Vijay Kumari was unable to post the necessary amount of about $180 (£120) to secure her release – so she stayed in prison until the son, who she gave birth to while in jail, got her out. More on BBC
Call for Justice
Media reports on In-Justice, Violation of Human Rights and Civil liberties in India
Indian Trial Courts Are Worst Than Village Panchayats
Indian Trial Courts Are Worst Than Village Panchayats
Indian Judicary use different yardsticks to measure same crime!
1. Grant urgent hearings
2. Scrammble special courts
3. Bail and Suspension of sentence
4. Ordinary people of some alledged crime in jails for years without trial
5. Cost and access to higher judicary
6. Judges are Kings with unfatted powers without any accountability
7. Trial Courts are worst than Panchayats
Hard Realities of Tardy and Corrupt Indian Judical System
If you have not ever been personally in any magisterial or sessions court, you can not understand and realize the scale of harassment meted on the ordinary citizens by the stake holders of tardy judicial system. The people who go through it know the real scale of the problem, it is the grinding mill of tardy Judicial system and on every date litigants end up in wasting whole day in the court corridors, finally when the case is called for, the judge or his presiding officer adjourns the matter without even looking at you. This tardy judicial system is oppression by the state. Why it is in such a mess? Judges have vested with Unlimited Power without any Accountability, that is why whole Judicial system is in mess. Can few fast track courts overhaul it with out fixing the responsibility of stake holders ? No. Do the people have faith in this tardy judicial system (system of oppression ) ?No, People have already lost faith on tardy Indian judicial system, everyone know how court/police system work in India, If you approach a friendly advocate outside his chamber he will give you practical advise.. i.e. settle the case outside the court, whether it is by means of compromise or through other means such as k*ll opponent through extra judicial means or through private means. Why tardy judicial system encourages settlement even in the cases of serious crime ?It help the lower judiciary to gain point for amicable settlement which help in their promotion. How to fix the tardy system ? 1) Make sure power does not come with responsibility and accountability. 2) Fix the RESPONSIBILITY OF JUDGES/STAKE HOLDERS, The system must ensure that whoever fails to meet the responsibility must GO.3) Make sure every legislation is crystal clear and without any ambiguity so that Judges can not drive power from lacuna.4) Minimize the Judaical discretion, because it is open for misuse in the hands of judicial officer.
Punjab extra-judicial killings : State Sponsored Terrorism and Mockery of Justice
Indian Govt. Pegged the cost of a human life to $5000. No effort was made to bring the guilty state officials to brought to justice and punish for the gory crime. It was another genocide of Sikh minority in a Sikh state.
Indian Govt. want to make RTI act toothless
Union Minister Prithviraj Chavan and Central and State Information Commissioners on a proposal to significantly amend the Right to Information Act, 2005. The meeting’s importance lay in the fact that it saw the hopeless isolation of the government side (Department of Personnel and Training, Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances, and Training) on the proposed amendments. Of the 60 Information Commissioners who attended, all but two were opposed to the idea of tinkering with the historic legislation. What explains such unity of resolve? The DoPT’s package contained two ‘killer’ amendments. The first would include under Section 8 (which specifies exemptions to the Act) applications deemed to be “frivolous and vexatious.” The second would bar from the Act’s purview any discussion leading up to an official decision. The best judge of whether or not an application is “frivolous and vexatious” is the Information Commissioner who is called upon to decide the issue. In the four-and-a-half years since the Act came into force, no information officer has complained of being overburdened by such applications. Nor is there anything to suggest that government functioning is hampered by the disclosure of official discussions (previously known as file notings) and records of process. The only reasonable conclusion is that both the bureaucracy and the political government fear transparency of process because it will expose wrongdoing.
In recent days, RTI queries relating to public spending, governance, distribution of largesse, and even the procedure adopted for deciding awards have proved to be deeply embarrassing for the government. The ghost of RTI amendments has returned – in the controversial form of exemption for the office of the Chief Justice of India. The irony is too glaring to miss. It was the Supreme Court that laid the ground for opening up acts of governance to public scrutiny. In the 1975 State of U.P. vs Raj Narain case, the court said: “In a government of responsibility like ours, where all the agents of the public must be responsible for their conduct, there can be but few secrets. The people of this country have a right to know every public act, everything that is done in a public way, by their functionaries…” The RTI Act has empowered the ordinary citizen in a way its architects did not anticipate. Studies have shown its growing appeal across all social strata, which is surely why the government is set on blunting this powerful tool in the hands of the people. Such obscurantism must be seen through and defeated.
Terrorism of Police Kind ( BBC )
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/8183662.stm
Human Rights Watch has published a report which criticises the Indian police force for the routine brutality it employs against suspects. The report says despite India’s rapidly developing economy, its police force remains behind the times. Its systems are antiquated and its officers operate above the law. Damian Grammaticas reports from New Delhi
Chief justice of India helpless but admits misuse of IPC 498(A)
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CJI points to judges’ ignorance
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| OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT | ||
Ranchi, Aug. 30: Chief Justice of India K.G. Balakrishnan today took a dig at high court as well as district court judges for delivering wrong verdicts because of their ignorance of criminal justice laws. Balakrishnan warned that several people wanted to delay the conclusion of criminal cases. “(But) Judges are supposed to prevent the abuse of law by those who want to delay the delivery of judgment,” he added, alluding to the judiciary’s concern at the high number of pending cases. The Chief Justice was delivering a valedictory address at the conclusion of the first east zone regional judicial conference aimed at equipping senior judicial officers, drawn from seven states — Jharkhand, Bengal, Orissa, Chhattisgarh, Assam, Sikkim and Bihar — to deliver speedy and quality justice. The three-day programme was organised by National Judicial Academy (NJA), Bhopal, in association with Jharkhand High Court and State Judicial Academy. Jharkhand High Court Chief Justice Gyan Sudha Misra, Patna High Court Chief Justice P.K. Mishra, State Judicial Academy in-charge Justice M.Y. Eqbal, NJA director G. Mohan Gopal were present among others. Balakrishnan pointed out that Section 498 (A) (anti-dowry law) under CrPC was one of the most abused laws. “Judges are simply issuing summons and even warrants without properly verifying who are the accused. I have come across such cases in which the accused, sitting in Australia and other countries, are made accused when the case is lodged for the alleged offence of dowry,” he added. Balakrishnan added that the criminal procedure code was amended for the police to follow certain procedures before arrests. “We have come across cases in which even high court judges are ignorant of the legal value of statements recorded before the police under Section 161 of the Evidence Act for delivering judgments,” he said. Calling upon lower court judges to be socially sensitive, he asked them to have control over trial proceedings in order to deliver judgments easily. He also asked them to examine eyewitnesses first before examining other witnesses produced by the defence. “Trial and defence lawyers should not terrorise witnesses. A judge should be alert and caring” he maintained. Misra said the deteriorating law and order situation was a heavy burden on the criminal justice system. “It was worrying that the state functionaries were not invoking the provisions of the National Security Act to keep hardened criminals in jail,” she added. Stressing on the need for quality justice, Misra said she was receiving complaints that the fast-track court has turned into a “farce track court”. Judicial officers, she said, had to wipe out fear that fast-track courts would only convict a person. “They have to strike a balance between expectation of the victims’ of crime and the accused,” she maintained. Former Supreme Court judge S.B. Sinha pointed out that 70 per cent of all the pending criminal cases were petty offences. “Sociological studies suggest that it is the poor who suffer the most because of delay in the delivery of judgments,” he added. |
Source: http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090831/jsp/jharkhand/story_11430270.jsp
Bureaucracy, Red tapism and Corruption increase under SAD Govt.
There are alarming sign of increase in Bureaucracy, Red tapism and Corruption in Punjab, India. This state of punjab is presently ruled by a regional party known as Shromini Akali Dal (SAD) . This govt has failed to bring transpancy and stop corrupt practices, Rather this govt. is acting like a dictator
Here are sign of growing Red tapism, Bureaucracy and Corruption
Illegal and totally unfair Appointment of *bureaucrat* as Punjab CIC
Chandigarh,
It seems like state govt. want to control the autonomy of State Information Commissions. Earlier for months The State Information Commission is kept without any Chief Information Commissioner since the departure of previous commissioner Mr. Rajan Kashyap, It is clear that govt. was waiting for the due retirement of Mr RamishInder Singh( from the post of cheif secratary punjab) to offer him this plum post.
This commission is set for people under RTI act 2005. The ruling govt. is not listening to the views and needs of ordinary people of punjab, Despite the Various citizen groups, civil society organisations and activists opposed this bureaucrat’s appointment as head of SIC, but govt did not even bother to listen rather this govt. like a dictator simply go ahead with it.Various citizen groups, civil society organisations and activists joined hands to oppose the appointment of another bureaucrat as the Chief Information Commissioner of Punjab. During a press interaction at the Chandigarh Press Club yesterday, they called it a violation of the spirit of the RTI Act and the Constitution of India. The activists vowed to fight tooth-and-nail against such brazen action by the Punjab government.
Current Punjab Chief Secretary Ramesh Inder Singh who is due to retire in September 2009 would be taking over as the Chief Information Commissioner (CIC).
Terming this as illegal, Hemant Goswami of Citizens’ Voice mentioned that under the provisions of the RTI Act, the appointment of a commissioner could be done only if a committee was formed in which all members deliberated on the applications received by the government. He mentioned that according to the RTI Act, the person to be appointed should be an eminent personality with wide experience and knowledge of law, science, social service, management, etc. “However, in Punjab, we have about six information commissioners from government service, there is none from law or other related fields,” he said.
Advocate HC Arora mentioned that the other bureaucrats working in the commission were also not performing their job satisfactorily. Most of the bureaucrats attended the official work for only about 20-30 hours in a month and still claimed lakhs of rupees as travelling and sundry benefits. “Except for Gen PK Grover, none of the information commissioners appear to be serious in the discharge of their duties,” Arora added.
Earlier, social activists and organisations sent a joint representation to the Punjab Governor and the CM against appointment of another bureaucrat in the commission. The activists specially mentioned the alleged callous functioning of PK Verma and Rupan Deol Bajaj and pointed many infirmities in their orders.
Litigant should not to suffer for advocate’s negligence: HC
Litigant should not to suffer for advocate’s negligence: HC
Ahmedabad: While a petitioner had to explain to the court, the eight-year delay in filing an application, court took 13 years in concluding that the delay should be condoned and petition heard. According to case details, Dipak Rawal’s grandfather passed away in 1974, bequeathing his property to Dipak, who was eight years old then. His father and uncles entered into litigations over property dispute. In 1978, Dipak’s father Arvind moved Gujarat High Court after challenging a lower court’s decision. But, the case didn’t move ahead as their lawyer did not appear for the argument. Case remained pending and ultimately, high court dismissed the case in 1988 on account of non-prosecution. By this time, Dipak was a major, but no one in the family realised that their case had been dismissed by the court. Eight years later, Dipak and his family approached the high court again with a plea to hear their case. But, a single judge rejected their plea and noted that Arvind, who after his retirement practised in court, didn’t bother about it at all. The court held that being an advocate, he should know that there is a certain time limit to challenge court orders. This was in 1996. But, the family was prompt to act this time and filed an appeal against single judge’s decision. The appeal, which was to be heard by a division Bench, was ultimately decided in February 2009 and court concluded that the original case should be restored and heard. For accepting that there was no fault of the family, but it was negligence of their advocate, court took 13 years. It ruled, in light of a Supreme Court judgment, that on account of default of part of advocate, the litigant should not be made to suffer.
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