Those who burn brides need to be hanged

"People like you need to be hanged, You behave like junglee (animal)," Justice Katju rebuked the petitioner Gulati as his counsel pleaded for interim bail for his client.

As the counsel pleaded saying that it was case of suicide and not bride burning, Justice Katju said: "They all say that. Every time they burn a bride, they say it was a suicide."

"On one hand they regard women as devi (goddess), on the other hand they burn them alive. This is against the norms of civilized society. It's barbaric," said Justice Katju.

Manipulating the judicial system

• On Aug 13, the Supreme Court had issued bailable warrants against the Ansal brothers on an allegation that they were manipulating the judicial system and delaying the disposal of their appeal against their conviction while out on bail.
  

• A person facing a bailable arrest warrant is entitled to bail by the investigative agency asked to execute the warrants. He is let off immediately after he furnishes a personal bond with some sureties to abide by the orders of the court, which issues the warrant.

  A person facing a non-bailable arrest warrant, however, gets bail only from a court of law.

Bangalore: Language Policy - Supreme Court Upholds HC Verdict

• He expressed the belief that the court will not come in the way of the liberty the parents enjoy as far as choosing the kind of education and medium of instruction their wards need to have.
• Earlier, the High Court had upheld the right of the private unaided schools in the state to choose the medium of the instruction of their liking, duly quashing a part of the government order making it compulsory for the schools to adopt Kannada as the medium of instruction.

Contempt of Court

• Taking strong exception to the insinuation by members of Boss music school against Bombay high court judges, the Supreme Court on Friday issued contempt notice to them with a warning that failure to respond within 10 days would lead to their arrest.
• Leila David and Annette Kotian, members of Vasai-based Boss Music School, had filed petitions seeking arrest of 10 HC judges for allegedly not hearing their matter “in a free and fair manner”.
• “If you don’t reply on or before September 10 you will be arrested and produced before the court and you will not be released,” the bench said. The two women, who argued their case themselves, refused to withdraw the charges against the judges.
• The judges also took exception to their plea that the CJI should withdraw from the bench hearing their petition. “That I will decide. Choose your words carefully otherwise you have to face the consequences,” CJI Balakrishnan told them.
  
• “We have perused the allegations which are very serious in nature. We have spent time on the two petitions. The allegations amount to contempt of court,” the CJI added.

Supreme Court issues notice for laying down media norms

• Justice Balakrishnan said the media were a sentinel of democratic freedom. It was the responsibility of every person associated with the media to act responsibly with a sense of duty towards society and the nation. In fact, journalists were “vigilant watchdogs of civil liberties.” The right of the media to report court proceedings emanated from the right of the citizen to know. The media also had the duty to report fairly, objectively and accurately. He said the media should be wary of allowing itself to become a vehicle for exerting “mass pressure” as opposed to a “mere expression of mass opinion.”
• If the media prints or broadcasts content that unjustly maligns an individual, there are laws in place to deal with slander and defamation.

Install Audio Systems in court of CJI: SC

The system would preserve the arguments made by the Councel for the parties and help the judges refresh their memory of arguments made in a particular case while writing judgments.
In number of cases, the judges reserve their judgments after hearing the arguments in the case and deliver the judgment after some time.

Criminal proceeding against eBay, its chief halted

• A bench of Justice Altmas Kabir suspended a Delhi High Court ruling, which had scrapped their prosecution under penal laws but had allowed it under the new information technology law.
• The apex court bench halted the trial on a lawsuit by Bajaj who challenged the high court ruling. The high court allowed his prosecution under section 85 of the Information Technology Act, 2000, for violating section 67 of the law, which prohibits publishing obscene information in electronic form.
• Challenging the Delhi High Court ruling, Bajaj contended in his petition that mere listing of a product for sale could not be termed as crime under the IT Act.
• Bajaj in his petition also argued that the term "obscenity" is not defined in the IT Act and accordingly no liability can be fixed on him for listing the 2.37-minute video clip even if it was obscene.

SC to hear plea for CBI probe into Kandhmal violence

• When senior advocate Colin Gonzalves mentioned the matter before the Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan, the Chief Justice asked the petitioner to move to the Orissa High Court.
• However, the petitioner contended before the court that it is not possible as he feels there is a threat to his life there.
• The apex court also asked the state government to put on affidavit whether any permission was granted to VHP leader Praveen Togadia for his proposed Yatra carrying the ash of slain leader Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati.
• India's Supreme Court yesterday told Orissa's government to submit a report on steps taken to protect Christians, after the Archbishop of Cuttack filed a petition demanding compensation for victims and a federal investigation of the riots.
• The Orissa government today told the Supreme Court that it has deployed federal and state police in the riot-hit districts and no violence had taken place in the last few days.
• The state government won't allow any rally by the Hindu group, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Orissa government advocate, K.K. Venugopal, told the court. The group's leader, Pravin Togadia, planned a rally on Sept. 7 to carry the mortal remains of the slain religious leader.
• ``The people in the camps should be protected. Steps should be taken to maintain peace and communal harmony in the state,'' Supreme Court Chief Justice, K.G. Balakrishnan, said.
• The attacks are the second outbreak of unrest in Orissa since December, which underlines the need for the government to develop preventive strategies, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom said in a statement posted on its Web site.

SC allows phone tapping as evidence under MCOCA

• Ordinary people are living in an atmosphere of fear and they feel helpless in the face of a menacing underworld. And they expect the state to establish order and ensure the safety of life and property of people.
• The apex court has said that the state has the right to make special laws to combat special organised crimes such as extortion, gun-running, money-laundering, terrorism and insurgency. Earlier, the Bombay High Court had struck down those very provisions on the ground that they violated the Central Telegraph Act.
• The judgment is being welcomed as something that will enable the police to track down those involved with the underworld and in activities that threaten our social fabric. It will surely help in bringing to book subversive elements bent on destroying public peace.
• There is a need to state explicitly the axioms of law — presumption of innocence, the right to privacy, the inviolability of fundamental rights — because the police force continues the colonial legacy of presuming guilt of the accused person. The very availability of laws which give unhindered power to the police makes the careful monitoring of those laws imperative.
• This problem is not confined to India and from the hidden US prisons of Guantanamo Bay to the human rights abuses of China, we have to fight the abuse of the power of law. The Supreme Court has allowed telephone-tapping in extreme cases. This ought not to become a licence to trample over individual rights and to harass those whose innocence is still within reasonable doubt.
• It is of utmost importance that the state should protect the life and property of citizens, but it cannot be armed with unqualified power that it can misuse to traumatise those very citizens. The tendency of the police to believe and act as agents of an absolutist state needs to be disabused. In a democracy, the state is under watch as well.
  

• The Bench comprising Chief Justice of India KG Balakrishnan, Justices RV Raveendran and MK Sharma said that special law is essential in dealing with increasing terrorism and organised crime. State Governments are responsible for cracking down organised crimes in their respective territories. It can not wait for the Central Government to come up with the special laws in restricting the mushrooming crimes.

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Crime rates fall in India's financial capital

On Monday, India's Supreme Court granted police in Mumbai and surrounding Maharashtra state the power to tap the phones of suspected extremists and those allegedly involved in organised crime.

You all want publicity

The Bench said the petition has been filed for publicity at a time when both the Centre and state government were doing their part of work.
"They are doing their part of work. By giving orders can a court stop flood," the Bench, also comprising Justices P Sathasivam and J M Panchal, observed.
"You all want publicity," the Bench said refusing to give urgent hearing to the petition filed by NGO, Yuva Shakti.
The NGO had sought appointment of an independent committee headed by a retired apex court or High Court judge to assess the nature of casualty. It suggested the inquiry could even be handed over to the National Human Rights Commission.

Failing to register FIR - cops may be jailed

THE SUPREME Court of India on August 8, passed a very commendable verdict that if a police officer does not lodge your FIR, then your complaint against him might send him to jail. But, it is still not very clear that how effective the verdict is.

It was said that the police officers who fail to register a case or lodge an FIR may now even have to face imprisonment for their ’inaction’. Besides being jailed for abdicating his duty, the erring cop could even face contempt of court apart from departmental enquiry.

However, this news should reach the citizens through various form of media so that they are aware and able to fight for their rights.

The said directive has effectively empowered the citizen, who, after being refused registration of his complaint, can approach the magistrate, seeking directions to the police to lodge an FIR and also make a copy available to him within 24 hours of the order. The magistrate can also direct the police ’to take immediate actions for apprehending the accused or recovery of kidnapped persons and properties’ within a specified time.

The court said, "In case, FIRs are not registered on time or steps are not taken by the police, the magistrate concerned would be justified in initiating contempt proceedings against such delinquent officers and punish them for violation of its orders and award stringent punishment like sentence of imprisonment against them."

Indeed, it is a positive sign towards the establishment of justice system. Certainly, there is a need to bring more such legislations that will establish faith in common people.

National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) or any single body cannot do miracle towards the welfare of the people. Power must come to the hand of the citizens, directly or indirectly.

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• Majority of states have agreed with the Supreme Court to “crack the whip” on police officers who refuse to register FIRs but some argued for a preliminary inquiry mechanism before formal registration of FIRs.
• Orissa, Maharashtra, Haryana, Tamil Nadu and the Union Territory of Chandigarh said the apex court’s order to take errant police officials to task for not registering FIRs was fine with them but it needed certain safeguards and modifications.
• Arguing for insertion of a preliminary inquiry mechanism, the states said such an inquiry before registration of complaint would prevent people from resorting to false or vindictive FIRs just to harass others, apart from testing, prima facie, the truthfulness of the complaints.
• These states said experience showed that in three categories of cases — economic, matrimonial and eloped marriage — a preliminary inquiry helps parties to compromise as they realise the futility of proceeding with a police case that would culminate in a trial and hardship to both complainant and the accused.
• Moreover, keeping the sword of contempt of court hanging over the heads of police officers for refusal to file FIR would bring undue pressure on them to register whatever complaint comes their way without even testing their veracity, the states said.
• Last month, the apex court had said that officials in India only understood the “crack of a whip” and ruled that a policeman refusing to register FIR could face contempt of court charges and cool their heels in jail if they failed to give cogent reasons for non-registration of FIR.
• Providing a detailed mechanism to make police accountable, the court had said if the police refused to register an FIR, the aggrieved person could move the area chief judicial magistrate with a complaint against the officer.
• “The chief judicial magistrate or the chief metropolitan magistrate, as the case may be, shall take action in a case of inaction upon filing of a complaint petition and give direction to institute a case within a specified timeframe,” it had said.
• If the police fail to act even after that, “the CJM or CMM shall not only initiate action against the delinquent police officer but punish them suitably by sending them to jail, in case the cause shown is found to be unsatisfactory”, the court had said.
• Moreover, the CJM or CMM court shall intimate the disciplinary authority “at once by fax as well” about the errant officer, who would be “immediately placed under suspension pending departmental proceedings”.

Muslim appeasement has crippled India

By its judgement dated July 12, 2005, Supreme Court struck down the Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunals) Act, 1983 as unconstitutional; and termed Bangladeshi infiltration as "external aggression" and directed that "the Bangladesh nationals who have illegally crossed the border and have trespassed into Assam or are living in other parts of the country have no legal right of any kind to remain in India and they are liable to be deported."

In India, even God is helpless

1. In India, even God cannot help. He will be a silent spectator as He will also feel helpless" — this observation came from the Supreme Court on Tuesday as it expressed its frustration over the reluctance of the Centre and state governments to take tough measures against bureaucrats and others unauthorisedly overstaying in government accommodation.
2. A law, however tough, could never be implemented if the government was not keen on it.
3. The whole government machinery is corrupt. We may lay down the law, but who will implement it? It has to be done by the clerks. The secretaries and joint secretaries have no guts to go against the clerks. The law is there, the statute is there, but the governments have become non-functional.

Inteligentaindigena Indigenismo Novajoservo: Supreme Court defines who's an idiot

Inteligentaindigena Indigenismo Novajoservo: Supreme Court defines who's an idiot