The Executive is duty bound to give legitimate dues to citizens

Unfortunately, today world's oldest and biggest democratic countries, the USA and India are undergoing the severe acid test. Touted as 'of the people, for the people and by the people', in such a narrative of democracy, the word ' people ' is elusive and misinterpreted. The mute questions are: whether the people in a democratic country are a homogeneous group. Are democratic countries made of a solid unbreakable monolithic blocks of people and they act in unison? And above all, are these people really committed to the lofty ideals like, sovereignty, liberty, integrity, rule of law and freedom.

Honestly speaking, the answers to these questions are apparently sour, if not bitter. What happens in practice is that in the name of democracy, mighty and influential groups unite together and extract much more pounds of their share from the beautifully decorated cake, called, the democracy.

The gullible, meek and law-abiding citizens honestly and sincerely continue to pay direct and indirect taxes without any protest while the brow-beating and arm-twisting anti-national gangs thrive on the former's tax money. Added to this, the poor, honest, gullible tax payers bear the brunt of all the anti- democracy acts of these powerful gangs.

Indeed, the real people who are in the centre of the democratic set up, are law-abiding, honest and humble while gangs of thugs and criminals taking shelter under the liberal umbrella of democracy not only thrive and become prosperous but in the long run, tarnish the very fabric of democracy. This is exactly happening to the two great democratic countries today.

While in India, the process of creating anarchy has already begun since the change of baton at the Centre in 2014, in the USA too, it has raised its head since 2019 which recently culminated into barging into the parliament building, called the Capitol Hill where at least four people were killed and several dozens injured.

What bolstered the anti-nationals in both the countries is, the kid-gloves treatment to the protesters. In India, the anti-democracy movement began in 2014 soon after the newly elected government led by Narendra Modi took the reins of power in its hands. The Award-Wapsi gang was let off even without a warning while those joining it should have been prosecuted for insulting the nation.

Emboldened by such a soft response of the government, the Jihadi and separatist goons of Jamia Milia and Jawaharlal Nehru Universities raised the bogey of Azadi and Bharat Tere Tukde Honge. They also paid rich tributes to the terrorists killed in encounters in Jammu and Kashmir and expressed their resolve to avenge the hanging of Afzal Guru, the terrorist leader responsible for attacking the parliament.

These and other groups including foreign funded NGOs termed the hanging of Yakub Memon, a terrorist of Dawood Ibrahim gang as " Judicial Killing". And what has been our democratically elected government? Poor investigation and booking a very few under penal laws. Most of them have come out on bail while others such as the Urban Naxals are hopefully on their way out from jails. Shaheenbagh and its improved edition, the ongoing farmers' agitation is nothing but the fallout of soft-pedalling by the powers be at the helm of affairs.

Call it laxity or generosity of the administration but one thing is certainly clear. This is not the overwhelmingly large number of the people have expected from the Executive while giving it the electoral mandate. Any attack on their freedom, free movements and healthy and peaceful living has to be foiled by the elected government. This is the minimum expectation from the democratically elected government of the day.

SC on default bail

Whether a person granted bail for the failure of the prosecution in filing the charge-sheet within the stipulated period under the Code of Criminal Procedure (Cr PC ) can be arrested after the charge-sheet is filed. This was the question before the Supreme Court in a judgement delivered on January 5 and the clear answer to it is - No.

A three-judge bench comprising Justice L Nageswara Rao, Justice Naveen Sinha And Justice Indu Malhotra in Kamlesh Chaudhry Vs. State of Rajasthan however, opined that the prosecution can seek the cancellation of bail for other reasons except that the charge-sheet which ought to have filed earlier within the time-limit prescribed under Cr PC has since been filed.

Effect of amicable settlement on punishment

The apex court in Murali Vs State has held that the factum of the parties reaching the amicable settlement can be considered by the court while deciding the quantum of sentence even in non-compoundable cases.

A bench comprising Justice N V Ramana, Justice Suryakant and Justice Aniruddha Bose held that the court may reduce the quantum of sentence in cases where the parties have reached amicable settlement.

Pak's change of heart or just a stunt ?

Close to the heels of the Chief Justice Of Pakistan Gulzar Ahmed expressing the 'grave concern' about desecration and burning of a Hindu temple in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and ordering the authorities to re-build the same, now comes the news of sentencing by the Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) the mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai attacks and operations commander of the banned terrorist outfit, Laskhar-e-Taiba (LeT), Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi to five years' imprisonment in a terror funding case.

Incidentally, the ATC verdict comes ahead of next month's review of its case by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a global terror watch-dog. Pakistan is desperately trying to avoid being put on its blacklist. It is already on the grey list which means increased monitoring by the FATF.

Sankranti vacation for TS HC

According to an official notification, the High Court of Telangana will have Sankranti vacation for January 11 and 12. During the vacation, a division bench comprising Justice Abhinand Kumar Shavili and Justice B Vijaysen Reddy and a Single bench of Justice A Abhishek Reddy will take up urgent matters such as Habeas Corpus matters, Anticipatory bail matters, Bail applications, if bail is refused by Magistrates and Sessions Judges/Additional Sessions Judges and any other urgent matter which cannot wait till the end of the vacation e.g eviction/ dispossession, demolition etc.

The filing of the cases shall be done on January 11 while the court will take up these cases on January 12.