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The role of SC and Indian Constitution

After delivering the big-ticket Ayodhya verdict, the Supreme Court's deferring of petitions seeking review of Sabarimala to a larger constitution bench only deepens the mood with sadness as well as the determination to cling on the memory of the waning light of the values of the Indian Constitution.

While country's highest court's reiteration of looking into other religious issues like the curbs on women's entry into dargahs and mosques, the ban at fire temples on Parsi women who marry non-Parsis, and the practice of female genital mutilation among Dawoodi Bohras is indeed opportune moment.

In 2018, in one fell swoop, made no bones about the discriminatory nature of the practice, which seeks to rob women of their right to worship where they please on the basis of natural biological cycles.

Soon after, violent agitations orchestrated by religious fanatics had erupted all over Kerala and women who dared to travel to the Sabarimala temple were hunted down, pursued, harassed, harmed, arrested, and subject to the worst trolling.

The importance of the apex court's plainspeak cannot be emphasised enough, especially at a time when the erosion of the rights of women and minority communities in the country is steadily increasing.

However, a lot seems to have changed in the observations of the court between 2018 and 9 November 2019, when the disputed site of Ram Janmabhoomi in Ayodhya was set aside for a temple.

Notably, the court stated last year that faith and belief could not be grounds to deprive someone of their Right to Equality.

Last week, however, the court said it was "beyond the ken of judicial inquiry" to determine "whether a belief is justified". The question of worship also elicited a different reading from the two benches.

Given that precedent plays a big role in the Indian judicial system, the differences in observations between 2018 and 2019 may hold clues to how the Sabarimala verdict could play out in future.

Now the Supreme Court's indecision on Sabarimala throws us into the prospect of yet another agonising period. But taking into consideration all that has transpired over the past one year – the incontrovertible truth that majoritarian hubris has taken over most public discourse and institutions – the fall from high-falutin rhetoric about breaking down untouchability in last year's judgment, to the meek, almost scared, observation about "the power of the court to determine if the constitutional court can interfere in such integral parts of the religion," is the least-surprising part.

Over a few years we have seen the guardians of the Indian Constitution – the best educated, the best thinkers of the land – take frequent refuge in deliberately vague formulations and fallacious argumentation, in the hope that this will help them hide their unforgivable lapses against the Indian Constitution and its values.

This statement, for example, is not at all clear: what does it imply? That the exclusion of women of menstruating ages on sexualised, insulting grounds is integral to religion? What does it refer to – the actual exclusionary practice, or the grounds advanced in its justifications, which vary?

The claim that the resolution of what was a very specific question about a specific practice in a specific place involves consideration of ostensibly similar practices in Islam, Zoroastrianism and so on is a version of the tu quoque fallacy, more precisely, whataboutery.

All this unnecessary timidity leads to convoluted constructions which strive to give the impression that the issue is being properly addressed while it is actually not.

But what is perhaps more worrying, beyond just bad argumentation, is that the proposal that all religions should be ridden of gender-based exclusions with a single stroke of a Supreme Court bench might indeed be an evil portent – of the Uniform Civil Code.

And even worse, assuming that the Supreme Court manages to embark on such a 'clean-up', and then what may be realistically expected under present circumstances?

The majoritarian hubris that rides over the land rough-shod will punish women who take the Supreme Court seriously, flouting the law without major consequences; the male authority in the minority communities will be relentlessly disarmed and undermined not by minority women, but by the majoritarian state and its lynching-hungry 'civil society'.

Whatever fig-leaf of social peace left in this society will disappear. The strategy, then, seems to be this: silently collaborate with the Hindutva effort to reduce Muslims to second-class citizens, and soft-peddle issues that may stoke internal dissension, like women's rights within the Hindu religion.

Not a word was uttered it seems about the horrendous violence openly advocated, and practiced, to a considerable extent, against the women who had taken the Supreme Court seriously last year, by these petitioners!

Instead they have provoked deep and fundamental 'questions' about the reach of the Court and the unshakeable nature of 'integral parts of the religion.'

If the Babri Masjid judgment seemed to indirectly condone the destroyers of the Masjid, the ones who had broken the law, this one takes seriously precisely those who had heaped infamy on infamy on the judges who framed last year's decision. We are indeed slipping into darkness.

Javvadi Lakshmana Rao, Visakhapatnam

Reduce issuing of paper tickets

Indian Railways recently made an environment friendly decision of not pasting the final reservation charts on its train coaches.

The enormous amount of paper consumed to prepare the chart otherwise involved huge costs. Railways thus managed to successfully convince the passengers by enabling e-tickets and mobile messages as a valid documents while traveling.

Further it is suggested to do away with the printing only the reserved PNR based paper advanced journey tickets currently issued to the passengers across the counters.

Each PNR journey booked is printed on a paper ticket and thus leads to huge dependency on paper affecting the environment.

Indian Railways can instead make an arrangement to deliver the tickets through mobile messages upon OTP authentication.

As also an e-ticket complete with journey details can be delivered to the user's email address & only involves minimal cost.

The Railways thus need to make consistent efforts to drastically reduce its dependency on paper- based tickets issued to its passengers and make a robust switch to digital ticketing system.

Varun Dambal, Bengaluru

Ranjan Gogoi will be remembered forever

I think the people of India are very thankful to the Chief Justice of India, Ranjan Gogoi, who is getting superannuated on Monday.

Organisations get elevated if they are occupied by the people who are good in nature; and who will do their duty well by applying their conscience and intuition without any fear or doubt.

Or else, no organisation would be surviving for a long time and they would also make people lose their faith and confidence in them, instead.

There are many examples, where the institution were blamed and tarnished just because of the individuals who had occupied them some time ago.

Ranjan Gogoi surely figures in the list of sincere officers/judges as one of the best examples in India when there is an occasion to remember the sincere officers/judges who have discharged their duties to the satisfaction of maximum people of their respective country.

Persons like TN Seshan, former CEO of India; Shankaran, IAS, from Tamil Nadu, Santosh Hedge, Lokayukta, from Karnataka have brought so many changes in the respective departments, when they were headed by them. Thus, they are remembered for ever by people from every corner of the nation.

Then, what is the significance to remember Ranjan Gogoi and why should India be thankful to him forever is that he has pronounced unbiased judgments in a long pending case like the Ayodhya title dispute, besides the other most sensitive cases like Rafale defence deal, entry of women into Sabarimala temple and bringing CJI in RTI ACT ambit.

People may come and go, but the organisations will remain forever as long as the society prevails. So, when sincere officers occupy certain crucial positions, they will surely strengthen the strengths of such organisations. Thus, the credibility of any organisation does not rely in its capacity, but relies only upon the individuals who will occupy them.

Hence, let's all salute and wish the best for post retirement life to Ranjan Gogoi for making Indians to get out of the most sensitive case like the Ayodhya temple issue, and for clearing all the protracted sensitive cases.

Dr Venkat Avula, Hyderabad

The rail accident exposes safety lapses

This refers to the recent incident of a head-on collision of two trains near Secunderabad railway station.

Although, train accidents are not uncommon in India in the past resulting in the colossal loss to life and public property, this recent incident wherein an MMTS train collided with an intercity express is exceptional and unprecedented in the history of South Central Railways (SCR) which has a fair and outstanding profile in the maintenance of rail service in all aspects including passenger amenities and safety.

This incident which has been unusual in the SCR history took place only because of manual / human error as made out in the probe ordered by the authorities immediately following the accident wherein the loco pilot present in the cabinet was sandwiched in the mangled engine of the MMTS train which was running on the same track on which an intercity express train was coming in the opposite direction.

The impact of collision was so heavy that it caused derailment of three bogies of the MMTS train which resulted in fatally injuring as many as 30 passengers travelling in the train.

Further, it was made out clear in the probe that the driver of the MMTS train had overshot the signal and diverted on to the other track on which an express train was approaching.

Hence, it was clearly the fault of the loco pilot who did not heed to the red signal and went ahead to enter on to another track resulting in the fatality for which he had to pay a heavy price.

It is generally a matter of commonality that the public indulge in exposing their wrath against the railway higher-ups and officials for the cause of the accident despite it was because of the failure or negligence of the loco-pilot who failed to heed to the signal indication.

This incident in the SCR history makes a special indication about railway safety in as much as after the BJP government headed by Modi took over the reins of power, the number of railway accidents in the country were on the decline as compared to those in the past.

It is noteworthy in this connection, that the persons at the higher rungs are to blame for the negligence or overshot of the personnel working at the lower rungs.

It may be recalled that Lal Bahadur Shastri had decided to bow out as Union Railway Minister owning a moral responsibility following a ghastly railway accident took place during 1960s.

Though minor in terms of fatality, this incident at Secunderabad that had stirred a hornet's nest in the circles of SCR organisation should serve as an eye-opener for all those working in the division in order not to repeat such unsavoury eventualities in the future that are likely to dampen the spirit and image of railways that has otherwise been doing good in various aspects.

It is needed to step up the overall alacrity and control of service procedures rendered by the personnel working at various strata of the railway organisation that is directly or indirectly providing a great deal of service and help to several lakhs of people on a day-to-day basis.

Bh Indu Sekhar, Hyderabad

Gram panchayats as waste management centres

Each and every Gram Panchayat should become a Plastic waste management centre in the country as well as in the state. Presently in the country 95 lakh tonnes of plastic is waste generated per annum.

Nearly 38 lakh tonnes of single use plastic uncollected ends up in dumps and causes great harm to society. Moreover, in the country single use plastic and plastic manufactured items have increased day by day and utilised without knowing its ill-effects on society.

All this plastic comes back to each one of us in many ways and around six lakh tonnes enter the seas annually in India.

Plastic consumption is expected to double by 2022. Open burning of plastic waste causes respiratory ailments and other illness also.

So we need to collect and segregate with safe methods without harming to the society. We know sanitation maintenance being control by the urban and rural local bodies in the country.

So, we should sensitise the issue and encourage practicing good methods with the use of technology.

In rural areas also plastic waste has been generating and caused to the society.

So, we must focus on rural areas also and teach how to collect and segregate solid and liquid waste management by the gram panchayat or rural local bodies.

Swachh Bharat Programme has been implemented in the country to become ODF (Open Defecation Free) across villages in the country.

Most of the states have been running to increase such ODF free villages. Now focus should be on solid and liquid waste management and control plastic in appropriate way.

In the process of collecting Solid and Liquid waste management we should focus on creating wealth with waste. Then only waste management will be implemented successfully in the country and we should reach our goal.

We should go for alternate ways and try to publicity more and more for strictly implementation of single use plastic ban in the country. Now country is facing serious problem with plastic and it causes serious ailments and health problems.

So, we should encourage single use plastic ban in the country and promote alternate ways instead of plastic usages.

In Telangana state government has been focusing on construction of dumping yards with compost shed to become model villages as per Telangana Panchayat Raj Act.

Recently 30-day special action plan has been implemented with the aim of 'Clean and Green' villages and successfully completed with public participation.

In these programmes most of the gram panchayat lands have been identified for construction of dump yards to maintain solid and liquid waste management in the state.

So we should promote safe and secure methods for collection of plastic and try to create waste to wealth. Then only this type alarming issues we can control and protect the people.

A Shyam Kumar, Hanamkonda

Telangana ranks 11th in justice delivery

India's first-ever ranking of States on their capacity to deliver Justice to citizens; the Tata Trusts has brought out the report of India Justice Report (IJR) 2019, Telangana got 11th rank in the overall index of justice system among the 18 Large and mid-sized Indian states, based on the four pillars of Justice Delivery – Police, Judiciary, Prisons, and Legal Aid, a score was allotted to each state on a scale of 10. These four pillars have to function harmoniously for citizens to be satisfied with Justice Delivery.

Telangana got a score of 4.88. The state with the best justice system lists the top is Maharashtra with a score of 5.92, followed by Kerala (5.85), Tamil Nadu (5.76), Punjab (5.53) and Haryana (5.53).

The capacity of the judiciary to deliver is significantly influenced by the infrastructure, budgets and human resources available to it, and the diversity within it.

The report analysed each pillar through the data of budgets, human resources, personnel workload, diversity, infrastructure and trends of five years period, against the State's own declared standards and benchmarks.

This report showcases the strengths and deficits of each State and UT, to encourage a spirit of competitiveness among the states and helping each state to pinpoint interventions.

A deeper look at the statistics reveals that in almost every aspect, Telangana ranks ranged from 4th to 11th on four parameters.

Policing

The study took several factors to assess the police system in the states, ranging from modernisation, inducing women, diversity, budgeting, human resource planning and infrastructure.

Women make up just 7 per cent of the police as per data of Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPR&D, Jan 2017). Over 5 years, 31 states and UTs have improved women's representation in the force.

The pace, however, is much too slow in case of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.

On this front, Telangana State got the score of 4.86, fared poor in terms of women officer vacancies, constituting only 1.5 per cent of the force in 2017 and the share of women constables in total police force is merely 2.5 per cent in 2017.

Telangana rural population per police station is 30,445 in 2017. About 24.8 per cent Constable vacancies exist in the State, while police officer vacancies are 13.5 per cent and officers in civil police are 15.1 per cent. Telangana state has fallen short of meeting their reservation quotas at the police officer level.

The state has 21 per cent SC officer vacancy, while it has met the ST Officers and OBC officers' vacancy criteria as per their reservation quotas.

However, Telangana fared well in utilisation of funds for modernization of police force; Telangana spent 7 per cent of funds on this parameter in 2017, ahead of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.

Prisons

The assessment of this parameter is based on various factors such as overcrowding, inclusion of women staff, adequate human resources, budgeting, infrastructure, etc.

The study finds that Telangana ranking 13th (4.48) among 18 major states, and Andhra Pradesh ranking is 15th (4.35)

Telangana state has shown commendable improvement in average budget utilisation in the period between 2014–2015 and 2016–2017 towards prison budget.

The study shows that on average, vacancies ranged from 33 per cent to 38.5 per cent with the highest numbers being at the level of officers and correctional staff.

Though the actual strength of prison personnel have been increased by 6 per cent in all States, but the number of vacancies rose to 10 per cent. Meanwhile the prison population has increased by 12 per cent.

At cadre level, Telangana had the vacancy of 19.2 per cent and at officers level, it had 15.2 per cent vacancy. However, there is more vacancies in case of medical staff and medical officers with 31.6 per cent and 31.8 per cent respectively.

The Model Prison Manual, 2016 requires one correctional officer for every 200 prisoners and one psychologist/ counsellor for every 500. In this case also, Telangana not sanctioned even single post for correctional staff out of 10 sanctioned posts.

Of the more than 433,000 inmates across the country, nearly 18,500 were women. Though not exclusively looking after female prisoners, there are just 9.6 per cent women across all levels of the prison administration.

Telangana have only 2.2 per cent women staff, against 33 per cent suggested. Telangana spend Rs.22,512 per inmate and 92 per cent prison budget utilized in recent past years, which is commended by the report.

Judiciary

Telangana fared poor with a score of 4.68 and ranked 11th in this regard.

On an average, Telangana growth in expenditure on judiciary in comparison to total state expenditure was increased, the percapita expenditure on judiciary is Rs.103.

However, Telangana had 3,452,277 population per High Court Judge and 100,393 population per sub-court judge. Telangana also fared in case of vacancies in judiciary- High Court judge vacancy is 59.8 per cent, sub-court judge vacancy is 13.6 per cent and high court staff vacancy is 11.7 per cent.

Women judges constitute 9.7 per cent in High Court, 44 per cent in sub-court judges and average cases pending in High Court is 2.8 per cent and cases clearance rate in High court is 73 per cent, while it is 94 per cent in sub-courts.

Legal aid

The report also highlighted the importance of legal aid. It said that almost 80 per cent of India's 1.25-billion population is eligible for free legal aid, but only 15 million people have availed it since 1995.

Here too, the parameter was assessed on the basis of budgeting, human resources, diversity, infrastructure and work load. With a score of 5.58, Telangana fared well with 4th rank among 18 states.

Every judicial district is required to have a district legal services authority (DLSA) which fulfills certain norms. Telangana had DLSAs 92 per cent of state judicial districts and had 100 per cent sanctioned DLSA secretaries.

Para-legal volunteers (PLVs) serve as the bridge between people and the legal aid system. Telangana has less than 7.5 PLVs per lakh population.

The report suggests improving transparency across the judicial system by ensuring publication of verified, dis-aggregated, accurate and timely data for policy making.

Gudipati Rajendera Kumar, Hyderabad

Jagan should speed up governance

Jagan Mohan Reddy came to the power with an overload of promises. Chandrababu Naidu promised Singapore in Andhra Pradesh but in reality made it poor.

The capital project of Amaravati though started like mega venture came to a halt due to Jagan's policies and nobody knows when will the Polavaram project be completed.

All construction activities are stopped due to reverse tendering ie, reverse progress and sand policy.

Construction companies are facing economic crunch and people depending on these companies are facing daily struggle for survival.

Instead of generating employment opportunities in state, the government is only interested in language issues and wasting much time in trivial issues.

Everybody hoped after separation Andhra will develop, but it is showing signs of evaporated hopes of lots of its people.

The government should speed up governance so that pending projects will be completed and employment generation will be done.

M Veereswara Rao, Moradabad