The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

COURTS

Ration shops case hearing fixed on Oct 13
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 15
A Delhi court has fixed October 13 as the next date for hearing of the ‘disclosure of records’ of ration shops case sought by a local non-governmental organisation (NGO) under the Delhi Right to Information Act.

The High Court had earlier granted a stay in its last hearing on such ‘disclosures’ after an application to this effect was moved by the ration shop owners of Sundernagari seeking stoppage of the operation of an order of the Assistant Commissioner of Nandnagari area.

The Assistant Commissioner had issued an order for the implementation of the Public Grievance Commissioner’s orders.

The PGC had directed the Food and Civil Supplies Department of the Delhi Government to provide records of all 18 ration shops in Sundernagari for the last four months to ‘Parivartan’ after the application to this effect was filed.

The records were sought by the NGO under the Delhi Right to Information Act, to dig out corruption in the Public Distribution System (PDS) of the Delhi government and ‘scrutinise’ the large-scale corruption prevalent there. ‘Parivartan’, which made headlines recently by organising the country’s first public hearing of government work in Delhi leading to the rolling of several heads, took up the ‘scrutiny’ after scores of poor people from Sundernagri area complained about the irregular supply of ration from the PDS outlets in their area.

Security on court premises to be strengthened
Our Correspondent

Sonepat, September 15
Taking into consideration the repeated incidents of firing on the court premises of the adjoining districts mainly on the occasions when the undertrials are brought for appearing before the court on the scheduled dates of hearing, the local police administration has decided to beef up the security on the premises by initiating additional precautionary measures.

According to the superintendent of police, Mr P S Ahlawat, the proposals included construction of boundary wall of the judicial complex, setting up of a police chowki and monitoring the movement of the vehicles.

After completing the boundary wall of the judicial complex, there will be only one entry and exit point to monitor the arrivals and departures of the vehicles by noting down the registration numbers, he said and added that to keep a watch on the movements of the people entering the court premises, a close circuit TV set would also be installed.

It is recalled that there had been incidents on the court premises at Panipat, Rohtak, Jhajjar and Bhiwani when the criminals have fired at their opponents, killed them and then escaped. The latest incident was in Bhiwani Court when a criminal has indiscriminately fired in the court chamber and the judge had a narrow escape.

A few days back, an undertrial accused has also attacked another undertrial with a surgical blade in the lock-up room of the civil courts of Sonepat.

The local bar council has also expressed concern over such incidents of crime on the court premises and demanded all precautionary measures to check recurrence of the criminal incidents in future. A number of bar council members opined that if it was not curbed, the court premises would become a hunting ground for the criminals to eliminate their rivals.