EDUCATION

Tika Ram society to have elections in three months
Our Correspondent

Sonepat, September 13
In compliance with the directions of Maharshi Dayanand University (MDU), Rohtak, the Additional Deputy Commissioner and Administrator of Tika Ram Education Society, Sonepat, has appointed the SDM Sonepat, Mr Sujan Singh Yadav, as the returning officer and tehsildar Satish Jhunthra as the assistant returning officer for holding the elections to the governing body of the society within three months.

As many as six educational institutions - CRA College, Tika Ram Girls College, Tika Ram College of Education, CRZ Senior Secondary School, Tika Ram Girls Senior Secondary School and Tika Ram Girls Primary

School, are being run by the society in Sonepat. The society was founded by a prominent social worker and educationist, Ch Tika Ram, in 1951 to promote education in the region and he was influenced by the Arya Samaj and the DAV education movement of pre-Independence era.

However, with the passage of time, political involvement started increasing in the management of the society and a number of times the situation became such in the past that the university authorities had no other option except to appoint the administrators of the society to run the institutions.

The present administrator has been holding the charge since 1998. The announcement for holding the elections has set the ball rolling among the aspirants and they have reportedly started their contact programmes to muster support of the political leaders and influential society members.

During discussions, most of the people who have remained involved in previous managements have welcomed the decision of holding the elections but have cast aspersions over the authenticity of the electoral rolls of life members of the society.

Recitation contest marks Hindi Diwas

Jhajjar: A recitation and speech contest was organised at Government Post Graduate College here today on the occasion of Hindi Diwas. The following are the result of the contest: recitation competition: Kumari Rekha - first, Dilawar- second and Kumari Sanil- third; speech competition: Hema -first, Sanil - second and Lakshmi - third.

Mr Praveen Khurana said on the occasion that Hindi as a language was developing throughout the world. He said that stress on the use of Hindi in day-to-day work should not be restricted to Hindi Diwas and it needed to be encouraged regularly. OC

COURTS

Congenial environment needed for Family Courts: Judge
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 13
Family Courts should not be set up in the same building housing other courts as it will induce fear in litigants’ minds and hamper settling sensitive disputes between husband and wife, Supreme Court Judge Justice S Rajendra Babu today said.

Justice Babu said disputes between husband and wife requires a sensitive approach and establishing Family Courts amidst other courts in the same building will induce fear in their mind, which can harm reconciliation and settlement in such cases.

Speaking after inaugurating a two-day ‘National Workshop on Integrating Support Services with Family Courts in India’, Justice Babu said family disputes should not be treated as any other civil dispute. He pointed out that judges in Family Courts should not deal with cases like some property dispute, but with a lot of care, compassion and understanding.

Justice Babu said while determining which parent should have the custody of their children, the presiding officers in the country’s 123 Family Courts should keep in mind that children are not cattle to be distributed between parents. He added that children should never be separated from each other and should be raised together, so that to that extent the family will stay together, he said.

The workshop was jointly organised by Delhi University Faculty of Law and National Institute of Public Cooperation and Child Development (an arm of Union Human Resources Development Ministry). Strengthening the case for a change in the mindset in Family Courts, the Supreme Court Judge said social workers, who have dealt with and have an insight into the nature of family problems, should be inducted as members of such courts.

Sudha Malaiya, member, National Commission of Women, lamented what she alleged is the “pathetic infrastructure in Family Courts and poor remuneration to its members”. She said all state governments must ensure that Family Courts must have qualified counsellors, more women judges, more psychologists and separate counselling rooms.

Family Courts must also have information centres for promoting legal awareness among women, she said, adding that NGOs must also work closely with such courts. Malaiya said Family Courts should also be vested with investigative powers to assess the property of husbands to arrive at a reasonable settlement for the wives. Time limit must also be set for disposing of cases, she said.

National Institute of Public Cooperation and Chile Development Additional Director Adarsh Sharma said the organisation was working on bringing in amendments to the Family Courts Act to make it, “simpler, more user friendly and for delivering speedier justice”.

Professor S. C. Raina said though children were the worst affected in family disputes, their needs were not being looked into as the workload in Family Courts was too high.

The participants in the workshop included judges of Family Courts, government officials concerned with policy and programmes related to implementation of Family Court Act, NGOs running family counselling centres, international representatives from USAID and San Francisco University.