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Separate panel for judges needed, says Justice Iyer
CJI: Judgements should have social impact
‘CM misleading House on CDs’
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‘India to double steel production’
Online bus booking facility launched
Police foils bid to influence Thind case
Pakistanis getting ‘lost’ in Himachal
Navratra fair begins today
House gutted
Snag hits 22 telephone exchanges
Nobel laureate keeps date with students
Plea to make schooling effective
Panel to submit report by May
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Separate panel for judges needed, says Justice Iyer
Shimla, March 13 Coming down heavily on the present system of appointment of judges, he said the collegium should be abolished, an issue he had discussed with the Prime Minister just a week back. “If adopting nepotism and favourtism in elevation of judges is being fair, then the collegium is surely fair and impartial,” was his candid admission on the present controversies surrounding elevations. Justice Iyer (96), who remained a Supreme Court judge from 1973 to 1980, was here to attend the Ruby Jubilee celebration of the Himachal High Court. “There has to be a constitutional code of conduct for judges which will keep a check on all controversies and outbursts surrounding judges,”
he said. Often referred to as the “living legend of law”, Justice Iyer said unfortunately removal of even a corrupt judge through impeachment was next to impossible. “Impeachments often do not come through as they are reduced to a political game between various political parties as was witnessed during the tenure of Prime Minister Narasimha Rao,” he said. Jutice Iyer said the reservations being expressed by some about declaration of assets and liabilities of judges were unfounded. “The law should apply uniformly to all and the judges are no exception,” he said. Dismayed at the failure of the judiciary in giving real justice to the common man, he agreed that the moneyed and influential were able to twist the law to suit their convenience. “It was not with this vision that Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru had laid the foundation of independent India by stating that we should wipe tears from every eye, a mission we have miserably failed in,” he lamented. “No doubt judicial power is supreme, but then that puts additional responsibility on the shoulders of the judiciary, which should be guided by accountability and transparency,” he opined. He exhorted the judiciary to
perform its role of an invigilating power to ensure that people get socio-economic and
political justice. |
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CJI: Judgements should have social impact
Shimla, March 13 Speaking at the inauguration of the ruby jubilee celebration of the Himachal High Court, he said the judges must take lead in inculcating social values in society by being sensitive to the aspirations and expectations of the people. “It is not the length of the judgement which is important but the impact it has been in bridging the socio-economic disparity,” he stressed. Justice Balakrishnan said in a democracy every citizen must have access to basic needs of nutrition and shelter and the legal system must contribute in this mission so that a difference can be made in the life of a common man. “Representation of women in the judiciary at present is undoubtedly small but seeing the strength of girls in law colleges, the scenario will fast change,” he said. Speaking on the occasion, Chief Minister PK Dhumal assured that the government would consider setting up of “Gram Nyayalayas” so as to give speedy justice to people at their door-step. He added that fast-track courts had already been set up for speedy disposal of cases. Dhumal said the State Legal Services Authority through three legal aid clinics had been providing justice to the common man. He assured the judiciary all help and cooperation in providing them the best infrastructure and facilities. Union Steel Minister Virbhadra Singh said the Himachal High Court had a very eventful past and landmark judgements had been delivered and two of its Chief Justices, MH Beg and RS Pathak had been elevated as Chief Justice of India. He expressed concern over the huge backlog, which was causing frustration among the people. Chief Justice Kurian Joseph said a time-bound target had been fixed for the disposal of almost 53,000 cases pending before the high court. He urged the Chief Minister to set up at least 10 “Gram Nayayalayas” in the state in the first phase. |
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‘CM misleading House on CDs’
Shimla, March 13 Addressing a press conference here today, he said, “No court in India will accept a dual system of investigation being adopted by the Vigilance Bureau which has become a pliable tool in the hands of the BJP regime.” Accusing the Chief Minister of misleading the House, he said the entire forensic report obtained from Gandhinagar be placed in the House. “The government has tried to pre-empt the CD issue by getting the report from a state laboratory in Modi’s Gujarat being touted as gospel truth rather than waiting for the report from Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL), Chandigarh,” he opined. “The creation of the CDs is an inner job of the BJP because of infighting and nobody in the Congress was aware of it or involved in it,” he said categorically. He said the CD showing an MP in a money transaction was a serious matter, which needs to be investigated. Virbhadra said the entire police force was being used by the government to suppress its political opponents except those who prefer to sit in his lap rather than oppose it, he said in an oblique reference to a section of the Congress leadership, who are soft in crticising Dhumal. Commenting on the Budget presented by Dhumal, he said the fact that 23 per cent of it would be met through borrowings, the Chief Minister would be left with very little maneuverability in meeting targets and as such development would suffer. “There has been an increase of 45 per cent in bus fares in the past two years despite the fact that road transport is the main travel mode,” he said. |
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‘India to double steel production’
Shimla, March 13 “By the year 2011-12, we hope to touch a target of 125 metric tonnes which would further strengthen India’s position as a leading steel producer in the world,” he said. A sum of Rs 80 crore was proposed to be spent on capacity increase and modernisation of the Steel Authority of India (SAIL) and Ispat Limited. The entire amount for this task is being utilised from internal resources of SAIL, he added. He said the Himachal government had yet to provide land and guarantee of uninterrupted supply of power for setting up of steel processing unit in Sirmour. |
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Online bus booking facility launched
Shimla, March 13 He said with tourism being the fastest growing industry in Himachal, the online booking would go a long way in giving boost to this sector. “With use of modern technology the message of tourism potential in the state had to be sent across so that maximum visit Himachal Pradesh,” he said. |
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Police foils bid to influence Thind case
Solan, March 13 Sources said the arrest was made after Mittal received a phone call on February 28 that a sum of Rs 8 lakh, which was received in lieu of exempting a stretch of 33 bighas of land at Kalujhinda near Baddi in 2005 from being acquired, would be repaid back to him. This cash was given to the bureaucrat and a high-ranking politician of the Congress. Mittal was also directed to put his signatures on affidavits which would deny his statement made before the bureau earlier as the case pertaining to this transaction was being investigated by the bureau. Mittal, however, informed the police and the tout was intercepted with the cash and two affidavits at a hotel near Mani Majra on Thursday night. Links of the tout with a builder having housing projects in Baddi were also being verified as search was on to trace him by the police. The police later arrested the tout and registered a case under Sections 214, 120-B, 465, 467, 468 and 506 of the IPC late last evening for trying to influence the complainant by gratification for concealing an offence drawing legal punishment, criminal conspiracy, criminal intimidation and forgery. The affidavits seized by the police pertained to Mittal and one Mahesh Gupta who owned that land which was required to be exempted from acquisition by the Himachal Pradesh Housing and Urban Development Authority in 2005, the sources added. The land had failed to be exempted due to strategic reasons. This was considered a crucial arrest as it had overtly given an edge to the police in the land deal case and the evidence thus collected would substantiate their stand. Police officials hesitated to divulge any information as it was a sensitive issue and was likely to embroil a key political figure from the Congress and a senior bureaucrat once the origin of the cash would be established. |
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Pakistanis getting ‘lost’ in Himachal
Dharamsala, March 13 Highly-placed sources in the Himachal police told The Tribune that in the past 45 days, 12 cases of Pakistanis going missing in the state had been detected. The security agencies are now on tenterhooks to locate the missing Pakistani residents. A few of them visited the state on grounds of tourism, visiting their relations, staying permanently in the state and doing pilgrimage. The police in the recent past had collected data regarding 95 Pakistani residents overstaying in Una. They had come to the district on the pretext of meeting their relatives. A few of the Pakistani residents overstaying in Himachal include Khawaja Pervez Bararuddin Bandey. He had come to Himachal on a visa to Shimla. However, he has not been traced since then. Sunny Singh came to Sirmour on a pilgrimage visa but has gone missing. Parshotam Lal whose identity is suspected to be fake by the security agencies also came on a pilgrimage visa to Manikaran Sahib. Since he went missing after visiting Himachal, the security agencies later found that his identity was also found to be fake. The sources told The Tribune that the trend of Pakistan residents getting lost in Himachal is increasing over the past few years. The police has now issued a strict advisory to hoteliers in Himachal to keep them informed about the visiting Pakistani residents. Last year the police had arrested an ex-serviceman who was serving as warden in Dharamsala jail on charges of spying for the ISI. He was arrested on the information given by alleged ISI agent arrested from the Pathankot area. After the terror attacks in Mumbai the security agencies in Himachal have been put on high alert regarding the foreigners staying in the state. The security agencies have collected data regarding the foreigners staying in Himachal. The sources here said that spending power of the Pakistan residents staying in Himachal without any known source of income had raised many suspicions. The security agencies are also keeping a close watch on Chinese nationals in the state. They are working on World Bank-financed projects in Una and Shimla district. Last year the Una police sent a report regarding two Chinese nationals to foreign affairs wing of the union ministry of human affairs, who went untraceable in the district. The Chinese nationals were workers of the Chinese company carrying out road construction work in Una district. The data collected by security agencies has raised the apprehensions that the foreign nationals with ulterior motives might be using a peaceful state like Himachal for hiding purpose.
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Navratra fair begins today
Bilaspur, March 13 She said steps have been taken to control crowd and streamline traffic during the fairs. She said a large number of police personnel and home guards have been put on day and night duty to keep vigil on the anti-social elements. The Deputy Commissioner said district officers have been instructed to maintain all essential supplies apart from maintaining 24-hour power supply, clean drinking water, health services and sanitation. She said beggars have been banned at these shrines and possession of all types of arms, ammunition and explosives have also been prohibited with immediate effect in the police station areas of these fairs. |
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House gutted
Chamba, March 13 Had the villagers not doused the flames in time, the entire village would have been burnt to the ground, the report stated. Hadsar is the last village enroute Manimahesh pilgrimage centre in the Bharmour mountainous region. Loss caused due to the fire has been estimated to be more than Rs 6 lakh, the report revealed; adding that revenue officials had rushed to the incident site to provide immediate relief to the affected family as per relief manual of the government. The police has registered a case to ascertain the cause of fire. —
OC |
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Snag hits 22 telephone exchanges
Kangra, March 13 According to sources, an optical fiber cable connecting these telephone exchanges was damaged between Gaggal and Dharamsala, leaving thousands of telephones and Internet connections dead. The trouble started at 10.15 am when all landline phones got disconnected and consumers were left in the lurch. Being Saturday, the banks had a half-day working and at peak rush hours, their computers failed to work. Online bookings at the HRTC and airlines’ counters were also affected due to the snag. The sources further said 22 telephone exchanges were affected, including that of Kangra, Jawalamukhi, Dehra, Ranital, Daulatpur, Nagrota Bagwan and Gaggal. |
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Nobel laureate keeps date with students
Hamirpur, March 13 He spoke to about 500 students from Muscat. Dr Mather was awarded the Nobel prize for his work on COBE along with George Smoot --- the first experiment to measure the black body form and anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background radiation. During his lecture, Dr Mather said, “An astronomer must know his job which is to find out how things started and how human beings came into existence.” Dr Mather also enumerated various common means to calculate astronomical distances and cosmic velocities alike of Doppler effect, Hubble law etc. He also treaded onto the path of history of modern cosmology. Dr Mather replied to questions as to how did the whole universe fit into the ball before the big bang, about the history of moon and earth and regarding the future of civilisation. He also spoke about his work selected for the Nobel prize and the COBE experiment. Talking about his present work, Dr Mather said, “I am presently working on James Webb Space Telescope, which is a large, infrared-optimised space telescope, scheduled for launch in 2014, which would find the first galaxies formed in the early universe, connecting the Big Bang to our own milky way galaxy.” |
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Plea to make schooling effective
Nurpur, March 13 State president of the association PC Vishavakarma in a statement here yesterday urged the state government to check this trend by making schooling effective and attractive. He informed that the association which convened its meeting at Jawalamukhi recently resolved to suggest state government to ensure well furnished classrooms and fix teacher-students ratio 1:35 and fill vacant lying posts in schools. The association also suggested introducing vocational education in schools, option of choosing English medium and introduction of pre-primary classes in primary schools. In order to curb the menace of copying in examinations, the association underlined the need to abolish board examination for middle standard and declare board examination optional for class X. |
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Panel to submit report by May
Shimla, March 13 Addressing a press conference, he said Himachal was the last state to be covered by the commission constituted in July, 2006. “We have completed the task of getting feedback about the scope of reservation and welfare measures for economically backward classes not covered under the existing reservation policy,” he said. He stated that during the four-day visit of the commission to the hill state, feedback from social organisations, individuals and NGOs had been taken. He said as per statistics, Himachal ranked second in the country with regard to population of general category. |
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Former Supreme Court Judge VR Krishna Iyer, often referred to as “Pitamah of Indian Judiciary”, said today that the only way to have accountability and transparency in the judiciary was to have a separate commission for appointment, punitive action and monitoring of performance of judges.
