Wednesday, April 9, 2025
Uncouth Attitude of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister is Against the Basic Structure of the Constitution
Friday, March 21, 2025
The Appointment System of Judges be made Transparent to Checkmate Corruption
According to some of the news channels a mountain of currency notes of not less than Rs nine crore were found in the residence of a judge of the Delhi High Court. It is alarmingly shocking, to say the least. It is common knowledge that many judges have been taking facilities from some people during their foreign travels but to find such a big pile of notes from the residence of any judge has been unheard of.
It
is a clear case of financial corruption. Quid pro quo cannot be ruled out. Who
has given this money for which for obtaining favourable order in which case can
be ascertained only after thorough enquiry? If the fire had not broken out in the
house of the judge in his absence, possibly secret would not have tumbled out. What is all the more shocking is that why instead
of divesting him of his works pending investigation, he has been transferred to
his parent High Court of Allahabad. Indeed, High Court judges cannot be
suspended in the conventional sense. However, they can be removed under specific
provisions of the Constitution. Articles 124(4) and 217 outline the process for
removing judges of the Supreme Court and High Courts, respectively.
The
collegium system has always been under the cloud but the constitution bench of five
judges did a great disservice by setting aside the NJAC, which was passed
unanimously by the Parliament and ratified by 14 State Assemblies. Except for the
abstention of Shri Ram Jethmalani, both houses of Parliament were of the
unanimous view that that Collegium must be given go by. Only Justice Chelameswar
gave his dissenting opinion in the NJAC case.
There
is no gainsaying that a transparent system must be evolved for the appointment
of High Court and Supreme Court judges to instil the confidence of the public
in the judiciary.
Wednesday, March 12, 2025
Promote Hindi to make it a true National language
How sad it
is to see some Parliamentarians and agents of some political parties
cutting very sorry figures, who cry from the house tops for the
protection and preservation of the constitution of India? They even carry the
small sized copy of the constitution to exhibit their loyalty to it.
But in their real life they do contrary to the spirit of the
Constitution. Let us take the question of Hindi. Article 351 of the
Constitution states that ‘the Union must
promote the spread of the Hindi language and to develop it so that it may serve
as a medium of expression for all the elements of the composite culture of
India. It also emphasizes that Hindi should be enriched by incorporating
elements from other Indian languages mentioned in the Eighth Schedule of the
Constitution, thereby drawing from the rich and diverse linguistic heritage of
India. The goal is to make Hindi a robust language capable of representing the
multifaceted culture of the country while ensuring it doesn't replace other
regional languages.
Why this hullaballoo
against Hindi by some politicians, particularly belonging to the DMK of Tamil
Nadu? This reflects their colossal ignorance of the constitution and their
inability to govern the state of Tamil Nadu, where they have come to power by
playing on the sentimental issue of language. These politicians forget the fact
that people cannot be fooled any longer by creating the fear of imposition of
Hindi. Presently, if you travel to any part of Tamil Nadu, you can do your work
in Hindi or a simple Urdu. All three parts of Article 343 of the Indian
Constitution further declare that Hindi in Devanagari script as the official
language of the Union.
Article 343(2): States that for fifteen years
from the commencement of the Constitution (i.e., until January 25, 1965), the
English language shall continue to be used for official purposes of the Union.
Article 343(3):
Permits Parliament to provide by law for the continued use of English after the
said period of fifteen years.
This article was a significant move in
establishing Hindi as the official language. What is surprising is that instead
of dispensing with the dependence of English, these politicians fight against
Hindi.
How pathetic it is to see the deplorable
condition of Hindi in the Supreme Court of India and many High Courts of the
country, where neither judges speak, nor the advocates argue their cases in
English. Knowledgeable people make fun of the English that is written and
spoken in these temples of justice. Many times, even the judges of the Supreme
Court have cursed the incomprehensible judgments of the High Court judges.
Several times the Supreme Court has referred them back to the concerned
High Courts. The book ‘Courts and Their Judgments’ written by journalist Arun
Shourie, exposes the poor knowledge of English of the judges of the High
Courts. This buttresses the importance of Hindi, which should be made
compulsory for all judicial officers and judges. Therefore, those opposing
Hindi will have to eat humble pie.
Sunday, February 23, 2025
Urdu a Divisive Language must be Discouraged
The
UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath should be congratulated for side-stepping
Urdu from the simultaneous translation in the assembly. There is hardly any
doubt that except for script, there is no difference between Hindi and Urdu.
Its syntax and numbers are the same as those in Hindi. It is only due to some
fanatical Muslims that its script is a mix of Persian and Arabic, which has no
justification whatsoever. Moreover, these fanatics made Urdu laden with Arabic
and Persian words. They saw to it that Urdu remains exclusively the language of
Muslims. It is a different matter altogether many non-Muslims have contributed
to its literature.
In
pre-partition days Aligarh Muslim University played a dirty role in driving
away the Urdu from the people and the area where it was born. This university
and the Urdu language provided the necessary arsenal for the creation of
Pakistan. It was because of the hardened communal elements that Urdu was
declared the official language of Pakistan although in no region Urdu was
spoken. It was imposed on Sindhi, Punjabi, Pashto, Baluchi, Pasto, and Bangali and
was declared to be the lingua franca of Pakistan. It was due to the imposition
of Urdu on East Pakistan that Bengalis revolted and got a separate nation i.e. Bangladesh.
The
days are not far away when Pakistan will again get divided due mainly to the fundamentalists
which is what Yogi Adityanath says them to be Kathmullas. Therefore, there is
no need to shed tears for a divisive language like Urdu. The only way for it to
survive is to accept the Devnagari script and eschew the obstinacy of packing
it with Arabic and Persian words.
Friday, February 14, 2025
Chhattisgarh High Court Judgment in a Marital Rape Case is Shocking Denial of Justice
Judgment of acquittal passed by
the Chhattisgarh High Court in a case of marital rape where the wife died due
to the sexual brutality of the husband is nothing but a mockery of justice. The
case belongs to the Jagdalpur district of Chhattigarh. The accused husband, a
driver, committed unnatural sex with his wife, and left her in pain, who died
in a hospital. In her dying declaration, recorded before a
magistrate, the victim alleged that her husband had inserted his hand in her
anus, following which she suffered excruciating pain.
The woman was admitted to
the hospital for treatment, from where a report was made to the police station
concerned and the offence under IPC Section 377 (unnatural sex) was registered
against her husband.
The Indian Evidence Act,
1872, under Section 32 deals with the concept of a “dying declaration”.
Usually, a dying declaration is only admitted as evidence in cases where the
cause of a person’s death comes into question. This concept is based on the
Latin legal maxim “nemomoriturus prae-sumitur mentire” which means a man
will not meet his maker (God) with a lie in his mouth.
In Naeem vs the State of
Uttar Pradesh, the Supreme Court ruled that a dying declaration can be the sole
basis of conviction, but courts must find it to be trustworthy, and one that
inspires confidence.
Notably, in this case, the
doctor who had conducted a postmortem of the deceased’s body had said there
were “two perforations on the rectum”, one on the anterior side and another
above the pelvic floor, causing him to conclude that the victim died on 11 December
2017, as a result of the same.
In February 2019, a trial
court at Jagdalpur convicted the husband under
Sections 376 (rape), 377 (unnatural sex), and 304 (culpable homicide not
amounting to murder) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), and sentenced him to 10
years rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs 1,000. However,
the Chhattisgarh High Court later acquitted him, citing the marital rape
exception under Section 375 IPC, which states that sexual intercourse by a man
with his wife, if she is above 15 years of age, is not considered rape. Here
the wife was said to be over 15 years.
It also cited the
five-judge SC bench’s ruling in Navtej Singh Johar vs Union of India (2018) to
say that if an “unnatural offence is done with consent, then the offence of
Section 377 IPC is not made out”.It is ridiculous to say that the wife
consented to her husband to insert his hand in her anus. The law, it
is often said is like an ass but all the same, it is also true that insensitive
justice is no justice. This decision was the height of insensitivity.
Most women,
from a very young age, are sold the idea that safety and prestige come with
marriage. However, ironically, marriage becomes just another apparatus in
patriarchy’s arsenal, to perpetuate violence, as was seen in this case. Rape isn’t merely about a violation of a person’s consent but also
involves an assertion of power that men enjoy in a patriarchal society.
The central argument against criminalising marital
rape is the fear of its misuse, a reiteration of each time when laws have been
proposed for the protection of the marginalised. This decision of the
Chhattisgarh High Court is a clear miscarriage of justice and very shocking.
Sex with a wife without her consent may fall within exception 2 in section 375
but extreme brutality resulting in her death is frightening, to say the least.