HC strikes down 4.5% sub-quota for minorities

‘Religion No Ground For Reservation’

TIMES NEWS NETWORK 

Hyderabad: The Andhra Pradesh high court on Monday set aside the Centre’s controversial order to create a sub-quota for minorities, saying there was no rationale in creating religion-based quota. 

    The Centre had moved to provide 4.5% sub-quota to OBC minorities within the 27% limit in educational institutions and public sector units. The court said the policy was based on religious grounds and not on backwardness of the proposed beneficiaries. 

    On December 22, 2011, the Centre issued two memos granting 4.5% subquota to OBC minorities. The move triggered protests from OBCs, who feared this would eat into their quota share. An OBC leader R Krishaniah moved the Andhra Pradesh high court on January 2, pleading the move was discriminatory on religious grounds and violates the Constitution. 

    Disposing of the petition on Monday, the special bench comprising Chief Justice Madan B Lokur and Justice Sanjay Kumar, said the government order violates Articles 15 (1) and 16(2) of the Constitution. 

Centre to move SC 

    There are observations in the order we don’t agree with. We will go to the Supreme Court. The OBC list worked as a filter to weed out the “forwards” belonging to any religion. The court objected to the government giving special treatment to a religious community but the fact is that quota was given to “minorities”, which are five different religious groups 

— Salman Khurshid | Law minister Quotas only for backward class: HC 

    While Article 15(1) prevents discrimination based on religion, race, caste, sex or residence, Article 16(2) states no discrimination on these grounds can be shown by the state in recruitment to government posts. The court agreed with the petitioner that Articles 15(5) and 16(4) do not support the government’s quota order. 

    Maintaining that quotas are meant for welfare of backward classes, the court noted the Centre had failed to satisfactorily show that intended beneficiaries were more backward than the rest of OBCs to warrant preferential treatment. 

    “The very use of words ‘belonging to minorities’ or ‘for minorities’ indicates the sub-quota has been carved out only on religious lines,” the bench said.


Source:: The Times of India, 29-05-2012, p.01. http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Client.asp?Daily=TOIM&showST=true&login=default&pub=TOI&Enter=true&Skin=TOINEW&AW=1338281490003

SC: We have cancer of berating lower courts 


New Delhi: The Supreme Court has admitted that a growing tendency in superior courts to berate lower court judges for apparent mistakes in orders and judgments was denting the judiciary’s credibility. 
   
It said its judgments advising superior court judges to exercise restraint and use temperate language while dealing with appeals against orders passed by lower court judges had fallen on deaf ears. “The trend seems to be persistent like an incurable cancerous cell which explodes out at the slightest imbalance,” said a bench of Justices B S Chauhan and Dipak Misra.


Source::: The Times of India, 26-05-2012, p.13. http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Client.asp?Daily=TOIM&showST=true&login=default&pub=TOI&Enter=true&Skin=TOINEW

Village sets up own HC to fight litigation costs

Mukesh Tandon TNN 

Bathinda: A Punjab village has been forced to set up its “high court” to resolve disputes due to rising litigation costs and slow pace of justice. 
    Pulha village elders claim the “court”, comprising 35 “jury” members, has settled over 250 cases primarily related to land disputes piled up over last three years in as many months. 
    “Except murder, we try to solve all other issues,” said Sukhjinder Singh, a village elder. Another elder and jury member Darshan Singh said villagers used to face harassment at the hands of the police and the courts “with justice becoming the casualty”. 
    The jury includes former army, police officers from the village besides local panchayat members, who work free of cost. The “court” has put in place a mechanism of “through” inquiry to ensure its “verdicts” are acceptable to the people. “The verdict is delivered after seeking the consent of the parties involved,” said another jury member.


Source::: The Times of India, 25-05-2012, p.11 : http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Client.asp?Daily=TOIM&showST=true&login=default&pub=TOI&Enter=true&Skin=TOINEW

The Copyright (Amendment) Bill 2012 - Sailent features of the Bill regarding Library

The Copyright (Amendment) Bill 2012

The Copyright Amendment Bill 2010 was discussed on thursday in the Rajya Sabha. It was passed by the House, finally after being on the shelves for two years.

One of the positive proposed amendments is the extension of fair dealings to all works, and parallel importation ( importation of a non counterfeit product from another country without the permission of the intellectual property owner) will be allowed. This would prove beneficial to the use and importation of products based regions other than the place of consumption or use.

The scope of use of works in educational institutions and for educational purposes will be expanded and libraries will be allowed to keep electronic records of their contents. Copyright societies, under the amendment are to be responsible to the authors of works and not to copyright societies.

The amendment further attempts to utilise open source software for open licensing. The partial exemption for online intermediaries regarding transient and incidental storage appears to be an attempt to incorporate the safe harbour provision of the American Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

A possible negative provision of the bill is the proposed increase in the duration of copyright, which would reduce the accessibility and usability of the work to the general public. Further, technological protection measures to be introduced in India may mirror the anti-consumer character they have in other countries.

 

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Copyright bill gets RS nod sans movie royalty clause

TIMES NEWS NETWORK 

New Delhi: The Rajya Sabha on Thursday approved the Copyright Amendment Bill which seeks to remove operational difficulties and address newer issues related to the digital world and world wide web. The Bill could, however, be passed with the government dropping a provision of giving royalty to the principal director of a film. 
    The bill, moved by HRD minister Kapil Sibal, also seeks to bring Indian laws originally enacted in 1957 in conformity with international norms and the World Intellectual Property Organization. 
    Replying to the debate, Sibal said a clause with a provision of giving royalty to the principal director of a film has been dropped in keeping with the suggestion of the Parliamentary standing committee. 
    “We wanted to actually give this right over royalty to the principal director. He is perhaps principal creator. But there was a feeling expressed by the parliamentary standing committee that time the is not ripe to give that right. So, we are dropping (it),” he said. 
    Initiating the discussion, nominated member and lyricist Javed Akhtar said that companies have sway over songs and the writers and singers do not get much from the commercial success. “Music companies dictate terms to even noted musicians like A R Rahman and others,” he said. 
    Samajwadi Party member Jaya Bachchan talked about the widespread prevalence of pirated songs and music and urged that the bill should address the issue. She stressed that everybody associated with creation of a song of film should be rewarded as these are “created collectively”. 
    The Bill reflects seven broad areas, including right of author and music composer, right to visually impaired, extending compulsory regime to unpublished work, imposition of punitive actions among others. 
    Sibal said piracy issue has been dealt with properly in the Bill. “We are in the midst of new era, which I call digital era. In this digital era, the nature of rights of stakeholders need to be looked afresh.”


Source::: The Times of India, 18-05-2012, p.11 : http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Client.asp?Daily=TOIM&showST=true&login=default&pub=TOI&Enter=true&Skin=TOINEW

For 1st time, wife’s property share defined

Himanshi Dhawan TNN 

New Delhi: The Marriage (Amendment) Bill that seeks to amend the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, and the Special Marriage Act, 1954, seeks to introduce irretrievable breakdown of marriage as a condition for divorce through mutual consent. 

    This is the first time that a woman’s share in marital property has been made part of the legislation. So far, the wife’s right to property was recognized, but alimony and compensation were decided by the courts. 
    “The amendment will give a woman right to 50% of the residential property owned by her husband even if it is acquired before the marriage. This will ensure that the woman is not left without a roof over her head in case divorce is given through mutual consent. However, division of other property, money, assets will be decided by the courts,’’ sources said. 

    However, some of the activists remained unhappy with the bill, saying it still remained biased against women. Former Rajya Sabha member Brinda Karat said this legislation would “compromise the future rights of women in a marriage’’. Karat, along with MPs and others, had met law minister Salman Khurshid on Tuesday to press home the point that restricting a woman’s share only to residential property would be unfair. They argued that the woman’s right to property was established under law and she should have an equal right to all property acquired during marriage. 

    “There has been some change but it is not enough. This is a very poor substitute and should not be passed in the name of a pro-woman legislation,’’ Karat said. 

Anti-dowry law changes to be fast-tracked 

New Delhi: The government appears keen to fast-track the anti-dowry amendments, and has lined up an important meeting with women MPs on May 21. The women and child development ministry has been mulling over amendments which will ensure both moveable and immoveable property be considered dowry, and differential penalties for those giving and taking bribes. The proposed amendments range from changing the definition of dowry to imposition of harsher penalty for dowry deaths. The ministry hopes to garner political support for the bill. 


Source::: The tTimes of India, 18-05-2012, p.09 : http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Client.asp?Daily=TOIM&showST=true&login=default&pub=TOI&Enter=true&Skin=TOINEW

Govt raises income ceiling for poor in higher education 

    In a decision that will benefit 8.21 lakh students, the state cabinet has increased the income ceiling for economically backward class (EBC) students applying for reimbursement and fee waiver for higher education. The limit has been increased from Rs 15,000 to Rs 1 lakh per annum. Since 1960, in a bid to encourage higher studies among people belonging to low-income sections, the state government has followed the practice of reimbursing or waiving admission, tuition, library and similar fees. The ceiling was last revised in 1997, chief minister Prithviraj Chavan said. The decision to increase the ceiling will cost the state exchequer Rs 8.93 crore.


SOURCE::: The Times of India, 17-05-2012, p.02. http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Client.asp?Daily=TOIM&showST=true&login=default&pub=TOI&Enter=true&Skin=TOINEW&AW=1337232548171

Govt clears for 3 key bills on education

Govt clears for 3 key bills on education

TNN May 11, 2012, 04.28AM IST

Tags:

• Union Cabinet|
• NARAHEI Bill|
• education Bills

NEW DELHI: The cabinet on Thursday cleared three crucial legislations in the education sector, allowing for mandatory accreditation of higher educational institutions, setting up innovation universities as hubs of excellence in research and innovation, and the copyright bill.

The National Accreditation Regulatory Authority for Higher Educational Institutions Bill, 2012 will improve the quality of higher education in the country as it will make accreditation of higher educational institutions mandatory and provide for an institutional structure for registering, monitoring and auditing accredit-ing agencies.

Govt clears for 3 key bills on education

Builder giving hard time? Go to consumer forum

Rakesh Bhatnagar l New Delhi

All those who have been waiting for years to get possession of their flats or are unhappy with the construction work can now move the consumer protection forum against builders. The forum has been empowered to take cognisance of any deficiency in service by a builder. The builder will now have to ensure that ownership documents are registered in the flat owner’s name. Terming a builder “service provider” and an applicant for a flat under construction “consumer”, the Supreme Court on Friday gave buyers the power to move the forum against the builder. If a builder uses substandard material or makes false or misleading comments about the condition of the flat, it would “amount to denial of facility or benefit of which a consumer is entitled to claim compensation under the Consumer Protection Act”, a bench of justices TS Thakur and Gyan Sudha Misra ruled. Dismissing an appeal filed by a group of contractors saying construction business cannot be termed “service” and a buyer cannot be called “consumer”, the court said when a builder undertakes to construct a house/flat, he has to “perform his obligation as agreed upon”. “A flat with a leaking roof or walls with cracks is denial of service.” Source::: DNA, 14-05-2012, p.01: http://epaper.dnaindia.com/

Admissions to MU certificate courses to start today

Mumbai: Admissions for the next batch of the certificate course in Archaeology and the certificate course in Ancient Indian Arts and Sciences, held at the Centre for Extra Mural Studies, University of Mumbai (commencing July 1, 2012) will start from Monday. 
    Those interested can contact CEMS, 2nd floor, Health Centre Building, University Campus, Kalina, Santacruz or call Dr KF Dalal on 9820136511.


Source:::: The Times of India, 14-05-2012, p.08: http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Client.asp?Daily=TOIM&showST=true&login=default&pub=TOI&Enter=true&Skin=TOINEW&AW=1336972726847

Courts increase, yet 15,366 cases pending for 21 years

Rebecca Samervel TNN 

Mumbai: Despite government efforts to increase the number of courts, the problem of delayed justice continues to plague the city’s legal system. Figures accessed through RTI reveal that 15,366 cases that are 21 years or older were pending before metropolitan magistrates’ courts in the city as on March 31. Beyond this, the courts were still considering another 47,270 cases that were filed 11 to 20 years ago and a further 74,123 cases that 
were filed six to 10 years ago. 
    Legal experts and activists blamed the high pendency rate on several reasons, including shortage of judges and defence lawyers’ penchant for seeking repeated adjournments. “Delays occur because the accused, in many cases, are powerful and do not want their cases to come up for trial,” said former policeman-turned-lawyer Y P Singh. “They manage to get indefinite adjournments.” Taking cognizance of the problem, the government increased the number of magistrate courts from 68 in 2011 to 75 in 2012.

Source:: The Times of India, 14-05-2012, p.01:  http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Client.asp?Daily=TOIM&showST=true&login=default&pub=TOI&Enter=true&Skin=TOINEW&AW=1336972726847

The papers of LL.B. Exam to be held on 9th & 10th of May 2012 have been postponed due to MHT-CET exam.