INDIA LEGAL: Stories that count Edition: 20 February 2017

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I
Sasikala’s
AlbatrossAscorruptioncasesandsocial
and political opposition loom
overhead, her bid for power
faces a dark future
The New
World Disorder
Investigation:
Mounting Bank Frauds
Th
Wo

ERHAPS one of the most disturbing
essays I have read in recent months is
Pratap Bhanu Mehta’s “Big Brother Is
Winning”. Mehta, whom I often find
abstruse and prolix, argues this time
with verisimilitude and lucidity that there is rea-
son to fear that human liberty, the foundation
stone of the Republic bequeathed to us by our
founding fathers, has been steadily eroded in
India and there is no real institutional challenge
to this descent into illiberalism.
His is not a partisan argument against any
particular party or government but to our blind-
ness as a people to a steadily escalating wearing
down of our rights. One example he cites is the
Finance Bill’s amendment of Section 132 of the
Income Tax Act giving untrammelled search-
and-seizure (read midnight knock) powers to
taxmen answerable to no higher authority exc-
ept their own “reason to believe”.
The official reassurance—“the innocent have
nothing to fear”—he argues, is the patronising
ruse of authoritarianism, an excuse for exempt-
ing state action from scrutiny. Citizen abdication
to the state’s arbitrariness, he reminds us, is what
Orwell called “an act of self-hypnosis, a deliber-
ate drowning of consciousness by means of
rhythmic noise”.
True globalisation, it appears to me now, is
the creeping acceptance of authoritarianism—
Russia, Turkey, Syria, France, Brexiters, the
Netherlands, Trump’s America. Its most rabid
manifestations are alt-truth, fake news, assaults
on press freedom, the use of the state apparatus
to intimidate political opponents and reli-
gious persecution.
Is the world plunging into medieval,
pre-Enlightenment shadows? As Orwell
raged endlessly against the dying of the
light of liberalism, so too did men and women of
wisdom and compassion such as the 26th
American President Teddy Roosevelt, whose
words are as relevant today to Trump as they are
to any Indian prime minister.
Listen to him:
“The President is merely the most important
among a large number of public servants. He
should be supported or opposed exactly to the
degree which is warranted by his good conduct
or bad conduct, his efficiency or inefficiency in
rendering loyal, able, and disinterested service to
the Nation as a whole. Therefore it is absolutely
necessary that there should be full liberty to tell
the truth about his acts, and this means that it
is exactly necessary to blame him when he does
wrong as to praise him when he does right.
“Any other attitude in a citizen is both base
and servile. To announce that there must be no
criticism of the President, or that we are to stand
by the President, right or wrong, is not only
unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasona-
ble to the American public. Nothing but the
truth should be spoken about him or anyone else.
But it is even more important to tell the truth,
pleasant or unpleasant, about him than about
anyone else.”
I
n other words, you have the constitutional
duty of holding your maximum leader’s feet
to the fire. As Washington-based Jim
Thomas, a retired federal official of the US Nuc-
lear Regulatory Commission and civil service
leader put it:
“I understand that reporters are reluctant to
seriously challenge Trump in interviews for fear
that a negative reaction could freeze them out of
access. But can these folks set aside some of that
fear and launch a challenging follow-up. State-
ments that people are saying or numerous
reports have stated should generate a follow-up
demanding the source of the information. I am
sure Trump can find folks who claim that the
moon is made out of cheese, but it is ridiculous
that he continues the same crap he used during
the Birther movement for five years and no one
is demanding the source of the information.
This is not so much to embarrass the President
but to force him into a mode where he begins to
accept that the President of the United States
should not be promoting unfounded rumors as a
basis for policy decisions.”
And I love these latest lines from Adam
Gonik, one of my favourite New Yorker writers,
in an essay entitled: “Trump’s Radical Anti-
P
NEO-GLOBALISM
Inderjit Badhwar
Letter From The Editor
4 February 20, 2017

Americanism: As the President
rejects our foundational princi-
ples, all we can turn to is our
instinct for shared defiance."
He elaborates:
“Yet what perhaps no one
could have entirely predicted
was the special cocktail of
oafish incompetence and radi-
cal anti-Americanism that
President Trump’s Adminis-
tration has brought. This com-
bination has produced a new
note in our public life: chaotic
cruelty. The immigration crisis
may abate, but it has already
shown the power of govern-
ment to act arbitrarily overnight—sundering
families, upending long-set expectations, until
all those born as outsiders must imagine them-
selves here only on sufferance of a senior White
House counselor.”
And...
“American collective protests against Trump
are called, a little too romantically, ‘resistance,’
but there is no need, yet, for so militant a term.
Resistance rises from the street, but also from
within the system, as it should, with judicial
stays and State Department dissenters. Opposing
bad governments with loud speech, unashamed
argument, and public demonstration is not the
part that’s off the normal grid: it’s the pro-
American part, exactly what the Constitution
foresees and protects. Dissent is not courageous
or exceptional. It is normal—it’s Madisonian, it’s
Hamiltonian. It’s what we’re supposed to do.
“Democratic civilization has turned out to be
even more fragile than we imagined; the
resources of civil society have turned out to be
even deeper than we knew. The battle between
these two shaping forces—between the axman
assaulting the old growth and the still firm soil
and deep roots that support the tree of liberty—
will now shape the future of us all.”
The thoughts of one of 20th Century’s great-
est Jewish-American political thinkers, the late
Hannah Arendt, who analysed the “banality of
evil”, echo today with as equal intensity as they
did when she first wrote them down. She told an
interviewer that when she first wrote Eichmann
in Jerusalem, “one of my main intentions was to
destroy the legend of the greatness of evil, of the
demonic force, to take away from people the
admiration they have for the great evildoers like
Richard III.”
She drew inspiration from Brecht whom she
has often quoted while referring to the rise of
Nazism. This is one of them: “If the ruling class-
es permit a small crook to become a great crook,
he is not entitled to a privileged position in our
view of history. That is, the fact that he becomes
a great crook and that what he does has great
consequences does not add to his stature…One
may say that tragedy deals with the sufferings of
mankind in a less serious way than comedy.”
editor@indialegalonline.com
Themostrabidmanifestationsofglobalisationare
alt-truth,fakenews,assaultsonpressfreedom,theuseof
thestateapparatustointimidatepoliticalopponentsand
religiouspersecution.
| INDIA LEGAL | February 20, 2017 5
Anthony Lawrence

Contents
Damocles Sword over Chinnamma
Sasikala may be in a hurry to become Tamil Nadu CM but the top court’s verdict
in a DA case due to be delivered shortly may well derail her plans
16
LEAD
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6 February 20, 2017

Not a Fait Accompli
Ordinances need parliamentary approval before they receive legal
sanctity in a democracy
40
Abrupt Exit, Quiet Return
Suha Abushamma, a Sudanese citizen, was forced to leave the US after
Trump’s travel ban. She sued, and high-level discussions led to her return
38
Cleaning up the Bar
Riddled as it is with several obstacles, the BCI’s exercise to
spot unregistered and fake advocates has not shown results
SPOTLIGHT
Fallout of Digitalisation
Post-demonetisation, online frauds are surfacing and police
stations getting complaints of people losing their life savings
20
INVESTIGATION
24
REGULARS
FollowusonFacebook.com/indialegalmedia
andTwitter.com/indialegalmedia
Ringside............................8
Dilli Durbar........................9
Courts.............................10
Briefs...............................14
Media Watch ..................49
Satire ..............................50
Cover Illustration & Design:
ANTHONY LAWRENCE
Cover Picture:
GETTY IMAGES
Shaken and Stirred
The maverick American president has
outraged the world, be it on trade
treaties, climate change policies,
nuclear deals or moves on IT
companies. Can such protectionism
help the US?
36
GLOBALTRENDS
Saving the Sukhna
A PIL has challenged the Chandigarh Administration’s move
to pump groundwater into the Lake to combat heavy siltation
ENVIRONMENT
26
Pick Your Poison
The Law Commission has advised stringent punishment for
adulterators and sent these to the apex court for consideration
HEALTH
28
One Bite Too Many
In a landmark ruling, the consumer forum has held a malaria
death to be an accident and asked the insurer to pay up
CONSUMER
30
Judicial Appointments
In a major move forward, the Supreme Court collegium has
named nine judges to take over as High Court chief justices
PROFILES
32
Divorce from the EU
The House of Commons has passed the European Union Withdrawal Bill which
lets the British government invoke Article 50 and trigger the process of Brexit
42
INTERNATIONAL
Gavels from
the Past
With its beautiful photographs and
illustrations, Courts of India—Past to
Present is a treat for collectors, book
lovers and history buffs
46
BOOKS
Creative Licence vs Propriety
A panel discussion debates if there are limits to artistic freedom as Jolly LLB 2
and Padmavati, two recent Bollywood films, kick up a controversy
35
ART&ENTERTAINMENT
MYSPACE

“
RINGSIDE
“We’ve got a lot of killers.
What do you think? Our
country’s so innocent?”
—US President Donald
Trump, on his respect for
the authoritarian regime
of Vladimir Putin in
Russia, on Fox News
“The earthquake finally took place.
When somebody sees service and humility even
in scams, then not only the mother but even
Mother Earth gets upset, and an
earthquake happens.”
—Prime Minister Narendra Modi, attacking
the Congress in parliament
“Taking my bike out
and riding the bike path
along Lake Shore Drive,
that’s one of the great
experiences in my life….
It’s great to be back.”
—Raghuram Rajan,
currently Katherine
Dusak Miller
Distinguished Service
Professor of Finance at
the University of Chicago
Booth School of Business,
speaking to its media
team
“He says he was forced.
But he was the man who
pronounced my name as
the legislature party
leader and had been sit-
ting next to me and
speaking to me. So, if he
has come out and lied
after 48 hours, what had
happened in the
meantime?”
—AIADMK general secre-
tary VK Sasikala, reacting
to O Panneerselvam’s
charge that he was forced
to resign as CM, in The
Times of India
“It’s not about what can
they do, it’s about if
they have the desire. I
don’t know if they have
the desire. Everyone
has come up in India
by training by them-
selves and not through
a system. Which is why
we’ve had just one good
player every 10 years.”
—Tennis player Yuki
Bhambri, criticising the
All India Tennis
Association, in The
Indian Express
“O Panneerselvam is
competent enough to
lead TN and Sasikala’s
proximity to Amma is
no reason for her to
become the CM.”
—Actor Kamal Haasan,
on the power tussle in
Tamil Nadu, in Mail
Today
“I’d rather speak less
because I don’t con-
sider myself a very
intelligent person….
It’s all so grey, how
can you say what’s
right or wrong? You
stand up for one thing
and there will be
someone who’s an
opponent of that.”
—Pakistani actor
Fawad Khan, on trolls,
in Scroll.in
8 February 20, 2017

Delhi
DurbarAn inside track on
happenings in Lutyen’s Delhi
The battle between Ratan Tata
and Cyrus Mistry will go down
in corporate history for the bit-
terness it unleashed in full pub-
lic view. But for legal eagles, the
tussle has come as a veritable
bonanza. The number of lumi-
naries representing both sides
in court is truly staggering. And,
if rumours doing the rounds of
the Supreme Court bar are to
be believed, they must be
laughing all the way to the bank
in these “cashless” times. Team
Ratan’s line up: Raian
Karanjawala & Co, Cyril Shroff,
Harish Salve, Kapil Sibal,
Mohan Parasaran, Abhishek
Manu Singhvi, Rajiv Nayar,
Siddharta Luthra, Amit Sibal,
Amit Desai, P Chidambaram,
Aspi Chinoy, Shuva Mandal and
Zulfiqar Memon. Not to be out-
done, Cyrus Mistry also has an
impressive line-up: Apurva
Diwanji, M Chagla, Janak
Dwarkadas, Somashekar
Sundaresan, Sharan Jagtiani,
Aryama Sundaram, Shyam
Diwan and Navroz Seervai.
That, you may say is a who’s
who of top lawyers.
BATTLE ROYALE
BJP’S ANTI-ROMEO SQUAD!
SECURITY ALLOCATION
It is no secret that National
Security Advisor, Ajit Doval
wields considerable influ-
ence in the Narendra Modi
dispensation. But despite
that, bureaucratic circles are
surprised at how he man-
aged to corner a handsome
budgetary allocation for the
National Security Council
(NSC) that comes under his
command. The Council’s
budget soared from `44.6
crore last year to `333 crore
this fiscal. According to
sources, this quantum leap
was uncalled for when the
NSC failed to spend the
funds allotted to it in 2015-
16. Undoubtedly, national
security is top priority for the
government and the NSC
has plans to expand its
activities as well as rope in
experts from across the
world to sharpen India’s
intelligence apparatus. But
many find the eight-fold
increase in allocation rather
peculiar at a time when the
economy is yet to recover
from the after-shocks of
demonetisation.
It is not in keeping with
the BJP’s style of func-
tioning these days to
openly question the wis-
dom of its top leadership.
But there is some disqui-
et brewing at the party
headquarters in Delhi
over the BJP manifesto
for UP released in the
last week of January. A
section of BJP leaders
find the party’s promise
of setting up “anti-Romeo
squads” in colleges
offensive and with obvi-
ous communal over-
tones. What’s worse, the
details of the plan were
articulated by none other
than party president Amit
Shah at a public meeting.
He later defended setting
up of the anti-Romeo
squads by saying that
these would protect girls
belonging to all commu-
nities and there was
nothing communal in the
proposal. But BJP nation-
al convenor Sunit Barnala
let the cat out of the bag
when he revealed to the
media that the squads
would take action
against Muslim love
jihadis. “They target
innocent girls and
lure them,” he said.
Many BJP insiders
feel that the anti-
Romeo squads
should not have
been included in the
party manifesto as it
was no election
plank.
— Illustrations: UdayShankar

The centre was pulled up by the
apex court for not being pro-
active in banning fuels like fur-
nace oil and pet coke in the Nat-
ional Capital Region. The fuels are
responsible for causing pollution
extensively. The Court found that
the centre was yet to decide on
the issue.
On a stringent note, the Court
asked the centre to take all the
concerned state governments—
like Delhi, UP, Rajasthan and Har-
yana—on board, and evolve a
foolproof and effective plan
immediately.
The Environment Pollution
Control and Prevention Authority
(EPCA), the Central Pollution
Control Board and the environ-
ment ministry, were also asked to
pitch in and hammer out a plan
which is feasible and effective.
The EPCA had earlier sought a
complete ban on such fuels in
Court. Based on a probe, it had
claimed that furnace oils were
still being used by several indus-
tries in Delhi NCR. The amicus
curiae appointed by the Court in
the matter had also pointed out
that the quantity of sulphur in fur-
nace oil and pet coke was signifi-
cant enough to increase pollution.
Ban polluting
fuels in NCR
Courts
Video
recording
of cases
soon
The apex court stood by its
earlier verdict that the Tamil
Nadu government could not
release the convicts in the Rajiv
Gandhi assassination case with-
out the centre’s approval. The
state government had appealed
against the apex court’s verdict
of 2015 and wanted the Court
to have a re-look. The plea was
straightaway dismissed.
A constitutional bench of the
apex court had ruled earlier that state
governments did not have any suo
motu powers to remit sentences of
convicts if the concerned cases had
been probed by the CBI or any other
investigative agency controlled by the
centre and they had been held guilty
under IPC. The onus for doing so lay
with the central government only, the
bench had ruled.
Tamil Nadu’s
plea dismissed
In a clear departure from the norm,
court proceedings could be video
recorded soon as the apex court gave
its assent on the matter. To begin with, it
asked that CCTV cameras be installed in
a district court in every state. In the
past, a clutch of PILs had been filed in
the top court requesting that CCTV
cameras be put up inside courts, but it
did not agree.
The district court in Gurugram has
CCTVs on an experimental basis. How-
ever, much would depend on the report
submitted by a two-member lawyer
team appointed by the Court. The team
was asked to visit the Gurugram district
court and study how the CCTV cameras
would function and if the direction of the
Court was indeed feasible. The Court
also directed the Gurugram district
judge to lend full support to the team so
that it did not face any problem.The
team will submit its report within four
weeks, as per Court orders.
The centre, as well as the Law
Commission, had recommended to the
apex court earlier that video recording of
court proceedings should take place.
The Court will hear the matter again
on March 21.
10 February 20, 2017

In yet another rare case, the Supreme
Court gave the go-ahead to a woman
to abort her 23-week fetus showing
severe abnormalities. The Court arrived
at the decision after the medical board
(set up by the Court itself) supported the
plea of the 22-year-old pregnant woman
from Mumbai that the fetus would not
survive and if allowed to stay could kill
her. The medical board was set up by
King Edward Hospital in Mumbai as per
the Court’s directions.
As per law, no abortion can take
place if the fetus is more than 20-
year-old.
Womanallowedto
abortfetus
Amicus curiae Raju Ramachandran’s
plea that there were “procedural
errors” in the trial court verdict in the
Nirbhaya case was accepted by the apex
court. He pointed out that Section 235 of
CrPC was not followed truely while
awarding death penalty to the accused.
The SC asked the death row convicts to
state the issues raised in an affidavit
within three weeks.
Nirbhayaconvictstofile
freshaffidavits
Turning down a plea against
the re-promulgation of the
Enemy Property Ordinance for the
fifth time, the SC pointed out that
the properties left in India by
those who migrated to other
countries should be transferred to
the central government only, and
not to their descendants staying
in India. However, it ruled that
the petitioner Husain Dalwai, a
Congress MP in the Rajya
Sabha, could take his objection
in parliament.
The Enemy Property
(Amend-ment and Validation)
Ordinance, 2016, has been re-
promulgated by the President
several times, and the bill,
cleared by the Lok Sabha but
stuck in the Rajya Sabha, will
drastically amend the Enemy
Property Act 1968 if and when it
is finally passed.
The petitioner had referred to
an earlier verdict of the apex
court wherein a Constitution
Bench had categorically ruled that
re-promulgation of ordinances
was unacceptable as it showed
an effort to “overreach the leg-
islative body” which is primarily
responsible for making laws in
the country.
Nothing wrong in
Enemy Property
Ordinance
The apex court refused to issue
an order that no jokes should
be cracked on the Sikh communi-
ty, saying it was not proper for
the judiciary to frame or set rules
on how citizens should behave
agai-nst a particular community.
It also observed that the
Fundamental Duties enshrined in
the Constitution clearly said that
no community should be made
fun of.
The matter had come up in
the Supreme Court in October
2015 when the Court felt that a
PIL should be taken up. The
petitioner, advocate Harvinder
Chowdhury, had alleged that the
Sikhs had been subjected to
racial abuse and their religious
sentiments were offended as a
result of such jokes.
The matter will again be
taken up on March 27, when
the Court will issue a
formal order.
Can’t issue an
order on Sardar
jokes

Upholding the highest standards of
jurisprudence, the Supreme Court
created history in independent India by
issuing a contempt notice to a sitting judge
of a high court. A seven-member bench,
consisting of senior-most judges of the
apex court, issued a show-cause notice to
Justice CS Karnan, the sitting judge of the
Calcutta High Court.
The notice, returnable (in person) by
February 13, was a measured reaction
to Justice Karnan’s levelling unfounded
“corruption” charges against 20 former
Supreme Court judges and judges of other
high courts. These charges were levelled in
a recent letter written by the judge to Prime
Minister Narendra Modi. He had appealed
to Modi to order an enquiry.
In a strong reaction, the bench of all
senior judges of the Supreme Court issued
strict orders. They are (Verbatim):
1. Issue notice to Shri Justice C.S. Karnan,
returnable on 13.02.2017.
2. The Registry is directed to ensure, that a
copy of this order, and the letters taken
note of while issuing notice, are furnished
to Shri Justice C.S. Karnan, during the
course of the day, through the Registrar
General of the Calcutta High Court.
3. Shri Justice C.S. Karnan, shall forthwith
refrain from handling any judicial or admin-
istrative work, as may have been assigned
to him, in furtherance of the office held by
him. He is also directed to return, all judi-
cial and administrative files in his posses-
sion, to the Registrar General of the High
Court immediately.
4. Shri Justice C.S. Karnan shall remain
present in Court in person, on the next date
of hearing, to show cause.
5. The learned Attorney General has ass-
isted us during the 2 course of hearing,
today. We request him to assist us, dur-
ing the course of further proceedings in
the matter.
Earlier instances
Justice Karnan has courted controversy
earlier too. Keeping this in mind, Attorney
General Mukul Rohatgi appealed to the
Court to set an example with firm action
against Justice Karnan. When he was a
judge at Madras High Court, Justice
Karnan had stayed his own transfer as
ordered by the Supreme Court collegium
(to the Calcutta High Court). He was let off
when he apologised to the Supreme Court.
Here are some more cases for which
Justice Karnan might find himself in the
dock:
a) Twelve Madras High Court files
remained with Karnan.
b) The judge did not vacate his official
residence in Chennai (on transfer).
c) In June 2013, he ruled that if a cou-
ple of legal age indulged in sexual gratifica-
tion, it would be considered as a legal mar-
riage. In the resulting uproar, he ordered a
gag on any adverse comment.
d) He complained to the National
Commission for Scheduled Castes, saying
he was abused by a fellow judge in 2011
because he was a Dalit.
The Indian judicial system has once
again proved that the course of justice
does not stop at anybody, even if he is a
part of the system. Justice V Ramaswami
of the Supreme Court was the first judge
against whom impeachment proceedings
were initiated (but which failed). Only one
judge, Soumitra Sen of the Calcutta High
Court, has been impeached (2011), while
Chief Justice Dinakaran of Sikkim High
Court resigned when impeachment pro-
ceedings were initiated against him.
Sticking Point
Speaking at a special APN News show
Mudda on February 8, senior Supreme
Court advocate Pradeep Rai threw fresh
light on this issue. He said: “If he (Karnan)
denies having written the letter, the case
will be dismissed. In fact, while accusing
20 judges, including the previous Chief
Justice TS Thakur, of graft and impropriety
in his letter to the PM, the writer states in
the body of the missive that he does not
have any evidence to back his allegations.
So the doubt arises as to whether he
himself has written the letter.
“Even now (like in the previous case),
he can do two things: say sorry, and say
sorry and deny having written the letter. But
the question is, if such people become
judges, situations like this will arise
inevitably. How do we solve that problem?”
Rai wondered.
Justice RB Mishra (Retd), Former
Acting Chief Justice of Himachal Pradesh
High Court, said: “There is no precedent
for this… he could have notified the CJ of
his own HC about the matter in writing. I
think it is a case of criminal contempt of
court. If he resigns on his own under
Article 217, the contempt proceedings may
be dropped.”
—By Sujit Bhar
A seven-judge bench of the apex
court took the unprecedented step
after the Calcutta High Court judge
levelled “scurrilous” charges against
several sitting and retired judges
JusticeKarnan
slappedcontempt
noticebySC
Courts

The centre will have to cough up
`45,000 in total for not responding to
a PIL filed in the apex court. The petition
filed by Ankur Sharma had alleged that
money earmarked for minorities in
Jammu and Kashmir was being used by
the state government on Muslims, when
they were a majority in the state.
The petition had also urged the Court
to direct the state government to identify
the minority communities. The Court had
thereafter issued sought a response
from the centre.
When the counsel for the centre
sought more time (six weeks), an irate
court slapped a fine of `30,000. It, how-
ever, allowed the time sought by the
centre, which pleaded that the reply affi-
davit was being considered at the high-
est level in the government.
Earlier too, the centre was asked to
pay `15,000 by the Court for the delay.
Centre fined for not
responding to PIL
The centre was asked to come up with
an effective mechanism to check the
identity of more than 100 crore mobile
users in India. It was given a time-frame
of one year to do the job.
The centre assured the Court that the
identity details of mobile users would be
examined and new subscribers would go
through an e-KYC (Know Your Customer)
system attached to their Aadhaar cards.
The Court’s directive came while it
was hearing a petition from NGO Lokniti
Foundation. The NGO pleaded for abso-
lute verification of identity details of
mobile users through the Aadhaar
mechanism.
For the 90 percent of mobile sub-
scribers in India using pre-paid cards, the
Court had suggested that they be asked
to furnish all info on identity at the time
of recharge. But the centre expressed its
failure to do so.
The Court’s effort in this direction
was not new. It had earlier asked the
centre and Department of Telecom to
inform the court on what could be and
should be done to check the identity of
current and future mobile users.
Check identity of all
mobile users
The Supreme Court recently admitted a
PIL on leprosy in India. It took serious
cognizance of the fact that people contin-
ued to suffer from the dreaded disease
despite rapid advances in the field of
medicine.
The Court had earlier asked the centre
and the states for information on the
steps taken to eradicate leprosy in India
and reminded them as well as the con-
cerned authorities that it was their
solemn duty to see that the disease did
not spread.
The petitioner, advocate Pankaj Sinha,
pointed out that despite the country hav-
ing a Multi-Drug Therapy since 1981,
leprosy had reached epidemic propor-
tions in more than 100 districts.
PIL on leprosy
Taking note of the appeal
from Narmada Bachao
Andolan (NBA), the SC
ordered monetary compensa-
tion for the families affected
by the Sardar Sarovar dam
project. It asked the Gujarat
government to pay `60 lakh
to each of the 681 families
having two hectares of land in
MP. The Court asked the state
government to deposit the
money with the Grievances
Redress Authority that would
look into the issues of ous-
tees and distribute the
amount within two months.
NBA also pleaded that more
than 1,000 families had got
compensation but were
“cheated” by the authorities.
The Court ruled that each of
the families would get a maxi-
mum of `15 lakh but any
amount paid to them earlier
will be deducted from the `15
lakh amount.
Compensation
for dam victims
— Compiled by Prabir Biswas; Illustrations: UdayShankar

Briefs
The Karnataka high court has
ordered the winding up of the
parent company of the UB group,
United Breweries Holdings, for
recovering dues payable by the
UBHL-promoted defunct Kingfisher
airlines. A case had been filed against
UBHL by lenders to Kingfisher
Airlines seeking dues from the
defunct airline. “This court has come
to a conclusion that the respondent
company UBHL deserves to be
wound up for failure to discharge
their duties to pay up their creditors,”
Justice Vineet Kothari said in
his order.
The Delhi Legal Service Authority (DLSA)
is set to conduct training sessions for its
empanelled lawyers after reports on lack of
understanding of Muslim personal law and
rising number of cases involving its use came
to light. This is the first time that the authori-
ty is holding training sessions on Muslim per-
sonal law. In the previous sessions conducted
by DLSA, participants were sensitised on the
Muslim Women (Protection of Rights of
Divorce) Act, cases related to inheritance of
property by a woman, inter-religious mar-
riage, maintenance law and adoption.
The Insurance
Regulatory and
Development Authority
of India has asked SBI
Life Insurance to refund
policyholders the excess
commission the compa-
ny paid banks for selling
life covers to home buy-
ers. SBI Life was found
guilty of violating its rule
on paying commission
on single-premium poli-
cies by the IRDAI in
2012. IRDAI had said
that the insurance com-
pany had overpaid the
master policyholders
between November 2007
and August 2010 and as
against 2% commission
payable of single-premi-
um plans, the company
had paid 20%.
DLSA to train lawyers
on Muslim personal law
Goodbye Mistry
Ousted chairman of Tata Sons,
Cyrus Mistry, has been finally
removed as a director of the compa-
ny. The shareholders of the group
held an extraordinary general meet-
ing (EGM) where a majority of them
voted against Mistry. Being a direc-
tor of the com-
pany was the
only position
Mistry had
held on to in
the group after
his resignation
from the
boards of vari-
ous group entities. The sole agenda
of the EGM was Mistry’s removal as
director. Tata trusts and group com-
panies, which hold the controlling
stake as well as sections of the Tata
clan, voted in favour of the resolution
while Mistry used a proxy and voted
against the resolution.
Prasad wants Triple
Talaq banned
As Uttar Pradesh gears up for
elections, Union Law Minister
Ravi Shankar Prasad has spoken
about seeking a bar on triple talaq
after the polls. He cited Muslim
countries that
have amended
the Islamic law
to restrict triple
talaq while
delivering his
argument in
favour of a
similar provision in India. Prasad said
that 20 Islamic countries, including
Afghanistan and Pakistan, have
either regulated the practice or abol-
ished it. He also asked UP chief min-
ister Akhilesh Yadav, BSP chief
Mayawati and Congress vice-presi-
dent Rahul Gandhi to clear their
stand on the issue.
IRDAI asks SBI Life to
refund money to policyholders
WindupUBHL: KarnatakaHC

15| INDIA LEGAL | February 20, 2017
Alaw in Egypt, which researchers
claim was overturned back in 1928,
is still being used to jail opposition
activists and ordinary people for
protesting against President Abdel
Fattah al-Sisi. In the last three years
judges have often cited Law 10 of 1914,
also known as the Assembly Law, to
issue mass death sentences, mainly to
Islamists. The law criminalises the gath-
ering of five or more people and was
issued by the British authorities to stop
Egyptians from protesting against their
rule during World War I. Rights
activists are now trying to force Sisi to
throw it out.
Practicing an illegal law?
Tens of thousands of protesters in
Romania pressurised the govern-
ment to repeal a law that would have
eased penalties for official corruption.
Romania’s civil society erupted in anger
when an emergency ordinance was
passed by the govern-
ment decriminalising
abuse in office by offi-
cials if the amount
involved was less than
$48,500. Backed by
the influential
Romanian Orthodox
Church, the protest
lasted six days. People
waved Romanian
flags, blew horns and
carried giant puppets of politicians
dressed as convicts outside
government offices, while they yelled,
“You thieves!” and “Resign!” The
government now plans to introduce
another version of the law in
Parliament, where it would
be debated and possibly passed.
Acontroversial new law in Israel
could lead to the retroactive sanc-
tion of about 4,000 settler homes built
on privately-owned Palestinian land in
the occupied West Bank. The move is
expected to be challenged by the
Supreme Court. Palestinian leaders are
accusing Israel of legalising the theft of
Palestinian land, calling it “the Israeli
government’s will to destroy any
chances for a political solution.” Under
this law, the Palestinian land owners
are to be compensated for their land
regardless of whether they agreed to
give up their property. The far-right
Jewish Home party has paid tribute to
US President Donald Trump who has
signalled strong support for Israel.
—Compiled by Karan Kaushik and
Shailaja Paramathma
The Enforcement Directorate has
registered a money laundering
case to probe the alleged cheating of
Rs 3700 crore by a Noida based multi-
level marketing company, against
which the UP police has registered an
FIR. The company collected funds
from more than 6.5 lakh investors by
promising income from online promo-
tion schemes. The ED conducted a
probe which has led to the seizure of
documents, confirming that the
accused cheated their clients and
invested in assets at various places.
The company’s bank accounts having a
total balance of Rs 500 crore have
already been frozen
ED registers money
laundering case in Noida
Kerala Law Academy, a private law
college, has been indefinitely
closed. Reversing their decision to
resume classes from February 6, the
college management said police,
citing intelligence inputs, have
informed them about possible trouble
in view of students intensifying a
protest they began 28 days ago
demanding the ouster of principal
Lekshmi Nair. The students claim
Nair has flouted rules with respect
to allotment of internal marks
and attendance.
The management has, in a letter,
agreed to keep Nair away from the
post for five years. Nair, on her part,
has refused to quit.
Law college closes sine
die after students’ stir
Settlers become owners
Protests over graft law

Lead/ Sasikala/ Legal Cases
AMIL Nadu was plunged
into turmoil ever since VK
Sasikala, a close confi-
dante of late chief minis-
ter J Jayalalithaa, tried to
wrest power in the state.
After Jayalalithaa passed away on
December 5, finance minister O
Panneerselvam became the CM and
then, in a sudden development on
February 5, the AIADMK elected
Sasikala as its new legislative party
leader. Her name was proposed by none
other than Panneerselvam and seconded
by all the 134 MLAs. Later, he sent in
his resignation to Governor C Vidya
Sagar Rao, who promptly accepted it.
Things looked all set for Sasikala to
become CM when a stunning develop-
ment on February 7 shattered her
dreams. Panneerselvam suddenly went
to Jayalalithaa’s memorial on Marina
Beach and after a 40-minute medita-
Jayalalithaa came to power in 1991,
Sasikala became increasingly influential.
She too was made co-accused in a slew
of corruption cases filed against
Jayalalithaa after the latter lost power in
the 1996 May elections.
Sasikala’s tryst with corruption cases
started in 1996 itself. She was arrested
by the Enforcement Directorate in at
least four cases of FERA violations. She
spent 10 months in prison and was
released on bail only in April 1997. She
was also detained under the now
defunct COFEPOSA Act (Conservation
of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of
Smuggling Activities Act) for nearly
eight months.
In May 2015, a magistrate court in
Chennai discharged Sasikala from two
FERA cases but refused to do so in
other cases. The High Court directed
Sasikala to face trial in all three FERA
cases which were pending for over two
Thorny
Road
AheadThoughJayalalithaa’sconfidanteisinahurryto
becomeCM,shefacescorruptionandFERAcases.With
theSupremeCourtsettodeliveritsverdictinaDA
casesoon,herfuturehangsinthebalance
By R Ramasubramanian in Chennai
T
tion, talked to the media. He said he
was forced to sign his resignation
papers and was ready to take it back if
the people wanted him to do so. The
next day, he told the media that he had
a majority in the House. He also
announced that to clear doubts in the
minds of people about the treatment
given to Jayalalithaa, his government
would constitute a judicial inquiry
headed by a sitting Supreme Court
judge. This came as a bolt from the blue
for Sasikala.
But who is Sasikala and how did she
hog the national headlines from being a
political novice? Sasikala, 61, had been
a constant companion of Jayalalithaa
for over 33 years. In the eighties, when
Jayalalithaa entered politics, Sasikala
who was running a small video cassette
shop in Chennai got acquainted with
her. She was incharge of filming
Jayalalithaa’s political rallies. When

decades. There is also an appeal by the
Enforcement Directorate pending in the
Supreme Court relating to her non-
appearance of its summons in another
FERA violation case.
The second shock came on February
6 when the Supreme Court announced
that it would pronounce its verdict in
the much-awaited disproportionate
assets (DA) case in which Sasikala was
one of the accused. Though the main
accused, Jayalalithaa, is deceased, the
Court has to pronounce its verdict as the
judgement was reserved way back on
June 7, 2016. This was a case filed
against Jayalalithaa in 1996 by the then
DMK government. The prosecution
charged that Jayalalithaa had amassed
wealth to the tune of `66.65 crore dur-
ing her tenure from 1991–1996 and
described it as disproportionate to her
known sources of income.
Though a lower court convicted
Jayalalithaa and others in this case in
2014, later, all the four were acquitted
by the Karnataka High Court in May
2015. Karnataka filed an appeal in the
Supreme Court and this verdict is
expected soon. This case hangs like a
Damocles Sword over Sasikala. If the
verdict goes against her, it will be the
end of her career. But if she gets acquit-
ted, it will be a cakewalk for her in
Tamil Nadu.
WHO WILL BACK OFF?
Sasikala at the Sri Parthasarathy temple in
Chennai; (right) O Panneerselvam meditating
at Jayalalithaa’s memorial in Chennai
Sasikala’strystwithcorruption
casesstartedin1996.Shewas
arrestedbytheEnforcement
Directorateinatleastfourcases
ofFERAviolations.Shespent10
monthsinprisonandwas
releasedonbailonlyinApril1997.
UNI

Jayalalithaa was convicted in four
corruption cases in the trial court but
got acquitted in three. Sasikala was con-
victed along with Jayalalithaa in three of
these cases.
Several of Sasikala’s close relatives
too are battling court cases and a few
of them got convicted at the
trial court. Sasikala’s husband
M Natarajan is still battling two cases
relating to the import of a Lexus car two
decades ago. Both the CBI and the
Enforcement Directorate were probing
the case. Natarajan was convicted for
two years in the CBI case and an appeal
is still pending in the Madras High
Court. The Enforcement Directorate
case has started picking up recently at a
Chennai court.
Sasikala’s nephew TTV Dinakaran
is facing a fine of `28 crore for
FERA violations, which has now
been confirmed by the Madras High
Court. In the last week of January, the
Madras High Court also revived two
more ED cases pending for over two
decades against Dinakaran in a lower
court in Chennai.
Sasikala’s sister-in-law (elder broth-
er’s wife) J Ilavarasi and one of her
nephews, VN Sudhagaran, are co-
accused in the DA case pending in the
Supreme Court. Apart from this,
Sasikala’s younger brother, Divaharan, is
facing at least half-a-dozen land grab-
bing cases filed against him by the
Jayalalithaa government during the
latter’s 2011 –16 tenure. Apart from
these cases, there is huge public anger
against Sasikala.
In a related development, a
meeting of AIADMK MLAs once
again reiterated their faith in Sasikala at
a hurriedly called meeting in
Chennai on February 8. Out of
134 MLAs, 131 attended it. The total
strength of the assembly is 234. The
DMK has 89 MLAs, the Congress, 8,
and the Muslim League one. If Sasikala
becomes CM, she will have to get elect-
ed to the assembly within six months.
But the road ahead seems paved
with thorns.
Lead/ Sasikala/ Legal Cases
June 14, 1996: Swamy files complaint
against Jayalalithaa alleging corruption
and amassing of wealth and assets
disproportionate to her known sources
of income when she was CM
June 18, 1996: FIR registered against
Jayalalithaa by then DMK-led
government and four others, including
Sasikala, accusing them of having DA to
the tune of `66 crore
Feb 28, 2003: DMK secretary files
appeal in SC to transfer proceedings
outside TN for a fair trial
Oct 21, 1997: Charges framed against
all the accused by a special court
May 14, 2001: Jayalalithaa returns to
power in Tamil Nadu
Sasikala’slegalhurdles
Sasikala faces a Disproportionate Assets case as well as
Enforcement Directorate cases. Cases against her are linked
to those filed against Jayalalithaa
DA Case:
ED Cases
Nov 18 2003: Trial moves to
Bengaluru after SC orders
Mar 2005: Trial begins in special
court in Bengaluru
Aug 28, 2014: Trial concludes
Sep 27, 2014: All four convicted of
possessing unexplained wealth and
sentenced to four years jail along with a
`100-crore fine. Jayalalithaa, Sasikala
and the other two spend 21 days in jail.
Later, get bail
May 11, 2015: Jayalalithaa
acquitted of all corruption charges
by Karnataka High Court
Feb 6, 2016: SC tells Karnataka to
wait for another week for the
judgment on appeals filed by the
state against acquittal of Jayalalithaa
and others in the DA Case
ED files three cases in 1995 and
1996 in which Sasikala is charged
with violating FERA. Cases linked to
payments made to foreign firms in the
US and Singapore for hiring uplink
facilities for JJTV, the predecessor of
Jaya TV
February 1, 2017: Madras HC refus-
es to discharge her in these cases
Another case pending against her
relates to acquiring illegal foreign
exchange through an acquaintance in
Malaysia.She allegedly used the
money to buy the Kodanad Tea Estate
in the Nilgiris. In May 2015, an
Egmore court discharged her from the
case but the Madras HC directed her
to face trial following a criminal revi-
sion petition filed by the ED
May 23, 2015:
Jayalalithaa
returns to
power in
Tamil Nadu
Feb 2017: SC verdict awaited

Investigation/ Bank Frauds
ALL it the dark side of going
cashless. Post-demonetisation
with the government urging
people to use plastic money
for transactions, police sta-
tions across Delhi are getting com-
plaints from those who have lost money
from their bank accounts and ATMs
to tricksters.
Two patterns of frauds are emerging.
One involves tricksters calling up
account holders and claiming they are
RBI or bank officials and demanding
that the passwords of debit/credit cards
be shared with them to attend to a com-
plaint. Those who share these confiden-
tial details soon find that they have been
conned as they receive a text message
from their bank informing them that
money has been withdrawn from their
account. Even educated people have
been found vulnerable.
The other fraud involves tricksters
depositing huge amounts of cash into
the accounts of unsuspecting people.
When the latter go to withdraw money,
they are informed that their account has
been blocked because there has been a
huge inflow of cash which is under
investigation. The money ranges from a
few lakhs to `50 lakh. Panic-stricken
citizens have no choice but to approach
the police.
FROZEN ACCOUNTS
Activist and writer Hema Mehra was
appalled when her cook, Anil, returned
home with a sulking face and told her
that his Jan Dhan account was frozen by
his bank. Anil has an account with the
State Bank of India in Delhi’s Raghubir
Nagar. After the note ban, Mehra used
to pay Anil’s salary of `6,000 through
cheque. He went and deposited the
cheque in the bank but two days later,
when he went to withdraw the money
from his ATM, his account was not
functioning. When he enquired with the
bank, he was in for a shock. He was told
that his account had been frozen as
there was an unaccounted deposit of
`21 lakh in it and the bank had sent a
letter to his home questioning how this
amount had come into his account.
On requesting the bank, the `6,000
was returned to Anil by a banker’s
cheque (given to this individual from
the bank’s account. The bank will recov-
er it as and when the case is solved). The
bank told him that he should not worry
as the matter would be sorted out in two
to three months. His account would
then start functioning again.
Meanwhile, he should open another
account for his salary.
Prior to the deposit of `21 lakh into
his account, Anil had saved `50,000 in
his bank but due to his account being
frozen, he was not given access to his
own savings. Strangely enough, no inti-
Post-demonetisation,
manyonlinefraudsare
comingtolightandpolice
stationsaregetting
complaintsofpeople
losingtheirlife’ssavings
totricksters.IsIndia
preparedfordigitisation?
By Karan Kaushik
DemonsofDigitalisation
C

mation of the `21 lakh deposit was sent
to him by the bank and it also refused to
update his pass book. The bank staff
told him that there were many such
deposits in Jan Dhan accounts and all
were frozen.
CLERICAL MISTAKE?
When India Legal phoned the SBI
branch manager in Raghubir Nagar, he
rubbished the entire fraud, calling it a
clerical mistake. He said that Anil did
not approach the branch regarding this
and that KYC details of Anil’s account
were not updated and that is why his
account was blocked. Asked how the
bank did not have any information
regarding the `21 lakh deposited in
Anil’s account, he, in turn, asked how
the bank could have such information.
He said there was no entry in November
in Anil’s account. As for the letter sent
by the bank to Anil’s address, he said
incredulously that it might have been
sent by mistake.
As for the bank being vigilant about
money being deposited in accounts, he
said: “Who are we to question anyone
about their money and its source?”
Asked what should be the bank’s role in
such a scenario, he said: “The bank’s
duty is just to report to its controller.”
Asked if similar cases had come to
his notice, he hung up saying he would
not be able to talk any further on
this matter.
Anil is not the only employee of
Mehra who landed in a financial mess.
Her plumber, Naveen, and his wife,
Geeta, have accounts with the Bank of
Baroda’s Bharat Nagar Branch. Naveen
had filed an application for renewal of
Geeta’s ATM card as it was not working.
When he went to the bank to inquire, a
bank official told him that the card
would be delivered to his address within
two days or he would get a call from the
bank. Some 15 minutes later, Geeta got
a call from one Ravi Kumar who said he
was a bank officer with the Bank of
Baroda. He told Geeta that as she had
applied for reactivation of her card, she
needed to reconfirm her card number.
She handed the phone to Naveen.
Thinking it was a genuine call because
the caller knew all the details of his wife
applying for a new card, he gave the
card number.
LEAKY BANK
Within five minutes, Naveen started get-
ting messages on his phone saying that
money was being debited from his
account. When he called the number,
the person on the other side told him
that it was only a bank entry and that
the money would be credited back.
Naveen smelt a rat and rushed to his
bank and got the account frozen. But it
was too late; the money had been debit-
ed. It was obvious that there was a leak
in the security system of the Bank.
Otherwise, how could the caller know
about Geeta’s card needing reactivation,
her mobile number and Naveen being
an account holder in the same bank?
Mehra told India Legal: “It is
appalling to see how different categories
of people are treated by bank officials.
When I, a privileged and educated
woman, went to the bank, I was imme-
diately offered a chair and a cup of tea
by the manager despite not having an
account there, while Naveen and Geeta
were made to stand. I am also tech-
savvy enough to understand that cyber
crimes can be solved.”
The bank refused to help resolve
Naveen’s issue. No effort was made by it
to report the matter. However, threats
by Mehra, a social activist, to make the
story public, to put the bank under
Inacountrywherethevastmajorityof
thepopulationissemi-educatedand
illiterate,digitalisingthenationseems
likeacrueljoke.Itissoeasytotake
themforarideandmaketheirlife’s
savingsdisappear.
TRAVAILS OF
DEMONETISATION
Life has changed
for many post-
demonetisation, with
people spending
hours waiting to
access their own
bank accounts
UNI

Investigation/ Bank Frauds
scrutiny and to file an FIR worked. The
bank's complacent attitude changed
overnight to one of cooperation. With a
police complaint filed within the first
few hours of the crime being committed,
the money was traced and credited to
Naveen's account.
“Having just faced a situation where
my cook was defrauded of his entire
life's hard-earned money, thanks to
being forced to use an ATM card, I
begin to realise how flawed and heart-
less the entire system was,” said Mehra.
“The underprivileged have no voice, and
even if they did, they have little knowl-
edge of how to fight a cold banking sys-
tem that will not cooperate, offer advice
or help.”
VULNERABLE LOT
Naveen and Geeta were not the only
ones who were fooled. Sudheer Yadav
works as a driver with senior sports edi-
tor Krishnaswami and has an account
with the Bank of Maharashtra. Yadav
got a call saying that his ATM card had
been blocked. He was surprised as he
had used the card just two days back.
On being asked how, the caller said all
the details would be shared provided
Yadav told him the card number. Yadav
innocently gave the number. He was
asked his card’s expiry date and CVV
number. He gave that too. Soon,
`16,000 was withdrawn from his
account. When he called back on the
number, no one answered. Yadav filed
an FIR with the Gurgaon Police.
The police, too, is waking up to these
frauds. In Naveen’s case, the police was
helpful in getting his money back. A
senior police officer at the New Friends
Colony Police station where Naveen
registered a case said that when money
is debited from an account and credited
into another, it stays in the second
account for 24 hours.
Cyber cell expert Krishna Chaudhary
helped the police in tracking the
account into which Naveen’s money was
credited. The cell blocked the account
with the help of the concerned bank so
that the money was retrieved. The police
official said that such fraud cases had
reduced after bank advisories saying
that one should not reveal one’s card or
account details.
He said that most of the phone num-
bers from which such calls were made
were based on fake identities. “Fifty
percent of SIM cards in Delhi are issued
on fake identity cards as there are no
strict rules and regulations by the gov-
ernment.” He said the police was becom-
ing tech-savvy and was confident of
tracking such cases. “We make our
department aware of cases involving
such frauds and how to deal with them,”
he added.
In a country where the vast majority
of the population is semi-educated
and illiterate, digitalising the nation
seems like a cruel joke. It is so easy to
take them for a ride and make their life’s
savings disappear. Online security
experts suggest that India needs a
privacy law and also one that deals with
disclosure of data breaches. Banks
don’t tell their customers that their
data is breached for obvious reason. But
don’t banks have a responsibility
towards their account holders?
Neeraj Arora, a cyber lawyer and
expert, said: “We just do not have the
infrastructure to deal with IT
offences. Only in the metros do
we have something called a cyber cell.
Till now, the police was able to catch
only the ‘carriers’ —those whose
accounts are used for transfer and with-
drawal of money. They have no knowl-
edge of the offence. The main gang
never falls into the police ambit. The
police is also unable to get any admissi-
ble evidence. Electronic evidence is
very fragile.”
Indians are being exhorted to adopt
e-platforms at a fast pace, but where is
the security? With a semi-literate
population that is bewildered and over-
whelmed by the sudden turn of events,
banks need to educate them by holding
demo classes on safe banking. Banks too
need to be educated on how to deal with
their customers.
Otherwise, Digital India will remain
a pipe dream.
“Havingfacedasituation
wheremycookandplumber
(Naveen,farright)were
defraudedoftheirmoney...
Irealisehowflawed
theentiresystemis.”
HemaMehra,activistandwriter
LONG WAIT
People queuing
up in the
Raghubir Nagar
branch of SBI
Karan Kaushik

Spotlight/Bar Reforms
periodical elections to the governing
bodies of bar councils of the states. So
there is also the additional challenge of
ensuring democratic accountability.
On January 23 this year, the BCI
Chairman, Manan Kumar Mishra,
told the Chief Justice of India, Justice
JS Khehar at a felicitation function
that the number of practising lawyers
is about to come down to 55 to 60 per
cent of the current strength, after the
completion of the verification process.
According to some estimates, there
are around two million lawyers in
the country.
Clearly, this is an extravagant claim,
and unless backed by precise data,
would remain nothing more than that.
THE CHALLENGES
The yardstick for verification is to weed
out those who are not members of the
bar councils or bar associations.
Lawyers who are not members of bar
associations, however, were aggrieved
and sought a stay of the notification.
However, the Supreme Court bench
comprising justices Pinaki Chandra
Ghose and RK Agrawal, on November 2,
2015, found it unnecessary to stay it.
The Supreme Court’s reluctance was
due to the fact that the new rules had
laudable objectives. The BCI pro-
claimed: “An independent and fearless
Bar is vital and crucial for sustaining
and promoting a true and healthy
democracy. The Bar which is subject to
manipulation and influence from extra-
neous powers, howsoever mighty and
esteemed they may be, cannot do justice
either to the legal profession or to the
rule of law. Bench and Bar are the two
wheels of a chariot and one cannot func-
tion without the other. Sadly, this pro-
fession has fallen under a cloud.”
The concern over fake lawyers within
the BCI emerged after a joint meeting of
the representatives of state bar councils
and BCI. What contributed to this con-
cern is strangely the trend of advocates
switching over to other professions, ser-
vices and businesses without informing
the bar councils.
TheBarCouncilofIndia’sexercisetoidentifyunregistered
advocatesisriddledwithseveralhurdles,makingita
long-windedandcumbersomeprocess
By Venkatasubramanian
Two years later, its process of verifi-
cation is continuing. But the Council
is yet to come out with any precise
data about the exact number of fake
lawyers in the legal profession. Nor has
it been able to weed out even a single
such lawyer from the rolls of the state
bar councils.
The verification exercise is daunting,
not only because of its sheer scale and
size but also because the BCI has linked
the process with its obligation to hold
HEN the Bar
Council of India
(BCI) notified on
January 13, 2015
its new Certificate
and Place of Prac-
tice (Verification) Rules, it provided cre-
dible justification for doing so. The BCI
led many stake-holders to believe that it
could achieve its objective to weed out
fake lawyers in the country through a
verification drive across the country.
W
Weeding Out
the “Fakes”
Illustration: Amitava Sen

This trend, the BCI noted, has
reached alarming proportions, and is
endangering the legal profession as a
whole. “It has also made a dent in its
sanctity and standards. Names of such
advocates continue to be included in the
‘Roll of advocates’ being maintained by
the State Bar Councils, notwithstanding
the fact that they have left the legal pro-
fession or have since died”, the BCI
observed in its Statement of Objects and
Reasons for the new rules.
ALARMING LAPSES
Though under section 19 of the Advo-
cates Act, the state bar councils are
under legal obligation to send a copy of
the roll of advocates prepared by it
under section 17 of the Act and subse-
quent alterations/additions thereto, no
state bar council has observed this
mandatory provision of the Act.
The BCI claimed that it noticed a
definite trend that the control of bar
associations and of other elected bodies
under the Advocates Act is slipping out
of the hands of the advocates who prac-
tice law. The BCI also admitted that
after certificate of enrolment is issued to
an advocate, there’s practically no com-
municative and continuing contact sur-
viving between him/her and the council.
Thus it is not wrong enrolment of a per-
son as a lawyer but the subsequent
migration of those enrolled to other pro-
fessions going undetected which has
triggered this verification.
But the question is, whether it is a
strong enough justification for doing
away with elected bodies, and extending
their terms beyond their expiry. State
bar councils whose terms have expired
include Delhi, Assam, Goa, Rajasthan,
Uttarakhand, Bihar, Maharashtra, and
West Bengal.
KR Chitra, advocate, who has been
fighting for reform of these bodies,
claims that the new rules impose unrea-
sonable restrictions on the right of advo-
cates to carry on their legal practice.
There are other serious legal challenges.
The BCI and all state bar councils
are taking advantage of their own his-
torical wrongs of omitting to verify and
satisfy the genuineness of law degrees,
before enrolling advocates, Chitra alle-
ges. “The advantage can be seen in their
illegal extension of their expired terms,
under the pretext that fresh elections
cannot be held, unless all fake lawyers
are weeded out,” she told India Legal.
VERIFICATION AND ELECTIONS
Verification, she insists, should be a con-
tinuous affair, and must be prospective,
so that it is not a hindrance to holding
periodical elections to the representative
bodies of lawyers.
The BCI also found to its dismay
that various welfare schemes for advo-
cates have been floated by the state leg-
islations and by the state bar councils
and the BCI, but their benefits are being
enjoyed by those who have left
the profession.
The BCI also claimed that it has
come to know that a number of fake
(farzi) persons (without any law degree
or enrolment certificate) are indulging
in legal practice and are cheating the lit-
igants, courts and other stake-holders;
and neither the bar associations nor the
concerned state bar councils have any
control over such persons. But it has not
disclosed how it got this information.
Shockingly, the BCI claimed that it
has come to its notice that at some
places, the office-bearers of bar associa-
tions or some vote-seekers knowingly
make such people members and voters
of their associations with a motive to get
their votes in the elections of bar associ-
ations or bar councils, even though
many of them have subsequently
migrated to other professions.
The BCI has described those opposed
to reformative steps as vested interests,
and has proposed harsh measures agai-
nst them, including disqualification
from contesting any association or coun-
cil elections for a period of three years
from the date of order to this effect.
As the verification case comes up for
review in the Supreme Court, the BCI
faces an acid test to vindicate its pro-
fessed claims regarding its radical steps
to weed out fake lawyers. It can do so
only by releasing hard data with regard
to the number and identity of fake
lawyers, and those who migrated to
other professions, without getting their
names deleted from the rolls of the state
bar councils.
BCIchairman
MananKumarMishra(left)
toldCJIJSKheharata
felicitationfunctionthat
thenumberofpractising
lawyersisabouttocome
downto55to60percent
ofthecurrentstrength.
OPEN TO CHANGE: The BCI has made its
intent of weeding out fake lawyers known

Environment/Sukhna Lake
ORLD-FAMOUS
French architect
and planner Le
Corbusier may have
never visualised that
the man-made lake—Sukhna—that he
created in the new city of Chandigarh
“for the care of the body and spirit” of its
residents would one day need pumping
of ground water to boost its level.
The unusual remedial step, which
has now been challenged by a resident
through a PIL in the Punjab and Har-
yana High Court, has been taken in the
light of heavy siltation of the Lake. The
silt from the catchment area in Shivalik
ranges brought down the average depth
from 8 feet to 3.5 feet and laid bare
large tracts of its bed. Its surface area
reduced from 3 sq km to 2.2 sq km.
GIGANTIC EXERCISE
This prompted Chandigarh Adminis-
tration to fill it up by marshalling seven
tube wells to pump water into the Lake.
It aims to pump in two million gallons
of water per day to enable an increase of
three feet of the current water level in
the Lake. Ironically, digging of tube
wells by individuals for personal use is
banned in the city.
The immediate provocation for the
step was the High Court’s own directive
to the Administration to save the Lake.
The Court had taken up the issue suo
motu in 2009, following reports of the
water level decreasing alarmingly.
The Lake was planned in the late
1950s, alongside Chandigarh, with the
twin objectives of creating a recreation
centre as well as to tame the Sukhna
choe (seasonal rivulet) flowing down
from the Shivalik ranges and causing
floods during the monsoon. An area of
AmovetopumpgroundwaterintothisfamousLakehasbeen
challengedintheHighCourt.Willthishelpalleviatetheheavy
siltationthathastakenplacehereovertheyears?
By Vipin Pubby in Chandigarh
W
In Deep Water

tion was made to divert the waters of
another rainfed river, Ghaghar, by a
constructing a small channel.
SUMMER DEMAND
As per the current plans of the Admin-
istration, it would keep pumping water
from tube wells till March when the
demand for water increases in the city.
Some areas, particularly those in the
south, face acute water shortage in sum-
mers even though the city is much bet-
ter placed than others in the country as
far as per capital availability of water is
concerned. Drinking water supply is
generally rationed during peak summers
and due to low pressure, water often
does not reach second or third floors.
The Administration, as per an official
release, subsequently proposes to divert a
part of its share from the Bhakra canal,
which brings water from the Sat-luj river,
to the Lake. The water from the canal is
diverted through pipelines from Kajauli,
about 30 km from Chandigarh, as its
share from Punjab. An additional pipeline
is being currently laid to augment the
supply of water from the canal.
A division bench of the High Court,
while taking cognisance of the PIL, has
referred it to the bench which had been
hearing the suo motu case pertaining to
siltation of the Lake.
Such was the emotional connect of
the City Beautiful’s planners and buil-
ders that Pierre Jeanneret, a cousin of
Le Corbusier, who was also involved in
designing several buildings in the city,
had willed that his ashes be immersed
in Sukhna Lake. He passed away in
1970 and as per his will, his niece
brought his ashes to the Lake.
Residents are now keenly watching
the proceedings of the PIL.
about 3 sq km was selected and a semi-
circular 3-km long and 12.8-m high
rock-filled earthen structure was con-
structed to block water.
The Lake, which is popular with the
locals and one of the major tourist
attractions, had also become a favourite
sojourn point for thousands of migra-
tory birds. It was also declared a nation-
al protected wetland. It used to be a
venue for water sports and now has a
large number of boats, besides shikaras.
ACUTE CRISIS
The problem of silting started shortly
after the commissioning of the Lake. Its
storage capacity was 10.47 million cubic
metres. In the first few years, the Lake
lost 20 percent of its capacity to silta-
tion. According to official estimates, this
capacity decreased to a mere 56 percent
of the original. The problem became
acute in the mid-80s, prompting the
late comedian Jaspal Bhatti to stage a
cricket match on the dry areas of the
Lake. Subsequently, a mass shramdaan
(volunteer movement) was organised in
1987 and thousands of city residents,
including school children, participated
in manually desilting the Lake.
However, the effort bore little fruit.
It was then that on expert advice
hundreds of check dams were construct-
ed in the 2,540 hectares of forest catch-
ment area of the Lake to prevent silt
from entering it. The step helped in
curbing the flow of silt but evidently,
these check dams have filled up and are
blocking the flow of water into the Lake.
Though the Court had asked the
Administration to set up a committee
and seek expert advice, all it has come
up with is this proposal to fill the Lake
with the help of tube wells. These tube
wells are located in the golf course along
the Lake which is also flanked by mani-
cured gardens of the residences of
Punjab and Haryana governors.
The Administration had earlier pro-
posed to let treated sewage water flow
into the river but the move came under
sharp criticism from environmentalists.
Even the move to fill the Lake with tube
well water has been criticised by experts
who think it is unwise to use ground
water for the purpose. They point out
that the water table is already going
down and residents would face shortage
in summers.
They also suggest that the check
dams had served their purpose and
should be dismantled to make way for
water to the Lake. Recently, a sugges-
NATURE TAKES ITS COURSE
(Clockwise from left) Sukhna Lake in
Chandigarh is being kept alive by
pumping in water; Le Corbusier had
envisioned the water body as a major
tourist attraction of the city; an aerial
view of Chandigarh’s superb planning
Theimmediateprovocationfor
pumpinggroundwaterinto
SukhnaLakewastheHighCourt’s
owndirectivetothe
Administrationtosaveit.

Plate
Health/ Adulteration
TheLawCommissionhas
recommendedstringent
punishmentforadulterators
andsentthesetothe
SupremeCourtfor
consideration
By Ramesh Menon
UNGRY kya? Food oft-
en sets our heart racing
with excitement. But,
wait. It may not be safe.
Pause for a moment
before you eat. Are you
sure about the contents of your meal?
Here are some imminent dangers:
Your chicken fry might contain some
harmful antibiotics. The rice biryani
might have mercury and aluminium
phosphide from tablets that are used as
fumigants in rice bags and are poison-
ous. The silver leaf on sweets may con-
tain an animal residue.
Okay, you like to avoid sugar and
opt instead for fruits. But it could have
been ripened with carcinogenic calcium
carbide. You want to finally sip some
tea. But it could have iron filings that
are sometimes mixed with the tea
leaves when it is cut by iron rollers.
The milk in the tea could have chalk,
urea and even soap. It could lead to
kidney stones.
After reading this, you may not be
hungry anymore. Adulteration has be-
come a thriving business in India, put-
ting our health at risk. But there is hope
round the corner.
ENHANCED PUNISHMENT
The Law Commission has now recom-
mended that if someone dies consum-
ing adulterated food or drinks, the
punishment for the guilty will be
enhanced from six months to life
imprisonment under Sections 272 and
273 of the IPC. It recommended that
non-grievous injury caused by adulter-
ation could attract a jail term of one
year and a fine of `3 lakh. If it results in
a grievous injury, it could lead to a jail
term of six years and a fine of `5 lakh.
Poison
on your
H
karimbiryani.com

cause permanent damage over time.
Red and green colours are known to
cause tumours in the bladder and
testes and yellow can trigger hyperac-
tivity in children.
A recent study by the Maharashtra
Food and Drug Administration found
that 20 percent of milk sold in the state
continues to be adulterated. Some had
used just tap water which contains
impurities. But it isn’t as if bottled
water is pure. A study by CERC of 13
leading brands had earlier shown
that 10 had foreign objects floating in
them, while two contained heavy met-
als which are toxic.
EXERCISE CAUTION
We just have to watch what we eat.
Sugar can have tiny chalk crystals, and
salt, powdered stone. Chilli powder can
have brick powder, while coriander pow-
der, sawdust or even powdered cow
dung. Honey can contain jaggery syrup.
Mouth-watering barfis can have harmful
dyes and colours that cause cancer,
while cumin seeds, coal particles and
sooji, coloured sawdust.
Mawani says: “Producers must get
their products tested for adulteration
from independent laboratories. What
we need is a regulation that statutorily
requires periodic testing and reporting.”
The Supreme Court is now consi-
dering the recommendations of the
Commission. Consumer activists feel
that life term for food adulterators may
be a deterrent.
And if the person dies, it can lead to life
imprisonment and a fine of `10 lakh.
These recommendations have been
forwarded to the Supreme Court.
In fact, the Supreme Court had
asked the Commission to give its view
if the centre was required to revisit
the Food Safety and Standards Act,
2006, which incidentally, is the single
reference point for looking at food and
safety standards. Interestingly, while
listening to a PIL last year, the Supreme
Court had favoured a life term for
offences to those adulterating food that
proves fatal.
In the case of iron filings in tea,
these are usually removed by the manu-
factures with the help of magnets. But
some particles get left behind. The
Consumer Education and Research
Centre (CERC) in Ahmedabad cautions
that an iron overload could upset the
stomach, result in organ damage and
even death.
Recently, the centre, which is a
credible consumer pressure group,
wondered why the Food Safety and
Standards Authority of India had
increased the permissible limit for
iron particles in tea powder to 250
mg/kg from 150 mg/kg.
Uday Mawani, CEO, CERC, said:
“The Law Commission’s recommenda-
tions are a welcome move as adulter-
ation affects all categories of con-
sumers, especially the poor and vulner-
able. Consuming adulterated food is
like a double whammy as medical bills
go up and disposable income for con-
sumption drops even more. It affects
their quality of life even further.”
DEVASTATING EFFECT
In 2014, the Centre for Science and
Environment had discovered antibiotic
residue in chicken samples collected
from Delhi and the National Capital
Region. These antibiotics are fed to
chicken to treat for possible infections
of their urinary tract, respiratory tract,
eye and ear, blood stream, diarrhoea
and tuberculosis. As we all know now,
continued exposure to antibiotics could
end up in anti-microbial resistance that
ultimately leads us to battle superbugs
that have no cure.
Wanting to make a quick buck, fruit
vendors use calcium carbide, commonly
referred by them as “masala” to induce
quick ripening of fruits within hours.
Though this is banned, it continues on
the sly as there are hardly any checks.
Calcium carbide is carcinogenic and can
cause mouth ulcers, gastric irritation,
food poisoning and death.
Food dyes are one of the most wide-
ly used and dangerous additives. Your
fav-ourite funky blue cocktail could
damage your brain and kidneys.
Experts say blue colour is known to
cross the blood-brain barrier and
Yourricebiryanimighthave
poisonousmercuryand
aluminiumphosphidefrom
tabletsthatareusedas
fumigantsinricebags,while
thesilverleafonsweetsmay
containananimalresidue.
UdayMawani,
CEO,Consumer
Educationand
ResearchCentre,
saystheneedof
thehourisa
regulationthat
statutorily
requiresperiodic
testingand
reporting.
wikiwand.com

NE has heard of chicken
burgers, oregano and cof-
fee costing insurance
companies a packet. But
have you ever heard of a
company being forced to pay up for a
mosquito bite? In a landmark case, the
National Consumer Disputes Redressal
Commi-ssion (NCDRC), the final
authority in insurance arbitration, ruled
in January that a mosquito bite is an
“accident” and hence, the complainants
are liable to insurance claims.
In the Mousumi Bhattacharjee vs
National Insurance Co Ltd., the Commi-
ssion ruled: “It can hardly be disputed
that a mosquito bite is something which
no one expects and which happens all of
One Bite Too Many
Inalandmarkruling,theNationalConsumerDisputesRedressalCommissionheldthat
amalariadeathwasanaccidentandaskedtheinsurertopayup
By Usha Rani Das
Consumer/ Mosquito Menace
THE DEADLY VERMIN
Mosquito bites have lead
to several deaths.
The insect thrives in warm
and humid tropical conditions
O
UNI

a sudden without any act or omission on
the part of the victim… it is difficult for
us to accept that the death due to mos-
quito bite would not be death due to an
accident,” said Justice VK Jain, presid-
ing member of NCDRC. The Commi-
ssion also said that the insurer had
included snake bites, dog bites and frost
bites under the “accident” category.
UNFORTUNATE DEATH
It all began in 2012 when Mousumi
Bhattacharjee lost her husband, Deb-
ashish Bhattacharjee, to a mosquito
bite in Mozambique. Debashish, a
Kolkata resident, worked as a manager
in a tea factory in Mozambique. He fell
sick and was admitted to Nampula
Central Hospital where he died on
November 22. The cause of death was
malaria.
Debashish had taken a housing loan
under a scheme started by the National
Insurance Company Limited (NICL)
with the Bank of Baroda. This housing
loan comes along with an insurance pol-
icy. Loans were disbursed under the
“Bank of Baroda Home Loan Suraksha
Bima”. He had paid a one-time premium
for the sum insured. But when Mousumi
filed for the claim, NICL rejected it say-
ing a mosquito bite was not an accident
and that malaria was a disease.
NICL told the Commission that “a
mosquito bite is not an accident under
the said Suraksha Bima Policy nor does
it fall under the definition of accident
that merits an insurance payout rather
mosquito bite causing malaria is an
infection and/or is a disease. So, it is not
liable to settle any claim against the
terms and conditions of the policy and
the perils”.
To this, Justice Jain said: “The term
‘accident’ has not been defined in the
policy which the deceased had taken
and therefore contextual dictionary
meaning of the said term has to be
taken for the purpose of deciding
whether the death of the deceased was
due to an accident or not. An accident is
something that happens unexpectedly
and is not planned in advance. It is
defined as (i) an unpleasant event,
especially in a vehicle, that happens
unexpectedly and causes injury or
damage, (ii) something that happens
unexpectedly and is not planned in
advance (Oxford Advanced Learner’s
Dictionary [New 8th Edition]).”
OTHER DISEASES
When the insurance company said that
diseases like dengue and malaria were
epidemic and such orders would only
encourage consumers to exploit
insurance companies, the Commission
said: “We are looking at death by mos-
quito bite and not every mosquito bite
causes death.”
Even after the Commission’s order,
Mousumi’s fight is far from over. Thou-
gh the insurance company paid the
Bank of Baroda `11.5 lakh as part of the
amount insured, the bank has allegedly
refused to return the property docu-
ments mortgaged with it as it sought
`2.5 lakh from Mousumi. She has filed a
complaint with the National
Commission again.
This case is somewhat similar to the
1992 Stella Liebeck vs McDonald’s case
where the company had to pay a
humongous $2.7 million to Stella
Liebeck who had spilled coffee from
McDonald on herself and suffered
burns. She alleged that the coffee was
too hot. During the investigation, it was
revealed that McDonald was aware of
incidences where consumers have suf-
fered burns because of the high temper-
ature of their coffee.
Some consumers do get lucky.
“Anaccidentis
somethingthat
happens
unexpectedly
andisnot
plannedin
advance.Itis
definedas(i)an
unpleasantevent,especiallyina
vehicle,thathappensunexpectedly
andcausesinjuryordamage,(ii)
somethingthathappensunexpectedly
andisnotplannedinadvance.”
—JusticeVKJain,
NationalConsumerDisputes
RedressalCommission
PROTECTING CONSUMERS
The office of the National Consumer Disputes
Redressal Commission in Delhi
Anil Shakya

Profiles/ High Court Judges
A Welcome ThawThegovernmentacceptingtheCollegium’srecommendationfortheappointment
ofninechiefjusticesofhighcourtsisawelcomestep
By India Legal Bureau
Born on October 17, 1957, in a family of illustri-
ous lawyers, he enrolled as an advocate in 1980
and initially practised in the districts courts.
He later pursued his practice at the Punjab and
Haryana High Court. He mainly dealt with civil
cases including labour, company, constitutional
and service law. He served as the Additional
Advocate General, Punjab (1997-1999).
As a judge of the Punjab and Haryana
High Court, he dealt with a number of impor-
tant legal issues as a member of the full bench
and division benches, apart from the single
bench. He became a judge at Patna High
Court in 2016. He was the senior-most judge
of this court.
With the government accepting
the Supreme Court Collegium’s
recommendation for the app-
ointment of nine judges as chief
justices of different high courts
of the country, the long-stand-
ing dispute between the judici-
ary and government seems to
have finally taken a positive
turn. This is a major step.
Never before have so many
appointments been carried out
in one go—the expected clear-
ance from the government and
the assent from the President
of India will make this a histo-
ric move.
Incidentally, provisions
have also been made for vacan-
cies that would be created when
four chief justices move to the
apex court as judges. This was
a separate recommendation.
The government-judiciary tus-
sle had resulted in even the
apex court falling short of eight
judges.
The nine judges, whose
names have been put up for for-
mal clearance from the govern-
ment and the President and the
courts they will be taking
charge of are:
Justice Hemant Gupta,
Madhya Pradesh High Court
She was born on February 23, 1956. She
completed her schooling from Loreto
Convent, Shimla and her BA (Hons)
English from Indraprastha College, Delhi
University. She graduated in law from
Himachal Pradesh University and
enrolled as an advocate in 1984. Her
practice included civil, criminal, service,
consumer, industrial, insurance and
company matters in the Himachal Pradesh High Court.
Justice Kumari served as the centre’s additional standing counsel (1995 to
2002). She was also legal advisor-cum-standing counsel for the Himachal
Pradesh government as well as the following organisations—Krishi Vishva
Vidyalaya, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Development Corporation
and Himachal Pradesh State Electricity Board. She also served as the
Additional Advocate General of Himachal Pradesh. She was appointed as
additional judge of the Himachal Pradesh High Court in 2005 and trans-
ferred the following year to the Gujarat High Court as an additional judge
and made a permanent judge of the same court in 2006.
Justice Abhilasha Kumari,
Tripura High Court

Born on March 16, 1956 in Shillong (Meghalaya),
Justice Ahmed graduated in Economics (Hons)
from St Stephen's College, Delhi in 1975 and
passed his Tripos in Economics Examination from
Trinity College, Cambridge University, in 1977. He
served as an economics lecturer at St Stephen’s
College while studying for LLB (1980) from Delhi
University.
Justice Ahmed enrolled as an advocate in 1980
and started practice in the Supreme Court and the
Delhi High Court. He initially joined the chamber
of Siddhartha Shankar Ray for about three years
and thereafter practised independently, setting up
a law firm—Lawyers Associated. He was a partner
till 2000. He has shown a keen interest in person-
al laws, including the Muslim Personal Law. He is
interested in computers and knows several pro-
gramming languages. He was appointed as an
additional judge of the Delhi High Court in 2002
and was elevated to Acting Chief Justice of the
Delhi High Court in 2013.
He was born on March 1, 1956, and did his BA from Nowrosjee Wadia College, University
of Poona, in 1976. He then went on to do his LL.B from Campus Law Centre, University
of Delhi. He enrolled in the Bar Council of Assam in 1980 and started practising in the
courts of the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Munsiff and Deputy Commissioner/District
Magistrate in Churachandpur District, Manipur. Here, he dealt with criminal and civil
cases and later specialised in constitutional law, public law and service matters.
In 1990, he practised in the Imphal Bench of Gauhati High Court. He was a conciliator
in the state as well as in district-level Lok Adalats in Manipur in 1989, 1992 and 1994. He
was empanelled as a Defense Pleader in Mizoram in 1998 and later appointed as
Assistant Advocate General of Mizoram and as Public Prosecutor for the High Court. He
was also the Public Prosecutor for Aizawl District. He became Addl Advocate General for
Mizoram in 2000 and three years later, he was elevated as Additional Judge, Gauhati
High Court. In 2005, he was made permanent judge. In 2015, he became Chief Justice
(Acting) and the next year was appointed Chief Justice (Acting) of the High Court of
Tripura. Later that year, he became Chief Justice.
Justice Badar Durez Ahmed,
Jammu and Kashmir High Court
Justice T Vaiphei, Hyderabad High Court
Born on February 24, 1958, he gradu-
ated from Delhi University in 1978, did
his Law from Delhi University in 1981
and enrolled as an advocate with the
Bar Council of Delhi in 1981. His prac-
tice included cases related to arbitra-
tion, commercial, service, election,
land revenue, company and miscella-
neous writ matters. He was also a
counsel for the Municipal Corporation
of Delhi and was the nominated coun-
sel for the State Election Commission
of Delhi. Justice Nandarajog was
appointed as an additional judge of the
Delhi High Court on December 20,
2002, and became a permanent judge
on April 16, 2004.
Justice Pradeep Nandarajog,
Rajasthan High Court
Born on June 7, 1957, he enrolled
as advocate in 1981. He practised
on the civil and constitutional
sides in the Madhya Pradesh
High Court. He was appointed as
an additional judge of the
Madhya Pradesh High Court in
2002 and made a permanent
judge in 2003.
Justice Rajendra Menon,
Patna High Court

Profiles/ High Court Judges
He was born in Kollam, Kerala,
on April 29, 1959. He was edu-
cated at St Joseph's Convent and
Govt Boys High School, both in
Kollam. Later, he studied at Arya
Central School, Thiruvanantha-
puram; Trinity Lyceum, Kollam;
FMN College, Kollam, and KGF
Law College, Kolar Gold Fields,
Karnataka.
He enrolled as an advocate in
1983, and started practising in
Thiruvananthapuram. He later
shifted to the High Court in
Ernakulam and practised in dif-
ferent branches of law, specifi-
cally civil, constitutional and
administrative. He was appointed
as a permanent judge of the High
Court of Kerala in 2004.
Born on January 16, 1957, he
was enrolled as an advocate in
1982. He practised in the
High Court of Karnataka
before being appointed as an
Additional Judge there in
2003. He was elevated as
Permanent Judge the next
year. On February 5, 2015,
he was transferred from
Karnataka High Court to
Allahabad High Court as
a judge.
He was born on January 2, 1945,
and did his schooling from PM
Academy, Cuttack. He did his MA in
economics from Ravenshaw College,
Cuttack. His hobbies included hik-
ing and mountaineering, and he was
active in the NCC. He passed LLB
from MS Law College, Cuttack in
1968 and started practising as an
advocate in the Orissa High Court
under Senior Advocate and Ex-
Advocate General, Orissa, Damodar
Mohanty.
He specialised in civil, constitu-
tional, service and educational law.
In 1981, he was appointed
Additional Standing Counsel and
Additional Government Advocate in
Orissa High Court. He was
Secretary of the Orissa High Court
Bar Association in 1994 and was ele-
vated as Additional Judge of the
High Court in 1996. He was made
permanent judge the next year. He
was also appointed as Executive
Chairman, Orissa State Legal
Services Authority in 2005 and
nominated as President, Indian Law
Institute, Orissa Unit.
Justice PK Mohanty,
Jharkhand High Court
Justice Thottathil B
Radhakrishnan,
Chhattisgarh High Court
Justice HG Ramesh,
Madras High Court

HE limits of artistic freedom in
cinema were discussed last
week on Freedom of Expre-
ssion—the India Legal show on
APN News. The issue came into focus
following the controversy over two films
—Padmavati, a period drama being shot
by director Sanjay Leela Bhansali and
Jolly LLB 2, a satire by Subhash Kapoor.
Those debating the issue included
Yatindra Singh, former Chief Justice,
Chhattisgarh High Court; Aishwarya
Bhati, Supreme Court advocate and
Justice (Retd.) SP Pathak. Justice
Yatindra Singh observed how “Historical
films have always created problems…
the Padmavati shooting is still is on,
even the censor board has yet to see it
and trouble has already started without
anybody knowing the full content of
the movie…”
His conclusion was rather telling.
“All the problems that have been talked
about are for sheer publicity. They are
imaginary… You often hear of hero-
heroine ka set pe jhagra (hero-heroine
quarrelling on the sets) or hero strip-
searched at some airport abroad. All this
is for publicity.” Historically speaking, he
said: “The ‘dream’ relationship between
Alauddin Khilji is in the realm of imagi-
nation. Historians have differed over
whether there was a queen Padmavati.
When Khilji attacked Chittor in 1303,
with him was poet Amir Khusru. Khus-
ru wrote about everyone else but not ab-
out Rani Padmavati. Neither did he wri-
te about her jauhar (self immolation).”
PROPRIETY IS A MUST
Aishwarya Bhati stressed the need for
respecting local traditions. “Freedom of
speech is enshrined in Articled 19 Part 3
of the Constitution,” she said. “But there
are restrictions and limits to that, quali-
fied by many parameters. While my
freedom of speech is my right and
should be respected by all, I should be
respecting their rights and respect local
traditions. I am from Rajasthan, and I
think this Padmavati story is not fiction.
It is a matter of pride in the state and
that (pride) cannot be hurt,” she con-
cluded. “These are powerful stories
which play with the emotions of people.”
The Jolly LLB 2 issue was taken
more serious note of. Justice SP Pathak,
(Retd.) of the Rajasthan High Court
explained how a three-member commit-
tee looked into the objectionable scenes
which were later deleted. The judge
went on to suggest the need for intro-
spection. “It is not that we are 100 per-
cent on the right, scenes like people
climbing the dais and the hurling shoes
at the judge have happened, even in the
Supreme Court. We should not behave
like ostriches,” she said. “Films reflect
society, and we should be able to treat
them as such. We should of course bear
in mind that the overall dignity of the
court is maintained.”
All those who participated in the dis-
cussion agreed that a certain level of
self-restraint and constitutional propri-
ety must be maintained.
LimitsofArtisticFreedom
ApaneldiscussionfocusesontworecentBollywoodfilms
whichkickedupacontroversy
By Sujit Bhar
Art & Entertainment/ Bollywood
NOURISHED BY POLEMIC
Padmavati and Jolly LLB 2 are kicking
up a storm on the sets and in the court
T

Global Trends/ Trump/ New World Order
ThemaverickAmericanpresidenthasoutragedtheworld,beitontradetreaties,climatechange
policies,nucleardealsormovesonITcompanies.CansuchaprotectionistapproachhelptheUS?
By Seema Guha
S President Donald
Trump’s flurry of
Executive Orders since
taking office is causing
shock and awe across
America and the world.
A first-time politician, the maverick
real-estate tycoon is challenging every-
thing the free world took for granted.
One of his most controversial ord-
ers was banning citizens of seven
Muslim countries—Libya, Somalia,
Iraq, Iran, Sudan, Syria and Yemen—
from entering America. This led to
protests across the US and a temporary
restraining order by Seattle judge,
James Robart. The White House
Administration will challenge this order
by February 13 and the matter could go
up to the Supreme Court.
DIVISIVE POLICIES
Trump’s Order has caused world-wide
outrage. Anything this superpower with
its $17-trillion economy does will rever-
berate across the globe. And Trump’s
actions over the past few weeks have
caused a lot of consternation—his anti-
immigrant rhetoric, rants against multi-
lateral trade pacts such as WTO, calling
into question the Iran nuclear deal, the
threat to build a wall along Mexico,
dismissing global warming…. These
reflect the views of ultra-conservative
voters who voted Trump to power. If
Trump continues to follow their wishes,
the US may just become the fortress
rural voters want.
The carefully structured order put in
place painstakingly since the end of
World War II is now in danger of being
overturned. Nothing is sacrosanct for
the President. He is questioning every
Shaken and Stirred
UNITED COLOURS OF PROTEST
(L-R) Members of the LGBT community
protest against Trump’s policies in New York;
a vigil against the travel ban in Los Angeles
U
Photos: UNI

Trump abhors multilateral trade
blocs. He has already pulled out of the
Trans-Pacific Partnership and wants the
North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement
reworked to America’s advantage.
Multilateral trade agreements,
according to Trump, do not help
America. Ironically, he himself had
gained enormously from free trade. His
business spans across 25 countries,
including Egypt, Saudi Arabia, UAE,
Turkey, Azerbaijan and even India. But
many of these are licenses to local busi-
nessmen to use the Trump franchise.
Despite investing in foreign coun-
tries, he is now threatening American,
German and Japanese carmakers to
make in the US or face levies to sell in
his country. Ford was told to shelve
plans to open a new plant in Mexico.
During a campaign speech in New York,
Trump threatened: “Let me give you the
bad news: Every car, every truck and
every part manufactured in this plant
that comes across the border, we’re
going to charge you a 35 percent tax.”
American automakers are falling in
line. With the US being one of the
largest car markets, no one can afford to
lose out. This, together with the promise
of bringing down corporate taxes, will
ensure that jobs stay in the US. So pro-
tectionism will kick in under Trump.
He has succeeded in shaking up thin-
gs. But will he replace the old world
order? The verdict is still out.
pillar put in place since 1945, be it the
mantra of globalisation and free trade
stitched together by multilateral pacts,
defence agreements like the North
Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO)
or America’s long-held practice of
embracing immigrants. Anything that
he thinks stands in the path of his
“Make America Great Again’’ slogan is
being thrust aside. But there is also
stiff opposition.
America and the world are fighting
back. Protests against Trump’s travel
ban and other policies have sprouted
across the globe. In London, people
have started an online petition to stop
Trump from visiting the UK. The Spea-
ker of the House of Commons has
declared he does not want this Ame-
rican President to address the British
parliament.
AMERICAN BUSINESS
American tech companies too are up in
arms. More than 100 big names such as
Microsoft, Apple, Facebook, Reddit,
Netflix, Uber and others have filed a
legal brief opposing Trump’s travel ban,
arguing that it would give them strong
incentives to move jobs outside the US.
They said the Executive Order banning
citizens of the seven Muslim countries
and all refugees “inflicts significant
harm on American business”. And
Starbucks, in a defiant move, announ-
ced that it would hire 10,000 refugees
over the next five years across the globe.
Trump even took on NATO during
campaigning but changed his stance
soon after. Western democracies have
long believed that peace in Europe was
maintained, thanks largely to NATO. As
a presidential candidate, Trump was
critical of this organisation, calling it
obsolete and ill-prepared to confront
modern-day threats. He had said that
US military support for NATO member
states was conditional on whether they
met their financial obligations to the
bloc. However, on February 6, he vowed
stout support for NATO, even as he
insisted that member countries scale up
their defence spending on the alliance.
The American establishment is also
outraged at what it sees as Trump’s out-
reach to Russian President Vladimir
Putin. With renewed tension between
the US and Russia over Syria and Ukr-
aine, Putin has long been the object of
hate of the US government and media.
Trump shocked patriotic Americans
recently when, in reply to comments
about Putin being a killer, he shot back:
“You think our country is so innocent?’’
Trump is right. The destruction of Iraq
triggered by the US invasion of it indi-
rectly led to the rise of ISIS, the most
lethal of Islamic terror groups.
While Trump has been supportive of
Putin and Russia, he has, in the past,
often directed his ire at China. How
Washington-Beijing relations pan out
will be closely watched across Asia.
FREE TRADE
As for WTO, Trump had suggested in
the past that the US could pull out of it
and said the EU had been created lar-
gely to compete against the US in inter-
national trade. Free trade has been at
the heart of American prosperity. It is
the mantra of both the Democrats and
the Republicans.
Trump’sactionsreflectthe
viewsofultra-conservative
voterswhovotedhimtopower.
Ifhecontinuestofollowtheir
wishes,theUSmayjustbecome
thefortressruralvoterswant.
IN REVERSE GEAR
The auto industry has been warned to “make
in the US” or else face heavy levies

flew back to Saudi Arabia, where her
family lives.
Her return to the US resulted from
high-level discussions between lawyers
for the clinic, outside lawyers working
with them and officials at the US
Attorney’s office for the Eastern District
of New York. Even though
Abushamma’s visa was cancelled, the
US Attorney’s office secured permission
for her to return without problem, said
David Rowan, the clinic’s chief
legal officer.
Abushamma said she hadn’t lost
hope, even when her situation appeared
most tangled.
“I knew from the beginning that
things were going to resolve,”
Abushamma said in an interview with
ProPublica. “I didn’t know when exactly,
but I knew it was going to work out in
the end and that I would be back.”
Rowan would not discuss specifics of
the Cleveland Clinic team’s conversa-
tions with the US Attorney’s office.
“There were a lot of behind-the-
scenes activities,” Rowan said in an
interview. He said the US Attorney’s
office communicated with the
Global Trends/ Trump/ Travel ban
SuhaAbushammahadbeenforcedtoleavetheUSafter
DonaldTrump’stravelban.Shesued,andhigh-level
discussionsledtoherreturn
By Charles Ornstein
N a clandestine mission that had
the makings of a hostage rescue,
the Cleveland Clinic and its
lawyers arranged for medical resi-
dent Suha Abushamma to fly back
to the United States, more than a
week after she was forced to leave
because of President Donald Trump’s
travel ban.
Abushamma was introduced at a
news conference at the Intercontinental
Hotel in Cleveland.
Abushamma was among the high-
est-profile people affected by the presi-
dent’s executive order, which banned
visitors from seven predominantly
Muslim countries. A first-year resident
at the Cleveland Clinic, she was forced
to leave the U.S. hours after landing at
New York’s John F Kennedy
International Airport on Saturday,
January 28.
Abushamma, a Sudanese citizen,
was given the choice of withdrawing her
visa application “voluntarily” or being
forcibly deported and not allowed back
to the US for at least five years. She
chose to withdraw her visa application,
meaning she did not have a valid docu-
ment with which to enter the US. She
I
A Sudanese Doctor
Secretly Beats the Ban
UNI
TAKING A STAND
People protest
against President
Trump's travel
ban on Muslim
immigrants at the
Los Angeles
International Airport

INDIA LEGAL: Stories that count Edition: 20 February 2017

INDIA LEGAL: Stories that count Edition: 20 February 2017

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INDIA LEGAL: Stories that count Edition: 20 February 2017