-
ernor, speedometer and CNG safety. It violates
the Supreme Courts spirit that had directed
the Transport Department to crack down on
polluting vehicles plying in the capital.
The committee further observed that
though PPP (Public Private Partnership) is the
flavor of the day, India did not appear to be
mature enough for it. It said that even if there
is a cost to the government, regulatory func-
tions should not be outsourced to a private
party unless measures are in place to ensure
that accountability is not diffused.
It said that automated I&C lanes should be
run by the department (transport) by custo-
mizing new software with the help of National
Information Center. The installation of more
I&C lanes should be through open tenders.
For once, it gladdens one to know
that there isnt another scam to drain the
exchequer and cheat the common man, and
that all is not rotten with the system.
When the allegations
of corruption came up,
LG Najeeb Jung
refused to grant
permission to
prosecute the transport
officials and instead
instituted an inquiry.
The inquiry committee,
with Justice (retd)
Mukul Mudgal as a
member, found that
ESPIL had not charged
any money from
vehicle owners for the
LME test.
IL
53
I
ts a government directive that has
pilots up in arms. The Directorate
General of Civil Aviation (DGCA)
has said that pilots who join other
airlines without giving the man-
datory six-month notice are liable
to lose their license. Further, the
DGCA has asked airlines to give it a list of
such commanders and has issued a show
cause notice to some of them.
The DGCA is using a Civil Aviation Requi-
rement (CAR) to curb these pilots. Section 7,
Series X of CAR, which deals with flight crew
standards, training and licensing, says: It has
been observed that pilots are resigning with-
out providing any notice to airlines. In some
a dgca directive has got
pilots fuming, as
they stand to lose their
licenses if they dont
give six months notice
before resigning and
leaving for
greener pastures
By Shobha John
FOCUS/
dgca rule/notice period clause
Grounding
pilots flight
54
September 15, 2014
illustrations: Amitava Sen
cases, even groups of pilots resign together
without notice and, as a result, airlines are
forced to cancel their flights at the last
minute. Such resignation by pilots and the
resultant cancellation of flights causes incon-
venience and harassment to passengers.
Sometimes, such an abrupt action on the part
of the pilots is in the form of a concerted
move, which is tantamount to holding the air-
lines to ransom and leaving the travelling
public stranded. This is a highly undesirable
practice and goes against public interest.
It further says: Such an action attracts
provisions of sub-rule (2) of rule 39A of the
Aircraft Rules, 1937, which reads as follows:
The Central government may debar a person
permanently or temporarily from holding any
licence or rating mentioned in Rule 38. This
move comes in the wake of over 100 pilots
quitting and joining international airlines in
the last one year.
UNFAIR DIKTAT
The CAR has created a hornets nest, as pilots
are questioning the unfairness of it all. This
is a free market and one can leave for better
opportunities. On what basis will my license
be cancelled? Legally speaking, a license can
be cancelled only in case of an accident or
incident, says the commander of a private
airline who didnt wish to be quoted, fearing
victimization. Another says that this restric-
tive directive is against labor laws. In fact,
some pilot unions had even gone to court over
this arm-twisting.
It all started way back in 2005, with the
launch of many private airlines,
such as Kingfisher, Indigo, Go Air
and SpiceJet. Pilots started getting
poached from Air India, Indian
Airlines and Air Deccan. Getting
ready-made commanders is an
attractive option for any new airline,
as it doesnt have to waste time on
training them. For a person to
acquire a commercial pilots license
and then get a multi-engine rating,
which allows him to fly commercial
jets, the fees would be about `25
lakh. So a trained commander is
an asset for any airline and most
companies pay them a salary of around `5-8
lakh a month.
But with the opening up of the skies,
things have changed. Foreign airlines such as
Emirates, Etihad, Qatar Airways and Oman
Air are dangling higher salaries in the range
of `13-14 lakh for a commander. Further, the
situation here is none too rosy, as many
Indian carriers are struggling to survive, be it
Air India, Jet or SpiceJet.
With foreign pastures beckoning, pilots
are known to leave without a no-objection
certificate (NoC). While foreign airlines are
helping them get a local license, problems will
arise if these pilots want to come back to
India. Their flying licenses will no longer be
valid and theyll be at the mercy of the whims
and fancies of the DGCA, explains a senior
commander.
BREACH OF CONTRACT
What has actually got the goat of the pilots is
that if airlines want to downsize and remove
an employee, only one months notice is
required. How fair is that? Whats sauce for
the goose should be sauce for the gander, says
an aggrieved commander. Do other profes-
sionals like doctors, scientists and lawyers
If airlines want to remove an employee, only
one months notice is required. And, as in
the case of Kingfisher, they have not paid
their pilots for months on end.
55
seriously by the DGCA, allege pilots. In the
case of my company, we havent even been
issued Form 16A this year, causing me to
lose money to income tax. Why hasnt the
DGCA done anything about it, asks one.
Some companies have made pilots sign a
bond and these are arbitrarily charged
between `10-20 lakh.
But there is the other side of the coin
too. Airlines have, in the past, been
aggrieved over the manner in which pilots
have simply packed their bags and left,
leading to flight disruptions and cancella-
tions. But the situation isnt the same now,
so shouldnt CAR be revoked? Also, when
CAR was instituted, there was severe pilot
shortage. Things are much better now, as
there are more pilots in the market with
Kingfishers collapse and more youngsters
being churned out.
The only way out of this turbulence in
Indian aviation is to inject more profession-
alism on both sides. IL
It was way back in 2005 when the DGCA started Civil Aviation Requirement (CAR) that created a
furor. It stopped pilots from quitting unless a six-month notice period was given by them. The
person who spearheaded this change was CAPTAIN GR GOPINATH, the father of low-cost aviation
in India and founder of Air Deccan. He justifies his decision to SHOBHA JOHN:
Why was CAR brought in? India is the
only country to have it.
In 2003, when Air Deccan began, many
pilots were without jobs and were available
to me. However, once Kingfisher, Go Air,
Indigo and SpiceJet started, they started
poaching my pilots, left, right and center.
In one instance, an entire lot of 10 pilots
left in one go, leading to flight
cancellations. I even told Kingfishers Vijay
Mallya: This will bite you overnight. It did,
as his pilots later left for other airlines. I
prevailed on the then aviation minister,
Praful Patel, to stop this exodus, which is
when CAR came into being in 2005.
But employees have a right to look for
better employment.
That is true, but these are high-value
assets and there should be some
restriction on them leaving an airline in the
Pilots cant just abandon the ship
lurch. They cannot just abandon the ship
without giving time for airlines to look for
replacements. It takes about six months
to train another commander.
But DGCA didnt act against airline
managements such as Kingfisher, when
service conditions changed, giving the
impression that it works at their behest.
Both managements and pilots should be
fair to each other. And both should be
protected. All airlines are saying is, give
us six months notice. No one is stopping
pilots from seeking greener pastures.
Shouldnt this directive have been
removed when there was a glut of pilots
and few jobs?
Different circumstances call for different
actions. For example, there have been
times abroad, when pilots have had to
eat grass, as there were so few jobs. When
airlines faced bankruptcy there, promoters,
investors and employees took salary cuts.
But do you see that here? When AI was
going through a rough patch, pilots were
the first ones to strike till the government
came down heavily on them. So there
should be consideration from both sides.
have to give NoCs when changing jobs?
But what the DGCA has overlooked is that
CAR is not applicable where the terms and
conditions of employment have been altered
or amended and there is a dispute in employ-
er-employee relationship. It is a moot ques-
tion as to what is breach of contract and
how does a pilot explain this to a new
employer. When Kingfisher Airlines was
under financial crunch and employees were
not given salaries, where was the DGCA, ask
pilots. Those who were seeking jobs with
other airlines were asked to get a NoC from
Kingfisher, which they obviously couldnt get.
Malpractices by airlines are not taken so
DGCA says pilots are resigning without
providing any notice to airlines. In some
cases, even groups of pilots resign together
and airlines are forced to cancel their flights.
56
September 15, 2014
FOCUS/
dgca rule/notice period clause
N
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STORIES THAT COUNT
Ramesh Menons
account of Modis war room
JULY 31, 2014
`100 www.indialegalonline.com
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Budget 2014 is a smorgasbord of snackssmall
feel-good sopsrather than the much awaited
feast of radical measures for national
economic reconstruction
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Budget 2014 is a smorga
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`100crore
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HOW SUGAR BARONS AND POLITICIANS CON THE PUBLIC
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Sonia-Rahul and the
National Herald scam
EXCLUSIVE
Harrowing saga of 10
stranded Indians on an
oil tanker off Sharjah
THE LAW
Executive-judiciary
relations nosedive
Your birthright to adopt
Stopping Uncle Sams
snooping on the world
PROBE
Diamond merchants
`1,300 crore bank heist
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STORIES THAT COUNT
Markandey Katju:
The story behind the accusation
August 15, 2014
`100
I
Invitation Price
`50
Has post-Modi majoritarianism made this
powerful Indian community more insecure?
Why Ukraine and Gaza
matter to you
top cops admit victimization
are indians ocking to isiI jehad?
poIice station reaches out to minorities
ALSO Badaun Rape: Covering Up
for Whom?
Dhoti, Kapada aur CIub
AssauIt on NGOs
Amway or Scamway?
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NDIA EGAL
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STORIES THAT COUNT
August 31, 2014 `100
I
Who shot the collegium? Sex and the judge
wwwindi
Phoolan: Killers
comeuppance
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CONVICTED JUVENILES
Should we
hang them?
EVERY FORTNIGHT INDIA LEGAL WILL BRING YOU NEWS, ANALYSES AND
OPINION FROM THE SHARPEST INVESTIGATIVE REPORTERS AND MOST
INCISIVE LEGAL MINDS IN THE NATION ON MATTERS THAT MATTER TO YOU
ENC
ONLY THE STORIES
THAT COUNT
EVERY DAY A
NIGHTMARE
sanjay dutts wife introspects how her
husbands incarceration has made her aware
of the true meaning of freedom
F
REEDOM is too abstract an
idea to be defined accurately.
The interesting thing about
freedom is that it means differ-
ent things to different people.
But more importantly, different things to the
same people depending on where they are in
life. If it meant freedom from the British
before Independence, it now may mean free-
dom to live life the way we want. For the
poor, it may mean freedom from misery and
poverty, while for the First World it may be
freedom from the life they are living right
now. On Independence Day, we rejoice in our
freedom from foreign rule, or living in a free
democratic society.
But are we really free as a nation? Are we
free as individuals living in a civilized socie-
ty? As a woman trying to live the life she
wants? Are our mindsets really free from
prejudices, stereotypes, or racism?
We may have attained freedom from the
British, but have we unchained our mindsets
MY SPACE/
manyata dutt
from years of dogma, our narrow views on
religion, women, and cultural beliefs?
How can we be truly free if our minds are
still corrupted by archaic beliefs? Today
we still live in a country where khap pan-
chayats flourish, where women are not even
free to use toilets due to the fear of being
raped, and where there is no freedom to
express their opinions.
Never has breathing and being able to
walk freely had so much relevance in my life
till recently. With my husband incarcerated, I
now realize the immense value of being able
to walk freely. Freedom has taken a whole
new meaning in my life, when I watch my
husband behind bars, imprisoned, shut out
from society, his family and his country. The
initial months were spent trying to cope,
understand and support him while he went
through his days behind bars. But like they
say, everything in life is meant to teach you
something, and open your heart and mind to
something you have never imagined.
58
September 15, 2014
manuals. Prisoners are treated like animals
and deprived of basic amenities.
Today, every civilized society is looking at
reformative jail system instead of punitive
ones. The goal is to repair the deficiencies
in the individuals and return them as pro-
ductive members of society. But in India, the
jail manuals are shockingly antiquated and
the jails continue to adhere to the Prisons Act
of 1894, whose aim was quite different.
Amid all these realities, it sometimes
becomes hard to believe that we are truly
free. For me, freedom is not an absolute term,
and complete freedom for all is a utopian
concept. As long as we continue to live, we
will have to keep fighting for freedom. Dep-
ending on which stage we are in life, we will
have to strive for freedom.
Nelson Mandela once said, It is said that
no one truly knows a nation until one has
been inside its jails. A nation should not be
judged by how it treats its highest citizens,
but its lowest ones.
It is during this phase that I have come
across several people imprisoned for years for
petty crimes and unable to get out of jail
because they dont enough money for bail.
Some have committed simple thefts, some
have been languishing for years beyond their
actual quantum of punishment. Many are
innocent but dont have either money, the
knowledge or support to fight, hire lawyers or
even know the law. So are these people really
living in a free country? Do they have the free-
dom from utter poverty, deep-seated igno-
rance or complete apathy of the society or the
government?
T
housands of people, languishing
behind bars, are still subjected to
archaic British jail manuals and rules.
The British wanted its prisoners, especially
the freedom fighters, to not be treated as
human beings. These manuals were written
to torture them and wipe out any will they
may have had to live. We still follow those
Freedom has taken a
whole new meaning in
my life, when I watch my
husband behind bars,
imprisoned, shut out
from society, his family
and his country.
IL
59
PHOTO ESSAY/
endangered birds
Look deep into nature, and
then you will understand
everything better
Albert Einstein
ON THE LAST
60
September 15, 2014
Photo: Ningombam Brojendro Meetei
numerous species of indian birds are
critically endangered. only strict
conservation laws can help them survive
By Ramesh Menon
W
HEN birds disappear, there is a reason
to be worried. After all, these winged
beauties are the best indicators of how
the delicate balance in our environment
has gone wrong. Where have the nim-
ble sparrows that used to perch on our
window sills and balcony railings,
chirping away joyously every morning, gone? What has caused
their disappearancepollution, change in land use, urban con-
crete jungles, loss of green cover, poaching, overuse of pesticides or
radiation from cell phone towers? The answer is a little bit of
everything. Maybe, there are even reasons we do not know.
FLAP
61
PHOTO ESSAY/
endangered birds
The figures are distressing. In 2007, India had seven
critically endangered species. In 2014, it rose to 15. Since
1977, about 1,00,000 vultures have disappeared in India.
A 2012 survey of the sighting of sparrows by the Bombay
Natural History Society (BNHS) showed that these were
seen in fewer places than in 2005. Even in areas where
they were still found, the numbers were lower and the
nests, fewer. In fact, the latest Red List of the Inter-
national Union for Conservation of Nature red-flagged
how 173 bird species in the country were threatened. The
colorful Bugun Liocichla from the North-east, which was
earlier put in the category of vulnerable, has now entered
the critically endangered list.
TOXIC MENACE
Sparrows feed on worms and insects. But excessive use of
pesticides has turned our farms and its products toxic.
That includes the creepy crawlies the birds feed on. This
makes the future of sparrows even bleaker. Uma Nitali, an
avid bird-watcher from Hubli, says: It is so fascinating
watching birds and their behavior. It is tragic that they are
disappearing and it is a wake-up call. Imagine what a
birdless city would be like.
Even vultures, seen as scavengers, are important for
ecological balance. But they too are on the brink of extinc-
tion, worrying conservationists. The birds are dying of
kidney failure after feeding on carcasses of cattle that
62
September 15, 2014
63
FADING AWAY
(Clockwise from left, facing page) The White-backed
Vultures are dying of kidney failure, since the
carcasses they eat are laced with a banned drug,
Diclofenac. Destruction of natural biodiversity is
threatening the existence of the Bearded Vulture,
Red Headed Vulture, Red Headed Falcon and the
Himalayan Griffon.
The list of threatened bird species has been
growing every year. Last year, the number
was 165. This year it has risen to 173 and
threatens to get worse. Some ways to
protect and save the birds are:
Ensure strict implementation of laws in
protected areas such as parks and
sanctuaries
Protect and develop water bodies
Create open green areas for birds to rest
and nest
Encourage organic farming so that
pesticides do not kill birds or insects
Promote community-based conservation
of forests and sacred groves
Highlight examples like communities in
Kokkre-Bellur of Karnataka, who look after
birds like Painted Storks
Create greater awareness through nature
education
Involve all stake-holders to conserve
remaining habitats
Severely punish those selling or
administering banned Diclofenac to cattle
have been administered Diclofenac, a banned non-steroid, anti-
inflammatory drug. But Indian pharmacies still sell Diclofenac,
manufactured illegally.
According to the Royal Society for Protection of Birds, the
oriental, white-backed, long- and slender-billed vultures are at
risk and their numbers since 1992 have shockingly dropped by
99.9 percent from millions to less than 11,000. One silver lining
is that a new drug, Meloxicam, can replace Diclofenac for vet-
erinary purposes. But one thing is clear: Unless the production
of Diclofenac is stopped completely, the future of vultures will
continue to be in danger.
Besides the 173 birds on the threatened list, there are eight
more, according to studies done by BNHS and BirdLife
International. They include the Woolly-necked Stork, Andaman
Teal, Andaman Green Pigeon, Ashy-headed Green Pigeon, Red-
headed Falcon, Himalayan Griffon, Bearded Vulture and
Yunnan Nuthatch. The Woolly-necked Stork, although found in
most parts of India, is disappearing. The Andaman Teal is
found only on Great Coco Island and Andaman Islands. The
Andaman Green Pigeon, endemic to Andaman and Nicobar
islands, has only a couple of thousand members left. The Ashy-
headed Green Pigeon is confined to North-eastern states. The
Red-headed Falcon is rapidly declining not only in India but
also in neighboring countries.
MYRIAD HABITATS
Bird lover Atul Sathe and manager at BNHS, says: Indias rich
biodiversity has nearly 1,400 bird species, represent a myriad
set of habitats, ranging from evergreen tropical, deciduous and
alpine forests to grasslands, wetlands and deserts. Croplands
REGIONAL BEAUTIES
(Clockwise from top) The
Grey Pelican is found in
Kokrebellur, Karnataka. The
Ashy-headed Green
Pigeon is confined to the
North-eastern states, while
the Andaman Teal, as the
name suggests, is found
only on the Andaman and
the Great Coco Islands.
Both Bugun Liocichla and
Yunnan Nuthatch can
be spotted only in
Arunachal Pradesh.
64
September 15, 2014
PHOTO ESSAY/
endangered birds
interspersed with natural habitats also serve as good bird habi-
tats. But destruction of these breeding grounds poses a grave
threat to the very survival of these species.
A 2013 report of the International Union for Conservation
warned that endangered birds, including the Great Indian
Bustard, Siberian Crane, White-backed Vulture and Red-head-
ed Vulture, were declining. Apart from listing many bird species
in Schedule 1 of the Indian Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, and
banning bird trade in 1992, very little has been done. The focus
has never been on birds.
Asad R Rahmani, director, BNHS, says, When the tiger
disappeared from Sariska, there was national and international
uproar, with the prime minister intervening. When the last bus-
tard died in Karera Bustard Sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh in
1992, there was no one to cry.
Former environment minister Jairam Ramesh had rejected
a proposal by the Coast Guard to set up a radar surveillance
system in Narcondam, a small island in the Andaman and
Nicobar, as it threatened the future of 300 odd Narcondam
Hornbill, an endangered species found only there in the world.
But Prakash Javadekar, the new environment minister cleared
it. Says Rahmani: It is just a 6.9 km island and they could easily
have built it elsewhere.
As Indias focus shifts to rapid economic growth, areas like
conservation of birds might just get pushed under the carpet.
There have been high-profile projects to protect the tiger and
the elephant, but none to protect birds, despite India having
some of the rarest winged creatures in the world because of its
rich biodiversity. Will we be able to retain that honor after a
decade? Its a disturbing question.
BIRDS OF A FEATHER
(Clockwise from top left) Just a handful of 300 odd Narcondam
Hornbill are left in the island of Andaman and Nicobar. The Siberian
Crane found mostly in Russia and the Great Indian Bustard which
populates India and regions of Pakistan are already part of the
endangered species list. The Painted Stork named aptly so, is
found in the Himalayan regions, extending into Southeast Asia.
The Wooly-necked Stork, although found in most parts of India,
is fast disappearing.
IL
65
we perform neuroscience research. We can
develop new technology that changes how we
observe and interact with the circuits of the
brain.
NEW FRONTIERS
Although there has been great progress in
medicine, brain and mental illness treatments
have not seen much development. There are
diseases like cerebral palsy, Alzheimers,
Parkinsons and epilepsy which need to be
understood in greater detail. Tomers research
will help compare a normal brain with a dis-
eased one to identify the structural basis of
some diseases. He is currently collaborating
with neurosurgeons and pathologists to use
this technology for a deeper understanding of
epilepsy and stress-related disorders.
Dr Neeraj Jain, professor, National Brain
Research Centre, Manesar, says: Many dis-
eases of the brain are due to abnormal brain
circuits. However, our ability to decipher this
circuitry was limited because we could not get
a high resolution image of the inside of a
brain without first cutting it into thin slices.
The new advance makes the imaging process
faster by illuminating it with a sheet of light,
and not a point of light as is normally done.
Imaging circuitry of the normal and diseased
brain will help scientists understand the
changes that take place at a single neuron
level, and devise means to correct the effects
of the abnormality.
Tomer first made news in 2010, while at
the European Molecular Biology Laboratory
(EMBL) in Germany. There, he developed a
new technique called cellular profiling by
an Indian-born stanford scientist has
developed a high-tech microscope to
view this vital organ in all its complexity
By Deepa Gupta
H
E has come a long way, all
right. From staying in a sin-
gle, rented room in Pilkhuwa
town in Hapur district of
Uttar Pradesh to being a
scientist doing brain research at Stanford
University, Raju Tomer, 31, has made a quan-
tum leap in life through sheer hard work.
This alumnus of IIT Delhi, along with his
colleagues, recently developed an advanced
microscope that allows three-dimensional
imaging of the entire brain at the neuronal
wiring levela feat achieved for the first
time. This will allow researchers to
understand the working of the brain in
unprecedented detail. His work was
partly funded by Pentagons Defense
Advanced Research Projects Agency
(DARPA) and President Barak Obamas
multi-billion dollar Brain Research thr-
ough Advancing Innovative Neuro-tech-
nologies (BRAIN) initiative.
Justin Sanchez, a program
manager at DARPAs Neuro-
FAST program, reportedly told
Defense One, an online web-
site: I absolutely believe this
is going to transform the way
we study the brain and how
Tomer has developed an
advanced microscope that
allows three-dimensional
imaging of the entire brain.
PROFILE/
raju tomer
The Brain
66
September 15, 2014
image registration (PrImR), which
enables scientists to investigate a
large number of genes in the brain.
Earlier, cell types were determined
according to their shapes and loca-
tions, not genes.
This discovery received wide
publicity and Discover Magazine
selected it as 12th among top 100
research stories of 2010.
A year later, at Janelia Farm
Research Campus in Washington
DC, Tomer and colleagues built a
new imaging technique to trace the
division patterns of all cells in a
developing embryo.
HUMBLE BEGINNINGS
While he is much-feted now, Tomer still
remembers his childhood in Kherki Patti vil-
lage in Meerut, and then, in a small town
called Pilkhuwa, where he did his early
schooling and lived in a single rented room.
Later, his family moved to Ghaziabad, where
he studied till senior secondary. I was an
average student, maintains Tomer. But I was
always good at mathematics. It was when he
topped the class X board exams that he real-
ized his potential. I realized that only hard
work pays. I spent my senior secondary years
preparing for IIT-JEE. My parents could not
afford any coaching for me, which was a bless-
ing in disguise. I started self-learningan
important ingredient to excel in science.
After that, there was no stopping him.
He says: As far as I remember, I always
wanted to be a scientist. I enjoyed solving
tough problems in mathematics and physics
and actively looked for problems that would
challenge me. IIT, in that sense, exposes you
to new ideas and possibilities. But his days at
IIT were hard, as his family suffered a finan-
cial crisis. Tomer started giving private
tuitions to help his family. Today, he reminis-
cences: My father was instrumental in my
success. Despite lack of resources, he did
whatever he could to make sure I got a good
education. He was a bit harsh in forcing us to
study when we were kids, but that was for our
good. He recently passed away, leaving a big
void in my life.
With dual degrees in biochemical engi-
neering and biotechnology, this MTech engi-
neer then went on to do PhD at EMBL. His
PhD research was on the evolution of the
brain and today, he is totally immersed in the
subject. I want to understand how our brain
works, arguably one of the toughest questions
in science, he says.
But reaching this far hasnt been without
embarrassing moments. When he was in his
IIIrd year at IIT-Delhi, he took his first trip
abroad for summer internship at the Uni-
versity of Toronto, Canada. Though he had
working knowledge of English, he had trouble
understanding the Canadian accent. At the
Toronto airport, I was asked something by a
lady at the customs. I replied something and
before I knew it, she almost yelled at me. I
managed to calm her and explained my diffi-
culty with the language. Culturally, it was a bit
of a shock at first.
Of course, today, he is adept at the
language and an expert in his field.
THE fast pace of
technology has thrown up
challenges for regulators,
who have to see that there
is no misuse. Biological
sciences are also
experiencing a similar
pace of development.
For example, new gene
editing technologies such
as clustered regularly
interspaced short
palindromic repeats
(CRISPR) are promising
exciting capabilities for the
repair of genetic makeup
of cells to treat diseases.
Rapid advances in
neuroscience are making
machine-brain interface a
reality. And researchers
are beginning to grasp
how to decode dreams by
capturing brain activity. All
these developments raise
ethical questions on how
and when to allow their
use and studies are now
underway to understand
the implications.
Legally speaking
Buster
IL
67
SPORTS/
sania mirza
T
WO missed opportunities still
trouble Sania Mirza. Seeded
sixth, she and her doubles
partner Cara Black of Zim-
babwe led the Italian top seeds
Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci
4-1 in the final set of the quarterfinals at the
Australian Open in January, this year. The
match was in their bag. Inexplicably, Mirza and
Black dropped their guard. Errani and Vinci
reeled off five games to win the set 6-4, match,
and finally the Grand Slam title.
A few months later, on the red clay court in
the French Open, Mirza and Black met the
Chinese pair of Su-Wei Hsieh and Shuai Peng in
another quarterfinal match. And lost another
three-setter; this time too, Hsieh and Peng went
on to win the women doubles Grand Slam title.
While these two defeats still rankle her,
Mirza is not too perturbed with her perform-
ance in 2014. She and Black have won doubles
titles in Estoril, Portugal, and reached the finals
of three other events at Indian Wells, Stuttgart
and Montreal since the start of the year. And a
career-best doubles ranking of number five is
something to feel happy about.
This success goes back to the time I decided
to give up singles and switched to playing only
women and mixed doubles. I thought my body
couldnt take the gruel of singles. At that point,
I wasnt sure if it was the right decision or not
but the subsequent success implies that it
was, explains the tennis star.
Mirza decided to focus on
doubles in the middle of 2012 at
the age of 25; it was a decision
that surprised many. Until then,
constant injuries had forced her to
undergo three surgeries. She recog-
nized that too much play could prema-
turely end her career. I had played sin-
gles and doubles, finished seven out
of eight years in the top 100, and
achieved a lot, she recounts.
Taking stock of her
YOU ARE
MY SANIA!
two years ago, she
took a crucial
decisionto play only
doubles. and today, the
tennis ace has reached
her career-best doubles
rank of number five
By Gaurav Kalra
68
September 15, 2014
LETHAL COMBO
Sania Mirza (left) and
Cara Black during a
practice session
ing the catch-up game. Children in Europe and
America work on the physical aspect from the
time they are six years old, she says.
Indias tennis icon bemoans the fact that the
interest generated by her success seems to have
dissipated. Today, there are 60-70 kids playing
with me, but they do the wrong things and dont
understand the dedication that is needed. But
at the same time, Mirza is pleased that many
Indian sportswomen have made an impression
on the world stage in the recent years. Even as
a 15-16-year old, I hoped some girls would pick
up a sport and do what they love. I hope I have
been able to inspire some to believe they can be
professional athletes. They dont have to be a
teacher or a doctor or something that is socially
more acceptable.
M
irza has always grabbed headlines
for all the wrong reasons. She
remembers with amusement the
outrage sparked off by fundamentalist elements
over the T-shirts she wore. It was silly and I had
to learn how to deal with it. I was 17. When most
girls deal with how to bunk classes in college, I
dealt with people questioning me for every-
thing. It was hard and my support system of
parents, family and friends was good, she says.
Though 27, Mirza hasnt lost her verve or
zest. She is older, mature but still vivacious like
the precocious teenager who first burst onto the
tennis scene. You have to enjoy the struggle,
pain, torn muscles. If you dont, its not worth it.
In India and Asia, we have a social view of what
a girl should do. Its not about fighting this
mindset, but being who you are.
career graph, Mirza says: I have no regrets
about my singles career. I am only the third per-
son in India to have been in the top 30. Would
I have liked to be in the top 20? Of course, as a
tennis player you cant be satisfied. But I cant
call my singles career a disaster because I didnt
make the top 20.
In 2013, which was her first full season as a
doubles player, Mirza broke into the top 10
rankings. But the surge to the top five began in
2014, when she teamed up with Black, a multi-
ple Grand Slam champion. Besides being a
calming influence on the court, the 35-year-old
Zimbabwean compliments Mirzas game. She
plays an old school-type game. She serves and
volleys, returns and volleys. I play an opposite
game (baseline one). I hit big strokes off the
ground, and so I can set her up to play winners.
This has been one of our strong points. Because
we play so differently, it is hard for our oppo-
nents to get into a rhythm, reveals Sania.
B
lack and Mirza have reached the quar-
terfinals of all the events the duo played
this year, except Wimbledon, where they
lost in the second round. Black took a break to
have a baby, so shes in a different stage of her
life. She has been around longer than I have, so
its great to have her on my side, says Mirza.
Although Mirza is yet to win women dou-
bles Grand Slam title, she has won two mixed
doubles Grand Slam titles. She reached the
finals of the 2011 French Open women doubles,
but lost. Cara and I are one of the best teams.
Our results show we are close to winning a
Grand Slam; it will be great to win one, says
Mirza, who is competing at the US Open.
A symbol for womens sport. Mirza seems to
be the lone Indian woman in global tennis.
Despite her accomplishments over the last
decade, no other woman has created as much as
a minor ripple on the world circuit. Mirza
blames the system and explains that the tennis
players, who have succeeded, have done it
despite the system and through their own
efforts with help from parents.
Thanks to the tennis academy she runs in
Hyderabad, Mirza understands the problems.
Physically, tennis has changed in the last 5-6
years and thats one of the reasons we dont get
players from here. We work on our fitness when
we are 14-15 years old, and we are always play- IL
69
UNI
PREACHERS FOLLY
for a country that teaches the world what is right and wrong, the us is
not above board in human rights
By Shashikumar Velath
F
ERGUSON in the mid-western
state of Missouri, United States,
resembles a conflict-ravaged to-
wn, metaphorically much like
the Basras, Herats, Baghdads
and Kabuls that the worlds leading democra-
cy has left behind. A cloud of human rights
crises has enveloped the US and when it lifts,
it will be hard for Washington to bridge the
gap between what it preaches and practises.
A dry heave of violent protests has con-
vulsed through Ferguson after an 18-year-old
unarmed black teenager, Michael Brown, was
shot six times by a police officer. A community
uprising has run headlong into a police force,
uninhibited in its approach of countering
protests with a violent crackdown.
The US has lectured governments across
the world to uphold and respect human rights
of individuals and communities, but is falling
short of the standards it sets for others. The
stories and images of police brutality stream-
ing out of Ferguson has put global spotlight on
TRIGGER-HAPPY
(Above) CCTV footage of
the incident which led to
Michael Brown being
shot in Ferguson,
Missouri; (facing page)
Browns parents at his
funeral service in St
Louis, Missouri, on
August 25
GLOBAL TRENDS/
human rights/the us
United States record on race and policing.
Human Rights organizations have questioned
the heavy-handed crowd control tactics,
including tear gas and rubber bullets.
Meanwhile, even as the National Guard is
deployed in Ferguson, the US record on race is
being reviewed and debated on a global stage
at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland.
The Committee on the Elimination of Racial
Discrimination is hearing concerns on racial
bias reported by non-governmental organiza-
tions to the committee.
Amnesty International USAs executive
director, Steven W Hawkins asserted: We
must make it clear to authorities at the federal
state and local leveland to the rest of the
worldthat we wont stand for the death of
one more black man at the hands of police.
All countries must desist from using exces-
sive force to quell protests. Police forces must
adhere to international standards on the use of
force and firearms. People must be allowed to
peacefully exercise their right to freedom of
expression and journalists must not be pre-
vented from carrying out their work. In Ferg-
uson, the US, land of freedom, opportunities
and rights, has found itself short on all these
internationally accepted standards.
Global media and more so media in the
Global South, especially in domestically-con-
sumed countries like India, have hardly done
anything to highlight the human rights record
of the United States. The shocking human
rights record of US on its detention facilities in
Guantanamo Bay has received sparse media
attention in India.
The US record on rendition, secret deten-
tion and torture of alleged terrorism suspect
has hardly ever made it to front page news or
prime time television news. Recently, the
70
September 15, 2014
tions, such as mock execution with a gun and
threats of sexual assault against his family
members. Al-Nashiri faces a capital trial by a
military commission in Guantnamo.
The second, Zayn al-Abidin Muhammad
Husayn, also known as Abu Zubaydah, a state-
less Palestinian born in Saudi Arabia, is also
believed to have been held in Poland, where he
says he was subjected to extreme physical pain
and psychological suffering. Former US
President George W Bush asserted in his 2010
memoirs that he authorized the use of
enhanced interrogation techniques, includ-
ing waterboardingmock drowningagainst
Abu Zubaydah in a secret CIA detention. The
US authorities have yet to charge Abu
Zubaydah with any crime, more than 12 years
after taking him into detention.
There has been no accountability in the US
for the torture and disappearances attendant
to the secret detention programs. In 2012,
Amnesty International had campaigned for
the arrest and prosecution of George Bush
because of clear evidence that he was account-
able for crimes under international law,
including torture.
The author is deputy CEO of Amnesty
International in India
European Court of Human Rights found that
the Polish government colluded with the US
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to establish
a secret prison at Stare Kiejkuty, which operat-
ed between 2002 and 2005. At the site, 180
km north of Warsaw, detainees were held in
secret detention and tortured.
The US ran an illegal network of black
sites that were used to secretly detain and tor-
ture individuals rounded up in counter-terror-
ism operations, said Julia Hall, Amnesty
International's expert on counter-terrorism
and human rights.
The face of the US as a human rights offe-
nder is rarely visible in the media of the South.
Thats the reason why compelling stories of
Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri and Zayn al-Abidin
Muhammad hardly find space in Indian
media. Both lodged their cases with the Euro-
pean Court in 2011 and 2013, respectively.
Both are being detained at the US Navys
Guantnamo Bay detention facility in Cuba.
The first is Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, a
Saudi Arabian national, alleged to have mas-
terminded the bombing of USS Cole off the
coast of Yemen in 2000. He has claimed that
he was questioned in a secret facility in Poland
and subjected to enhanced interrogation
techniques and other human rights viola-
IL
Micheal Brown, 18, was
shot multiple times by St.
Louis County Police offi-
cer Darren Wilson. The
police were responding
to a robbery call at the
Quick Trip
convenience store
outside which Brown
and his friend were
walking. People were
outraged at the officers
brutality and came on to
the streets to protest. A
candlelight vigil kept in
Browns honor went
astray with people being
looted and vandalized,
prompting authorities to
close schools next day.
Ferguson mayhem
71
Too little,
too late
Why are us colleges going slow in dealing
with campus sexual assaults?
By Abbie Nehring, ProPublica
D
URING their time at college,
the Department of Justice
estimates one in five women
will be sexually assaulted, and
as many as 95 percent of the
cases go unreported. So how are colleges fail-
ing to protect students from sexual assault?
We sorted through the reporting to highlight a
few cases that show the systems greatest
shortcomings.
Lizzy Seeberg committed suicide ten days
after reporting to Notre Dame campus police
CHOOSING DEATH
OVER HUMILIATION
Lizzy Seeberg, who
committed suicide a
few days after
complaining of sexual
assault by a football
team member of
Notre Dame
GLOBAL TRENDS/
sexual assault /the us
that she had been sexually assaulted by a
Fighting Irish linebacker. As news of the alle-
gations spread, Seeberg was threatened by the
players teammates. Dont do anything you
would regret, one texted her. Messing with
Notre Dame football is a bad idea. The cam-
pus authorities didnt interview the accused
player until 15 days after receiving Seebergs
statement, five days after she committed sui-
cide. The police declined to bring charges and
Notre Dame declined to discuss the case when
it was first reported.
Since 2010, there have been investigations
into rape and sexual assault by football players
at the University of Missouri, Baylor College,
the US Naval Academy, University of Texas,
Vanderbilt, Appalachian State, and numerous
others. And officials have frequently faced
scrutiny for their response. When a freshman
at Florida State University reported that star
quarterback Jameis Winston had raped her,
the case was kept under wraps until TMZ
broke the news. The New York Times later
detailed how authorities failed to promptly
investigate even though records show that the
athletic department knew about it less than a
month after the victim came forward. The uni-
versity declined to speak to the Times about
the case, citing privacy laws.
In another case, a panel at Hobart and
William Smith colleges in upstate New York
quickly cleared three football players of a com-
plaint brought against them by a freshman
named Anna. Records of the case obtained by
The New York Times showed that the football
players lied to campus police at first, and then
gave a story that did not align with evidence
collected in Annas medical examination. Yet
because colleges usually keep those proceed-
ings confidential to protect students privacy,
the public is kept mostly in the dark about
what happens in a sexual assault hearing.
Officials at Hobart and William Smith told the
Times they have no tolerance for sexual
assault. They also declined to answer specific
questions, citing privacy laws.
ONLY A SLAP ON THE WRIST
In a case that unfolded at Indiana University
in 2006, a disciplinary panel concluded that a
student named Margaux had been the victim
of inappropriate sexual contact. Their chosen
72
September 15, 2014
Swarthmore, University of Southern Cali-
fornia, and dozens of other schools.
So many sexual assault victims have filed
complaints that there are now 71 schools
under federal investigation for Title IX viola-
tions across the country. knowyourix.org, a site
set up by advocates, lays out how you can file a
complaint.
Five University of Connecticut students,
who believed the school hadnt properly han-
dled their sexual assault complaints, took it a
step further and filed a federal lawsuit in
October 2013. UConn President Susan Herbst
said their allegationsthat the university neg-
lected their caseswere astonishingly mis-
guided and demonstrably untrue. The case
was settled outside of court this month for
$1.28 million. UConn did not admit to wrong-
doing and says it follows Title IX regulations
in handling sexual violence on its campus.
Courtesy ProPublica
DISTRESS SIGNAL
A protest against the
lackadaisical attitude
of authorities in the
Lizzy Seeberg suicide
incident
punishment? Banning the assailant from cam-
pus for the summer. After Margaux appealed
the decision, the university eventually extend-
ed the suspension to a full year. By that time,
Margaux had already dropped out to avoid
being on the same campus as her assailant.
A joint investigation by NPR (formerly
National Public Radio) and the Center for
Public Integrity (CPI) into Margauxs case and
other college sexual assault hearings across the
country found a common pattern. Sexual
assault hearings have resulted in one-month
suspensions and even essay assignments.
Indiana University defended its suspension of
the student who assaulted Margaux. Wed like
to think we can always educate and hold
accountable the student, a dean told CPI.
A WORLD WITHOUT TITLE IX
Patrick Henry College, a rural evangelical
institution in northern Virginia, offers a win-
dow into what life is like without the protec-
tions of Title IX, which outlaws gender dis-
crimination on college campuses. In order to
remain exempt from that law, the college turns
down federal funding.
In an investigation published in The New
Republic, Kiera Feldman looked into the cases
of several young women who dropped out of
Patrick Henry after reporting being sexually
assaulted by fellow students. Title IX requires
colleges to have a procedure for handling
harassment and sexual violence complaints
and to take immediate action to ensure that
victims can continue their education free from
harassment or retaliation. Instead, Feldman
reports, a student named Sarah and her
accused assailant both received growth con-
tracts, which mainly involved weekly counsel-
ing sessions, during which Sarah read aloud
passages from evangelical womens self-help
literature. In response to the story, the college
released a detailed statement: Our foremost
concern has always been to protect and nur-
ture all our students.
TAKING A UNIVERSITY TO COURT
When students believe their cases have been
mishandled, they can file a Title IX complaint.
Thats what students have done this year at
Occidental, University of California at Berk-
eley, University of North Carolina, Dartmouth,
So many sexual assault victims have filed
complaints that there are now 71 schools
under federal investigation for Title IX
violations across the country.
IL
73
TRENDING/
learning softwares
V
ivek Jain watched in amaze-
ment as his son, two-and-a-half
years old, took his iPad, put it
on his lap, touched the screen
and opened various apps with
practised ease. One minute his
tiny fingers opened an alphabet app, the next
minute they flew to an app for nursery rhymes.
As he hummed and swayed to the music, his
father, a Mumbai-based investment banker, was
just glad the device kept the little tot occupied
for the next hour or so. My son started using the
iPad when he was two years old, says Jain. He
automatically knows how to operate it. It is good
mental stimulation, as his fingers and eyes are
constantly moving. I had previously given him a
nursery rhyme book, but he tore it apart.
Similarly, Nimi Khanna, a Delhi housewife,
gives her tablet to her fussy three-year-old when
BABY
EINSTEIN
AN APP FOR
as parents allow their
toddlers to play with
ipads and tablets, experts
question the wisdom of
allowing them to do so
By Shobha John
74
September 15, 2014
babies should be stimulated by
human interaction that engages the
five senses. Finally, the company
acknowledged the difficulty of navi-
gating this brave new world.
The effects of screen exposure on
babies was borne out by studies done
by Patricia Kuhl, co-director of the Institute
for Brain & Learning Sciences at the
University of Washington and an expert on
the impact of early language on young brains.
In a research paper, Foreign-language expe-
rience in infancy: Effects of short-term
exposure and social interaction on
phonetic learning, Kuhl and two
others said: Research has shown
that babies learn new language
through human interaction and
not through listening to audio
(through headphones) or watching
and listening to TV. The social brain
must be active for children to learn
new sounds and language.
GROWING CONCERN
It is no wonder that learning apps for babies
have invited strong criticism. Fisher-Prices
hugely popular Laugh & Learn mobile apps
may have been downloaded over 3 million
times but that didnt stop the Boston-based
Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood
(CCFC), a non-profit group, from filing a
complaint with the Federal Trade
she is busy with household chores. Various
apps keep my daughter busy. I also allow her
to use it during journeys so that she doesnt
disturb others around her.
DIGITAL IMPACT
While the use of mobile devices such as
tablets, iPhones and iPads is no longer a nov-
elty in this digital age, experts are questioning
their increasing use by young children. Many
of the apps are free, be they educational ones
to teach alphabets, numbers and shapes;
those with television characters; game apps
like Angry Birds or art and music apps.
Parents, in their enthusiasm to get chil-
dren attuned to modern technology, are
allowing them to use their devices, but could
be doing more harm than good. A 2013 study
by San Francisco-based Common Sense
Media found that 38 percent of children
under two years use tablets or smartphones,
up from 10 percent in 2011. There are con-
cerns about how this will affect a childs men-
tal and social development and creativity
when there is no human interaction and
hands-on learning. Is the simulated environ-
ment offered by these gadgets as good as
face-to-face interaction?
Last October, the American Academy of
Pediatrics warned parents that adolescents
should have no more than 1-2 hours of screen
time per day and children below two
shouldnt be allowed any at all. It said there
was no such thing as educational program-
ming for young children. But the fact is that
these apps have got children hooked. Colorful
apps with animation and audio recording,
which leap out of the screen upon a mere
touch or swipe, seem so much more attractive
than painstakingly building blocks or learn-
ing alphabets with paper and pencil. Easy
come, easy go.
And toy companies are cashing in on this
spurting interest for baby apps. One of them,
Fisher-Price, marketed the iPad Apptivity
Seat and got quite a backlash. It is a cush-
ioned bucket seat with a built-in extension
arm and case that holds an iPad inches away
from the babys face. The visual display is
meant to stimulate the baby. But doctors and
parents reacted with horror at the companys
disregard for infants well-being. Some said
There are concerns that sexcessive use of
technology will affect a childs mental and
social development when there is no human
interaction and hands-on learning.
75
Commission in 2013. The baby genius indus-
try is notorious for marketing products as
educational, when in fact there is no evidence
that they are, says Susan Linn, director,
CCFC. Years earlier, it had filed a complaint
against Baby Einstein, popular videos for
infants by Walt Disney Company, which had
to refund consumers who bought the product.
Nonetheless, the market for apps for small
kids is there and Indian companies are devel-
oping and marketing them. One is Redbytes
Software Pvt Ltd, a Pune-based company.
Altaf Rehmani, its founder-director, says that
every parent desires to make his child smarter.
These apps are another tool in the parenting
arsenal. They have been used in developed
countries and now, are gradually coming to
Indian preschools and nurseries. This tech-
nology is environment-friendly and provides
for easy interaction. This trend is hard to
resist and is here to stay, he predicts.
Redbytes Software has a brand called
Tinytapps, which produces learning content
for toddlers. It covers a wide rangefrom
alphabets, numbers and rhymes to safety
and environment. The most popular ones,
says Rehmani, are nursery rhymes, Arabic
alphabet and Panda math. Rehmani says
its a known scientific fact that 90 percent of
brain development takes place in the first
five years and this includes the ability to
learn and grasp things. Apps aid this
process, he says.
Then, there is Chandigarh-based Net
Solutions, which too makes apps for chil-
dren below three years. Rohit Dogra, man -
ager, digital marketing & business develop-
ment, says that more than 50 per cent of
kids between 2-4 years have access to
mobile devices and even very young chil-
dren are able to use touchscreen devices
with speed and ease.
What makes many of the apps popular,
says Dogra, is that they are highly user-
friendly. Touchscreen devices quickly teach
children the link between a cause (a touch)
and an effect. Therefore, kids take to them
easily, he says. Whats more, they are less
cumbersome than a desktop PC as there is
no keyboard or mouse.
A
pps by Net Solutions include Talk-
Tommy, an educational app for tod-
dlers and WinZilla, a gaming app.
Talk-Tommy, says Dogra, is a free iPad App.
When you tap on the pictures, they get
enlarged and an audio plays along, pro-
nouncing the name of the object in the pic-
ture. WinZilla Trivia is an iPhone-, iPad-,
and iPod touch-based app that includes
three games developed after decrypting
ancient cave drawings discovered in sub-
Saharan Africa.
However, even app developers insist that
parents should not substitute real learning
for an app. A right mix of hands-on teach-
ing and an app-based one can help acceler-
ate pre-school learning. Just like soft drinks
cant be a substitute for water, an app cant
be and should not be a substitute for tradi-
tional methods of learning, says Dogra. As
prices of these hardware keep dropping,
says Rehmani, tech devices will eventually
be part-and-parcel of schools.
In the process, will these little geeks lose
their human touch?
Findings of a study, Zero to Eight: Childrens Media Use in America, 2013 by
Common Sense Media, a San Francisco-based non-profit organization, among
1,463 parents with children under eight:
38 per cent of children under 2 use mobile devices like iPhones, tablets or Kindle
This was the same percentage two years ago for children 8 years and under
40 per cent of families own tablets; thats up from 8 per cent two years ago
7 per cent of children have their own tablets
Children under 2, on an average, spend an hour a day in front of screens
watching TV, using computers, viewing DVDs, playing with mobile apps
Children between 2-4 years spent two hours a day, and 5-8 years, spend two
hours and 20 minutes
A for apps
IL
76
September 15, 2014
TRENDING/
learning softwares
KEEPING PACE with the changes in
reproductive technology, a bill concerning
the rights of sperm donors and
surrogates has been introduced in
California. It would require them to fill a
series of forms detailing parental rights
and responsibilities of the donor or
surrogate mother involved before
conception. Recently, actor Jason Patric,
who donated his sperm to a former
girlfriend, sued her for being denied the
right to be part of the childs life. Under
the current law, sperm donors do not
typically have parental rights unless
otherwise agreed by the parties involved.
INTERNATIONAL BRIEFS
Loca in copyright soup
COLOMBIAN POP star Shakiras Spanish
version of Loca, featuring El Cata, came
under the scanner when US judge Alvin
Hellerstein said it infringed on a song by
Dominican singer Ramon Arias Vazquez.
The song, which topped Billboard
Magazine's Latin charts, was based on
an earlier version of a song recorded by
El Cata that again was copied from Arias
Vasquez's original song Loca con su
Tiguere. Though the song has two
versions, one in English and the other in
Spanish, the copyright lawsuit has taken
note only of the Spanish version.
US PRESIDENT Barack Obama is planning
to make key changes in the US immigration
system, after business groups and
advocates forwarded their recommendations
to ease immigration laws. If the proposals
see the light of the day, securing a US visa
would become easier. It would also shorten
the green card line for those who get
sponsored by their relativessomething that
can currently take up to 25 years. Obamas
aides have already had about 20 meetings
with business heads and other interest
groups. A decision on this could be taken
sometime in September.
ONTARIO PREMIER, Kathleen Wynne is not a popular name among
the Canadian turban-wearing Sikh community. The reason is her
refusal to grant the group exemption from wearing helmets under the
countrys motorcycle law, which makes wearing helmet mandatory. The
Canadian Sikh Association had been working with the liberal
government and Wynne on this issue since 2011. However, after careful
deliberation, the government decided against giving such an
exemption. They concluded that wearing a safety headgear didnt
infringe on religious rights and not doing so would pose a safety risk.
UK HOME SECRETARY Theresa May launched a consultation to strengthen the existing
domestic violence law by bringing psychological abuse under its purview. This move can
result in emotional and psychological abuse in relationships being given the same status
under law as physical abuse. Since the damage inflicted by such abuse is often overlooked,
the move has been welcomed by many involved in campaigning for the cause. However,
there are many who feel that these are just baby steps being taken by the government in
terms of acknowledging different facets of abuse that women face on a daily basis.
Breather for immigrants
Helmet trouble for Sikhs
Strengthening domestic violence laws
Bill for sperm
donors, surrogates
77
DISPUTES related to terrace space among
residents are not unheard of. But what
happens when problems escalate to cause
inconvenience to residents?
Two companies, Birla Infrastructure Ltd
and Lakshmi Properties Ltd, were directed
by the Mumbai consumer forum to pay up
`1.25 lakh to residents of a Juhu building
for displaying advertisements and putting
up hoardings on their open terrace. The
forum said that the open terrace of a
building is the joint property of residents,
and not adhering to the rule violates the
Maharashtra Ownership of Flats Act.
INSTANCES of courier companies not delivering
consumer parcels on time are quite common. But the
firms always get away with it due to the fine print of
terms and conditions. However, Desk to Desk Courier
and Cargo Ltd had to pay the price after it failed to
deliver a consignment in Bangalore for Ishwar, a
proprietor of an optical store in Chennai.
A district consumer disputes redressal forum in
northern Chennai fined the company `27,000. It also
asked it to refund `71,862, the value of the goods.
Delivery woes Gratuity row
CONSUMER WATCH
How can buyers enforce their rights
and seek remedial measures
CAN gratuity cases be taken up by consumer forums?
The Mumbai suburban district consumer disputes
redressal forum held it can, so long as the case
pertains to the point of gratuity.
Vipin Dwivedis company, Godrej Consumer Products
Ltd, did not pay gratuity after he had resigned. Dwivedi
had put in 25 years for the company. And the gratuity
amount was a staggering `2.21 lakh.
After waiting for many years, Dwivedi sought the help
of the district consumer forum, which asked the
company to pay the gratuity amount and `1.43 lakh
as compensation for the 13-year delay.
The company argued that since Dwivedi had resigned,
he no longer fitted into the definition of a consumer. It
claimed that Dwivedi was denied gratuity for illegal
gratification due to which the company suffered losses
to the tune of `8 lakh. Godrej Consumer Products Ltd
also questioned the right of the forum to decide on
gratuity cases. However, it could not produce any
evidence of action taken against Dwivedi after he quit. The
case was decided in Dwivedis favor.
Terrace rights
Illustrations: Udayshankar
Illustrations: Udayshankar
78
September 15, 2014
Insurance claims
CHALLENGING the decision of
consumer forums can sometimes prove
counterproductive if one goes by what
happened with builder Shreenath
Corporation. The Mumbai District
Consumer Forum, finding poor
construction, had asked it to pay
compensation after a residential
building collapsed in the city in 2002.
However, the builder appealed against
the judgment in the National Disputes
Redressal Commission. The
commission ordered him to shell out
extra money (other than the amount for
filing charges) for seeking an interim
stay on the forums judgment. The
builder then approached the Supreme
Court questioning the commissions
order. But the court turned down his
plea by saying that the commission
was well within its rights to ask for
additional money.
THIS is a case that should interest those
running commercial ventures from their
residence. Dr Ashok Kumar was running
a diagnostic clinic from his house. But
he had applied for an electricity
connection under domestic category.
But the executive engineer of his area
sent him a notice that he needed to pay
electricity charges under the
commercial category.
Kumar took the matter to the
consumer forum. The forum however,
ruled that Kumar could not claim for
power charges under the domestic
category as he was already operating a
clinic from his house. It categorically
stated that running a clinic was a
commercial activity. The forum clarified
that just as lawyers operating from their
residence had to pay commercial
charges for power, the same applied to
clinics run by doctors.
Sacrosanct
judgment
Misuse of power
Defining service
THE Supreme Court (SC) recently
ruled that disease or infections
due to accident are also entitled
for claim under the accidental
insurance policy. Sandeep
Chourasia, who was covered
under one such policy, lost his
right-eye vision and suffered
severe loss of hearing in both
ears due to an accident.
A claim for the same was
rejected by the insurance
company, which ruled that
Chourasia had these disabilities
before the accident. Interestingly,
this stand was supported by the
state and national consumer forums. However, documents provided
by the hospital, where Chourasia was treated, proved otherwise.
Based on the evidence, the SC asked the company to pay `7 lakh
along with six percent interest to Sandeep.
THE National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission has
ruled that the service rendered by a tailor is covered under the
term service under the Consumer Protection Act 1986. AC
Modagi had given a pant piece to a tailor for stitching, but found
the garment shapeless and tight fitting. Despite repeated
alterations, Modagi was not satisfied and demanded
compensation. When the tailor refused, he filed a consumer
complaint with the Belgaum District Forum which affirmed the
deficiency in the tailors services and ordered him to pay `565
with a 12 percent interest and `100 as cost of proceedings.
79
IS THAT LEGAL?
I am usually broke at the end of
the month. Luckily, I found a wal-
let with `2000 in it. The wallet
also has the office Photo Id of the
owner. But I am in dire need of
money. Is it legally tenable to
keep the wallet with me?
Finding a wallet that belongs to
someone else on the road and
keeping it is not theft. However, the
Indian Penal Code labels such
retention of property belonging to
someone else as a different crime.
Misappropriation, defined
under Section 403 of the IPC, is
the conversion of any property,
which arrives in a persons posses-
sion by chance, to ones own use.
Thus, if there is any indicator with-
in the wallet of the rightful owner,
the finder has a legal duty of
returning it to him or her. If he
does not do so and uses the money
himself or herself, that person shall
be guilty of misappropriation,
which can lead to imprisonment for
up to two years, or fine, or both.
Chance riches
A number of public figures have
multiple wives. Why are they not in
prison for bigamy?
Under Indian law, it is illegal for anyone
who is not a Muslim man (since Muslim
personal law allows up to 4 wives) to
contract a second marriage while their
spouse is alive. Only after the death of
the first spouse or the annulment of the
first marriage can an individual marry
again. Under Section 494 of the Indian
Penal Code, marrying again during the
lifetime of ones wife or husband is
punishable with up to seven years of
imprisonment, or fine, or both.
Moreover, such a second marriage is
void and not recognized by law.
However, this is a non-cognizable
offense, and a case can only be
registered when the aggrieved person,
i.e. the first wife, lodges a report. In case
of an understanding between the first
wife and the husband, whereby she
agrees not to bring up such a case, a
bigamous husband cannot be
prosecuted. This is why people,
including notable film stars and
politicians, continue to have bigamous
arrangements. Many convert to Islam to
be able to marry more than once, with-
out filing for divorce. But the Supreme
Court, in Sarla Mudgal vs Union of
India case, held that if a man, who has
adopted Islam and renounced Hindu
religion, marries again without taking
divorce from the first wife, his marriage
will not be considered legal.
A husband finds his wife in a
compromising position with her
lover after returning early from
office one day. Can the husband
file a case of adultery against
his wife under the Indian
Penal Code?
The Indian Penal Code (IPC)
defines the offense of adultery
under Section 497, which states
that sexual intercourse with the
wife of another man without the
consent or connivance of that man
is adultery and may attract impris-
onment up to five years or a fine, or
both. However, unlike adultery laws
all over the world, in India such an
offense cannot be made out against
a woman. A man cannot lodge a
criminal case against his wife for
adultery, but can do so against the
man with whom she had such illicit
sexual relations.
A similar question arose before
the Supreme Court in W Kalyani vs
State Tr Inspector of Police & Anr.
The fair sex
has it easier
While disposing the appeal, which
was filed against the order of the
Andhra Pradesh High Court, a
bench comprising Justice Aftab
Alam and Justice RM Lodha said
that from a plain reading of
Section 497, only a man can be
proceeded against and punished for
the offence of adultery.
The mere fact that the appellant
is a woman, makes her completely
immune to the charge of adultery
and she cannot be proceeded
against, even though she might
Relationships of
convenience
Illustrations: UdayShankar
80
September 15, 2014
1. If you fear ghosts,
you have ......
A: hodophobia
B: phasmophobia
C: hypnophobia
D: phantophobia
2. Proverb: Wedlock is a
A: carrot
B: bait
C: padlock
D: lock-up
3. Rekhas life is as
monotonous as ....
A: sea
B: milk
C: lipstick
D: mountain
4. Say uncle is to. ...
A: respect
B: surrender
C: punish
D: repeat
5. Opposite of In the
red
A: In the blue
B: In the pink
C: In the dark
D: In the black
6. Whats your bag?
means ......
A: Whats your
problem?
B: Whats your
profession?
C: Whats your price?
D: None of the above
7. Spanish term Hasta
la vista! means .....
A: Hello!
B: Goodbye!
C: Hurray!
D: Never!
8. Another expression
for a stupid man:
A: Cheapskate
B: Tightwad
C: Yo-Yo
D: Dumb Dora
9. If the boss says Get
cracking!, you
must...... .
A: leave
B: resign
C: reveal
D: hurry
10. His wife just SMSed
2m.
A: 2 minutes
B: too much
C: tomorrow
D: tomato
11. Heard of internet
slang whodi?
A: Whodunnit
B: Who do I contact
C: Who the idiot
D: Friend
12. Dont cast your
pearls before ....... .
A: dog
B: monkey
C: swine
D: pigeon
13. Spell it right.
A: Milenium
B: Millenium
C: Milennium
D: Millennium
14. You DONT say this
when you are angry.
A: Reet!
B: Rats!
C: Brother
D: SOB!
15. Flies buzz but
monkeys ...... .
A: grunt
B: chatter
C: yell
D: growl
16. Whats the meaning
of pernickety?
A: Fussy
B: Tough
C: Risky
D: Deadly
17. Cerulean is the
name of a ...... .
A: fish
B: tribe
C: plant
D: color
18. A chiropodist
treats......
A. fingers
B. brain
C. feet
D. intestines
19. Sridevi is
no chicken.
A: Not youthful
B: Not active
C: Not alone
D: Not foolish
20. Expand LIFO.
A: Life Is Fine
Otherwise
B: Love In Friends
Office
C: Last In, First Out
D: Learner in Front
Office
1 . p h a s m o p h o b i a
2 . p a d l o c k
3 . s e a
4 . s u r r e n d e r
5 . I n t h e b l a c k
6 . W h a t s y o u r
p r o b l e m ?
7 . G o o d b y e !
8 . Y o - y o
9 . h u r r y
1 0 . t o m o r r o w
1 1 . F r i e n d
1 2 . s w i n e
1 3 . M i l l e n n i u m
1 4 . R e e t !
1 5 . c h a t t e r
1 6 . F u s s y
1 7 . c o l o r
1 8 . f e e t
1 9 . N o t y o u t h f u l
2 0 . L a s t I n , F i r s t O u t
SCORES
0 to 7 correctYou need
to do this more often.
8 to 12 correctGood,
get the scrabble
board out.
Above 12Bravo!
Keep it up!
ANSWERS
have fun with english.
get the right answers.
play better scrabble.
By Mahesh Trivedi
W
O
R
D
L
Y
W
I
S
E
textdoctor2@gmail.com
81
Photos: UNI
PEOPLE/ Thrill of Sports
THIS AINT HORSEPLAY
A horse rider from Turkmenistan
showcases a daredevil
dismount at the China Horse Culture
Festival in Beijing.
BEYOND THE
GYRATING HIPS
This super energetic
Edmonton Eskimos'
cheerleader at a CFL match
can certainly give professional
gymnasts a run for
their money.
FLAMENCO ON WHEELS
Spanish rider Dani Torress gravity
defying love affair with his bike on full
display at Burn Freestyle Malaga
motocross show in southern Spain.
PARKED
MIDAIR
Parkour
enthusiast
Luke Webb
turns Thames
into a
playground
as he
takes a
breathtaking
flip along
the river.
HIGH STREET CULTURE
Young bike stuntmen vroom
their way into the air during
a festival of youth street cul-
ture in St. Petersburg.
.

India Legal: Issue 15 September 2014

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NDIA EGAL

The prosecution, citing an instance of their

In another instance, they chopped the body of a child,

They were also charged with the kidnapping and

Since the focus has been on murders, theres no

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