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Tuesday, December 20, 2016

Book on Uniform Civil Code - Unveiling

Justice Santosh Hegde today (now) unveiled a book on #UniformCivilCode authored by  #DrShivanandJamdaarIAS at Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath Bangalore

Takeaways:

If only British rulers & later Nehru had shown the same determination on #UCC while enacting laws pertaining to Hindu personal law.

Encouraging Inequality on basis of religion, how correct? Historical basis of unequal practice cannot justify it.

Policies were enacted assuming that Minority sections would always abide by the law. And Majority would violate. Said Ms. SushilaChintamani introducing the Book.

Divisiveness of Indian society would have ended if #UCC was enacted in 1955 itself.

This book of  Dr. Shivanand Jamdaar IAS should be Translated in more languages to reach all Indians.

https://t.co/C0Dh81oVYw

Thursday, December 1, 2016

Demonitisation and the Reasons Revealed


All those whom you see now coming together to fight demonetization know exactly what was being planned and what led to all this.  If they still choose to fight this act by the Modi government, you should know exactly from which team they are fighting this existential war of India’s future!  And, with the context of how RBI, Home and Finance Ministry, and banks were compromised over the years, one can very well understand the reason for extreme secrecy and quick action – which the critics ironically call “knee jerk” and “unprepared government plan”.

Read More here :
http://ex-servicemenwelfare.blogspot.in/2016/11/demonetization-detailed-drama-of-how.html?m=1

Tuesday, September 13, 2016

Maharashtra State Authority to hear complaints against Builders - country first



With complaints against Builders riding in numbers, the Maharashtra State Government has decided to constitute a Housing Regulatory Authority to safeguard the interests of homebuyers. 

The authority will be a quasi-judicial body and resolve disputes related to the housing sector. Four benches are likely to be established to hear the cases at different cities in the state.

With this decision, Maharashtra, with the highest ratio of urbanisation and real estate activities in the country, will become the first state to constitute such an authority,

The Maharashtra Housing (Regulation and Development) 2012 was passed two years ago and Presidential assent came in 2014.

The deadline to frame rules for the authority is October 31 and the process is underway.

An officer attached with the housing department, said, 
"There are over 30,000 disputes pending before various courts and forums regarding alleged malpractices by developers, Most of the complaints from Mumbai and Pune are because of the high density of housing construction activities. After drafting the rules, objections and suggestions will be invited from the people to make more reforms before constituting the body."

"The state has received the official nod from the Centre to set up its own regulatory authority for the state. We are in the process of forming rules and regulations after which the authority will come into existence," he added.

Source: http://www.punemirror.in/pune/civic/Govt-body-to-solve-homebuyers-woes/articleshow/54299390.cms

Saturday, June 25, 2016

Personal Laws on the basis of Religion - A Trap





Supreme Court asked the government to file a copy of the report of a committee that is inquiring into personal laws relating to marriage, divorce and custody. Unsurprisingly, the uniform civil code (UCC) debate has been revived. The nationalists want a UCC to further their cultural majoritarian project. They cite the directive in Article 44 of the Constitution requiring the state to “endeavour to secure for the citizens a uniform civil code”. The All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) sees the continued existence of Muslim personal law as a symbol of a distinct Indian Muslim identity and an area of law with divine sanction and, therefore, beyond the purview of temporal government. It uses the constitutional guarantee of the “right freely to profess, practise and propagate religion”.






Between these intransigent outposts stands the baffled liberal citizen. She worries about the AIMPLB’s indifference to another constitutional right in Article 15, which prohibits the state from discrimination on the grounds of sex, and rejects the claimed divine immunity because it is contrary to public reason. She is also skeptical of the Hindu right’s hypocritical use of the anti-discrimination argument, given its predilection to enforce gender norms and indifference to the discriminatory tax implications of the Hindu Undivided Family. Often forgotten are nuanced interventions by the Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan, the All India Muslim Women Personal Law Board, Awaaz-e-Niswaan, and countless individual litigants.




Source - http://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/the-trap-of-personal-laws-uniform-civil-code-aimplb-supreme-court-2775249/

Friday, June 24, 2016

We, The People. ... saw 400 deaths everyday in 2015 Road Accidents!


An official report, released by Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari on Thursday, said 1.46 lakh people were killed in road accidents in India in 2015 — an increase of five per cent from 2014.

Road accidents, as a whole, rose 2.5 per cent during 2015 to 5.01 lakh or 374 accidents every day, claiming 400 lives, the report said.

Majority (54.1 per cent) of those killed in 2015 were in the age group of 15-34. Thirteen States, including Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Uttar Pradesh, accounted for the highest number of accidents. Among cities, while Mumbai had the highest number of accidents (23,468), Delhi saw the most number of such deaths (1,622).

Also, drivers’ fault was responsible for 77.1 per cent of the accidents, deaths and injuries, mainly because of overspeeding, the report noted.

So many were not killed even in wars, epidemic and militancy,” Mr. Gadkari said.

Source: http://m.thehindu.com/news/national/146-lakh-lives-lost-on-indian-roads-last-year/article8710699.ece

Thursday, May 19, 2016

Cleaning the Bar - Bar Council of India

Last year, the law news website Legally India revealed that nearly 30% of India's 76,000 lawyers were fake -- they were simply not eligible to enrol as advocates under the Advocates Act, 1961, the law that governs the legal profession in this country.

Legally India also pointed out inadequacies in how legal education was being imparted, and emphasised the need to make the All India Bar Examination, a qualifying test introduced in 2010, more robust. It laid the blame for the mess largely at BCI's door - for being lackadaisical in the verification process, and letting corrupt practices go unpunished.

The issue of fake lawyers concerns the legal profession, of course, but it's primarily one about citizens' fundamental right to legal representation. An integral part of this right is that a lawyer must be competent

A familiar sight greets litigants outside almost every court in India: lawyers standing on the premises, sometimes even spilling on to the streets, hawking their wares.

In lawyers' lingo, they are referred to as "out-standing lawyers", since they hardly ever see the inside of a courtroom.

Not only do these lawyers do little more than draft affidavits, many are crooks and frauds, as an ongoing case in the Supreme Court has revealed.

The Bar Council of India's Certificate and Place of Practice Rules, 2015 aims to change all this.


Source - http://www.catchnews.com/india-news/fake-lawyers-crooks-in-black-coats-face-supreme-court-crackdown-1463596790.html

Wednesday, May 18, 2016

Create Awareness against QNET and other phony MLM Ponzi schemes

An article about the Awareness of the Ponzi and MLM schemes.

We all have friends who -
1. Have suddenly started up their dream business
2. But it's a secret
3. Don't even tell you the name of their business but they keep telling you I am into a business
3. Have their Facebook full of motivational quotes
4. Claim that they have suddenly become rich
5. They visit Malaysia and Dubai and post pictures having fun there and call it a business trip ! These are the only guys who have fun during a business trip it seems. (Reality: They bought the tickets by themselves only to post pictures so that their innocent friends would think that they are doing something really cool)
6. No matter how much you ignore them, they will keep on calling you till their last breath. We already know that this is not the characteristics of a person who has even 10% self respect in him/her.
7. And then one day they tell you that they have an open position of a Business Partner. He also tells you that he trusts you a lot and hence has arranged a meeting with his seniors to introduce you, probably in a CCD :-p
8. They tell you that you can earn more than 4 crores in just a few years but do not tell you exactly what is your role in the business, But overall this guy looks so convincing that you almost feel that if you do not join him, you will miss out !
9. He makes you feel that you are running in a Rat Race by working in your current job and that their Business is the only way to change your life.

If you have experienced this and escaped, Congrats ! You are one of the Lucky Ones ! Sadly, Not everyone escapes, some join it only to lose their money because they chose not to dupe more people.

This post is issued in public interest so that all of us can understand there is no short cut to success.

Please Please Please share this post and help us create awareness against QNET. This is the only way to save your closed ones from getting cheated.

Source - Facebook post

Thursday, April 14, 2016

Hindu Philosophy Interpreted by the Courts of India - DailyO

The Supreme Court seems to be reducing Hindu philosophy to a single absolute certainty. Something Hindu sages, the progenitors of the philosophy themselves, never did. There is, contrary to popular opinion, no arbitration on who a brahmin should be. Ram was a kshatriya, Krishna was a Yadava, Shiva a tribal, a kirata, none of them brahmins. Rishi Aiterya, Vishwamitra, VedaVyasa, Matanga, Nammalvar... Ravana. Many material states in Hinduism are mutable.

And just like that a constitutional body has, probably for the first time anywhere in the world, become the interpreter of religious texts. In this it is protected by Article 25 (2) that deals with the right to religious freedom but allows the courts to intervene on social welfare and reform, but only on Hinduism. This inability to separate faith and state is now the definition of Indian secularism.

Shabarimala:
Ayappa is the god of discipline. Mahishi symbolises the ego. It is in him that Hari and Hara, creation and destruction, come to harmony. The rigorous vows of celibacy, the 40 days penance, ironically, are a tribute to womanhood: they symbolise one day of penance for each week spent in a mother's womb. Woman, the symbolic Prakriti energy, or vehicle of creation is not available to man for these 40 days. Man must pull himself back from his function as procreator and the procreated. The black symbolises the nullifying of the colour spectrum, absorbing all differentiation into one.

Devotees do not even address each other by name during the pilgrimage. The physical state is forgotten, and the pilgrim must subsist on alms. The 18 steps symbolise 18 exercises to remind the student or the householder, of his need to transition to a state of detachment. Women may go up the hill all they want, Lord Ayyappa will survive the seduction of women pilgrims plenty. He is too advanced a master of the mind not to.

One may not be so sure of the men who make the climb though. The penance is for them. To remind themselves that they are one half of a whole, where they come from, who they depend on, and why balance is their function. That it is seen as rigorous penance, is indicative of why men need to probably do this more often, but once a year is enough.

Court Interpretation
No doubt, this entire body of knowledge and way of thinking is what the learned judge of the honorable Supreme Court was encapsulating and taking into account when he began to arbitrate what Hinduism says. He had clearly studied it, decoded all the caste links and structures, schools of knowledge, expounded it, and was only thus explaining it in open court. Which is an amazing feat, considering all commentaries and bhashyas on Hindu texts differ, even from sage to sage and commentator to commentator on the same line of Hindu text. Yajnavalkya warns Maitreyi: it is impossible to know the essence of finite beings.

The judicial arbitration of Hinduism's intrinsic principles reduces an entire religion to a monotheism and ignores the multiple layers of consciousness that form its spiritual temperament. The pantheon of Hindu gods exists so a devotee may adopt that which suits his form of bhakti, or adoration, which again is not the only path. Even wealth, duty, study take you there. One is not imposed on another. The myths and stories exist so Hindus lower down the plane of spiritual evolution may comprehend higher truths more easily, in the form of life lessons. The stories of avatars exist to exemplify ways of living and behaving. The Vedic texts exist for those who seek to question on higher planes. This ascent is not ordained by pundits but is open to each member of the faith as and when he or she finds himself seeking it. The multi-layered multi-faceted expansiveness of Hinduism is its fabric.

To force ascension is against the inbuilt progression of the religion itself. The Supreme Court, in adjudicating on matters it has no religious punditry over, and in doing so under the protection of the law, and the Constitution of India reduces Hinduism to a bunch of meaningless myths.

Source -http://www.dailyo.in/politics/hinduism-sabarimala-shani-shingnapur-right-to-pray-supreme-court-monotheism-ramayana-mahabharata-vedas-shakti-gender/story/1/10069.html

Monday, April 11, 2016

New Cheque Dishonour Amendment Explained - Gujarat HC - Times of India

In an important order in a cheque bouncing case, Gujarat high court has explained and clarified the new law regarding jurisdiction of courts in such matters and where an aggrieved party can file a complaint.

In this case, the petition was filed by a resident of Uttar Pradesh after an Ahmedabad-based firm moved the Ahmedabad metropolitan court under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act against a dishonoured cheque. The cheque was issued in Badalpur, UP, and deposited in a bank in Gorakhpur, UP. When the cheque was dishonoured due to inadequate balance, the payee filed a complaint in Ahmedabad.

The UP resident questioned the jurisdiction of Ahmedabad court on the ground that the cheque was issued in UP and delivered in UP. No action in the matter had taken place in Ahmedabad. On the other hand, the Ahmedabad-based firm argued that the complaint was maintainable because the company had its bank account in Ahmedabad.

Justice J B Pardiwala rejected the UP resident's contention and gave a clarification on the amended law. The court made it clear that "when the cheque is delivered for collection through an account, the complaint is to be filed before the court where the branch of the bank is situated, where the payee or the holder in due course maintains his account and, secondly, when the cheque is presented for payment over the counter, the complaint is to be filed before the court where the drawer maintains his account."

The issue has a curious history. In 2014, the Supreme Court ruled that cheque return cases can be filed in a court where the issuer (drawer) maintains his account. This resulted in shifting of lakhs of cases from one town to the other and caused complainants difficulties.

To put an end to the payee's troubles, the President promulgated the Negotiable Instruments (Amendment) Ordinance in June 2015. This provided that the complaint can be filed in a court where the payee maintains his bank account. While the amended law takes care of interest of the payee of the cheque, it also tries to ensure that drawer of multiple chequess is not harassed by payees filing different complaints at different places. In such a case, all complaints should be filed in the court where the first case was lodged.

Source -http://m.timesofindia.com/city/ahmedabad/High-Court-explains-new-cheque-bounce-law/articleshow/51751606.cms

Sunday, March 13, 2016

In defence of a revolutionary - Reopening the trial of Shaheed Bhagat Singh and his team - IndianExpress



Eighty-five years after the hanging of Bhagat Singh, lawyers from India and Pakistan have joined hands to re-open, and overturn, the sham trial that led to his death.

In a dark, poky room that constitutes his chamber in the new block of the Supreme Court, Delhi, Nafis Siddiqui, a 77-year-old criminal lawyer, has been preparing for a most unorthodox case for the last two years. 

As part of his research, he has been reading up on cases where verdicts have been upended after long periods of time. He cites the case of George Stinney, a young boy, exonerated 70 years after his death by a court in US (in 2014), that found he was denied due process. Siddiqui points out another relevant trial; the ongoing legal battle between the British government and victims of Kenya’s Mau Mau emergency, who are demanding compensation 50 years after the events. “When it comes to infringement of fundamental rights, a delay in the matter is of no consequence,” he says.




With loose-flowing white hair, thick-framed glasses and oversized black coat, Siddiqui is an idiosyncratic figure. He pulls out a thick brown folder marked “Bhagat Singh”, with whom he has grown to be familiar through history books and family lore — Siddiqui’s father-in-law, Hasrat Mohani, a freedom fighter, communist and poet, credited for coining the slogan, “Inquilab Zindabad!”, had a great influence on the revolutionary. “I mostly handle cases of murder, and this is clearly a case of political murder,” he says.



Eighty-five years after the hanging of Bhagat Singh, a lawyer from Pakistan is trying to pull off what is either an audacious attempt to change the course of history, or a fool’s errand. In 2014, Siddiqui was approached by Lahore-based Imtiaz Rashid Qureshi — who has been fighting a lone battle to prove the innocence of Bhagat Singh — to advise him on his case. Qureshi’s petition, which was filed at the Lahore High Court in 2013, seeks to reopen the case of the hanging of Singh and his compatriots, Sukhdev Thapar and Shivaram Rajguru, whose death anniversary will be celebrated on March 23 as Martyrs’ Day. In February this year, a two-member division bench in Lahore referred the case to a larger bench. For Qureshi, who argued that only a bench of three or more members could undo the decision of the three-member bench that awarded the death sentence in 1930, it was a moment of victory.

The first breakthrough came in 2014 when the court handed him a copy of the original FIR for the murder of British police officer John Saunders lodged at Lahore’s Anarkali police station in December 1928. The FIR does not name any of the three accused.



This is just one of the many discrepancies of the Lahore Conspiracy Case, which lasted for nearly two years and is universally recognised as a sham trial. As AG Noorani detailed in his book, The Trial of Bhagat Singh, from the lower court to the tribunal to the Privy Council, it was a judgment that represented a total compromise of the legal process.

The accused remained absent through the proceedings and remained unrepresented. Halfway through the trial, an Indian judge, deemed sympathetic to the accused, was removed from the tribunal. Many other rules of law were flouted. In a scathing editorial that appeared in April 1931, in the Marathi newspaper Janata, soon after the hanging, BR Ambedkar called out the hypocrisy of the British who manipulated the trial for political ends.



“We are demanding two things, that the British government, through the Queen, apologise to both our countries, and pay compensation to the families of Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev,” says Qureshi over the phone from Lahore. Loquacious and deeply committed to the cause, he calls himself a “lover of Bhagat Singh” and runs a memorial in his name, the Bhagat Singh Memorial Foundation. “This is a case that unites the two countries and it proves that Pakistan, an Islamic state, can also be liberal. Let’s not forget the Quaid-e-Azam was the only leader to have publicly defended him.” In a speech he gave in the Central Assembly in 1929, Mohammad Ali Jinnah had famously expressed his sympathy for the revolutionaries.

Qureshi’s pursuit has had a ripple effect in India. In Ludhiana, the descendants of Sukhdev Thapar have recently written to the Indian government, demanding a copy of the FIR and papers related to the judgment. Ashok Thapar, (a great-nephew, his grandfather was the younger brother of Sukhdev), who runs the Shaheed Sukhdev Thapar Memorial Trust, says, “We want government support to go to Lahore and pursue this case, or we will file an RTI. As his blood relations, we have a claim.”



More than perhaps the verdict, the reopening of the trial is crucial for another reason. There is renewed hope that the court will order the release of about 164 files related to the case, which are with the Punjab Archives in Lahore. They have been treated as “sensitive”, and no historian or researcher has ever been allowed to access them, says Ludhiana-based Jagmohan Singh, a researcher on Bhagat Singh. He also happens to be Bhagat Singh’s nephew, born to his sister Bibi Amar Kaur. But, unlike the sustained campaign around the declassification of the Netaji files, these files have been neglected. Yet, they are a crucial part of setting the record straight.



“The trial may or may not change history, but it’s the right of the people to know what happened, and those files will help us get there,” says Shantanu Rajguru, a great-grandnephew of Shivaram Rajguru. The family lives in Pune and is currently putting together a biography on the revolutionary. It was Rajguru, known as the marksman of the group, who fired the shot that killed Saunders. But Rajguru, like Sukhdev (who was in charge of coordinating the operation to avenge the death of Lala Lajpat Rai), has been reduced to a footnote in history, believes Shantanu. The descendants of Sukhdev believe that the retrial should not be held in the name of Singh alone.

*****
Apart from the context of historicity, the trial is significant as a measure of the democratic struggle in Pakistan being led by the civil society. The effort to reinstate Bhagat Singh as an icon has gathered force in recent times, as he has emerged as a symbol for the secularists in their battle against illiberal forces. Singh belongs to the pantheon of heroes of the Indian subcontinent. He is venerated in Punjab where he was born. “The PIL is an important political and historical development in a country and a region where history is often distorted in textbooks, held hostage to nationalist expediencies and heroes like Bhagat Singh are simply whitewashed or relegated to a footnote,” says Raza Naeem, a social scientist and activist from Lahore, over an email interview.



While there is no official celebration of his martyrdom day in Pakistan, every year, on March 23, there is a gathering of activists at Shadman Chowk, next to Lahore Jail, where he was executed. Since 2001, there has been a movement demanding Shadman Chowk be renamed Bhagat Singh Chowk. The government agreed a few years ago, but capitulated when Islamist groups objected to the icon on grounds of his religious identity. In a conciliatory move last year, the government announced a package of Rs 8 crore, for the restoration of his ancestral house in Faisalabad district.

“I have attended the annual gathering at the chowk for a few years and every year, the movement has grown,” says Haroon Khalid, Pakistani author and journalist. “It is now part of the broader debate that seeks to widen the horizons of Pakistani nationalism by incorporating non-Muslim heroes as well. Another interesting dynamic of this movement is that it also comes at a time when the Pakistani state actively wants to re-project itself as a liberal secular state. There has been particular focus on the protection and promoting of Sikh heritage in the country. Bhagat Singh is seen in that broader framework of this Sikh heritage,” he says.

*****


(The other aspects touched in the original article are not subscribed to or agreeable with me. It would be a narrow approach to stifle the Patriotic actions of the Revolutionaries under the Colonial Rule to a set of political isms. It is also equally wrong and disruptive to equate those Revolutionaries in the real sense to the present ongoing events involving a  few misguided, politically motivated individuals.)

SOURCE - 

http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/freedom-fighter-bhagat-singh-inquilab-zindabad-supreme-court-nafis-siddiqui-george-stinney-hasrat-mohani-in-defence-of-a-revolutionary/#sthash.WNn5MgTv.dpuf

Monday, February 29, 2016

India's Business set-up Bottlenecks


Building a factory in India is not for the faint hearted. 

Even if a company is fortunate and manages to buy land - which, by the way, is becoming more and more difficult, expensive and time-consuming due to complex laws, people's rising expectations and local politics - that is just a start. 

A manufacturing company in India, on average, has to comply with nearly 70 laws and regulations. Apart from the multiple inspections, it has to file around 100 returns in a year, according to a 2013 report by consultancy firm Deloitte. 

Then there is the double maze of tax and labour laws that can be a big pain even in the best of times. Poor infrastructure does not help either. 

Will the NDA government, whose economic programme hinges on boosting the manufacturing sector, be able to bring about the required change? 

Will it be able to debottleneck the process of setting up and running a factory in the country so that its plan to create millions of new jobs in manufacturing sees the light of day? 

Problems in acquisition of land, delays in environmental and other clearances and infrastructure bottlenecks have taken a toll. 

In the past five years (2011 to 2015), new projects have seen a marked reduction of 44 per cent from the period between 2006 and 2010. The value of stalled projects more than tripled during the period. 

Worse, straddled with huge distressed assets, core sector companies are more concerned about avoiding default rather than making fresh investments. 

As a result, India's investment-to-gross domestic product ratio has fallen for five straight financial years now. 

The NDA government has tried to correct this through a massive increase in investments to build infrastructure. It is likely to follow this policy in the coming Budget, too.

Source -http://www.businesstoday.in/magazine/features/indias-manufacturing-hub-plan-is-in-a-host-of-problems/story/229415.html 

Monday, February 15, 2016

Prenuptial Agreements to be the Norm? - Business Standard


Prenuptial agreements in India might not be legally tenable but, increasingly, families are going for these contracts which state the assets of the bride and groom, and the compensation the woman will receive if the marriage turns sour and the couple legally part ways.

“Families are opting for prenuptial agreements to see the intentions of the parties involved, even though the contract is not legally binding,” says senior advocate Mrunalini Deshmukh, who handled divorce cases of many Bollywood celebrities including Aamir and Reena Khan and Karisma Kapoor. She adds that the document is used to tell the court the conditions that the couple had agreed upon when they got married.

It’s not only the wealthy that are drawing up these agreements. Advocate Vandana Shah recently got a couple who asked her to help them draft one such contract. They were both part of corporate world, working in middle management. When she told them it would not have any standing in a court, they said they were making it so that both were clear on the settlement terms if they part ways.

Prenuptials are popular in developed countries such as the US, Australia, France and Germany. But in India, there are Supreme Court rulings which say any contract which has marriage as an object is null and void.

Recently, Maneka Gandhi, minister for women and child development,  recommended to D V Sadananda Gowda, Minister for Law and Justice, to make Prenuptial Agreements mandatory before marriage.

The recommendation was made as many women from lower socio-economic backgrounds have to fight endless battles over alimony, marital ownership of property and assets during divorce.
Deshmukh says, on an average, divorce cases take four to five years to conclude; but many also drag on for over 15 years. She has a client, who is still fighting a legal battle since 1999.

The idea of legalising Prenuptial Agreements has many takers.

Lawyers say it will help reduce the burden of courts. It will also end husbands and wives taking undue advantage of each other and will keep their expectations in check. It will also help solve common reasons for fights or disputes, such as division of property.

Financial planners say it will be a good starting point in a marriage. When drawing a prenuptial agreement, the entire assets, liabilities, business ownerships, among other things, are listed out. This can make both parties aware of each other’s finances before tying the knot.

Even if a prenuptial agreement does not become legal in India, there are a few things every couple should follow while managing their family finances to ensure that things don’t go awry in case they part ways.

Suresh Sadagopan, a certified financial planner, says couples should keep their finances separate and contribute towards expenses in equal proportion. If the husband’s salary is Rs 1 lakh and wife’s is Rs 50,000. They can equally contribute 30 per cent of their income to family expenses.

Shah says couples should keep their bank accounts separate and all investments should be done through individual accounts. This will not only create a trail, but also make calculation of taxes easy.

When buying property, couples should also take the ownership in the asset in proportion to their contribution, Sadagopan says. If the husband is paying 70 per cent of the equated monthly instalment, he should list his share in that proportion.

Source - http://wap.business-standard.com/article/bs/prenuptial-agreements-likely-to-be-mandatory-116020400476_1.html

Sunday, February 14, 2016

A Cyclists encounter with the Railway Police at Bangalore - The Logical Indian

From the #Facebook page #LogicalIndian:

#MyStory

“I have read of inhumane incidents happening in many parts of the country. But you won’t totally believe unless you encounter one. Now onward I can totally believe them.

I frequently travel to China for my official trips. One thing I always adored by Chinese people is their use of electrical or foldable bicycle which they carry with them in the subway.

This time, after coming to India I desperately started looking for such bicycle if available in India. At last, I found one BTWIN HOPTOWN bicycle at Decathlon. I immediately bought and started using it. Once I was carrying it with me on the train between the route KR PURAM to Bangalore Cantonment. I am proud of the fact that I am not the one contributing to the pollution in Bangalore.

On 9/2/2016, while exiting from Bangalore Cantonment railway station one ticket checking officer lady caught me and started demanding fine for carrying a bicycle with me. I tried to convince her, once folded it is not a bicycle at all, it weights hardly 14 kg and it is very much portable. But she insisted on asking for 6 times the fare of travel. I asked her for the railway rules regarding this and the receipt of the bill. She took my pass and made me wait for another 30 minutes and later came with an excuse that she doesn’t know the luggage rules. I was getting late and told her 6 times my fare of travel is 60 rupees and that she can have 100 rupees and let me go. But she demanded 300 rupees.

I told her even if it is 1000 rupees I will pay but I need the receipt. She presented the same excuse that she doesn’t know the luggage rules. At last, I lost my patience and started to call her corrupt. After which she slapped me, pushed me and called her police constable colleague to take me to the jail for misbehavior. He took me to the jail and started beating me. His other colleagues joined him, they undressed me and started beating me with hand, leg and sticks 5 people at a time. I was sure that I was going to die that day and only my body will be found next day. I begged them in all the possible way I can. At last, after an hour, one guy listened to my plea and asked me to pay 5000 rupees. He asked me to call any of my friends to come with 5000 rupees and then can take me back.

I called my manager Harish Haswani who came with two mutual colleagues of ours. All three had to plea to the railway police for more than an hour on my behalf as Railway police have threatened them that they will file a case against me of misbehaving with a lady officer and that I have tried to press her breast. I was very much shocked to see to what level character of a woman can fall. After too much of plea and the bribe from my colleagues they released me. The lady officer fined me 190Rs stating my bicycle weight is 40kg although it is 14kg only. Also, she fined me for ticket-less traveling though I was having the monthly pass. Also, the receipt she issued is of date 8/02/16 and not 9/02/16 on which date I travelled and the incident took place. We all were too much afraid and didn’t dare to ask her for the mistake in the receipt. All of our focus was just to save my life and get me out of there.

I am undergoing the treatment. My left hand is fractured. My friend Sarfaraz is taking care of me. I am determined never to travel by train in Bangalore again. My fold-able  BTWIN bicycle will never get used again. But at the same time, I have lost all the focus at my work. Fortunately, my mobile has done the voice recording of the entire incident. My mobile recording along CCTV camera recording at railway is enough to prove if I have done remotely any kind of misbehavior with the lady. I am determined to teach a lesson to these corrupt officials even if it cost me my life. I have written letters to all higher police authorities as well as human rights commission seeking action in this regards. They will respond but very unfortunatly as per indian goverment office time.”

And Comments thereon:


@drmsbc has replied to tweets on this issue saying that Railway police is state police and doesn’t come under railways.

https://twitter.com/drmsbc/status/698662569536417793

I will delete this post in some time since my suggestion is perhaps no longer relevant.

In the meanwhile, if you have any suggestions regarding how to approach this issue then let me know.

My original post:
-----------
The Logical Indian, could you please tweet this to @RailMinIndia
They are very prompt and they will take appropriate action.

Edit:
The summary of tweets made for this issue:
My tweet to @RailMinIndia:
https://twitter.com/amithbag/status/698599458020261888

Sidhharth (@siddhu_2011):
https://twitter.com/RailMinIndia/status/698595124578615296
(@RailMinIndia has replied to Siddharth’s tweet)

Avinash Surendran (@ashwin296):
https://twitter.com/ashwin296/status/698605652466405376

cibi s (@cibiindhu):
https://twitter.com/cibiindhu/status/698627271477870592

It looks like @drmsbc has replied to the tweets of Sidhharth, Avinash and cibi s:

“@cibiindhu @RailMinIndia @GMSWR @ashwin296 @siddhu_2011 Rly Police is state police, not under Rly. Clarification by @srdcmsbc.”
https://twitter.com/drmsbc/status/698662569536417793

So essentially it seems that they are saying that they can’t do much since Railway police is state police. Is that ticket checking lady also under Railway police and not Railway? Requesting Sidhharth, Avinash and cibi s to reply to @drmsbc and ask for clarification.
-----------

Comment #2:

Laws that were made to protect women are being used as a tool to extort money, take revenge, cry victim when a woman herself is the wrong doer and to teach a "lesson" to a man for being a man by the "empowered women". This is happening not only in metros but smallest areas around the country. While crime against Innocent and vulnerable women is happening everywhere, false accusations against innocent and vulnerable men and boys like one above is on a rise too. While there are stringent laws to take care of the former, there is little one can do in case of latter. Some time before everyone realizes the need to control this menace.

Comment #3:

#PMOIndia, Narendra Modi, Suresh Prabhu
After such incidents, do you still expect us to co-operate with the Police and have faith in these so called Law Enforcement forces in India?
Who gives them the right to even TOUCH US without any valid reason or proof? Are these people seriously the ones responsible for OUR SAFETY?
WE WILL NOT BE SUPPRESSED AND THIS NEEDS TO STOP. NOW.
#Shame

Comment #4:

Laws-

The Bangalore Metro Rail (Carriage and Ticket) Rules 2011 limit the weight of personal baggage to 15 kg. Rule 3 says: “No person shall, while travelling in metro railway, carry with him any goods other than a small baggage containing personal belongings not exceeding 60cm x 45cm x 25cm in size and 15kg in weight, except with the prior approval of the metro railway administration.” The rules also prohibit carrying explosive, inflammable, and poisonous substances.

The Metro Railway (Operation and Maintenance) Act, 2002, imposes fines and in some cases jail sentences for offences committed on the metro. Anyone indulging in sabotaging the train or maliciously hurting or attempting to hurt other passengers while travelling in the metro can face imprisonment up to 10 years. Pasting posters or drawing graffiti on the walls of stations or trains is punishable by a fine of ₹1,000 or imprisonment for up to 6 months. Travelling in an inebriated state or creating nuisance in the train is punishable by a ₹500 fine. Passengers are monitored at security checkpoints and those that are causing trouble, heavily drunk, or carrying forbidden items are not permitted to board. Spitting on the metro premises is punishable by a fine of ₹100.

Comment #5:

I hope you are innocent fight back and get back to work and train travel with your bicycle this time with any rule copy. If you are innocent nothing should stop you should fight back even if you dont have enough evidence . Expose them to society and put them to shame .believe your friends and family know your nature have confidence. We are all with you.

Reproduced here for Academic information.

Source : #Facebook #TheLogicalIndian

Friday, February 12, 2016

Burberry faces U.S. lawsuit accusing it of deceptive price tags


British luxury fashion brand Burberry is to face a class action lawsuit in the United States, claiming it used misleading price tags at its outlets stores to fool shoppers into believing they were getting big bargains.

The company, which specifically manufactures some of the products for its outlet stores, is accused of intentionally presenting false price information on products that have never been sold in its retail stores to mislead customers.

Outlet stores typically sell excess or old stock at a discount, although some retailers also manufacture goods specifically for them.

The lawsuit in the latest in a long line of cases accusing luxury retailers of marking up goods sold in outlet stores with made-up manufacturer prices.

Last year, U.S. retailer Michael Kors had agreed to pay $4.88 million and change its sales practices to settle a similar class action lawsuit after it was accused of creating an "illusion" of deep discounts.

(Reporting by Li-mei Hoang)

Source - http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSKCN0VL0NT

Friday, February 5, 2016

P&H HC - Foreign Citizens covered under MWPSC Act


The Punjab and Haryana High Court has held that foreign citizens living in India are also entitled to benefits conferred under Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act. Justice H.S. Siddhu made this observation in Hamina Kang vs. District Magistrate.

Challenging an order issued under the Act, the petitioner had contended that an application can be filed only by a “Senior Citizen” which term as per its definition in Section 2(h), means a person who is a citizen of India and is of the age of sixty years or above.

Rejecting such a contention the Court observed that there is no requirement for the parent to be a citizen of India.

 A senior citizen is a person who is a citizen of India and is of the age of sixty years or more. 

Since the requirement of being a citizen of India is only a part of the definition of a senior citizen, a father or mother, whatever his or her nationality would be a `parent’. Thus, a person who is a parent would be entitled to the benefits of the Act which are conferred on parents, irrespective of his or her age or nationality, the Court said. 

The Court also observed that the Rules made under the Act can be invoked by a `Parent’, even though he may not be a `Senior Citizen’ as defined in the Act.

The court further observed that the applicants are not natives of U.S and were Indian Citizens by birth. “They have had their education from India, getting the Engineering and MBBS degree respectively from Punjab Engineering College, Chandigarh and Government Medical College Amritsar. Respondent No. 2 served the Indian Army for ten years from 1959 to 1969 and went to USA after getting discharge from the Army. It is thereafter that they acquired U.S. Citizenship. Having retired from their jobs, they now want to settle in India. They are presently registered as `Overseas Citizens of India’. They cannot be denied the benefit of the 2007 Act”, the Court.

Source - http://www.livelaw.in/foreign-citizens-living-in-india-entitled-to-benefits-conferred-under-maintenance-and-welfare-of-parents-and-senior-citizens-act-punjab-and-haryana-hc/



Wednesday, February 3, 2016

Ordinance promulgated to amend the Enemy Property Act, 1968


The Enemy Property (Amendment and
Validation) Ordinance, 2016 was promulgated on January 7, 2016.

 The Ordinance amends the Enemy Property Act, 1968 and the Public Premises (Eviction of Unauthorised Occupants)
Act, 1971.
After the India-Pakistan wars of 1965 and 1971, the central government took over the properties (called ‘enemy properties’) of those who migrated from India and became citizens of Pakistan (i.e., ‘enemy’). These properties were vested in the office of the ‘custodian of enemy property’, instituted under the central government.
 The 1968 Act regulates rights over these enemy properties, and the powers of their custodian.
In July 2010, an Ordinance was introduced to amend the Act (subsequently lapsed).

 This Ordinance clarified that the office of the custodian will retain its power over enemy properties, even after the enemy dies, or if the legal heir is an Indian citizen, or the enemy changes his nationality, etc.
The 2016 Ordinance also provides for the same.

In addition, it amends the Act to broaden the definition of enemies. For instance, the Act provided that a citizen of India cannot be considered an enemy. Under the 2016
Ordinance, legal heirs of enemies (even if they are Indian citizens) will be considered enemies.

This will mean they will not be able to inherit enemy properties, or enjoy any benefits arising from them.

The 2016 Ordinance also modifies powers of the custodian of enemy property. For example, it adds the power to fix and collect rent, and evict unauthorised occupants from such properties.

For the purpose of allowing regulation of
unauthorised occupants in case of enemy
properties, the Ordinance also makes some
amendments to the 1971 Act.

The 2016 Ordinance has retrospective effect
from the date of commencement of the 1968 Act. This is to ensure that transfers of enemy property that had taken place before its promulgation are deemed ineffective if they violate its provision. All such properties will continue to vest with the custodian.
For a comparison of the two Ordinances, please see here
-

Monday, February 1, 2016

Draft Rights of Transgender Persons Bill, 2015 released - PRSIndia

Ministry of Social Justice and
Empowerment released the draft Rights of
Transgender Persons Bill, 2015 in January
2016.

 The draft Bill seeks to ensure overall
development and welfare of transgender persons.
A transgender person is defined as a person whose gender does not match with the gender assigned to them at birth, irrespective of whether they have undergone sex reassignment surgery or hormone therapy, etc.

Key provisions of the draft Bill include:
 Certificate of identity: A certificate
indicating that a person is a transgender
person will be issued by a state level
authority, on the recommendation of a
district screening committee (comprising
District Magistrate, psychologist,
psychiatrist, representatives of the
transgender community, etc.). The
certificate may be used to indicate gender on official documents, like ration card and
Aadhaar card. Transgender persons will
have the option to identify as ‘man’,
‘woman’ or ‘transgender’ in all such cases.
 Rights of transgenders and duties of
government: The central and state
governments must take steps to ensure that
transgender persons enjoy right to equality,
Land protection from discrimination. The
government must also ensure that
transgender persons have accommodation,
protection from torture, etc.
 Health: The central and state governments must take steps to provide health facilities to transgender persons including separate HIV  surveillance centres, free of cost sex
reassignment surgeries, etc.
 Education: Educational institutions funded or recognised by the government will have to admit transgender students without discrimination, provide accommodation and necessary support.
 Employment: Public or private
establishments (including companies,
unions, factories, etc.) will be prohibited
from discriminating against transgender
persons in matters related to employment
including recruitment and promotion.
Further, transgender persons may be
declared a Backward Class so that they can
be entitled to reservation under the ‘Other
Backward Class’ category.
A private member Bill related to rights of
transgender persons was passed by Rajya Sabha in April 2015, and is currently pending in Parliament.

Wednesday, January 27, 2016

NDPS Act needs a re-look - india

India’s Anti-Narcotics Law is in Urgent Need of Rehab

Thirty years since the passage of the NDPS Act, the failure to do anything meaningful for the rehabilitation of drug addicts has led to the government and courts criminalising people in urgent need of medical assistance

 
The Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 (“NDPS Act”) – India’s primary law to combat drug trafficking – turned 30 last November with scant public or parliamentary discussion about the contradictory objectives of rehabilitation and deterrence that have rendered the statute strikingly ineffective.

The law was enacted to fulfil India’s obligations under a series of international conventions and reiterate its commitment towards eradication of the drug problem across the country. In its present form, it envisages stringent punishments for drug traffickers and rehabilitation for addicts. While the consumption of drugs is prima facie criminalised, the Act makes a clear distinction between traffickers – who are subject to strict penal action – and individual consumers, who can be pushed towards rehab.
Several exit routes – for instance sections 39and 64A, which allow for probation and immunity from prosecution to addicts volunteering for treatment respectively – have been provided for addicts to leave the penal system. However, from our interaction with lawyers and rehabilitation centres, it is clear that these two sections are the most unused provisions in the statute. We find that both the police and judiciary share a lack of understanding of the statute and its mechanisms for rehabilitation. While this has given way to abuse of the law, the lacunae in training and sensitisation of the investigation agencies, prosecution, and the judiciary has handicapped the objectives of rehabilitation.
Further, based on our analysis of judgments from some sample districts of Punjab, we have found a complete absence of court ordered probation or rehabilitation. The judges, seemingly uninformed about the larger objectives of the legislation, find it expedient to convict and fine consumers as it achieves illusory deterrence. We learned though our interaction with organisations working on rehabilitation of drug addicts that not a single individual has been sent to a rehab centre by court order. The objectives behind the two-pronged approach of deterrence and rehabilitation may have been conceived as being complementary, but nevertheless, they appear irreconcilable when it comes to application.
In fact, the problem of implementing the NDPS Act stems from an unclear legislative intent. At the time of drafting the legislation, MPs were equivocal about the intended functions and ends of the law. This is visible from the parliamentary debates around the NDPS Act and its subsequent amendments.

Detrimental effects of unclear legislative intent
Although the purported intent of the law at the time of enactment was to specifically deter drug traffickers, MPs argued for imprisonment for all, irrespective of whether they were traffickers or individual consumers. The debates in 1985 oscillated between demanding deterrence and rehabilitation of individual consumers, thus leading to obscurity regarding the true legislative intent behind the Act. The 2001 amendment to the Act, which introduced graded punishment according to the quantity of drugs involved, rationalised the sentencing structure marginally. However, the aspect of court-monitored rehabilitation failed to receive any attention.
Even the parliamentary standing committeereport of 2011, which dealt with section 27 (punishment for personal consumption of narcotic and psychotropic substances) at length failed to adequately address the issue of rehabilitation. The committee accepted submissions from several sources, including NGOs, who argued that the section contradicts the legislative intent of treatment and reformation drug users, as they require medical assistance and not punishment. The committee concluded that it was not possible to move away from the deterrence framework and recommended that provisions for punishment ought to stay even for drug users if the objective of the legislation was to be achieved. The committee thus continued to conceptualise rehabilitation within the ambit of criminalisation.
Of addicts and rehabilitation
Another problem that afflicts the legislation is the continued absence of any perceptible distinction between a consumer and an addict. The existing definition of an addict is neither medical nor legal. During the discussion of the bill in 1985, the words ‘consumer’ and ‘addict’ were used interchangeably. The 2011 standing committee report is unclear on the status of an ‘addict’. It uses ‘addict’ to mean an individual on the lower end of the scale of guilt but nonetheless someone who ought to be punished. The language used here reflects the ambiguity in the nature of treatment designed within the statute for users and addicts. The statute uses words like ‘consumption’, ‘possession’, ‘use’, without providing any guidance on what they mean or how they differ in indicating the guilt of the individual.
Another key aspect, which has contributed to the inability of law to handle the drug menace in India is the lack of political will in creating institutions responsible for monitoring and implementing rehabilitation.
During the parliamentary debates in 1985 and 1989, several MPs suggested that section 71, pertaining to rehabilitation needs to be more nuanced – with certain obligations placed on the government to introduce the necessary medical establishments and facilities. There were several suggestions for operationalising the provision, which included making necessary budgetary allocations, setting up boards to oversee rehabilitation mechanisms, collaborating with the Ministry of Social Justice and Welfare to ensure effective rehabilitation, etc. Subsequently, attention towards institutional support for rehabilitation dwindled. The measures and recommendations made earlier were not followed through either.
The debates surrounding the recent amendments indicate that the idea of rehabilitation has been significantly marginalised, although several states, primarily Punjab are in critical need of state-led intervention through social reform initiatives. It was only in 2014, after drug abuse in Punjab gained nation wide notoriety, that the state government set up 28 rehabilitation centresunder the Central scheme provided by the Ministry of Social Justice.
Further, the debates tend to centralise both the drug problem and the suggested solutions. Most of the discussions have revolved around the facilities available and institutions set up in Delhi. Even in 1985, it was no uncertain fact that there were several porous border regions, which were problematic transit routes. They required constant monitoring, but this was unfortunately neglected at the policy level.

Conclusion
On the aspect of rehabilitation, the apathy and redundancy of the NDPS Act has been writ large. The inadequacy of accompanying institutional mechanisms – in terms of training of the judiciary, essential rehabilitation systems, etc – has rendered the reformatory objective of the statute nugatory. This, coupled with the problematic implementation of the legislation by multiple authorities and the absence of government established rehab programmes, has hindered effective implementation of the statute. The Act has not only been excessive and abusive, but has also cast a huge burden on the criminal justice system because of its structural defects. If the government is serious about reforming the criminal justice system, reform of the NDPS Act is a necessary first step.

Source -  
Neha Singhal is a Senior Resident Fellow and Sakshi is a Research Fellow at the Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy, New Delhi.
http://thewire.in/2016/01/26/indias-anti-narcotics-law-is-in-urgent-need-of-rehab-19907/