India Legal 15 February 2016

NDIA EGALL
February 15, 2016 `100
www.indialegalonline.com
I STORIES THAT COUNT
Theapexcourtstepsintoward
offaconstitutionalcrisis
FiascoinARUNACHAL
22
3428
DidRohithVemulaHaveToDie?AjithPillai
Politicalmeddlingbythecenterin
studentdisputesisuncalledfor
BikramVohra
Whatprice
suicide?
MEHA
MATHUR
Minority
institutions
60
BOOK
REVIEW
Travails of
a lawyer
78
I RAMAMOHAN RAO
Witness to history 72
NEETA
KOLHATKAR
Underworld:
Business as
usual 56
RAMESH
MENON
Women
and
temples 14
CongressPresident
SoniaGandhi
ArunachalGovernor
JPRajkhowa
President
PranabMukherjee
PrimeMinister
NarendraModi
FormerArunachalCM
NabamTuki

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
4 February 15, 2016
tive, legislature and judiciary as tie-breakers. A
lynchpin of the center-state balancing act was the
governor. Gubernatorial authority and functions
were spelt out as clearly as possible.
But time and political exigencies have a way of
derailing the best intentions. Over several decades,
the impartiality of the governors came under a
cloud as the system became politicized. There was
a general clamor that national governance in a
massively diverse country like India with compet-
ing and fissiparous regions needed a huge dose of
decentralization and a re-examination of center-
state relations. To examine this issue—the Union
and the states in the changed socio-economic sce-
nario—the government constituted a commission
on June 9, 1983, under the chairmanship of Justice
RS Sarkaria with B Sivaraman and Dr SR Sen as
its members. The terms of reference were to
examine and review the working of the existing
arrangements between the Union and states in
regard to powers, functions and responsibilities in
all spheres and “recommend such changes or other
measures as may be appropriate”.
The Commission submitted its report in
January 1988. The report contains 247 recommen-
dations spreading over 19 chapters. Successive
governments have let it gather dust. Some the rev-
olutionary measures it suggested may well have
moved India into better and more efficient gover-
nance. Its basic thrust was towards more decen-
tralization, more autonomy.
In the context of the current Arunachal Pra-
desh crisis which has snowballed into a political
and constitutional showdown, Sarkaria’s observa-
tions on the role and functions of the governor
remain highly relevant and worthy of reproducing:
The role of the Governor has emerged as one of
HE unfolding events in Arunachal
Pradesh—elaborated in detail in our
cover story—point to systemic imbal-
ances which, if not addressed by all
those who care deeply about India’s
functioning as a republic under the
majesty of the rule of law, could be the
harbingers of a sort of political instability and
whimsical governance which the framers of the
constitution had tried to prevent.
Bringing India together as a nation within the
framework of a logical and interlocking web of
rules, edicts, regulations and conventions guaran-
teeing its sovereignty, integrity, security, collective
good along with individual rights, liberties, and
freedoms was a Herculean chore. It staggers me, it
boggles my mind how the founding fathers man-
aged this. They literally created one country out of
some 562 independent kingdoms or countries
within the subcontinent which had various treaties
and alliances with British India.
The subcontinent was a congeries of languages,
dialects, ethnicities, tribes, castes, religions. And
one of the main objects of the framers of the con-
stitution, following the mostly peaceful and nego-
tiated integration of princely states into the Indian
union, was to keep a balance between a strong gov-
erning center and degrees of autonomy for the fed-
erating units. This was achieved through a combi-
nation of central, state and concurrent “subjects”.
It has not been an easy ride. The history of
India since Independence is replete with recurring
conflicts, often violent, between central authority
and state’s rights. The constitution makers had no
way of foretelling when and how these tussles
would occur. But they did anticipate them and
built in various statutes enforceable by the execu-
T
SARKARIA
REVISITED
INDERJIT BADHWAR

tions has had a direct impact on Union-State rela-
tions. Points of friction between the Union and the
States began to multiply. The role of the Governor
has come in for attack on the ground that some
Governors have failed to display the qualities of
impartiality and sagacity expected of them. It has
been alleged that the Governors have not acted
with necessary objectivity either in the manner of
exercise of their discretion or in their role as a vital
link between the Union and the States. Many have
traced this mainly to the fact that the Governor is
appointed by, and holds office during the pleasure
of the President, (in effect, the Union Council of
Ministers). The part played by some Governors,
particularly in recommending President’s rule and
in reserving State Bills for the consideration of the
President, has evoked strong resentment. Fre-
quent removals and transfers of Governors before
the end of their tenure have lowered the prestige of
this office. Criticism has also been leveled that the
Union Government utilizes the Governors for its
own political ends. Many Governors, looking for-
ward to further office under the Union or active
role in politics after their tenure, came to regard
themselves as agents of the Union.
the key issues in Union-State relations. The Indian
political scene was dominated by a single party for
a number of years after Independence. Problems
which arose in the working of Union-State rela-
tions were mostly matters for adjustment in the
intra-party forum and the governor had very little
occasion for using his discretionary powers. The
institution of Governor remained largely latent.
Events in Kerala in 1959, when President’s rule
was imposed, brought into some prominence the
role of the Governor, but thereafter it did not
attract much attention for some years. A major
change occurred after the Fourth General Elec-
tions in 1967. In a number of States, the party in
power was different from that in the Union. The
subsequent decades saw the fragmentation of
political parties and emergence of new regional
parties. Frequent, sometimes unpredictable re-
alignments of political parties and groups took
place for the purpose of forming governments.
These developments gave rise to chronic insta-
bility in several State Governments. As a conse-
quence, the Governors were called upon to exer-
cise their discretionary powers more frequently.
The manner in which they exercised these func-
LATE REALIZATION
Congress leaders,
led by Sonia Gandhi,
go with a
memorandum to the
President demanding
the removal of the
Arunachal Pradesh
governor
INDIA LEGAL February 15, 2016 5
UNI

appointment as Governor if they are of high public
stature and are capable of rising above party and
political affiliations.
Speaking in the Constituent Assembly on the
choice of Governors, Jawaharlal Nehru observed:
“I think it would be infinitely better if he was not
so intimately connected with the local politics of
the province… And would it not be better to have a
more detached figure, obviously a figure that...
must be acceptable to the Government of the
province and yet he must not be known to be a part
of the party machine of that province … But on the
whole it probably would be desirable to have peo-
ple from outside—eminent people, sometimes
people who have not taken too great a part in pol-
itics. Politicians would probably like a more active
domain for their activities but there may be an
eminent educationist or persons eminent in other
walks of life, who would naturally, while cooperat-
ing fully with the Government and carrying out
the policy of the Government, at any rate helping
in every way so that that policy might be carried
out,... nevertheless represent before the public
someone slightly above the party and thereby, in
fact, help that government more than if he was
considered as part of the party machine.”
A person to be appointed as a Governor should
satisfy the following criteria: (i) He should be emi-
In sum, the functions of the Governor are at
once diverse and important. Functioning in nor-
mal times as the constitutional head of the State
and as a vital link between the Union and the
State, he becomes an agent of the Union in certain
special circumstances, e.g., when a proclamation
under Article 356 is in operation. He fills the vac-
uum and ensures continuity in executive govern-
ment for short periods during which no Council of
Ministers is available to aid and advise him. The
Governor is the key functionary of the system
envisaged by the Constitution. No other constitu-
tional functionary can discharge these responsibil-
ities in addition to his own duties. We are, there-
fore, of the firm view that it is an office which can-
not be dispensed with.
In all the evidence before us, a common thread
is that much of the criticism against the Governors
could have been avoided if their selection had been
made on correct principles to ensure appointment
of right type of persons as Governors. Even the
most critical of the witnesses agree that if proper
persons are chosen there will be little cause of
complaint.
Most of the replies to our questionnaire received
from a cross-section of the public, are critical of
the quality and standard of some of the persons
appointed as Governors. To summarize their com-
ments: Discarded and disgruntled politicians from
the party in power in the Union, who cannot be
accommodated elsewhere, get appointed. Such
persons, while in office, tend to function as agents
of the Union Government rather than as impartial
constitutional functionaries.
The number of Governors who have displayed
the qualities of ability, integrity, impartiality and
statesmanship has been on the declining side. A
State Government has cited recent instances of
persons who had to resign from office as Ministers
following judicial strictures, being subsequently
appointed as Governors. It has also quoted
instances of Governors who returned to active pol-
itics. Another State Government, however, is of the
view that persons who have been in active politics
need not be debarred from being considered for
The current turmoil in Arunachal shows
how relevant Justice RS Sarkaria’s
observations on the role and functions
of the governor are till date.
6 February 15, 2016

security of the State. It is not expedient to do
so, the Governor whose tenure is proposed to
be terminated before the expiry of the nor-
mal term of five years, should be informally
apprised of the grounds of the proposed
action and afforded a reasonable opportunity
for showing cause against it. It is desirable
that the President (in effect, the Union
Council of Ministers) should get the explana-
tion, if any, submitted by the Governor
against his proposed removal from office
examined by an Advisory Group consisting
of the Vice-President of India and the
Speaker of the Lok sabha or a retired Chief
Justice of India. After receiving the recom-
mendation of this Group, the President may pass
such orders in the case as he may deem fit.
When, before expiry of the normal terms of five
years, a Governor resigns or is appointed Governor
in another State, or has his tenure terminated, the
Union Government may lay a statement before
both Houses of Parliament explaining the circum-
stances leading to the ending of the tenure. Where
a Governor has been given an opportunity to show
cause against the premature termination of his
tenure, the statement may also include the expla-
nation given by him, in reply. As a matter of con-
vention, the Governor should not, on demitting his
office, be eligible for any other appointment or
office of profit under the Union or a State Govern-
ment except for a second term as Governor or elec-
tion as Vice-President or President of India.
In choosing a Chief Minister, the Governor
should be guided by the following principles: (i)
The party or combination of parties which com-
mands the widest support in the Legislative
Assembly should be called upon to form the gov-
ernment. (ii) The Governor’s task is to see that a
government is formed and not to try to form a gov-
ernment which will pursue policies which he
approves. (b) If there is a single party having an
absolute majority in the Assembly, the leader of
the party should automatically be asked to
nent in some walk of life. (ii) He should be a per-
son from outside the State. (iii) He should be a
detached figure and not too intimately connected
with the local politics of the State; and (iv) He
should be a person who has not taken too great a
part in politics generally, and particularly in the
recent past. In selecting a Governor in accordance
with the above criteria, persons belonging to the
minority groups should continue to be given a
chance as hitherto.
It is desirable that a politician from the ruling
party at the Union is not appointed as Governor of
a State which is being run by some other party or a
combination of other parties. In order to ensure
effective consultation with the State Chief Minister
in the selection of a person to be appointed as
Governor the procedure of consultation should be
prescribed in the Constitution itself by suitably
amending Article 155. (Para 4.6.25) The Vice-
President of India and the Speaker of the Lok
Sabha may be consulted by the Prime Minister in
selecting a Governor. The consultation should be
confidential and informal and should not be a
matter of constitutional obligation. The Governor’s
tenure of office of five years in a State should not
be disturbed except very rarely and that too, for
some extremely compelling reason. Save where the
President is satisfied that, in the interest of the
“On the whole it probably would be
desirable to have people from
outside—eminent people, who have
not taken too great a part in politics.”
—Jawaharlal Nehru, in the Constituent Assembly

likely to command a majority in the Assembly. (c)
A Chief Minister, unless he is the leader of a party
which has absolute majority in the Assembly,
should seek a vote of confidence in the Assembly
within 30 days of taking over. This practice should
be religiously adhered to with the sanctity of a rule
of law.
The Governor should not risk determining the
issue of majority support, on his own, outside the
Assembly. The prudent course for him would be to
cause the rival claims to be tested on the floor of
the House. The Governor cannot dismiss his
Council of Ministers so long as they continue to
command a majority in the Legislative Assembly.
Conversely, he is bound to dismiss them if they lose
the majority but do not resign.
When the Legislative Assembly is in session, the
question of majority should be tested on the floor
of the House. (b) If during the period when the
Assembly remains prorogued, the Governor rec-
eives reliable evidence that the Council of Minis-
ters has lost ‘majority’, he should not, as a matter of
constitutional propriety, dismiss the Council
unless the Assembly has expressed on the floor of
the House its want of confidence in it. He should
advise the Chief Minister to summon the Assembly
as early as possible so that the ‘majority’ may be
tested. (c) Generally, it will be reasonable to allow
the Chief Minister a period of 30 days for the sum-
moning of the Assembly unless there is very urgent
business to be transacted like passing the Budget,
in which case, a shorter period may be allowed.
In special circumstances, the period may go up to
60 days.
become the Chief Minister. If there is no such
party, the Governor should select a Chief Minister
from among the following parties or groups of par-
ties by sounding them, in turn, in the order of pref-
erence indicated below: (i) An alliance of parties
that was formed prior to the Elections. (ii) The
largest single party staking a claim to form the
government with the support of others, including
‘independents’. (iii) A post-electoral coalition of
parties, with all the partners in the coalition join-
ing government. (iv) A post-electoral alliance of
parties, with some of the parties in the alliance
forming a Government and the remaining parties,
including ‘independents’, supporting the govern-
ment from outside. The Governor, while going
through the process described above, should select
a leader who in his (Governor’s) judgement is most
EARLY DAYS OF
CONFLICT
(Above) The
Communist
government
headed by
EMS Namboodiripad
was dismissed by
the Union in 1959
(Top)
Namboodiripad’s
council of ministers
in 1957
editor@indialegalonline.com
8 February 15, 2016

FEBRUARY15,2016
Misogyny in God’s Name
The apex court has asked why menstruating women are barred from
Sabarimala Temple, forcing society to rethink blind belief and an unfair
custom. RAMESH MENON
Government in Limbo
The governor’s rule imposed by the NDA government in Arunachal
is likely to create hurdles for it in parliament during the Budget
Session. RAMESH MENON
22
LEAD
14SUPREME COURT
SOCIETY
Death of a Dalit
Scholar Rohith Vemula’s death has revealed the HRD ministry’s habit of interfering
in student politics and landed the government in hot water. AJITH PILLAI
28
34
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Editor
Inderjit Badhwar
Managing Editor
Ramesh Menon
Deputy Managing Editor
Shobha John
Executive Editor
Ajith Pillai
Associate Editors
Meha Mathur, Sucheta Dasgupta
Deputy Editor
Prabir Biswas
Art Director
Anthony Lawrence
Deputy Art Editor
Amitava Sen
Graphic Designers
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Photographer
Anil Shakya
Photo Researcher/News Coordinator
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Production
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Head Convergence Initiatives
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Convergence Manager
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Technical Executive (Social Media)
Sonu Kumar Sharma
Technical Executive
Anubhav Tyagi
10 February 15, 2016
Rohith’s suicide has been given epic
dimensions by the media and the public.
It’s been packaged as an act of honor
and sends out the wrong message to the
student community. BIKRAM VOHRA
Suicide is Illegal

The 88-year-old iconic parliament building is in disrepair,
prompting the Speaker to recommend raising a new
structure. KALYANI SHANKAR
This district’s recent communal flare-up may have a lot to do with
the poppy mafia and sleeper terror cells. SUJIT BHAR
The center’s new crop
insurance scheme
aims to provide a
safety net for farmers.
Its success hinges
on scrupulous
monitoring and cor-
rect implementation.
RAMESH MENON
A House for Lawmakers
REGULARS
Cover Design: ANTHONY LAWRENCE
Edit............................................................................... 4
Quote-Unquote........................................................... 12
Ringside..................................................................... 13
Supreme Court........................................................... 18
Courts......................................................................... 20
National Briefs.......................................................41, 55
Is That Legal................................................................59
International Briefs...................................................... 65
Campus Update......................................................... 71
Figure It Out............................................................... 80
Wordly Wise................................................................ 81
People......................................................................... 82
POLICY
ACTS & BILLS
Grassroots Progress
LEGAL EYE
Haryana recently held panchayat polls under a new law which
mandates minimum education for candidates. There’s hope that
it will lead to good governance. SUCHETA DASGUPTA
Gangs of Bombay
CRIME
The old dons of
Mumbai underworld
have all been
arrested or are on
the run, yet extortion
calls are on the rise,
suggesting that some
are still active.
NEETA KOLHATKAR
EDUCATION
SPOTLIGHT
In Conflict Communication, I RAMAMOHAN RAO shares his
impressions of PV Narasimha Rao and recollects how the edifice of
the licence raj was dismantled
The Unlikely PM
BOOKS
Aligarh Muslim University and Jamia Millia Islamia are at the
center of a storm over whether they should continue as minority
institutions. A look at both sides of the debate. MEHA MATHUR
78
FollowusonFacebook.com/IndiaLegalMagazine
andTwitter.com/IndiaLegalMag
Farmers’ Lifeline
48The government plans to increase leave and benefits for
mothers but will it impact the hiring of women? SWATI PRASAD
Maternity Project
38Why Malda Erupted
52
STATES
66
72
Corporate lawyer RANJEEV DUBEY’S witty memoir
exposes the dark side of the legal profession where the
system does not always serve the cause it is supposed
to serve. AJITH PILLAI
Court Tales
56
Minority
or Not?
60
42

QUOTE-UNQUOTE
“Kaun rajneta hain jo media wale se
dosti nahin karega... usko marna
hain kya?” (there is no politician
who wouldn’t like to befriend
the media....)
—Prime Minister Narendra Modi, at
the launch of Zee Group promoter
Subhash Chandra’s autobiography
at 7, Race Course Road
“There is no rule or
law that stops a
governor from
expressing his views
on issues of
state’s security.”
—Tripura governor
Tathagata Roy, reacting to
his tweeting of
pro-Hindutva views, in The
Indian Express
“That her death sees no
word from you shows
your mentality.
However much you
hate me, as our prime minister it behoves
you to recognize her contribution. You
have not. Shame on you.”
—Mallika Sarabhai, on PM Modi not condoling her
mother Mrinalini Sarabhai’s death, in
The Times of India
“My wife is a true champion. She is more
than anybody will know; only I will know of
course as we share something different. I
have seen that girl fight through the craziest
of comments and craziest of negativity
towards her in her life and I think
she has a heart of gold.”
—Sunny Leone’s husband Daniel
Weber, reacting to the Bhupendra Chaubey-
Sunny Leone interview controversy,
to IndiaTimes
“I was born in India and I will
die in India... Neither Kiran
(Rao, his wife) nor will I think
about it. In fact, when I stay
away from the country for
two weeks, I get homesick.”
—Bollywood actor Aamir Khan,
clarifying that he never thought
about leaving the country, at the
10th anniversary of film Rang
De Basanti
“I was in deep trouble
at the time. So many
horses from different
breeds were part of the
Union Cabinet, and I was
told that I would lose my
job (if the SC struck down
President’s rule).”
—Former Union law minister
HR Bhardwaj on how he was under
immense pressure to secure a
favorable order from
SC on the center
imposing
President’s Rule
in Bihar in 2005,
quoted in
The
Times of
India
“You should not enter
politics to make money. If
that’s the aim, then you
should start a business.”
—SP supremo Mulayam Singh
Yadav, in conversation with his
party members
“People will come to India and tourist
flow will increase only if the brand
ambassador of ‘Incredible India’
promotes India as incredible India. But if
the brand ambassador of India
says India is intolerant, he is
surely not working as a brand
ambassador of India.”
— Senior bureaucrat and a key driver of
the Incredible India campaign, Amitabh
Kant, on the sidelines of a public
event in Ahmedabad

Lawyers are the only persons in whom ignorance of the
law is not punished.
Jeremy Bentham
VERDICT
Aruna

SUPREME COURT/ Sabarimala Row
T
HE Supreme Court has ques-
tioned the ancient tradition of
banning entry of women of men-
strual-age group into the iconic
Sabarimala Ayyappa temple in
Kerala, saying it violates constitutional rights.
Presently, temple authorities do not allow girls
who have attained puberty into the premises.
Only those who have attained menopause are
allowed to enter. “The temple cannot prohibit
entry except on the basis of religion. Unless you
have a constitutional right, you cannot prohibit
entry,” a three-member bench headed by
Justice Dipak Misra said.
The age-old tradition of
women being barred from
Sabarimala Ayyappa
temple in Kerala has been
questioned by the apex
court and once again
brought focus on beliefs
that defy logic and reason
By Ramesh Menon
NO WOMAN’S LAND
The temple precincts are
largely a male bastion
TempestoverTempleEntry
UNI

However, political parties in this highly
literate state are treading carefully over this
controversy as assembly elections are slated
in March-April this year. Lakhs of devotees
throng this famous temple every year around
Makar Sankranti.
This temple has not been without its
share of controversy. When Kannada actress
Jayamala declared that she had entered the
sanctum sanctorum and touched the idol in
1987, it sent shockwaves among purists and
believers. Priests at the temple even conduct-
ed a special ritual to purify the idol.
HANDS-OFF POLICY
The Congress-led Oommen Chandy govern-
ment in Kerala has made it amply clear that
it will side with the temple authorities to bar
women aged between 10 and 50 years from
entering the shrine. The government’s stand
is that it will not interfere in the customs and
traditions of the Lord Ayyappa temple. This
is also the stand it proposes to take in the
Supreme Court which is hearing a decade-
old petition seeking its intervention to allow
entry of women into this temple.
The PIL was filed by the Indian Young
Lawyers Association. The apex court ques-
tioned the discriminatory practice of the
temple, saying that the religious customs
cited by the Travancore Devaswom Board,
which manages the shrine, violated the con-
stitutional rights of women.
Kerala’s Minister for Health, Family Wel-
fare and Devaswom VS Sivakumar said that
the government’s policy was to protect tem-
ple traditions and customs that had been fol-
lowed for centuries and it would consider
this when it files an affidavit in the Court.
Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala has
also taken the position that the Temple’s ritu-
als and traditions cannot be changed over-
night. But the fact is that this controversy has
been simmering for years now.
LDF AND UDF STAND
In 2008, the LDF government headed by VS
Achuthanandan had taken the position that
the petitioners were right as it was in keeping
with the times. Eight years later, the Cong-
ress-led UDF government is getting ready to
quash the petitioner’s plea and let the temple
authorities have their way. The supreme
priest of the hill shrine believes that the pres-
ence of menstruating women in the Temple
is unacceptable because Lord Ayyappa is
revered as a celibate. The BJP, which hopes
to end its draught in Kerala in the coming
assembly elections, on the other hand, has
taken the safe stand that religious scholars
must finally settle the issue.
Prayar Gopalakrishnan, president of the
Travancore Devasom Board, said that the
Supreme Court’s observations had come be-
cause the previous Left-led government had
failed to properly inform the Court about the
traditional practices that had been followed
at the temple for centuries.
Gopalakrishnan had set off a storm all
over India when he had suggested a few
months ago that a machine be installed to
check whether women visiting the shrine
were menstruating. When this happened,
outraged gender activists launched a “Happy
to Bleed” campaign on Facebook to protest
against menstrual taboos and what they
called, sexism of the temple authorities.
In the meantime, Naushad Ahmed Khan,
president of Indian Young Lawyers’ Associa-
tion, told the apex court that he wanted to
withdraw the case because he had received
over 500 threat calls. But the Court said
“The temple
cannot prohibit
entry except on
the basis of
religion. Unless
you have a
constitutional
right, you
cannot prohibit
entry.”
—Supreme Court
bench on the
Sabarimala row
COMMON CUSTOMS
The Haji Ali Dargah in
Mumbai has also
banned entry to
women

that once a PIL is filed and entertained, the
litigant cannot withdraw it. It ordered the
Delhi Police to ensure the safety of the peti-
tioner. The matter is scheduled to come up
for hearing in early February.
SEEKING SIMILARITIES
Meanwhile, the Bombay High Court said it
would wait for the Supreme Court’s ruling on
entry of women in Sabarimala Temple before
deciding a similar plea in the case of the Haji
Ali Dargah. A bench of Justices VM Kanade
and Reveti Mohite-Dere was hearing a PIL
challenging the decision of the Haji Ali Trust
to ban the entry of women in the sanctum
sanctorum of the historic Dargah.
The petition had sought interim relief by
way of allowing women to enter the sanctum
sanctorum there until the matter was decided
by the Court. Earlier, the trustees of this dar-
gah had told the Court that entry of women in
close proximity to the grave of a male Muslim
saint was considered a grievous sin in Islam.
The Court asked Advocate-General
Sreehari Aney to submit arguments at the
next hearing due in early February. The case
is being watched with great interest as it is
not only about women being allowed into a
place of worship, but would also underline
the kind of taboos that modern India still
clings to. In numerous places in the hinter-
land, a culture of shame about menstruation
continues, leading to women being sidelined
and ridiculed despite it being a part of a nat-
ural process. They are not allowed to take
part in normal activities or religious rituals
due to numerous beliefs that defy logic and
common sense.
Will women get their due place in the
land where women epitomize “Shakti”?
IL
Ramesh Chennithala,
Kerala’s home minister
He represents the
Congress-led UDF
government’s line that
centuries-old traditions and
customs need to be
protected and can’t be
changed overnight.
Jayamala,
Kannada actress
She sent shockwaves
among believers and
purists when she claimed
that she had entered the
sanctum sanctorum of the
temple and touched the
idol in 1987.
VS Achuthanandan,
former Kerala CM
The LDF government
headed by him had taken
the position that the
petition was justified as
women’s entry into the
temple was in keeping
with the times.
SUPREME COURT/ Sabarimala Row

IL
SUPREME COURT/UP Lokayukta
The apex court
recalled its earlier
decision to
appoint Justice
Virendra Singh
and selected
Justice Sanjay
Misra as the new
Lokayukta.
O
N January 28, 2016, the
Supreme Court finally app-
ointed Justice Sanjay Misra as
the new Lokayukta of Uttar
Pradesh—thanks to a petition
the apex court got from a vigilant citizen,
Sachidanand Gupta.
On December 14, 2015, the Supreme
Court had criticized the Uttar Pradesh gov-
ernment for not taking any steps to replace
its Lokayukta NK Mehrotra in spite of many
previous orders.
As the Uttar Pradesh government had
failed to recommend a new Lokayukta before
the date given by the Supreme Court, the apex
court, expressing regret for constitutional
authorities failing to comply with its orders,
appointed former judge of the Allahabad
High Court Justice Virendra Singh as the
state’s anti-corruption ombudsman by an
order dated December 16, 2015.
However, the Chief Justice of the Alla-
habad High Court, Justice DY Chandrachud
on December 17 objected to this appoint-
ment. The appointment of Justice Virendra
Singh as the Lokayukta was then stayed by
the apex court after Sachidanand Gupta peti-
tioned that the state government has played
“fraud upon the court” by concealing that the
Allahabad High Court chief justice had
expressed reservations about Justice Vir-
endra Singh’s appointment.
The Supreme Court after hearing the
arguments, blamed the Uttar Pradesh gov-
ernment for misleading it by stating that
Justice Virendra Singh had been approved by
a committee that included the chief minister,
the leader of the opposition in Uttar Pradesh
and the seniormost judge in the state, ie,
Chief Justice Chandrachud.
On January 28, 2016, the Supreme Court
recalled its earlier order and appointed
Judge Sanjay Misra as the new Lokayukta of
Uttar Pradesh. The apex court also directed
that his appointment be notified within
seven days.
SCappointsUPLokayuktaJustice Sanjay Misra was appointed the Lokayukta of UP after
the apex court blamed the UP government of misleading it
By Mary Mitzy
NEW INCUMBENT
(L-R) Justice Sanjay Misra; the office of
Lokayukta in Lucknow

SUPREME COURT
Arundhati’s plea rejected
The Supreme Court asked the
Bombay High Court and the
Maharashtra government whether
contempt proceedings issued by
the former against writer and Booker
Prize winner Arundhati Roy could
be quashed. It, however, did not
grant her relief from appearing in the
High Court.
Roy had “criticized” the High
Court’s 2014 order which did not
grant bail to Naxal sympathizer GN
Saibaba, in one of her articles. The
90 percent disabled and wheelchair-
bound professor is undergoing
imprisonment at the Nagpur jail since
last one year. Saibaba was arrested
by the Maharashtra Police for his
alleged connections with Maoists.
Roy had also written that while
many of the “accused” in the Gujarat
riots case were granted bail, the
same treatment was not meted out to
Saibaba. Reacting to Roy’s com-
ments as well as the acerbic tone, the
High Court had slapped contempt
notice on her, last December.
Roy pleaded that the contempt
proceedings were an attempt to throt-
tle freedom of speech and expression
as guaranteed by the constitution and
curb dissent. She sought quashing of
contempt proceedings and an exemp-
tion from appearing in court.
In a significant judgment affecting the rights
of married woman in India, the Supreme
Court ruled that if a woman died under “inex-
plicable” circumstances, within seven years of
her marriage, all “streedhan” must be handed
over to her children or to her parents, in case
she was childless.
Streedhan could be money, property or any
other gift that the woman received at the time
of marriage from her parents. The court made
it clear that in such a situation the husband or
inlaws will have no right over anything.
Explaining Section 6 of the Dowry Prohi-
bition Act, the Court also ruled that the hus-
band and inlaws of a married woman must
hand over all “dowry” articles to her within
three months of wedlock. Otherwise, they
would be prosecuted under the Act, which
entails a two-year jail term, the court ruled.
The Supreme Court came down hard
on the governments of Delhi, Uttar
Pradesh and Haryana for failing to make
realtors follow the Central Pollution
Control Board’s (CPCB) norms for pre-
venting pollution. It wanted to know the
action taken against erring companies
and asked the states to submit reports in
this regard. The court did not spare the
construction industry for going ahead
with projects without getting environment
clearances.
The bench asked Environment
Protection and Control Authority to make
surprise checks on sites and make
reports on lapses by inspecting officers
representing the state governments. The
court felt that it could then take action
against such officials.
The pollution caused by the construc-
tion industry was earlier brought to the
notice of the Court by amicus curiae
Harish Salve.
The counsel for the three states could
not satisfy the court on the action taken
against construction companies which
flouted CPCB norms. The court asked the
state governments to submit the report
by February 16.
Construction
industry must
not pollute
No right over
“streedhan”

StrictrulesforIAF
—Compiled by Prabir Biswas; Illustrations: UdayShankar
The Armed Forces is not the place for
someone who is not physically fit, and
meeting the prescribed medical standards is a
must, the apex court ruled while turning down
a plea of squadron leader Shilpa Rao. The
Short Service Commission officer had applied
for a permanent commission but her request
was turn down by the government as she had
a minor heart condition. As a result, she could
not qualify the medical test needed for a per-
manent commission.
Rao, who joined IAF in 2005, pointed out
that she had been performing all official duties
despite having the problem. She also pleaded
that the medical standards that an entrant to
the IAF had to meet could not be
the same for a person who was already in ser-
vice. She cited her medical report which was
absolutely fine for ground duties.
However, the apex court did not entertain
her plea, saying that the “Armed Forces was
not an old-age home”.
Collegiumsuggests
judgesforhighcourts
Even as the center was in the process of
framing a Memorandum of Procedure for
appointing judges to the higher judiciary, the
Supreme Court Collegium is believed to have
gone ahead with its recommendations for
names of chief justices for various high cou-
rts, three months after scrapping the NJAC.
Justice Hemant Gupta of the Punjab and
Haryana High Court was selected for the post
of acting chief justice of the Patna High Court.
Other judges recommended for the post of
chief justice were: Justice Dinesh Maheshwari
for Meghalaya HC; Chief Justice, Orissa HC,
DH Waghela for Bombay HC; Justice Ajit Singh
for Gauhati HC; Justice Vineet Saran for Orissa
HC; Justice SK Mittal for Rajasthan HC; Acting
Chief Justice, Karnataka HC, SK Mukherjee to
be elevated as its chief justice; and Justice R
Subhash Reddy for Gujarat HC.
Is “Living Will” legal?
Euthanasia has been intensely
debated in India and the
Supreme Court, in a historic judg-
ment, has even allowed “passive
euthanasia” in the rarest of rare
circumstances.
The debate once again came up
in the highest court of the land.
While responding to a plea from the
NGO, Common Cause, the apex
court wanted to know from the
center if a person facing imminent
death be kept alive through life-sup-
port mechanism, if he had willed
against it earlier. It observed that
allowing such a person to stay alive
was not only enhancing his/her suf-
fering, but putting an unbearable
financial strain on the family.
The Court asked the center to
respond as to whether such “living
wills” could be made legal.
The center apprised the Court
that a bill on the issue was on the
anvil. It drew the attention of the
Court to the 241st report of the
Law Commission which proposed
passive euthanasia, but with limita-
tions. The bench dealing with the
issue posted the matter for
February 1.
Conservation of tigers is impor-
tant but it can’t come in the way
of widening highways which was
critical for the smooth movement of
traffic as well as overall economic
upliftment of the country.
The Supreme Court made this
observation while dealing with a
plea from an NGO against road-
widening work on NH-7. The stretch
passes through the Pench Tiger
Reserve in Madhya Pradesh. The
NGOs pleaded that free movement
of tigers would be affected in case
the road is widened.
The Nagpur Bench of the Bom-
bay High Court and the National
Green Tribunal had conflicting views
on making a stretch of the highway
four-laned, between Nagpur and
Jabalpur. While the High court
took suo motu notice of the need
to widen the road, the green court
objected to it.
The National Highways Authority
responsible for the road widening
was in a quandary. It could not
adhere to any one ruling. If it did, it
could attract contempt proceedings
from the other.
The apex court ruled that the
High Court’s order would prevail.
Roads more important
than tigers

COURTS
No charge against Kejriwal
Aplea for filing an FIR
against Delhi Chief
Minister Arvind Kejriwal was
turned down by a Delhi Court
recently. Advocate Ikrant
Sharma had approached the
court, complaining that
Kejriwal had egged on voters
to accept bribe from other
parties and cast their ballot in
favor of Aam Aadmi Party in
the 2015 Delhi polls. He urged
the metropolitan magistrate to
ask the police to initiate inves-
tigation against Kejriwal for
offering or accepting bribe.
However, the magistrate
found nothing against Kejriwal
to order an FIR. It observed
that Kejriwal himself had not
offered any allurement for
those who voted for AAP. He
also concluded that there was
nothing to prove that Kejriwal
had “instigated” the voters.
The complaint was dismissed.
The Kerala High Court questioned the
need for elephants taking part in
processions and other rituals connect-
ed to the Sabarimala Temple in the
state. It asked the Travancore
Devaswom Board (TDB) to discuss
with the priests of the temple whether
parading elephants was a must, and get
back within four weeks.
The Court took a grim view of the
report from Sabarimala Special
Commissioner that a 68-year-old
woman had been killed by an elephant
at Sabarimala.
Observing that the practice of
parading elephants in large numbers
by religious institutions needed to be
reconsidered, the Court also wanted
to know whether TDP had brought
the elephants properly for the temple
festival. It also sought the views of
the Animal Welfare Board of India
and the state forest department as
to whether parading elephants
amounted to cruelty.
The Court also observed that it
had passed several orders on proce-
dures to be followed while allowing
elephants to come close to the
crowds during temple festivals and
other occasions.
Elephant trouble
Karunanidhi appears in court
While registering former Tamil
Nadu chief minister
M Karunanidhi’s appearance in a
defamation case, the Principal
Sessions Court in Chennai posted
the matter for further hearing on
March 10.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister
Jayalalithaa had slapped a criminal
defamation case against Karunanidhi
for an article in the party organ
Murasoli that had demanded to
know what Jayalalithaa had
achieved, being in power for four
years. The court had asked the DMK
chief to appear in person on January
18, which he did. The editor, printer
and publisher of Murasoli were also
asked to be present.
Writing in the party organ, the
DMK supremo had alluded to, and
even quoted from an article in a
popular Tamil weekly, Ananda
Vikatan, that analyzed unfavorably
the performance of the Jayalalithaa
government.

— Compiled by Prabir Biswas; Illustrations: UdayShankar
Slamming the center for holding funds needed to
recruit more police personnel for Delhi, the Delhi
High Court also asked Delhi Police not to become a
stooge of the central government.
The Court was reacting to the fact that 14,000 per-
sonnel were yet to be inducted in the Delhi Police. The
High Court had been pushing the center since July
2013 for doing so. Lashing out at the center, the Court
observed that although Delhiites were paying taxes,
their safety was being compromised. It took objection
to the fact that the demand for 64,000 personnel had
been whittled down to 14,000, and even in that case
the finance ministry was blocking funds despite get-
ting the green signal from the
home ministry.
Pulling up the
Delhi Police, the
Court said that
instead of pursuing
its demand aggres-
sively with the cen-
ter, it was kowtow-
ing to it. It did not
buy the center’s
argument that
arranging the
required `450 crore
for recruitment
needed time.
NBWagainst
Dhonirecalled
Get cracking on
police force
In a significant judgment, the Gauhati High Court
ruled that promotions of SC/ST employees in Assam
government be done only after “a proper assessment
of the backwardness of the said communities with
regard to their representation in the particular promo-
tional cadre(s)” had been done.
The promotions could not be doled out merely
because such employees were in the SC/ST
category, a single bench observed.
The court was hearing a writ petition of Equality
Forum, Assam, a body of state government employ-
ees from the general category. They had objected to
quota being used in promotions.
The order followed in spirit the Supreme Court
judgment of 2006 that states were not obliged to use
the quota criteria for promotions. In case the states
felt so, they must substantiate that there was a
bonafide need for applying the criteria.
Anon-bailable warrant (NBW)
issued by a local court in
Anantapur, Andhra Pradesh, against
cricketer Mahendra Singh Dhoni on
January 7 was recalled after the
court was convinced that “Dhoni in
person was never served by the
summons issued by the court”. A
legal team representing Dhoni had
moved the court seeking cancellation
of NBW.
The court also took into account
the plea of Dhoni’s counsel that the
cricketer had no idea that he had to
appear in court on January 7 and the
absence was purely unintentional.
The NBW was issued by the court
as Dhoni had failed to appear in a
case where he was accused by a
social activist of hurting religious
sentiments after he appeared as Lord
Vishnu holding a shoe in his hands
on the cover of Business Today
magazine in April 2013. The case will
be heard again on February 25.
No quota for promotions

LEAD/ Arunachal Pradesh/Constitutional Crisis
The BJP-led center’s move to impose President’s rule in Congress-led
Arunachal Pradesh may derail the upcoming Budget Session with the
opposition rallying behind the Congress
By Ramesh Menon
F
EW understand the compli-
cated politics of Arunachal
Pradesh. Fewer still care ab-
out what is happening there
though it is a strategic bor-
der state. It has seen num-
erous incursions by China,
which intermittently raises territorial claims
on the state.
Last week, Arunachal shot into the head-
lines when the Modi government clamped
President’s rule in the Congress-ruled state.
When the cabinet recommended President’s
DarkClouds
rule, President Pranab Mukherjee asked the
central government why it wanted it. The
government cited Governor JP Rajkhowa’s
report saying there was a breakdown of the
constitutional machinery in the state. Home
Minister Rajnath Singh apprised Mukherjee
saying that the political situation there had
deteriorated.
A Congress delegation led by Ghulam
Nabi Azad, the leader of the opposition in the
Rajya Sabha, also met the President to com-
plain about of how the BJP-led Modi govern-
ment was interfering with the federal struc-

ture and trying to dislodge a Congress-ruled
state. What really came as a surprise was that
the President’s consent was given on the Re-
public Day.
A five-judge constitution bench of the
Supreme Court headed by Justice JS Khehar
issued notices to the central government and
the governor asking why President’s rule had
been imposed. When attorney-general Mu-
kul Rohatgi appearing for the government
opposed it saying that confidential informa-
tion on the law and order situation cannot be
disclosed and additional solicitor-general
Satpal Jain appearing for the governor said
that it must be kept secret, the Court said
that the report be placed in a sealed cover for
its perusal. The bench said it did not want to
pass an interim order without knowing the
grounds for proclamation. The dismissed CM
of the state Nabam Tuki told mediapersons
that there was absolutely no law and order
problem in his state.
Senior advocate Fali S Nariman appear-
ing for the state government said that impo-
sition of President’s rule was not called for
when the Supreme Court was already hear-
ing all the parties. “It is only when constitu-
tional governance becomes an impossibility
that proclamation under Article 356 is resor-
ted to,” he said.
STORMY SESSION
The President’s proclamation will
have to be approved by both Hou-
ses of parliament. The NDA gov-
ernment will have to tread careful-
ly. It desperately needs the support
of the Congress in the Rajya Sabha
to pass any legislation as it has only
67 MPs in the Upper House and
needs at least 163 others to pass
any constitutional amendment bill.
Azad said that the Congress would
raise the issue in the upcoming
Budget Session in February.
The Congress immediately mo-
ved the Apex Court challenging the
cabinet’s decision. In a memoran-
dum to the President, the Congress
said: “Imposition of President’s
Rule is disturbing…Perhaps the
government does not wish the
court to adjudicate upon the matter by pre-
senting it with a fait accompli of a proclama-
tion under Article 356. This is the first time
since independence that such a recommen-
dation has been made to impose President’s
Rule in the midst of a court hearing.”
At the time of going to press, a five-judge
bench of the Supreme Court asked the cen-
tral government to explain why it wanted
President’s rule in Arunachal Pradesh. It also
asked the counsel of the governor to submit
the report on the basis of which he had rec-
ommended President’s rule.
Once again, the Congress is on the
warpath and busy rallying the opposition to
attack the BJP government which it said was
out to destabilize states where it was not in
power. Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal
suspected that after Arunachal Pradesh, the
center would target his government.
Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi said:
“Imposing President’s rule in Arunachal is
Political ideologies are non-existent in
Arunachal Pradesh. MPs and MLAs change
parties at the drop of a hat depending on
which way the wind is blowing.
CRYING FOUL
Congress President
Sonia Gandhi
submitting a
memorandum to
President Pranab
Mukherjee
demanding removal
of Arunachal Pradesh
Governor JP
Rajkhowa
UNI

a blatant bid to topple a duly elected govern-
ment. The Congress will fight this attack on
our constitution, on our democracy, on the
people’s mandate.” Congress leader Kapil
Sibal released a transcript of a taped conver-
sation which he claimed was between leading
dissident leader Kalikho Pul, who was a for-
mer minister in Arunachal Pradesh, and a
businessman where he was heard asking him
for support to topple the government with
the help of the BJP and the RSS. D Raja of
the CPI said that the BJP had flouted all
norms of parliamentary democracy to topple
the state government and create conditions
for its entry.
NO IDEOLOGY
It is no secret that Arunachal Pradesh is a
state where political ideologies are non-exis-
tent. Politicians, MPs and MLAs change par-
ties at the drop of a hat numerous times
depending on which way the wind is blowing.
The state has the distinction of seeing hun-
dreds of MLAs change parties again and
again on flimsy grounds and seeing them
reap rewards such as ministerial berths, tick-
ets to contest elections or lucrative govern-
ment posts. Money has often changed hands
and horse-trading is seen as an essential part
of political strategy. The state has seen
numerous instances of serious political crisis
given its wavering political culture. This arti-
ficial constitutional crisis is just one of them.
Take a look at some of the instances. In
2003, the then chief minister Gegong Apang
of the Congress crossed over to the BJP with
his MLAs and helped form its government
overnight. No questions were asked about
political loyalties. Later, Apang and many
others who had joined the BJP rejoined the
Congress. In 2007, Dorjee Khandu toppled
Apang to become the chief minister. When
Khandu was killed in an air-crash in 2011,
dissident activity toppled his successor
Jarbom Gamlin and Nabam Tuki became the
chief minister.
In 2014, Tuki ran into trouble as there
were allegations by Congress MLAs that the
state was sinking due to fiscal mismanage-
ment and central funds were being diverted
to allegedly make dubious payments. Kalikho
Pul, who was the health and family welfare
minister at that time, was heading the dissi-
dence. He openly attacked the government at
a cabinet meeting and also at other forums.
To quell it, Tuki dropped him from the cabi-
net. He also dismissed four other ministers
as they were suspected to be a part of Pul’s
strategy to pull down the government so that
he could take over as CM.
Pul, who had 21 MLAs supporting him,
came with them to Delhi and camped here
since December 2014 hoping to meet Cong-
ress president Sonia Gandhi to demand a
change of leadership. But she never met
them. All that they could manage were meet-
ings with V Narayanswamy, a former minis-
ter, who is in charge of Arunachal. They cat-
egorically told him that if Tuki was not
replaced, they would leave the party.
Suddenly, dissidence against Tuki picked
up when the BJP government at the center
appointed Rajkhowa as governor. The dissi-
dents led by Pul told him that many payments
CURRYING
FAVOR?
The then CM of
Arunachal Pradesh
Nabam Tuki calling
on Prime Minister
Narendra Modi in
New Delhi
The NDA government will have to tread
carefully. It desperately needs the support
of the Congress in the Rajya Sabha to pass
any legislation as it has only 67 MPs.
UNI

under the public distribution system were
paid to Tuki’s associates without proper veri-
fication. The governor asked Tuki for clarifi-
cation but got no reply.
As the assembly was not being conveyed
for six months creating a constitutional im-
passe, the governor called for an assembly
session from December 16-18, 2015, when it
was slated to meet on January 14, 2016. Tuki
suspected that this was to stoke trouble using
Pul who was in contact with 11 BJP MLAs
and Congress dissidents and locked the
assembly building. The governor also speci-
fied that the first item on the agenda would be
a motion seeking the removal of the Speaker.
DISSIDENTS MEET
As they could not meet in the assembly build-
ing, the dissidents chose to meet at Pancha-
yat Bhavan, a makeshift venue in Nahar-
lagun, near Itanagar, on December 16. The
meeting triggered off a political crisis in the
60-member assembly when 21 of the 47
Congress MLAs along with 11 BJP MLAs and
two independent MLAs passed a resolution
removing Nabam Rabia, the speaker and also
passing a no-confidence motion against the
Tuki government. They appointed Pul as the
new leader. Tuki and his supporters did not
attend the meeting presided over by deputy
speaker, T Norbu. It was clear that Tuki did
not have a majority.
Avinash Mishra, who was a former princi-
pal advisor to Tuki, told India Legal that the
Congress realized that it had lost its majority
and that is why it was hesitant to convene an
assembly session fearing it would fail the flo-
or test in a no-confidence motion.
The story is simple: As there was dissi-
dence among the Congress MLAs, the oppo-
sition held hands with the rebels. The ruling
dispensation did not call a session fearing a
floor test. The governor stepped in and called
for a session. Then the Gauhati High Court
ruled that the governor was justified in
advancing the session if he had reason to
believe that the CM and the speaker were
stalling a particular motion.
The dissidents met at a session where
they removed the speaker and floated a no-
confidence motion against the chief minister.
The center moved in and recommended the
President to impose President’s rule.
Former chief justice of the Himachal
High Court Justice RB Mishra told India
Legal that the fact that Tuki did not convene
a session in the state assembly for six months
was itself a case for President’s rule. The onus
was now on the central government to prove
to the Supreme Court that it had sufficient
grounds to recommend President’s rule. “The
case involving SR Bommai whose govern-
ment in Karnataka was dismissed in 1989
clearly states that the presidential proclama-
tion can be judicially reviewed,” he said.
MISUSE OF ARTICLE 356
Article 356 which has been misused several
times by various governments, specifies that
if a governor feels that a government cannot
function in accordance with the Government
of India Act 1935, he could assume powers
necessary to discharge those functions.
Though former law minister BR Ambedkar
had in 1949 assured parliament that Article
356 would not be misused, it was not to be.
As regional parties grew in India, the con-
cept of federalism flowered and Article 356
was looked at with a dose of cynicism as it
INTERFERENCE
BY PROXY?
Dissidence against
CM Nabam Tuki
picked up when the
center appointed
JP Rajkhowa
(above) as the
Arunachal governor
Article 356 is one of the most misused
provisions in the constitution. The Supreme
Court ruled that a floor test would decide if
a CM had lost the confidence of the House.

could be used by a central government to
remove a state government run by a party it
was opposed to.
According to the Sarkaria Commission,
Article 356 was invoked 42 times between
1975 and 1987. This is enough proof to show
how the center uses the Article to dismiss
state governments for political reasons. For
example, in 1959, Jawaharlal Nehru recom-
mended President’s rule in Kerala, dismiss-
ing the EMS Namboodripad government. It
is said that Nehru was not convinced about
using Article 356 but Indira Gandhi pres-
sured him to give in.
On the other hand, when the center and
the state have the same party heading them,
this is not the case. In 2002, Atal Behari
Vajpayee was very upset with the communal
conflagration in BJP-led Gujarat but he did
not use Article 356 as his party would not
have approved of it.
During the Emergency, judicial review of
a Presidential order clamping Article 356
was shut out by the 38th Constitutional
Amendment. It added Clause
(5) to Article 356, stating:
“Notwithstanding anything in
the Constitution, the satisfac-
tion of the President men-
tioned in Clause (I) shall be
final and conclusive and shall
not be questioned on any
ground.”
But when the Janata gov-
ernment rode into power after
the Emergency, then Prime
Minister Morarji Desai
brought in the 44th Constitu-
tional Amendment Act in
1978 restoring Article 356, as
envisaged by Dr Ambedkar.
Several opposition leaders
in 1983 forced Prime Minister
Indira Gandhi to appoint a
commission headed by
Justice RS Sarkaria to go into
the center-state relationship.
After five years of delibera-
tions, the Sarkaria Commi-
ssion gave a series of steps to
strengthen federalism and
prevent the misuse of Article
356. But as the recommendations were not
given any statutory form, several state gov-
ernments were dismissed outright.
Article 356 is one of the most misused
provisions in the constitution. In 1994, the
Supreme Court categorically said that it is
only a floor test which would determine
whether a chief minister had lost or won the
confidence of the House.
As events will prove in the coming weeks,
this will be another PR disaster for the Modi
government as it will invite unnecessary
criticism which it can well do without. The
BJP calculation, according to reliable
sources, is to use the dissidents to form a
BJP government in Arunachal Pradesh
before the Assam assembly elections this
year and gain a foothold in the frontier
north-eastern state.
In all likelihood, the saffron party will
have one more state under its belt. With
Tuki not having the numbers anymore, it is
almost a foregone conclusion that he will not
survive this political crisis. IL
Though former law
minister BR
Ambedkar had in
1949 assured
parliament that
Article 356 would
not be misused,
it has been done
by governments.
Former chief justice
of Himachal High
Court RB Mishra
said the Bommai
(above) case in
Karnataka states
that the president’s
order can be legally
reviewed.
In 1959, Nehru
recommended
President’s rule in
Kerala, dismissing
the Namboodripad
government. It is
said that Indira
Gandhi pressured
him to give in.

SOCIETY/Higher Education/Dalit Angst
The death of Dalit PhD student, Rohith
Vemula, has shown how the HRD
ministry under the stewardship of
Smriti Irani has interfered in minor
student politics, leading to an inferno
of anger and his death
By Ajith Pillai
Anatomyof
aSuicide
CASTE DISCRIMINATION
Students of Hyderabad Central
University sitting on dharna at the
campus in protest against the
death of Rohith Vemula
I
T is said that a burnt child dreads
the fire. But this does not seem to
hold true for the HRD ministry
under the stewardship of Smriti
Irani. This alone explains why two
incidents of eerie similarity involv-
ing Dalit students were precipitat-
ed by the ministry within a matter of three
months. Under the circumstances, one can
only conclude that either collective memory
was too short-lived or HRD officials and their
bosses didn’t think history would repeat itself.
If they only had sufficient hindsight and fore-
sight, they could have spared themselves crit-
icism and embarrassment a second time.
MAY 2015
The Ambedkar Periyar Study Circle (APSC), a
student’s group in IIT-Madras was banned or
“derecognized” for holding discussions on the
Sangh Parivar’s ghar wapsi drive, labor
reforms, the land acquisitions bill and beef
ban. By doing so, the Circle was allegedly
indulging in anti-government and anti-Modi
activities, according to an anonymous com-
Photos: UNI

plaint (reportedly sent by an ABVP sympa-
thizer) to the HRD ministry on April 19.
A month later on May 21, an undersecre-
tary in the ministry wrote a note to the IIT
director asking him to respond with com-
ments on the unsigned complaint. Within 24
hours, the institute’s management acted. The
APSC was derecognized, leading to nation-
wide protests. Ambedkar Periyar Circles were
formed overnight in several IITs across the
country. However, in a matter of 17 days, a U-
turn was affected to cool tempers—the ban on
the APSC was formally revoked on June 7.
On August 10, 2015, a letter dashed off by
Nandanam Diwakar, the vice-president of the
BJP in Hyderabad to BJP MP and Union mi-
nister of state for labor, Bandaru Dattatreya,
set off another chain of unfortunate incidents
at Hyderabad Central University (HCU).
Diwakar’s letter related to an alleged
attack six days back on local ABVP president
Susheel Kumar by Rohith Vemula, a PhD stu-
dent of life sciences and four others of the
Ambedkar Student’s Association (ASA) of
HCU. Dattatreya was requested to urge the
government to ensure that the university did
not encourage “anti-national activities.”
The case against ASA was that it held a
prayer meeting in the campus on the day the
Mumbai blasts case convict, Yakub Memon,
was executed and that when the ABVP
protested this, its president, Susheel Kumar,
was allegedly assaulted in his hostel room by
ASA activists.
HRD INTERFERENCE
Dattatreya did the “needful” required of him.
He wrote to Smriti Irani on August 17. His let-
ter was subsequently forwarded in an email
sent by Ramji Pandey, undersecretary in the
ministry, to the registrar of the university on
September 3, seeking comments.
It was followed up on October 6 by a note
signed by Subodh Kumar Ghildiyal, deputy
secretary, to the V-C of HCU urging a speedy
response to the earlier communication.
Four more reminders were sent by the
ministry to the VC, including one signed by
the joint secretary.
The five Dalit students, including Rohith
Vemula, were suspended, although the initial
enquiry did not indicate any injury caused to
Susheel Kumar as alleged by him in a police
complaint. This suspension was upheld in the
last week of December by a newly constituted
sub-committee of the executive council and
confirmed on January 3. Although the stu-
dents were now allowed to continue their
studies, they were barred entry into the hostel
and other public spaces. This, the ASA and
other organizations alleged, amounted to
social boycott.
The confirmation of the suspension was
also seen by Vemula as a signal that he may
not receive his monthly `25,000 stipend
which was not being released by the universi-
ty since last July. The distraught student
hanged himself on January 17, a day before
the students were to go to the High Court to
contest the suspensions.
The suspension and the blocking of his
stipend were the immediate triggers, altho-
ugh his death, as Dalit activist Kancha Illaiah
put it, also reflected a deeper sense of alien-
ation and marginalization. “The rustication
and stopping his fellowship only drove the
final nail in. It was the culmination of dis-
crimination that students like him face
What happened in Hyderabad was similar,
although more intense, to that in IIT-Madras. But
the cause was the same—interference in student
politics by the HRD ministry.
RIGHT TO DISSENT
Activists of BSP
staging a dharna
near IIT-Madras to
condemn the
derecognising of the
Ambedkar-Periyar
Study Circle

every day.” Crucially, within four days of
Vemula’s death, the suspension and restric-
tions on the other four students was formally
revoked by the university.
What transpired in the HCU was similar,
although more intense, to what happened in
IIT-Madras. But the precipitating cause was
the same—interference in student politics by
the HRD ministry. The only difference was
that this one ended tragically in death.
Ever since Vemula’s suicide hit national
headlines, the Modi government has been in a
bind. The tragedy struck at the most inappro-
priate time. The BJP-led government had
only recently tided over the intolerance de-
bate that followed the Dadri beef killing case.
It had also gone out of its way to celebrate
Constitution Day by a calling a special session
of parliament ahead of the Winter Session to
celebrate the legacy of BR Ambedkar, one of
the principal architects of the constitution.
COURSE CORRECTION
It was seen by many as an effort by the BJP to
reach out to the Dalit community ahead of
assembly polls in several states in 2016-2017,
as well as identify the party with India’s free-
dom movement. Vemula’s death also came
shortly before Narendra Modi’s UP visit on
January 22. At his constituency in Varanasi
and in Lucknow he had to face the wrath of
Dalits protesting the suicide in Hyderabad.
At the BR Ambedkar University convocation
in Lucknow, it was an emotional prime min-
ister who spoke: “I am proud that India is a
nation of the youth, its dreams and resolve
are young. But at the same time we get the
news that a young son of this country,
MOTIVATED
ACTION
(Clockwise from
above) Union HRD
minister Smriti Irani,
ABVP president
Susheel Kumar
and Union minister
of state for labor,
Bandaru Dattatreya
SOCIETY/ Higher Education/Dalit Angst
The HRD ministry chose to interfere and sent
repeated reminders to the Hyderabad university to
act. It clearly did so because the complaint was
made by a minister on behalf of the ABVP.

Rohith, was compelled to commit suicide.
What must have his family gone through.
Mother India lost a dear son. Reasons and
politics aside, the truth is that a mother has
lost a son. I can very well feel the agony.”
The speech did not go down well in many
quarters. Apoorvanand, a Delhi University
professor, in a signed article had this to say:
“It is difficult not to see the deception in ‘ele-
vating’ the status of Rohith by calling him the
son of Maa Bharati. An erasure is being put
on his identity which was the essential cause
of his death. He died because of his dalitness
and this needs to be said again and again
even if it disturbs our universalist, nationalist
human sensibility, just as Mohammed Akh-
laq was killed because of his Muslimness. It
is empty rhetoric to say that we should grieve
for them because they were ‘Indians and
Since 2007, 23 Dalit students have
reportedly committed suicides in pre-
mier engineering and educational insti-
tutions like IITs, AIIMS (far right) and the
National Institute of Immunology.
It was in 2007 that a three-member
committee headed by Professor SK
Thorat (right), former chairman of the
University Grants Commission, was set
up by the central government to
“enquire into allegations of differential
treatment of SC/ST students in the All
India Institute of Medical Sciences
(AIIMS)”. The committee submitted
its report the same year. Here are
some of its findings based on inter-
views of students:
69 percent of SC/ST students reported
that they do not receive adequate sup-
port from teachers like other students;
72 percent mentioned discrimination
during teaching sessions.
About 76 percent of students com-
plained that their papers were not
examined properly. About 88 percent
mentioned that they got fewer marks
than they expected. Only 20 percent
said that they got feedback on their
answer papers.
84 percent said that evaluation in
practical and viva was unfair. 76 per-
cent reported that the examiner had
asked their caste. 84 percent men-
tioned that their grades were affected
because of their caste.
80 percent reported differential treat-
ment in distribution of instructions, in
informing schedule of examination or
rescheduling of classes, class trips and
cultural activities.
Several students belonging to SC/ST
categories shifted to the two top floors
of hostels 4 and 5 of AIIMS leading to
informal segregation. They were forced
to shift due to sustained pressure in the
form of humiliation, abuse and even
violence by higher caste students.
Students living in hostels where major-
ity students are from higher castes
complained of social isolation in inter-
personal relations. About 84 percent
reported violence in various forms.
The committee noted that discrimi-
nation is evident in a “subtle as well as
direct manner” and should be put an
end to. The Thorat Committee report
was rejected by AIIMS and has since
been forgotten. Perhaps, it needs a
relook after Rohith Vemula’s death.
Discriminationalltheway
human beings’ and not confine them in nar-
row identity frames.”
OPPOSITION CONDEMNS
The opposition was equally critical. Congress
spokesperson Randeep Surjewala was quick
to say to reporters at the party headquarters:
“We all respect the Prime Minister. We hu-
mbly want to say that shedding crocodile te-
ars will not return Rohith Vemula or do jus-
tice. The Prime Minister has poured cold wa-
ter on hopes of any concrete action by not
sacking (Smriti) Irani and Dattatreya.”
BSP leader Mayawati demanded action
against those responsible for the suicide: “The
attitude of the ministers against Dalit student
Rohith Vemula was grossly condemnable and
undemocratic. The party demands strict legal
action against two central ministers (Irani

and Dattatreya) and the VC (Appa Rao), who
forced Rohith to commit suicide.” Said Bihar
chief minister Nitish Kumar: “There is an
environment of political intolerance in the
country that resulted in the suicide by a Dalit
student. It is a matter of serious concern that
intolerance has increased in the country.” And
RJD leader Lalu Yadav said: “Humiliation,
mental torture and victimisation of a Dalit
student has again exposed the real character
of the BJP and the RSS in case of Dalits.”
The BJP has been highly critical of the
politicization of the issue and opposition
leaders like Congress vice-president Rahul
Gandhi rushing to Hyderabad. Union minis-
ter Venkaiah Naidu said it was “the Congress
engaging in cheap politics and the opposition
following a 4D policy of disruption, diver-
sion, delay and defamation.”
MINOR FLASHPOINT
But the truth of the matter lies elsewhere.
The entire scuffle between two student
groups could have been settled in the campus
and did not require the intervention of cen-
tral ministers.
Susheel Kumar, the ABVP president at
the centre of the fight has said in an inter-
view that it was a minor incident: “This was
just student politics. I have engaged in many
conversations with Rohith, though we al-
ways disagreed.”
And yet the HRD ministry chose to inter-
fere and sent repeated reminders to the uni-
versity to act. It clearly did so because the
complaint was made by a minister on behalf
of the ABVP, which like other Sangh organi-
zations, prides itself to be a privileged entity
whenever the BJP is in power.
One can only hope that incidents like the
death of Rohith Vemula are not repeated. If
not, many more Rohith Vemulas might be
forced to write to their VCs “to serve 10 mg
of sodium azide to all Dalit students during
admission and supply a nice rope to the
rooms of all Dalit students...” IL
SOCIETY/Higher Education/Dalit Angst
“The party
demands strict legal
action against two
central ministers
and the VC, who
forced Rohith to
commit suicide.”
BSP leader
Mayawati
“There is an
environment of
political intolerance
in the country that
resulted in the
suicide by a
Dalit student”
Bihar chief minister
Nitish Kumar
“Humiliation, mental
torture and
victimisation of a
Dalit student has
again exposed the
real character of the
BJP and the RSS.”
RJD leader
Lalu Yadav
“The Prime Minister
has poured cold
water on hopes of
any concrete action
by not sacking
(Smriti) Irani and
Dattatreya.”
Congress spokesman
Randeep Surjewala

NO
HOLDS
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January 15, 2016
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STORIES THAT COUNT
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G
UESS everyone has their own
selection of demons in the head.
Dark places and dark thoughts.
And, for sure, Rohith Vemula,
the student who committed sui-
cide in Hyderabad Central University, causing
a nationwide protest, had his share, little
goblins that caused havoc in his mind.
Specters of fear that supposedly pushed him
over the precipice.
So overwhelming was the anger in the pub-
lic that even Prime Minister Narendra Modi
had to state that India had lost one of its sons.
This clearly was to calm things down and tota-
lly eclipsed the wrong behind the act of the
young lad taking his life.
SuicideNota
Rohith Vemula’s suicide, the PM’s sharing of
grief and the university’s ex-gratia payment to his
family have been given an epic dimension by the
media and the public. It’s been packaged as an
act of honor and sends out the wrong message
By Bikram Vohra
SOCIETY/ Legality of Suicide/ Opinion

What is a matter of great concern is the
epic dimension given to the suicide card by
the media and the public. It has been pack-
aged as an act of honor and the message to
our youth is scary, hell, yes, it is scary. That if
all else fails and you want to get your way, go
ahead and kill yourself.
GIVING LEGITIMACY
This is a frightening aspect and needs to be
addressed frontally. We cannot give suicide
per se a clean chit and make it a viable option.
It is not a trump card. That approach sits
very uncomfortably and it is regretful that
legitimization has been given to death at one’s
own hands.
Forgotten in the maelstrom of outrage is
the fact that suicide is illegal. That the pain
and suffering caused to the family, to the boy’s
parents and his relatives, his friends will
never be mitigated. An act of suicide is dren-
ched in malice and there exists in the youth
some vague idea that by dying they will get
even. It is the ultimate selfish act.
Section 309 of the Indian Penal Code lays
down punishment for attempted suicide but
obviously nothing much can be done if the
effort is a success. The maximum punishment
is imprisonment for one year. A sub-clause in
the Section, however, demands 10 years of
incarceration for the abetment of a suicide.
That means that any encouragement to
any individual to take his life is open to char-
ge. Although India has been trying to decrim-
inalize suicide, this bill has not yet become
good in law. Interestingly, India’s lawmakers
and both Houses of parliament wish to inter-
pret the committing of suicide as an act by a
person who is mentally unstable at the time of
this task.
IT BELIES LOGIC
Vemula chose death
in the face of trying
circumstances
TrumpCardThe fact is that
suicide is illegal.
An act of suicide
is drenched in
malice and there
exists in the
youth some
vague idea that
by dying they
will get even. It
is the ultimate
selfish act.

As such, Section 309 gets predicated to
the Mental Health Bill of 2013 under which
the individual is not a criminal but has a men-
tal condition for which the government must
then provide medical aid. Clearly, this would
mean a different sort of incarceration, albeit
in a mental asylum.
INCENTIVE FOR SUICIDE?
This is where it gets riveting. When the intim-
idated varsity offered `8 lakh ex-gratia to the
grieving family of Vemula, it established a
precedent that skates precariously close to
abetment. On record now
is an incentive to commit
suicide. Whichever way
you slice it, the law is duty
bound to interpret it as an
encouragement. In a na-
tion where even poor
marks in school can create
a sense of low self-esteem
enough to make a person
leap to one’s death, much
of the fear and guilt could
be assuaged by the
thought of a financial
package being handed
over to the next-of-kin.
In the case of Vemula,
he felt done in by the sys-
tem and the prejudice
shown to him because of
his caste. Whether that
was an afterthought to his rustication is still
not certain. In a few days after being expelled,
five students, including Vemula, camped in a
tent. The other four did not commit suicide or
contemplate it.
Let’s recap why they were expelled. They
had allegedly attacked an ABVP leader. Now,
if they did engage in an act of violence, what
difference, under law, does the caste of the
attackers make? While everyone is in agree-
ment that political parties should be prohibit-
ed from exploiting students, the cruel fact is
that these students did cause a provocation.
BOWING TO
PRESSURE
In the face of
nation-wide outrage
over Vemula’s suicide,
Prime Minister
Narendra Modi
condoled his death at
an event he attended at
BR Ambedkar
University, Lucknow
SOCIETY/ Legality of Suicide/ Opinion
The amended Scheduled Castes and the
Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities)
Amendment Act 2015 came into force on
January 26, 2016. Among the important
amendments are:
Offenses relating to voting: Compelling to
vote or not vote for a particular candidate will
be considered an offense.
Offenses in case of social disrespect:
(i) Garlanding SCs and STs with footwear
(ii) Compelling to do manual scavenging or
dispose/carry animal or human carcasses.
(iii) Abusing SCs/STs in public by caste name
(iv) Disrespecting any deceased SCs/STs person
held in high esteem or attempting to promote
feelings of ill-will against SCs/STs (iv) Threatening
or imposing economic and social boycott.
Offenses in case of sexual exploitation of SC
or ST woman: (i) Using acts, words or gestures
of a sexual nature against SC/ST woman.
(ii) Touching an SC/ST woman intentionally in a
sexual manner without her consent (iii) Practice
of dedicating an SC/ST woman as a devadasi
to a temple.
Offense in case of prevention from using
public properties: Preventing SCs/STs from
using common property resources, entering any
places of public worship that is open to the
public, and entering an education or health
institution.
Establishments of courts: Provision for the
establishment of an Exclusive Special Court and
Special Court at the district level to try offences
mentioned under this Act.
Effectiveandwider
UNI

Now, nobody bothered about their plight or
whether they were being railroaded until this
young man killed himself to either prove a
point, get the expulsions removed (which they
consequently have been) or because he was
simply mentally unstable.
MISPLACED INDIGNATION
The rage is plastic and smacks of oppor-
tunism. Screaming students who now dip
their napkins in his blood were totally unre-
sponsive when the boy was in the tent, so let’s
not seek virtue where none exists. Misplaced
indignation has a certain stench about it.
Back then to the legal basis of the govern-
ment’s move to sanction the grant. It does set
a legal precedent. Children who lose out on
examinations can now expect Mummy and
Daddy to be compensated. Farmers whose
crops fail can expect an official benediction.
Victims of acts of “shame” or sagas in the sav-
ing of male honor can hope that someone will
at least give their lives a financial worthiness.
Those whose “mental” stability is temporarily
shifted into insanity on grounds of deep debt,
unrequited love, bullying or harassment, sex-
ual exploitation, all of them are now eligible
Look, it is a hard world out there. This
world does not owe us anything, not even a
living. There are hundreds of thousands of
people with huge problems. Massive hassles.
Exploited, victims of injustice, derailed, beat-
en by the caprice of fate, paying the price for
being in the wrong place at the wrong time,
cheated, made into scapegoats, sick, physi-
cally challenged, grief-stricken, suffering a
wide swathe of prejudice, not for a few weeks,
but for years and they persevere. They do not
kill themselves. The other four students did
not choose to die. They fight on. Give them
some credit. We have almost made them feel
they are losers for wanting to live on.
Which one of us is not faced with moun-
tains that seem insurmountable? Yet, which
one of us would be proud if a loved one com-
mitted suicide? Would we understand it,
would we feel a surge of achievement and nod
wisely and say, we understand? I doubt that
very much.
Nor is it an act of courage. You are not sav-
ing someone from a burning building. Nor
being a martyr to your flag and country. There
is nothing heroic about this. It is a sad and
total waste of life. There is no virtue in this
death, nothing to romanticize. It is a regular
and integral part of college life. The classic
victim of prejudice and apathy. No redeeming
feature except that one human being was
hounded into ending his life or concluded this
was the only way he would get attention.
Section 309 of
the IPC lays down
punishment for
attempted
suicide. The
maximum
punishment is
imprisonment for
one year. A
sub-clause in the
Section, however,
demands 10
years of
incarceration for
the abetment of a
suicide
IL
Some 30 years ago, he walked into
my office in The Indian Express. In
his eighties but ramrod straight, his
snow-white beard still thick and luxuri-
ant. He said he had five children and
was tired of being parceled from one
to another. A former government offi-
cer, he said he had had a good life, a
full life and now all passion was spent
and all he wanted was to shuffle off
the mortal coil with grace and dignity.
He asked us if the newspaper
could help him get permission from
the courts to die without doing some-
thing illegal. “I cannot do it without
that permission, he said, for it would
be illegal and I have no intentions of
breaking the law. All I want to do is
call it a day without becoming a bur-
den on my grown-up and married chil-
dren. I see them breaking the year
down into increments for keeping
Dad,” he says quietly, with little emo-
tion. “And I do not wish to be a suit-
case after a rather successful life, so
will you help me?”
A bit stunned, we did take up his
case but there was no provision in law
for granting him his desire and he was
so cogent that the question of mental
instability in those days did not even
arise. He died of old age some years
later, having been parceled around
from one child to another.
Permissiontodie

STATES/ West Bengal/ Terror Links
O
N January 3, 2016, violence
and rioting began in Kaliachak
area of Malda district in the
state of West Bengal. It was
described as a communal flare-
up. Thousands of Muslim youth attended a
rally called by two Muslim organizations, Ida-
ra-e-Shariya and Anjuman Ahle Sunnatul Ja-
mat, to protest a speech by Akhil Bharat Hin-
du Mahasabha leader Kamlesh Tiwari on Dec-
ember 3, 2015, where he allegedly insulted the
Prophet Muhammad.
As it passed, the police stopped the rally,
and it soon turned violent and rioting broke
out. The Kaliachak police station was vandal-
ized, private cars, police and BSF vehicles and
North Bengal State Transport Corporation
buses were set on fire. A huge amount of
property was damaged, train services were
disrupted and 30 policemen were injured.
NATIONAL SECURITY
However, according to sources, there was
more to the rioting than just the speech. And
the reason is a threat to national security.
Interestingly, no Hindu property was vandal-
ized. According to an expert, it was an out-
burst against the police, cloaked in the garb
What was seen as a communal flare-up in this West Bengal district may
be more terrifying with reports that the police here are hand-in-glove with
drug cartels linked to sleeper terror cells
By Sujit Bhar in Kolkata
Malda’sDangerousLiaisons
COMMUNAL COLOR?
The violence in Kaliachak
was an outburst by the
mafia against the police
Photos: Youtube

of communal passions, engineered by inter-
ested parties to protect their poppy cultiva-
tion and drug money flow and linked to
sleeper terror cells throughout the length of
West Bengal’s border with Bangladesh. And
in a shocking statement, a senior official of a
paramilitary force in West Bengal told India
Legal: “In 10-15 years, this area will become
another Kashmir if concerted efforts are not
taken to stem this nexus.”
The role of the police in the current situa-
tion is also suspect. If a Hindu-Muslim riot
was brewing, why did the police have no
inkling about it? And if it did, what did the
police do to pre-empt it in an area as sensi-
tive as Malda?
Malda, in fact, has a long history of com-
munal riots. The 2011 Census shows that the
Muslim population in the district is higher
than that of any other religious community.
Riots have been recorded in Deganga (in
Malda) in 2010 and Canning in 2013.
So what actually happened this time? A
security analyst based in the area, who spoke
on condition of anonymity, said: “The police
had possibly accompanied some excise offi-
cials and destroyed some of the poppy
crop. This was a no-no as per an unwrit-
ten agreement between the law keepers
and the poppy growing mafioso. The
mafia, therefore, wanted to teach the
police a lesson and Tiwari’s stupid
speech came in handy.”
DRUGS CARTEL
Had this been the only itch, matters
would have subsided quickly and nor-
malcy restored. However, in many
areas, BSF personnel and policemen are
hand-in-glove with the drugs cartel and
they are being provided tacit protection
by the ruling Trinamool Congress. “The
Trinamool is primarily responsible for
this,” asserted the expert.
However, one should not forget that
poppy cultivation was prevalent even
during the time of the Congress and the
Left Front. But the expert said “the situ-
ation was hardly as bad”. In fact, the
similarity of this situation with
Afghanistan is stark. Poppy cultivation
there led to drugs, which flowed out of
the country and came back as hard currency
which was used to buy arms, ammunition
and food by the Taliban fighters.
This problem has seen cumulative growth
over the years, primarily because of political
interference in the functioning of the police
force. Political parties have always allowed
human trafficking through this border, pro-
vided identity papers to those crossing
The Malda
flare-up was
brought about
by interested
parties to
protect their
poppy farms
and drug
money flow.
It’s linked to
sleeper terror
cells all along
the length of
West Bengal’s
border with
Bangladesh.
Troublespots
Canning
Lalgola
Deganga
Nepal
Bangladesh
West Bengal
Kaliachak
ON A RAMPAGE
Several private and
government vehicles
were torched during
the clashes
India and Bangladesh have
a largely porous boundary
and in the last few years,
border districts of West
Bengal have been known
for their drug cartels and
terror cells

India Legal 15 February 2016

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India Legal 15 February 2016