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Alert from Gorakhpur Respect SC’s ruling |
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Ban on roadside food
Suicides by farmers
Abolishing perks
There is another side
of justice, after all Legal Notes Reservations in promotions Compensation to gas victims US, China trade talks open
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Alert from Gorakhpur IT seems those who donot want peace and stability in the country have begun working overtime. Soon after the bomb blasts at Hyderabad’s Mecca Masjid they struck on Tuesday in Gorakhpur, a strategically located town in eastern Uttar Pradesh. While 16 people lost their lives in the Andhra Pradesh capital, luckily no casualties were reported from Gorakhpur. But the UP town has special significance as it has reportedly been used by terrorists to smuggle in arms and ammunition via Nepal. The explosive devices used in Gorakhpur were not as powerful as those employed in Hyderabad, but the incident should serve as a reminder that eastern UP’s commercial hub needs greater attention of security agencies because of its proximity to the Nepal border. The seizure of explosives at Faizabad railway station, near Ayodhya, after the crude bombs shattered peace in Gorakhpur indicates that more mischief may be in the offing in UP and elsewhere. The elements behind the bomb blasts are yet to be identified, but their aim obviously cannot be anything other than causing strife, communal or otherwise. They must be feeling frustrated as people have refused to fall in their traps by maintaining calm. This is one way to frustrate the designs of terrorists. But with terrorism remaining a potent threat to peace, there should be no let-up in security arrangements at communally sensitive points anywhere in the country. It is surprising that intelligence agencies could not forewarn of what happened in Gorakhpur though the town had witnessed communal clashes in January, resulting in the death of two persons. Terrorists are believed to have built a strong network in Gorakhpur because of its location near the Nepal border. The emerging security threat is a major challenge to the new government in UP headed by Ms Mayawati. Law and order was one of the planks on which she fought the elections that brought her to power. She must ensure that her administration does not show any laxity on this score. |
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Respect SC’s ruling THE Gujarat government’s asking Geeta Johri, Inspector-General of Police (CID Crime), to report to Additional DGP O.P. Mathur regarding the investigation into the alleged fake encounter deaths of three persons in the state last year amounts to a violation of the Supreme Court ruling. On May 17, the apex court ruled that there was no need for a CBI probe because Mrs Johri’s investigation into the killing of Sohrabuddin Sheikh, his wife Kauser Bi and a key witness Tulsiram Prajapati in fake encounters last year was proceeding in the right direction. The Bench consisting of Justice Tarun Chatterjee and Justice P.K. Balasubramanyan, however, asked the investigating team headed by Mrs Johri not to report on the encounter case to DGP P.C. Pandey or any other senior officer of Gujarat Police, but to submit its reports directly to the apex court. It even directed the DGP not to interfere with the probe being conducted by Mrs Johri. Consequently, in the context of specific instructions of the apex court, the government counsel’s directive to Mrs Johri not only comes as a surprise but also raises doubts about the Narendra Modi government’s intentions. This also strengthens the impression that the government is trying to influence the investigation and bail out some big political functionaries and other policemen believed to be behind the horrendous killings. It is common knowledge how the government had to do a volte-face very recently after divesting Mrs Johri of the probe. In conformity with the apex court ruling, Mrs Johri should be given a free hand to do a thorough probe and ferret out the truth. Any communication like asking Mrs Johri to report to the state police authority on this case can vitiate the investigation and hence cause contempt of court. Mrs Johri is a conscientious IPS officer and it is on the basis of her report that three senior IPS officers have been arrested for their reported involvement in the fake encounters. As she is required to submit her final report to the apex court on July 3, the government would do well to extend all help to Mrs Johri in her work rather than hinder it. |
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Ban on roadside food Upholding the Delhi civic bodies’ ban on roadside cooking, the Supreme Court has allowed the sale of coffee, tea and other beverages in the streets provided these are served in disposable cups at authorised sites during fixed hours. However, the proviso does not apply to hospitals and bus/rail terminals. The court order will certainly limit an easy access to cheap food and the sufferers will mainly be the poor vendors or consumers. The popular Indian habit of eating anytime, anywhere may get a knock. Street food may come under the vigil of municipal inspectors or beat
constables.Also, the vendors can be simply made jobless, or those who can afford only cheap food deprived of nutrition. Under a pilot project the Centre plans to enforce BIS norms on food, check the vending of unhygienic eatables and the use of unclean water which, it is felt, often results in diseases like cholera and jaundice. Such regulatory steps are to be enforced in eight cities, including Mumbai and
Kolkata. The aim is to restore order on roads by removing encroachments and allow pedestrians the right to free passage. Besides, it is felt the setting up of exclusive hawker zones and the licensing of hawkers will save them from extortions by sundry inspectors, who are often ready to look the other way for convenience. There is, no doubt, an urgent need to control urban chaos, caused largely by unchecked urbanisation and the increased pressure of vehicles. This, however, should not be done at the cost of the poor only. Before throwing vendors out of the street, the civic authorities must rehabilitate them. If roads are congested, haphazard car parking is partly to blame. The car-owners, whose number is rising very fast, must pay for parking. Roadside regularisation is a good idea, but much will depend on how it is implemented. |
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The distance is nothing; it is only the first step that is difficult. —
Mme Du Deffand |
Suicides by farmers
THE Chief Minister of Punjab has recently asked the state’s Deputy Commissioners to conduct a detailed survey to ascertain the actual number of suicides by farmers in order to ensure a comprehensive application of relief and compensation schemes of the Central and state governments. This seems much akin to the monkey that jumps from one tree to another tree chattering to scare the tiger away; other animals think that at least something is being done, and should the tiger go away the monkey can claim it as his success. In the present case it seems that such a survey would do little to actually reach relief to the distressed families or prevent those in misery from taking their own lives. Conducting such detailed surveys will only consume valuable resources with little to show at the end of it beyond what is already well known. Such a survey and data collection can be done by anyone trained to do it. But governance is something that only a Deputy Commissioner can do and she/he needs to be asked to focus on that. Moreover, it is entirely possible, as our researches show, that comprehensive misgovernance at the local level is an important factor in pushing the farmers in distress to commit suicide. So, one of the effective ways of intervening and providing succour to the farmers would be to provide a good, people-friendly administration at the local level. The current epidemic of suicides by farmers requires interventions at many levels, both at the level of policy-making and at the level of the field administration. The greatest imperative before the field administration is to intervene in such a manner as to provide direct relief and also to take steps to stem the epidemic. This latter need is not at all addressed by counting the numbers of farmers who felt so helpless and impotent that they could see no way other than suicide. In fact, the direction to conduct such a survey implicitly assumes that the most important role of the DCs is firstly to provide the government information for decision-making and secondly to pass on whatever relief the government decides upon. Actually, the DCs have a far more important role to play than merely this.
Without, for the moment, going into the complex causes for the present crisis facing the farmer, one thing which seems clear is that the Indian farmer today is a lonely and isolated figure who feels, for whatever reason, that he has been abandoned by an uncaring government and society, to whom it matters little whether their wheat is home-grown or imported. Even in the media, we routinely hear discussions on wasteful subsidies for the farmers. This is not factually correct, but let that be for the moment and we focus on what the local administration can do. Perhaps, the greatest need is for the administrators to reach out to the cultivator in such a manner as to provide that crucial support which seems to be missing currently at the ground level. How can such support be provided? Perhaps, the easiest and most direct method would be for the DC and his officials to tour the district intensively, to meet people, to get to know about their problems from close quarters. This is part and parcel of the basic task of governance, which, with the increase in the tasks to be performed by the DC and with the responsibilities for development administration, is simply being left by the wayside. There was a time when the DC was routinely expected to do “night halts” and conduct a series of “detailed inspections”, in administrative parlance, in his jurisdiction. With improvement in communications, it is now easily possible to reach anywhere in the district and be back much before nightfall. As a result, whatever tours and inspections are conducted tend to last a short while during the day, at a time when most people, especially the farmers and wage-labourers are away at work and it is not easy to access them. But it is precisely these sections of the population which are also more vulnerable and need to be reached. Moreover, stopping at night at a village does help those who need to meet the DC without the intervention of corrupt subordinates and an awe-inspiring, police-guarded office. Those in distress could always call upon the DC in his office. But till now they have never done so. Maybe, the DC needs to go to them. Direct contact between the field administration and the public is crucial not only for the administrators to get a much-needed feel of the situation but also to enable them to pass on appropriate information about the structures of governance, the avenues for help available, whether by way of credit, relief or agricultural inputs. In the absence of official channels of information, farmers are left to make whatever they can of the situation and to depend on a variety of middlemen whose job it is to supply information for a price, of course. Currently, the price happens to be the life of the farmer. While large-scale government policies are being formulated by the wise men in Chandigarh, Delhi and Washington to save the farmer in India from farming, the farmer, irrespective of whether he is large, small or marginal, is finding it increasingly difficult to cope with the ups and downs of agrarian capitalism. Even in the US where more than 90 per cent of the farms are family farms and over 75 per cent of the agricultural land is owned by these farmers, the family farm finds it difficult to earn a profit from farming whether through their own enterprise or through contract farming. Only the corporate farm, run as an industrial concern, makes hay as it were. The reason why the farmer in the US does not commit suicide because of farm-related distress is that he is not under pressure from other kinds of distress. The Indian farmer, more so the farmer in Punjab, has to not only cope with the problems of agriculture but also with a highly corrupt and parasitical administration. In our experience, the farmer is quite capable of handling farm-related problems so long as appropriate information is available to him. What pulls him down completely, however, are extra-farming pressures. Unfortunately, our government and intellectuals have found a convenient scapegoat in indebtedness as a cause for farmers’ suicides therefore much energy is wasted in talking about indebtedness and designs to rein it in. Common sense suggests that making credit available is a negligible issue so long as it is imperative that any loan be repaid. Moreover, merely offering credit does little to improve the capacity to repay. It is, therefore, very surprising that the most well-meaning of our officers and intellectuals continue to talk about an indebtedness-centric solution to the problems of our farmers. What the Punjab Chief Minister should be asking his DCs to do is to be more accessible to farmers, visit them in their villages, hamlets and fields, hold public meetings with the hoi polloi at a time of the hoi polloi’s convenience and listen to the various problems that people face in their normal lives. What he should also be asking his DCs is to run an effective administration which is people-friendly and not run bureaucratic satrapies, protected by a bunch of thugs in khaki, where anyone without pull cannot get even the smallest work done and those audacious enough to break the law routinely seem to be benefiting considerably for their
arrogance. The writer is a professor of history at Panjab University, Chandigarh.
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Abolishing perks Prime
Minister Dr Manmohan Singh has said that it is generous perks like DA, HRA, CCA, LTC and pensions that make government jobs attractive and if they are abolished thru’ an executive fiat, the clamour for government jobs and consequently quotas and reservations will die a natural death. I have been talking to a Deputy Secretary in the Department of Personnel. “The PM has hit the nail right on the head,” he said, “an inter-departmental committee of secretaries is presently taking a long, hard look at perks for government employees and you can expect some harsh and unpopular decisions soon.” “Just how do you plan to make government jobs less attractive?” I asked, “will you straightaway increase the working hours to 23 so that a government employee will have to sweat and toil like a galley slave to earn his pay?” “No,” said the Deputy Secretary, “with immediate effect, we’are going to reduce the working hours in government offices to just five minutes a day so that an employee will have to be at his desk only between 11.55 a.m. and 12 noon and when it’s time to knock off for the day, he’ll be almost immediately confronted with the transport problem because most buses will be off the road at noon.” “Golly,” I said, “what tou’re planning is practically a pogrom against government workers and their perks.” “Like I said earlier,” said the Deputy Secretary, “there are no soft options available and we’ve to go for the jugular. Then take LTC. We know for a fact that people want to gatecrash into cushy government jobs because of the Leave Travel Concession and if that’s the case, they better think twice. We’re going to amend the LTC rules so that a government employee can not only visit his home town, but also Hong Kong, Dubai and Amsterdam with their duty free airport shops and this they can do not just once a year, but three times a month.” “If nothing else, that should make government jobs less attractive,” I said. “We’re going to be extremely hard nosed in making jobs less attractive,” said the Deputy Secretary, take the City Compensatory Allowance. We’re going to declare the most backward village in the country as a Class A city and shunt our employees to these godforsaken places and compel them to accept CCA applicable to metropolitan cities. “What about pensions which is attracting so much flak?” I asked. “Where pensions are concerned,” said the Deputy Secretary grimly. “We’re going to call the shots and not bother where the chips fall.” “You mean you’re going to altogether abolish pensions in one go so that superannuating government employees will have to starve?” “No,” said Deputy Secretary, “‘we’re going to amend the rules so that a government employee joining duty in the morning can retire the same afternoon on full
pension.” |
There is another side
of justice, after all Judges who write good judgements whilst on the Bench do not necessarily write good books when they retire. Justice S.S. Sodhi, who retired in 1995 as Chief Justice of the Allahabad High Court, is a noteworthy exception. “The Other Side of Justice” dwells on “judicial politics”: a lack of transparency in appointments to the higher judiciary, strikes by lawyers and the need for more effective control of ethical professional conduct. Throughout the book Jusitce Sodhi expresses himself frankly and in fluent prose. This book is not an autobiography. It is about the very interesting and adventurous days that Justice Sodhi spent on the Bench – his battles with the Bar and how he brought lawyers’ strikes under control – and, of course, about the felt injustices of superior judges! One good thing about Justice Sodhi is that he does not mince words; he does not mind if his contemporaries who have wronged him are still around. The problem about contemporaries being still around is that if you wait for them not to be around, you could never write a book! Mr Chandubhai Daphtary was India’s Attorney General Court from 1963 to 1968. After he demitted office he continued practice as counsel in the Supreme Court, and very occasionally came back to the Bombay High Court where he had begun his practice. On one such occasion whilst waiting for his matter to reach the court, he came into the Bombay Bar Library. He had a fine presence – a commanding personality. Straight of stature, he walked into the library and pointedly looked all around him. Some of us, then juniors, rushed up to him, thinking he wanted a book or some paper, and offered to help. “No, no”, he said quite dramatically “I am just looking to see if all my enemies are dead!” Justice Sodhi has not been that fortunate. His “enemies” are not dead – some of them are very much alive. But so what? It all makes for interesting reading. I got to know Justice Sodhi when I first met him in Allahabad when I went on a two-day visit at the request of the then CJI (Justice Venkatachaliah). Justice Sodhi had his hands full with a lawyers’ strike led by a local bar association president who simply hated judges and did everything he could to make the lives of judges unbearable! The CJI had requested Mr K.K. Venugopal, President of the Supreme Court Bar Association, and myself as President of the Bar Association of India to find out first hand why courts struck work virtually throughout that state and particularly in the High Court of Allahabad – one of the most over-burdened courts in the country. We immediately left by overnight train to Allahabad – there being no regular plane service then. We spent a large amount of our time during that day with the Chief Justice and also interviewed office-bearers of bar associations, advocates and so on. And we both came back (Mr Venugopal and I) with a very positive impression about Justice Sodhi as a firm and dignified judge – a leader of men, and a judge who could effectively stop lawyers striking work. The fact that he has was not elevated to the Supreme Court is another story. I am convinced that Chief Justice Venkatachaliah’s immediate successors did not want a bold spirit to be in the highest court; though the required number of senior judges had recommended his name for elevation. But two highly placed gentlemen, who shall be nameless and who had once asked favours from him and had received a negative response, one a retired Chief Justice of India and the other a retired judge from Allahabad and later a judge of the Supreme Court, successfully pitched-in against him. And the result was that the Supreme Court did not have the benefit of Justice Sodhi – all of which does not speak well of our current method of judicial appointments – under which it is not that meritorious persons are not appointed to the highest court, but that more meritorious persons are sometimes not able to find a place there. Judges of our Supreme Court are human, addicted to varied forms of flattery. At a seminar held many years ago in Australia, Prof. Louis Loss (a Professor at Harvard) was asked whether there was a future for non-executive directors on boards of companies. And his answer was: “they will always be with us – so long as men enjoy the genuflections of other men!” Many judges of the Supreme Court, many members of the so-called judicial collegium of three or five senior judges in that court, certainly “enjoy the genuflections of other men”: those “other men” being judges of high courts who under the present system retire at 62 and who invariably, though not always, kow-tow to judges in the Supreme Court only because the retirement age of the latter is 65 years. I would say to the Law Minister: level the ages – at 62, 65, or 70 (70 is the most appropriate age) for all judges of the superior judiciary (high courts and the Supreme Court) and the self-respect of judges of the high courts would be restored: Justice Sodhi is one of the proud few who would not stoop to conquer a seat on the Supreme Court Bench! And the result was that he retired at 62 – as many very able judges have retired without being brought to the apex court. But there is no bitterness in the book – the author takes it in his stride. He looks upon this episode – a missed opportunity of being transported to the Supreme Court – without rancour or regret. He is content with the comment which Chief Justice Rama Jois of the Punjab High Court had made. Justice Rama Jois, another fine upright judge, had told him: “It is more honourable to be a victim of politics than to be a beneficiary”. The Other Side of Justice by Justice S.S. Sodhi, Hay House Publishers India, pages 315, Rs. 395 |
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Legal Notes AFTER experiencing success of the fast-track courts in the quick disposal of criminal cases, the Centre, as part of its judicial reforms initiatives, plans to put in place an improved contract enforcement mechanism through fast track civil courts. This is aimed at the speedy disposal of civil disputes, specially those arising out of contractual liabilities as such cases take decades to get finality. To hasten the process of implementing the second-generation economic reforms, it has been felt that abnormally time-consuming legal remedies in civil matters are a major impediment in attracting liberal foreign investment. Apart from amending the relevant laws on contractual liabilities, the government also plans to computerise all 13,348 courts in the subordinate judiciary to eliminate unnecessary time-consuming paper work. The computerisation programme has already been launched to cover all the 646 consumer forums, which provide fast remedies to consumers against deficient services by market players. So far 533 district consumer forums and 33 state consumer commissions have been covered under the scheme. Reservations in promotions In the wake of the Supreme Court Constitution Bench verdict recognising SCs’ and STs’ right of reservation in promotions in public employment, the government plans to give statutory status to it and launch a special recruitment drive to fill the backlog of 50,000 reserved vacancies. The quota vacancies being carried forward for decades will be filled through direct recruitment and promotions as the apex court had said that the unfilled posts could not be carried forward for an indefinite period. In order to give effect to the apex court verdict, a Bill has already been introduced in Parliament to elevate the reservations in promotion to the level of a statutory right. Apart from this, a Group of Ministers (GoM) has been set up by the government to cover all dimensions regarding reservation for OBCs in the backlog vacancies. The GoM will also examine the issue of affirmative action in the private sector and is interacting with captains of the industry on the issue to see how best the private sector could fulfil aspirations of youth belonging to the SCs, STs and other backward communities. After receiving the GoM’s report, the next step of the government is to have an intensive dialogue with the industry. A coordination committee of the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion is in the process of obtaining comments of industry on affirmative action to know their views as how the entire scheme could be put in place in a harmonious atmosphere. Captains of the industry are open to the idea of affirmative action, but have reservations on extending the quota in its present form to the private sector. Compensation to gas victims The Supreme Court has clarified that the decision of the Deputy Commissioner, Bhopal, on categorising the compensation claims to the victims of the 1984 Union Carbide gas tragedy will not be treated merely as an administrative order but will have a quasi-judicial status against which an appeal could be filed in the court of law for modifying the category by invoking the doctrine of judicial review by any victim if he was not satisfied with placing him in a particular category. The clarification was given by the court while expressing its inability to review its 1991 order approving the out-of-court settlement between the Indian Government and US company Union Carbide from whose plant the leak of a deadly gas had claimed over 3,000 lives and caused grievous injuries of various nature to over 30,000 persons. In order to give effect to the $ 470 million compensation settlement with the Union Carbide, the Centre had issued a notification in 1992 putting the claims in six categories. Of these, the ceiling range of compensation in death cases was fixed between Rs 1 lakh and Rs 3 lakh, for permanent or partial disability between Rs 50,000 and Rs 2 lakh, injury of utmost severity up to Rs 4 lakh, minor injuries up to Rs 20,000, property loss Rs 15,000 and for loss of livestock up to Rs 10,000. An organisation of the gas victims’ women and some NGOs had sought enhancement of the compensation package, terming the fixed criteria as grossly inadequate particularly when there has been abnormally long delay in making the payment to the affected people. |
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US, China trade talks open Chinese leaders visiting Washington for high-level economic talks pointedly expressed their displeasure Tuesday at recent American trade sanctions and at tight U.S. controls on the export of high-technology goods. Their American hosts countered with attacks on Chinese piracy, government subsidies and poisoned pet-food ingredients. U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab and U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez found themselves in the hot seats, facing 15 minister-level Chinese officials who demanded to know why the United States chose to take anti-Chinese trade actions instead of working out the problems through dialogue. Earlier this year, Schwab's office filed complaints at the World Trade Organization against China over what it says are illegal government subsidies and piracy. The Commerce Department in April slapped sanctions on high-gloss paper from China. In China, the trade actions have been seen as unfair and a display of tough-on-China showmanship for the Bush administration to win political points. “Politicizing trade issues is absolutely unacceptable,” Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi, leading her country's delegation, told U.S. cabinet officers Tuesday. Not only could it damage trade relations, she said, it could have a “seriously negative impact on our overall ties.” Schwab said that her decisions were not politically motivated, but were a last resort after talks failed to resolve the issues quickly enough. “One of the points we took great pains to convey is that trade and trade imbalances tend to be problematic regardless of what party is control,” she said. The talks Tuesday and Wednesday in Washington include the largest high-level delegation China has ever sent to the United States. This is the second session of a strategic economic dialogue that is designed to air multiple issues as China continues to grow as a trade partner and competitor to the United States. The first meeting was held last year in Beijing. But with Congress threatening anti-Chinese legislation – with the most radical proposal calling for punitive tariffs on many goods from China – the talks have also become a place for both sides to vent, argue, discuss and negotiate in hopes of avoiding a trade war. In the weeks prior to the talks, the Chinese sent delegations around the United States – many to key congressional districts whose senators or representatives had been calling for anti-China trade legislation – to purchase what they estimate will eventually be $30 billion worth of U.S. goods. Although U.S. officials said they appreciated the purchases, they noted the number is dwarfed by the overall volume of U.S.-China trade, $343 billion a year. “My hope is that we could have a more steady flow of sales,” James Lambright, chairman and president of the U.S. Export and Import Bank, said in an interview. By arrangement with
LA Times-Washington Post |
God himself is True. And it is only Truth and he likes. Within that lies the quicksilver world of
the mind. True is the Lord. True is his name. |
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