Halsbury's Laws of India - 1-45 vols Available with Butterworths-Wadhwa

All 45 volumes Available with Butterworths-Wadhwa at a discounted price, till 30th April 2012

http://www.lexisnexis.in/halsburys-laws-india.htm

UNIQUE FEATURES

• HLI is written in a propositional style with an emphasis on plain English expression, making it concise and easy to read.
• It is written by both practitioners and academics to ensure that readers benefit from a wealth of knowledge and experience.
• The structure of HLI provides an efficient and convenient means to access the law.
• Each volume is cross referenced extensively that links one area of law to another, across the various subject volumes.
• HLI, being a legal encyclopedia divided subject wise, enables quick and comprehensive search on legal topics as it covers the entire spectrum of the law applicable to a topic.
• HLI is not a section wise commentary on a statute, but is a tool providing interface between the various laws applicable to a practice area.
• The HLI set is cross referenced extensively, thus all the facets of a legal issue get adequate coverage. For example, in the law relating to Damages, the actual issue of damages, its tortuous aspect and the procedural aspect under the procedural law, are discussed and interlinked with one another in three different titles viz Damages, Tort and Civil Procedure. This enables HLI to act as a definitive search tool and an indispensable aid to the legal practitioner.
• HLI volume is a product of extensive research as each case and statute section is researched for accuracy of statement, case citation and case name.
• HLI has the benefit of an editorial advisory board comprising legal luminaries like Justice Venkatachaliah, Lord Mustill, Fali Nariman, thus ensuring that HLI is a premium publication.

HLI_BASU_MLJ_EDM_v7.jpg (1125×1610):




'via Blog this'

SC upholds Right to Education Act [Download epic 36,000-word judgment] | Legally India

SC upholds Right to Education Act [Download epic 36,000-word judgment] | Legally India:

The Supreme Court struck down the challenge of private schools to the Right to Education Act (RTE) 2010, upholding its constitutional validity through a majority of chief justice SH Kapadia and Justice Swatanter Kumar.

Justice Radhakrishnan dissented from the view that a fourth of seats in all schools, including private ones, should be reserved for admission to economically weaker students.

The judgment, which was pronounced today, was reserved on 3 August 2011, after the three judge bench had given a prolonged hearing to the Society of Unaided Private Schools and a batch of other petitions contesting the RTE’ss provision mandating the 25 per cent reservation.

The Act, which is operational in at least 19 states, envisages free and compulsory education for all poor children aged between 6 and 14 years. The bench has brought all educational institutions within RTE’s ambit except for unaided minority institutions.

Mint reported that the judgment will be operational from 2012-13 academic year but would not apply retrospectively to any admissions or to resident students in boarding schools.

The private schools’ contention that such mandatory reservation would drain their resources was contested by the government, which promised reimbursement to the extent of the reservation, according to NDTV.

The judgment upheld the inclusive educational law contested by 32 petitioners.

Click here to download the epic 36000-word judgment.'via Blog this'

Can lawyers establish a brand? - David M. Ward

Investor, entrepreneur, and best-selling author Robert Kiyosaki
said, "If you are not a brand, you are a commodity." But can a
lawyer be a brand?

Probably not in the sense that "Clorox" or "McDonalds" are
brands. Most lawyer's names will never be household words. But
within our various market niches, and certainly among our
colleagues, we can indeed establish a successful brand.

You are an estate planning attorney who targets physicians in
your local market. If a survey is done of those physicians and a
preponderance of them mention you when asked if they could name
an estate planning attorney, I think we can agree that you
qualify as a brand.

And that's a good thing.

Being a brand gives you pre-eminence. You get more clients, more
easily. You can charge premium fees. Clients tend to be more
loyal. You'll be thinner, better looking, and have whiter teeth.

Okay, but what about the opposite end of the spectrum: being a
commodity. If we define that as being "average" is that
necessarily a bad thing? No. Earning what the average attorney
earns is nothing to be ashamed of. But why settle for less than
you can achieve?

Developing a brand is not easy to do on a national scale. It's
much easier for a lawyer targeting a niche market.

How do you do it? By crafting the right marketing message for
your target market and focusing all of your time and creative
energy delivering that message, and no other. No mixed messages.
No ambiguity.

But you don't sell a product, you sell yourself. And so more than
merely delivering a marketing message, you must "become" that
message.

Your identity must be fully aligned with your message and market.
You can't merely be a lawyer who happens to handle a certain type
of client or case. You must be perceived as the top expert in
your market, completely dedicated to that market and the people
in it.

Donald Trump is a brand because everything he does, and
everything he is, is consistent and aligned with the image he has
crafted. When you think of real estate and business, you think of
The Donald. And when you think about The Donald, you think about
real estate and business.

Donald Trump is the brand. You must become your own brand.

Fortunately, you don't have to spend as much money as Trump, or
engage in the pompous rhetoric that has become his trademark. And
yes, you can have normal hair.

--
David M. Ward

http://attorneymarketing.com/blog

Food Security Bill: Making sense of the numbers | Analysis | Food security

Food Security Bill: Making sense of the numbers | Analysis | Food security:

Amidst the cacophony surrounding the Lokpal Bill, the National Food Security Bill 2011 was quietly tabled in the Lok Sabha. What the Government of India has fleshed out in the bill is actually in line with its constitutional obligations (Section 47) and obligations under various international conventions. The bill has been conceived in the larger context of prevailing food and nutritional insecurity in one of the fastest growing economies of the world.

The National Food Security Bill serves only to register the fact that hunger is a real cause for concern, as in its present form, the bill is not adequately endowed with a vision to address the structural causes of India’s food and nutritional insecurities.

Three basic issues need to be highlighted. First, the bill dwells on targeting vis-à-vis universalisation, re-invoking the contentious BPL-APL issue (‘priority’ and ‘non-priority’ households). Intended benefits will be provided to people based on these categories. It is a well-known fact that successive governments have failed to identify the poor. As a result, a large part of the country’s population continues to struggle with hunger in various forms. In such a grim scenario, the government should be talking about universalisation, which is an integral part of the fundamental right to life. Second, the bill provides for the supply of 7 kg of subsidised foodgrain per person per month to ‘priority’ households, whereas a person needs 14 kg a month to fulfil her basic food requirements. Third, the proposed entitlements do not deal with the problem of nutritional insecurity. People in India suffer undernourishment mainly due to protein and fat deficiencies. To cope with this problem, the government should have included pulses (to compensate for protein) and edible oil (to replenish fat). The preamble of the bill says: “…the Supreme Court of India has recognised the right to food and nutrition as integral to the right to life…”

Today development is understood only in the narrow sense of economic growth and GDP. Successive governments have not stepped out of this familiar paradigm to address improvements in living standards and enhancement of people’s wellbeing. How can we accept a growth trend wherein 70% of total GDP is directly under the control of 8% of India’s elite? Growth is important, as it helps create a conducive environment for people to better their living standards. But we cannot accept a growth trajectory that curtails opportunities for the common man and grabs common property and natural resources for short-term gain. While India’s economy has been growing at 6-9% in the last 12 years, undernutrition among her children has dropped a mere 1% in the eight-year period 1998-99 to 2006. Should we accept a token 0.1% decline in childhood hunger per year? We need to understand that underfed people are unable to contribute, even if provided with opportunities, because of lack of capability. We must therefore build an environment of empowerment with nutritional security.

India’s growth story has a flip side. Present levels of malnutrition result in a 2-3% decline in GDP. It causes delays in education, triggers learning disabilities, affects the overall physical and cognitive development of children at an early age. Every year, India loses 1.3 million children under the age of 5 due to undernutrition and non-availability/inaccessibility to basic healthcare.

Neighbouring Bhutan measures its development according to a ‘happiness index’. With the developed world in the grip of a debilitating economic crisis and the citizens of many countries protesting against prevalent economic policies, India must decide whether people’s wellbeing takes precedence over creating a tiny island of opulence for a handful of people.

We contribute 40% to the world’s overall maternal, neo-natal, infant and child deaths. We have half the world’s undernourished children. Fifty-four per cent of our women suffer from anaemia. We have to end this national variety of colonialism where corporations rule over our farmers and labourers and traders indulge in the business of education and health services and keep people deprived of the very basic services in the name of growth. The resources generated through growth should go towards the wellbeing of all people. Not to subsidise corporations.

The proposed bill reposes great faith in targeting the so-called poor and non-poor (under ‘priority’ and ‘general’ households). Let’s remind ourselves that we have been hopelessly unsuccessful in identifying the poor and continue to implement our most crucial food/social entitlement programmes along exclusionary poverty lines.

I take the argument further by citing the fact that over 1.6 million hectares of land have been transferred for real-estate and industrial development purposes; natural forest cover is rapidly declining; water resources are drying up and becoming polluted; agricultural production costs have gone up by 189% in the last 20 years; small and marginal farmers have seen no policy interventions aimed at structural protection against the marauders of the open market.

We are talking about a growth scenario wherein India needed to create employment opportunities for 45 million people; it could provide employment to only 2.1 million.

All these factors are at the root of hunger. Professor Arjun Sengupta, in his report on the unorganised sector, mentions that 77% of India’s population survives on Rs 20 a day. On the other hand, NNMB (National Nutrition Monitoring Bureau) figures show that 76.8% of the population does not receive the prescribed amounts of nutrition!

In the two decades of our new economic policy, one thing emerges strongly: 90% of India’s population received no benefit from it. They manage to survive on the fringes of our political economy.

Although our country is being run by economists, they sound helpless and ill-informed. Has anyone from the Planning Commission, PMO or RBI ever said publicly that the government doled out almost Rs 6.22 lakh crore as tax revenue subsidy in the financial year 2011-12? This is registered as taxes foregone, and accounts for 65% of the government’s total revenue. Last year, the figure was Rs 5.36 lakh crore. A total of Rs 23 lakh crore in six years has been stashed away in the corporate world’s coffers. No one has questioned this. Meanwhile, the agriculture subsidy has been converted into direct loans to farmers; petrol has been handed over to the market; public expenditure on basic services like health, education and access to clean water is dropping. Why the hue and cry about NFSA expenditure?

We are already spending Rs 67,310 crore on food subsidies; there will be an increase of only another Rs 30,000 crore (a mere 4% of taxes being usurped by the corporate-economist-government nexus). And what will that do? It will restore the dignity of the people of India. It will help feed the 77 crore people sleeping hungry. The Government of India will only be giving a subsidy of Rs 1,188 per person per year, or Rs 3.25 a day. And still we have ministers, economists, policymakers and consultants who are unhappy with the idea!

This is the outcome of welfare politics which has become imperative in the last decade or so. We have been running the Integrated Child Development Services programme with a plan to spend Rs 80,000 crore in the next five years; the midday meal scheme is already in place. We have a 17 crore under-6 child population, 45% of which is undernourished. But we barely spend Rs 1.62 per child per day on their growth and nutrition.

The fact of the matter is that the private food market will lose out on profits due to this legislation, and there will be a control over inflation. The market finds this unacceptable. Take the example of the second and third quarter of 2011-12. While the growth rate came down to 6.8%, food inflation also declined from 16% to 1.7%.

There is an argument that it would be better for the government to focus on productivity enhancement rather than on doling out subsidies at the expense of taxpayers. But these two things are not mutually exclusive, they are complementary. India is not a food-deficit country; we produce surplus foodgrain, we throw it in the sea, we export it. But, for various reasons, it does not reach our hungry people.

Part of this discussion is linked to public procurement and a minimum support price. If the government stops subsidising agriculture, profit-makers will benefit and consumers will have to pay high prices. Take the example of pulses. We pay Rs 36 per kg as the minimum support price to the farmer for tur dal, but the market price was Rs 110 some time ago. There is an urgent need to ensure maximum public procurement, and this can only be done and applied through the public distribution system.

The second aspect deals with policy. For the last 20 years, per capita food production in India has been stagnant at around 460 grams per person per day. Although pulses are a key source of protein, their availability has gone down from 70 grams per day in the 1960s to 42 grams in recent times. We adopted new technologies -- hybrid seeds, chemical fertiliser and pesticides -- in order to increase agricultural production. Punjab sacrificed its community techniques and blindly used chemicals resulting, finally, in steep declines in soil fertility.

The present draft of NFSA 2011 is not revolutionary, it is modest. India must think and decide where her priorities lie.

(Sachin Kumar Jain is an activist and researcher closely associated with the Right to Food Campaign)
Infochange News & Features, January 2012

'via Blog this'

Draft Bill here - http://nac.nic.in/foodsecurity/nfsb_final.pdf

More News Articles -

• http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2011-12-20/news/30538157_1_food-security-bill-employment-guarantee-scheme-cash-transfers
• http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article3251907.ece
• http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/the-food-security-bill-needs-to-involveprivate-sector-siraj-chaudhry-/467186/
• http://www.downtoearth.org.in/content/food-security-bill-forgoes-nutrition-security

Karnataka wakf scam runs into Rs 2 lakh crore; CM promises action | TwoCircles.net

Karnataka wakf scam runs into Rs 2 lakh crore; CM promises action | TwoCircles.net:

The biggest scam in the history of India has been uncovered in Karnataka by the state minorities commission. The 7,500-page report on the wakf land encroachments in the state was on Monday submitted to the chief minister of Karnataka Mr. Sadananad Gowda. The CM has promised tough action against whoever involved in the scam and recovery of the wakf properties.

The panel was authorized in November last year to investigate the alleged wakf encroachments, after heavy pressure from media and Muslim community following complaints of illegal encroachments on the wakf land was reported from the Bidar district of the state.

The commission had done an extensive survey of the whole wakf properties of the state for the last 3 months. When it submitted its report on Monday it shocked not only Karnataka but the whole nation at large. According to the report more than 22,000 properties, measuring around 54,000 acres of land worth Rs 2 lakh crore of the Wakf Board have been embezzled by politicians, land mafia and wakf board members over the last decade in the Karnataka state.

After submitting the report the chairperson of the commission Mr. Anwar Manipaddy told the reporters, “I have submitted the report on the alleged Wakf Board land scam running into more than Rs 2 lakh crore to the Chief Minister which will be tabled on the floor of the Assembly. Apart from powerful politicians, and land mafia, several Wakf Board members, Wakf officials, middlemen have been involved in this scam. Misappropriation of Wakf land has taken place in city areas rather than in rural area nearly about 85 per cent of misappropriation has happened in city areas”

The report contains name of 38 politicians involved in the wakf scam, but the minorities commission chairman didn’t reveal their names but their names are expected to come up when the report is going to be tabled in the Assembly.

Mr Anwar Manipaddy said, "This has been done by the people of the community, leaders of the community, businessmen, and middlemen and various other people. No property of the Wakf board can be shared with anybody or sold or bought or anything. It should be used only for the benefit of the poor Muslims in particular or others in general. Once a property is made a Wakf property then it is going to be always remain a Wakf property. Wakf board officials cannot sold it, it is illegal if they are adhering to some compromise,"

The report states that the Wakf board functionaries helped transfer the land to private individuals and institutions over the last 11 years and that a major chunk of the property sold off illegally was in Bangalore, where land rates are highest.

The committee established that major irregularities took place between 2001 and 2012 in the transfer of government land to private parties through mutation. Mutation is a legal process through which the government land is transferred or sold to individuals, institutions, persons or firms after a proper verification of documents. This process was used and violated while transferring and selling of wakf land to private firms by the nexus of politicians, land mafia and wakf board members.

The report has made recommendations to the government for setting up a high-power committee to check corruption in the Wakf Board, and appointing a task force to repossess the Wakf properties which were sold illegally.

The chief minister of Karnataka Mr. Sadananda Gowda after getting the report assured Muslims of thorough probe in the wakf scam. He said, “As per the inquiry, property of the Wakf Board, worth two trillion rupees has been encroached. We will study the report in depth and on our part we will act in right sincerity. And we will ensure, not even an inch of the Wakf land will be misused. Those responsible for abuse of their powers, be they any vested interests or any high and mighty, none of them would be spared. Restoration of the grabbed property is our government's responsibility and soon, the action taken would be known to the people. I am amazed that the wakf land scam runs into Rs 2 lakh crore. We'll not spare anyone.”

The unearthing of wakf scandal by Karnataka minorities commission once again shows the plight of wakf properties which are meant to serve the poor Muslims. It showcases the negligence and corruption going on in the Wakf board not only in Karnataka but in the whole nation.

Link:

http://www.karmin.in/

'via Blog this'

Misuse and encroachment of Wakf properties in the State have caused a whopping Rs two-lakh crore loss to the exchequer, dwarfing the 2G spectrum scam, the Karnataka State Minorities Commission claimed on Monday.The Commission has ‘implicated’ almost all senior Muslim political leaders — most of them belonging to the Congress party — besides ‘indicting’ senior IAS, IPS and KAS officers.The Commission has blamed politicians, including Union Minister Mallikarjun Kharge, MPs Dharam Singh and K Rehman Khan; MLA R Roshan Baig, former Union minister C K Jaffer Sharief, Iqbal Ansari, M S Ansari (late), Azeez Sait (late), Hindasgeri; MLAs Tanveer Sait, N A Haris, Qamrul Islam; former MPs Suryavamshi, Iqbal Ahmed Saradgi, among others, for the loss. It recommended that the Centre amend the Wakf Act 1995 so that “persons who have misused, encroached upon and illegally occupied Wakf properties are banned from contesting elections/ nominations, including to Wakf institutions and Board”.It has also recommended criminal proceedings against those involved in the scam, and superseding of the Wakf Board by the government.The Commission, which took up its study on the subject in Bidar district in November last year, submitted the 7,000-odd page report to Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda on Monday. The report is titled ‘Study on the misuse and encroachment of Wakf properties in Bidar district’. Gowda said the government would ensure that the properties are recovered and the guilty punished.Karnataka Minorities Commission chairperson Anwar Manipaddy demanded that the report be placed before the Legislature.The total encroached land in Bidar is 1,803 acres (of 2,586 acres). Of the total estate value of Wakf properties worth Rs 410 lakh crore, properties worth Rs 2 lakh crore have been either encroached on or sold illegally. There are a total 33,741 registered properties in the State in 54,000 acres. The Commission, which conducted its study in other districts, also including Gulbarga, Bangalore Urban, Bangalore Rural, Ramanagaram and Koppal, has alleged misuse of properties, encroachments, illegal disposal, mismanagement and fraudulent acts committed by erstwhile heads of the Wakf Board, elected representatives, politicians and others.Manipaddy said his life was under threat. “I received threats from various quarters. The present Wakf Board chairperson Syed Riyaz Ahmed, who is absconding, too threatened me. In January, he offered me a bribe of Rs 4 crore.”Roshan Baig, Haris and Qamrul Islam, reacting to the report, said they were clueless how anyone could come to a conclusion that they were responsible for the misappropriate of Wakf properties. He said the government must order a CBI probe into the scam. Recommendations:Keep the Wakf Board under suspension for 12 months to enable probe by the Lokayukta; constitute Wakf Properties Task Force to retrieve properties; constitute a high-powered committee to work out modalities to run the Board in a transparent manner; suspend present committee for one year; Committee should have two senior IAS officers, one retired judge, two NGOs and three persons from the Minorities Commission; appoint IAS officer Rajaneesh Goel as head of the Task Force; take up land audit of Wakf properties; resume second survey by creating a Special Purpose Vehicle; remove encroachments; jail term of five to 10 years, plus fine of double the value of property encroached, sold or purchased illegally; institute criminal proceedings against those involved in the Hopcoms scam; suspend present chairman Abdul Riyaz Khan responsible for sale of Hopcoms land belonging to Dargah Hazrath Khaderi.Politicians, officials in dockPoliticians: Suryavamshi, former MP; Naseem Patel, land developer, local politician in Bidar; Iqbal Ahmed Saradgi, former MP; Mallikarjun Kharge, Union Minister; Dharam Singh, MP; Qamrul Islam, former minister, sitting MLA, member of Wakf Board; C M Ibrahim, former Union minister; Alhaj Syed Yaseen, MLA; Ashfaq Ahmed Chulbul, deputy mayor, Gulbarga; R Rahman Khan, MP; Syed Riyaz Ahmed – present chairman; Roshan Baig, former minister; N A Haris, MLA (his wife, mother); C K Jaffer Sharief – former Union minister; Azeez Sait, former minister; Tanveer Sait, president, Wakf institution; Iqbal Ansari, former minister; M S Ansari (late), former minister; Khalid Ahmed, former Board chairman; former minister Hindusgiri.Officials: Salahuddin, IAS; M F Pasha, Retd IPS; M A Khalid, Retd KAS; Mohammed Sanaulla, IAS; Maaz Ahmed Sheriff, KAS; Anees Siraj, KAS; Sadiya Sultana, KAS; M A Khalid, Retd KAS, Maaz Ahmed Sheriff, KAS.
Sources -
http://www.deccanherald.com/content/237393/rs-2-lakh-cr-land.html
http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/Karnataka/Wakf-scam-rocks-Karnataka-assembly-oppn-demands-probe/Article1-831564.aspx
http://twocircles.net/2012mar28/karnataka_wakf_scam_runs_rs_2_lakh_crore_cm_promises_action.html
http://zeenews.india.com/news/karnataka/wakf-scam-rocks-k-taka-assembly-oppn-demands-prob_766487.html