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Police can’t dilute facts of FIR: SC
EPF board to meet soon to discuss PF rates Newly appointed Union Labour
Minister, Mr Oscar Fernandes, arrives at his new office to take charge
at the Ministry of Labour at the Sharm Shakti Bhavan in New Delhi on
Thursday. — Tribune photo by Rajiv Tyagi |
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NGOs fear new Act will break families
Pranab, Kasuri may meet in Delhi on Nov 17
HIV positive cases on rise in Bihar
Japan offers Rs 5.8 billion for Patna’s development
Job posting on web misleading: Rlys
Curfew reimposed in Gharsana
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Police can’t dilute facts of FIR: SC
New Delhi, October 26 The dilution of information as told in a complaint on the part of the police was illegal and amount to miscarriage of justice, the court said while expressing serious concern over the officer in-charge of a police station preferring to record facts in his own language, fix the charges accordingly and in the process omit some of them. A Bench comprising Mr Justice H.K. Sema and Mr Justice P.K. Balasubramanyan reminded the police of its duty as laid down in Section 154 of the Cr. PC for the registration of an FIR on the complaint by the victim of a crime, or his relative or any other person. The court said no charge could be fixed by the police on its own at the time of the registration of the FIR as it only was the first step towards launching the investigation. Any inclusion or exclusion of charges in a case could be done after the probe was actually carried out. “Section 154 of the Cr. PC casts a statutory duty upon a police officer to register the case, as disclosed in the complaint, and then proceed with the investigation. The mandate of Section 154 is manifestly clear that if any information disclosing the cognizable offence is laid before an officer in-charge of a police station, he has no other option except to register the case on the basis of such information,” said the Bench in a recent judgement aimed at tightening the loopholes in investigation of crimes. It said at the time of the registration of an FIR the concern of a police officer should not be the “genuineness or credibility” of the information as it was not a condition precedent for registering a case, but subject to a thorough probe. Neither could a police officer embark upon an inquiry to find out whether the information laid by the informant was reliable or otherwise and make it a ground for refusing to register the FIR. Such diversionary tactics on the part of the police often result in undue delay in the disposal of crime cases and it got unnecessarily embroiled in legal tangle, the court said. The all important ruling came in a riot-cum-robbery case from Champaran in Bihar in which the SHO at the time of the registration of the FIR in 1996 had omitted certain information disclosed by the complainant and diluted the charges as narrated. This had resulted in an inordinate delay in the case getting finality with the apex court decision, upholding the trial court order re-framing charges against nine accused by including those dropped by the police and consequently convicting them accordingly.
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EPF board to meet soon to discuss PF rates
New Delhi, October 26 “Consultations are on and we shall be able to take a view in a week’s time,” he said about the proposal to invest five per cent of the EPF money in equity market to get higher returns. On the interest rate, Mr Fernandes said he would find out what could be done to protect the interest of the workers. “It all depends on securing money and getting returns,” he said. Labour Secretary K.M. Sahni said the interest rates “are not going to be raised from 8.5 per cent.” EPF rate was slashed to 8.5 per cent for 2005-06 from 9.5 per cent earlier. On account of 8.5 per cent, the deficit amounted to around Rs 365 crore, which was met from its own resources. Consequent upon the government notification, the total payout was estimated to be Rs 6,889.04 crore as interest to its four crore subscribers for 2005-06 against its projected interest income of Rs 6,523.15 crore. EPFO had a corpus of Rs 72,000 crore till March 2004, which grew to Rs 79,000 crore by March 2005. On the contentious issue of labour reforms, the Labour Minister said “We will have dialogue with all concerned and after having a proper dialogue with everybody, there should not be any problem.” Asked how he proposed to carry out labour reforms in the Special Economic Zones (SEZs), the minister said he would have discussion with all political parties and trade unions. Left parties have raised a hullabaloo on the SEZ issue and opposed the proposal saying it went against the interest of the workers. Leftist and trade unions have demanded restoration of trade union rights in the Special Economic Zones. “We will have proper dialogue with all. So we will not have any particular problem as such in dealing with the issues (raised by Left parties),” he told reporters soon after taking charge of the ministry. He was answering a question as to how he would deal with the Left parties and their trade unions which are agitating on major issues like banking reforms, delay in bringing a Bill to grant social security to unorganised workers and change of the government’s approach towards labour issues in the eleventh plan.
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NGOs fear new Act will break families
New Delhi, October 26 Terming the new law to make home safe place for women a Divali gift for women, Minister for Woman and Child Development Renuka Chowdhury is upbeat about this new law. But even she cannot help but admit that there is a possibility of it being misused, assuring that all efforts will be made to sensitise officials concerned to ensure that this doesn’t happen. The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005, which came into effect from today, provides protection to wife or female live-in partner from the husband or male live-in partner and also his relatives. The new law provides an all-encompassing definition of physical violence, stating that domestic violence under the Act included actual abuse or the threat of abuse whether physical, sexual, verbal, emotional or economic. Harassment by way of unlawful dowry demands to the woman or her relatives will also be covered under the notification. And if a man commits any kind of violence or even insults his wife, he can land in jail with a fine up to Rs 20,000. However, the law that has not drawn equally positive response from several quarters. Welcoming the law a step in the right direction, Save Indian Family Foundation member Abdul Wajid says it will take more than a law to change perceptions against domestic violence. “There are problems in every household, but now situations are likely to arise when even after a minor tiff wife might decide to teach her husband a lesson….In this way the Act will only end up destroying families. The Indian joint family has certain framework with a family head, who everyone should respect and obey so the family stays together.. Moreover, it is also a fact that less than 10 per cent of the women who are actual victims of physical or emotional abuse step out of their homes and seek help. Real victims will not even be able to take advantage of the Act as most of them are illiterate and unaware of the law or the police.” Crime Against Man Cell president K.P. Chugh, a Supreme Court lawyer, fears that like Section 498 of the IPC, the new Act might also end up becoming one more way for women to harass men and their families. “ There are 1001 reasons for family discord. Ask any policeman working in the Crime Against Women cell and he will tell you how existing dowry laws are being misused. While real victims are hardly ever able to find justice, dowry laws are blatantly misused as tools of harassment and legal extortion,” he says. Advocate for NGO Shaktivahini Kamal Pandey adds that fate of majority of social legislations shows that implementation of such laws is usually a long delayed process. "It is a step in the right direction. But I do not see any perceptible change in women’s status overnight. Most of the social legislations are never implemented properly… It will take at least a decade before things change and that too provided the government puts proper machinery in place and the implementation agencies like police and women are made adequately aware of the Act,” he said. On its part, the government says that necessary administrative arrangements will immediately be put in place in all states and union territories for the commencement of the Act.
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Pranab, Kasuri may meet in Delhi on Nov 17
New Delhi, October 26 The conference of 20 countries is aimed at contributing to the reconstruction and development of Afghanistan. The conference will be of Foreign Minister-level to be held here on November 18-19. Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai will inaugurate the conference. Countries like Pakistan, US, UK and France are going to participate in it. The presence of Pakistan in the meet assumes significance, as it will provide an opportunity for Mr Mukherjee to interact with Mr Kasuri days after the two countries’ Foreign Secretaries meet here for reviewing the third round of Composite Dialogue process. The Foreign Secretary-level talks (November 14-15) are going to focus on the Indo-Pak joint mechanism on combating terror, which Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf announced in Havana last month. If Kasuri-Mukherjee meeting takes place, it would inevitably overshadow the conference on Afghanistan. Though it is not certain that all participating countries will be represented by their foreign ministers, mandarins in South Block are hoping that more than a 12 foreign ministers will be attending it. India has already sent the invites to foreign ministers of the participating countries. The conference’s exact nomenclature is “Regional Economic Cooperation Conference on Afghanistan”. Heads of 10 multilateral organisations like the UN, UNDP, World Bank, IMF, European Commission and ADB are also expected to attend the meet. Steps to increase trade will be on the agenda of the conference. Besides, there will be a pointed focus on energy cooperation with Afghanistan involving laying of oil and gas pipelines.
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HIV positive cases on rise in Bihar
Patna, October 26 The Bihar AIDS Control Society (BACS), however, refused to attach much importance to this as already there were close to 10,000 HIV positive cases in the state which clearly indicated the alarming proportion of the disease. The BACS, an organisation which functions on behalf of the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO), further stated that the ominous spread of the disease could also be assessed with an estimated 5.21 million adults in India were presently living with HIV. Of them, 57 per cent were from rural background. India holds the second largest number of HIV infected persons in the world. A senior official of the BACS claimed that the detection of HIV+ in six constables was not an event in isolation as the police was also a part of society. But what were more important with regard to the findings of HIV+ in the police was the resultant differences that cropped up between DGP Ashish Ranjan Sinha and Home Secretary Afzal Amanullah. While Mr Amanullah admitted the findings of HIV+ in two DIG rank officials, however, Mr Sinha dismissed the claim as
baseless. “You better ask Mr Amanullah. I do not have any knowledge about this,” Mr Sinha told the media.
The police lines hospital head, Dr D.P. Ojha, also confirmed the HIV+ cases in six constables only, and not in DIG rank officials. The first case of AIDS in Bihar was detected in Nawada in 1992. But in past two years, the number of such patients have shot up alarmingly with more than 100 already had died due to AIDS. It was also learnt that about 64 per cent AIDS victims were males. According to the BACS, a major chunk of HIV patients were migrant workers who were returning to the state after being affected by the disease in Mumbai, Kolkata, Delhi and other places. The rise in number of HIV patients was found to be most alarming in eight districts of north Bihar sharing common border with Nepal. These include east Champaran, west Champaran, Khagaria, Madhubani, Purnia, Kishanganj, Muzaffarpur and Sirtamari. Interestingly, the six police constables who had tested HIV+ were also from north Bihar districts. The figures available with the BACS further revealed that against 6,500 HIV/AIDS cases in 2004, it was 9,907 till June, 2006. On an average around 2,000 HIV+ patients were reportedly being detected in Bihar. Unofficially, even the BACS conceded that the actual figure of HIV patients would be much higher. The BACS has identified some of the reasons like indulgence in unsafe sexual practices, non-use of condom, religious strictures and reluctance to talk about sex and sexuality, besides migration, which are pushing up the HIV/AIDS cases in the state. So far the Bihar Police is concerned, the state government has decided that henceforth all new recruits should carry the HIV negative certificates and that men presently serving in the force should also undergo HIV tests. Dr P. Ojha said he had already requested the authorities to make sure that all police officials undergo an HIV test. “A complete health profile should be made necessary for all,” he added.
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Japan offers Rs 5.8 billion for Patna’s development
Patna, October 26 Japan has agreed to loan Rs 5.8 billion to Bihar for the integrated development of Patna. Official sources disclosed that the Japan Bank of International Cooperation (JIBC) had agreed to provide the loan in 2007-08 to take care of sewerage, water supply and solid waste management projects. Going by the plan, the JIBC would give approximately Rs 2 billion for water supply projects, Rs 2.5 billion for sewerage projects and Rs 1.2 billion for solid waste management projects. The Bihar State Jal Parshad had sought Rs 14.8 billion for Patna’s integrated development. It was also learnt that Bihar State Jal Parishad was also planning to upgrade sewerage and water system in Bhagalpur, Muzafarpur and Gaya districts too through public-private participation.
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Job posting on web misleading: Rlys
New Delhi, October 26 The website 'railwayindia.org', which was launched recently, has published the results of group 'D' posts of the Eastern and the Northern Railways. "The results published in the website are unauthorised and this has been done apparently for fraudulent purposes," an official press note stated. It further stated that the Railways had not provided the information available on the website. "General public is advised not to pay heed to such misleading information," the press note added.
— PTI
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New Delhi, October 26
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