Can't justify torture by the martyred cop

The nation-wide debate on credentials of the contesting candidate from Bhopal Parliamentary constituency, Sadhvi Pragya Thakur, in political circles and media has left the common man baffled.

Though most of the opposition parties have opposed her candidature on the ground that she is an accused in Malegaon Blasts case and currently she is on the bail, nobody so far has approached the Election Commission of India (ECI) to cancel her candidature on this ground. The reason is obvious.

A score of the opposition leaders too are on bail and sill contesting election.

Going by the rule book, neither the Constitution of India nor the Representation of the People Act, 1951 debars an accused person from contesting an election.

Sections 8, 8A, 9, 9A and 10, 10A make the 'convicted' persons of certain specified offences under Indian Penal Code, Prevention of Corruption Act, Customs Act, Anti-Terrorism Act etc. disqualified for certain periods.

Therefore, mere charge of being a terrorist does not attract disqualification. Other charges levelled against Sadhvi are 1. She is a hardcore practitioner of Hindutva; and 2.

She is insulting the former Joint Commissioner of Police, Mumbai, Late Hemant Karakare who attained martyrdom during the Mumbai blast incident.

The answers to these allegations are not far to seek. The charge of her being a hardcore Hindu, going by the definition of Hindutva provided by the Supreme Court, means following the Hindu way of life.

True, she being an ascetic would like to and in fact, she must , follow the prescribed 'dos' and 'don'ts' by scriptures. To brand her, when the matter is sub judice as a terrorist would be doing injustice to her.

Further, in so far as Pragya's anguish against the top cop Hemant Karakare is concerned, there is nothing like 'insulting' a martyr.

True, in his subsequent avatar Hemant Karakare while dealing with the Pak terrorists who had triggered multiple bomb blasts in Mumbai killing more than two hundred people, laid down his life and offered the supreme sacrifice for the country.

But this fact, cannot absolve him of the most heinous and inhuman crime of torturing Sadhvi Pragya Thakur while in his custody. For being a policeman does not get a person the licence to torture anybody, including the worst criminal.

Apart from Geneva Convention on human rights and custodial torture , there are several judicial diktats by our own courts which have condemned the practice of torturing the suspects or accused persons.

Further, women, children ,old persons, sick and disabled persons have to be spared from physical and mental torture, according to the settled law on investigation. In USA, there are strict laws to deal with the erring officials.

The relevant laws provide for punishment of jail term up to 20 years if death was not caused due to custodial torture and life imprisonment or death if the torture resulted into the death.

In short, there is no logic in clubbing both the facets of Karakare's life and focusing on the aspect of his martyrdom.

Sadhvi's wrath is quite natural and those who belittle her must only envision by placing themselves or their own wife, mother or sister in her place. Then only they will realise the pain of torture and its natural reaction.

Compromise must be in toto: SC

In a Judgement that would enable the parties to marital discord to bring more clarity while compromising their disputes, the bench of the apex court division bench comprising Justice Uday Umesh Lalit and Justice Indu Malhotra observed: "If the parties had arrived at settlement and decided to withdraw the cases filed by each of the parties against the other, the compromise ought to be effectuated in complete sense."

In the said judgement, the court also observed that a mother cannot give up the rights which vest in the daughter in so far as maintenance and other issues are concerned, during divorce by mutual consent.

Therefore, while invoking its power under Article 142 of the Constitution of India, the Court set aside the clause containing the waiver of maintenance to wife agreed to by her mother. The bench, in the result, quashed the FIR registered against the husband and his relatives in this regard.

Categorisation of workers

The apex court has declared as ultra vires the categorisation of unskilled workers as semi-skilled and skilled on the basis of their experience in the notification for fixing or revising the minimum wages by the government.

Delivering the judgement in Hindistan Sanitaryware and Industries Ltd. Vs. State of Haryana, the bench comprising Justice L Nageswara Rao and Justice M.R Shah said:

♦ The prohibition of segregation of wages into components in the form of allowances in the said notification is impermissible;

♦ The security inspector/security officer/security supervisor cannot be included in the notification'

♦ Trainees who are employed without payment of any reward cannot be covered by the notification;

♦ Categorisation of unskilled employees as semi-skilled and semi-skilled as skilled on the basis of their experience is beyond jurisdiction of the government; and

♦ Fixing the training period for one year is ultra vires.

Costs imposed for hurting sentiments of Jains

Vishal Dadlani and Tehseen Poonawala have been directed to pay Rs 10 lakh each for 'insulting' Jain Sant Tarun Sagar on Twitter and hurting the sentiments of the followers of Jain religion by the Punjab & Haryana High Court on May 1.

Justice Arvind Singh Sangwan in his judgement observed that the duo has not only insulted the Jain Muni but have also hurt the sentiments of the Jain community.

The court added that the costs are being imposed so that in future they may not mock at any head of a religion, just to gain publicity on social media.

The court further added:" In recent years, the country has witnessed large scale violent protests on incitement made by using social media platform, thereby causing extensive damage to public property."

Former HC judge booked U/S.498A IPC

Former judge of the Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Chennai High Courts Justice Nooty Ram Mohan Rao, his wife and son have been booked by the police under various sections of criminal law including one for the dowry harassment on a complaint by Sindhu Sharma, wife of Vasistha, Ram Mohan Rao's son.

Ugly scenes were witnessed at the Bharosa Counselling Centre where the parties to the disputes were called for counselling over the issue of custody of two children.

However, on May 3, a vacation bench, acting upon the habeas corpus petition filed by the estranged lady, conditionally handed over the custody of the kids to Sindhu Sharma.

Malaysia gets it first woman Chief Justice

Malaysia now has a new Chief Justice. But that is not the news. The news is that for the first time in the country's history, the Federal Court of Malaysia will have a woman to occupy this highest post.

Ms Datuk Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat, who is already a judge of the Federal Court, has been elevated to the post of the Chief Justice.

Telangana HC gets first woman judge

Justice Ghandikota Sri Devi, a judge of the Allahabad High Court, has been transferred to the Telangana High Court at Hyderabad.

Hailing from Vizianagaram in Andhra Pradesh, Justice Sri Devi initially worked as the Additional District and Sessions judge at Jhansi in 2005 and later served as the principal judge and as a judge of the Family Court at Jhansi.

She was appointed as an additional Judge of the Allahabad High Court in November 2018. She becomes the first woman Judge of the youngest High Court of Telangana.