Posts Tagged Supreme Court
I stand by what I said: Khushboo
Posted by ganesh in Cinema, Communication, Court, Departments, Entertainment, Information, Other, illegal on April 29th, 2010
Holidaying in England with her family, Tamil actress Khushboo Sundar, better known as Khushboo, is greatly thrilled with her victory in the Supreme Court of India. ‘‘It has made me into a national heroine,’’ she remarked, meaning, she has been catapulted on to the all-India stage.
In a stinging rebuke to those hounding her, the Supreme Court asked: ‘‘When two adults want to live together, what’s the offence?’’ It then decreed: ‘‘Living together is not an offence.’’
‘‘I am really happy,’’ Khushboo (40) admitted. It has been a four-and-a-half year battle and she thanked the Supreme Court for its progressive stand. She added, ‘‘If you are confident, justice will be delivered.’’
Triumphantly, Khushboo emphasized: ‘‘I stand by what I said in an interview to India Today (magazine).” She clarified that what she had said was what she believes: that if a woman is involved in a pre-marital sexual relationship, she should safeguard herself.
In effect, she did not think it was wrong to indulge in pre-marital sex, but had not, she insisted, encouraged women to partake in this.
Khusboo criticized what she described as the language press for misquoting and twisting her views out of their context. The actor was also unsympathetic towards vested elements calling themselves followers of the social activist Periyar (Erode Venkata Ramasamy).
According to her, it was such interests that instituted cases against her in order to garner votes. Elections, she said, were then (in 2005) around the corner.
Khushboo, married to film director Sundar C, began her career as a child artist. Her first appearance was in ‘Thodisi Bewafai’.
Thereafter, she acted in over 100 films, principally Tamil. The controversy and legal troubles over her views relating to pre-marital sex did not, she revealed, affect her career.
She explained that she had already cut down on her career on celluloid. Her TV work, if anything, benefited from the publicity. “I was living life to the full,” she quipped, perhaps even gaining a little more popularity.
Khushboo said she was out of the country on a cruise with her family when she was shocked to hear
that criminal charges had been filed against her.
‘‘I believe ours is a democratic country, which guarantees us freedom of speech,’’ she said, adding,
“If you don’t have anything to fear, you will win.’’ She confessed, though, that she had the advantage of financial freedom in fighting her case.Khushboo returns to Chennai later this week after nearly a month-long vacation, destined to become the toast of all enlightened and practical Indians.
The Supreme Court has imposed a stay on the double murder case
Posted by ganesh in Chennai, Court, Departments, Health, Information, Murders, illegal, police on April 22nd, 2010
The Supreme Court has imposed a stay on the direction of the Madras High Court to the Tamilnadu government to appoint a special officer or hand over probe to the CBI in the double murder at Ashok Nagar, Chennai.
It may be noted that the city police went on an appeal in the apex court against the direction stating that the court had overlooked many facts.
The police, in its appeal, further stated that the court observation that the investigation officer did not make any attempt to secure Senthil Kumaran who, according to Varadharajan, a fingerprint expert and private detective, was the real killer and that it had not recorded his statement was not correct.
Senthil was secured after a Tamil magazine published an article based on video clippings submitted by Varadharajan, giving a different twist to the murder case.
The investigating officer also secured Krishnakumar, who makes the statement on the video that it was his friend Senthil Kumar who murdered Ananthalakshmi and her son Suraj.
Ananthalakshmi and her son Suraj were murdered in their house in September last. Ashok Nagar police conducted the investigation and arrested four persons in connection with the crime.
While so, a bi-weekly magazine, published an article in its issue dated 18 October, 2009, stating that a compact disc (CD), giving more particulars about the murder, was handed over to the police officer concerned by a responsible person, but no action was taken on that.
Varadarajan submitted to the police that the CD contained the statement of another accused Krishnakumar giving more details about the murder.
The police contended that the statement given by Krishnakumar was fabricated, recorded only to give a twist to the murder case.
Varadarajan, an advocate, could not do private detective business. He also cannot interfere in the investigation which was already in progress.
The unwarranted act of Varadarajan had caused trouble to the investigating agency (IA) and marred the reputation of the police. This act should be considered as a serious offence and his custodial interrogation was necessary.
In his petition seeking advance bail, Varadarajan submitted that he had done so in good faith. It was not his intention to divert the investigation process.
It was only to help the police find out the real culprits. Instead of verifying the statement made by Krishnakumar, the police wanted to arrest the petitioner and harass him.
Following which bail was granted to him.
Supreme court rejected TN plea against an Mullaperiyar’s dam safety
Posted by ganesh in Chennai, Communication, Court, Information, dam reports, government, tamilnadu on March 30th, 2010
The Supreme court on Monday rejected Tamil Nadu government’s plea against an Empowered Committee on Mullaperiyar’s dam safety, headed by the former Chief Justice of India A S Anand, and said it (the committee) would start functioning from April 30.
After hearing senior counsel K Parasaran and Harish Salve for Tamil Nadu and Kerala governments respectively, a five-judge Constitution Bench, in a brief order said: “In our view, no ground has been made
out for recall of our order. Accordingly the application is dismissed.”
The Bench included Justices D K Jain, B Sudershan Reddy, Mukundakam Sharma, R M Lodha and Deepak Verma. The Bench also took strong exception to the Centre’s application seeking a modification of the
order to the effect that the committee’s expenses be shared by both States, and not by the Centre.
“It is shocking to say that the Centre has no funds to bear the expenses. It is an order passed by the Supreme Court and the Centre filing such an application is never heard off,” said Justice Jain.
Supreme Court on Tuesday denied relief to Paramount Airways
Posted by ganesh in Airways, Chennai, Communication, Court, Information, Transport, businesses, modification, release on March 23rd, 2010
The Supreme Court on Tuesday denied relief to Paramount Airways whose three planes out of a functional fleet of four have been grounded by the civil aviation regulator DGCA following dispute with its lessor.
A bench comprising Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan and Justices Deepak Verma and B.S. Chauhan declined the plea of the airlines to stay the DGCA order de-registering the three planes it had taken on lease from GE Capital Aviation Service Ltd (GECAS).
“You pay some money to them (lessor)… you will make money from flying those aircraft,” the court said.
During the proceedings, senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for Paramount, requested the court to allow it to fly the three grounded planes till the next date of hearing.
“As per the Delhi High Court order, DGCA would hear us tomorrow and would pass an order by Monday. Till that period allow us to fly,” he submitted adding that airlines had 27 per cent market share in South India and its passengers were suffering.
However, it was opposed by senior advocate Harish Salve appearing for the U.K.-based GECAS and Celestial Aviation Trading saying that they have terminated their agreement in October last year and since then Paramount is having all the three aircraft in its possession.
“Every hour an aircraft flies it goes from my own pocket as a life of an aircraft is measured by its flying hours,” Salve said adding that they also have to bear the maintenance cost.
The court listed the matter for Friday.
The Delhi High Court on March 22 had directed the DGCA to give a personal hearing to the Paramount Airways on March 29 and pass an order within two weeks while dismissing Paramount’s petition to stay the DGCA’s order de-registering its planes.
Paramount has also approached the Madras High court to get relief from the orders of the Queen’s Bench, London, which had directed the carrier to make payment of $10 million to GECAS by March 10.
The Court had on March 18 dismissed airline’s plea and directed it to stop all flying activities of the three disputed planes by March 19.
Following the order, Paramount had approached the Delhi High Court where it had earlier challenged the DGCA’s actions.
The DGCA had in December last year de-registered three 72-75-seater Embraer planes of Paramount Airways on a plea by GECAS, after which the airline got a stay.
On March 15, a single member bench of the Delhi High Court dismissed Paramount’s petition and vacated its stay, following which DGCA issued fresh directions on March 18 to ground the planes.
The airline has a fleet of five Embraer 170-100LR and 170-200LR jets and had taken on lease three 75-seater planes from GECAS. However, some dispute had arisen later and GECAS sued it in London.
Ruling DMK decided to boycott Supreme Court safety aspects of the Mullaperiyar dam
Posted by ganesh in Chennai, Communication, Court, Culture, Other, Politics, competition, dam reports, government, meeting on February 20th, 2010
The ruling DMK in Tamil Nadu today decided to boycott the five-member High Power Committee constituted by the Supreme Court to go into the safety aspects and other technical issues of the Mullaperiyar dam.
A resolution to this effect was adopted at the party’s General Council meeting chaired by DMK President and Chief Minister M Karunanidhi.
The resolution said, the decision to constitute the Committee was of no relevance as the previous seven-member Mittal Committee had vouched for safety of the dam.
Joining issue with M Karunanidhi on the Mullaperiyar issue, MDMK Vaiko
Posted by ganesh in Chennai, Communication, Court, Culture, Departments, Other, Politics, competition, dam reports, government, programme on February 6th, 2010
Joining issue with Chief Minister M Karunanidhi on the Mullaperiyar issue, MDMK General Secretary Vaiko today reiterated his charge that Tamil Nadu Senior counsel K K Prasaran had betrayed the interest of the state, while arguing the case in Supreme Court and held the Chief Minister responsible for it.
Reacting to Chief Minister’s clarification that Mr Parasaran never said the state would have no objection to Kerala building a new dam, Mr Vaiko, in a statement here, said, ”The counsel did not give a direct reply when the Supreme Court asked whether Tamil Nadu would have objection to Kerala’s new dam proposal.” ”On the other hand, Mr Prasaran, wanted the court to find out from Kerala, whether they would entrust the maintenance of the proposed new dam to Tamil Nadu. This clearly amounted to Tamil Nadu saying no objection to the new dam,” Mr Vaiko argued.
Stating that he had no intention to cast aspersions on the senior counsel or belittle his experience, the MDMK leader said Mr Parasaran, by wanting to know whether Kerala would entrust the new dam to Tamil Nadu, had committed a ‘great blunder.’ This gave a clear impression that Tamil Nadu had no objection to the construction of new dam by Kerala and a section of media in Kerala had highlighted that Tamil Nadu had no objection to the new dam.
Mr Parasaran, while arguing the case, had failed to protect the interest of the state. The Chief Minister should owe responsibility for this as his intention is not to blame the senior counsel, who acted according to the instructions of the Chief Minister.
Mullaperiyar Dam was not an interstate water dispute that needed resolution
Posted by ganesh in Chennai, Communication, Court, Culture, competition, dam reports, government, illegal, tamilnadu on January 21st, 2010
Tamil Nadu Thursday told the Supreme Court that its dispute with Kerala on the Mullaperiyar Dam was not an interstate water dispute that needed resolution through a water tribunal.
Appearing for Tamil Nadu, senior counsel K. Parasaran told a five-judge constitution bench, headed by Justice D.K. Jain, that Kerala’s argument questioning the apex court’s power to adjudicate the row on the dam on the ground that it was a interstate water dispute was wrong.
Parasaran said the dispute is only limited to whether the century-old dam can withstand the water pressure up to a height of 142 feet, and therefore the apex court was entitled to hear the matter. The bench also included Justice B. Sudershan Reddy, Justice Mukundakam Sharma, Justice R.M. Lodha and Justice Deepak Verma.
He said Tamil Nadu is only challenging the Kerala legislation, which sought to negate the apex court judgment allowing Tamil Nadu to raise the water level to 142 ft, he said.
The constitution bench began hearing the interstate dispute between Tamil Nadu and Kerala since Tuesday.
On Nov 10 last year, a three-judge bench of Justice D.K. Jain, Justice M.K. Sharma and Justice R.M. Lodha, had referred the contentious dispute to the constitution bench, saying it had “substantive questions of constitutional law” involved in it.
This came after senior counsel K. Parasaran and Rajeev Dhawan for Kerala agreed that the matter involved issues of constitutional law.
The 113-year-old Mullaperiyar dam, located in Kerala’s Idukki district, is a bone of contention between Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Kerala wanted the dam de-commissioned on the grounds that it has exceeded its life span and poses threat to the lives of millions of people in its periphery.
Tamil Nadu is opposed to any such move, saying the dam, despite being in Kerala, is under its control due to historical reasons.
The erstwhile kingdom of Travancore, now part of Kerala, had leased out 8,000 acres of its land in 1886 for 999 years to the then secretary of British India for construction of the dam, which was eventually commissioned in 1895.
The 1886 lease deed, known as the Periyar Lease Dead, was amended in 1970 to give Kerala an exclusive right of fishing in the Periyar water while Tamil Nadu was given an exclusive right to generate electricity from the dam on payment of Rs.12 to Rs.18 per kilo watt of generated power to Kerala.
Earlier, in 2007 the apex court had allowed Tamil Nadu to raise the water level in the dam from 136 feet to 142 feet.
Kerala, however, enacted a law, negating the Supreme Court judgment and restraining Tamil Nadu from raising the water level beyond 136 feet.
It further obtained an environmental clearance for constructing a new dam. This led to Tamil Nadu approaching the apex court challenging Kerala’s move.
Float two lobby bodies and implead themselves in the case being heard by the Supreme Court
Posted by ganesh in Chennai, College, Communication, Court, Education, Information, Others, government on January 21st, 2010
Deemed universities, whose derecognition is sought by the central government, have decided to get together to float two lobby bodies and implead themselves in the case being heard by the Supreme Court.
According to Ishari K Ganesh, chancellor of Vels University here, two associations – one representing the interests of deemed universities in the state and the other a larger body to represent the interests of deemed universities in south India – will be formed and will implead themselves in the Supreme Court case.
The management of the ‘doomed’ universities in a meeting have called for the review of the Tandon Committee report based on which the central government has recommended withdrawal of deemed university status given by the University Grants Commission (UGC).
M.K. Padmanabhan, vice chancellor of Dr. MGR Educational and Research Institute, said the centre constituted two panels – the UGC committee and the Tandon Committee – to look into the functioning of the universities.
He said the UGC panel consisting of educational experts visited the campuses, while the Tandon panel just saw the power point presentations shown by the universities.
The UGC has accorded deemed university status to Sri Balaji Vidyapeeth and has given it five years time to establish itself.
In Tamil Nadu a sizeable number of deemed universities are run by politicians and their relatives and higher education has become a lucrative business in the state that turns out more than 100,000 engineers every year.
Though many of the deemed universities charge high fees, they lack the necessary infrastructure and are run like family businesses. Students are subjected to a strict regime. For example, girls and boys studying in the same college are not allowed to talk to each other within the premises.
The violent protests are seen as a result of the pent-up anger of the students who are not treated properly and subjected to a strict regime.
On Wednesday, the Salem-based Vinayaka Missions University and the Thanjavur-based Ponnaiyah Ramajayam Institute of Science and Technology University declared closure after violence broke out in their campuses and spilled into the streets.
The central government Monday told the Supreme Court that it was all set to divest 44 universities of their special “deemed university” status as they were being run as “family fiefdoms” rather than institutions of academic excellence.
Appearing for the central government, Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium made this submission to a bench of Justice Dalveer Bhandari and Justice Mukundkam Sharma during the hearing of a 2006 lawsuit, questioning the misuse of the deemed university status by a glut of educational shops.
Subramanium also told the bench that the government, however, has decided to let these universities revert back to become affiliated colleges of their original universities.
This is to avoid jeopardising the career of nearly 200,000 students studying in these institutions across 13 states, he told the court.
In an affidavit filed in the court, the union human resource development ministry said the government has also accepted the recommendations made by the high-powered P.N. Tandon committee, formed to probe the conditions of the deemed universities across the country.
“The Review Committee came across several aberrations in the functioning of some of the institutions deemed to be universities. It found undesirable management architecture where families rather than professional academics controlled the functioning of institutions,” the affidavit said.
According to the affidavit, most of the 44 deemed universities, failing to maintain their high standard of academic excellence, were offering post-graduate and undergraduate courses that are “fragmented with concocted nomenclatures” and seats “disproportionately increased” beyond the actual intake capacity.
The bench, during an earlier hearing in July last year had questioned the need for having deemed universities in the country in the wake of their mushrooming growth amid complaints that instead of imparting quality education, they have been fleecing students by commercialising it.
“Why deemed university at all? Don’t you think the status of deemed university should be abolished in all the states?” the bench had asked, while directing the centre to file a detailed affidavit on the deemed universities and their conditions in the country.
The bench adjourned the matter after a brief perusal of the affidavit.
Students’ unrest over stripping of deemed varsity status continues
Students’ unrest over the Centre’s decision to strip the deemed status to Universities, including those in Tamil Nadu, continued for the second day today
The Centre, in an affidavit filed before the Supreme Court had stated that 44 Universities in India, including 17 in Tamil Nadu, would be stripped of the deemed status as they failed to comply with the requisite norms.
Reports received here said students of Vel’s University at Pallavaram on the city suburbs, boycotted classes and resorted to an agitation blaming the management for lack of infrastructural facilities.
They alleged that the University management had collected hefty fees citing the deemed varsity status.
To prevent the situation turning ugly, the management had declared a holiday for a week.
A report from Vallam in Thanjavur said, students of Prist University, which was also in the Centre’s black list, resorted to violence, damaging windpanes and destroying furniture.
The students shouted slogans against the University for failing to adhere to the norms fixed for deemed varsity status.
About eight students were taken into custody when they damaged the windscreens of the car of Thanjavur District Deputy Superintendent of Police.
As tension prevailed on the premises, the University has ordered closure of classes till further orders.
Police resorted to a mild charge to disperse students of Vinayaka Mission University in Salem after they staged a road blockade agitation blaming the management for the present crisis.
Soon after the agitating students hit the streets, police tried to remove them forcibly. As the students did not relent, police used mild force to chase them away.
Meanwhile, Vice-Chancellors of the deemed Varsities, which were sought to be de-recognised, met at a city hotel to discuss the future course of action.
The meeting discussed about the Centre’s decision to strip the deemed University status to their varsities and also the subsequent students unrest in some institutions.
Stating that enough notice was not given to them, the Vel’s University had already decided to impleaded themselves in the case pending before the Supreme Court.
Vaiko behind bars the Mullaperiyar issue
MDMK general secretary Vaiko along with thousands of his supporters including farmers was arrested today for resorting to a road roko condemning the Kerala government, which is trying to construct a dam over Mullaperiyar.
When protestors led by the MDMK supremo who gathered at the VOC Ground in Cumbum tried to block an arterial road in the southern town, they were detained by the police, sources said.
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Huge number of police personnel who were deployed to prevent any untoward incident took the agitators in vans, the sources added.
Addressing the gathering earlier, Vaiko alleged that the Union and the Kerala governments were cheating the people of Tamilnadu on the Mullaperiyar issue.
‘The Supreme Court has clearly said Tamilnadu government should carry out the maintanence works of the dam. But Kerala has passed a resolution in the Assembly over the safety of the dam. This is against the Constitution of India. Why has the Centre not questioned Kerala?’
He said financial restrictions should be imposed on Kerala.
A staunch supporter of the LTTE and sympathiser of Sri Lankan Tamils, Vaiko was earlier arrested by the Q Branch CID of the Tamilnadu Police in October 2008 on charges of sedition.
The charges are based on the speeches made at a party meeting on the Sri Lankan issue in Chennai. Vaiko warned that India extending help to protect Sri Lanka’s integrity would jeopardise India’s own unity and integrity.
He reportedly said he would be ready to take up arms and fight for the Tamils in the island nation. A general alert was sounded across Tamilnadu following the arrest.
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