Facebook Warns Debt Collectors About Using Its Service - The Atlantic

Facebook Warns Debt Collectors About Using Its Service - The Atlantic

A Florida debt collector contacted a St. Petersburg woman's Facebook friends in an effort to get her to repay a $362 car loan. The woman, Melanie Beacham, promptly hit the collector, MarkOne Financial, with a civil suit in Pinellas County circuit court.

Though the suit was first filed in August, Beacham's attorney amended it recently, and the story broke nationally yesterday. According to the filing, a MarkOne employee going by the name Jeff Happenstance contacted both Beacham and two of her friends. As you can see in the message above, Happenstance asked the friends to have Beacham contact him without making reference to her debt.


While you may never thought of it this way, Facebook is a perfect tool for tracking down debtors and the people they know. LinkedIn and Twitter are, too.
"Now Facebook does a debt collectors work for them," Beacham's attorney, Billy Howard, who specializes in debt collection harassment, told a Tampa TV station. "Now it's not only family members, it's all of your associates. It's a very powerful tool for debt collectors to use."

‘Society has accepted corruption’ - J. Santosh Hegde - DNA India.com

Karnataka lokayukta and former supreme court judge, Santosh Hegde, on Wednesday advocated the need to have a common legislation for anti-corruption ombudsmen in all states and constitutional recognition to the position.

Speaking on ‘Empowered Lokayukta and accountability in governance’ at the Symbiosis Law School, Hegde said the Karnataka Lokayukta Act, 1984, can be taken as the role model to bring uniformity.

He stressed that the younger generation should be given the responsibility to change the corrupt system. “Corruption has creeped into every profession and is not restricted itself to government, administration or politics. Unfortunately, society has accepted corruption as a way of life. It has ceased to discriminate between legitimate and illegitimate,’’ he said.

The eminent anti-corruption crusader bemoaned the fall in the values and said, “Society has accepted the unacceptable and thus the need to have Lokayuktas has arisen. There are two forms of corruption — the one who accepts it and the one who gives it.’’

“The law has failed to recognise that if an official does not perform his/her duty well, then that too, amounts to corruption,” he said.

Hegde said the discussion on whether there should be a joint parliamentary committee or a parliamentary accounts committee to probe various scams is appropriate and the people have the right to know about the scams.

By Manasi Saraf-Joshi @ DNA

Judicious review - M J Akbar - Business-standard.com

Source - Business-standard.com

At a time when the judiciary and the legal profession are facing a crisis of confidence, it would be interesting to know how things were some 60 years ago when the Constitution came into being and courts were being established. We have here a first-hand account from the author who has practised at the bar for three score and more years, no mean feat. V R Venkatakrishnan has seen the transformation of the profession from the days when English judges presided over the courts and seniors laid down strict norms for the entrants, and did not pay. No one doubted the integrity of the judges. The law of criminal contempt of court was thought necessary only in 1971.

It is difficult to imagine now an English judge riding a bicycle to the Madras High Court. When judges get high security privileges these days, it is incredible that the author, as a junior standing at a bus stand, was offered a lift by a high court judge. Since the juniors at the bar were poorly paid, the profession belonged to those from rich and influential families. Many lawyers plunged into the freedom struggle and the legal background was a bridge to politics. The English language in which the laws were written helped in the process. The author, therefore, is a staunch proponent of the language. He opposes the enactment of laws in regional languages and insists on conducting proceedings in English. “English language is the only language which keeps today’s India together. No other language in India can be an adequate substitute for the English language,” he swears.

The author regrets the steep fall in the quality of judgments delivered these days. They are often inordinately long and sometimes it is difficult to pinpoint the ultimate order. The Privy Council judgments written by English judges were brief and precise. The Allahabad High Court recently delivered a judgment running to 8,189 pages in the Ayodhya case. He says that in the context of a heavy backlog of cases, this long and winding style of writing judgments should be avoided. A litigant is not interested in appreciating the intellectual brilliance of the judges who write the judgments. What he wants to know is what he has got and what he has not. Therefore, judges should be wary of “grandstanding and self-indulgence”.

The method of choosing judges has changed for the worse. “Across the nation, the standards began to fall when the criteria for selection shifted from ability to other considerations.” A former judge of the Kerala high court was heard remarking long ago that a stage would come when a judge would not be able to differentiate between a cabbage and a mortgage. He was referring to the growing “ills of a liberal process of elevation from the bar to the bench”.

One reason for the decline in the quality is attributed to the reluctance of young law graduates to aspire for judgeship. They join large legal firms or corporate entities where they are paid handsomely. If they become successful lawyers, they can earn much more than the judges before whom they argue. This results in paucity of talent on the bench. Data on the judiciary show that thousands of judicial posts are not filled. Moreover, the ratio of judges to population is abysmal.

The author has very unkind words for the new generation of lawyers. Standards have fallen. “The social climate has changed; I do not see too many men in cloak moving about in the courts believing in the virtue of being sincere. When a rich client comes they shut their eyes and proceed with litigation with no thoughts of its merits... I have reason to believe that our lawyers now belong to a set of cowards. Advocates general become a sort of stooge of the government and stick to their office.”

Venkatakrishnan assails the Bhopal judgment in which the court sentenced a few key figures to a two-year imprisonment after a quarter of a century. The plight of the common person is unrelieved agony if he approaches a court. “If you approach the court with a petition that you have lost your bicycle, it is possible that it would take years to get justice. But if it is the government that comes up with litigation, in most instances, the case is taken up quickly. Even if it is some silly political issue.”

Corruption in the judiciary is an issue that is attracting considerable attention these days. Even some Chief Justices of India have admitted that all is not well with the judiciary. Two high court judges are facing impeachment and many others are in the shadow of suspicion. However, Venkatakrishnan asserts that there is no corruption in the judiciary. “I belong to the vanishing tradition, which possibly wrongly believes that there is no corruption in Indian judiciary. It will take a long time and convincing for me to digest that there are corrupt judges in this country.”

In another astonishing passage, he appreciates the conduct of Manu Needhi Cholan, who chose to kill his son to offer justice to a cow whose calf was crushed by his son’s chariot. The king’s statue stands in the premises of the Madras High Court. (The Rajasthan High Court has the statue of Manu himself.) Venkatakrishnan extols the Chola king’s devotion to Manu’s Dharmasastras. The king’s conduct is akin to the axiom of Roman Emperor Ferdinand I whose famous axiom was “May justice be done, though the heavens may fall.”

In this fascinating autobiography, Venkatakrishnan offers his views on a variety of current talking points, like post-retirement sops for judges in the form of commissions of enquiry, public interest litigation, the role of the media in the investigation of high-profile cases, the right to information, suicide and mercy killing (which he favours).

Though lawyers are easy with words, unlike other professions, only a small percentage of them contribute to history and literature by recording their experiences. Even Venkatakrishnan confesses that he was a reluctant writer and would not have written this book but for the persistence of his chartered accountant son. The thin row of legal literature would be richer because of this handy volume.

---

LIVING WITH LAWS
V R Venkatakrishnan
Lone Tree Books
Pages 203

Capital Punishment to Lashkar-e-Taiba operative Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab Confirmed by Bombay H.C. - News

The Bombay high court on Monday confirmed capital punishment awarded to Lashkar-e-Taiba operative Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab for his involvement in the horrendous 26/11 carnage in Mumbai that aimed at overawing the Government of India and weaken its economic might. “The brutality, perversity and cruelty exhibited by Kasab in committing multiple murders of innocent men, women, children, aged persons and policemen … makes this case a gravest case of extreme culpability,” observed the high court while confirming death sentence for the 24-year-old Pakistani national. “He indulged in mindless killings of innocent people with a view to overawing Government of India, and achieve cessation of Indian territory (Kashmir),” the bench observed further. “He took devious pleasure in killing people.” The court noted that in some cases harsh penalty of death is necessary to warn those who may want to take a similar path, and a wrong signal will be sent that the courts are ineffective in dealing with crimes as serious as this, if the strong arm of law failed to deal with Kasab firmly. “Soft handling of a crime like this will erode the public confidence in the efficacy of law,” the bench said while issuing a warning: “We want those who are desirous of emulating him to know that courts do not take a kindly view of such people.” The judges also noted that the LeT operative never showed any remorse or repentance for what he had done, and instead loudly proclaimed that he wanted to be a role model for others.
- Hindustan Times

The strongest aggravating circumstance which nailed Pakistani terrorist Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab was the manner in which he waged war against the Government of India, the Bombay High Court noted Monday in its 1,215-page judgment while upholding the death sentence on the Pakistani terrorist. The conspiracy was hatched in Pakistan with the objective of destablising the Indian government and weaken India’s economic might. ‘He (Kasab) indulged in mindless killings of innocent people with a view to overawing Government of India and achieve cessation of a part of Indian territory. There was an attempt to create ill-will and disaffection between different religions of India so as to damage its secular fabric. Waging war is a serious crime which calls for deterrent punishment,’ a division bench of Justice Ranjana Desai and Justice R.V. More said. Stating that it was difficult to agree with the defence argument that he was mentally disturbed or not sane, the judges said: ‘In our short interaction with A1-Kasab on Video Conferencing, we observed his demeanour. He did not appear to be repentant at all. He was perfectly sane. He was in proper frame of mind. All his actions, the manner in which he committed the crime, his cleverly trying to change his stand in the court and other attendant circumstances portray a scheming mind and not a mind of a mentally unstable person.’ Rejecting outright the defence argument that Kasab was a Fidayeen who had come here to die and his death would make him a martyr, the judges said that on their GPS systems, Kasab and his accomplices had saved the routes from Mumbai to Karachi.

- iNewsOne

Words of Advice for law aspirants - News From TOI

NAGPUR: Supreme Court judge Vikas Sirpurkar on Saturday called on lawyers and students to become research oriented to succeed in today's fast changing world. He was speaking at the late Vijay Bhonde memorial guest lecture on the premises of Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court. The lecture was part of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Law College's ninth Justa Causa festival.

SC judge Ashok Ganguly, Nagpur University vice chancellor Vilas Sapkal, former NU law dean Thrity Patel and principal Vibha Mahajan shared the dais.

"Merely wearing black coats and tearing into a witness or arguing with judges is not law practice. Doing continuous research on various laws and judgments is good practice," Sirpurkar said. Commenting on the duties of law aspirants, he said today's students had great potential. "Law is changing everyday. Till recently, we had never heard of monopoly legislation, or that waves can also become someone's property."

Sirpurkar, who is an alumnus of Dr Ambedkar Law College, urged teachers to review the verdicts delivered by judges and explain them to students. "After we deliver a verdict, the lawyers don't argue as our decision is final. But for teachers, any decision should not be the final verdict. They should dissect the verdicts like a surgeon examines his patient. If teachers start accepting everything the courts say, the law would stop developing," he warned.

Recalling the old days, he lauded former chief justice of India Vivian Bose's efforts to develop law in the country, terming him as a beacon. "He was like god for us. But his simplicity always inspired me. His rulings were landmark and crisp, and are cited till date. There was no scope for confusion in his verdicts. When he was presiding over, he used to deliver judgments based on his interpersonal skills and used to convince litigants."

Citing justice Bose's ruling in Vira Singh case, the former Nagpur bench judge said he protected the rights of the common man. "Had he been living today, he would have vociferously pursued duties in jurisprudence. We must all follow our fundamental duties," he said, revealing that justice Bose was also a big magician and used to undertake shows in schools.

Justice Ganguly, who is presently hearing India's biggest scam case - 2G Spectrum scam - involving former telecom minister A Raja, also deliberated on justice Bose's judgments. Justice Ganguly said that verdicts delivered by justice Bose were remarkably modern and protected the common man.

Terming law as an important tool for social engineering, Ganguly, who was formerly chief justice of Orissa High Court, praised the efforts of late Bhonde, who was vice principal of Dr Ambedkar Law College, for taking law from the confines of four walls to daily life. "Today, rule of law has become rule of life, and persons like late Bhonde made pioneering efforts in this direction."

He described Nagpur as the city of legal lights. 

Read more: Research must for lawyers, students: Sirpurkar - The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/nagpur/Research-must-for-lawyers-students-Sirpurkar/articleshow/7530686.cms#ixzz1Ec04t9Ys

What if WikiLeaks leaked about you?

What if WikiLeaks leaked about you?

By Julie A. Fleming

I read a Forbes article about WikiLeaks last week while waiting for a delayed flight. The release of diplomatic cables has caused much embarrassment, both because of unpalatable (though apparently legal) directives and thanks to candid assessments of diplomats and leaders in other countries.
WikiLeaks is transforming the era of transparency in operations to one offorced transparency, and that got me thinking. Back when I was practicing law, I often heard friends and colleagues complaining about their clients. “Business would be great if it weren’t for the clients!”
Some complaints were good-natured; others were real complaints about overly demanding, rude, difficult clients. I hear similar complaints at times from my clients now.
We’ve all heard the anecdotes about service providers who’ve complained about their clients on Facebook, and that’s just stupid. That’s a self-inflicted wound. I honestly find it a little tough to feel bad for someone who doesn’t know not to whine about clients (or just about anyone else, really) on the Internet. But you don’t do that… Right?
But imagine if someone intercepted a handwritten note attached to a file, “Mr. Z is being obnoxious about the bill again — pls call him.” (Insert your own complaint here.) And I started thinking (as you should), what if Wiki leaked that? The chances are remote at best, that private communications within a small organization would ever be viewed outside that organization… But what if it happened?
Here’s the real issue: what we say tends to take on a certain power and truth in our thoughts and is expressed in our actions. I don’t mean that in some touchy-feely, weird way. Think about this: if you get all incensed thinking about how Client X is always calling to ask questions you’ve already answered and then Client X calls you again, aren’t you more likely to be frustrated with that call?
Professionals don’t allow that frustration to show, but when words, thoughts, and actions are all aligned, a belief is solidified. And when a belief exists, we tend to selectively see evidence that supports that belief. We don’t intend to, necessarily, but we tend to see what we expect to see. That, in turn, can create a self-perpetuating cycle of dissatisfaction.
Consider how you usually think and talk about your clients. Do you enjoy the people who engage you? If not, ask yourself why.

• Perhaps you’ve elected to ignore warning signs that a potential client will be difficult. The truth is, difficult clients do exist, and they can lead to headaches and even ethical or legal complaints against you. Learn the signs of a difficult client so you can make a conscious decision about whether you want to work with a particular person, and consider that a difficult client can cost far more than the income he or she may bring.
• Perhaps you’re working harder than you’d like or with fewer resources than you’d like, and stress is showing up as frustration with clients. If this is the case, figure it out and fix the problem. Now. You’ll be happier, your clients will likely be happier, and you’ll probably do better.
• Perhaps you’ve simply fallen into a habit. It’s sometimes easy to be negative. If you notice that you’ve dropped into a destructive view of your clients or your practice, call a time-out and focus on why you do what you do. Especially in a period of prolonged stress (as we’ve experienced in this long recession), you may need to reconnect with your purpose more frequently.

Check your words and thoughts about your clients. There’s no doubt that clients can be frustrating, simply because human beings can be frustrating. But your success, and your clients’ success in your work together, depends on your ability to address your frustration when it’s well-placed and to set it aside when it isn’t well-placed.


So, the next time you catch yourself grousing about a client, ask yourself: What if WikiLeaks leaked that?

Deal Expeditiously with Graft Cases: SC to Courts - From - Outlook and Reuters

The Supreme Court today directed all special courts in the country dealing with corruption complaints against public servants to expeditiously dispose them off in the interest of both justice and the accused.

"We are conscious of the fact that the government of India, Department of Law and Justice is making all efforts for expeditious disposal of cases of this nature by constituting special courts. However, the fact remains that it takes longer time to reach its destination. "We are of the view that when a matter of this nature is entrusted to a special court or a regular Court, it is but proper on the part of the court concerned to give priority to the same and conclude the trial within a reasonable time.

"The High Court, having overall control and supervisory role, is expected to monitor and even call for a quarterly report from the court concerned for speedy disposal," a bench of justices P Sathasivam and B S Chauhan said in a judgement. The apex court passed the judgement while awarding one year RI to former Kerala Power Minister Balkrishna Pillai and two others in the Idamalayar dam corruption case.

"In as much as the accused is entitled to speedy justice, it is the duty of all in charge of dispensation of justice to see that the issue reaches its end as early as possible," the bench said. The direction assumes significance as a number prominent political leaders, including RJD supremo Laloo Prasad Yadav and AIADMK chief J Jayalalithaa are facing trial in corruption-related cases.

In the present case, the apex court pointed out that Idamalayar contract relates to the year 1982 and the state government initiated prosecution in 1991. However, the trial prolonged for nearly nine years and the special court passed an order convicting the accused on November 19, 1999. The High Court passed the acquittal order in 2003 and eight years thereafter, the Supreme Court today reversed the acquittal.


Source - Outlook India.com

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh faces more political headaches after the Supreme Court pressed for deeper probes into a multi-billion dollar corruption case and a ruling coalition ally was implicated in the scandal.

Allegations the government may have lost up to $39 billion in revenues after firms were awarded telecoms deals at rock-bottom prices in return for kickbacks have rocked the ruling coalition and compounded the fragility of India's fragile investment climate.

The Supreme Court, increasingly assertive under its new chief justice, told the federal police agency to go after more company executives and politicians and set up a special court to investigate India's biggest graft case in decades. One Indian company executive, a former telecoms minister and two other aides have been arrested in the scandal.

"They are part of a wider conspiracy," a Supreme Court bench was quoted on Friday by local media as saying. "We have a large number of people who think themselves to be above the law. You must catch all of them. Merely because a person is in the Forbes list of millionaires and billionaires does not matter. Remember there is no parallel to this case."

The Supreme Court, along with an aggressive media buoyed by widespread voter anger at the scams, has kept investigations alive, halting any government attempts to stonewall probes and underlining a shift in power politics as India modernises. A federal police lawyer told a court on Thursday that in one instance companies linked to the scam had paid $47 million to a TV channel run by the regional DMK party, which helps the ruling coalition maintain its slim majority in parliament in Delhi.

The latest revelations will further tarnish the image of Singh and his coalition. While the government will likely survive, the scandal has paralysed Singh's government, with the last parliamentary session closed due to opposition protests. Asia's third largest economy may be booming, but there may be signs of cracks in its high growth model as years of complacency over reforms to open up the heavily-regulated financial sector, industry and invest in creaky infrastructure takes its toll.

Foreign direct investment has fallen for three consecutive years, from 2.9 percent of GDP in 2008/09 to around 1.8 percent of GDP in 2010/11. Some of this has to do with the global economic slowdown, but investor scepticism is also a factor. One factor may be the 78-year-old prime minister. His decision-making appears to have been paralysed in his second term despite winning re-election with an increased majority. The main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party has said Singh's reliance on the DMK prevented him from probing the telecoms case. The government appeared close to agreeing to a broad, cross-party investigation in the scandal, paving the way for parliament to resume as normal for a Feb. 28 budget session.

Source - www.reuters.com

The Legal Practitioners Act: Impact - http://barandbench.com

Source - Bar and Bench . Com

The Legal Practitioners (Regulations and Maintenance of Standards in Professions, Protecting the Interest of Clients and Promoting the Rule of Law) Act, 2010 (LPA) since its proposition by the Ministry of Law and Justicein November 2010, has been at the receiving end of flak. The LPA proposes to establish a Legal Services Board on the lines of the Legal Services Board (LSB) in the UK, suiting the Indian situation.

The LPA has been opposed by advocates in Tamil Nadu with lawyers in Madras boycotting court proceedings on December 10, 2010 claiming that the LPA would “usurp the powers of the All India Bar Council”, reports the Hindu. The strike was followed later by theSalem Bar on December 23, 2010 in protest against the LPA.

Managing Partner Rajiv Luthra of Luthra and Luthra and Senior Vice-President of the Society of Indian Law Firms, in an exclusive interview with Bar & Bench has also opposed the LPA and said, “SILF is opposing this proposal because it does not see the need for a super-regulator above the Bar Council of India, which already regulates all the State Bar Councils. Everyone’s efforts would be better spent in finding solutions for the problems currently faced by the Bar Councils and strengthen systems and procedures, rather than adding a new layer of unelected bureaucracy in the hope that this will somehow fix issues”.

The Bar Council of India according to its Chairman Gopal Subramanium at the recently held Commonwealth Law Conference stated, that the Bar Council is proposing a new set of ethical norms for lawyers by the year end. The new guidelines were simple and drawn mostly from South African principles and the Bar Council has decided to update and make the guidelines more realistic as they were not revisited since they were framed in 1962-63, reports the Hindu.

Bar & Bench spoke with Harish Narasappa (pictured) Co-Founder Partner of Narasappa, Doraswamy & Raja, a leading law firm in Bangaluru on the impact of the proposed Legal Services Board under the Legal Practitioners Act.

B&B: The Legal Practitioners Act (LPA) proposes to set up a Legal Services Board (LSB). What do you think will be the impact of the LSB being set-up, in a country like India?

Harish Narasappa: The impact will depend on the people appointed to the LSB. If the right people are appointed to the Board, the LSB can provide a much needed and frankly overdue leadership to the profession in the country in terms of continuing education, active propagation and enforcement of ethical standards, improving processes of law making and adjudication processes.

B&B: Your thoughts on boycotting of the Legal Practitioners Act by States (like Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu) for reasons of fear that the LSB will interfere with the freedom of lawyers.

Harish Narasappa: Meaningful regulation of the profession is necessary, but such regulation should not interfere with the functioning of lawyers who have an important role in ensuring the rule of law. The boycott is premature and not correct. As lawyers we should use the law and its processes even in opposing legislation. There is no doubt that the LPA (as it is currently proposed) is not good enough and appears to be a hastily put together draft (it even has typographical errors!!). We should engage with the ministry to make the LPA better.

B&B: The LSB appoints an Ombudsman, who will have the power to conduct an inquiry on a complaint filed by a consumer/client of a legal professional (A frivolous complaint could cause damage and loss of image to a professional in the process of an inquiry).

Harish Narasappa: The dilemma you mention is common in every profession, but that should not be the reason for not having a meaningful redressal mechanism. Unfortunately, there are bad eggs in the profession, and we need to make sure they are brought to the book under law. As lawyers, we should be the profession that takes the lead to protect the sanctity of the law.

B&B: The LSB mandates a legal professional to impart free legal aid to the financially weaker sections. Do you think mandating legal aid acts as a solution?

Harish Narasappa: No, I do not think this is a solution. It is almost impossible to enforce such a provision. Instead, the LPA should encourage more number of lawyers to assist the financially weaker sections by giving credit to such work. For example, a number of law firms in London encourage their lawyers to do legal aid and such work is an important consideration for continued growth in the firm. Something similar needs to happen here on an institutional level.

B&B: What do you propose should be the aim of the LSB?

Harish Narasappa: In my view, the LPA and the LSB should aim to restore the integrity and dignity of the profession, which has been bruised badly over the past few decades. This can only be done by improving standards of the profession, both at entry level and on a continuous basis through continuing education and training. This has unfortunately never been done properly by the Bar Councils, although they have taken a first step in the form of the Bar exam recently. Further, the LPA should also meaningfully regulate improper behavior by members of the profession, either through the Bar Councils or otherwise. For example, how many lawyers who are photographed vandalizing public property during protests have been actually punished over the last few decades? 

Why No Uniform Civil Code ? - Supreme Court to the Centre

The Supreme Court has again pulled up the government for its failure to overhaul personal laws of the minority communities...

The Supreme Court has again pulled up the government for its failure to overhaul personal laws of the minority communities, saying that it was a reflection on their secular credentials. The court also said on Tuesday that government's attempts to reform personal laws don't go beyond Hindus who have been more tolerant of such initiatives. "The Hindu community has been tolerant to these statutory interventions. But there appears a lack of secular commitment as it has not happened for other religions." Justices Dalveer Bhandari and A K Ganguly made the observation while hearing petitions filed by the National Commission for Women and its Delhi chapter. The petitioners have sought formulation of a uniform marriageable age and complained that different stipulations in as many statutes had created confusion. Additional solicitor general Indira Jaising explained the differences in age limits provided in statutes, saying that these were meant to achieve diverse social objectives. "Hence, there could not be a uniform age. Though the government feels that girls above 16 years should be said to have attained the age of consent to sexual relation and hence could marry, the formal age of marriage would stay at 18 years," argued the ASG. When asked by the bench and NCW counsel Aparna Bhat about the glaring discrepancies between different laws and how government plans to reconcile them, Jaising said: "Hindu laws is one of the finest laws, a saying that has to be taken with a pinch of salt. It provides for all oppression and also the escape route. The problem with the Hindu law is that legislators have tried to chip away little by little but there is no overhauling of it." Jaising argued that though there can be no uniform marriage age, other laws including the Hindu Marriage Act, needed amendments to make them conform to the age of marriage provided under the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006. She said under the 2006 law, marriages in which the girls are below 16 years are void and those in which they are between 16-18 years are voidable. In the last two decades, the Supreme Court had stressed time and again the importance of enacting a Uniform Civil Code (UCC) as advised by the Constitution. Between the Shah Bano judgment in 1985, Sarla Mudgal judgment (1995) and John Vallamatom verdict in 2003, the court had thrice stressed the need for enacting a UCC, saying it would help forge national integration and remove dissimilarities. Provision for UCC is incorporated in Article 44 under the Directive Principles chapter of the Constitution, which says, "The State shall endeavour to secure for the citizens a uniform civil code throughout the territory of India." The Directive Principles, despite being termed by the Constitution itself as 'fundamental in the governance of the country' and that 'it shall be the duty of the state to apply these principles in making laws', are not enforceable in a court of law. http://www.indian-advocates.com/law_and_order.asp?legal=181 The Supreme Court of India has pulled up the government for its failure to overhaul personal laws of the minority communities. The hon’ble court has made a categorical statement that the government‘s attempts to reform personal laws don’t go beyond Hindus. The Supreme Court bench has observed that: The Hindu community has been tolerant to these statutory interventions. But there appears lack of secular commitment as it has not happened for other religions. In 1976 the word secular was added to the preamble of the Indian constitution to emphasize that no particular religion in the state will receive any state patronage whatsoever and no citizen in the state will have any preferential treatment or will be discriminated against simply on the ground that he or she professes a particular form of religion. India is a land of diverse religions. Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Jains, Christians, Muslims, Parsees all together form the nation. Unity in diversity is the core feature of India. To make the country really a secular state there needs to be one common law for all communities. The big question is why even after decades of independence governments have failed to adopt a uniform civil code which would be a stepping stone to the pinnacle of secularism. From time to time personal laws of Hindus have been tweaked sparing personal laws of minorities. This goes against the spirit of equality in the democratic set up of the country. Going by the tenets of secularism, the country is committed to • Equality as incorporated in Article 14 • Prohibition against discrimination on the grounds of religion, caste etc, as incorporated in Article 15 and 16 • Freedom of speech and expression and all other important freedoms of all citizens are conferred under Article 19 and 21 • Right to practice religion is conferred under Article 25 and 28 • Fundamental duty of the state to enact uniform civil code treating all citizens as equal, is imposed by Article 44 Article 44 of Indian constitution specifies that the state shall endeavour to secure the citizens a common civil code throughout the country. The objective is to effect integration of India by bringing all communities into a common fold which is at present governed by personal laws of different communities based on their religion. Why common civil code is opposed by the minorities? Minority rights have gained greater visibility in India post independence. When India became independent the minority communities became apprehensive about their identity. Muslims being the dominant minority community have their own Islamic law code of shariat applicable to the Muslims in India in their personal affairs. Muslim personal laws are protected by a private body All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB). While Muslims are strongly opposed to common civil code, Parsees and Christians too have their own personal laws to defend their communities against perceived threat from majority community. A common civil code will override only those personal laws which do not form the essence of any religion. The common areas covered by a civil code include laws to acquisition and administration of property, marriage, divorce, will and adoption. In spite of freedom to follow their personal laws, the minority communities are not contended they feel discriminated. Even the dominant Muslim community has several grievances. It is felt by the community that they lag behind in the area of education because of economic hardships and discrimination. No special efforts have been made to fulfil the needs of Muslims which belong to the lower strata of society. They may have grievances but they themselves are responsible for their plight. Their fundamentalist approach has kept them away from the mainstream. The recent criticism of vastanvi for talking about equal opportunity for all in the state of Gujrat is a glaring example of the fundamentalist attitude of Muslim leaders. Another factor that keeps the minority communities strongly identifiable is vote bank politics of netas, they would never entertain the idea of bringing the minorities under one secular umbrella which goes against their vested interests. For these reasons consensus on common civil code is hard to come. Read more: http://manohar.instablogs.com/entry/supreme-court-indicts-government-for-restricting-reforms-of-personal-laws-to-hindus/#ixzz1E2nmvguY Read more: http://manohar.instablogs.com/entry/supreme-court-indicts-government-for-restricting-reforms-of-personal-laws-to-hindus/#ixzz1E2nisLqt

The case for faster justice- The Hindu : Opinion / Editorial

The Hindu : Opinion / Editorial : The case for faster justice

Yes, the wheels of justice grind slowly, but should they move at such an excruciatingly sluggish pace? The sense of satisfaction that the law does catch up with the high and mighty, exemplified by the Supreme Court of India's conviction of former Kerala minister R. Balakrishna Pillai for graft in the Idamalayar dam corruption case, is severely tempered by the fact that justice was done two decades after the initiation of prosecution. While sentencing Mr. Pillai to one year of rigorous imprisonment, the Supreme Court itself drew attention to this indefensible delay by directing the special courts to dispose all corruption cases against public servants expeditiously. The two-member Bench held that High Courts, having a supervisory role over trial courts, are expected to monitor the progress of these cases and may “even call for a quarterly report from the court concerned for speedy disposal.”

The Supreme Court's observations closely follow Law Minister Veerappa Moily's promise to put in place, within the next three months, a system under which corruption cases are fast-tracked so that “no [such] case should exceed three years.” How this is going to be achieved is unclear considering that the law's built-in delays have been an intractable problem. However, it is commendable that the government has earmarked a sum of Rs.20,000 crore for developing judicial infrastructure, which needs overhauling particularly at the level of the lower courts. Most of the estimated three-crore-plus cases pending are in the lower courts, which under the E-courts project, need to be urgently computerised. Since more than two-thirds of pending cases involve the government, it is important that it quickly change from being a compulsive litigant to a responsible one. The National Litigation Policy unveiled last year, which aims at bringing about such a transformation in government attitude, must be implemented with a sense of mission. Any serious attempt to tackle a judicial backlog of such proportions will require coordinated action on multiple fronts. These include raising the judge-population ratio, which compares very poorly with that of other countries, to at least 50 per million as recommended by the Supreme Court in 2002. There is also a case for streamlining the time-consuming elements in the Civil and Criminal Procedure Codes and improving the functioning of alternative dispute resolution mechanisms. Speed and efficiency are vital not only to the credibility of any justice delivery system but also to the very well-being of any democratic society.