Are regional satraps above the law!

Regional satraps alias modern day 's Chief Ministers in the name of regional autonomy have been playing havoc with the whole system of governance.

The Constitution of India has, in fact, left no scope for ambiguity in the matter of power-sharing between the Union or Central government and the State governments. The Constitution carries three lists of subjects on which the Union or Central government, State governments and both governments can legislate. Still, some Chief Ministers, particularly those belonging to the Opposition parties, due to the restlessness of not being able to capture power at the Centre.

This desperation drives them to exceed the limits drawn by the Constitution and in some cases even indulge in pure criminal activities and contempt of the courts. Indeed, this is a dangerous trend and poses affront to the very roots of the democracy.

The browbeating by such powerful elements often scares the judiciary. This is clear from the recent public utterances of Delhi's Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and West Bengal's Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. While the former has been shamelessly declaring himself 'innocent' in all criminal cases including the infamous liquor scam, sheesh Mahal scam, money laundering and other offences which are under investigation or sub judice, the latter has the audacity to publicly declare that she doesn't care for the recent verdict of the Calcutta High Court staying reservation order in favour of the Muslims. Further, day in and day out not only these two Chief Ministers but also others like the CMs of Punjab, Tamilnadu, Karnataka , Telangana and Kerala have also defied the Constitution. Telangana, for example, adopted a resolution opposing CAA and NRC in Assembly after these statutes were duly passed by the parliament in which all parties had participated in the debate. There are scores of such instances where the regional satraps deliberately with a view to lower the country's image before the world, crossed the limits and challenged the authority of the parliament and courts without any valid reasons. The self praising leaders like Rahul Gandhi and Arvind Kejriwal had no calms in tendering unconditional apology before courts several times. Still they have no feelings of shame leave alone repentance! The jail bird Lalu Prasad Yadav with his joker like style takes pride in exhibiting his mental bankruptcy on all available public forums.

Still, such leaders manage to get elected thanks to the famine of intelligence of voters and money and muscle power of contestants. With the political power in their kitty, these leaders think they are above the law. They are in a position to tilt balance in their favour and even, carve out exceptions solely for them. Some in the judiciary too, considering such elements as potential disturbance to their hegemony, don't hesitate to oblige such politicians notwithstanding judicial ethos and precedents. Indeed, it is a vicious circle and it appears that there is no way out to come out of it.

SC LAYS DOWN PRINCIPLES FOR DYING DECLARATION

A division bench of the Supreme Court comprising Justice Abhay S Oka and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan in a case titled Rajendra Vs. State of Maharashtra has recently held that a dying declaration can be the sole basis for conviction if the same adheres to certain principles. The court then laid down several principles such as, voluntary declaration by the victim without tutoring, no inconsistencies, no delay, preferably before a magistrate etc.

ALLAHABAD HC

SLAMS A CJM

A division bench of Justice Rahul Chaturvedi and Justice Azhar Hussain Idrisi came down heavily on a Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) for fabricating a criminal case of charges such as, cheating, criminal conspiracy etc, against some officials of the Uttar Pradesh Electricity Department with the intention to make them kneel down before him.

The Bench delivering the judgement in a case titled, Manoj Kumar Gupta and others Vs State of Uttar Pradesh and others found the CJM Bhagwan Das Gupta guilty of behaviour unbecoming of a Judge and directed the High Court Registry to keep a copy of the said judgement in the service register of the said Judge.

The CJM had purchased a house in Lucknow and subsequently asked for registration of the electricity connection in his name. In turn , the Electricity Department having found that there were some dues from the previous owner, demanded the payment thereof. This infuriated the CJM and got registered an FIR against the concerned officials of the Electricity Department.

TREES CANNOT BE FELLED FOR PROTECTING COMMERCIAL BUILDINGS : KERALA HC

In a judgement of far reaching consequences, Justice P.V Kunhakrishnan of the Kerala High Court held that merely to protect a commercial building, the forest department should not grant permission to remove a tree. The court added that wherever due to damaged branches, the tree poses risk to the public, instead of cutting the whole tree, such damaged branches may allowed to be cut.

In a case titled, Mustafa & Others Vs. State of Kerala, the High Court dealt with the utility of trees in protecting environment and benefitting the human life and directed the authorities to ensure that only for proper reasons, permission for felling trees should be granted.

TS HC VACATION BENCH SITS PAST MIDNIGHT

The summer vacation Bench of the Telangana High Court strained hard on May 23 when it held court proceedings as single and division bench from 10.30 a.m to 1.30 a.m on the next day.

Justice Bollam Vijaysen Reddy and Justice Alishetty Laxminarayan benches heard over 250 cases of urgent nature.