India Legal 20 November 2017

InvitationPrice
`50
NDIA EGALL
` 100
I
www.indialegallive.com
November20, 2017
Asdeadlycarcinogenic
pollutantsinDelhi’sairreaches
recordlevels,thecapital
declaresamajorpublichealth
emergency.Itistheworst
healthcrisisinthecity’s
history.Isthereawayout?
LIVING
INAGAS
CHAMBER
Ban on convicted politicians:
Is it feasible? By ex-Chief Election
Commissioner SY Quraishi
Ryan School
murder: Bizarre
twist

HE ugly tug-of-war between the
“state” of Delhi and the lieutenant
governor (LG) seems finally to be
coming to a head. This ungainly
power struggle, which has made a
mockery of good governance in the nation’s
capital, hit the headlines following the AAP’s
landslide victory in 2015. Chief Minister
Arvind Kejriwal continually screamed from
the rooftops that the LG, at the behest of
his political masters running the central
government, was behaving like an oriental
despot and refusing to let the state
machinery function.
There is some verisimilitude in the charges
that Kejriwal’s eccentric style of functioning,
his lack of tact and penchant for gratuitous
confrontation had something to do with irri-
tating and alienating former LG Najeeb Jung
to the point of aggressive hostility. But there
is no gainsaying that even though Kejriwal
was his own worst enemy, he was chosen to
do a job with the overwhelming support of
the electorate—the real sovereigns—while
Jung was parachuted into his post by a ruling
party which was and remains innately hostile
to its bête noir, the irascible Kejriwal who is,
to boot, a practised public baiter of Prime
Minister Narendra Modi. Also, it is incon-
testable that Jung threw a monkey wrench
into important administrative decisions and
appointments the chief minister tried to
make to move Delhi forward. And hap-
less Delhiites suffered needlessly
because of this untenable gridlock.
Jung’s departure and replace-
ment by another viceroy-bureau-
crat, Anil Baijal, as the 21st LG
of Delhi has not materially
altered the situation. The matter is
hanging in the courts which must, per-
force, draw a fair and workable line
between the constitutional powers and
their perfunctory misuse by an LG, and
the legitimately constituted authority of
a chief minister who draws his authority
to govern from (WE) the people.
The question arises—where does true sov-
ereignty reside? Agreed, Delhi is a special
case: it is the seat of India’s central gover-
nance, with its own set of law and order com-
pulsions arising from the presence of interna-
tional embassies, the residence of the presi-
dent of India as well as members of parlia-
ment and an assortment of VIPs. It possibly
needs a stronger central role in managing its
affairs than do other states.
But does that give the LG the unfettered
right to play political one-upmanship with a
popularly chosen government in day-to-day
administrative matters such as the appoint-
ment of inquiry commissions or wage negoti-
ations with cleaning crews or transfers and
postings of officials?
T
he AAP government decided last year
to ask the courts to rule on some of
these vexatious issues. The High Court
ruled that the LG is the administrative czar of
Delhi. Unfazed by this ruling, the AAP has
appealed to the Supreme Court.
From some of the apex court’s initial com-
ments, in hearings now underway, a few
analysts have jumped to the conclusion that
Kejriwal’s case has suffered a resounding
blow. Much of this stems from the Court
holding that “prima facie” the LG
enjoys paramountcy.
The Supreme Court observed last week
that “prima facie” Delhi’s LG has predomi-
nance in the national capital under the
Constitution: “Article 239AA (of the
Constitution) is unique to Delhi. Prima facie
it appears that it gives more power to Lieu-
tenant Governor unlike other Union Terri-
tories. LG in Delhi has the primacy under
the Constitution.”
But here’s the rub. The Bench also said
that the LG cannot “sit over files” beyond a
reasonable period and must refer to the presi-
dent matters over which he has a difference of
opinion with the Delhi government.
The case is being heard by a five-judge
constitution bench headed by the Chief
VICEROY BUREAUCRATSInderjit Badhwar
Letter from the Editor
T
4 November 20, 2017

| INDIA LEGAL | November 20, 2017 5
Justice of India, Dipak Misra. Gopal Subra-
manium, the senior attorney leading for the
Delhi government, argued that “an elected
government cannot be without any power.”
The LG, who reports to the central govern-
ment, cannot use his power under the
Constitution to “stultify daily governance by
sitting over files.”
Subramanium added: “More than 1.14
lakh vacancies are there, but I cannot fill it up
and have to seek LG’s permission. I can’t take
steps to stop deaths in sewers. This is ham-
pering governance.”
A
“harmonious” interpretation of Article
239AA is required to “fulfil the consti-
tutional mandate for a democratically
elected government in Delhi,” the lawyer
argued. The Aam Aadmi Party government
has also told the top court that under the cur-
rent dispensation “no civil servant respects
any minister as head of the department. How
can any decision then be implemented?”
The “balance” is ultimately what the Court
is looking for. This was evident in an observa-
tion made by Justice DY Chandrachud that
the LG cannot indefinitely hold files and is
constitutionally obligated to refer differences
of opinion with the council of ministers to the
president under the provisions of the
Constitution. The LG should have to record
his reasons for decisions on files, he said.
Justice Misra virtually ruled out any scope
for the LG to interfere in the day-to-day func-
tioning of the government: “Actually it has to
be participative governance. There has to be
some kind of harmony. Yes there cannot be
day-to-day interference by the Governor.
Even if there is interference or discussion
some sanctity has to be added, it should be
value oriented...”
On a wider constitutional canvas, keeping
in mind Delhi’s peculiar standing as a state,
the issue is really about creative federalism on
which the Indian nation was glued together.
Founding Fathers Jawaharlal Nehru and BR
Ambedkar were extremely wary that gover-
nors’ powers to dismiss popular state govern-
ments under Article 356 would be misused
and politicised. They insisted these powers be
curtailed or used only in the rarest of rare
cases like a total constitutional meltdown.
The Founding Fathers envisaged governors
to be the agents of the constitutional central
polity and not the handmaidens of any politi-
cal party. This precept has been abused ad
infinitum ad nauseam by all political parties.
It is indeed encouraging to see that the
Supreme Court has not shied away from
attempting to grapple with an issue that goes
to the very root of creative federalism.
AconstitutionbenchoftheSupremeCourt,headedbyCJIDipakMisra,recently
observedthat“primafacie” Delhi’sLGhaspredominanceinthenationalcapital
undertheConstitution.ButitalsopointedoutthattheLGcannot“sitoverfiles”
beyondareasonableperiodandmustrefertothepresidentmattersoverwhich
hehasadifferenceofopinionwiththeDelhigovernment.
Twitter: @indialegalmedia
Website: www.indialegallive.com
Contact: editor@indialegallive.com
TUSSLE FOR POWER
(L-R) Delhi LG Anil
Baijal, Delhi CM Arvind
Kejriwal and former LG
Najeeb Jung

ContentsVOLUME XI ISSUE 1
NOVEMBER20,2017
OWNED BY E. N. COMMUNICATIONS PVT. LTD.
A -9, Sector-68, Gautam Buddh Nagar, NOIDA (U.P.) - 201309
Phone: +9 1-0120-2471400- 6127900 ; Fax: + 91- 0120-2471411
e-mail: editor@indialegalonline.com
website: www.indialegalonline.com
MUMBAI: Arshie Complex, B-3 & B4, Yari Road, Versova, Andheri,
Mumbai-400058
RANCHI: House No. 130/C, Vidyalaya Marg, Ashoknagar,
Ranchi-834002.
LUCKNOW: First floor, 21/32, A, West View, Tilak Marg, Hazratganj,
Lucknow-226001.
PATNA: Sukh Vihar Apartment, West Boring Canal Road, New Punaichak,
Opposite Lalita Hotel, Patna-800023.
ALLAHABAD: Leader Press, 9-A, Edmonston Road,
Civil Lines, Allahabad-211 001.
Editor Inderjit Badhwar
Senior Managing Editor Dilip Bobb
Deputy Managing Editor Shobha John
Executive Editor Saurav Datta
Contributing Editor Ramesh Menon
Associate Editor Sucheta Dasgupta
Deputy Editor Prabir Biswas
Special Correspondent Chandrani Banerjee
Staff Writer Usha Rani Das
Art Director Anthony Lawrence
Deputy Art Editor Amitava Sen
Senior Visualizer Rajender Kumar
Photographers Anil Shakya, Bhavana Gaur
Photo Researcher/ Kh Manglembi Devi
News Coordinator
Production Pawan Kumar
CFO
Anand Raj Singh
Sales & Marketing
Tim Vaughan, K L Satish Rao, James Richard,
Nimish Bhattacharya, Misa Adagini
Circulation Manager
RS Tiwari
Mobile No: 8377009652, Landline No: 0120-612-7900
email: indialegal.enc@gmail.com
PublishedbyProfBaldevRajGuptaonbehalfofENCommunicationsPvtLtd
andprintedatAcmeTradexIndiaPvt.Ltd.(UnitPrintingPress),B-70,Sector-80,
PhaseII,Noida-201305(U.P.). Allrightsreserved.Reproductionortranslationinany
languageinwholeorinpartwithoutpermissionisprohibited.Requestsfor
permissionshouldbedirectedtoENCommunicationsPvtLtd.Opinionsof
writersinthemagazinearenotnecessarilyendorsedby
ENCommunicationsPvtLtd.ThePublisherassumesnoresponsibilityforthe
returnofunsolicitedmaterialorformateriallostordamagedintransit.
AllcorrespondenceshouldbeaddressedtoENCommunicationsPvtLtd.
Editor (Content & Planning) Sujit Bhar
Senior Content Writer Punit Mishra
(Web)
Technical Executive Anubhav Tyagi
6 November 20, 2017
Deadly Delhi
A combination of polluting factors has turned the capital into a gas chamber, resulting in a
state of environmental emergency being declared. Is there a solution?
LEAD
12
Pride of Place
The Chhattisgarh High Court has held that no one can be deprived of his right to own
property or make transactions with it without express provision of law
COURTS
18
School for Scandal
The Ryan murder case has taken an unexpected twist with a senior student being
arrested. Why did the Gurugram police charge the wrong man?
20
FOCUS

REGULARS
Followuson
Facebook.com/indialegalmedia
Twitter:@indialegalmedia
Website:www.indialegallive.com
Contact:editor@indialegallive.com
Ringside............................8
Delhi Durbar......................9
Courts.............................10
National Briefs .........27, 37
International Briefs..........46
Media Watch ..................48
Satire ..............................50
Cover Design: ANTHONY LAWRENCE
Cover Photo: ANIL SHAKYA
The PCOCA Prognosis
There is much controversy over the MCOCA-like bill proposed by the Punjab
government which ostensibly aims to control mushrooming criminal gangs
38
There is now less tolerance for
sexual misconduct by the powerful as
more and more Hollywood celebrities
are finding their shenanigans being
reported by victims
44Immorality Play
Horns of a Dilemma
Hit by a stray cow problem, Madhya Pradesh will amend its anti-
cow slaughter law to punish owners who abandon their animals
STATES
34
Laugh, and Be Punished
The arrest of G Bala for his cartoon lampooning Tamil Nadu CM E Palanisami marks
a new trend, that begs the question, are bureaucrats today misusing the law?
42
GLOBALTRENDS
A Problem of Mindset
India is groaning under garbage with some 1,00,000 tonnes gen-
erated every day. The reasons are cultural
OPINION
28
Room without a View
The detention room rule and others show how schools lack a
human touch when it comes to disciplining children
22
EDUCATION
Don’t Bar Him for Life
Former Chief Election Commissioner SY Quraishi argues there are
enough provisions in the law to prevent criminalisation of politics
24
MYSPACE
STATES

8 November 20, 2017
“
RINGSIDE
“My discussions with him [Trump] mirror my talks
with the Indian PM, the UK PM and a lot of other
heads of state. They are all anxious to know how IT
can help their citizens. Instead of passing value
judgments on them, I feel that as the CEO of a
multinational, I have a responsibility to help the
citizens. Politics is separate from business.”
—Satya Nadella, Microsoft CEO
“I will be touring TN, not as an
artist, but as citizen K. I will
give the party a name after
meeting the people.”
—Actor Kamal Haasan,
announcing his intention to
join politics
“Kejriwal is a peculiar
person who has views on
everything without under-
standing the situation.
There are 20 million
tonnes of paddy straw,
where do I ask farmers to
store? Kejriwal doesn’t
understand the problem.”
—Punjab CM Capt
Amarinder Singh, while
explaining that his meet-
ing with the Delhi CM did
not yield any result on
solving the issue of stubble
burning in his state
“I had not joined the BJP to
leave it. But I would not mince
words when I say that we can-
not meet our challenges if we
continue to be a one-man
show and a two-man army.”
— Actor-turned-politician
Shatrughan Sinha, on the BJP
“There is only one way
to protect Indian
culture: to protect
gau (cows), Ganga, and
(goddess) Gayatri.”
—Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi
Adityanath at India’s
first national convention
of cow protectors, in
Lucknow
“The allegations of
sexual abuse must be
considered with refer-
ence to the provisions of
the Prevention of
Corruption Act. Under
the Act, ‘illegal gratifica-
tion’ need not be con-
fined to money or any
other property. Giving
‘sexual satisfaction’ is
also part of ‘gratifica-
tion’ under PCA.’’
—A judicial commission
report which probed the
solar scam in Kerala
“The press is called
the Fourth Estate. It is
definitely a power, but,
to misuse that power
is criminal. I have
often heard people
wonder as to how the
amount of news that
happens in the world
every day always just
exactly fits the
newspaper.”
—PM Modi, while
speaking at the 75th
anniversary function
of a Tamil newspaper
“There’s a difference
between job and
employment. Only
those who were not
able to enhance their
skills with time lost
their naukri.”
—Union minister Ravi
Shankar Prasad, react-
ing to observations
that demonetisation
led to job scarcity

An inside track of
happenings in Lutyens’ Delhi
Delhi
Durbar
BELLING THE CAT
Two of those named in the
so-called Paradise Papers
have close connections to
the NDA government and
both happen to be Sinhas.
One is Jayant Sinha (right),
minister of state for civil avia-
tion, and the other is RK Sin-
ha, BJP Rajya Sabha MP and
one of the richest men in the
Upper House. While Jayant
has said no transactions
were done for personal gain,
RK has taken the unusual but
suspect stand that he is on a
vow of silence for a week.
According to the leaked doc-
uments, he is linked to two
off-shore entities registered in
Malta in 2008 through a sub-
sidiary of his security behe-
moth, SIS. The spotlight is on
his incredible rise. He started
as a trainee reporter with a
Patna newspaper and today
owns a cash logistic compa-
ny with revenues of `4,500
crore. During demonetisation,
it was his vans and employ-
ees who worked overtime to
replenish ATMs across the
country. SIS has expanded its
portfolio and is now run by
son Rituraj, while RK—as he
is referred to in political cir-
cles—concentrates on his
political role, mostly on
instructions from Nagpur.
The next chief minister of Tamil Nadu could
well be one of the three biggest stars in the
Tamil film industry. With J Jayalalithaa’s
death and DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi
rendered hors de combat because of illness
and old age, the field is wide open. Tamil
Nadu has a history of movie stars entering
politics and three of its current stars have
recently released their political trailers.
Rajinikanth was the first to announce his
political ambitions. He is yet to launch a
party but has made his ideology clear—saf-
fron is his preferred colour. The other big
star, Kamal Haasan, also formally launched
his political career last week in controversial
fashion with his remarks on Hindu terror and
intolerance. No official party yet but “Citizen
K” is born with an ideology opposite to his
real life rival, Rajinikanth. The third star is
Vijay who took on demonetisation and GST
in his latest film Mersal and earned the wrath
of the right-wing. He has dabbled in politics
earlier when he joined Anna Hazare and his
anti-corruption movement. He has a wide
youth following in Tamil Nadu and the other
two have huge fan bases of their own, so it
will be an epic battle, quite like the movies
they make.
THE RISE OF SIS
Last year, the Modi govern-
ment changed the rules for
civil servants regarding pro-
motions and evaluations.
Since Independence, bureau-
crats have been promoted on
the basis of the annual confi-
dentiality report written by the
immediate boss in the min-
istry/office.The Modi govern-
ment introduced the 360
degree process for additional
secretaries and secreta-
ries.This means that evalua-
tion is to be based on feed-
back from multiple sources,
including colleagues and jun-
iors. This is done in secret by
a group of three retired bu-
reaucrats. Most civil servants
have been upset with the
move since they feel it is
unfair and opaque. Bureau-
crats in Madhya Pradesh took
a stand against the method
recently and Himachal
Pradesh bureaucrats have
approached the Central
Administrative Tribunal (CAT)
for a review. The Tribunal has
written to the cabinet secretary
and asked for a response by
November 13. Whatever the
outcome, bureaucrats are not
happy with the process and
the only reason the issue has
not blown up is because they
fear that they will be targeted.
POLITICAL STARS

The Delhi High Court has refused to inter-
fere with the appointment of BJP national
spokesperson Sambit Patra as an independ-
ent director on the board of the Oil and
Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC).
A bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal
and Justice C Hari Shankar refused to enter-
tain the PIL filed by NGO Energy Watchdog.
The NGO had questioned the eligibility of
Patra to be appointed as an independent di-
rector and alleged that proper procedure was
not followed in appointing him.
The NGO had contended that the BJP
spokesperson was a doctor and ONGC has
nothing to do with the field of medicine so
the appointment was not in order. It had also
argued that appointing Patra to the post for a
remuneration of around `23 lakh per year
amounted to grant of State largesse to a pri-
vate person. The centre had defended the
appointment, saying Patra was successfully
running an NGO for the downtrodden which
showed his management skills and hence his
eligibility for the post.
Justice JB Pardiwala of the Gujarat High Court
said that marital rape is a “disgraceful offence
that has scarred the trust and confidence in the
institution of marriage”, and not criminalising it
has made “a large population of women” suffer.
He made the statement while hearing a plea by a
man who sought to have his wife’s case against
him for forced oral sex quashed because they
were married. The court will now examine
whether forcing one’s wife to perform oral sex
should be a criminal offence, and if yes, under
which law. Marital rape is not a criminal offence in
India, and the centre has told the Delhi High Court
that criminalising marital rape could destabilise the
institution of marriage.
Courts
10 November 20, 2017
Gujarat HC condemns
marital rape
The Supreme Court can-
celled the bail of former
BJP MP Dinubhai Boghabhai
Solanki, who is the prime
accused in the murder of RTI
activist Amit Jethwa, and
directed him to surrender
within 48 hours. The Court
said that Solanki’s bail shall
remain cancelled until the
examination of eight key wit-
nesses in the case. The trial
shall be held on a day-to-
day basis and he will not
enter Gujarat unless required
in the case. This order
comes after Solanki had
challenged a Gujarat High
Court ruling that had allowed
a retrial in the case. It also
allowed the re-examination
of 26 other witnesses in the
case. Jethwa was shot dead
outside the Gujarat High
Court allegedly at the behest
of Solanki, then an MP, for
exposing illegal mining.
SC cancels BJP leader’s bail in Amit Jethwa case
—Compiled by Saurav Datta
Delhi HC refuses
to interfere in
Sambit Patra’s
appointment
SC stays bail
order in Jindal law
school rape case
ASupreme Court bench of
Justices SA Bobde and
Mohan M Shantanagoudar stayed
the bail granted to three former
students of Jindal Global Law
School who were convicted by a
trial court for sexual abuse of a
varsity student in 2015 but were
granted bail by the Punjab and
Haryana High Court in September
this year.
The apex court order came on
a plea by the young woman, who
was pursuing a management
course at Jindal Global University
when the crime was committed.
The High Court, while granti-
ng bail to the trio, had stayed the
sentence awarded to them by a
trial court after their conviction.
While suspending their sen-
tences, the High Court passed
several remarks on the general
character of the victim by
describing her conduct as
promiscuous. It also said that the
victim indulged in casual sex,
adventurism and experimentation
with sexual encounters. The High
Court had granted bail taking into
consideration that the victim used
to consume alcohol and ciga-
rettes and condoms were found
in her room. The ruling attracted
widespread criticism.

Lead/ NCR Pollution
S air quality in Delhi and
surrounding areas in the
National Capital Region
(NCR) plummetted to
dangerous levels, resi-
dents found themselves
choking, suffering from headaches, run-
ning noses, respiratory problems and
burning eyes. The Indian Medical
Association (IMA) and health experts
labelled it a public health emergency.
The deadly level of carcinogenic pollu-
tants in Delhi’s air was roughly 10 times
the reading in Beijing, a city globally
infamous for its air pollution and seen
as one of the most polluted in the world.
The National Green Tribunal (NGT)
demanded to know from the Delhi gov-
ernment what steps it had taken to cur-
tail pollution, the number of challans
issued to violators and the number of
construction sites where work has been
stopped. The NGT pulled up both the
Delhi government and the Central
Pollution Control Board for not issuing
orders to shut down construction and
industrial activities in the capital despite
worsening air quality.
The NGT also directed that industri-
al activities should not be carried out in
Delhi till the next hearing. It also
ordered that public authorities depute
an officer to monitor polluting activities.
Yearafteryear,thisregionsuffersfromthedeleteriouseffectsofsmogduetowrongpolicieson
vehiculartraffic,garbagedisposalandstubbleburning,leadingtoanenvironmentalemergency
By Ramesh Menon
A
Choking to Death…
UNI

There is reason to worry if one lives in
this heavily polluted region. According
to health experts, it can affect lung func-
tion and result in respiratory problems,
asthma, chronic cough and cold, breath-
lessness and even heart attacks. “The
situation today is the worst I have seen
in my 35 years living in Delhi,” said
Arvind Kumar, a lung surgeon at Sir
Ganga Ram Hospital. “As a doctor, I
have no problem saying that the situa-
tion is a public health emergency. If we
want to protect people, we should be
ordering the evacuation of Delhi. Close
down all schools and offices.”
AIR QUALITY
Unfortunately, the haze has refused to
go away. It ominously hung around the
NCR, leading to Delhi’s air quality index
shooting to dangerous levels in the first
week of November. It was even worse
than the day after Diwali when pollution
always peaks. The situation was so bad
that Delhi’s deputy chief minister,
Manish Sisodia, requested city dwellers
to avoid venturing outside and not even
go for morning or evening walks. The
air quality in Gurugram and Noida was
worse than Delhi. Dr KK Aggarwal,
president of IMA, said that people must
avoid exercising as it would call for
heavy breathing which would mean
ingesting more pollutants.
Meanwhile, the Environmental
Pollution Control Authority (EPCA) has
asked the government to quickly under-
take drastic measures like hiking park-
ing fees, shutting down hot mix plants
and stone crushers and brick kilns.
Akshima Tejas Ghate, Associate
Director, Transport and Urban
Governance, TERI, told India Legal:
“Beijing witnessed similar levels last
December and declared a red alert,
which called for the closure of schools,
reduction of vehicular activity and an
advisory to stay indoors and wear
masks. Delhi-NCR will have to urgently
enforce such tough measures in the larg-
er public interest.”
NGT ORDER
No one was surprised by the haze. It had
descended on Delhi last year too. And
everyone was aware of why it was hap-
pening. No wonder the National Green
Tribunal pulled up the governments of
Delhi, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and
Haryana, asking them what they had
done in anticipation of an environmen-
tal emergency. They had no answers.
Last year, this emergency necessitat-
ed the closure of schools as children
would be the most affected. Again, there
were knee-jerk reactions. The Delhi
chief minister called the capital a gas
chamber and tweeted that he had asked
the chief ministers of Punjab and
Haryana for a meeting to discuss a solu-
tion to the stubble burning problem in
their states. He could have done it
earlier as it was obvious that such a
BLINDING HAZE
Vehicular traffic crawling on the Agra-Delhi
National Highway due to the dense smog
“Thegaschamber-likesituationwill
continuetillviableeconomicalternatives
tocropburningarefound.Iappealthat
wemustriseabovepoliticsandcome
togethertoassessthesituation.”
—DelhiChiefMinisterArvindKejriwal
“TheStatecannotleaveits
citizenstodieduetothe
toxichaze.”
—NationalHuman
RightsCommission
“Itisshamefulforallthe
partiesinthismatteronwhat
they’repassingontothenext
generation.”
—NationalGreenTribunal
UNI

Lead/ NCR Pollution
situation would arise.
Sumit Sharma, Associate Director,
Earth Science and Climate Change,
TERI, told India Legal: “To avoid such
emergency situations, we need a scien-
tifically developed medium-term air
quality management plan to control
emissions from different sectors. Just
concentrating on Delhi will not help as
areas around need as much attention. I
stay at Indirapuram, two kilometres
from Delhi’s border, and see garbage
burning on both sides of the road. The
management plan has to be regional in
nature as biomass burning is rampant in
NCR and around it.”
Justice Swatanter Kumar, chairper-
son of the NGT, said that the air quality
was so poor that children were finding it
difficult to breathe. The NGT was hear-
ing a plea filed by environmental activist
Akash Vashishta asking for immediate
action. He wanted the government to
put a cap on the number of vehicles in
Delhi to curb pollution. The capital has
D
elhi was the most polluted
city in the world on
November 8, 2017, accor-
ding to reports.There are loud
cries of alarm today about the
capital’s insufferable pollution but
as this will lessen after a week
or two, people will soon forget
the causes of the crisis as they
have during the past several
years. While this pollution is
caused by construction dust,
auto pollution, common road
dust, and so on, the problem
increases hugely from mid-
October till mid-November due
to crop burning in most of the
Yamuna river plains. Winds
blowing from the north-west then
cover Delhi and other areas with
fine soot particles that are
harmful for our lungs.
The main culprit is paddy
straw that is harvested in
Punjab, Haryana and western
UP from mid-October. This prob-
lem has worsened in recent
years because of several rea-
sons. The first is that almost all
the paddy is harvested by com-
bine harvesters that collect the
grain but dump the useless bro-
ken straw on the fields.
Combines also cut the straw
about 30 cm above the ground,
so farmers have to also cut off
this stubble before they can plant
their wheat crop that has to be
sown by November 10.
Second, almost all the plow-
ing and sowing is now done by
tractors, making bullocks totally
redundant. Plowing by bullocks
and bullock carts have almost
disappeared in rural India. Ear-
lier, most of the paddy straw
would be used as cattle fodder,
but buffaloes, unfortunately, find
its high silica content difficult
to digest.
Progress has also resulted in
thatched village huts giving way
to pucca brick buildings that do
not need straw thatching.
YouReapWhat
YouSowPaddy straw can be used in biomass power plants
which are not difficult to set up or operate
Delhi’sAirKillers: Dust,Trucks,Two-wheelers
As per a study conducted by IIT-Kanpur, road dust is the top contributor
of the high level of particulate matter, also called PM or particle pollution,
in Delhi. This is followed by vehicular emissions, cooking and power
plants. Trucks are the worst polluters among vehicles. Here’s a snapshot...
*Average 25%, 35-36% in peak time and
in certain areas
^ 5-10% through wood/business-based
cooking, excluding road dust
Road dust
35%
Vehicles
25-36%*
Domestic cooking
22%^
Power plant/large industry
22%
What’s pushing up Delhi’s
PM 2.5 levels...
Vehicles polluting the most...
24-25% 18% 14-15%
Trucks Two Passenger
wheelers cars
Pollution caused by secondary
particulate matters:
60%
Power plants, cooking,
all other sources
40%
Vehicular emissions
UNI
Rajender Kumar
The above data does not include the
effect of stubble burning in neighbouring states

over 1,200 new vehicles registered every
day. This is much more than the total
number of vehicles registered in
Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai.
TRANSPORT ISSUES
It has been like this for years. Even
though many vehicles have shifted to
CNG, it has not helped as vehicular
numbers are rising day by day. In the
last two years, the number of taxis has
also swelled to over 1,10,000. Adding to
this are toxic fumes from industrial
pockets in Delhi and the NCR.
There are other factors too. The
EPCA points out that the Delhi govern-
ment has not acquired new buses in the
last three years, leading to a shortfall in
the mass transport system. Since 2013,
bus ridership has been declining at an
average rate of 9 percent per ann-um.
Overall, it has dropped by as much as 34
percent. According to the latest data
available (November 2016), the system
handles 30.33 lakh passengers daily.
Thatching is now easily done with plastic
sheets. Burning of straw and stubble is,
therefore, the only available solution as
farmers have to complete the operation
before mid-November or they will not be
able to sow their wheat crop. They have
very few options and will continue this
burning unless the government reduces
paddy cultivation or pays farmers huge
sums to keep their fields fallow. Steps
that would be very difficult politically.
It will be difficult for governments to
do anything about this problem because
there is no way that their limited man-
power and police
can enforce any
ban. A rural district
is a huge area and
there are roughly 40
paddy growing dis-
tricts in Punjab,
Haryana and west-
ern UP. Each is
about 6,000 sq km
with about a million
villagers. The police
also often comes
from the same farmer stock and is too
sympathetic to their difficulties to effec-
tively enforce any bans or fines.
It is a difficult problem and there are
no easy solutions. The tragedy, however,
is that the waste straw is a huge poten-
tial source of green energy. This year,
Punjab will have a yield of nearly 19 mil-
lion tonnes (mt) of rice and about 40 mt
of paddy straw, of which about 30 mt will
go waste. So the waste straw of the
three states will be roughly 75 mt, which
is equivalent to roughly 40 mt of coal
that is capable of generating almost
40,000 MW of electricity (13 percent of
India’s total electricity production).
Biomass power plants are not difficult
to build or operate. A 12 MW plant like
that of Punjab Biomass Power Limited,
near Patiala, has been operating effec-
tively and profitably. It generates about
2,00,000 units a day from 1,20,000
tonnes of straw that it collects every year.
Projects like this can be set up in 18
months if given all the clearances.
Despite encouragement from the highest
levels in Punjab, the project was unfortu-
nately plagued with petty bureaucratic
hurdles, resulting in heavy initial losses
that were a deterrent to other investors.
Biomass projects are not, however,
easy as straw and other agricultural
waste collection is difficult in the short
window of the seasons when farm labour
is scarce. With whole-hearted support,
about 200 similar plants can be quickly
set up in these paddy growing areas and
this can quickly reduce though not com-
pletely eliminate the problem.
—By Murad Ali Baig
“Toavoidsuchemergency
situations,weneeda
scientificallydeveloped
medium-termairquality
managementplanto
controlemissionsfrom
differentsectors.”
SumitSharma,Associate
Director,EarthScienceand
ClimateChange,TERI
“Beijingwitnessedsimilar
levelslastDecemberand
declaredaredalertandan
advisorytostayindoors
andwearmasks.Delhi-
NCRwillhavetourgently
enforcesuchmeasures.”
AkshimaGhate,Associate
Director,Transportand
UrbanGovernance,TERI
“DelhiMetroalone
cannotprovidethe
neededconnectivitytoall
partsofthecity.
Weneedtourgentlyadd
morebusesandimprove
frequency.”
AnumitaRChowdhury,head,
cleanairprogramme,Centre
forScience&Environment

Lead/ NCR Pollution
Improve public transport so that
owning cars will not be a necessity.
Make parking and registration of
vehicles expensive.
Suspend driving licences and regis-
tration of polluting vehicles.
Give incentives to petrol-driven
vehicle owners in terms of tax cuts
and cheaper fuel.
Remove all abandoned unused
vehicles that owners have parked on
roadsides after penalising them.
Build new modern automated park-
ing plazas with multiple floors.
Make unauthorised parking on
roads impossible by imposing
heavy fines.
Repair roads as potholes and bro-
ken patches slow down traffic and
cause emissions.
Enact a law that ensures all trucks
carrying sand, garbage, mud and
concrete waste are fully covered.
Heavily penalise real estate compa-
nies which spread dust on roads.
Do not permit new construction
unless parking is also built and there
is a guarantee by the owner of the
property that no vehicles will be
parked on the road.
Have Quick Response Teams near
all traffic hotspots to ensure zero
congestion.
Heavily penalise those who burn
garbage, dry leaves or anything else
by the road.
Have mechanised garbage dispos-
al systems.
Recycle all garbage.
Invest in expanding Metro services
and make it affordable for all.
Eateries should only use gas for
cooking. Ban the use of coal and fire-
wood for cooking.
Close down brick kilns in and
around the NCR.
Work on long-term power genera-
tion methods using clean energy so
that diesel-operated generator sets
are phased out.
Initiate research on how biomass
burning can be avoided by employing
eco-friendly methods.
20SOLUTIONSAirQualityIndex
The Air Quality Index represents the concentration of pollutants in the
air. The highest number of each pollutant present in the air is recorded on
an hourly basis. The highest number of these pollutants for any given
hour is recorded as the AQI for that hour.
The dominant pollutants in the Delhi-NCR region are PM 10 and PM
2.5. The data released by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) for
November 9, 2017, at 1 pm, records the AQI in Delhi-NCR, at 482, which
falls in the “severe” category. This means, at that time, the concentration
of PM 2.5 was the maximum and the highest in the air. AQI, that ranges
over 401-500, is the worst level to which air quality can drop.
Delhi-NCR
Prominent Pollutant
AQI
Good Moderate PoorSatisfactory
Severe
483
AQI
(PM-Based)
424
AQI
0
482
AQI
AQI on Thursday, November 9, 2017 at 1 pm, in Delhi-NCR
500
0 500
500 100 200 300
0 500
Very poor Severe
400 500
The air quality is satisfactory, pollution poses no threat.
Acceptable, but concern for sensitive people.
The present situation in Delhi. Extremely dangerous
and could be fatal for people with breathing issues.
Life-threatening. Prolonged exposure results in respiratory
disorders, dangerous for people with breathing issues.
Clear threat to those with breathing problems,
especially elderly and children.
Health concern for a certain age group.
0-50 Good
51-100 Satisfactory
101-200 Moderate
201-300 Poor
301-400 Very Poor
401-500 Severe
PM 10
(NCR Avg)
PM 2.5
(NCR Avg)
AQI Colour Code Possible Health Impact
Source: CPCB
Rajender Kumar

administrations need to implement
solutions and take bold decisions to
reduce emissions. It is now up to the
political leadership of Delhi and the
NCR to take their implementation for-
ward,” she said.
Nearly 92 percent of the world’s
population lives in areas where the air
quality is below WHO standards. About
88 percent of premature deaths occur in
the low- and middle-income countries,
where air pollution is escalating at an
alarming rate. What we are seeing
today will be replicated next year too
unless drastic measures are taken to
deal with the problem. That requires
political will and determination.
UP IN ARMS: (Right) Children at a protest
rally against pollution in Delhi; (below) Dust
being generated at a construction site
At the same time, bus numbers have
also dwindled.
Anumita Roy Chowdhury, who heads
the clean air programme at the Centre
for Science and Environment, said:
“Delhi Metro alone cannot provide the
needed connectivity to all parts of the
city. We need to add more buses and
improve frequency. A massive augmen-
tation of public transport is needed. Not
a single bus has been procured in Delhi
over the last three years. This has added
to the pollution crisis.”
STUBBLE TROUBLE
One of the major factors leading to pol-
lution is stubble burning. The NGT had
earlier ordered that stubble should not
be burnt but farmers in Haryana and
Punjab defied it, asking the police to
arrest them. As they readied their fields
for the next sowing season, farmers were
jointly setting fire to stubble in their
fields in the last few weeks. They said
they needed to be compensated as man-
ual disposal of the stubble would entail
huge labour costs. The government has
no infrastructure to reach every field
and remove the dry stalks left after har-
vesting in an eco-friendly manner.
Kejriwal said that if the central gov-
ernment, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and
Haryana governments put politics aside,
a solution could be found. He had a
point when he emphatically said that
until state governments found economi-
cally viable solutions to crop burning, it
would not stop. News agency ANI
reported on November 9 that despite
rapidly deteriorating pollution levels,
stubble burning in Haryana continued.
It is, however, just not the stubble
that is the villain. The capital and the
NCR also choke with construction dust
from real estate projects, vehicular pol-
lution, burning of rubbish due to lack of
a modern garbage collection system,
careless transportation of mud and con-
struction waste, burning of dry leaves
and so on. All of this can be stopped by
a strong administration that has the
political will to do it. (See box)
Chowdhury said that studies have
shown that hospital admissions rise
when air pollution levels go up. “The
decision to close schools is only a tem-
porary measure. What is important is to
prevent children from exposure, from
breathing the polluted air. In fact, clos-
ing schools may trigger greater exposure
as children spend free time playing out-
doors,” she revealed.
EPCA member and director general
of Centre for Science and Environment
Sunita Narain stressed that unless the
agenda to introduce massive public
transport, stop burning of garbage, tran-
sit to cleaner fuels and ban pet coke and
furnace oil use was implemented, air
quality would not improve. “Cities and
Anil Shakya

NE important aspect of
the right to property,
which is a constitutional
right under Article 300A,
is that a person should not
be debarred from freely
transacting without express provision
of law. One cannot be prevented from
selling, renting or leasing property
unless legislation, which has passed the
test of constitutionality, specifically
prohibits it. In the absence of a
specific law, any such restrictions would
Courts/ Chhattisgarh High Court / Property Rights
be illegal.
An order passed on October 26 by
Justice Sanjay K Agrawal of the
Chhattisgarh High Court in Narayan
Prasad Vs State of Chhattisgarh & Ors
was based on the above principles. He
said that the right to property, besides
being a constitutional right, is also a
human right.
In this case, the government of
Chhattisgarh held that the land which
petitioner Narayan Prasad wanted to
transfer to another person was
TheCourthasheldthatnoonecanbedeprivedofhisrighttoownpropertyordo
transactionsinvolvingitwithoutanexpressprovisionoflaw
By Saurav Datta
OCONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT
Beneficiaries under
the Slum Rehabilitation Scheme
receiving flats from the Governor of
Punjab and Haryana, Kaptan Singh
Solanki, and the then minister
of housing and urban poverty
alleviation, M Venkaiah Naidu,
in Chandigarh
A Place to Call My Own
UNI

non-transferable as it was required for
town development. However, the town
development scheme was not notified in
the Official Gazette as required by
Section 50(7) of the Chhattisgarh Nagar
Tatha Gram Nivesh Adhiniyam, 1973.
Hence, the Court held that the restric-
tions on transfer and development of
the land as imposed by Section 53 of the
Act would not apply.
SC PRECEDENTS
In numerous cases, the Supreme Court
has defined the right to property as a
key human right. In Indore Vikas
Pradhikaran Vs Pure Industrial Coke &
Chemicals Ltd. & Ors (2007), the Court
said that the right to property is now
considered not only a constitutional
right but also a human as well as legal
right. It observed: “Earlier human rights
were existed to the claim of individuals
right to health, right to livelihood, right
to shelter and employment etc. but now
human rights have started gaining a
multifaceted approach. Now property
rights are also incorporated within the
definition of human rights. Even claim
of adverse possession has to be read in
consonance with human rights.
As US President John Adams put it:
“Property is surely a right of mankind as
real as liberty.” He had added: “The
moment the idea is admitted into socie-
ty that property is not as sacred as the
laws of God, and that there is not a force
of law and public justice to protect it,
anarchy and tyranny commence”.
The Supreme Court in DLF Qutab
Enclave Complex Educational
Charitable Trust Vs. State of Haryana &
Ors (2003) has held that the right to
transfer land is incidental to the right of
ownership of the land and cannot be
taken away without authority of law. It
observed: “In these cases, we are not
concerned with the question as to
whether the provisions of the Transfer of
Property Act are applicable in the State
of Haryana or not. Ownership of land
jurisprudentially involves a bundle of
rights. One of such rights is the right to
transfer. Such a right, being incidental
to the right of ownership, having regard
to Article 300-A of the Constitution of
India, cannot be taken away save by
authority of law.”
INTERNATIONAL PRINCIPLES
In fact, the right to property is classified
as a significant human right in impor-
tant international human rights docu-
ments too. Article 17 of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, 1948,
states: “(1) Everyone has the right to
own property alone as well as in associa-
tion with others; (2) No one shall be
arbitrarily deprived of his property.”
The (first) French Declaration of
the Rights of Man from 1789 states
that “property is an inviolable and
sacred right”.
Most constitutions of European liberal
democracies include bills of rights—
often inspired by the American and
French ones—that protect the right to
private property.
America’s founders and the early
European proponents of liberal democ-
racy understood that legal protection of
private property against arbitrary inter-
ference creates a sphere of inviolability
that is necessary for the enjoyment of
other freedoms—such as privacy and
the freedoms of expression, association,
and religion.
If all housing, media outlets, organisa-
tions and religious institutions were
State-owned, the government would be
able to control most parts of its citizens’
lives, direct their productive capacities
and quell dissent.
EUROPEAN CONVENTION
The classical understanding of the right
to property primarily entails a “negative”
obligation that protects against arbitrary
expropriation and regulation of private
property. Article 1 of the Protocol to
the European Convention on Human
Rights says:
(1) Every natural or legal person is
entitled to the peaceful enjoyment of his
possessions. No one shall be deprived of
his possessions except in the public
interest and subject to the conditions
provided for by law and by the general
principles of international law.
(2) The preceding provisions shall
not, however, in any way impair the
right of a State to enforce such laws as it
deems necessary to control the use of
property in accordance with the general
interest or to secure the payment of
taxes or other contributions or penalties.
This makes it clear that international
human rights treaties mandate that no
individual should be deprived of his
property rights without express provi-
sion of law. Thus, where the law is silent
or non-existent, the State cannot inter-
fere in the free property rights of
a person.
The Chhattisgarh High Court’s ruling
is in line with key Supreme Court orders
and international principles and marks
an important juncture in the jurispru-
dence on the right to property.
“Themomenttheideaisadmittedinto
societythatpropertyisnotassacredas
thelawsofGod,andthatthereisnota
forceoflawandpublicjusticetoprotect
it,anarchyandtyrannycommence”.
—USPresidentJohnAdams

BS Sandhu was in cahoots with the
school management, Ryan, Augustine
and Grace Pinto, and the father of the
accused, who is a senior advocate, a
member of the Haryana Bar Association
and owner of 500 acres.
Pradhyumn was found inside a toilet
of the school with his throat slit on
September 8. Footage from a second
CCTV has shown the arrested teenager
entering the toilet with a knife, the CBI
has said. The first CCTV showed a badly
injured Pradhyumn crawling out of the
toilet. The murder weapon was found at
the bottom of the commode where the
accused had dropped it and unsuccess-
fully tried to flush it. It was not found in
the possession of the bus conductor,
Kumar, as the Haryana Police had
claimed. Kumar’s family has decided to
file a case against the police.
The boy allegedly committed the
murder in order to defer the school
examination and a parent-teacher meet-
ing as he was weak in studies. It has also
become known that he was under psy-
chiatric treatment. The CBI has also
ruled out sex as the motive in the case,
contrary to the police version. It had
taken over the probe on September 23,
Focus/ Ryan Murder Case
O one thought it was pos-
sible but the Ryan
International School
murder just got ghastlier.
In a stunning twist to the
case, the CBI has arrested
a Class XI student of the school located
in Bhondsi, Gurugram, for the murder
of seven-year-old Pradhyumn Thakur, a
Class II pupil of the same school. The
16-year-old has confessed to the crime.
He has been produced before the
Juvenile Justice Board which will now
take a call on whether to treat him as a
major or minor under the amended JJ
Act (2016). It serves as a grim reminder
of the Aarushi Talwar case in which the
investigators pinned the murder on the
parents who were finally acquitted with
the courts coming down heavily on the
investigators for a shabby job.
In the Ryan case as well, the CBI has
accused the Haryana Police of framing
bus conductor Ashok Kumar by extract-
ing a confession from him under duress.
It has also accused the police of destruc-
tion of evidence. The police failed to seal
the murder spot and though it found a
second knife, it never mentioned it. The
media has claimed that Haryana DGP
after repeated appeals from Pradh-
yumn’s father, Varun Thakur, for a fair
investigation in the case.
DISCOMFITED LOT
“My son is innocent. It was he who
informed the gardener and teachers of
the injury to Pradhyumn. Besides, he
was not present at the spot of the crime
when it took place and was writing the
exam. We are being framed,” the father
of the accused had initially said. How-
ever, a day after the arrest, the CBI rep-
orted that the teen had confessed before
his father that he killed Pradhyumn.
DGP Sandhu, too, had put on a brave
face. Even while debate raged in the
media on whether or not he should be
sacked as punishment for botching up
the investigation, he told reporters, “Koi
baat nahin. Let the CBI investigate the
case. Once the probe is complete, the
truth will come to the fore.”
Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar,
too, has been batting for the Haryana
Police, sparking speculation about com-
N
KILLER CLASSROOMS
The Ryan International School, Sohna
Road, Bhondsi, Gurugram
School for Scandal
Theinvestigationhastaken
anunexpectedtwistwitha
seniorstudentbeingarrested.
WhydidtheGurugrampolice
chargethewrongpersonand
whathappenstohimnow?
Haveschoolsdoneenough
tobeefupsecuritysince
theincident?
By Sucheta Dasgupta

plicity as the Pintos are known to have
been close to the ruling BJP. “Haryana
police had not completed its investiga-
tion. When investigations were on, a
demand was raised that the matter be
handed over to the CBI. It was handed
over to them. CBI is now conducting
investigations. It is their job, not ours,”
Khattar had said.
MIXED SAFETY COMPLIANCE
As a response to the horrific crime, first
the CBSE and then the human resource
development and the women and child
development ministries issued guide-
lines to keep schools safe. Compliance
with these suggestions has been mixed.
While schools like the Delhi Public
School and School of India have recently
introduced radio frequency identifica-
tion cards which monitor children’s
entry and exit to and from campuses
and send out SMS alerts to parents as
soon as they leave the premises, there
are reports that other private schools are
reluctant to put staff through psychome-
tric tests as stipulated in the guidelines.
Post the Ryan incident, schools like
Don Bosco Alaknanda now require par-
ents to state in writing if their wards
avail of private transport to commute.
Others, such as DPS, are a little more
lenient; here, students can decide to
leave the campuses using private vehi-
cles, but they, too, must write to the
authorities to inform them before they
do so.
The safety requirements include,
among others, installation of CCTV
cameras, security audit of premises,
police verification of outsiders, hiring of
support staff via authorised agencies
only, training of staff to prevent abuse
and setting up of a parent-teacher-stu-
dent committee, a grievance redressal
committee and a committee under the
Protection of Children from Sexual
Offences Act. When India Legal called
up New Green Field School in
Alaknanda, New Delhi, to check
whether these measures were being fol-
lowed, Vice-Principal Nidhi Chauhan
refused to comment.
What will the Juvenile Justice Board
consider when deciding whether
Pradhyumn’s killer will be treated as a
major or a minor in the case? National
Commission for Protection of Child
Rights member Yashwant Jain believes
the fact that the murder was planned
and cold-blooded will play a deciding
role in the case.
“Had it been an accident or an act
perpetrated in the heat of the moment,
the Board might have chosen to treat
him as a child. But the accused was fully
aware of the consequences of his actions
and showed the mental ability of an
adult insofar as knowledge as well as
planning of the act are concerned,” Jain
told India Legal.
A preliminary decision will be taken
by the JJB at the end of the three-day
CBI remand of the accused after which
he will be sent to a place of safety. But
the JJB will take at least two-three
months to arrive at a final conclusion in
this regard, Jain said. It will take the
help of child psychologists and other
experts for this purpose and will docu-
ment all grounds for its decision, he
said. As there are no guidelines on this
even though states had been asked to
formulate them, it will be the first prece-
dent. Should the boy be tried as an adult
under Section 302 of the Indian Penal
Code for murder, the case will go to the
sessions court where this document will
be referred to by the judge before con-
tinuing with the trial.
However, as Soha Moitra, regional
director of NGO Child Rights and You,
maintains, “The case is still under inves-
tigation, and we must take care that the
boy is not unduly stigmatised as hap-
pened with Ashok Kumar. That being
said, we must also introspect as a socie-
ty. Think about what might have been
going through the child’s mind. How are
we dealing with our children? Why do
children become bullies? What kind of
socialisation are we providing them?
Are they being given any vent-out points
and a holistic upbringing, or are we
focussed solely on their careers to the
exclusion of everything else?”
NO HESITATION
Nevertheless, her words do little to ease
the sense of foreboding in schools since
the CBI has found there were others,
presumably children, who helped the
perpetrator, if only by keeping quiet
about his plans when they had knowl-
edge of them. During the days leading
up to the exam, the teenager had
bragged to his classmates that he would
make sure it was called off so they need-
n’t prepare for it. On the fateful day that
the killer chose his victim, Pradhyumn
was simply there at the wrong place at
the wrong time.
If the CBI version is true, it could
have been any innocent young student
who needed to use the washroom. For
parents of schoolchildren, the arrest of a
senior student in the shocking murder
case is hardly a sign of closure, nor does
it reduce their anxiety over the safety of
their children.
Duringthedaysleadinguptothe
exam,theteenagerhadbraggedtohis
classmatesthathewouldmakesureit
wascalledoff.Onthefatefulday,
Pradhyumn(above)wassimplythere
atthewrongplaceatthewrongtime.

court of law. Under the Disciplinary
Measures section, Point 8 states that the
school has created special rooms for
detention, called “designated rooms”.
While detention in schools is not a new
phenomenon, a special room for the
purpose is surprising. It seems like
forced confinement. This cannot be
done without the legal oversight of an
adult. It is also in contravention of the
parameters laid out in the Juvenile
Justice (Care and Protection of
Children) Act, 2000.
Section 23 of the JJ Act, which deals
with cruelty to a juvenile or a child says:
“Whoever having the actual charge of, or
control over, a juvenile or the child…
Education/ Punishment in Schools
CHOOLS and their rules
have come under the radar
after the gruesome murder
of Pradhyumn, a student of
Ryan International in
Gurugram. It is obvious
that there is a huge disconnect today
between school managements, teachers
and parents of elite schools.
There are allegations that schools fo-
cus more on building a business and ab-
solve themselves of all blame in case of
an accident than providing a safe haven
for children. The ancient guru-shishya
parampara has largely been ignored and
many have foregone their responsibility
towards wholesome development of
children. In fact, rules in certain schools
are shocking, to say the least.
For example, in the student diary of
Delhi Public School, RK Puram, there
are some rules that will never hold in a
causes him to be …exposed or neglected
in a manner likely to cause… unneces-
sary mental or physical suffering shall
be punishable with imprisonment for a
term which may extend to six months,
or fine, or with both.”
The Delhi School Education Act &
Rules, 1973, provides for only certain
types of detention. It says: “37. (1) (a) (i)
detention during the break for neglect
of class work but no detention shall be
made after school hours.”
India Legal sent a questionnaire to
DPS principal Vanita Sehgal for clarifi-
cation on this issue. Asked if a detention
centre would not put immense psycho-
logical pressure on children, Sehgal
wrote back: “...I would like to empha-
sise... that we at DPS RK Puram do not
believe in punishments which will put
psychological pressure on our children,
as you can well see from the first few
rules which are basically about coun-
selling the children. Detention means
being asked to stay in a classroom with a
teacher during the break time and eat-
ing lunch/tiffin there. It is for 20 min-
utes. Students are, of course, allowed to
visit the restroom and water coolers.
Students may be asked to complete
work they have missed or are counselled
by the teacher on duty.”
H
owever, the diary does talk
about special rooms. Detention
in a special room designated
for such a purpose is tantamount to
forced confinement and could result in
psychological pressure and trauma for
the child.
Another controversial point in the
diary is “Swimming Pool Rules”. Point
No. 13 states that the user of the pool
would do so at his/her own risk and that
the school will not be responsible for
any kind of injury sustained by the
user, nor for any accident. It adds that
no compensation shall be awarded in
case of any mishap. This is shocking
as all swimming pool providers are
legally bound to provide a certified life-
guard when it is open to the public (in
this case, students). Sehgal’s reply to
Thiscontroversialruleofsomeschoolscouldwellgoagainst
theJuvenileJusticeActandinvitelegalaction
By Sujit Bhar
S
A“Detention”
RoomforStudents?
GROUND FOR CONCERN
Schools need to provide students with a
safe learning environment; (facing page) the
student diary of DPS RK Puram
UNI

this was unconvincing. She said: “Rule
13, as quoted by you, is the basic rule
of any swimming pool, to ensure that
students do not indulge in any indisci-
plinary activity which may put their
lives or others in danger. It does not
mean that the school is absolving itself
of any responsibility.”
The basic instruction for public swi-
mming pools—as standardised
by the Pune Municipal Corporation
in 2012—says that for every 20 swim-
mers, there should be one trained life-
guard. The lifeguards should have com-
pleted a training course from a recog-
nised institute.
Sehgal preceded this reply with the
following explanation: “At the Swim-
ming Pool we have trained coaches and
licensed lifeguards in each shift. A
trained nurse is on duty and an ambu-
lance is stationed there at all times. In
addition the Physical Education Dep-
artment teachers are on duty along with
a security guard.” If that is so, why does
Point No. 13 state that the user of the
pool would do so at his/her own risk?
Similarly, Apeejay School, Sector
16A, Film City, Noida, has outlined its
discipline policy in its diary. Point No. 9
says: “The school reserves the right to
isolate/suspend or expel a student with
or without warning for any act of indis-
cipline and gross misconduct.” India
Legal’s questionnaire to the school asked
how it intends to “isolate” any student
and put the blame on him in case of
gross misconduct by a section of stu-
dents. Till the time of going to the press,
there was no reply from the school.
India Legal’s sister concern, APN,
recently took up the issue and several
experts voiced their opinions. Justice
VK Mathur, a former judge of the
Allahabad High Court, said: “Detention
and swimming pool rules are unilateral,
and set up by the schools. Even if the
schools say in their booklets that they
absolve themselves of all blame, legal
liabilities will definitely stay.”
S
adly, schools also lack a humane
touch. Jyoti Thakur, mother of the
late Pradhyumn, made a startling
revelation. She said: “My son died there,
but nobody from the school ever called
to find out how we were. I had called
the school, no teacher even talked
to me.”
Dr Loveleen Kakkar, ex-additional
secretary, Women and Child Develop-
ment ministry, Madhya Pradesh, said
that there were laws aplenty on this, but
there is no implementation. “Are we cre-
ating a safe environment for children?”
she asked.
Dr Bharti Ali, Co-Director, HAQ
Centre for Child Rights, and a parent,
had a different take on this issue. “Why
do we accept such regulations that will,
obviously, not pass the test of law? We
accept the fact that our children are in a
famous school and our position in socie-
ty moves up,” she said.
Another perspective was shown by
Reena Pandey, business head of Krimps
Lotus Veda International School. She
asked: “Does the management provide
enough incentives to the teachers? Are
teachers well-remunerated? Do they get
enough training? I would say the res-
ponsibility of the schools is 80 percent,
while that of parents is 20 percent.”
It is obvious that there is a need for
more parent-management meetings and
for schools to lay down rules based on
these inputs. After all, the safety of a
child, the nation’s future, cannot be left
to fate.
“Thedetentionandswimmingpoolrules
areunilateral,andsetupbytheschools.
Theycanhavenolegalbindingeffect.
Eveniftheschoolssayinthebookletthat
theyabsolvethemselvesofallblame,
legalliabilitieswilldefinitelystay.”
—JusticeVKMathur,aformerjudgeofthe
AllahabadHighCourt
“Doesthemanagementprovideenough
incentivestotheteachers?Areteachers
wellremunerated?Dotheygetenough
training?Yes,parentsdohavearesponsi-
bility,butIwouldsaytheresponsibilityof
theschoolsis80percent.”
—ReenaPandey,businessheadofKrimps
LotusVedaInternationalSchool

HE Supreme Court recent-
ly heard a petition filed by
Delhi BJP leader Ashwini
Kumar Upadhyay seeking
a lifetime ban on convicted
and charge-sheeted MPs
and MLAs in electoral politics. The cur-
rent law, under the Representation of
the People Act (Section 8), 1951, debars
convicted politicians from contesting
elections for a period of six years follow-
ing the date of release from prison.
The PIL argued that while judges
and public servants are dismissed from
service and face a lifetime ban from gov-
ernment service once convicted, it is
only fair that the same be the case for
the people’s representatives as well.
According to the petitioners, the dis-
crimination between public servants
and politicians violates Article 14 of the
Constitution which prohibits discrimi-
nation between two classes of citizens.
The Election Commission of India
took a stand, stating that the matter
falls in the domain of the parliament.
The Supreme Court, reprimanding the
EC, said: “Can you afford to remain
silent when it is within the domain of
the commission? If you don’t want to be
independent, if you want to be con-
strained by the legislature, constrained
even to express your views, say so freely.”
This harsh rebuke was unprecedented
for the EC.
Upon being pulled up by the apex
court for not taking a proper stand on
the issue, the Election Commission
finally submitted an affidavit to the
Court supporting a lifetime ban on con-
victed politicians contesting elections. If
the Supreme Court were to go ahead
with the EC’s recommendation, it would
mean an end to the political careers of
many prominent leaders.
The centre, on the other hand, took a
stand in stark contrast to the EC’s. In its
affidavit, it said that the plea was not
maintainable and must be dismissed,
and that the existing rule is in no way a
violation of Article 14. The affidavit,
shooting down the proposal to tinker
with Section 8 of the RPA, said that the
Article already provides constitutionally
prescribed limits regarding the disquali-
fication of convicted politicians and that
no further restriction or disqualification
Life Ban is Excessive
ThoughtheElectionCommissionwantsalifebanonconvictedMPsandMLAscontestingpolls,
theformerchiefelectioncommissionersaystherearealreadysufficientlegalprovisionsto
punishsuchpeopleandkilltheirpoliticalcareers
T
My Space SY Quraishi/ Criminalisation in Politics
TAINTED POLITICIAN
(Above) Rashtriya Janata
Dal chief Lalu Prasad
Yadav is facing a slew of
corruption cases
HELD GUILTY
AIADMK leader Sasikala, convicted in a
disproportionate assets case, is in prison

can be applied to the Act.
The then Chief Justice of India, JS
Khehar, commenting on the iss-ue,
noted that a lifetime ban on convicted
politicians impinges upon the will of the
people as they should be free to choose
whoever they want as their representa-
tives. Justice Khehar said: “Murder may
not be a bar to fight elections. The court
can only give a sentence and make it
clear that someone is a murderer.”
C
hintan Chandrachud, prominent
lawyer and scholar based in
London, in an article in The
Hindu notes that the Supreme Court
has lately announced a series of deci-
sions modifying the election process.
These include—the citizen’s right to cast
a “none of the above” vote, disqualifica-
tion of prisoners from standing for elec-
tions during periods of incarceration,
the judgment that “concealment of
criminal antecedents constitutes a cor-
rupt practice under the law and that
electoral appeals to caste and religion
are impermissible”. The judgment to
ban convicted criminals from contesting
elections may well be the last decision in
the longlist of recent electoral reforms.
Chandrachud, however, argues that such
a rule might well be in violation of peo-
ple’s right to vote and to contest elec-
tions. Both the rights are “fundamental
markers of citizenship in a constitution-
al democracy”. In sync with Chief Justice
Khehar’s comment, the article argues
that while the Supreme Court must
introduce transparency-promoting
measures, it can, at the same time, not
take away the rights of the citizens by
debarring them from permanently con-
testing elections.
While the PIL and the subsequent
debate around it has once again brou-
ght to light the need to decriminalise
politics, the issue itself has three
dimensions:
Current provision pertaining to dis-
qualification of MPs and MLAs
post-conviction.
The proposal to permanently debar
convicted politicians from electoral
politics.
The larger issue of the huge number
of undertrial politicians contesting and
winning elections. While Section 8 of
the RPA bans convicted politicians,
those under trial, no matter how serious
the charges, are free to contest elections.
There is a lot of ambiguity and mis-
information about what leads to dis-
qualification of a candidate. While the
general perception is that only a convic-
tion of over two years leads to disqualifi-
cation, the facts are as follows: For some
offences mentioned in sub-section (1) of
Section 8, conviction even without sen-
tence of imprisonment leads to disquali-
fication (some IPC offences such as
Section 153A are about promoting
enmity between different groups; S.
171E and 171F about bribery and undue
influence in elections; S. 376 is about
offences related to rape, S. 498A is
about cruelty towards women by hus-
band/relative; while making a statement
leading to enmity/hatred between differ-
ent classes, offences under the
Prevention of Unlawful Activities Act,
FERA, POTA and Prevention of
Corruption Act fall in the category of
offences for which mere conviction leads
to disqualification).
F
or three offences mentioned in
sub-section(2) of Section 8, dis-
qualification arises when convict-
ed and sentenced to imprisonment of six
months or more. The offences are (a)
under Dowry Prohibition Act, Act relat-
ing to prevention of profiteering and
hoarding and Act relating to adulter-
ation of food and drugs. For all other
offences, which are not listed in sub-sec-
tions (1) and (2), disqualification arises
when convicted and sentenced to two
years’ imprisonment or more. Thus, if a
sitting member is convicted and attracts
disqualification under the above
CHARGED WITH
CORRUPTION
(Right) Indian
National Lok Dal
chief Om Prakash
Chautala is
in jail for his
involvement in the
teachers'
recruitment scam
THE KINGPIN
Former RJD MP Mohammad
Shahabuddin has been named an
accused in the Rajdeo Ranjan
murder case

My Space/ SY Quraishi/ Criminalisation in Politics
mentioned provisions of Section 8,
he/she will lose the seat immediately as
per the recent SC judgment in the Lily
Thomas case.
I
n 2003, in the Lily Thomas Vs
Union of India case, the Supreme
Court passed a landmark judgment
on the issue of criminalisation of poli-
tics. It stated that any politician who is
convicted of a crime and sentenced to a
minimum of two years in prison, loses
membership of the House with immedi-
ate effect. The bench said: “The provi-
sions of Article 101(3) (a) and 190 (3)
(a) of the Constitution expressly prohibit
Parliament to defer the date from which
the disqualification will come into effect
in case of a sitting member of Parlia-
ment or a State Legislature.”
Regarding the issue of dealing with
politicians post-conviction, I agree with
the two opinions mentioned above. I
believe that while criminalisation of pol-
itics is one of the major evils plaguing
Indian democracy, a lifetime ban on pol-
iticians is too extreme. A six-year ban,
following two years’ minimum impris-
onment, is already enough to kill any
person’s political career.
Further, I believe a distinction needs
to be drawn between convictions for
heinous crimes—murder, attempt to
murder, rape, crimes causing communal
disharmony, dacoity, kidnapping, trea-
son—and crimes such as disruption of
law and order owing to politicians par-
ticipating in a protest/dharna or pro-
hibiting a public servant from discharg-
ing his/her duty, possession of an unli-
censed firearm, traffic offences, and so
on. To treat both sets of crimes equally
and to impose a life ban on politicians
convicted of crimes of the latter category
is indeed against the democratic ethos
of the country.
Coming to the larger debate sur-
rounding the criminalisation of politics
in India, according to the Association
for Democratic Reform’s (ADR) analysis
of the EC data, 187 MPs in the current
Lok Sabha face criminal charges (ie,
34.4 percent). Of them, 113 face serious
criminal charges. The number has gone
up from 162 (76 serious) charges in
2009 and 128 (58 serious) in 2004. This
obviously shows the political class and
legislature in a poor light.
As proposed by me earlier, I believe
that there are three possible solutions to
the issue:
Political parties should refuse tickets
to tainted candidates—especially those
involved in heinous crimes.
The RPA should be amended to debar
people who face charges of heinous
crimes from contesting elections.
Fast-track courts should decide cases
of tainted legislators quickly.
In a judgment in 2014, the Supreme
Court directed the lower courts to con-
clude proceedings against
politicians accused of serious crimes
within a year. The government wrote to
the states to provide full support and
implement the judgment. The step,
however, failed due to two reasons—the
humongous burden on the lower courts
that have an average of 4,000 cases a
year and the argument that such a step
discriminates against other equally
important pending cases in the lower
courts. Following this, the apex court,
revising its earlier decision, has ordered
the setting up of special fast-track courts
for the trial of tainted politicians. It has
asked the government to provide the
necessary funds.
T
he Law Commission in its reply to
the PIL in 2011 had said,
“Disqualifi-cation upon conviction
has proved to be incapable of curbing the
growing criminalisation of politics, owing
to long delays in trials and rare convic-
tions. The law needs to evolve to pose an
effective deterrence, and to prevent sub-
version of the process of justice.”
There are more desirable ways of
preventing criminalisation of politics
than life bans, chief among them being
discouraging parties from giving tickets
to such people. Public education about
not voting for tainted politicians can
also be a crucial step. As there is a
condition that all contestants filing an
affidavit should declare all pending
cases against them, steps have already
been taken in the right direction. While
repeat offenders and those who have
committed heinous crimes need to be
punished, offenders charged with mil-
der crimes should not be subject to the
same punishment.
—The writer is the former Chief
Election Commissioner of India
MAKING THE RIGHT CHOICE
People waiting to cast votes. Should they
elect politicians convicted of crimes?

Briefs
The Union home ministry will
soon get two new divisions to
combat cyber crime and online
terror. The two divisions, namely,
counter radicalisation and cyber
security, are a part of the adminis-
trative restructuring under which
four divisions of the ministry will be
merged into two. The judicial and
centre-state divisions will be
merged as will the international
cooperation and public grievances
divisions.
The new counter-radicalisation
unit will identify and tackle terror
outfits such as Islamic State oper-
ating online while the cyber secu-
rity division will track and combat
cyber fraud, hacking and other
online crimes.
MHA gets 2 new
units to combat
online threats, terror
—Compiled by Lilly Paul
Seal faulty voting machines
Apetition was filed in
the Supreme Court
seeking an FIR against
Samajwadi Party leader
and former Uttar Pradesh
chief minister Mulayam
Singh Yadav for giving
orders to open fire on kar
sevaks in Ayodhya in 1990.
Yadav was the chief minis-
ter of the state at that time.
The petitioner, Rana
Sangram Singh, a Luck-
now resident, had earlier
filed the petition in a trial
court in 2014. After the
trial court dismissed his
plea, the petitioner moved
the Allahabad High Court
and later approached the
Supreme Court, challeng-
ing the high court’s order.
The petitioner claimed
that Yadav had made pub-
lic statements confessing
that he had ordered the
police to fire on kar sevaks
to appease the Muslims.
Asessions court in Raipur
rejected the bail plea of
senior journalist Vinod Verma
(centre). The former BBC
journalist and member of the
Editors Guild of India had
been arrested by the state
police for alleged blackmail-
ing and extortion, following a
sex video reportedly involving
a minister in the Chhattisgarh
government. Verma is at pres-
ent in judicial custody till
November 13. His bail plea
was rejected earlier by a judi-
cial magistrate first class court
in Raipur. According to media
sources, Verma’s lawyers were
planning to challenge the ver-
dict in the high court. They
tried to defend him, saying he
had been framed without
reason in the case, but the
court was not convinced.
Petition against Mulayam on kar sevaks
The Gujarat
High Court
recently issued
notice to the
Election Commi-
ssion, the Gujarat
government and
the centre on
faulty EVMs and
VVPATs in the
state. The Court’s
response came on
a petition filed by
the Congress,
which wanted it to
make sure that
defective machines
were kept out of
the ensuing polls
in the state. It
argued that this
was vital for con-
ducting free and
fair polls in the
state. The Court
asked all of them
to respond by
November 13.
The Congress
pleaded that 7
percent of the total
70,182 VVPATs
were found to be
defective during
the “first-level
checks along with
defective EVMs
and control units.”
SeniorjournalistVinodVerma
deniedbailin“sexCD”row
Judges get a hike in DA
According to
media re-
ports, the judges
of the SC and high
courts have got a
hike in their dear-
ness allowance
(DA). However,
proposals for an
increase in their
pay structure are
still lying before
the cabinet.
A letter from
the department of
justice in the law
ministry which
has been reported-
ly sent to the
Supreme Court
and the high
courts say that the
DA of the judges
has been revised
to 139 percent
based on the 6th
Pay Commission.
The hike is appli-
cable from July 1.
The two bills on
providing salary
benefits under the
7th Pay Commi-
ssion will be tab-
led in the winter
session of parlia-
ment after the
cabinet’s nod.

Opinion Bikram Vohra/ Swachh Bharat
(Management and Handling) Rules,
2011, are integrated in a regulatory fra-
mework set up to control the use, manu-
facture, and recycling of plastic waste.
Rule 9 makes it compulsory for manu-
facturers of plastic products and recy-
clers to obtain registration from the
State Pollution Control Board. Rule 10
states that no retailer can provide plastic
bags free of cost.
The concept of selective deposit of
recyclable and degradable materials is
non-existent. A Business Standard sur-
vey indicates that nearly 40 percent of
garbage is paper and it blankets the
country. As far as glass is concerned, as
much as 55 percent goes into the earth
to lie there for centuries. No wonder our
beaches are a hazard strip. A sobering
reflection: according to the United
Nations Development Programme, up to
40 percent of the food produced in
Indiaisacountrygroaning
undergarbagewithsome
1,00,000tonnesbeing
generatedeveryday.Despite
variouslawstotacklethe
rubbish,ithasnotmade
adentintheway
Indiansbehave
The
Waste
Land
F VIPs wish to pick up brooms and
engage in the optics of a well-
organised photo op, so be it. At
least they are sending a correct
message even if those 20-odd min-
utes of futility won’t go very far in
cleaning up 65,000 tonnes of garbage
produced by urban India every day.
Add the rural contribution and that
figure hits 1,00,000 tonnes every 24
hours, according to media reports. Over
three million trucks fling the waste in a
disorganised and unhygienic manner
into the sea or groaning landfills that
cannot take it anymore. If you take a
look at our streets, you would be hard
put to believe we have written laws for
removing and destroying garbage
We actually have a whole slew of
laws intended to protect and preserve
the environment and ourselves. But
there is no Erin Brockovich taking on
I
the corporate polluters and our courts
seldom if ever take on these issues or
breaches of the legal fiats. As per Rule 4
of the Municipal Solid Wastes (Mana-
gement and Handling) Rules, 2000,
“every municipal authority is responsi-
ble for infrastructure for segregation
and processing of municipal solid waste
(MSW), commonly known as garbage”.
But it is as effective as a wet noodle.
Of the 40,000 tonnes of plastic pro-
duced daily, nearly 40 percent fails to
get recycled and adds to the suffocation
of Mother Earth. The Plastic Waste
Weareasupercleanpeopleinso
faraswecandirtyupthespace
aroundus.Lookattheledgesof
urbanbuildings.Theyarechoked
withdebris,bakinginthesun.

India is wasted and turns into garbage.
If you go by bhookh.com, over 20 crore
Indians will sleep hungry tonight. In
2011, India introduced the food wastage
law but it withered on the vine.
A billion batteries are thrown away
every year and the figure can only
increase as financial liquidity and EMIs
offer goodies to over a billion people.
The indifference to corrosive materials
leads to acid, nickel, cadmium, silver,
cobalt, mercury and lead leaching into
the ground.
The Batteries Rules of 2001 apply to
every manufacturer, recycler, dealer,
importer, assembler, bulk consumer
(like organisations and departments
purchasing over 100 batteries) and con-
sumers. Yet, there is no stopping the
bleeding into the earth.
According to the US Agency for Toxic
Substances and Disease Registry, cadmi-
transformation. But he cannot win this
war through good intentions. Each one
of us has to be a soldier to make it hap-
pen. How far back are we in the third
year of this race to clean up? There are
2,200 “waste to energy” conversion sys-
tems in the world and we have only
eight such plants.
The fact is we are a super clean peo-
ple in so far as we can dirty up the space
around us in achieving this goal. Look at
the ledges of urban buildings. They are
choked with debris, baking in the sun,
sogging in the rain. See the housewife
assiduously sweep her home clean and
then fling the pan of muck over the wall.
Drive with an executive in his upmarket
car and he thinks nothing of flinging the
half-eaten sandwich on the road along
with a can of soda that alm-ost hits the
car behind and makes that driver swerve
dangerously. A truck on the highway
spilling half its contents through the
split seams of its container. Who cares?
We want our rivers and ponds and
lakes dredged and cleaned. First we
must stop defecating in them, bathing in
them, giving E Coli and other infesta-
tions which are magnificent breeding
grounds. Neither our gods nor nature
GARBAGE WOES
(Left) Garbage piled up at
Okhla landfill in Delhi; (above)
BJP MP Shatrughan Sinha
wields a broom with party MLAs
during the launch of the prime
minister’s Clean India Mission,
in Patna
um can cause lung damage, kidney dis-
ease and death, while lead can damage
the kidneys, nervous system and repro-
ductive system.
P
rescription meds, both capsules
and syrups, bandages, soiled
linen, sanitary napkins, all sorts
of bio-medical waste leak into the water
supply. The Bio-Medical Waste
(Management and Handling) Rules,
1998, are ostensibly to ensure that these
wastes are safely disposed of. Bio-med-
ical waste covers any waste or byproduct
generated during treatment, immunisa-
tion and treatment of human beings or
animals or in research activities, but it is
totally ineffective.
The three-year-old clarion call by
Prime Minister Narendra Modi can
hardly be faulted. To make it succeed,
mindsets have to undergo a thorough
Anil Shakya
UNI

spiked in children. According to WHO,
30 million Indians suffer from asthma.
And what adds most to waste? Our
habit of wasting.
How can waste ever be good? Look
at the food that goes into the garbage.
Over two kilos per person per day,
although in 2013 it was marked at a lit-
tle less by the International Solid Waste
Association. Countries creating the
highest amounts of waste were China,
followed by the US and India. It is esti-
has decreed that we pollute running
waters with ashes of our dead and the
clay idols of our worship. Think of it…
even TB is back and it was one of the
empirical cures in medical science.
Spitting, hacking, coughing, peeing,
all of these are part of the problem and
Modi’s best intentions are mere card-
board against the wilful nature of man.
Come winter and smokestacks will belch
muck into the air aided by roadside fires
to keep the chill away. This will see acrid
smoke choking the already dangerously
polluted air in our cities. Illnesses will
rise exponentially.
Dirty water, filthy air, contaminated
spaces, this is the legacy for our children
and it is showing. Asthma, influenza,
multiple sclerosis, chest congestions,
pneumonia and throat ailments have all
mated that a person creates waste of
around three times their own weight,
which means that on an average, 271.7
kg of garbage per person was generated
then and would probably be higher now
due to increased consumerism.
G
o to your fridge again and pull
out all the stuff that has expired.
See how much it had cost you
and you never used it. Half bottles of
pickles and relish, sauces by the dozen,
congealed cups of ice-cream, dried rind
of cheese, cucumbers with mold, all to
be thrown away. What a waste.
Clothes you’ll never wear, jamming
your cupboards. Bric-a-brac stuffed into
spaces because they were replaced on
the decor pyramid years ago but you
never got rid of them. A storeroom full
of dust-covered books no one will read,
dated magazines, never to be opened
but an invitation to white ants.
There is that silly hoarding habit.
Meds that have expired, video movies
that will never enter a VCR because they
don’t make them anymore, old comput-
er screens that don’t work, cracked
mobile phones, broken chairs and
tables, suitcases choked with stuff of
no value.
Our e-waste problem is real. But
there is no organised system for disposal
despite the E-Waste (Management and
Handling) Rules saying that such a sys-
tem should be there.
So we end up depositing some
18.5 lakh tonnes of electronic rejects
into the garbage annually without a
care, making India the fifth largest
e-waste nation globally.
The one constant in all this is the law
flouting all these laws.
ALARMING SIGNS
(Left) Garbage management is a major crisis
in Delhi; (below) Central Delhi’s elite
Connaught Place is marred by filthy,
paan-stained walls
Opinion/ Bikram Vohra/ Swachh Bharat
Wehaveawholeslewoflawsto
protectandpreservethe
environmentandourselves.But
thereisnoErinBrockovichtaking
onthecorporatepolluters.
Anil Shakya

HEN the word “mil-
itary” is mentioned,
the civilian mind
goes into turmoil—is
my liberty at stake,
am I being bound to
undemocratic methods and practices? A
civilian is attuned to the idea of democ-
racy and the army is seen as an entity
that can be a barrier to enjoying the
fruits of democracy.
Nothing can be further from the
truth. Each and every soldier con-
tributes towards building and shoring
up the democratic infrastructure of the
State. Unfortunately, we have condi-
tioned our minds into thinking that a
uniformed soldier is the complete
opposite of what is required to support
a democratic machine, without
knowing that it is through his
sacrifices that liberties and rights are
secured and strengthened.
Equally, the average citizen wants
capable and strong people to run the
country. It would perhaps be ideal for
every citizen to have the attributes and
qualities of soldiers who guard the
nation. He would be physically fit, moti-
vated and armed with the right
qualities for leadership and managerial
roles. If these citizens then become
political leaders, it would be against
this background.
This can be done in a systematic man-
ner if compulsory military training is
imparted to every school and college
student. The country will then have a
vast stock of soldier-citizens ready to
face challenges which now appear to
be insurmountable.
NCC ROLE
This brings us to an issue staring us in
the face—the existence of the National
Cadet Corps (NCC). In the late 1960s,
NCC participation was compulsory in
schools and colleges. In fact, NCC cadets
contributed very effectively during the
1962 and 1965 wars as escorts of mili-
tary logistics trains and trucks carrying
military equipment, and in helping
refugee columns as a support to local
police and administration. This practice
over the years got diluted and now is
hardly in existence. There is an urgent
need to revive it in an amended form
and with definite parameters.
The core centre for this should be a
strengthened and upgraded version of
the NCC, renamed the National Military
Preparatory Corps (NMPC). The NMPC
could be a regular feeder to the armed
forces if the student wants to be in the
A Country of
Soldier-citizens
ItwouldbeidealifallIndianshavetheattributesandqualitiesofsoldierssothattheyare
physicallyfit,motivatedandarmedforleadershipandmanagerialroles
W
My Space Praful Bakshi / Compulsory Military Training
IN CORRECT FORM
PM Narendra Modi inspecting a guard of
honour during an NCC rally, in New Delhi

forces,; else he will become a first-grade
citizen with excellent training to face the
task of nation-building.
The NMPC should be headed by an
officer of lieutenant general rank from
any of the three services and be placed
under the Integrated Defence Staff. Like
the NCC, this would naturally turn out
to be a tri-service organisation. State-
level NMPCs could be headed by a
major general or equivalent rank officers
and they could control district-level
areas through NMPC battalions and
squadrons. Full advantage could be
taken of local military formations of the
army, air and naval bases.
The three services could be allotted
extra funds to meet the increase in logis-
tics and training.
Besides the three services, there
could be officers and men from the
Border Security Force (BSF) and the
Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) on
deputation. Compulsory military train-
ing would hold good if the student has a
fair understanding of national security,
the meaning of the nomenclature and
role of the armed forces, military and
national industrial capability, depend-
ence of military development on nation-
al industry, handling and management
of disaster situations, study of various
philosophies and development and
requirement of modern weapons sys-
tems. This special subject must be from
Class VIII till college. The syllabus can
be jointly worked out by a team of serv-
ice officers and those from the ministry
of education. The physical training on
ground, sea and air can be the responsi-
bility of the service groups, exposing
such students to weaponry and neces-
sary technology.
WORK OUT SYLLABUS
However, no cadet of the NMPC should
be allowed to be part of any political
activity. This would be allowed only
after leaving college. For the additional
subject of military study and security,
the syllabus should be worked out by a
special committee formed by officers of
the services, education ministry and the
University Grants Commission (UGC).
Camps can be held in every state, using
the help of service formations. But for
Class XII and college students, the
camp should be at one location.
The training syllabus must include
military studies, all aspects of internal
security, threat from various quarters to
the nation, anti-terrorism operations,
along with subjects like indigenisation
of defence and other industries. All sub-
jects could start from a basic level,
according to the student's age and stage.
The defence budget must be suitably
upgraded and the education ministry
and state governments must be asked to
contribute monetarily, logistically and
through manpower. This reservoir of
capable manpower would not only
become the second line of defence, but
contribute towards nation-building,
governance, law and order, regional
security and protection of vital points
and areas, rural development pro-
grammes, upgradation of environmental
health and cleanliness, and tasks such as
flood and earthquake management.
The organisation of Home Guards
could become a part of this to give the
force added punch. India has a vast
reservoir of youth power waiting to be
harnessed. This is one way to imbue dis-
cipline, fitness, military training and
mental toughness along with a greater
understanding of challenges and
responses at the national level.
TheNationalMilitaryPreparatoryCorps
couldbearegularfeedertothearmed
forcesifthestudentwantstobeinthe
forces;elsehewillbecomeafirst-grade
citizenwithexcellenttrainingto
facethetaskofnation-building.
UNI
UNI
Anil Shakya UNI

responsibility of proving the prosecution
wrong on the accused in a cow slaughter
case. The act further says: “Any police
officer not below the rank of head con-
stable or anyone authorised by a compe-
tent authority shall have the power of
entry, inspection, search and seizure and
to present the case in the court.”
As harsh as it may sound, the law has
deterred potential offenders. However, it
is silent on those who let loose their
cows after the animals become unpro-
ductive. As a result, cows, instead of
being assets, have become liabilities and
farmers are unwilling to spend money
on rearing unproductive animals.
Farmers who used to sell their cows
after they stopped producing milk are
States/ MP/ Anti-Cow Slaughter Law
HE Madhya Pradesh gov-
ernment seems to have
realised that its victory in
stalling cow slaughter in
the state is a pyrrhic one.
Bovine population here is
multiplying, thanks to a stringent anti-
cow slaughter law and rampant cow vig-
ilantism by saffron outfits. The uncheck-
ed bovine expansion has affected the
rural economy and hindered traffic on
highways. The stray cow menace has
assumed alarming proportions as the
animals raid crops, forcing the state
government to think about applying
punitive measures to owners who aban-
don their cattle.
To this end, a state government com-
mittee has recommended amendment to
the Madhya Pradesh Gauvansh Vadh
Pratishedh Adhiniyam. The act has pro-
visions to punish those involved in the
slaughter and illegal transportation of
cattle. It was enacted in 2004 and
amended in 2012 with a provision to
raise the maximum punishment for cow
slaughter from three years’ imprison-
ment to seven, besides a minimum fine
of `5,000. The amended act puts the
no longer able to do so. Selling cows for
slaughter is illegal and traders are afraid
to buy them.
ABANDONED COWS
With no avenue to sell their cattle, farm-
ers prefer to abandon them rather than
spend on feeding them. This has led to
many abandoned cows wandering into
farms, destroying crops and prompting
a new man-animal conflict. The state’s
“kanji” houses, where impounded cattle
are kept till they are reclaimed by their
owners, are unable to cope with the
number of unwanted animals.
Experts have said the large-scale
abandoning of cows is a threat not only
to the dairy economy but to forestry,
Withthestraycowmenaceassuming
alarmingproportionsandaffectingthe
ruraleconomy,thestategovernment
planstoamendthelawsothatowners
whoabandontheircattlearepunished
By Rakesh Dixit
in Bhopal
T
Battle of
Bovines
Even as the MP government makes
owners of cattle accountable for them,
the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad
High Court has put the onus on munici-
pal corporations. In Imtiyaz versus State
Of UP, the Bench held that: “So far as
cows and cattle roaming on roads are
concerned, it is the duty of Nagar Nigam
and Police to remove them and to
ensure that no cows or animals come
on road creating obstruction to traffic
and threat to life. Secretary, Nagar Vikas,
State of UP is directed to issue neces-
sary instructions in this regard to Nagar
Holdmunicipalcorporation
accountable:HC

grasslands and urban facilities. In order
to minimise this conflict and conserve
the cow, a committee was set up by the
MP government to suggest solutions.
Swami Akhileshwaranand, chairman
of the executive council of the Madhya
Pradesh Cow Protection Board, report-
edly said: “We want to introduce a
penalty for owners who abandon their
cows. The penalty will be slapped even
if a cow is killed in a road accident
because it’s proof that the owner has
abandoned it.” He is one of the members
of a committee which is also looking at
how to get stray cows off highways and
city streets. Others include bureaucrats
from the departments of animal hus-
bandry, cooperation, urban development
and environment. The committee
also wants the law to include the
word “conservation”.
USING DRONES
Akhileshwaranand said district collec-
tors had been using drones to spot the
areas most affected by stray cows. Only
604 of the 1,246 registered gaushalas in
the state are active. The committee has
recommended that the owners of
gaushalas “who lie about the number of
cows they shelter” also be penalised.
Among the other recommendations
of the committee are castration of bulls
of nondescript breeds, creation of
gothan (structures where cows can rest),
gau abhyaranya (cow sanctuaries) and
gau vanvyavihar (forest areas demarcat-
ed for cows) and freeing charnoi (pas-
tures) from encroachment.
According to official estimates, there
are 54 lakh cows along with other
milch animals in Madhya Pradesh. The
state accounts for nearly 10.27 percent
of the country’s cattle population. In
Madhya Pradesh there is no estimate of
the stray cattle population.
The centre has suggested that this
project be expanded nationally. Union
Minister of State for Home Affairs
Hansraj Ahir has proposed that 1,000
hectares of forest land be allotted for
cow sanctuaries in every district of every
state where slaughter is banned.
FODDER FOR THOUGHT
(Left) Stray cattle on a busy road in Bhopal;
(below) cattle graze in an open ground in
Mirzapur. The Allahabad HC puts the onus
on municipal corporations to ensure that
cattle don’t roam on city roads
MP has nearly 1.96 crore
cattle heads
It has 54 lakh cows along with other
milch animals
MP accounts for nearly 10.27
percent of India’s cattle population
It has 1,246 registered gaushalas;
of these only 604 are active
It plans to put UID tags on
7.5 lakh cattle every month
The MP Cow Protection Board
budget for cows increased from
`20 crore per year to `25 crore
MP’scattleclass
Ayukts/Executive Officers of local
bodies.”
Further, determining liability in such
cases, the Court observed that the cattle
owners cannot be allowed to leave the
animals on roads, forcing them to sur-
vive on water from drains/sewers and
garbage, which is definitely cruelty.
As such, owners of such abandoned
animals should be prosecuted under the
provisions of the Prevention of Cruelty to
Animals Act,1960, Police Act and
Sections 289, 428, 429 of the IPC.
This is a move to deter cattle
owners from leaving their animals free
on the roads, endangering their and
people’s lives.
—Neelesh Singh Rao
UNI

India Legal 20 November 2017

Recommandé

Recommandé

Contenu connexe

Tendances

Tendances (20)

Similaire à India Legal 20 November 2017

Similaire à India Legal 20 November 2017 (20)

Plus de ENC

Plus de ENC (20)

Dernier

Dernier (20)

India Legal 20 November 2017