Justice Chinnappa Reddy - Biographical sketch

To read the biographical sketch of Justice Chinnappa Reddy written after his death by former SC Judge K. T. Thomas in the Indian Express dated 20th April 2013 go to the following link:

http://epaper.indianexpress.com/c/1000394

CJI suggests professional advice to gender sensitise judges

Source: DNA dated 8th April 2013 - Article by Kanu Sarda

Judges need to be gender sensitised and the help of professional experts would be taken, chief justice of India Altamas Kabir said on Sunday. 

"Gender sensitivity needs to be taught and instilled in every judicial officer of the country," he said.
"We will arrange training sessions in our state and national judicial academy. And also there is a need of taking professional management help of experts from various fields so that every case can be disposed of in a professional manner."

He went on to add: "The only motto of gender sensitisation is to have swift and quick justice to all people." Kabir was presiding over a conference of chief ministers and chief justices of high courts.

Speaking of the Delhi gang rape, he said "it was not an isolated occurrence and episodes like that happened every day". "There cannot be knee-jerk reactions to such cases and they need to be tackled in a proper way."

Prime minister Manmohan Singh who too was present at the conference spoke on the need to act more decisively to protect women. "There is a need to sensitise the judiciary on gender issues.

The number of judges should be increased to reduce pendency and delay in disposal of cases," he said. "There is a need for fast-track courts to try cases involving vulnerable sections, including women and the elderly."

Singh said the "national outrage" after the December 16 gang rape forced "urgent introspection" on anti-rape laws and the justice delivery system, "but we must not allow ourselves to be overcome by a sense of despair at some of the demonstrated inadequacies of our legal system".

Expressing concern over the huge pendency of over 30 million cases, the chief justice said: "We are on the job of increasing fast-track courts for dealing with cases related to crime against women, violence against women, senior citizens, children and the marginalised people. In Delhi, five fast-track courts begin its work within one week and the sixth court is on its way to begin."

He urged the chief ministers to double or at least increase the number of judicial officers in subordinate judiciary, with matching support staff, to deal with the increasing number of cases.

Kabir urged the conference to deliberate on the question of witness protection and appointment of public prosecutors.

Section 64 of the CrPC will be amended to make them gender neutral and gender sensitive.

Appointing more judges won’t improve justice delivery: CJI

Source: Times of India dated 8th April 2013

While Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Sunday said the“horrific tragedy of grapevine Delhi” compelled an urgent introspection about laws and the justice delivery system,law minister Ashwani Kumar said the incident made people question the “credibility of our criminal justice system”.
    Both the PM and the law minister referred to the over three crore pending cases and said increasing the number of courts and judges could help increase people’s access to justice and reduce delays and arrears in the justice delivery system.
    They were speaking at a conference of chief ministers and chief justices of high courts which was being held after a gap of four years. The last such conference, described by thePM andChief Justice Altamas  Kabir as an ideal forum to discuss improvements in justice delivery system mechanisms, was held in 2009 and it was discontinued during the tenure of S H Kapadia as CJI. Justice Kabir said the dialogue process between the executive and the judiciary, which was disrupted, needed to be re-established as the three organs of governance had a duty under the Constitution to provide justice to people.
    But he appeared to remind the PM and the law minister that improving the justice delivery system was not all about establishing morecourts and appointing more judges. “The sanctioned strength of the Allahabad high court is 160 judges but it is functioning with 87 judges.The reason for non-appointment of more judges to the HC was lackof supportinfrastructure,” hesaid.
    “So we need to set up support infrastructure. It does not mean building only. Support infrastructure means support staff. When a court is set up, apart from the presiding officer, there is a need for appointing several other officers. These are things which most people in the executive have no idea about,” Justice Kabir said.
    The PM termed the current ratio of 15.5 judges per million population as “grossly inadequate” and said the states must take initiative to appoint more judges. “On behalf of the central government, I would like to assure this august gathering that we will increase appropriately the quantum of funding for the scheme under which we provide support to the state governments for the creation of infrastructure for subordinate judiciary,” Singh said. He stressed the importance of gram nyayalayas, alternativedispute redressal mechanisms and legal aid services in speeding the justice delivery mechanism.But law minister presented a grim picture of the functioning of rural courts.

Neighbour's affidavit amounts to tampering of evidence: Bombay high court

Source: Times of India dated 8th April 2013

The Bombay high court has said that an affidavit filed in favour of an accused by a neighbour in an anticipatory bail hearing "amounted to tampering with evidence". Justice Sadhana Jadhav said the "practice of filing such affidavits is deprecated as it hampers the process of investigation" and "amounts to tampering of evidence".

In February, after a woman hanged herself, the Kandivli police registered a case against her mother-in-law Sakuran Jamalluddin Gori (65) and a couple of other people for cruelty and abetment to suicide. Gori and her two sons moved the HC for pre-arrest bail. They were granted interim protection, but on April 5, the prosecutor said the post-mortem report, which was received later, revealed that there were injury marks, along with ligature marks, on the neck to indicate the woman was assaulted prior to her death.

Denying any assault, Gori's lawyer said the daughter-in-law had killed self as she "suffered from mental imbalance". To support the claim, he submitted an affidavit by a medical student, Shrirampal, a resident of the same building. The student said the inquest panchanama was conducted in her presence and the presence of a lady constable and that there were no injury marks on the body. The prosecutor said the medical student was not a state witness but had "participated in the proceedings only to protect the interest of the applicants". The HC agreed, but said "at this stage no action is being taken against Shrirampal as she happens to be a medical student with a bright career.''

Gori also denied the dowry accusations. Her lawyer said "it was not necessary for them to demand money from their daughter-in-law for a flat" as they are "financially strong and own five flats and four shops". On the mother-in-law's plea that she was old and ailing and with the two brothers-in-law offering to surrender, the HC granted her protection from arrest and dismissed the plea of the other two as withdrawn.

Judiciary - Executive interaction must for speedy justice: CJI

To read an article about the CJI's speech at the SC Bar Association function,go to the following link:
http://epaper.indianexpress.com/c/953960

Conference of Chief Ministers and Chief Justices of HCs this weekend

To read an article about the various legal issues to be discussed in the conference of CMs and CJs of HCs this weekend, go to the following link:
http://epaper.indianexpress.com/c/950167

Downloading free? The cops are coming

Source: DNA dated 3rd April 2013

The police recently warned and let off an IT professional, attached with a company in Vikhroli, for what thousands do surreptitiously every day.

He was downloading movies from a torrent site on his office computer. Most internet junkies would never anticipate that downloading songs and movies from torrents can invite a policeman home. But that is beginning to happen.

Soon after the incident last week, the company emailed its employees asking them to stay off torrent sites.

With a rising number of complaints, mostly from owners of copyrighted songs and movies, the cyber crime cell and the newly-formed social media laboratory have been monitoring internet users with large data downloads.

"There have been several such complaints recently... Only a person with a copyright can be a complainant,” Himanshu Roy, joint commissioner (crime), said. “This is a cognisable offence under the Copyrights Act.” In the Vikhroli case, too, the complainant was the copyright holder.

For those who do not know, downloading from a torrent site has always been illegal. “It is akin to buying pirated DVDs from a CD seller; only this is done within the safe confines of your house,” Vijay Mukhi, cyber security expert, said. Not many people are aware of the fact that using a torrent site is illegal,
he said.

Mukhi said action can be taken against an accused under the Copyrights Act, the IPC, or the IT Act. “Section 66 of the IT Act is very elaborate and covers several offences of similar nature... It is not only your office machine that is under the scanner, but also your personal computer.”

Asked how exactly the Mumbai police would keep track of who is downloading what from the internet, Roy said: “We have a team of cyber experts and we have started a social media lab. We track trends and with the help of the internet service providers, we conduct random checks on the content that is being downloaded from certain sites.”