India Legal 19 March 2018

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Prasar Bharati:
Smriti Irani at war
Prof Upendra Baxi:
Towards superfast trials?

T is ironical indeed that Vladimir Ilyich
Lenin, the founder of the Bolshevik-ruled
state of the erstwhile Soviet Union, should
meet his latest iconoclastic demise in so
remote a place as India’s hilly North-east
Tripura, a name the Communist giant may not
have even heard of when he penned essays prais-
ing the Indian independence movement against
the British imperialist “jackals” after they jailed
Lokmanya Tilak in 1908 for “sedition”. Perhaps
the pro-BJP wrecking crew which destroyed
the Lenin statue last week in a macho display of
triumphalism did not even know how to spell
L-E-N-I-N, or where he had ruled. But their
mindset bespeaks the escalating polarization
which is cutting a swath of political hatred ac-
ross the land. A veritable demolition derby
followed, in which statues of Dravidian hero and
rationalist Periyar, Dalit champion and perhaps
India’s greatest constitutional scholar Ambedkar,
and Jan Sangh founder Syama Prasad Mookerjee
were defaced.
At a personal level, I am no fan of statues,
unless created as an artistic adornment to give a
happy feeling to some particularly drab corner of
my study. And (also personally), I oppose the
creation or perpetuation of personality cults.
After all, no matter how great our political and
spiritual heroes may have been in real life, as
statues, like Shelley’s Ozymandias, they all have
feet of clay. I prefer the intimacy of family
albums or even my icloud drive.
I have no idea how great a man Lenin was,
whether he was an enormous liberator of the
oppressed, starving masses from the clutches of
Czar Nicholas and gave his people the promised
“peace, bread, and land”, or a demagogic megalo-
maniac obsessed with a messianic zeal with
which he forcibly collectivized agriculture and
created a brutal one-party state in which his
Cheka secret police executed or exiled millions of
dissenters. I suppose those who have faith in the
first description and built his statue must have
been convinced that he helped bring in socio-
economic equality to Tripura, while those who
tore him down believed his statue was a symbol
of their unemployment or wretchedness.
Erecting one doesn’t bring relief and free-
dom, just as placing a moorti inside a temple
does not bring instant salvation. Demolishing it
does not accomplish much except removing
something which, to many, may have become an
eyesore. But you can accomplish the same by
simply refusing to look at it.
The act of demolition does, perhaps, provide
a more emotive kick and sense of empowerment.
The collective fury this releases also let loose
energies of divisive hatred which, if left uncon-
trolled, or exploited for political one-upmanship
can lead to civil unrest for which democratic
societies have to pay a heavy price.
O
ne of the best-known toppling in mod-
ern times was that of a bronze Saddam
Hussein in Baghdad during the Ameri-
can invasion of Iraq in 2003. Was this a sponta-
neous outburst of Iraqi jubilation? Peter Maass,
a journalist for The New York Times Magazine,
was an eyewitness. He wrote in a 2011
ProPublica piece that US Marines who were
present “helped drag the statue down, in part,
because they understood the mass appeal of such
an image. He did not personally see it as a defin-
ing moment, and he added that the square was
less crowded, and the Iraqis present less enthusi-
astic, than it had appeared in many photographs
and live broadcasts”.
Tripura’s Lenin is not the first to bite the
dust. The Ukranian Week calculated that 376
Lenin monuments were removed and/or
destroyed in February 2014. Says an official
account in Wikipedia: “The demolition of
monuments to Vladimir Lenin in modern
Ukraine started during the fall of the Soviet
Union. During Euromaidan, it has become a
widespread phenomenon and dubbed by
IT’S RAINING
LENINS ALL THE TIME
Inderjit Badhwar
Letter from the Editor
I
| INDIA LEGAL | March 19, 2018 3

Ukrainians Leninopad, a pun literally translated
as Leninfall.”
On 15 May 2015, President of Ukraine Petro
Poroshenko signed a bill into law that started a
six-month period for the removal of Communist
monuments (excluding World War II monu-
ments) and the mandatory renaming of settle-
ments with names related to Communism. A
website Raining Lenins tracks the statistics of
the fall of Lenin statues in Ukraine. Several
other Lenin statues were removed in countries,
including Romania, Uzbekistan and Ethiopia,
around the time of the implosion of the
Soviet bloc.
Lest you should think that I am an incorrigi-
ble Leninophobe, let me quickly run you through
a quick list of some the institutions and icons
which have suffered similar fates. So you think
Chairman Mao is sacrosanct in China? Perhaps
Xi is more so today, while he still lives than the
Great Helmsman of independent China. Re-
cently, a massive golden 36-metre statue of
Mao—known as “Mega-Mao”—was pulled down
in Henan, China, following its erection at a cost
of about 3 million yuan. According to a report in
The Guardian, the statue was the subject of
scorn and ridicule in the social media. Later,
photographs in circulation showed “the Great
Helmsman’s hands, legs and feet appeared to
have been hacked off, and a black cloth draped
over his head”.
“I heard it was destroyed yesterday,” a local
delivery worker, who asked not to be named, told
The Guardian. “I heard it was because it had
occupied a farmer’s land.” The People’s Daily
newspaper later confirmed Mao’s demise. Offi-
cials said the statue had not gone through the
correct “approval process” before construction.
‘“Why not use the 3 million to improve local
education?’ argued one of thousands of critics on
Weibo, as photos of the golden statue spread,”
The Guardian reported. Henan province, the
paper said, was one of the regions worst hit by
China’s great famine, a catastrophe that claimed
tens of millions of lives that was caused by Mao’s
disastrous Great Leap Forward—a bid for break-
neck industrialisation.
Y
ou think Mahatma Gandhi has been
spared? Not that Bapu was any votary of
having statues erected in his image. He
would have been repelled by the idea. Yet
Gandhi statues abound worldwide. In 2016, a
Mahatma statue was to be removed from a uni-
versity campus in Ghana “after professors
launched a petition claiming the revered Indian
independence leader and thinker was racist,”
according to published reports. The petition
stated: “It is better to stand up for our dignity
than to kowtow to the wishes of a burgeoning
Eurasian super power,” and quotes passages
written by Gandhi which say Indians are “infi-
nitely superior” to black Africans.
More than 1,000 people signed the petition,
which claimed that not only was Gandhi racist
towards black South Africans when he lived in
South Africa as a young man, but that he cam-
paigned for the maintenance of India’s caste sys-
tem, a primeval collective pecking order that still
delineates the rank in India of hundreds of mil-
lions of people.
Would BR Ambedkar have agreed? Well, he
for one had no love lost for one of the most
revered Hindu texts of the Sangh Parivar—the
Manusmriti of the Dharmashastras. On
December 25, 1927, in an act as defiant and
aggressive as the demolition of any physical icon,
he organized a protest march to Mahad, south of
Letter from the Editor
4 March 19, 2018
END OF AN ERA?
A statue of Communist
leader Lenin that was
recently demolished in
Belonia, Tripura
UNI

Bombay, where the participants swore a public
declaration of human rights. They pledged
themselves to equality, abolition of the caste sys-
tem and condemned the Manusmrirti, consid-
ered to be by many the Hindu code of conduct. A
funeral pit was then dug in front of the Speaker’s
platform and the Laws of Manu were consigned
to the flames.
The most recent incidents of toppled statues
which have caught world attention and caused
seismic divisions in American society are those
of confederate leaders who took up arms against
the American union in the Civil War (1861-1865)
in defence of the continuation of slavery. I was in
the US last year and reported on the violence
that was sparked off in Charlottesville, Virginia,
centered in part on the city’s plan to relocate a
statue of Confederate leader Gen. Robert E Lee.
A memorial to Confederate soldiers in Durham,
North Carolina, was also pulled down.
“But stiff opposition remains,” reported The
New York Times. “Debates are raging over
whether the statues should fall because they
commemorate those who fought to uphold
slavery, or stand because they remind us of a
history that cannot be erased. The United
States has been dismantling statues since its
very foundation.
“One of the earliest recorded instances came
in 1776, just five days after the Declaration of
Independence was ratified. In a moment that
was immortalized in a mid-19th-century paint-
ing, soldiers and civilians tore down a gilded
statue of Britain’s King George III in Manhattan.
“That dismantling was more than symbolic.
The leaden king was to be repurposed ‘to make
musket balls, so that his troops will probably
have melted Majesty fired at them,’ during
the Revolutionary War, said a letter from
Ebenezer Hazard, New York’s postmaster, to
Gen. Horatio Gates.”
G
lobally, iconoclasm, defined by scholars
as “the social belief in the importance of
the destruction of icons and other
images or monuments, most frequently for reli-
gious or political reasons”, now also includes
aggressive statements or actions against the sta-
tus quo. Medieval Christians smashed sculptures
of Ancient Rome. And in the 8th century, follow-
ing a literal interpretation of the Second Com-
mandment as revealed to Moses in the Book of
Exodus, the Byzantine Empire proscribed the
erection, painting and worship of all icons and
persecuted those who would follow the practice.
Portraits or statues of Stalin in Budapest,
Hitler all over Europe, Christopher Columbus in
Caracas, Cecil Rhodes in Cape Town, Hafez al-
Assad in Syria, Muammar el-Qaddafi in Tripoli,
Hosni Mubarak in Cairo, the Babri Masjid…
have all been smashed into smithereens.
But has any of this statue-bashing lessened
tensions or political violence in Egypt or Libya,
Iraq or India? Historical legacies cannot be
made or ended by creating or destroying sym-
bols. But we will never change our ways. The
poet Shelley, is still the only one who seems to
have got it right in Ozymandias:
It depicts a wrecked statue of a renowned
king of ancient times, lying forgotten in the
desert. The face is distinguished by a frown and
a sneer which the sculptor carved on the features
with these words on its base: “My name is
Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works,
ye Mighty, and despair!” Most people agree that
the poet’s message could not have been more
direct: reminding powerful people that their
power is only temporary. But the interpretation I
like best is that “obscurity is the ultimate destiny
of the human race. One day all of our works will
lie as dust under a dying sun for some alien trav-
eller to gaze upon and wonder who or what we
were. The cosmos itself will whirl and condense,
rip apart and eventually die too.”
Twitter: @indialegalmedia
Website: www.indialegallive.com
Contact: editor@indialegallive.com
FALL FROM GRACE
A statue of Iraq’s
former president
Saddam Hussein
being pulled down
in central Baghdad
on April 9, 2003
by US troops
Twitter

ContentsVOLUME XI ISSUE 18
MARCH19,2018
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Technical Executive Anubhav Tyagi
6 March 19, 2018
Empty Seats
From the Lokpal to the National Green Tribunal, India’s many institutions needed to keep checks
and balances continue to have vacancies or remain headless. This is affecting governance
LEAD
12
Hounded Out
The Greyhound Racing Board has moved the
Punjab & Haryana High Court to allow speed
contests of this breed and claimed they are not
tortured or put to any harm in the process
20
COURTS
Drugs and Driving
A petition in the Kerala High Court has asked that the police be given the means to
detect narcotics use by drivers and charge them along the lines of drunken driving
18

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Ringside............................8
Delhi Durbar......................9
Courts.............................10
National Briefs................29
International Briefs..........39
Media Watch ..................48
Satire ..............................50
Cover Illustration & Design
ANTHONY LAWRENCE
Broadcast
Wars
The stand-off between
Smriti Irani and Prasar
Bharati threatens the
livelihood of 28,000
employees of DD and
AIR. Will parliament step
in to douse the flames?
CONTROVERSY
42
Underground Sport
Their illegal status notwithstanding, greyhound races are run not for
money but pride. A first-hand account of how they are conducted
22
Spiritual leader Sri Sri Ravishankar
was meant to be mediating in the
Ayodhya dispute. Instead, he has
sparked off another controversy
Art of Polarising
Speed
without Haste
The case of Additional
Sessions Judge Kamini
Lau who took the evi-
dence of 22 witnesses
on a single day has
stirred a hornet’s nest
COLUMN
Whither Enlightenment?
The lynching of a mentally unstable tribal for allegedly stealing food in India’s most
literate state has forced the Kerala High Court to initiate proceedings on its own
44
STATES
SPECIALREPORT
As Highways Go Digital
The GST E-Way Bill aims at tracking the movement of goods and
checking tax evasion. But will it make the life of transporters easy?
30
COMMERCE
Open for
Business
Even while there is
speculation about
whether Nirav Modi is
in New York, Dubai or
Hong Kong, his store in
London’s prime location,
launched with great fan-
fare, continues to operate
32
34
SPOTLIGHT
40
Tihar Jail inmates routinely file applications under the Right to Information Act to
learn about their diet plans, medical records, case files as well as release dates
Resilience and RTI
FOCUS
36
A bold photo by a well-known
magazine has led to a case being
filed under the Indecent
Representation of Women
(Prohibition) Act and also started a
discussion on breastfeeding
Debating Decency
SOCIETY
46Pessimism Is
Irrational
America’s National Rifle Association’s
influence depends on the perception of
its power. By ignoring its declining punch,
liberal fatalists are playing right into its
hands on the issue of gun control
GLOBALTRENDS
26

8 March 19, 2018
“
RINGSIDE
“We removed
George V from
India Gate, New
Delhi, Queen
Victoria from (in)
front of her memo-
rial in Kolkata...
What if the govern-
ment similarly
decides to remove
Lenin’s statue,
rename Lenin
Sarani?...”
—Tripura Governor
Tathagata Roy on
toppling of Lenin’s
statues in Tripura
“I want to assure
your good office...
that I am in no
manner dictating
the terms of my
appearance. How-
ever as my passport
stands suspended...
it is impossible for
me to travel back
to India... ”
—Gitanjali Gems
promoter Mehul
Choksi, replying to
CBI notice asking
him to come to India
and join the probe
“He has tortured me
& hasn’t treated me
like his wife. He’s a
big flirt. I’m not
going to divorce
him till my last
breath. I’ve all the
evidences & will
soon drag him to
the court.”
—Hasin Jahan, wife
of India cricketer
Mohammed Shami
“Sometimes you
wake up with a jolt
with life shaking
you up.... Little had
I known that my
search for rare sto-
ries would make me
find a rare disease...
please don’t specu-
late as I will myself
share with you my
story within a week-
ten days.”
—Actor Irrfan Khan
on Twitter
“I do not celebrate
Eid, I am a Hindu
and I am proud of
it. Wearing a sacred
thread at home but
coming out wearing
a cap…this kind of
hypocrisy is not
something the BJP
government
indulges in.”
—UP CM Yogi
Adityanath, replying
to the opposition
attack in the assem-
bly that he was a CM
only for the Hindus
"Her contribution towards a Swachh Bharat
can never be forgotten. I am deeply inspired
by her noble gesture. I will always cherish the
time when I had the opportunity to seek
Kunwar Bai's blessings…”
——PM Modi on Twitter, referring to the 106-year-old
woman from Chhattisgarh, on International Women's Day
“It’s a baseless alle-
gation that I called
him in the night at
my residence and
got him thrashed. I
am not a fool to do
so... Cowards
indulge in physical
fighting. Kejriwal is
not a coward.”
—Delhi chief minis-
ter Arvind Kejriwal,
referring to the
Anshu Prakash
controversy
“There can never be
anyone like MGR in
the next 100 or even
1,000 years... MGR’s
rule took care of the
poor, the downtrod-
den and the middle
class. I have faith
that I too can pro-
vide that rule.”
—Actor Rajinikanth,
while addressing a
gathering in Chennai

The BJP’s electoral sweep
in the North-east has gal-
vanised the Opposition into
forming a coalition to take
on the ruling party. The
problem is that there are
too many rivalries that may
thwart such attempts.
The first move has been
made by Telangana CM K
Chandrasekhar Rao (left)
and West Bengal’s
Mamata Banerjee but
theirs is a bid to form a
Third Front, outside the
Congress, along with
Odisha’s Naveen Patnaik
and the SP and BSP who
have joined forces for local
bypolls. Andhra Pradesh
CM Chandrababu Naidu is
ready to ditch the NDA but
he cannot see eye to eye
with Rao. Banerjee, Patnaik
and the rest also do not
want the Congress mus-
cling in on their fiefdoms
when it comes to national
elections. Banerjee is op-
posed to the idea of an
anti-BJP coalition headed
by Rahul Gandhi while Akhi-
lesh and Mayawati will be
facing each other in 2019.
Now, Sonia Gandhi has
stepped into the ring by
hosting Opposition leaders
later this week for dinner
where she will try and con-
vince them to find common
ground to take on the BJP.
An inside track of
happenings in Lutyens’ Delhi
Delhi
Durbar
Few people outside Shillong
know that NPP leader Conrad
Sangma, the newly crowned
chief minister of Meghalaya, was
named after a famous literary fig-
ure, Joseph Conrad (Heart of
Darkness, Lord Jim). And the lit-
erary theme runs in the family—
literally! His sisters are Agatha
and Christie and his other brother
is called James. Agatha and
Christie are self-explanatory, the
name of the world’s best known
author of crime fiction, while
James is named after Irish author
James Joyce of Ulysses fame.
The reason is their late father,
PA Sangma, former Lok Sabha
Speaker and NCP leader, was an
avid reader of classics. In fact,
the late Sangma’s literary inter-
ests were evident in the party he
founded in Meghalaya, the NPP,
which has a book as its symbol.
WRITTEN IN
THEIR FUTURE
For the Indian government to take the
unprecedented step of putting pressure on
the Dalai Lama to cancel multiple events
connected to his 60th year in exile in India
is a huge climbdown. India has always
used his presence as a catspaw to needle
the Chinese government which considers
His Holiness to be an enemy of the state,
a “splitist”.
The new conciliatory stand is part of a
deal worked out between New Delhi and
Beijing during the visit of foreign secretary
Vijay Gokhale to China late last month.
Gokhale is an old China hand—ex-ambas-
sador to China—and speaks fluent
Mandarin. He worked out a deal with the
Chinese that India would give in to their
demands on the Dalai Lama in return for
China watering down their blind veto sup-
port for Pakistan in international fora—the
result was Pakistan being put on the “Grey
List” by the Financial Action Taken Force
and Beijing allowing it to go through.
The new India-China détente will be rein-
forced when Defence Minister Nirmala
Sitharaman visits Beijing later this month
followed by the PM in June.
DEAL WITH THE DRAGON There’s an unwitting fallout that
the disastrous performance of
the Congress in the North-east
will have when Rajasthan goes
to polls later this year. Veteran
leader and general secretary in-
charge of the northeastern
states, CP Joshi, bungled in
Meghalaya despite his party
having the most seats.
This will ensure that he loses
out to his intra-party rivals
Ashok Gehlot and Sachin Pilot
when party chief Rahul Gandhi
begins drawing up poll strate-
gies for Rajasthan. Joshi had
claimed to have close relations
with the Sangmas—Agatha had
served under him when he was
a minister in UPA. Their ditching
him in favour of the BJP has left
Joshi high and dry. In contrast,
Gehlot engineered the
Congress’s revival in Gujarat
while Pilot ensured that the
party registered impressive
wins in assembly and Lok
Sabha bypolls as well as civic
elections in Rajasthan.
Congress sources say that the
dismal performance of Joshi, a
perennial chief ministerial aspi-
rant in Rajasthan, has effective-
ly killed any prospects of him
lobbying for a major role in
state politics.
POST-MORTEM
BATTLE STATIONS

In a significant observation on granting
compensation to accident victims, a three-
judge bench of the Supreme Court said that
the “yardsticks of compensation” must justi-
fy that the law gives due importance to
human life and dignity. The Court granted a
compensation of `25.38 lakh to a carpenter
who had lost both hands in an accident. The
Motor Accident Claims Tribunal had sanc-
tioned `12.81 lakh as compensation, and
later the Rajasthan High Court added another
`2.2 lakh to the amount. However, the victim
was not happy and had appealed in the
top court.
While pointing out that “awards of com-
pensation are not law’s doles but entitle-
ments”, the bench emphasised that the “law
must provide a realistic recompense for the
pain of loss and the trauma of suffering”.
The bench came to know that the Tri-
bunal had not taken into account the extent
of disability while calculating the amount. In
light of the facts presented, nothing can
restore his lost hands and the man can no
longer earn a living, observed CJI Dipak
Misra, while stating that the disability was
“indeed total”.
Courts
10 March 19, 2018
Real estate company Unitech has been
asked by the Supreme Court to submit
an affidavit listing all its unencumbered
assets as well as those of its subsidiaries, in
India and abroad. The top court warned that
if the information was found to be incorrect,
legal action would be taken under Section
340 of the CrPC against concerned officials.
The Court’s order came against the back-
drop of Unitech MD Sanjay Chandra failing to
deposit `750 crore, as directed by it earlier.
The apex court also asked JM Financial
Asset Reconstruction Company to be present
at the next hearing. Unitech had submitted
that the company had inked a deal with it to
complete all housing projects, but the Court
was not convinced. Another realtor and
Unitech’s partner, Pioneer Urban Land and
Infrastructure Ltd, was asked to deposit `40
crore in two instalments for getting a stay on
all legal proceedings against it.
List all claim-free
assets, SC to Unitech
—Compiled by Prabir Biswas
Bombay HC’s
conviction order
If an Indian is convicted by a for-
eign court for an offence, courts
or judicial authorities here can
take cognisance of it, Bombay
High Court has ruled. However, it
added that Indian courts or autho-
rities were not bound to do so.
The ruling came from a three-
judge bench of the High Court in
response to a query from a divi-
sion bench on the issue. The case
pertains to a trustee’s removal
from Lilavati Hospital in Mumbai
after his conviction in Belgium for
an act of moral turpitude.
Athree-judge Supreme Court bench headed
by Chief Justice Dipak Misra set aside the
contentious Kerala High Court order that an-
nulled the marriage of 26-year-old Hadiya
with Shafin Jahan, in what has become infa-
mous as a “love jihad” case. Their marriage
is now legally valid and Hadiya can live with
her husband. The Court also allowed Hadiya
to pursue her future plans as per law.
However, the apex court gave its nod to the
National Investigation Agency to carry on its
probe into the alleged “love jihad” phenome-
non in Kerala. The Kerala High Court had
cancelled the marriage in a habeas corpus
petition under Article 226.
Compensation is entitlement: SC
Apex court restores
Hadiya’s marriage
Collegium selects
permanent judges
Four additional judges of the
Allahabad HC and one from the
Manipur HC were recommended
as permanent judges by the
Supreme Court collegium. The
judges from the Allahabad High
Court are: Justices Ashok Kumar,
Vivek Chaudhary, Saumitra Dayal
Singh and Akhilesh Chandra Shar-
ma, while Justice Songkhupchung
Serto is from the Manipur HC.
The collegium also said that
Justice Serto would continue
work at Gauhati HC where he has
been transferred.

Lead/ Governance/ Vacant Positions
12 March 19, 2018
Empty
SeatsFromtheLokpaltothegreentribunal,theSupremeCourt
andHighCourts,institutesofhigherlearningandeven
investigatingagencies,thevacanciesarepilingup
By Puneet Nicholas Yadav
N April 5, 2011, activist
Anna Hazare began the
first of three indefinite
fasts in Delhi demand-
ing that the UPA II
regime must get his
version of the Lokpal
Bill (called the Jan
Lokpal Bill) passed by Parliament. Now,
more than seven years later, the self-
styled Gandhian from Ralegan Siddhi
village in Maharashtra is threatening
another stir. This will be launched in
Delhi on March 23 with pretty much the
same demand—set up a Lokpal.
Anna’s threat coincides with the cen-
tre informing the Supreme Court earlier
this month that it is in the process of
appointing the anti-corruption watch-
dog but that it will first need to find an
“eminent jurist” who can join the Lokpal
selection committee. The committee,
according to the Lokpal and Lokayukta
Act 2013, must comprise the prime
minister, the chief justice of India,
O
Illustration: Anthony Lawrence

Lok Sabha Speaker, Leader of the
Opposition (LoP) in the Lok Sabha and
an eminent jurist.
The political landscape of the coun-
try has changed drastically since Anna’s
first agitation and so has his own sta-
ture. A brief recap of Hazare’s anti-cor-
ruption crusade and its political fallout
is, thus, in order. Hazare’s comrades in
the agitation of 2011 and the two years
that followed till the enactment of the
Lokpal Bill were a motley group of “civil
society” members. A majority of them
(Arvind Kejriwal, Kiran Bedi, Baba
Ramdev, former Army chief General VK
Singh, etc.) used the goodwill that the
movement generated to launch their
own political or quasi-political (as in the
case of Ramdev) careers, and immensely
successful ones at that.
The BJP, then the principal Opposi-
tion party, supported Hazare’s stir sens-
ing that the public anger that he was
triggering against the multiple-scam
tainted UPA government could be chan-
nelised at the hustings to oust the “cor-
rupt Congress”. The script played out
spectacularly for the BJP in 2014.
If the scams in the allocation of 2G
spectrum and coal blocks and in the
2010 Commonwealth Games had paint-
ed UPA II as corrupt, Hazare’s hunger
strikes over an effective anti-graft om-
budsman convinced voters that it was
time for a change of regime. The
Congress’ efforts at bending over back-
wards to bring Hazare’s “civil society
nominees” on board to draft and then
enact the Lokpal Act too couldn’t revive
the party’s dwindling fortunes.
All that the BJP’s prime ministerial
candidate in the 2014 general elec-
tions—Narendra Modi—had to do was
to ensure that the anger against the
Congress continued to boil. And with
remarkable proficiency, he promised the
electorate a government which would
not tolerate corruption.
It’s been four years since Modi
romped to power with a brute majority,
promising the voters “naa khaunga, naa
khane doonga”. In his weekly column—
Across the Aisle—in The Indian
Express, former finance minister P
Chidambaram wrote on March 4: “The
most misused cliché about governance is
‘That country is governed best which is
governed least’. The clichés have depre-
ciated so much that their value, in con-
temporary governance, is close to zero.”
The column, a scathing critique of
Modi’s promise of “minimum govern-
ment, maximum governance”, highlight-
ed the numerous vacancies in various
constitutional and statutory bodies
which the centre has been unwilling or
unable to fill up.
C
hidambaram’s article coincided
with two events, one personal
and the other with a potential for
political leverage. On the personal front,
it was the arrest of his son, Karti, in an
alleged case of bribery during the UPA
regime when Chidambaram was the
finance minister. The other event was
the Supreme Court’s reprimand to the
centre on the delay in appointment of
a Lokpal.
The Lokpal, as of now, is a ghost
organisation existing only on paper. The
government has presented two argu-
FIGHT AGAINST CORRUPTION
(Top right) Anna Hazare’s agitation for a
Lokpal in 2011; Four SC judges had raked up
the issue of judges’ appointments
UNI

14 March 19, 2018
ments for the delay in appointing a
Lokpal. First, it says that an amendment
to the Act, moved in 2016, to change the
criteria for constituting the Lokpal
selection committee was pending Par-
liament’s approval. This is, at best, a
half-truth, if not a blatant lie, because
the amendment doesn’t talk about
changing the constitution of the selec-
tion committee at all and so its penden-
cy for parliamentary approval does not
arise. Yes, it is a fact that the single
largest 0pposition party—the Cong-
ress—had failed to secure 10 percent of
the Lower House’s strength in the 2014
elections and couldn’t be called the
Leader of the Opposition (LoP). And
yes, it is a fact that this thereby created
a scenario wherein the Lokpal selection
panel cannot be constituted as per the
conditions laid out in the Act. The
Opposition has been demanding that
the Act be amended to replace the term
LoP to leader of the single largest oppo-
sition party.
The second argument made by the
centre’s department of personnel and
training through an affidavit filed in the
Supreme Court is that the selection
panel presently doesn’t have an eminent
jurist among its members and that the
search for one is on. The last eminent
jurist on the selection committee was
senior advocate PP Rao, who passed
away in September last year. The centre
has, since Rao’s demise, been unable to
find a worthy legal luminary who could
join the Lokpal selection committee.
In January this year, the National
Campaign for People’s Right to Infor-
mation (NCPRI) had written a detailed
letter to Modi, stating that the delay in
the appointment of a Lokpal “has creat-
ed a strong perception that your govern-
ment does not wish to put in place an
effective anti-corruption institutional
framework”. Regarding the absence of
an LoP, which is a hurdle for appoint-
ment of a Lokpal, the NCPRI letter stat-
ed: “In the absence of a recognised LoP,
to operationalise the LL Act, a simple
amendment was required to the law to
provide that in the absence of a recog-
nised leader of opposition, the leader of
the single largest party/group in opposi-
tion in the Lok Sabha will be included
in the selection panel.”
The government had informed the
Supreme Court in February that a meet-
ing of the Lokpal selection committee
had been convened on March 1. Did the
government not know then that its
selection committee doesn’t have all the
members mandated under the Act?
After its submission to the apex court,
the centre had requested Mallikarjun
Kharge, leader of the Congress in the
Lok Sabha, to attend the selection com-
mittee meeting as a “special invitee”, an
offer that Kharge rejected.
N
CPRI member Anjali Bhardwaj
feels that the centre is mislead-
ing the country and even the
Supreme Court on the Lokpal appoint-
ment issue. She told India Legal: “If the
government is claiming that it wants to
follow the Lokpal Act when it comes to
convening a meeting of the Lokpal
selection committee, then how is it call-
ing Kharge as a special invitee when the
“Ifthegovernmentisclaiming
thatitwantstofollowtheLokpal
Actwhenitcomestoconveninga
meetingoftheLokpalselection
committee,thenhowisitcalling
Khargeasaspecialinviteewhen
theActhasnosuchprovision?”
--AnjaliBhardwaj,NCPRImember
“Itisthegovernment’s
responsibilitytosustain
institutions.Itsfailuretodoso
makestheprimeminister’s
attractivepollsloganof‘minimum
government,maximumgovernance’
lookutterlyhollow.”
—WajahatHabibullah,India’sfirstCIC
“Ademocracythriveswhenits
institutionsarestrengthened,
Whatweareseeingtodayisthat
thegovernmentisnotinterestedin
ensuringthattheinstitutionswork
aspertheirsanctionedstrength.”
—MMAnsari,formerinformation
commissioner

Act has no such provision? The only
option would have been to either app-
oint Kharge as LoP or to have changed
the law so that the leader of the single
largest party would sit in the selection
committee. In the absence of such an
amendment, if the government calls
Kharge a special invitee, then where is
the law to support it?”
The objective to have the LoP in the
Lokpal selection panel was to ensure
that the government appointed a Lokpal
through broad political consensus and
not nepotism. Bhardwaj wonders
whether a special invitee to the selection
committee would have the same powers
as the LoP in the absence of a specific
law? “If the centre decides to make a
tainted individual the Lokpal, then
would Kharge be able to oppose the
candidature and ask for vigilance re-
ports compiled by various agencies
against this person? Will he have any
real powers? The centre has not spelt
out any powers for the special invitee.
Would he be able to cast a valid vote
and will his dissent be binding on the
panel? None of these issues have been
addressed by the centre,” she told
India Legal.
While Chidambaram’s column in The
Indian Express steered clear of mention-
ing the Lokpal appointment issue, it
highlighted the larger issue of headless
organisations or statutory authorities
not being appointed by the centre. “Is
this the minimum government that was
promised by the BJP in the run-up to
the parliamentary elections in 2014?
The more important follow-up ques-
tions are ‘Who benefits by keeping posts
vacant in crucial regulators and authori-
ties?’ and ‘Who benefits from fewer RTI
disclosures and fewer tax case judg-
ments?’. The answer is obvious... If other
institutions of a democracy are weak-
ened, it gives greater power, in the real
and practical sense, to the Executive,”
Chidambaram wrote.
The Supreme Court, various High
Courts, the Central Information
Commission (CIC), the National Green
Tribunal, various appellate tribunals, the
Universities Grants Commission, and
various central universities are currently
functioning with varying numbers of
vacancies against their sanctioned
strength. (See box)
T
he CIC, the final authority on
ordering the government to
reveal details of Executive deci-
sions sought by common citizens under
the RTI Act, had remained headless for
a long spell after the BJP came to
power. While the Commission now has
RK Mathur as its head, four of the ten
information commissioners sanctioned
for it are yet to be appointed.
Wajahat Habibullah, India’s first CIC
told India Legal: “For many months
after this government came to power,
the central information commission was
headless. One can give the Modi govern-
ment a benefit of doubt for the initial
phase, assuming that the government
perhaps wanted to understand the role
of the information commission and its
members better before making the
appointments... However, I must point
out that the current government has
failed to ensure that the basic require-
ment of filling existing vacancies, not of
the chief information commissioner but
of information commissioners and other
staff, was fulfilled. As a result, once an
officer retires, it takes the government a
long time to fill the vacancy.”
The former CIC also conceded that
the malaise of keeping democratic insti-
tutions inept in discharging their duties
is not limited to just the CIC. “It is a fact
that the government is not taking the
right steps to strengthen democratic and
constitutional institutions. This is visible
not just by the vacancies in the Infor-
mation Commission but a host of other
institutions like various courts, the
Lokpal, etc. It is the government’s
responsibility to sustain institutions. Its
failure to do so makes the prime minis-
ter’s attractive poll slogan of ‘minimum
government, maximum governance’ look
utterly hollow,” Habibullah said.
Former information commissioner
MM Ansari was even more scathing.
“Mr Arun Shourie, a BJP veteran
“TheSupremeCourtitselfismostly
responsibleforthenon-fulfilmentof
thevacanciesthereandinHighCourts.
ItstruckdowntheConstitution
Amendmentwhichcreatedanew
mechanismasasubstituteforthe
presentcollegiumsystem.”
—JusticeKTThomas,aformerSCjudge
“TheModigovernmentismovingtowards
adictatorship.Itisabigthreattothe
nation.Theentirecountryagitatedfor
theLokpalBill,whichresultedintheUPA
makingalaw.Whenthisgovernment
came,itformulatedanotherlawtodilute
thepreviousLokpalAct,2013.”
—AnnaHazare,socialactivist

16 March 19, 2018
and former Union minister, has rightly
said that this is a government of two-
and-a-half men. The fact is that these
men who are running the State have no
interest in sustaining constitutional
institutions. A democracy thrives when
its institutions are strengthened, but
what we are seeing today is that the gov-
ernment is not interested in even ensur-
ing that these institutions work as per
their sanctioned strength. It appears
that the government is willing to keep
high offices vacant till such a time that
they find candidates who are aligned
with its ideology or those who are close
to the powers-that-be,” Ansari said.
Ironically, the Supreme Court which
is now seeking replies from the centre
on the delay in appointment of a Lok-
pal, is itself battling the charge of not
filling up vacancies for its judges. Of the
31 judges sanctioned, the Court is func-
tioning with just 24. The Supreme Court
collegium had unanimously recom-
mended Uttarakhand High Court chief
justice KM Joseph and senior advocate
Indu Malhotra as judges in the top
court. However, the government is yet to
take a call on these appointments.
Unconfirmed reports suggest that it has
rejected the collegium’s recommenda-
tions. Worse, High Courts are function-
ing with 403 fewer judges than their
collective sanctioned strength of 1,079.
I
n January, four senior judges of the
Supreme Court (Justices J Chela-
meswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan B
Lokur and Kurian Joseph) had, in an
unprecedented press conference, high-
lighted the continuing delay by the cen-
tre in responding to the top court on the
issue of Memorandum of Procedure for
appointment of judges. The government
has, till date, not addressed this issue.
The vacancies in the top court, says
Justice KT Thomas, a former Supreme
Court judge, is a problem of its own
making. “The Supreme Court itself is
mostly responsible for the non-fulfil-
ment of the vacancies there and in High
Courts. It struck down the Constitution
Amendment which created a new mech-
anism as a substitute for the present col-
legium system. The reasons advanced by
the majority of the five-judge bench for
annulling the Amendment are far from
the range of acceptability. At the same
time, the reasoning adopted by Justice
Chelameswar in approving the same
Amendment is very sound and valid,”
Justice Thomas told India Legal.
So can the government be completely
absolved of its responsibility in keeping
the Supreme Court and High Courts
functioning with a decreased strength in
their benches? “If there is any delay on
the part of the government in processing
the recommendations already sent to it,
it can be called upon by the Supreme
Court on the judicial side to explain the
reason,” Justice Thomas said.
Justice Thomas was also the man
approached by the UPA government in
January 2014 to head an eight-member
panel tasked to shortlist candidates
from some 400 applications to the
Lokpal selection committee. The com-
Rajender Kumar
ListofvacanciesasdetailedbyPChidambaram
Constitutional/statutory authority Sanctioned strength Vacancies
Supreme Court 31 07
Chief Justices of High Courts 24 09
High Court Judges 1,079 403
Lokpal* 9 9
National Green Tribunal 11 06
Securities Appellate Tribunal 03 01
Income Tax Appellate Tribunal 126 34
Central Administrative Tribunal 66 24
Central Information Commission 11 04
Competition Commission of India 07 02
Central Vigilance Commission 03 01
IPS cadre 4,843 938
Central universities
Vice-chancellors
Teaching posts
41
17,106
03
5,997
*In addition to institutions mentioned by P Chidambaram

"Ifotherinstitutionsofademocracyare
weakened,itgivesgreaterpower,inthe
realandpracticalsense,tothe
Executive,”PChidambaramwroteina
columninTheIndianExpress.
mittee was to then appoint the Lokpal
and his subordinates from this shortlist.
But then, Justice Thomas declined the
offer. A few months later, the UPA was
voted out of power and the Modi gov-
ernment made no effort to reinitiate the
Lokpal appointment process.
Justice Thomas says: “I declined to
accept the post as I found that on the
existing provisions in the Lokpal Act
and the Rules, the government was not
bound by the decisions of the search
committee nor obliged to return the
decision to the search committee for re-
consideration. Instead, the Lokpal
selection panel under the prime minis-
ter could make the appointments on its
own. I felt that the labour exercised by
the search committee headed by me
would be futile. However, I expected
the Parliament to make an amendment
to the existing Act to correct the system
of Lokpal appointment. The way in
which parliamentary proceedings are
being disrupted every day even on very
important questions, I do not expect
the amendment to the Lokpal Act to be
made expeditiously. I do not know who
can be blamed for this delay.”
With Hazare on protest mode again
and highlighting the same issues that
once endeared him so much to the BJP
that the Congress had termed him saf-
fron hitman, will the Modi government
be compelled to expedite the Lokpal
appointment procedure?
The possibility of such an eventuality
looks dim. Firstly, Hazare’s sheen has
worn off. His threats no longer make
national headlines. Even his estranged
comrade-in-arms, Delhi chief minister
Arvind Kejriwal, seems to have forgot-
ten his anti-corruption fight and has
failed to appoint a Lokayukta in Delhi.
Hazare looks like a caricature of the
larger-than-life status he had achieved
during the UPA era. Unlike the bum-
bling and nervous Congress, the BJP
seems unaffected by his threats and is
unlikely to even engage with him.
O
n his part, Hazare is trying to
bring his Lokpal agitation back
into political and media con-
sciousness. Sources say he might even
get the support of disgruntled BJP lead-
ers like Yashwant Sinha and Shatru-
ghan Sinha and their recently launched
Rashtra Manch. Hazare is also trying to
diversify his protest by speaking about
the problems faced by farmers—a pet
peeve of the Rashtra Manch leaders.
Hazare said: “The agenda for our
agitation will be appointment of a
Lokpal and farmers’ issues. The
Narendra Modi government is moving
towards dictatorship. It is a big threat
to the nation. The entire country had
stood up and agitated for the Lokpal
Bill, which resulted in the UPA govern-
ment making a law.
“When this government came, it was
believed that it would help pass the bill.
Instead, it formulated another law to
dilute the previous Lokpal and the
Lokayuktas Act, 2013 by removing the
provision that required government
officials to disclose the property held by
their spouse. They are giving full-page
advertisements about a corruption-free
India but don’t want to appoint an anti-
corruption watchdog.”
Evidently, Hazare is disenchanted
with the BJP. But does it matter to
Narendra Modi? There’s another year to
go before the 2019 general elections.
Despite the taint of corruption seeping
into the Modi government with dubious
industrialists fleeing to foreign coun-
tries, the latest being Nirav Modi, the
BJP seems determined to not let graft
become a rallying issue. The saffron
party’s perception management through
a media that’s ever willing to play ball,
is likely to drown Hazare’s roars.
To recount Chidambaram’s observa-
tion: “Minimum government is intend-
ed to acquire maximum control, liberal
democracy be damned and damaged.”
That’s the new normal.
REALITY CHECK (L-R) The Delhi HC still doesn’t have a chief
justice; after Justice Swatanter Kumar’s retirement, NGT is headless

Courts/ Kerala/ Driving Under Drugs
18 March 19, 2018
HILE the law is clear
on drunken driving,
there is little to stop a
person from driving
under the influence of
drugs or narcotic sub-
stances in the country. This could well
change if a case filed by Thoufeek
Ahamed, a Kerala High Court lawyer,
sees a fruitful end.
The petition invokes Article 226 of
the Constitution before a divisional
bench of Kerala Chief Justice Antony
Dominic and Justice Dama Seshadri
Naidu. The petitioner prayed that an
interim direction be given to the third
respondent, the state police chief, to
“enforce and implement Section 185 of
Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 effectively
through the Law Enforcing Officers
under him by detecting use of drugs by
the drivers by adopting scientific meth-
ods and charge the offenders under the
relevant provisions of Motor Vehicles
Act, 1988 and The Narcotics Drugs and
Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 in
the interest of justice”.
The Court has asked the DGP to give
the petitioner a hearing and see whether
this can be implemented in the state at
the earliest. It has given eight weeks for
the state to respond to the petition.
Ahamed told India Legal: “In the last
few years, the use of drugs in the state
has been high. The number of accidents
happening on a daily basis has also gone
up dramatically. Obviously, there are
many who use drugs and drive and at
the moment we do not have a mecha-
nism to detect it, unlike drunken driv-
ing. Hence, I thought this was a much-
needed step.’’
His petition says that unlike wide-
spread belief, it is not difficult to detect
drug use in drivers. “This may be new in
India, but in many European and other
developed nations, use of drug detection
devices on highways is a common prac-
tice. I agree we may not have the
machines and technology at present, but
it is available in the international mar-
ket,’’ added Ahamed.
Citing a report of the Organization
for Economic Cooperation and Deve-
lopment (OECD), an intergovernmental
organisation of 35 countries formed to
further economic progress and world
trade, the petition talks about the far-
reaching effects that drugs can have on
drivers. A study conducted by the Inter-
national Transport Forum (ITF), a body
within the OECD, clearly outlines
what effect drugs can cause on a driver
and it is more far-reaching than what
alcohol does.
While cannabis can give rise to hallu-
cinations, stimulants such as cocaine,
amphetamines and methamphetamines
can reduce one’s concentration when
behind the wheel. MMDA, commonly
known as Ecstasy, can cause greater
impairment and lessen speed, capability
to see moving objects and much more.
The petition pleaded before the
Court that the State should make
detecting of drug driving a priority simi-
lar to drunken driving. The petition also
says that such detection, if implement-
ed, will be a bigger deterrent for law-
Tripping
on the
Road
ApetitionwantstheKerala
policetodetectdriversusing
narcoticsandbookthemunder
theMotorVehiclesAct
By Naveen Nair
in Thiruvananthapuram
Whilecannabiscangiveriseto
hallucinations,cocaine,amphetamines
andmethamphetaminescanreduce
one’sconcentrationbehindthewheel.
MMDAcancausegreaterimpairment.
HIGH ON ADDICTION
Narcotic substances recovered after a raid in
Kochi, Kerala
W

breakers than what is used for alcohol
detection. The argument is that as alco-
hol intake is legally permissible, its use
while driving would not invite the same
penalty as the use of drugs. This is
because drugs come under the Narcotic
Drugs and Psychotropic Substances
(NDPS) Act which makes consumption
itself a crime. The main idea is to add
driving under the influence of drugs to
the Motor Vehicles Act. This is possible
only if it can be detected.
W
hile God’s Own Country was
known as a liquor paradise,
that tag may be replaced by a
bigger evil. According to the latest fig-
ures of the state excise department,
which looks after drug control, cases
under the NDPS Act are at an all-time
high. In 2016-17 alone, more than 6,000
kg of narcotic and drug-related sub-
stances were seized in the state. This is
three times what was seized the previ-
ous year.
Also, what is alarming is that from
2014 when the phased prohibition on
alcohol took off, there was a steady
growth in drug-related cases and drugs
seized in the state. “There is no denying
that Kerala, especially the city of Kochi,
is fast becoming the drug capital of
south India. Amritsar is the only city to
beat it. Unfortunately, it is not easy to
detect the use of drugs. The situation
is alarming,’’ said Rishiraj Singh, the
excise commissioner.
What has baffled even the enforce-
ment agency is the seizure of five kilo-
grammes of Ecstasy worth `30 crore in
Kochi in February, showing that inter-
national drug cartels are eyeing the city
as a big transit point. Against this back-
ground, Ahamed’s petition is significant.
However, drug detection is still an
amateur area in India and there are
questions whether these measures can
be implemented on city roads and high-
ways. Johnson Edayaranmula, who runs
Alcohol and Drug Information Centre,
asks: “Till now, we could only punish
people when they were caught with
drugs. But how can you detect
drug users on the road like you catch
drunk drivers?”
However, the petition scientifically
outlines the techniques used in some
advanced nations. While Alere DDS2
Mobile Test System is one such test, the
other mentioned in the petition is the
Dragger Drug Test 5000.
The Alere DDS2 is a portable system
designed for rapid screening and detec-
tion of drug use by checking oral fluids,
with the results out in five minutes,
making it usable on Indian roads.
The Dragger Test, on the other hand,
uses different equipment but is similar
to Alere. It too uses oral fluids to test
the presence of drugs. Both can detect
almost all forms of drugs.
“It is very easy to say that we cannot
detect drugs because they don’t smell.
Worldwide, it has been proved that such
tests are possible. We only need the
will to implement it here in India,’’
added Ahamed.
It waits to be seen if the police will
crack down on drug driving or whether
the petitioner will have to seek other
remedial measures to curb one of
Kerala’s fastest growing evils.
“Inthelastfewyears,theuseofdrugsin
Keralahasbeenhigh.Thenumberof
accidentshappeningonadailybasishas
alsogoneupdramatically.Obviously,
therearemanywhousedrugsanddrive.”
—ThoufeekAhamed,thepetitionerand
KeralaHighCourtlawyer
ON HIGH ALERT According to the petitioner,
police in developed nations have the
wherewithal to detect drivers using drugs

20 March 19, 2018
HE refusal by the deputy
commissioner of
Jalandhar to grant per-
mission for holding grey-
hound races has prompt-
ed the registered
Greyhound Racing Board to move the
Punjab and Haryana High Court.
Asserting that the tradition of holding
races among this particular breed of
dogs has been going on since time
Courts/ Punjab & Haryana High Court/ Dog Races
TheGreyhoundRacingBoardhasapproachedtheCourttoallowracesofthis
breedandclaimedthattheyarenottorturedorputtoanyharm
By Vipin Pubby in Chandigarh
T
Hounded Out?
tiorari (by which a higher court reviews
a case tried in a lower court), quashing
the order issued by the deputy commis-
sioner, Jalandhar, on January 29 this
year. It sought issuance of a writ in the
nature of mandamus directing the
respondents to allow greyhound races in
the state of Punjab and not to
cause any hindrance in the organising of
such races.
The petition has requested the Court
immemorial, the Board has said that
“the raison d’etre for the existence of
greyhound dogs is racing”. It said that
adequate care is taken to ensure that
the dogs are not tortured or put to any
harm while being trained to race.
The Board, which has filed the peti-
tion under Article 226/227 of the
Constitution through Gursharan K
Mann and SS Mann, has prayed for
issuance of a writ in the nature of cer-
UNI

to consider whether the refusal to
organise greyhound races was violative
of the principles of natural justice and
Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act,
1960 (PCA, 1960) and whether the
order refusing permission to hold the
dog race “is arbitrary and illegal without
jurisdiction, further causing unneces-
sary hindrance to greyhound dog races”.
The High Court, while taking cogni-
sance of the petition, has issued
notice to the Punjab government to
file its reply.
T
he petitioner, Bhupinder Singh
Grewal, president of the
Greyhound Racing Board, has
pointed out that the Board “indulges in
organising greyhound races in an order-
ly fashion. The welfare and health of the
greyhound dogs is the primary facet in
consideration while organising such
races. All such races are organised only
after providing proper emergency facili-
ties to the dogs in case of any contin-
gency. The dog sport is conducted in a
professional manner and all the estab-
lished international rules and regula-
tions are followed by the organisers”.
He said that, as per the order no.
28/6/2011-4 PP-1/9858, dated
November 25, 2013, passed by the ani-
mal husbandry, fish and dairy develop-
ment department, the permission of the
deputy commissioner or deputy direc-
tor, animal husbandry, has been made
compulsory and further district com-
mittees have been formed. The order
“has been passed on the ground of
assumed and presumed cruelty to the
animal”. Describing it as an illegal and
arbitrary order, the petitioner has said
that greyhound dog races “are organ-
ised under total control [sic] environ-
ment and it is categorically and specifi-
cally taken care that only mentally and
physically healthy greyhound dogs take
part in the race”.
A greyhound has stereoscopic vision.
This means that it is best suited to see-
ing moving objects. They often don’t
see stationary objects—so when calling
your greyhound back to you, you are
best moving around.
The greyhound is built for speed with
a streamlined, muscular body. The neck
and head are long. Their characteristic
rose ears are usually folded flat
against the neck when the dog is
relaxed, but prick forward and may even
stand somewhat erect when the grey-
hound is at attention. The loin is slightly
arched, the chest is deep, and the waist
is narrow, giving the dog a distinctive
appearance.
The running style of a greyhound is
similar to that of a cheetah, employing
what is known as double suspension
gallop. Unlike horses which only have
one period during their galloping stride
in which all the four legs are off the
ground at once, the greyhound has two
periods of suspension during the
fastest gallop.
The feet of the greyhound touch the
ground only 25 percent of the time. The
dog’s long legs, flexible spine, small
waist and slender body work together
to make it run fast.
The greyhound has a huge heart for
its body size. It ranges from 1.18 to 1.73
percent of its body weight whereas
most other dog breeds’ heart size is
0.77 percent. The human heart to body
weight is only 0.5 percent and the race-
horse’s heart is 1-1.3 percent.
A racing greyhound has the highest
blood volume compared to body size
at 11.4 percent whereas it stands at
10.5 percent for a racehorse, 9.5 per-
cent for a human sprinter and 7.2 per-
cent for a average pet dog.
The breed has the highest packed
cell volume of any dog at 60 percent,
compared to 35 percent for most dogs
and 40 percent for racehorses.
The petition mentioned at length
the care taken for the benefit of these
dogs. It said that the length of the race
track is not longer than 100 m, which is
well short of the scientifically proven
fact that a greyhound can run at its
maximum speed for a distance of 250
m, which is even more than a cheetah.
It said that the dogs are not exhausted
and that utmost care is taken in organ-
ising the dog races. Proper medical
facilities are ensured when such grey-
hound races are organised. “Through
empirical research and data by the sci-
entist and doctors it has been proved
The petition explains various body
characteristics of a greyhound
Auniquedog
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pursuit till he informed us that we
were headed for an illegal greyhound
race nearby. He is a dog lover but
greyhounds are literally a breed
apart and are, to quote Bruce
Springsteen, born to run. Like all
underground activities, greyhound
racing in Punjab operates on a need
to know basis, which includes the
cops and district officials who merely
look the other way. Occasionally,
22 March 19, 2018
beyond doubt that the greyhound dogs
love running,” it said and added that the
“evidence of the association of the grey-
hound dog can be traced from Bible,
and it has been estimated that the dog
breed is around 5,000 years old. In
Egypt, the dog has been found mummi-
fied with humans in the graves. The spe-
cific dog has been revered for its speed,
agility and grace since time immemori-
al,” it added.
The petition has said that there are
300 breeds of dogs. Some of them, it
said, are suited for different tasks such
as guarding, surfing, tracking, herding,
hunting, cart-pulling, sniffing, rescue,
running, and so on. It said the specific
traits and adaptations of the dog make
this breed perfect for racing. “Over the
years through evolution, the grey-
hound’s body is structured in such a way
that it can run at very fast speed with
least amount of effort. The greyhound
breed instead of being similar to other
dog breeds is actually in consonance
with the cheetah,” it asserted.
G
iving details of how the races
are conducted, the petition said
that the track length varies from
80 m to 100 m. The hounds, two ab-
reast, dash behind a manually operated
artificial lure. An average dash takes
about six seconds and there are, at the
most, two dashes a day per dog, with a
rest period of about two hours between
the dashes. It said that greyhound rac-
ing is an organised, competitive sport in
which these dogs are raced around a
track. “There are two forms of grey-
hound racing, track racing (normally
around an oval track) and coursing.
Track racing uses an artificial lure (now
based on a windsock) that travels ahead
of the dogs on a rail until the grey-
hounds cross the finish line. In coursing,
the dogs chase an artificial lure, hence
no cruelty on any animal,” explained the
petition. It said the dogs have a good
diet and are taken care of “in a manner
which even the most privileged” cannot
afford. It stressed that `300-500 is
spent daily on each dog for the purpose
of diet. This includes mutton, chicken,
eggs and other high-protein food.
Taking its plea further, the petition
contended that such dog races organised
by the Board “help in the integration of
the rural population and bridging social
gaps and differences. It brings together
the rural people from all the walks of
life and such events act as catalyst for
the assimilation of different cultures.
Such events help in inculcating a pas-
sion and compassion for living creatures
and further the cause imbibed [sic] in
the fundamental duties in the form of
Article 51-A(g)”. Will the High Court
take a sympathetic view of this plea?
ThecrazeforgreyhoundracinginpocketsofPunjabhas
madeitintoanundergroundsport,facingthewrathofanimal
lovers.Evenasapetitiontoallowthesportisintroduced,
DilipBobbprovidesafirst-handaccountofhowitoperates
The Running
Battle
Y host gets a call on his
mobile and immediate-
ly his face lights up.
“Great news,’’ he tells
me, “today we are
going underground.’’
We are in Bathinda, where my host, an
affluent landowner and bon vivant, was
trying to convince us poxy city dwellers
of the benefits of the outdoors. Going
underground seemed paradoxical to his
M

imported greyhound with a racing
pedigree will cost `6 to `8 lakh on
average and my new ‘mate’ from
Manchester told me it costs him `500 a
day for each hound: their normal feed
is mutton, chicken and eggs in milk or
curd, apart from imported vitamins
and medicines.
By now, the area had already taken
on the atmosphere of a village fair.
Canopies had sprung up for the owners
and VIPs, a loudspeaker system was
being tested, a snack stall had sprung
up, and, to my absolute astonishment
considering it was an illegal sport, an
OB van arrived to film the race and
broadcast it on NRI channels abroad
popular with the Punjabi diaspora who
like to remain connected to their roots.
This was rural Punjab in all its earthy
glory. A tractor and a tiller were mark-
ing out the race track in the middle of
fields of sugarcane. It would be around
80 metres long, I was informed by the
organisers, local farm owners, and
would be along a straight line and not
the oval track that greyhound racing is
run on in stadiums abroad. Villagers
from surrounding areas were arriving
OnegentlemanImetwasfrom
Manchesterand,beingafootballfanas
well,hadthreegreyhoundswhomhe
racedinturns,namedafterfamous
footballersMessi,RonaldoandBeckham.
also meant to keep the pedigreed grey-
hound cool in the rear seat so it would
be in peak condition for the race). There
were about 10 racers, almost all import-
ed from the US, UK or Ireland—many
are brought in by NRIs from Punjab
who also participate in the races. One
gentleman I met was from Manchester
and, being a football fan as well, had
three greyhounds whom he raced in
turns, named after famous footballers
Messi, Ronaldo and Beckham. Like the
namesakes, his dogs were sprawled out
on thick quilts while the handlers gave
them oil massages to get their blood cir-
culating and their legs in running order.
Punjabis walk with a distinct swagger
and the greyhounds have been infected
with similar traits. Post-massage, they
are walked around to get them ready for
the race and they preen and prance like
royalty, which, in a sense, they are. An
greyhound owners will
apply for a race to be run
to the district magistrate
who routinely turns it
down. The race is run
anyway, mainly for pride
and not a big purse, and,
like all things to do with
Punjabis and Sikhs, it’s
also a macho thing to be
involved in, albeit illegal.
It is much like Jallikattu
in Tamil Nadu which has
been officially banned but
the local passion and tra-
dition for the sport
ensures it carries on in
parts of the state. In
Punjab, while greyhound
racing was officially
banned in the 1990s, its
legality is, appropriately, a
grey area since Punjab
actually has a Greyhound
Racing Board which argues that dog
racing is a traditional element of
Punjab’s sporting culture. Its latest peti-
tion counters the naysayers in terms of
how the dogs are treated and will now
be heard by the Punjab and Haryana
High Court.
M
aneka Gandhi and her posse
of animal lovers have declared
it as being cruel to animals—
originally it was aimed at the live hare
which was used as a lure to make the
greyhounds chase it at full speed.
Nowadays, they use a fake hare which is
operated manually so the focus has now
shifted to cruelty to the greyhounds.
Having watched a greyhound race live
and mingled with the owners, I can
safely say that the greyhounds I saw
were better looked after than most of
the spectators. The race event was to
take place some 15 kilometres outside
Bathinda and by mid afternoon, when
we reached the venue, the crowds had
already started trickling in from sur-
rounding villages and farms. Then came
the participants—the dog owners in
their air-conditioned SUVs (The AC was
Facebook

24 March 19, 2018
in droves, alerted by the mobile network
of race lovers. A local vet had been
called in to tend to any problems—pedi-
greed greyhounds are sleek, fast and
bred for racing but they are also fragile
creatures because of the work they do.
They run the track in about six seconds
and hit speeds of around 60 kmph.
T
he race was about to start and
the greyhound owners, along
with assorted family members
(all male) and expert handlers, moved in
formation towards the starting line. A
mock hare, a leather ball covered rough-
ly in rabbit skin, was being rigged up
attached to a long cord which would be
pulled by a manual contraption. The
three greyhounds in the first race lined
up and a starter seated on a chair raised
a white flag.
The hounds were straining at the
leash, their long, thin bodies stretched
to the limit of the leash. The flag came
down, the leashes were unhooked, and
they were off in a blur of movement.
They run, said Manchester, like a chee-
tah does, and I could see what he
meant thanks to National Geographic.
Their bellies are inches from the
ground and they streak across the track
in a flash, with the results being met
with either exuberant high fives or
colourful Punjabi curses. There are five
races in all and most races are between
just two dogs. I find myself wishing
Maneka Gandhi was here—no race
lasts more than six seconds, the track
length is far less than the stipulated
maximum length of 250 metres, the
dogs get enough rest between one race
and the next. Messi runs in three races,
finishing first in two, but there is
enough time between races for him to
recover and the crowds to indulge in
some friendly banter with the owners.
Also, in case of a photo finish as hap-
pened in one of the races. Thankfully,
all was resolved peacefully with the
help of slow motion replays from the
OB van’s cameras.
By the time the last race ended it
was dusk and the light was fading.
There is token prize money, unlike in
the UK, so the motivation is pride and
passion for the sport. The winners are
given trophies and the rustic atmos-
phere is spotlighted with the most
unusual sight—the SUVs lined up with
their headlights switched on to provide
illumination for the prize-giving cere-
mony. Mr Manchester’s two race wins
will, he says, buy him enough petrol for
the day for his Ford Endeavour and a
couple of days’ feed for his prized ani-
mals. What the local villagers find so
appealing about this esoteric sport
remains a mystery but then this is
Punjab, where swag does not mean the
gunny bags they normally carry on their
muscular shoulders, but closer to the
Hindi phrase Tashan, which means
style, or let’s just say swagger.
Thewinnersaregiventrophiesandthe
rusticatmosphereisspotlightedwiththe
mostunusualsight—SUVslinedupwith
headlightsswitchedontoprovide
illuminationfortheprize-givingceremony.
Facebook

26 March 19, 2018
NGER and arrogance in
Indian governance can
take bizarre forms. It can
upturn laid-out norms,
throw ethics out of the
window and destroy even
autonomous institutions that used con-
stitutional powers to survive and flour-
ish in the country’s democratic set-up.
Nothing can exemplify this better
than the current stand-off between
Information and Broadcasting (I&B)
Minister Smriti Irani and Prasar Bhar-
ati. Known for her autocratic ways, she
has, in an unprecedented step, attempt-
ed to block the salaries of thousands of
employees of Doordarshan (DD) and All
India Radio. The I&B ministry is sup-
posed to release around `200 crore
every month to Prasar Bharati to meet
its routine expenses.
Prasar Bharati managed to pay the
January and February salaries using
contingency funds. It may be able to
pull along for another month with its
remaining funds. But if Irani has her
way, there will be no money to pay Pra-
sar Bharati employees in April.
Incidentally, Prasar Bharati CEO SS
Vempati had tweeted: “Noticed reports
in sections of media on non-disbursal of
salaries to DD & AIR staff. Rs. 208 cr
towards salaries were released on the
28th Feb 2018. Attempts to create panic
malafide. PB (Prasar Bharati) has so far
received Rs. 1989 crores from MIB
(Ministry of Information and Broad-
casting) as grants-in-aid for salaries
by the ministry to document the Inter-
national Film Festival of India (IIFI)
2017 in Goa and had submitted a whop-
ping bill of `2.92 crore.
Prasar Bharati is within its rights not
to pay the bill when all this while the
same job was being done by DD. And
that is one question that Irani will find
difficult to answer—why did she hire an
external agency when DD had all the
technology and talent to execute it?
Though the public broadcaster is
ridiculed for its comparative subtler
content than private broadcasters who
are loud and often ridiculous, it is a
fact that it has numerous
experienced technicians,
camerapersons and pro-
ducers who can do com-
Controversy/ Smriti Irani vs Prasar Bharati
Thestand-offbetweentheministerandthepublicbroadcasterthreatensthelivelihoodof
28,000employeesofDD andAIR.WillParliamentstepintodousetheflames?
By Ramesh Menon
during FY2017-18.” He did not mention
that this money was released from
Prasar Bharati’s reserves.
However, hours later, he again tweet-
ed: “Rs. 208 crores were released by
@prasarbharati towards salaries for on
28th February 2018 from IEBR
reserves.” This makes the CEO’s stand in
the whole issue suspect.
VESTED INTEREST?
Irani’s move is seen by the top brass in
Prasar Bharati as an attempt to punish
them and strangulate the working of the
public broadcaster just because it
did not cave in to her demands
to okay payment to a pri-
vate operator. The oper-
ator had been asked
A
Ruling with an
Iron Fist!
TURF WAR
(L-R) Information and
Broadcasting Minister
Smriti Irani; Prasar
Bharati chairman
Surya Prakash

plex shows using multi-cameras. They
are well-versed in telecasting important
events such as the Republic Day Parade,
state-sponsored events and festivals.
After all, the shoot at the film festival in
Goa required just 15 cameras operating
at the same time. DD is known to oper-
ate double that number.
As it is, the public broadcaster is
strapped for funds and has to compete
with many news and entertainment
channels which are owned by media
houses with deep pockets. So, what was
the logic of hiring an expensive private
player when DD could have done it at a
fraction of the cost?
A retired official who held a senior
post in DD attested that it had very
experienced people who could handle
any show or shoot with ease. Even those
hired on contract are well-qualified
and talented.
Irani’s move has spurred uncomfort-
able questions about why she hired a
private player to do a simple job.
The minister had adroitly shifted the
management of the Goa festival, IFFI,
to the National Film Development
Corporation (NFDC). Earlier, it used to
be under the I&B ministry. NFDC then
accorded the telecast rights for the Goa
festival to SOL Production Private
Limited, a private production house
that produces entertainment shows.
DING-DONG BATTLE
There were other irritants in the testy
ties between Irani and Prasar Bharati.
The broadcaster had raised objections
to the hiring of two journalists at
salaries which were seen as very high
and which would not go down well with
other employees in similar senior posi-
tions. Irani was reportedly interested in
getting these two journalists on board.
One of them was an editor of a daily
newspaper whose reputation had come
under a cloud for pushing fake news
about a communal conflagration in
Uttar Pradesh. The other was a journal-
ist with a business television channel.
They were reportedly being offered
annual salaries that ranged between `75
lakh and `1 crore.
Jawhar Sircar, former CEO of Prasar
Bharati, told India Legal: “There is
sheer anarchy going on. The ministry
may not like the chairman of Prasar
Bharati but that does not mean it can
hold back salaries of around 28,000
employees on silly grounds. Ego clashes
cannot be the reason to stop the func-
tioning of such a large and important
organisation. There are scores of em-
ployees in remote places like Kargil and
Kutch manning transmitters. They can-
not be denied salaries. A move like this
is just not legally tenable.”
Sources told India Legal that Prasar
Bharati chairman Surya Prakash had
been appointed as he was close to the
RSS and BJP leadership. So it came as a
surprise when he openly locked horns
with Irani after her unprecedented
move undermined the authority of
Prasar Bharati. His stand would have
the blessings of the RSS leadership,
they felt, as the top brass there was
not seeing eye to eye with Irani.
STIFF OPPONENT
Prakash, with his journalistic
background, has friends
across all parties. A
source close to him
said that he walked around with a resig-
nation letter in his pocket. He was also
disturbed that numerous officers of the
Indian Information Service were arbi-
trarily transferred by the ministry. A
source said that a senior cabinet minis-
ter was very upset when an officer from
her office was transferred in a similar
manner and attempts were made to
foist another officer whom she was not
keen on.
One of those who was arbitrarily
transferred was Anindya Sengupta, the
president of the Indian Information
Services Officers Association. This
reportedly happened when he com-
plained to the PMO about how she was
on a spree, transferring officers.
If the confrontation continues
between Prasar Bharati and Irani, it
could spell trouble for PM Modi, who
would rather not have such a controver-
sy when the parliamentary elections are
a year away. Irani was reportedly not
happy with the reappointment of Surya
Prakash as chairman for another term
as she probably wanted someone whom
she could control.
In mid-February, Prasar Bharati
rejected a proposal of the ministry to
“Thereissheeranarchygoingon.The
ministrymaynotlikethechairmanof
PrasarBharatibutthatdoesnotmeanit
canholdbacksalariesofaround28,000
employeesonsillygrounds....Amovelike
thisisjustnotlegallytenable.”
—JawharSircar,formerCEO,PrasarBharati

28 March 19, 2018
appoint an IAS officer to its board who
would be in charge of human resources
and administrative decisions, saying it
went against the Prasar Bharati Act
passed by Parliament.
Sometime last year, the ministry
passed an order that its secretary would
now write the Annual Performance
Appraisal Report of the Prasar Bharati
CEO. This shocked Prasar Bharati offi-
cials as Section 6 (7) of the Act clearly
lays down that the CEO will not func-
tion under the control or supervision of
the ministry or its bureaucrats. Early
last month, the ministry ordered Prasar
Bharati to terminate all its contractual
employees. This is again something that
the ministry cannot dictate.
PRASAR BHARATI ACT
Incidentally, every government wants to
control the public broadcaster and use it
as a propaganda tool and not grow as an
independent entity. Few know that the
Prasar Bharati Act requires the constitu-
tion of a 22-member parliamentary
committee under Section 13. Its job is to
supervise the working of Prasar Bharati
on behalf of Parliament. Its members
would be from both Houses through
proportional representation. However,
what is interesting is that no govern-
ment has shown any interest in setting
it up as it would then give Parliament an
upper hand and diminish the control-
ling role that the I&B ministry can oth-
erwise have.
As the tiff continues, the ministry
sent out a statement through the Press
Information Bureau that Prasar Bharati
must sign a memorandum of under-
standing with it as general financial
rules of the government specify that it
has to be accountable for the way it uses
government grants. Prasar Bharati
receives grants from the ministry, but is
an autonomous body created by an Act
of Parliament.
Irani is one of the youngest ministers
in the NDA government and the general
talk in the party is that she is being gro-
omed to fight Rahul Gandhi in Amethi
in the coming Lok Sabha elections. Her
meteoric rise in the party and the cabi-
net has made her feel that she is indis-
pensable and that is why she has resort-
ed to such high-handed action, said a
former DD employee.
Rajya Sabha TV, which was very
unlike a government channel as it had
programmes that critically took on the
current government, also changed when
she took over, said a former television
personality who quit in disgust.
A source who knows Prakash well
said that he is not one to be cowed down
as he is very clear that the law of the
land gives Prasar Bharati complete
autonomy. That is why he said that now
it was for Parliament to get the salary
issue resolved. Clearly, Irani wants an
iron curtain around. Soon after she
took over, she instructed senior officials
of the ministry not to talk to the media
unless they had specific permission
and only a designated spokesman could
do so.
Modi will not want the current con-
troversy to be exploited by the Oppo-
sition in this Parliament session. Irani
also knows that it will go against her
and would not like to lose the coveted
cabinet position she has. But how she
will wriggle out of this impasse remains
to be seen. Will this controversy be
given a decent burial?
BLATANT FAVOURITISM I&B Minister Smriti
Irani (fourth from left) at the closing ceremony
of IFFI 2017 along with other dignitaries; the
Prasar Bharati headquarters in New Delhi
Controversy/ Smriti Irani vs Prasar Bharati
Iftheconfrontationcontinuesbetween
PrasarBharatiandIrani,itcouldspell
troubleforPMModi,whowouldrather
nothavesuchacontroversywhenthe
parliamentaryelectionsareayearaway.
prasarbharati.nic.inUNI

Briefs
Lawrence Liang, a law pro-
fessor in the national capi-
tal, has been held guilty of sexu-
al harassment by the Committee
for the Prevention of Sexual
Harassment at Delhi’s Ambed-
kar University. The committee
recorded its findings in a report
dated February 20, four months
after Liang’s name featured in a
social media list of alleged sexu-
al harassers in Indian universi-
ties. Liang had allegedly har-
assed a female researcher from
another university by forcibly
kissing her and sending her sex-
ually explicit text messages. He
has been asked to step down
from his position as dean of
Ambedkar University’s School of
Law, Governance and Citizen-
ship. The probe committee has
suggested that Liang be barred
from holding any administrative
position for two years. It has
also directed that he be warned
of serious consequences, such as
suspension, should another
complaint come up against him.
Law professor
indicted for sexual
harassment
—Compiled by Sucheta Dasgupta
THE Telugu Desam Party
has pulled out of the cen-
tral government in protest
against its refusal to give
Andhra Pradesh a special sta-
tus category on grounds that
it is constitutionally unviable.
President Ram Nath Kovind
accepted the resignations of
TDP ministers Ashok
Gajapathi Raju Pusapati and
YS Chowdary. The work of the
ministry of civil aviation, held
by Raju, will now be looked
after by the Prime Minister.
Chowdary was the minister of
state for science and technolo-
gy. However, TDP will contin-
ue in the National Democratic
Alliance. There are 17 mem-
bers belonging to the TDP in
parliament.
Banks sue 17,000 defaulters for over `2.5 lakh crore
TDPministersexitgovernment
Banks have filed suits in
different courts
against 17,000 borrowers
who have defaulted on
loan repayments worth
`2,65,908 crore at the end
of September 2017. This is
just 31.73 per cent of the
total defaults of `8,38,000
crore recorded by banks
during the period. State
Bank of India tops the list
with cases against 3,684
crore defaulters for recov-
ery of `74,649 crore. Pun-
jab National Bank has filed
suits against 1,364 borrow-
ers for recovery of `25,608
crore. The IDBI Bank has
also slapped suits against
1,738 defaulters.
Karnataka Lokayukta P Vishwanath Shetty was
attacked and injured with a knife in his office.
The 73-year-old was taken to Mallya Hospital for
treatment, and is out of danger. The assailant, Tejas
Sharma, has been arrested. Sharma attacked Shetty,
a former high court judge, as the complaint he went
to him with—regarding a tender—was not enter-
tained and he was apparently told that the case was
shut, a statement by Karnataka Chief Minister
Siddaramaiah said.
The Serious Fraud Investigation
Office has summoned ICICI Bank
CEO Chanda Kochhar, Axis Bank
Managing Director Shikha Sharma and
a few others in connection with loans
and guarantees extended to firms pro-
moted by diamantaire Nirav Modi and
his uncle Mehul Choksi. ICICI Bank
leads a consortium of 31 banks that
extended loans and guarantees of Rs
5,280 crore to the Gitanjali Group pro-
moted by Choksi between November
2010 and April 2014 against a collateral
of only about Rs 100 crore. ICICI Bank
has lent Gitanjali Group over Rs 400
crore. Union Bank of India, Allahabad
Bank and Axis Bank are also said to
have offered credit based on letters of
undertaking issued by PNB.
Karnataka Lokayukta stabbed
Ashok Gajapathi Raju Pusapati (right) and YS Chowdary
Top bankers get summons in
Nirav probe

30 March 19, 2018
ECENTLY, two news
items appeared concern-
ing Additional Sessions
Judge (ASJ) Kamini
Lau—she apologised for
some remarks which had
so offended the Delhi High Court that it
initiated criminal contempt proceedings
against her.
A bench of the Supreme Court of In-
dia, presided over by Chief Justice of
India Dipak Misra, is now considering
the case on its merit. The CJI (who was
for some time the chief justice of the
Delhi High Court) has assured Lau that
her interests will be protected. Judge
Lau is supposed to have said that a
reviewing court should judge the judg-
ment and not the judge.
In an unrelated case, Justice (Dr) S
Muralidhar and Justice IS Mehta of the
Delhi High Court found “merit” in the
contention that grave prejudice was
caused to the accused by “disproportion-
ately” taking the evidence of 22 witness-
es on the first day itself of the trial.
“Unable” to appreciate the “super-fast”
track procedure, it wondered why it was
“necessary to rush through the prosecu-
tion evidence in a case of this nature”
and how “she failed to realise that it
would result in a grave injustice”. In an
exquisite irony, upholding the appeal
after nearly two years, their Lordships
reiterated a famous maxim: “Justice
hurried is justice buried.”
The High Court reversed the convic-
tion because “circumstances proved do
not form a complete chain” and it re-
mains “difficult… to conclude… unerr-
ingly… the guilt only of the two ac-
cused”. In substance, this should have
been sufficient to decide the matter. But
it was perhaps unnecessary to establish
the nexus between speedy trial and
death sentence; we here only explore the
judicial observations on delay in the
trial process.
The Court found that the learned
additional sessions judge has “not for
the first time” in her “enthusiasm for
speeding up the trial process” “seriously
erred in examining many prosecution
witnesses on a single day”. This is not
what the “the mandate in the CrPC
(Code of Criminal Procedure) is”. No
doubt, the obligation to conduct the
trial on a day-to-day basis is a serious
constitutional responsibility of all jus-
tices, but it is also an integral part of fair
trial to accord due time for taking evi-
dence and hearing arguments. Criminal
law, the Court said, does not share the
“extreme proposition that the entire
prosecution evidence” is to be “recorded
on a single day in such cases involving
grave offences”. What the Court charac-
terised “an over-reaction” was the judi-
cial tendency to have the “entire prose-
cution evidence of as many as 22 wit-
nesses recorded on a single day”.
Therighttospeedytrialisnowdeclareda
constitutionalright.Althoughthe
ConstituentAssemblydeclinedit,the
SupremeCourthasdeclareditbasicvia
theever-expandingscopeofArticle21.
R
Column Prof Upendra Baxi/ Timely Trials
Towards a
Super-Fast
Trial?
ThecaseofAdditionalSessions
JudgeKaminiLauwhotookthe
evidenceof22witnesseson
thefirstdayofatrialstirred
ahornet’snest.Butsurely
justicehurriedneednotbe
justiceburied
AGENT OF
CHANGE?
The Delhi High
Court has
initiated contempt
action against
Additional
Sessions Judge
Kamini Lau (left)

GROWING PENDENCY
A crowd of litigants before the chief
justice’s court
Time and privacy are of the essence
when a person is charged with offences
“punishable with the death sentence and
particularly where they are represented
by legal aid counsel”. The trial court
“should exercise some caution as well as
restraint to ensure that the counsel has
sufficient time to prepare for the cross-
examination”, though the Court should
be “vigilant against defence tactics that
might seek to unreasonably postpone
the trial and use the interregnum to win
over witnesses….” The advice from the
High Court is well-crafted, though the
admonition may be anxiously queried.
In our legal system, all justices are
supreme in their appointed jurisdiction,
even when subject to review in appellate
courts. The obligation to conduct the
trial in day-to-day proceedings is also an
obligation to device in-house judicial
procedures that may contribute both to
expeditious and effective justice; speedy
trial is not an adversary of a fair trial.
The conduct of parties to the trial is
also relevant. The record (as available to
me) does not disclose whether the pros-
ecution objected. Assuming it did, was
the objection not judicially disposable?
It is evident, too, on the face of the
record, that although the witness testi-
mony was taken on May 23, a supple-
mentary chargesheet was filed on June
2, and the prosecution case was closed
on July 17, 2013. The point simply is:
While judicial handling of as many as
22 witnesses may seem unfair, was it
really so? Is not the trial court the best
judge of speedy and just trials, answer-
able in appeal only in case of egregious
error in procedure since not all speedy
trials are unfair ones?
I
t is noteworthy that the learned
High Court does not take account of
the fact that the right to a speedy
trial is now declared a constitutional
right. Although the Constituent
Assembly debated, and declined it, the
Supreme Court has declared it basic
via the ever-expanding scope of Article
21 which deals with the right to life
and liberty.
The right was expressly upheld in
Hussainara 1 which held that “reason-
ably expeditious trial is an integral
and essential part of the funda-
mental right to life and liberty
enshrined in Article 21”. This was
expressly referred to, and reaf-
firmed, in Champalal [1981]
which held that Article 21, of
necessity, confers this right. And
Justice Chinnappa Reddy, for the
Court, reinforced this position
with the helpful observation that
the denial of “a speedy trial may
with or without proof of some-
thing more” lead to “an inevitable
inference of prejudice and denial
of justice”. And he added that “a
fair trial implies a speedy trial”
even when dwelling on the leg-
endary prowess of prosecuting and
defence lawyers to manipulate
judicial time.
Where does the future of an expedi-
tious justice delivery system lie? Surely,
two gems of national wisdom are quite
unhelpful. They summed up five region-
al workshops convened by the Bar
Council of India in the early eighties:
“Justice Hurried is Justice Buried” and
“Justice Delayed is Justice Denied”.
These twin empty slogans cry aloud
for stern social action by the Bench
and the Bar. Undoubtedly, implementa-
tion of legal norms entails interpreta-
tion, always a matter of quotients of
time. But criminal justice may not entail
slices of infinity. Investigation and pros-
ecution ought to be expeditious and
effective; so must be criminal justice
lawyering. And appellate courts should
experiment with specific timelines
rather than dispense general guide-
lines.Timely justice is an overdue consti-
tutional duty which all justices and
lawyers should now deliver.
—The author is an international law
scholar, an acclaimed teacher and a
well-known writer. He was recently
felicitated by India Legal
Two“gemsofnationalwisdom”summed
upfiveworkshopsconvenedbytheBar
CouncilofIndiaintheearlyeighties:
“JusticeHurriedisJusticeBuried”and
“JusticeDelayedisJusticeDenied”.
Anil Shakya

32 March 19, 2018
HE latest change in the
GST system is the E-Way
Bill (EWB), an electronic
document to be generated
on GSTN (GST Network,
which manages the IT sys-
tem of the GST portal) whenever there
is transportation of goods worth more
than `50,000. Even after the introduc-
tion of GST, some states such as UP and
Karnataka had a Way Bill system where
they had different models of state VAT
Way Bills. This resulted in compliance
difficulties for transporters and delay at
inter-state check-posts. EWB is said to
remove such bottlenecks by bringing in
uniform provisions without needing
routine checks at inter-state check posts.
It is also said that the EWB mechanism
will ensure that goods being transported
comply with GST laws and thus, it will
become an effective tool to track their
movement and prevent tax evasion.
Initially, when GST was introduced
in July 2017, not many people were
inclined to introduce EWB. It was,
therefore, decided to defer its introduc-
tion. However, the GST Council decided
to introduce it from February 1, 2018.
But the IT system collapsed on the very
first day, forcing the government to
defer it again.
MANY GLITCHES
Meanwhile, the Group of Ministers
(GOM) formed to resolve the IT issues
of GSTN, led by Sushil Modi, Bihar’s
deputy chief minister, has recommended
April 1 for the roll-out of EWB across
the country. In fact, the trigger for
reconsideration of
introducing EWB
has been the low
revenue collection
from GST as
against the expect-
ed amount.
But first, a few
words about the
EWB. The person doing the transporta-
tion may be the consignor himself, the
consignee or the transporter. He has to
upload information relating to the
goods, their transportation and the
transporter before the goods actually
move. It will be in two parts. Part A will
contain details of the goods and particu-
lars of the recipient/consignee, includ-
ing his GST Identification Number
(GSTIN), while Part B will have all the
vehicle details required.
Every EWB generated will have a
unique number, which will be made
available to the consignor (supplier),
consignee (recipient) and the trans-
porter. The rules relating to EWB pro-
vide for different ways that goods are
transported, for example transportation
in the consignor’s own conveyance,
goods handed over to a transporter, use
of a single vehicle for transportation of
one consignment from one location to
another, use of multiple vehicles for one
consignment and use of a single vehicle
for carrying multiple consignments. The
validity of EWB depends on the distance
travelled. For less than 100 km, the
EWB will be valid for 24 hours. For
every 100 km thereafter, the validity will
be one additional day. Thus, EWB is a
compliance requirement which will
involve a lot of additional work for the
consignor and the transporter.
ENFORCING EWB
As for enforcement, a GST officer from
the centre and one from that particular
state are empowered to intercept any
vehicle to verify the EWB for all inter-
state and intra-state movement of
goods. He can also do a physical verifi-
cation of vehicles and their goods. If a
vehicle is detained for more than 30
minutes, the transporter will upload
that information. But for a few excep-
tions, the generation of EWBs is manda-
tory. If EWBs are not issued in accor-
dance with the provisions contained in
GST Rules, the same will be considered
a contravention of rules and will invite
penal action. Further, the goods trans-
ported without the cover of EWB will be
liable to be seized and confiscated.
So what are the pros and cons of the
ThisBill,toberolledoutonApril1,aimsat
trackinggoodsandcheckingtaxevasion.But
willitmakethelifeoftransporterseasy?
By Sumit Dutt Majumder
Commerce/ GST E-Way Bill
EveryE-WayBill generatedwill
haveauniquenumber,whichwillbe
madeavailabletotheconsignor
(supplier),consignee(recipient)
and thetransporter.
Revolutionary Road?
T

EWB system? First the pros. It will
boost revenue collection by tracking the
movement of goods and thus check tax
evasion. Second, some states are contin-
uing with Way Bills with different mod-
els. This causes hardship to the trans-
porters. A uniform EWB system, with
the help of technology, will alleviate
transporters’ problems. Also, the pro-
posed system will be user-friendly, and
with the back-up of technology, EWB
can be self-generated. Finally, there will
be no check-post at inter-state borders
for routine check of EWBs, and hence
no long queues of trucks.
However, with the unpleasant experi-
ence of GSTN crashing during the intro-
duction of GST in July 2017 and EWB
on February 1, 2018, critics opine that
GSTN should be given time to settle
down so that its core functions such as
registration, return filing, in-voice
matching and refunds go smoothly.
HUGE BILLS
Once the system starts running, around
50 lakh EWBs will be generated per day.
In February, more than 9.5 lakh taxpay-
ers and 8,500 transporters were regis-
tered on the EWB portal. Even as GSTN
authorities have claimed that the load
capacity will be checked for 75 lakh
EWBs a day, critics have reservations
after the February crash.
Second, EWB has been deferred for
intra-state supplies and will be launched
in phases. Once that is implemented,
the load on GSTN will increase mani-
fold. It is not clear whether the EWBs
for intra-state supplies will have another
set of forms and compliance require-
ments, particularly in cases where the
same truck carries goods for both intra-
state and inter-state supplies. This will
add to the woes of transporters.
Also, it is felt that the Way Bill sys-
tem which was prevalent in states dur-
ing the pre-GST era could be justified
on the ground that different states had
different rates of state VAT, and some
VAT-payers resorted to illegal tax-shop-
ping in different states. That reason is
non-existent in the GST era where the
rates of CGST (central GST) and SGST
(state GST) will remain the same across
the country. Besides, for checking tax
evasion, there is an elaborate scheme of
invoice matching of credits; that should
be put in place quickly.
The EWB is hardly an improvement
over the state VAT Way Bill; it’s basically
the electronic version of it. Further,
notwithstanding the safeguards by way
of policy directions on EWB against the
misuse of power to intercept trucks on
highways, the ground reality is that
there is every likelihood of reckless
interception and search of transport on
remote highways. This will lead to dis-
ruption of flow of goods and breed cor-
ruption. This will definitely hit the logis-
tics sector directly and others indirectly.
Also, the Directorate General of GST
Intelligence, which is spread across the
country, should be further strengthened
so that it can develop intelligence on
surreptitious supply of goods without
payment of GST, and should be able to
intercept transport carrying those goods
on specific intelligence.
Seeing the government’s determina-
tion to bring in the EWB system, a sug-
gestion has been made in some quarters
that the threshold limit should be raised
from `50,000 to `5 lakh. That will, no
doubt, reduce the burden on the system
and transporters. But many apprehen-
sions remain. Perhaps EWB should be
deferred for two more years to allow
GSTN and GST to stabilise first.
—The writer is former chairman,
Central Board of Excise and Customs,
and author of “Know Your GST–
GST Unravelled”.
THE RIGHT ROAD?
(Left) Trucks loaded
with goods waiting for
clearance on a highway;
(above) a transporter
paying toll
UNI

India Legal 19 March 2018

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India Legal 19 March 2018