India Legal 15 August 2016

NDIA EGALL
August 15, 2016 `100
www.indialegalonline.com
I STORIES THAT COUNT
12
ILRFConclave:
EnsuringAccessToJusticeForAll
BySuchetaDasGupta andSandeepSharma
Ajith Pillai
Cricket cleanup: Will
other sports follow? 34
Nayantara Roy
Amend
archaic
abortion law
30
Dinesh C Sharma
Goodbye
to Delhi’s
ageing
diesel cars
60
Kalyani Shankar
Should the governor’s
post be abolished? 48
SCstrikesa
BALANCE
Inahardhittingjudgment,
theapexcourtrulesthat
AFSPAcannotbe
permanentlyimposed
ByRameshMenon20
Irom Sharmila
Droupadi Murmu,
Governor of Jharkhand
Virender Singh,
Chief Justice,
High Court of Jharkhand

AUGUST15,2016
A Memorable Day
On July 23, 2016, India Legal embarked on a journey to promote grassroots
involvement in making the fruits of justice available to all. INDERJIT BADHWAR
Shadow of the Gun
Since it was passed in 1958, the Armed Forces Special Powers Act has been widely
misused resulting in countless killings and rapes in the North East. A recent Supreme
Court order questions the controversial law and brings hope. RAMESH MENON
20
LEAD
7
A Judge’s Diary
Pro-active action by Virender Singh, Chief Justice of the Jharkhand High
Court, has shown justice has a humane side. RAMESH MENON
18
Archaic Act
A recent apex court judgment allowing a rape victim to terminate her 24-week
pregnancy reflects the need to amend the abortion law in the light of scientific
advances and new social realities. NAYANTARA ROY
30
12
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Editor
Inderjit Badhwar
Managing Editor
Ramesh Menon
Deputy Managing Editor
Shobha John
Executive Editor
Ajith Pillai
Bureau Chiefs
Neeta Kolhatkar, Mumbai
Vipin Kumar Chaubey, Lucknow
BN Tamta, Dehradun
Principal Correspondent
Harendra Chowdhary, Mathura
Reporters
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Sr Visualizer
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Photographer
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Photo Researcher/News Coordinator
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Production
Pawan Kumar
Convergence Manager
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Punit Mishra
Technical Executive (Social Media)
Sonu Kumar Sharma
Technical Executive
Anubhav Tyagi
Justice for All
The first-ever conclave of the India Legal Research Foundation in Ranchi
examined the reasons why access to justice still eludes the poor and
powerless. SUCHETA DASGUPTA and SANDEEP SHARMA
INDIA LEGAL CONCLAVE
SUPREME COURT
4 August 15, 2016

REGULARS
Response .................................................................... 6
Quote-Unquote ......................................................... 11
National Briefs........................................................... 29
Supreme Court.......................................................... 39
Is that Legal............................................................... 74
International Briefs .................................................... 75
Figure It Out .............................................................. 80
Wordly Wise .............................................................. 81
China’s belligerent reaction to the recent UN court verdict that it has no
territorial claims in the South China Sea reveals its larger design to
dominate the region. BHASKAR ROY
Angry Dragon 68
FollowusonFacebook.com/indialegalmedia
andTwitter.com/indialegalmedia
48
There is a debate in legal and political circles on whether the post
should be abolished after the controversial events in Uttarakhand
and Arunachal Pradesh. KALYANI SHANKAR
Do We Need Governors?
The National Green Tribunal’s order to scrap diesel vehicles in Delhi
which are more than 15 years old will help the capital breathe easy.
DINESH C SHARMA
End of the Road 60
76
ENVIRONMENT
In three weeks of political churning, Theresa May has emerged as
unelected prime minister of Britain. But the road ahead is a daunting
one as the country prepares to exit EU. SAJEDA MOMIN
The Brexit PM
Cover Illustration and Design: ANTHONY LAWRENCE
LEGAL EYE
64The murder of social media star Qandeel Baloch highlights the sexism
and feudal mindset in Pakistani society which has no law to to punish
such “honor killings”. FIROZ BAKHT AHMED
Dishonorable Deed
MY SPACE
DIPLOMACY
GLOBAL TRENDS
The top court accepting the Lodha panel reforms could impact
beyond cricket. Lawmakers will now find it easier to debar politicians
from holding office in other sport federations as well. AJITH PILLAI
34Sports the Winner
In July, four members of the
Karnataka police force
committed suicide unable to
cope with the pressures of
duty: an alarming trend.
IMRAN QURESHI
56
Suicidal
Stress
SOCIETY
In a landmark judgment, the Madras High Court dismissed a ban on
Perumal Murugan’s 2010 novel Madhorubhagan thus upholding the
author’s right to practice his craft. R RAMASUBRAMANIAN
42Writer’s “Resurrection”
COURTS
53
The Chief Justice of India had to step in after a confrontation
between the press and the legal fraternity took an ugly turn
bringing courts in Kerala to a standstill. NAVEEN NAIR
Unbecoming Conduct
STATES
The actor was acquitted in two poaching cases by the Rajasthan High
Court. NAYANTARA ROY
41Salman Gets a Breather
5INDIA LEGAL August 15, 2016

6 August 15, 2016
Can triple talaq be
overturned?
This is with reference to the story,
“No, No, No!” by Ramesh Menon
(July 15, 2016 issue) that dealt
with the triple talaq. A uniform civil
code should solve this and other
problems once and for all. But I
don’t see our governments,
including the present one display-
ing the guts to implement it.
Sudhir Narasimhan on
Facebook
RESPONSE
Thanks to Inderjit Badhwar for providing in one article
all the complexities involved in resolving the Kashmir
issue (“Another Gory Chapter on Kashmir”, July 31,
2016). It is rich in detail, convincing in arguments, and
above all, compassionate to all the stakeholders. Pro-
bably, only he could have written with such a world view.
But whether we like it or not, Kashmir has now got
mixed up with territorial loyalties, religious and national
identity and cultural identity of diverse peoples living in
India and Pakistan. So, it is as much an issue of
Pakistan as India, though we may not accept it officially.
A peaceful solution involves the ability of the leader-
ship from both countries to evolve a mutually accept-
able solution; but the more difficult job for them is to sell
the mutually-agreed solution to their people.
It does not look within the realm of possibility consid-
ering over 43,000 people have died in Jammu and
Kashmir alone from 1988 to 2016. This includes not only
the people of the state but from other parts of India and
Pakistan as well.
With honor killing tradition deeply rooted in the psy-
che of the sub-continent, I doubt whether the issue will
ever be resolved to the satisfaction of all the people
from both sides.
That’s why an out-of-the-box solution involving a new
design of a quasi-nation will have to be evolved. It is
alright to suggest this from my armchair. How many will
buy an ideal solution when personal stakes of the peo-
ple are so high?
So I am waiting for my grand-daughter's generation
in both countries to be a little more wiser, less emotional
and more universal in their outlook to evolve a solution.
Col R Hariharan, who was head of intelligence,
IPKF, now advises the NSA and RAW
Kashmir deconstructed

TAKING LAW TO
THE PEOPLE
INDERJIT BADHWAR
on the facade of the Supreme Court building; it is
perhaps the most inspiring ideal of our society. It is
one of the ends for which our entire legal system
exists . . . it is fundamental that justice should be
the same, in substance and availability, without
regard to economic status,” said Justice Lewis F
Powell, Jr, US Supreme Court in 1976.
“Courts exist for the convenience of the liti-
gants and not in order to maintain any particular
system of law or any particular system of adminis-
tration,” noted Justice MC Chagla, former Chief
Justice of Bombay High Court.
T
heir wisdom, and those of countless lumi-
naries who have fought and argued pas-
sionately for the majesty of the Rule of Law,
guides the editorial spirit of India Legal magazine
and the conclave on “Access to Justice” organized
by the ILRF.
India Legal magazine is now completing more
than two years of publication as a revamped and
relaunched fortnightly magazine. And there is
plenty to commemorate and rejoice about.
At a time when the market wisdom was against
launching new magazines and periodicals because
of “commercial viability” problems, our well wish-
ers Rajshri and Pradeep Rai—both journalists and
lawyers—took a leap of faith. And their belief—as
the growth and progress of the magazine has
demonstrated—has been rewarded by success.
Our job was not to pander to fashionable mar-
ket trends or infotainment but to persuade readers
back into serious reading rather than just flipping
through.
I believe that one measure of our success lies
in how quickly we began to attract some of the
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
ULY 23, 2016 was a proud day for the
India Legal family. The magazine was part
of the launch of a unique public service
initiative which brought a governor, the
chief justice of a high court, sitting judges
of the high and lower judiciary, journalists, top
lawyers, senior bureaucrats, and law students
under one roof.
The occasion—starting from Ranchi, the capi-
tal of Jharkhand—was the first conclave sponsored
by the India Legal Research Foundation (ILRF),
partnered by India Legal magazine and APN
News. Subject: “Access to Justice.” This will be a
year-long theme for similar conclaves ILRF is
planning for all major cities across India. The
objective of the year-long exercise is to promote
grassroots involvement in making available the
fruits of justice to all those who are given this basic
right within our democracy but often cannot even
pick the low-hanging fruit.
When I joined India Legal as its editor, little
had I imagined that one day I would be add-ress-
ing the legal community directly as I did at the
conclave rather than through my laborious pen.
When I returned from the US many years ago
as Editor of India Today, a friend who had just
attended a court hearing seemed very depressed.
He shook his head and said, “date mil gayee.” (“I’ve
got a date”) I was puzzled. In the West “date”
means getting to meet and court a young lady who
might become your lifetime partner. Of course, as
I learned in India, this means your case has been
postponed to some other indefinite date. I also
learned that these delays in the judicial process
were a sad flaw in our system of justice.
“Equal justice under law is not merely a caption
J
7INDIA LEGAL July 15, 2016

telling of all breaking stories and investigations
within the perspective of their legal parameters.
It’s to the credit of the unspoken wisdom of our
Constitution that we are a nation of laws and not
man-made whimsies.
Take any major political, social or economic
issue facing the nation or the world, research and
write on it within the legal framework and you’ve
got an India Legal story!
A
word about Pradeep Rai, the President of
ILRF which drew inspiration from the
magazine. Pradeep Rai is a many-faceted
individual who has been able to link the legal pro-
fession with activism and human rights. Sensing a
vacuum in this area—the lack of adequately
trained reporters and editors capable of transmit-
ting and explaining the experience of law as it
impacts the human condition, society and gover-
nance—he ventured to create a platform that
amalgamates the two streams.
This combination of law and journalism—he
has a passion for both—led Pradeep to explore new
depths and avenues over the last decade until he
could build a bridge which would help him strad-
dle both professions. The organization was actua-
lly started by his journalist wife Rajshri, an IIMC
graduate and NDTV anchor, some family mem-
bers and interns—with his pet magazine ventures,
Views on News, and India Legal. Pradeep kept a
strong distance from editorial decision-making or
interference though he was always available for
advice on complex issues and helping reporters
gain access to reliable sources. They were able to
project the two magazines on a national footing
only in early 2014 when the senior management
hired a professionally-driven editorial staff with
editors of national and international standing
capable of guiding a team and drawing in some
of the best known writers as contributors on a
regular basis.
Editorial independence and ability to scoop
stories missed by the general media has been the
hallmark of our publications. India Legal and
Views on News—which we are now developing
into a daily website—between them provide wide
coverage of the judiciary, the law, developments
and trends in the media as well as governance and
inside reports on the bureaucracy.
I will take the liberty to reproduce Pradeep’s
Rai’s address to the gathering from the dais which
included Governor Droupadi Murmu and Chief
finest writers, reporters and editors in the coun-
try—many of them legendary in their own life-
times—to write for us.
Our very first issue with the cover story “How
Did She Die” raised serious questions about
Sunanda Pushkar’s death along with the first
exclusive photographs of her dead body showing
bruise marks. The story later went viral and her
death is still under investigation.
During the first event-packed, frenetic six
weeks during which our fortnightly magazine was
on the stands, the one question I was repeatedly
asked is why we call it “India Legal”. Not that
people didn’t like the title. They found it authorita-
tive, catchy and different. But they remain mysti-
fied by our choice when they read the contents and
discover that the magazine is not simply a hand-
book or digest for the legal profession.
Precisely. And yet, members of the legal com-
munity who read it find it fits their niche reading
needs. I write this not to wallow in self-praise but
rather to suggest that India Legal was probably the
right choice of a name. It is obvious that the mag-
azine has mined a rich vein of readers’ interest. It
has placed a niche perspective of the law within
the wider ambit of a general readership. It has
become a marketplace for the discussion and
A BRAVE NEW
INITIATIVE
Pradeep Rai,
president,
India Legal Research
Foundation,
addressing the
conclave on “Access
to Justice” in Ranchi
8 August 15, 2016

limits of our vocation. We enjoy reaching for the
stars! And it is in the course of this journey that
ILRF or India Legal Research Foundation has
taken birth.
“Many of you, I am sure, are aware that India
Legal is the country’s only news conglomerate
which serves as a unique platform focusing on a
comprehensive and sweeping range of news, views,
opinion and breaking stories from all courts, the
legal and judicial community through a network of
magazines, TV channels, websites, and partner-
ships with prestigious colleges, their professors
and students, like the National Law University,
Delhi, NALSAR, and Jindal Global Law School.
“Some of the leading lights of the judicial com-
munity have used our platforms to directly address
the concerns of the judiciary. The participants
have included former Chief Justices, Union Minis-
ters for Law and Justice, and top Senior Advocates.
My Honoured Guests and Colleagues, and Friends,
I would now like to share a secret with you which
has just been revealed to me by the top editorial
team of the India Legal-APN family. APN News
has recently launched the India Legal Helpline. It
is a live call-in show in which ordinary people in
need of proper guidance call our team of expert
lawyers present in the NOIDA studio. I am told,
it’s becoming one of the top TV shows. In this
endeavor we are being supported by our electronic
media partner, APN News. The confidential
Justice Virender Singh, (whose speeches appear in
an accompanying story in this issue):
“Y
our Excellency Governor Murmu; Your
Honour Chief Justice Virender Singh;
Your Lordships of the High Court of
Jharkhand; Ladies and Gentlemen, I do not know
how to express my joy and feeling of elation that
such a distinguished congregation has gathered
here today to pay respect to one of the greatest
gifts of freedom and liberty endowed to us by our
Founding Fathers—the Access to Justice.
“These may be simple sounding words. But
their beauty and spirit lies in their very simplicity.
Access is another word for the “right to entry,” or
the “right to use.” Justice means fairness, impar-
tiality, righteousness, even-handedness, fair deal-
ing, honesty, integrity. I could go on and on. It is
not for me to preach to this distinguished gather-
ing, which day in and day out faces the formidable
challenge of implementing this “right.” But simply
to emphasize that it is from this juridical principle
of natural justice that human beings can derive the
moral ammunition to strive for what each individ-
ual craves day by day: A Life of Dignity.
“If I may be allowed to inject a personal note in
this small welcoming note to all of you, I would
like to state that the pursuit of these core values
propelled me into the profession to which I am
wedded. But most of us have a desire to go beyond
LEGAL NEWS
ABOUNDS
A bouquet of news
offerings from India
Legal-APN family
INDIA LEGAL August 15, 2016 9

based prejudices and
incidences of farmers’
suicides are issues that
have remained as blots
on our democracy.
“The framers of our
Constitution were fully
aware of the fact that
justice is the greatest
interest of man.... In
their arduous quest for
justice during National
Freedom Struggle they
felt the prime impor-
tance of framing a
Constitution for a free
nation where justice
for its citizen becomes
easily accessible.
“The notion of
‘access to justice’ in our Constitution is placed on
the high pedestal of fundamental rights. Access to
justice is an inbuilt content of Article 14 which
guarantees equality before the law and equal pro-
tection of laws. If, in accessing justice, the common
man has to encounter barriers and impediments,
the equality clause in our Constitution becomes no
more than a promissory note! A Paper Tiger!
“So, in a judiciary where access is gagged and
the institutions which are responsible do nothing
to remove the obstacles, such a system ceases to be
an independent judicial system. As early as in
1956, the Apex Court, while interpreting Article
14, decided that our Constitution is not meant only
for the elite, but it is also for ‘the butcher, the baker
and the candlestick maker’. In subsequent years
the Apex Court incorporated access to justice in
Article 21 by various judicial interpretations.
Articles 22(1) and 22(2) specifically ensure the
‘access to justice’ for persons who are arrested and
detained in custody....
“Under our constitutional dispensation, sover-
eignty vests in the people. So, we the people of
India can legistimately boast of a people-oriented
jurisprudence with unimpeded access to justice.
However, there is much more to be done in this
regard and ILRF has taken the initiative and em-
barked upon this arduous journey and an onerous
task with clear vision of realizing the first Mission
of Mahatma ‘to wipe every tear from every eye’.”
news that the editorial team has allowed me to
share with you is that they are now expanding into
the realm of the English medium, by launching a
new channel, India Legal Live.
“Today’s theme is very much a part of India Le-
gal Research Foundation’s attempt of providing
free and high quality legal services to those unable
to afford legal help. This conclave is very much a
part of that overall design by spreading the word
and sensitizing all concerned through debate and
interaction. It is also a celebration of the best of the
past history of Ranchi, a part of our nation from
where some of the wisest teachings spread across
the world.
“T
his is a collective effort of TAKING
THE LAW TO THE PEOPLE through
the judiciary, the press and the legal
fraternity. I do believe that in promoting social and
constitutional causes, the “trickle down” theory
can really work. Legal literacy, just as literacy
about health and environment, is essential in
strengthening civilized existence. And what better
way for awareness to spread than “trickling down”
into the mind space through the media and media-
related events such as this pre-sent one?
“But, unfortunately, we have not been success-
ful in ensuring that the fruits of development
reached the lower-most strata of society. Poverty,
illiteracy, high rates of infant and maternal mortal-
ity, adverse gender ratio, unemployment, poor
health-care system, caste, gender and religion-
STRUGGLE FOR
JUSTICE
Litigants at Tis
Hazari Court in
New Delhi
editor@indialegalonline.com
10 August 15, 2016

“It is excruciatingly sunny
outside. When we step
in…we shut our eyes in the
cool here so that they get
some moisture. Aur aap
bolte ho woh sote hain
(And you say he sleeps)!”
—Congress leader Renuka
Chowdhury defending
Rahul Gandhi after he was shown
napping in the Lok Sabha during
the parliament session
“IS has given a wrong
meaning to Islam. If
someone killed Muslims in
Gujarat that doesn’t justify
killing innocent Hindus in
Mumbai.”
—Zakir Naik, condemning the
Islamic State as “an anti-Islam
state”, in The Times of India
“Dalits across the country not
only treat me as a leader but as a
Devi (goddess).”
—BSP chief Mayawati, justifying the
Dalit backlash in the wake of the derogatory
comment on her by BJP functionary
Dayashankar Singh, on Firstpost
“The aim is to rapidly and
effectively take all steps
needed to eliminate the
threat against democracy,
the rule of law and the
people’s rights and
freedoms.”
— Turkey’s President Recep
Tayyip Erdogan, after declaring
a three-month state of
emergency in the country,
in The New York Times
“They (the Indian authorities) have
had access to many executives of
Kingfisher Airlines, and they have
had access to thousands of
documents. If the missing link is only
to interview me, come to London
and interview me, get on the radio
conference and interview me, send
me an email with questions and I will
reply. I have nothing to hide.”
—Vijay Mallya, accusing the Indian
government of conducting a witchhunt
against him, in Autosport magazine
QUOTE-UNQUOTE
“I have no prime ministerial ambition.
I am fine in my own state. But I am
for stronger regional parties. Stronger
states make a stronger center. This is
true federalism. But what are they
(Modi government) doing?
—West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee
criticizing the Modi government, in
The Times of India
“We have ignored the
grand bargain under
which Kashmir acceded
to India. I think we broke
faith, we broke promises
and therefore we have
paid a heavy price.”
—Congress leader and
former Home Minister
P Chidambaram on why
Kashmir is burning, to
India Today TV

“There can be no equal justice
where the kind of trial a man
gets depends on the amount of
money he has.”
—Justice Hugo Black, US Supreme
Court in 1964
INDIA LEGAL CONCLAVE/ Jharkhand
The first-ever conclave of the India Legal Research Foundation held in Ranchi
took a long hard look at the reason why access to justice still eludes the poor
and powerless. Addressing this vexed question is the mission of the India Legal
magazine which will raise this issue in all major cities in India and involve
judges, lawyers, bureaucrats, law students and others in finding a solution
By Sucheta Dasgupta and Sandeep Sharma in Ranchi
Reaching Out,
T
HE first ever conclave of India
Legal on Access to Justice held in
Ranchi this fortnight was a re-
sounding success as it was attend-
ed by Droupadi Murmu, the
Governor of Jharkhand, Justice Virender
Singh, the Chief Justice of the High Court of
Jharkhand, Justice Anant Bijay Singh,
Justice Apresh Singh, Justice Harish
12 August 15, 2016

CONCERN FOR THE
COMMON MAN
(L-R) Chief Justice of the High Court
of Jharkhand Justice Virender Singh,
Governor of Jharkhand Droupadi
Murmu, and Editor-in-Chief of India
Legal Inderjit Badhwar addressing the
“Access to Justice” conclave
(Facing page) Distinguished speakers
on the dais
Reaching All
Chandra Mishra, Pravin H Parekh, former
president of the Supreme Court Bar
Association and other luminaries, including
bureaucrats and lawyers. The conclave dis-
cussed how justice to all was a must as it was
a fundamental right but was not reaching
many of those who needed it most.
There are various causes for unequal jus-
tice. These include lack of infrastructure,
shortage of judges, rising pendency, adminis-
trative lapses like shoddy police investiga-
tion, presence of a criminal-politician nexus,
undertrial prisoners not being able to secure
bail even after many years in jail and so on.
Droupadi Murmu, Jharkhand’s first
woman governor, said that access to justice
as a human rights concept based on dharma
was familiar in ancient India. The state in
ancient India was neither sacerdotal, nor
paternalistic. The concept of dharma was
multi-dimensional. It was embraced and sus-
tained in a compassionate sweep. It gave
birth to both human rights and laws to safe-
guard them, she said.
Stressing on the link between poverty and
lack of knowledge of law, she said law educa-
tion should become part of our curriculum so
that justice becomes accessible to all. She
congratulated the India Legal Research
Foundation (ILRF) for its bold initiative to
make justice accessible to all (see box).
CREATIVE ALTERNATIVES
Making use of the alternate dispute resolu-
tion mechanism is one such way to provide
access to justice. Justice Virender Singh
noted the importance of this method of case
disposal in jurisprudence and underscored
how it would go a long way in reducing the
already-humongous caseload on Indian jud-
ges and make way for speedy justice.
Enactment of the Legal Services Authorities
Act on the strength of Article 39A of the
Constitution of India paved the path for

establishment of legal services authorities
across the country with this objective in
sight, he said.
“It is a matter of great satisfaction for us
that the Jharkhand Legal Services Authority
(JHALSA) and the District Legal Services
Authorities are playing a tremendous role
towards giving the citizens access to justice.
Apart from enhancing legal literacy among
common people, conflicts are being resolved
through the Alternate Dispute Resolution
(ADR) mechanism in large numbers. At
present, the success rate of mediation in
Jharkhand is 49 percent,” Singh said.
JHALSA and DLSAs are also playing an
important role in extending a helping hand
to victims of crime, he noted. After an
amendment was brought in Section 357A
CrPC, victim compensation schemes were
formulated by state governments. Till June
“Jailsarefullof
poorpeople”
Administration of justice was one of
the paramount functions of the
state, Droupadi Murmu, Governor of
Jharkhand said, adding that it was the
duty of the state to promote justice on
the basis of equal opportunity and pro-
vide legal aid to all citizens of the coun-
try. “The Supreme Court has empha-
sized, while interpreting Article 21 in the
light of Article 39A, that legal assis-
tance to the accused who is arrested
with jeopardy of his life or personal lib-
erty, is a constitutional imperative man-
date not only by Article 39A but also by
Articles 14 and 21. In the absence of
legal assistance, injustice may result
and every act of injustice corrodes the
foundations of democracy,” she said.
She said: “Gaon ke log teen jagah
jane se hichkichate hain—thana, doc-
tor khana aur court. Sochte hai jo
bacha khucha hai, who bhi chala
jayega.” (People in villages are scared
of visiting three places-police station,
doctor’s clinic and court. They are
apprehensive that they would lose
whatever they have.)
“I am aware of these facts as I also
come from the poorest among the poor
families,” she said.
Murmu said that when she visited
jails, she always found that it was full of
poor people who had no knowledge of
the law. It is therefore important that law
education should be included in the
academic curriculum to make justice
accessible to all, she stressed.
She praised the effort of the India
Legal Research Foundation (ILRF) to
address this need. “Considering all
those important aspects and the chal-
lenges ahead, I express my best wish-
es to ILRF. I also commend them for
taking up a bold initiative which would
go a long way in realizing the cherished
goals enshrined in our Constitution.”
IN STEP WITH
TIMES
Jharkhand Armed
Police (JAP) Band
playing the National
Anthem
14 August 15, 2016

LEGAL EAGLES
(Clockwise from above, left)
Jharkhand Governor
Droupadi Murmu lights the
ceremonial lamp as Former
President of Supreme Court
Bar Association Pravin
Parekh, Justice Virender
Singh and ENC Ltd MD
Rajshri Rai look on
Rajshri Rai hands a plaque
to Registrar General of the
High Court of Jharkhand
Anil Kumar Choudhary
Inderjit Badhwar, National
Law School-Delhi Registrar
Prof GS Bajpai, Jharkhand
HC judge Justice Anant
Bijay Singh, Pravin Parekh
and senior advocate with
Jharkhand HC Mani Mala
Pal, at an interactive
session
this year, a sum of `81,061,000 was dis-
bursed to victims under the Jharkhand
Welfare Scheme 2012 and `13 lakh given out
under Victim Welfare Fund Rules 2014 as
interim compensation to victims, he said.
“Awareness of ADR, coupled with the
contributions of the legal services authorities
and organizations such as the ILRF, are
effective means for combating the menace of
huge numbers of pending cases and increas-
ing litigation. I feel that adhering to them
will help us reach the ultimate goal of access
to justice for all,” Singh stated.
Justice Singh said it was noteworthy that
India Legal was holding up the legal issues of
the day before society. “Its excellent analysis
of our legal system to strengthen our democ-
racy adds remarkable value to it. I can say
that India Legal has been nicely performing
its role as the fourth pillar of democracy.” He
said he agreed with all the issues that India
Legal had raised on concerns like pendency
and the reach of justice to all.
WHAT AILS THE SYSTEM
Justice Anant Bijay Singh led an interactive
session with lawyers, NGO representatives,
media-persons and law students. Questions
were asked regarding the ambit of the Right
to Information Act, delay in court hearings,
predominance of the English language in the
conduct of hearings which was a handicap
for the poorest of poor as well as other perti-
nent topics relating to access to justice. A
panel of experts comprising the judge him-
self, as well as National Law University
Registrar Prof GS Bajpai, senior advocate
with the Supreme Court Pravin Parekh, and
senior advocate Mani Mala Pal, took part.
Parekh said the Constitution had ensured
justice and fundamental rights for all, which
was interpreted by our courts in a purposive
way. “It is important that the lowest of the
low in the country get justice at a reasonable
cost. Unfortunately, many clients have to
shell out lakhs of rupees today to get justice,”
Parekh said.
Senior advocate Pradeep Rai said that the
mission of the newly-formed ILRF was to
wipe every tear from every eye. He said that
as early as in 1956 the apex court, while inter-
preting Article 14, decided that our Cons-
titution is not meant only for the elite, but is
also for “the butcher, the baker and the can-
dlestick maker”. “In subsequent years, it
incorporated access to justice in Article 21 by
various judicial interpretations. Articles
22(1) and 22(2) specifically ensure access to
justice for persons who are arrested and

IL
detained in custody.... A judiciary where
access is gagged and the institutions which
are responsible do nothing to remove the
obstacles ceases to be an independent sys-
tem,” he said.
Vimal Kirti Singh, former principal secre-
tary, energy, Jharkhand, pointed out that
authorities should be alert enough to protect
the rights of citizens so that they do not have
to go to court to secure them. He also advised
automation and digitization wherever possi-
ble to promote efficient governance. “Karna-
taka has made sure that the number of prop-
erty disputes there goes down. It has comput-
erized records, making it easy for people to
access them and confirm which piece of land
belongs to whom.... In comparison, the peo-
ple of Jharkhand still take ages to figure out
the same thing,” he said.
INDIA LEGAL’S JOURNEY
India Legal editor-in-chief Inderjit Badhwar
said that soon after launching India Legal it
attracted some of the finest writers, reporters
and editors in the country, many of whom
were legends in their own lifetime.
A short film by APN TV was shown at the
conclave, highlighting the infrastructural
problems currently plaguing our judiciary.
The film brought home the point that jus-
tice delayed is justice denied. At present,
there is only one judge for 73,000 people or,
17 judges for 10 lakh people. Transpose this
with the Law Commission recommendation
saying there should be 50 judges per 10 lakh
people. Pendency of cases is a serious issue.
Till June this year, about 60,000 cases were
pending in the Supreme Court. In the high
courts, the figure has crossed a staggering 42
lakh and in the lower courts it is nearly 2.65
crore! There are only 16,438 judges currently
operating in the lower courts. In the 24 high
courts of the country, there are 621 judges
against a sanctioned figure of 1,079 judges.
In the Supreme Court there are 29 judges
while the sanctioned strength is 31.
There are about 80,000 cases pending in
the Jharkhand High Court of which more
than a half have been pending for over a year.
But there is a silver lining. In the year 2015,
the Supreme Court cleared over 47,000
cases. In 2013, it was 40,000 cases in which
the judges reached a verdict and in 2014, the
judges dispensed with 45,000 cases. Clearly,
we have a long way to go to ensure that jus-
tice reaches the litigant faster, but a begin-
ning has been made.
MOMENTS TO CHERISH
(Clockwise from top) NLU
Registrar Prof Bajpai
felicitating Pravin Parekh
APN correspondent Prabhat
Singh felicitating ILRF
President Pradeep Rai
Registrar (Establishment) of
the Jharkhand HC SK Singh,
Registrar General Anil Kumar
Choudhary, and Justices
Harish Chandra Mishra, Anant
Bijay Singh and Aparesh
Singh of the Jharkhand HC
sing the National Anthem
16 August 15, 2016

INDIA LEGAL CONCLAVE/ Judge’s Initiative
Pro-active action by
Virender Singh, Chief
Justice of the Jharkhand
High Court, has helped
reach justice to those
who never dreamt they
would get it
By Ramesh Menon
Humane
Faceof
Justice
W
HEN his nine-year-old
daughter staggered home
severely injured and bleed-
ing, her father, a poor
laborer, was overwhelmed
with shock at what she told him. She had
been raped by a driver who abducted her and
assaulted her by the banks of a nearby river.
The distraught father registered a case
with the police in August 2015. He also took
his daughter to a local hospital near
Hathipada village in East Singhbhum district
of Jharkhand. But doctors were unable to
stop her bleeding and she was rushed to
Jamshedpur. There too doctors battled to
save her and finding that her intestines were
severely damaged rushed her to Ranchi.
There she underwent a colostomy to remove
the damaged intestine and attach a colosto-
my bag.
18 August 15, 2016
Illustration: Anthony Lawrence

IL
Justice Virender
Singh (left) read
about the plight of
the father and girl
in the Hindustan
Times, Ranchi, and
admitted the news
item as a public
interest litigation.
He ordered the
state administra-
tion to pay an
interim compensa-
tion of `1 lakh on
the same day
before sundown to
the father of the
victim. He also
directed that the
best medical care
and protection
were provided to
the victim.
After she was discharged, her father had
to take her for her daily dressing to a doctor
four kilometers from home. As he lived in a
Maoist infested area, there was no public
transport plying and he had to physically
carry her as he did not even own a cycle. His
meager savings had depleted by then and he
was finding it difficult to treat her. He was
forced to sell his livestock.
Sometimes, a simple pro-active and posi-
tive action from the judiciary can work a mir-
acle. When Virender Singh, Chief Justice of
the High Court of Jharkhand, read about the
plight of the father and girl in the Hindustan
Times, Ranchi, he admitted the news item as
a public interest litigation taking suo motu
cognizance on August 29 though it was a
non-working day. He ordered the state
administration to pay an interim compensa-
tion of `1 lakh on the same day before sun-
down to the father of the victim. He also
directed that the Jharkhand State Legal
Services Authority ensure that the best med-
ical assistance, care and protection were pro-
vided to the victim.
As the court had ordered action, the dis-
trict administration provided a job card to
the father under MNREGA, a bicycle, a blan-
ket, clothes and financial assistance for the
construction of a house under the Indira
Awas Yojna.
That’s not all. When well-known cardiolo-
gist Dr Naresh Trehan, chairman of
Medanta-The Medicity at Gurgaon, heard of
the medical plight of the girl, he said that he
would adopt her and ensure her free treat-
ment at Medanta in Ranchi. Justice Virender
Singh referred to this act in his speech at the
recent India Legal Conclave in Ranchi
applauding her treatment that was the best
available in India at the high-profile hospital
and also that two psychologists worked on
getting the girl tide with her trauma.
The Governor of Jharkhand, Droupadi
Murmu, who was at the India Legal
Conclave, pledged to provide funds for the
girl's schooling and healthcare after listening
to the heart-rending story.
Earlier, as news travelled about the plight
of the girl and her poor parents, donations
poured in. The father now has ` 40.64 lakh in
his account which will go for the welfare of
the girl in the years to come.
Justice Singh had this point to note: “This
is access to justice. The pain that she suffered
cannot be alleviated by pecuniary compensa-
tion. But we did whatever we could do within
the parameters of the law to achieve that end.
When you hit your bed in the evening, your
conscience asks you, ‘Judge, what have you
done today?’ And the answer comes forth,
‘yes, I have done something’, and you go to
bed with a calm mind.”
Surendra Sardar, the 42-year-old rapist,
was soon arrested and sentenced to rigorous
life imprisonment. The sentence would run
till his death, the court said as he had tried to
rape another minor. The wheels of justice
had come full circle.
In another case that deserves mention,
Justice Virender Singh directed a couple who
wanted a divorce to stay in one room togeth-
er for a few weeks. When they underwent
that advice, they reconciled and realized it is
better to be together than live apart. Both are
now happily working together as para-legal
volunteers counseling warring couples.
Justice Singh pointed out that breaking up of
a marriage was not only a tragedy for a cou-
ple but for their children too, and so it is
important for family courts to dig deeper into
each case and try to save the marriage rather
than break it.

W
HEN armed mili-
tants would often
barge into his
modest home in
Imphal in the dead
hour of the night,
little Thounaojam
Herojit would crouch in fear. They wanted
his father to pay them as he was a govern-
ment servant and was seen as the enemy.
Each time they would demand thousands of
rupees. So, his father had to sell pieces of his
small landholding to meet their incessant
demands. But when he grew up, there was a
new emotion: anger. Little did these mili-
tants realize that one day Herojit would turn
his gun on them and without blinking shoot
them point-blank. Earlier, this year, Herojit,
35, a head constable with the Manipur Police,
confessed that he had killed over a hundred
in encounters. Returning home after the
encounters, he would bathe outside before
entering his modest home. He would then
get his wife, Ratna, to wash his uniform even
if it was not soiled. It is only years later that
she knew why.
One of his last encounters was in 2009 of
Chungkham Sanjit who had earlier been a
militant with the PLA but had left it to live a
normal life. Following orders of senior offi-
Chronicles of
20 August 15, 2016
The imposition of this draconian Act
way back in 1958 has seen mindless
killings of innocent people, rapes of
women and all-pervasive fear.
However, a recent Supreme Court
judgment could well change matters
By Ramesh Menon
TERROR’S
CHILD
Thounaojam
Herojit with an
under-barrel
grenade launcher
captured from
Manipuri militants
LEAD/ AFSPA/Manipur
Illustration: Anthony Lawrence

Deaths Foretold
TRAGIC END
Sanjit, a former
insurgent, was one of
the many who were
killed in fake
encounters
by Herojit.
Sanjit had come
overground and
started living a
normal life
cer, Akioijam Jhalajit, he had pushed the
unarmed youth into a pharmacy in Imphal
and shot him six times in full view of those
who were in the shop. Sanjit’s body was then
dragged out and thrown into a truck which
had the body of a woman who was five
months pregnant. She had fallen to a stray
bullet moments before Sanjit’s death at the
busy marketplace.
He used to return home and record the
details of each encounter in a notebook.
As the pages of one got exhausted, he started
another. That also got full, so he started the
third. He felt no remorse during the killings,
he said. But later, he felt that he
must confess.
In another instance, he chanced upon
seven insurgents from the United National
Liberation Front, who wanted a lift from a
truck in which Herojit was traveling. After
taking their guns, Herojit lined them up in a
lonely place and shot them dead. That day,
the police issued a statement that seven mili-
tants had been killed in an encounter with
the police.
Herojit was suspended in 2008 after the
death of a journalist, Konsam Rishikanta,
working in Imphal Free Press but reinstated
soon after. In 2009, he got a gallantry medal
and was promoted as head constable. But as
the trauma of these numerous fake encoun-
ters caught up with him, he tried to escape by
consuming various types of drugs. He fears
for his life. He wonders whether he can
escape the immense guilt that shrouds him
and if fate will catch up with him.
M
anipur’s stunning landscape of
mountains, water bodies and lush
greenery, mixed with its tingling
fresh air and the melodious songs of women
as they work in the fields, stand out as stark
contrasts in a state wracked by violence, fear
and death.
Insurgent activity for decades followed by
retaliatory action by security forces has made
life hell for ordinary people. Tension hangs
around the state like a cloak. Images of tor-
ture and death refuse to go away. When life is
normal on certain days, the fear is that it will
not last. It has been like this for many years
now and people wonder how the next tragedy
will unfold. Numerous terrorist groups oper-
ate in the state. Some are demanding inde-
pendence from India and mostly survive with
foreign funding and arms. It is a lucrative
business as they go around extorting money
in the name of taxes.
When Ravi Nitesh, a human right activist,
recently visited Manipur, he asked a Class X
student how the Armed Forces Special
Powers Act (AFSPA) which gives security
forces special powers to search, arrest,
Tehelka

destroy property and kill, had affected
him. The 15-year-old replied: “AFSPA has
snatched our right to dream. Youngsters all
over India can dream. We cannot. Every time
I move out of home, my family worries
if I will return. My grandfather and father
have been victims of atrocities. No one is
safe here, not even journalists. We live in
constant fear.”
For Manipuris, life is hell. They feel
trapped in a state ravaged by frequent
bandhs, attacks, arbitrary detentions, execu-
tions and shortages. But more than every-
thing else, it is the fear of impending death
that mentally maims them. After any
ambush on security forces, villagers flee from
the area, fearing a backlash from uniformed
forces even though they may have nothing to
do with the attack. Over a period of time,
even the state police forces have taken shelter
under the Act, though they cannot under the
law and have killed many in the name
of encounters. Observers in the state feel that
many of these extra-judicial killings have
nothing to do with terrorism and are done
just to win accolades and gallantry medals
from the state government. Or to settle
scores. The rant against AFSPA in the state
has got louder with every encounter.
“Almost every house in Manipur has a
story about what AFSPA has done to people
there,” says Nitesh. In 2011, he filed an RTI
asking the National Human Rights
Commission how many times its members
had traveled to Manipur to probe human
right violations between 2000 and 2011. The
reply was that in those 11 years, none of its
officials had visited Manipur. He was not sur-
prised. This was when news about human
right violations had got highlighted in the
“The SC judgment on
AFSPA demolishes
the framework that is
often used as a
camouflage to hide or
disguise fake encounters.”
—Colin Gonslaves,
senior lawyer
and human
rights activist
22 August 15, 2016
MISERY PERSONIFIED
Manipur has been
witnessing
protracted violence,
bandhs, insurgent
activity and fake
encounters for more
than two decades
UNI
LEAD/ AFSPA/Manipur

media all the time.
The Naga People’s Movement for Human
Rights was formed in the JNU campus to
fight AFSPA, among other things. In October
1980, it petitioned the Supreme Court, chal-
lenging the constitutionality of AFSPA.
Seventeen years later, the Supreme Court
delivered a judgment on November 27, 1997,
which said that it was constitutional to have
AFSPA as it was applied only in affected
areas and there were Do’s and Don’ts worked
out by the army to ensure it would not
do anything wrong. Well-known jurist Fali
Nariman called it one of the most conserva-
tive judgments in the annals of the
Indian judiciary.
In 2000, Human Rights Alert constituted
an independent peoples’ commission of
inquiry in Manipur under Justice Hosbet
Suresh and lawyers Colin Gonsalves and
Preeti Verma to look into the human rights
impact of the prolonged imposition of
AFSPA. Their report in October 2000, after
meeting numerous victims of the Act, said
that the Do’s and Don’ts the army followed
under AFSPA were hardly complied with and
were breached most of the time. Referring to
the earlier Supreme Court judgment that
said that AFSPA was constitutional, Justice
Suresh said: “Sanction to kill cannot be con-
stitutional.”
One week after this report came out, on
November 2, 2000, a bomb went off by the
side of a road in Malom village near Imphal
when an Assam Rifles convoy was passing by.
No one was hurt, but the jawans rounded up
10 civilians and shot them dead at a bus stop
as they suspected they were insurgents.
Ironically, it included a 63-year-old woman
and a school student who had won a national
award for bravery.
Three days later, Irom Sharmila, a 28-
year-old woman who was a volunteer
UNENDING VIOLENCE
Security men inspect a site
after a truck of the 6th Dogra
Regiment was ambushed by
militants in Chandel district
of Manipur
“Almost every house in
Manipur has a story
about what AFSPA has
done to people there.”
—Ravi Nitesh, Convenor,
Save Sharmila Solidarity
Campaign

“Probes into fake encounter
allegations would
demoralize security forces
who would have to bat-
tle insurgency with
their hands tied.”
—Mukul Rohtagi,
attorney-general
of India
with Human Rights Alert, was so incensed
with the incident that she decided to go on an
indefinite hunger strike demanding the
removal of AFSPA. For the past 16 years, she
has not had a morsel of food or water and is
being force-fed at the Jawaharlal Institute of
Medial Sciences in Imphal. She has been
arrested numerous times on charges of
attempting to commit suicide, but her
resolve has not broken. Her action galva-
nized numerous activists to demand the
removal of AFSPA.
One of them was Nishant, who, after his
M Tech in gas engineering, decided to set up
the Save Sharmila Solidarity Campaign in
2009 to sensitize society in India about what
he calls, a “draconian law”. It took him
numerous trips to Manipur to figure out the
complications that ordinary lives were
caught in because of human right violations.
In a significant and far-reaching judg-
ment, the Supreme Court recently said that
AFSPA cannot continue forever and it was
only a temporary measure to restore law and
bring in normalcy. It clearly laid out princi-
ples and points of law stating:
There cannot be immunity for armed
forces in human right violations
The army and police can be investigated
and prosecuted in accordance with law
Criminal courts also have the jurisdic-
tion to prosecute
Truth about the violations must be
found out
Magisterial inquiries conducted are
of no relevance as only the judicial
inquiries are relevant
Inquiries conducted by the
human right cell of the army does not inspire
confidence
Internal disturbances have to be handled
by a civilian administration and the role of
the army is only to aid it.
This has been one of the most hard-hit-
ting judgments on human rights as the Act
has been in force in Manipur for nearly 35
years. It said that it showed a failure of gov-
ernance as no solution had been found.
Senior lawyer and human rights activist
Colin Gonslaves told India Legal: “The
extraordinary judgment is a major break-
through as it demolishes the framework
which is often used as a camouflage to hide
or disguise fake encounters.”
The judgment was in response to a peti-
tion filed in the Supreme Court in September
2012 by the Extra Judicial Execution Victim
Families Association (EEVFAM). It wanted a
Special Investigative Team to probe the 1,528
extra-judicial executions and compensate
affected families. The court randomly picked
six cases out of the lot and appointed Justice
Santosh Hegde to head a commission of
inquiry that would investigate the encoun-
ters. Justice Hegde found that all of them
were fake encounters and all the seven who
were killed had no criminal antecedents.
One of them was Azad Khan, a 12-year-
old who was reading a newspaper to his
mother when the Assam Rifles and police
barged in and dragged him to a paddy field
and shot him. Another shocking case
involved a young villager who was cycling
24 August 15, 2016
Irom Sharmila plans to end her
16-year-old hunger strike on
August 9 as she wants to now
politically fight for removal of
AFSPA. She has been under
arrest all these years and has
been fed with a nasal tube.
She will contest the 2017
elections, she said.
LEAD/ AFSPA/Manipur

around looking for his cow when he was
picked up and shot dead. Then, there were
cousins Nobo and Govin who were having tea
at a stall when they were picked up and
shot dead.
Said Babloo Loitongbam, executive direc-
tor, Human Rights Alert: “The judgment has
brought hope to hundreds of families who
have suffered under AFSPA and lost dear
ones. We are working on documenting all the
1,528 cases in as much detail that we can find
as the Supreme Court now wants to look into
all these cases. How can we have such a
law in a democratic civilized country?”
Nirjhari Sinha, convenor of the Jan
Sangarsh Manch, Ahmedabad, who vis-
ited Manipur along with her late hus-
band Mukul Sinha, a human rights
activist and lawyer, said that it was ter-
rifying to step out on the lonely streets
of Manipur after 8 pm as there were
uniformed men all around with guns.
She said she would never forget the tales
that she heard from young widows who
had lost their husbands to encounters.
“All these widows wanted was proof that
their husbands were militants as this
was the charge the army used to shoot
them dead,” she said.
In a significant observation, the
Court said that if the Act had been
deployed for so many years in Manipur,
it directly reflected the failure of both the
security forces and the government that had
not resolved the problem. The Court said
that while Manipur faced a public order situ-
ation since 1958 for almost 60 years and gen-
erations have gone by, issues continued to
fester. It was high time that concerted and
sincere efforts were made by civil society,
insurgents, the state and central govern-
ments to find a lasting, peaceful solution.
The Court said that the use of excessive
force or retaliatory force by the Manipur
“There is a crying need to
try armed forces personnel
guilty of sexual offenses in
conflict areas under the
ordinary criminal law.”
—Gopal Subramaniam,
former Solicitor General of India
SHOCK TREATMENT
On July 15, 2004,
12 women stripped
before the Kangla Fort
in Imphal to protest
against the alleged rape
and execution of
Thangjam Manorama by
Assam Rifles jawans
Yahoo

police or the armed forces was not permissi-
ble. Any allegation of excessive force result-
ing in the death of any person by the
Manipur police or armed forces must be
thoroughly probed. The case will come up for
hearing again in mid-August. The petitioners
had pointed out that the Manipur police had
not registered a single FIR against the secu-
rity forces despite complaints that they were
extra-judicial executions. Many of those
killed had no criminal records but were
labeled as militants, they said.
In his submission to the Court, Mukul
Rohtagi, attorney-general of India, argued
that probes into allegations of fake encoun-
ters would demoralize security forces, and
they would end up battling insurgents with
their hands tied behind their backs in a war-
like situation. The Supreme Court bench of
Justices Madan B Lokur and Uday Lalit
rejected his arguments outright pointing out
that there was no war-like situation in
Manipur and what was under the scanner
was the smoking gun and not the encounter
operations. Security forces were deployed
only to aid civil authorities and not for an
indefinite period, the Court said.
Rohatgi had referred to Article 355 which
said that it was the duty of the Union to pro-
tect every state against external aggression
and internal disturbances and ensure that
the government of every state is carried on in
accordance with the provisions of the consti-
tution. He stated that militant groups were
operating in the north-east and demanding
separation from India and had the support of
countries inimical to the interests of the
country. He said they were killing innocent
people to create fear and indulging in extor-
tion and had no fear of the law. There was a
constant threat to Manipur from the militant
groups, so counter-insurgency operations
were carried out. As they had deadly
weapons, the lives of armed personnel were
under threat and so AFSPA was put into
force, he argued.
Rohatgi said that only 5,000 militants
were holding a population of 23 lakh in
Manipur to ransom and were exploiting eth-
nic rivalries, tribal divides and unemployed
youth to fuel tension. The Ministry of
Defence had issued instructions to the armed
forces to observe restraint in their opera-
tions. “Situations of internal disturbances are
not issues that can be decided in a court of
law,” he said. The Ministry of Defence did not
respond to queries of India Legal.
On July 15, 2004, 12 women, who were all
mothers, stripped before the Kangla Fort in
Imphal that housed security personnel of the
Assam Rifles to protest against the alleged
rape and execution of 32-year-old Thangjam
Manorama by its jawans. She had been
picked up on the night of July 11 and hours
“How can we have a law
like AFSPA in a
democratic, civilized
country like ours?”
—Babloo Loitongbam (left),
executive director, Human
Rights Alert
26 August 15, 2016
Jitendra Singh, minister of state for
Development of Northeastern
Region says decisions on
sensitive issues like AFSPA should
be left to the armed forces.
LEAD/ AFSPA/Manipur

later, her body was found riddled with bul-
lets. Forensic tests confirmed rape. The secu-
rity forces said that she was a militant of the
banned People’s Liberation Army. The
encounter death of Manorama led to
statewide protests. The women stood in front
of the entrance to the Fort carrying banners
asking the jawans to rape them too. All of
them were arrested and jailed for three
months. Soon after, the Assam Rifles moved
out of the Fort and AFSPA was lifted from
seven assembly constituencies of Imphal but
continued in the rest of the state.
O
ne of the women, L Gyaneshori, who
took part in the protest at the Fort
told Human Rights Watch:
“Manorama’s killing broke our hearts. We
had campaigned for the arrest memo to pro-
tect people from torture after arrest. Yet, it
did not stop the soldiers from raping and
killing her. They mutilated her body and shot
her in the vagina. We mothers were weeping.
Our daughters can be raped. They can be
subjected to such cruelty. Every girl is at risk.
We shed our clothes and stood before the
army. We said: ‘We mothers have come.
Drink our blood. Eat our flesh. Maybe this
way you can spare our daughters.’ But noth-
ing was done to punish those soldiers. The
women of Manipur were disrobed by AFSPA.
We are still naked.” The killers of Manorama
were never found. This fact resonates in
the state even though 12 painful years have
flown past.
C Upendra Singh, retired district sessions
judge, who was the chairman of a commis-
sion to probe into the death of Manorama,
said: “This is the most shocking custodial
killing of a Manipuri village girl.” His report
said that she was picked up by armed troops
of the 17th Assam Rifles at midnight from
her home and later found dead with gunshot
injuries on her private parts and thighs.
Barging into her home, the jawans had
dragged her out as she screamed out to
Khumaleima, her mother, saying, “Ima Ima
Khamu (Mother please stop them).” Assam
Rifles had said that they had recovered a
grenade and a radio set from her house and
that she was shot as she tried to flee. Her
family disputes this.
In December 2006, then Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh declared that the Act
would be amended to make it more humane
on the basis of the recommendations. But
that never happened.
In 2009, the UN Commission for Human
Rights said the law was outdated and had no
place in the 21st century. Neena Ningombam
of the Extra Judicial Execution Victim
Families Association said that 31 women and
98 children were killed by the security forces
between 1979 and 2012.
As the encounters invited national atten-
tion through the media, the central govern-
ment set up a committee under former
Supreme Court judge BP Jeevan Reddy to
look into the working of AFSPA. The
Committee said the Act was a symbol of hate,
a weapon of oppression and an instrument of
discrimination and recommended its repeal.
It also said that if the military needs a legal
framework to fight insurgency, it must be a
part of the general law and there must be a
window for commoners to register their
grievances, if any. The government did not
act on the recommendation. The UPA just
chose to be silent on the report. Soon after it
took over, the NDA government rejected it
in toto.
Let us look at the origins of this draconian
law. It was the British in India who whipped
up the Armed Forces Special Powers
Ordinance in 1942 to suppress the freedom
movement led by Mahatma Gandhi in India.
Lord Linlithgow, the viceroy of India hur-
riedly promulgated it on August 15, 1942,
after the Congress passed the historic
“People’s lives in
Manipur are
fettered by an
overwhelming
and intrusive
military presence
where their lives
could change any
minute. AFSPA is
a tangible symbol
of oppression
with justice and
human rights
being inevitable
casualties.”
—Minnie Vaid (left),
author of Iron Irom-
Two Journeys
Anjalika Sharma

IL
Indian soldiers and paramilitary
men to crush it. He got AFPSA
(1958) passed in parliament to
boost the army attack and provide
them legal protection. One of the
few MPs who spoke up against it
was Surendra Mohanty who said
that while all of us wanted a free
India, we did not want one with
barbed wires and concentration
camps where havaldars could
shoot anybody.
What followed were large-scale
atrocities which Nagas even today
recall with anger and bitterness.
Gavin Young, a reporter from The
Observer who was witness to it as
he traveled through the state at that
time, wrote: “The stories of burned
rice stores and houses seemed end-
less. Individuals told how they had
been beaten and tied up for hours
without water; how they had been bound and
hung downwards from beams to be flogged;
how sons, brothers and fathers had been bay-
oneted to death.”
A 2008 Human Rights Watch report
called “These Fellows Must Be Eliminated:
Relentless Violence and Impunity in
Manipur” says that for 50 years there had
been a failure of justice in Manipur and the
army protected under AFSPA has been
involved in numerous violations of human
rights and so could not be held accountable
for serious crimes. “In the name of national
security and armed forces morale, the
state protects abusers and leaves
Manipuris with no remedy to secure justice”,
the report said.
The Justice JS Verma Committee that
suggested amendments to laws relating to
crimes against women said that there was an
imminent need to review the continuance of
AFSPA. Gopal Subramaniam, one of the
committee members, said that there was a
crying need to try armed forces personnel
guilty of sexual offences in conflict areas
under the ordinary criminal law.
When will these numerous voices be
heard? The Supreme Court remains
the only hope for thousands of victims and
their families.
28 August 15, 2016
Quit India resolution on August 8, 1942. The
British were under a lot of pressure, with the
Japanese making advances during World
War II. They had entered Burma and also
parts of Nagaland and Manipur. So the law
put in had all kinds of rigorous clauses giving
extensive powers to the army.
India created the Armed Forces Special
Powers Act drawing on this British ordinance
and added some more provisions which
made it stringent. It added vaguely defined
powers like using force to search any place
without warrant, destroying a place if there
was suspicion that it was being used by
armed groups and even killing any person it
suspected of carrying weapons.
While the British Ordinance had only
authorized captains or officers above this
rank to take action, the Indian Act gave the
power to lower ranks, which included non-
commissioned officers. Garnering huge pow-
ers under this Act, security forces have till
now being shielded from being tried under
human right violations. But with the latest
observation by the Supreme Court, it will not
continue to be the case.
When the Naga insurgency which was
demanding independence from India broke
out in 1954, Prime Minister Jawaharlal
Nehru thought it best to send in battalions of
Jammu and Kashmir
Assam
Nagaland
Manipur (except
Imphal municipal area)
Arunachal Pradesh
(only Tirap, Changlang
and Longding districts,
plus a 20-km belt
bordering Assam)
Meghalaya (confined
to a 20-km belt
bordering Assam)
Statesunder
AFSPA
SEARCH OPERATION
Manipur residents are
often subjected to checks
by security forces. The
abnormal has become
normal here
e-paolive.net
LEAD/ AFSPA/Manipur

NATIONAL BRIEFS
— Compiled by Sucheta Dasgupta
Child labor bill passed
Parliament has passed the contro-
versial Child Labour Amend-
ment Bill, 2016, which allows a child
to help out in family enterprises after
school hours.
The new legislation extends the
ban on child labor to all sectors of 18
hazardous occupations and 65
processes. It also stiffens penalties for
those employing children. However,
under the new law, children will be
allowed to work in family businesses,
outside school hours, and in enter-
tainment and sports, if it does not
affect their studies. Children aged 15
to 18 years will be permitted to work,
except in mines and hazardous
industries. The government says the
exemptions aim to strike a balance
between education and India's eco-
nomic reality.
Meanwhile, UNICEF has raised
concerns about the Bill. Bachpan
Bachao Andolan founder and Nobel
Peace prize winner Kailash Satyarthi
too is of the opinion that the changes
would lead to further victimization of
poor children.
Just as education
became a fundamental
right in 2009, health, too,
could become one soon.
Pending for nearly two
years, a draft national
health policy proposed by
the ministry, which advo-
cates a National Health
Rights Act, will be for-
warded to the Union cabi-
net early August. The Act,
if passed, will make “denial
of health“ an offense. The
policy proposes that the
Center, in coordination
with the states, use the
legal clause available
under the Clinical
Establishments Bill and
ensure health as
a fundamental
right. It propos-
es that public
health expendi-
ture be raised to
2.5 percent of
the GDP from
the current 1.2
percent.
The Center has cleared the
appointment of chief justices
to three high courts—Patna,
Punjab and Haryana and
Allahabad. The new appointees
include Justice IA Ansari as
chief justice of Patna High Court,
Justice DB Bhosale for
Allahabad High Court and
Justice SJ Vazifdar for Punjab
and Haryana High Court.
Earlier, the Center had
requested the Supreme Court
collegium headed by Chief
Justice of India TS Thakur to
reconsider acting Patna HC
chief justice Ansari’s appoint-
ment. But the collegium took a
tough stand, causing the Center
to give in. The Center has also
accepted the recommendations
of the collegium for the transfer
of Justice Indira Banerjee from
Calcutta HC to Delhi HC and
Justice MM Shantanagoudar
from Karnataka HC to
Kerala HC.
Appointments to
three high courts
Congress leader Digvijaya Singh and
his family have been listed in the
below poverty line (BPL) category in the
census list of socially and economically
backward classes for free LPG connec-
tions under the Prime Minister’s
Ujjawala Yojana.
“This is a conspiracy against me and
my family. I demand a probe,” Singh,
who was once chief minister of Madhya
Pradesh and is also a descendant of the
erstwhile ruler of Raghogarh, said.
Officials in Guna district, however,
maintained that Singh and his family
were included in the BPL list in 2011
after a socio-economic caste census.
The family has lodged a complaint
with the district collector and sought an
investigation even while Singh blamed
the state government for the mess.
Health, a fundamental right
Digvijaya wants probe for BPL listing

SUPREME COURT/ MTP Act
O
N July 25 Ms X, a rape victim
from a disadvantaged back-
ground, was permitted to termi-
nate her 24 week old pregnancy
by a Supreme Court order after
a team of doctors had examined her. The
judgment by the apex court brought the
focus on a recent spate of cases where courts
have aided young rape survivors to over-
come the limitations of legislation on med-
ical termination of pregnancy.
The Medical Termination of Pregnancy
Act (MTP Act) which was enacted in 1971
was considered progressive then because it
allowed for medical termination of pregnan-
cy. Prior to 1971 abortion was an act punish-
able under the Indian Penal Code, a law that
came into force under British rule in 1860!
But according to rights lawyer Colin
Gonsalves, who appeared for Ms X, the law
remains frozen in the 70s, both in terms of
factoring in medical advances as well as in
keeping up with social realities. The law
needs to be amended.
SERIOUS ABNORMALITIES
In Ms X’s case the fetus showed terrible
abnormalities when the mother was exam-
ined after 20 weeks—according to medical
analysis it would not have survived the
birth. A gynecologist who did not want to be
identified, explained that the description
given by the team of doctors who examined
Ms X on the orders of the Supreme Court
showed that not only were the organs of the
fetus outside the body, but also that the vault
AbortionNeeds
anAmendmentAn apex court
order allowing
a rape victim to
terminate her
24-week
pregnancy
brings into
focus the need
to change an
outdated
legislation
which controls
medical
intervention. It
is time our
lawmakers
wake up to
scientific
advances
and to social
realities
By Nayantara
Roy
30 August 15, 2016
Rajender Kumar

of the skull was not formed, a condition
called anencephaly wherein the frontal lobe
is missing.
The gynecologist explained that this
baby would not have survived birth in any
case and labor would have been prolonged
due to the missing frontal lobe of the brain
which normally helps the fetus participate
in the labor process. The shoulders would
have got stuck and there was danger to the
mother of obstructed labor with uterine
rupture and post-partum hemorrhage. All
fierce sounding medical terms which effec-
tively mean that the mother would probably
have died giving birth to a child who would
not have survived anyway. Further, in Ms X’s
case, the gynecologist explained that the
trauma of carrying the baby to term would
be tenfold that of the trauma of terminating
the pregnancy at the 24 week stage.
Section 3(2)(b) of the MTP Act of 1971
puts a ceiling on termination of pregnancy
after 20 weeks. Section 5 sets out an excep-
tion to Section 3 in case the mother’s life is
in danger. However, there is no provision if
the mother’s life is not endangered but the
fetus has abnormalities. The onus of caring
for such a child including the possible med-
ical expenditure on such a child would be on
the pregnant woman, no matter her age, sit-
uation or ability to provide.
The explanations to section 3 do take
into account situations such as pregnancy
caused by rape, the anguish of which could
pose a grave risk to mental health. It allows
for terminating a pregnancy arising out of
failure of contraception but only applies it to
a married couple. The woman’s “foreseeable
environment” is also taken into account
when considering grave risk to mental
health. But all this is considered to be within
the 20-week limit.
While abortion
has historically
been a key issue
for feminists in
the United
States, in India,
the women’s
rights movement
has focused on
stopping female
feticide.
UNI

Cases pleading for termination of preg-
nancy being heard in court expose the limi-
tations of the current legislation. Gonsalves’
client Ms X obtained relief from the
Supreme Court which applied the exception
set out in section 5 to her case. Even as her
case was being heard a 15 year old victim of
rape sought the Delhi High Court’s inter-
vention to enable her to abort a 24 week old
fetus. The Court constituted a medical panel
to determine the physical and mental condi-
tion of the 15 year old to ascertain if the
pregnancy can be terminated. Similarly, in
January this year the Madras High Court
directed a medical board to determine
whether the five month pregnancy of a 14
year old, rescued from the flesh trade, could
be terminated.
REASON TO REVISIT ACT
American birth control activist and sex edu-
cator Margaret Sanger had famously said
“no woman can call herself free who does
not own and control her body”. The MTP
Act, 1971 while introduced by the then
health minister S Chandrasekhar as a step
towards the emancipation of women does
not give women the right to make this
important decision regarding abortion but
places the decision making in the hands of
healthcare providers.
This is a view endorsed by Shweta
Krishnan, research associate at IIT Madras,
in her paper in the Indian Journal of
Medical Ethics. She points out that the
Medical Termination of Pregnancy
(Amendment) Bill of 2014 intends to make
much needed changes in the current Act.
These will go a long way towards saving
women from reaching out to what
Gonsalves terms “the underground” in order
to terminate pregnancies that the limita-
tions of the current Act force many women
to resort to.
Poverty and lack of access to information
and knowledge of what to do is probably
why so many cases seeking termination of
pregnancy after the 20-week period have
been allowed by various courts across the
country. But among the poor who lack prop-
er healthcare, there is the chance that a
woman may not even realize that she is
T
he MTP Act in its current form
allows termination of preg-
nancy on the advice of one
allopathic medical practitioner for
up to the first 12 weeks of preg-
nancy. Between 12 and 20 weeks,
the advice of two allopathic med-
ical practitioners is required in
order to terminate the pregnancy
after which period termination is
not allowed except under excep-
tional circumstances as spelt out in
Section 5. Termination of pregnan-
cy is allowed within the 12- and 20-
week period only on the grounds
that the continuance of the preg-
nancy would involve a risk to the
life of the pregnant woman or “of
grave injury to her physical or men-
tal health”. In the alternative there
should be a substantial risk that if
the child were to be born it would
“suffer from such physical or men-
tal abnormalities as to be seriously
handicapped”.
Section 5 lays down exceptions to
Section 3. This section allows ter-
mination of pregnancy over the 20-
week period prescribed in Section
3 and does away with the require-
ment of the advice of two medical
practitioners if a medical practition-
er is of the opinion, in good faith,
that termination is immediately
necessary to save the life of the
pregnant woman.
Thecurrentlaw
The MTP Act allows termination of pregnancy beyond 20 weeks
only under exceptional circumstances
SUPREME COURT/ MTP Act
Lawyer Colin
Gonsalves supports
the MTP (Amendment)
Bill but feels that it’s
unlikely to be passed
anytime soon.
In 1919, American
activist Margaret Sanger
espoused the woman’s
right over her body. The
term, birth control, is
attributed to Sanger.
32 August 15, 2016

pregnant until the 20-week period lapses
and fetal movement is first felt. Often rape
victims who find themselves pregnant are
too young to understand till it is too late.
It is in this context that an amended law
is important.
THE PROPOSED LAW
The MTP Amendment Bill, 2014, provides
for termination of pregnancy up to 24
weeks. It will allow termination of pregnan-
cy of up to 12 weeks on the decision of the
woman herself. After 12 weeks and up to 24
weeks the advice and opinion of only one
medical practitioner will be needed making
the process less bureaucratic and cumber-
some.
This amendment takes into con-
sideration that medicine has
advanced since 1971 when D&Cs
(dilation and curettage) were the only
abortion methods available. At a later
stage of pregnancy this method could
prove dangerous to the mother. The
current practice is to induce mini
labour by administering oxytocin and
a cervical dilatory agent so that the
fetus is delivered along with the pla-
centa. Then, if required, some scrap-
ing might be done. Some doctors say
that by this method the pregnancy
can even be terminated in the eighth and
ninth months.
In Ms X’s case the Attorney General
argued that having a liberal process for
medical termination of pregnancy would
increase female feticide. But Gonsalves
points out that feticide is a completely dif-
ferent issue. Krishnan in her paper says that
the Pre-Conception and Pre-Diagnostic
Techniques Act 1994 (PCPDT) is meant to
tackle feticide.
It is true that trade in fetuses is a grisly
crime that is supported by markets as varied
as beauty and medical treatments and might
be a fall out of a liberal MTP regime. Special
laws are needed to tackle this horrific crime.
But the answer cannot lie in forcing unwant-
ed pregnancies on people who cannot sup-
port the progeny, especially in cases of severe
abnormality of the fetus. The intent of the
law should be to help victims expeditiously
and not to burden them further.
According to Krishnan the Abortion
Assessment Project report says that 56
percent of the 6.4 million abortions per-
formed annually in India are unsafe. Ten to
13 percent of maternal deaths are due to
unsafe abortions. Drafting good laws is all
about factoring in possible fall outs, social
evils and whatever else may impact on a law,
not restricting the law so that it cannot ful-
fill its intent.
In another case represented by
Gonsalves, the Bombay High Court had
rejected the plea of a pregnant woman to
terminate her more than 20 week pregnan-
cy. She had only just found out that the fetus
was abnormal. An appeal has been filed in
the Supreme Court challenging the MTP
Act. The rights lawyer is all for a progressive
MTP (Amendment) Bill but is pessimistic
about our lawmakers passing it.
T
he US has also seen court rul-
ings against abortion laws that
make access to termination dif-
ficult. Recently the US Supreme
Court ruled against a Texas law that
had made access to abortion very
difficult due to excessive procedural
regulations. The discourse in the US
revolves around “life” and the
immorality of taking “life”. In the
1973 landmark American case Roe
versus Wade the right to privacy was
extended to a woman’s decision to
have an abortion. In order to protect
maternal health as also human life
abortion laws were tied to the third
trimester of pregnancy. Subsequently
in Planned Parenthood vs Casey the
period during which abortion was
allowed was linked to the viability of
the fetus outside the womb, even
with artificial help. With advances in
medicine it has become possible to
keep a fetus alive outside the womb
at earlier stages. This linkage has
resulted in various US state legisla-
tions becoming more conservative
on the period until which abortions
are allowed.
Nevertheless the courts in the US
have in recent times ruled more liber-
ally in favour of women as for exam-
ple when the US Supreme Court
recently struck down a proposed
Arkansas law that would have pro-
hibited abortion after 12 weeks.
TheUSexperience
The 1973 Roe vs Wade case was a watershed moment for America’s
abortion rights activists
IL

SUPREME COURT/ Lodha Committee Recommendations
T
HERE is this story that
someone close to Vee-
rappa Moily, Union law
minister in UPA-II, likes
to narrate. It does not
have to do with the for-
mer minister’s literary
pursuits in his mother tongue, Kannada, nor
his vision of India as a future superpower
spelt out in four volumes in English titled
Unleashing India. It has all to do with
Moily’s effort to cleanse sports and push
through a Bill in 2011 that would bar politi-
cians from heading sports federations. The
A Game-Changing
With the apex court endorsing
the findings of this panel,
lawmakers will find it easier to
frame effective legislation to
debar politicians from holding
office in sport federations
By Ajith Pillai
34 August 15, 2016
UNI

move did not find favor with his own cabinet
colleagues or politicians from all major
political parties.
STICKLERS FOR POWER
The Sports Development Bill (2011) was
summarily rejected at a cabinet meeting in
August 2011. Among those who objected
were ministers who headed sports federa-
tions or were closely associated with them—
Sharad Pawar, Praful Patel, Farooq Abdu-
llah, Rajiv Shukla and Jyotiraditya Scindia.
It was a major embarrassment for then
sports minister Ajay Maken as well as Moily.
Later, a revised form of the draft bill was
prepared by a working group of legal experts
and former and current sportspersons
under the chairmanship of Justice (Retd)
Mukul Mudgal. But the proposed law has
not been tabled in parliament so far and
media reports suggest that it has all but
been abandoned by the NDA government.
By all accounts, there is stiff resistance from
the political establishment to any clean-up
effort vis-à-vis sports.
With the recent Supreme Court ruling on
July 18, 2016, upholding the Lodha Commi-
ttee recommendations on reforming the
BCCI, there is a view emerging that it is time
that some of the Committee’s recommenda-
tions be applied to other sports federations
as well. Congress leader and Supreme Court
lawyer Manish Tewari, who represented ex-
cricketers Bishan Singh Bedi and Kirti Azad
in the apex court in the BCCI matter, felt
that it is time for other sports bodies to ring
in changes, however unpalatable.
“Why should other sports be treated dif-
ferently from cricket? What is good for the
goose is good for the gander. I think the time
has come that the Lodha Committee recom-
mendations should be used as a template
and the principles should be applied across
the Indian Olympic Association (IOA)
Verdict
GAME OVER?
(L-R) Rajya Sabha MP
and senior BCCI
functionary Rajiv
Shukla and NCP
president and former
BCCI President Sharad
Pawar stand to lose
their clout if the reforms
are implemented
(Facing page) The
money-spinning IPL
has been at the center
of several corruption
controversies
There are 70
recognized
sports
federations of
which 38 are
headed by
politicians.
What is worse,
once the
takeover
happens, the
netas and their
cohorts don’t
let go.
UNI UNI

and all the sports federations,” Tewari told a
news agency following the SC judgment.
REASON FOR RESISTANCE
So why are sports bodies resistant to any
government oversight or accountability?
The main argument advanced has been that
it would impinge on their autonomy thr-
ough official interference. When the Draft
Sport Development Bill was submitted to
various stakeholders in 2011 and its revised
form two years later, it was pointed out that
there was no international precedent of such
a broad sweep law covering all sports and
that India would be the first to implement it.
Most sports bodies the world over had
self-regulatory mechanism and the judicial
system came into the picture only when the-
re was any illegality or crime involved like
match-fixing. Moreover, it was argued that
government involvement cannot guarantee
professionalism in sports management.
Sports federations, including the IOA,
were also uncomfortable with age limits and
limiting tenure duration of its office-bearers
as well as restrictions on ministers and gov-
ernment servants to be included. But the
apex court ruling on the Lodha Committee
recommendations has provided clarity on all
these issues. In effect, a template, as Manish
Tewari put it, has been provided.
But behind all the objections, it is easy to
see the sub-text: our politicians are loath to
give up control over sports federations that
they so immensely enjoy. According to the
Delhi-based Centre for Public Policy Res-
earch, there are 70 recognized sports feder-
ations of which 38 are headed by politicians.
What is worse, once the takeover happens,
the netas and their cohorts don’t let go.
Remember Jagdish Tytler headed the
Judo Federation for 25 years and when age
caught up with him, he quit only to become
a patron for life! Then there is the Archery
Federation which was headed by BJP’s Vijay
Malhotra for 40 years (he is now hono-
rary life president). The list goes on span-
ning all parties….
SPORTSPERSONS TAKE OVER
Sportspersons over the years have been
harping on the fact that politicians need to
One can understand politicians being
interested in being part of the man-
agement that runs popular, glamorous
and cash-rich games like cricket. But
what about lesser-known sports like
handball or, say, Sepaktakraw (volleyball
played with the foot) or even Kho-Kho?
According to sports journalists, heading
even the most nondescript sport federa-
tion comes with the following perks—
money, power, foreign travel and the
prospect of furthering business interests.
The popular impression is that sports
bodies, other than those which manage
games like cricket and tennis, are cash-
strapped and hence compensate players
poorly. But that may not be true. Sports
organizations get grants from internatio-
nal bodies like the Olympics Association
Perksgalore
Justice Lodha (left) has suggested
sweeping reforms to rid cricket of
corruption. Justice Mukul Mudgal (right)
exposed the peril of betting in IPL.
36 August 15, 2016

be kept out of federations, which in turn
have to function with transparency. Here is
a representative sampling of what two icons
of Indian athletics reportedly said. “For the
good of sport, sportsmen should be at the
helm of affairs,” said Milkha Singh, former
track and field sprinter.
“We have seen several politicians at the
helm of various sports bodies in the country
and there has not been much improvement.
I feel the time has come for sportspersons to
take over.” That is what ace sprinter PT Usha
said. Her views are endorsed by the likes of
Ashwini Nachappa, Kirti Azad and Bishen
Singh Bedi.
But critics will argue that getting rid of
politicians from sports federations and
bringing them under government oversight
by passing a law will not bring professional-
ism to sport. In fact, the sports ministry has
a poor track record in this regard. Perhaps
the private sector needs to be more involved.
This was articulated in an assessment of the
Draft Sports Development Bill by the
Federation of Indian Chambers of Comm-
erce and Industry (FICCI).
for development of the sport. Much of the
monies is siphoned off and shown as
expenses in the books. There is very little
accountability and no questions are
asked and there is no media scrutiny of
the bodies that run marginal sports.
During foreign junkets to attend meet-
ings not only is one hosted and taken
care of but the representative of a sports
body is often treated as a guest of the
state and can meet senior officials,
including ministers, in the country he is
visiting. This opens up business possibili-
ties and regular visits cement ties which
could translate into deals not always
connected with the sport. Similarly, he
can represent foreign business interests
back in India.
For the politician, another perk is influ-
encing team selection, deciding on
coaches and the venue where a tourna-
ment is to be conducted. As sports
administrators, netas can also reward
cronies by favoring their candidate for
selection into a team. Lesser-known
sports rarely attract controversy, so there
is no public furore over who is chosen
and who is not.
Finally, there is this feeling among
most politicians that their CV looks
impressive if they are seen as associat-
ing themselves with any sport. So what if
it’s cycling or tug-of-war?
VeerappaMoily
He faced embarrassment
when his draft Bill on BCCI
reforms was rejected by
many of his own partymen
in the Congress.
FarooqAbdullah
The flamboyant National
Conference leader was
among those who
opposed reforms
suggested by Moily.
JagdishTytler
He headed the Judo
Federation for 25 years
and later became patron
for life, when age caught
up with him.

To quote FICCI: “Industry’s importance
and role must be stressed beyond the con-
text of collaboration with National Sports
Federations (NSFs). There is mention of
introducing and implementing professional
management and processes within the spo-
rts domain. Industry will be able to impart
and introduce more stringent and fiscally
professional and responsible practices
therefore it must be given a defined role
within the Sports Bill and the Sports Code.
There is a strong case for public private
partnerships (PPPs) for infrastructure relat-
ed and capital intensive initiatives. Industry
can also contribute to human capital res-
ource projects such as skill training, and
professional management expertise.”
PROFESSIONAL MANAGEMENT
However, pundits warn that wanton com-
mercialization of sports comes with its own
set of problems as has been illustrated in the
case of cricket. Admittedly, professional
management of sports bodies is the answer
to many of the ills that currently plague
sports federations which are run like fief-
doms by politicians.
Perhaps, to break their stranglehold and
to professionalize sport, a legal framework
needs to be put in place, otherwise change
will be resisted.
While delivering their verdict on the
Lodha Committee recommendations, the
apex court bench of Chief Justice of India
TS Thakur and Justice FMI Kalifulla made
this significant observation: “The truth is
that resistance to change stems partly from
people getting used to the status quo and
partly because any change is perceived to
affect their vested interest in terms of loss of
ego, status, power or resources. This is true
particularly when the suggested change is
structural or organisational which involves
some threat, real or perceived, of personal
loss to those involved.”
If the BCCI resisted change till now
despite the spot-fixing scandal, then it is dif-
ficult to see sports federations change in the
absence of a law. The latest Supreme Court
verdict can help our lawmakers frame a new
and effective legislation that would be holis-
tic and good for sport in the country.
The Supreme Court verdict okayed
most of the Lodha Committee
recommendations for reforming the
BCCI. Here are the key ones:
All recommendations cleared by the
Court will have to be implemented within
six months
No one above the age of 70 can
become an office-bearer in the BCCI or
state associations
Ministers and bureaucrats barred from
being office-bearers
Officials cannot hold dual posts in the
state unit and the BCCI
Only one vote per state at BCCI
meetings
Parliament will decide
on whether BCCI should
be brought under the
ambit of RTI and if bet-
ting should be legalized
Running of the BCCI
will have to be stream-
lined and become pro-
fessional
SCverdict
PTUsha,acesprinter
She says India has several
politicians at the helm of
various sports bodies in the
country and there has not
been much improvement.
MilkhaSingh,formertrack
andfieldsprinter
He firmly believes that
for the good of sport,
sportsmen should be
at the helm of affairs.
IL
38 August 15, 2016
UNI

The Supreme Court made it clear that
once it decides upon a law, the con-
cerned authorities must “follow and
implement it in letter and spirit”. The
court’s observation came on a petition
filed by an NGO, Lok Prahari, which
claimed that despite the apex court’s
2013 ruling, instances of lawmakers los-
ing membership of parliament or state
legislatures, once convicted, were few
and far between.
The apex court, in its July 10, 2013
verdict, had struck down Section 8 (4) of
the Representation of People Act 1951.
The Section enabled convicted MLAs and
MPs to legally challenge the order in a
higher court within three months and get
a stay and steer clear of Section 8 (1)
(2) and (3) which disqualifies them for
six years. After the order, MPs and MLAs
were to be immediately disqualified for
six months once convicted.
The NGO alleged that no system was
in place for the trial court to get in touch
with the Election Commission and pass
on the information about a lawmaker
once he/she is held guilty of a criminal
offense.
The apex court asked the poll body
and the center to respond on the petition.
Are laws being followed?
SUPREME COURT
The Ministry of Defense
will take charge of the
controversy-ridden Adarsh
Cooperative Society
Building in Mumbai, the
apex court ruled recently.
It also asked the regis-
trar general of the Bombay
High Court to supervise the
transfer—either personally
or through somebody
deputed by him—and
prepare an inventory of
all important documents
related to the
building.
The court
did not pass
any order on
the pleas from
residents of
the Society
challenging
and seeking a
stay on the
Bombay High Court’s April
verdict to demolish the
building. But the bench
dealing with the case
observed that it was
“implicit” in the order itself
that the demolition had
been stalled till the court
settles the issue.
The counsel for the
ministry informed the court
that there will be no demoli-
tion till the apex court takes
a final call on the issue.
Adarsh Society in
charge of MoD
Just because a tradition has
sustained for thousands of
years does not imply that we
continue to cling to it, the apex
court reminded proponents of
Jallikattu, a brutal bull-taming
sport in Tamil Nadu.
To bring home the point, it
asked the Tamil Nadu govern-
ment, whether the same logic
could be applied to child mar-
riage which had existed for
centuries in India.
The court’s response
came when the counsel
for Tamil Nadu, Shekhar
Naphade, argued that
Jallikattu should be
allowed as it was part of
the culture and tradition
of Tamil society since
ancient times.
The court was hear-
ing pleas filed by animal
rights activists against
the center’s (NDA gov-
ernment) notification in
January this year, allow-
ing the traditional sport on the
occasion of Pongal.
The January notification
had overturned the 2011
notification of the central
government (UPA) prohibiting
the sport, as well as the
2014 order of the apex
court, upholding the 2011
notification.
The next hearing in the
emotive matter is slated on
August 30.
Old, not always gold

The apex court took a serious note of the
exploitation suffered by porters who lug sup-
plies, ration and ammunition of the Army in hilly
areas along the borders and held that this must
stop. It blamed the system set up by the Army for
the scourge.
It was responding to a plea by some porters
who complained that they were deprived of even
minimum wages as sanctioned by law despite
doing the job for years. They also lamented that
there was no job security and some of them had
been removed by the Army after receiving one-
time compensation.
The counsel for the Army contended that a
scheme was being chalked out for porters and the
information presented by them in court had been
blown out of proportion. He requested for an
opportunity to respond to their allegations.
Granting his wish, the court gave the Army a
week’s time and fixed the next hearing for July 29.
But this was not before it had almost arrived at a
decision to hand over the charge of examining the
service conditions of the porters to the Armed
Forces Tribunal.
Porters can’t be
exploited
The apex court recently asked a Delhi-
based management institute—FORE
School of Management—to deposit `2 crore
with its registry over an issue resulting from
over-admissions.
It was responding to the institute’s plea to
sanction the admission of 51 “extra” students
for the current academic year.
The matter had gone to the Supreme Court
with FORE seeking the court’s intervention to
direct All India Council for Technical Education
(AICTE) to grant approval for the extra seats.
Parents of 22 affected students had also
filed a petition against FORE in the court. They
had dragged FORE to the apex court for play-
ing with their career. FORE had over-admitted
students in its two-year programs—Post
Graduate Diploma in Management (PGDM)
and International Business (PGDM-IB)—and
had later asked the students to withdraw their
names. And that too, a fortnight after the ses-
sion had started.
The institute had earlier applied to AICTE
for the approval of extra seats but AICTE
had refused citing a Supreme Court order
that had set the deadline of April 30 for
approval to technical institutes. However,
FORE went ahead presuming that the approval
will come later.
The counsel for FORE, Salman Khurshid
pleaded that the B-school had applied to
AICTE much ahead of the deadline and met all
requirements. He laid the blame on AICTE for
delaying the sanction, putting at risk the career
of so many students.
The counsel for AICTE countered FORE’s
plea on the ground that the denial had been
issued well in advance.
The bench dealing with the case listed the
matter for August 9.
FORE asked
to deposit
`2 crore
—Compiled by Prabir Biswas, Illustrations: UdayShankar
SUPREME COURT
40 August 15, 2016

COURTS/Rajasthan/Salman Khan Verdict
Y
ET again, the stars seemed to
favor Salman Khan. On July 25,
the Rajasthan High Court
acquitted the actor in two sepa-
rate cases where he was accused
of poaching on chinkaras belonging to the
deer family. In fact three separate cases were
filed against Khan for killing deer on differ-
ent days in the months of September and
October 1998 while he was in Jodhpur for a
film shoot.
The trial court had convicted Khan
under Section 51 of the Wild Life Prot-
ection Act and sentenced him to one year of
simple imprisonment with a `5,000 fine.
But the High Court found all the evidence
produced most unsatisfactory and replete
with infirmities.
Khan was convicted primarily on the
statement of the driver of a Gypsy that Khan
purportedly used for his hunting trips. The
driver’s statement had been taken down
under section 164 of the CrPC before a mag-
istrate but was subsequently never exam-
ined in court as he had “disappeared.”
Therefore Salman Khan’s lawyer was not
given an opportunity to cross examine him
as per the requirement of section 33 of the
Evidence Act.
It was found that the driver had been
kept in the illegal custody of the Forest
Department at the time that his statement
under Section 164 was recorded. Further,
the testimony of the vehicle owner was that
the driver had been left behind at the Umaid
Bhawan Palace Hotel and had not driven
Salman Khan.
Regarding the driver’s testimony, the
court said that it made Salman Khan appear
to have been “multi-tasking”, driving the
vehicle, shooting the deer, climbing out of
the vehicle to cut the deer’s throat with a
knife and climbing back in to take the wheel.
The vehicle had been left unattended and
uncovered, in the open, after recovery.
Testimony from various witnesses showed
discrepancies such as that they had not
found blood or hair in the car at the time it
was impounded but several days later they
found deer bloodstains (proved by laborato-
ry forensic reports) and hair in the vehicle.
Even regarding the recovery of the vari-
ous guns allegedly used the evidence showed
that the .22 gun had been brought to
Jodhpur only on the request of officials after
the case had been filed.
There was nothing to prove that it was in
Jodhpur prior to the filing of the case. The
other two weapons, a revolver and an air
gun were not the usual weapons that are
used in deer hunting. Importantly no deer
carcass was recovered; therefore bullets
could not be matched to corroborate the
prosecution’s story.
According to media reports, animal
rights activists have alleged that the evi-
dence has been deliberately weakened. Two
days after the verdict the driver, Harish
Dulani reappeared and told the media that
his family had been threatened and that he
would have come forward and deposed if he
had been given protection.
No One Killed
the Chinkaras
The actor is acquitted by the Rajasthan
High Court in two poaching cases in
which he had been earlier convicted
By Nayantara Roy
NOT GUILTY
Salman outside
the Rajasthan High
Court premises
IL
UNI

India Legal 15 August 2016

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