NEW DELHI, Apr 11: A three-hour docu-drama on the life of Guru Gobind Singh, the founder of the .......more

CPI(M) will launch massive
agitation in AP from May

VIJAYAWADA, Apr 11: CPI(M) Andhra Pradesh secretary B V Raghavulu today said the party would ......more

Orders reserved
on Jaya’s petition

CHENNAI, Apr 10: The Madras High Court today reserved orders on the petition filed by former.....more

SPOTLIGHT
Dishonest bosses with golf ‘clubs’, ‘girl PROs’
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From B L Kak

NEW DELHI, Apr 10: India’s former diplomat in Moscow, Mr BS Das, too, has joined the ‘army’ of writers and commentators on the......more

NEW DELHI, Apr 10: Former Delhi Minister and BJP leader Harcharan Singh Balli has welcomed the SGPC’s decision to resume .........more

Former Delhi Minister
hails SGPC move
on Pak pilgrimage

NEW DELHI, Apr 10: Former Delhi Minister and BJP leader Harcharan Singh Balli has welcomed the SGPC’s decision to resume pilgrimage to Sikh shrines in Pakistan, saying the holy visits should have.........more

Amending tardy ways
that ‘deny’ justice

NEW DELHI, Apr 10: Endless adjournments and other sluggish ways notorious for contributing to ......more

Shoot-at-sight orders
for firstp hase Bihar
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Film on Gobind Singh revives traditional Sikh music

NEW DELHI, Apr 11: A three-hour docu-drama on the life of Guru Gobind Singh, the founder of the order of the Khalsa, revives the flagging musical genres that were once central to "Gurmat Sangeet" or traditional Sikh music.

"In the footsteps of Guru Gobind Singh", scheduled to be premiered on April 13 at Khalsa’s cradle — Anandpur Sahib — in Punjab, is the creation of producer-director Thakur Ranbir Singh.

Singh Bandhu — Tejpal Singh and Surinder Singh — have composed the music of the film that is scripted by Kartar Singh Duggal.

The film shows all Gurdwaras commemorating Guru Gobind Singh, who organised Sikhs into Khalsa or "the pure" on April 13, 1699 to break caste distinction and further a campaign against human rights violations by a tyrannical regime.

He bound the Sikh fraternity together by instituting or adopting the ceremony of "Pahul" or baptism consisting essentially of drinking consecrated water stirred by a Khanda, a kind of double-edged sword.

The initiation ceremony encouraged new entrants and marked off the Sikhs from others and the five "KS" acted as a Talisman of unity which appealed to high and low alike.

Born in Patna, Guru Gobind Singh spent his life in several parts of India before he passed at Nander in the Deccan in 1708 at the age of 42.

The guru composed a number of hymns, and the music directors say they have tried to set them to music that befits the literary genres they were composed in by the Guru.

"For instance, we have presented "Deh Shiva Bar Mo Ihe..." in Raag Shankra that suits the valour-inspiring hymn. Similarly, we framed "Mitar Piyare Nu Haal Muridaan Da Kehna..." In Raag Nand," Mr Surinder Singh told UNI here today.

The music of the film has been given on two levels — background and singing — he said.

"We have used traditional musical instruments such as Dilruba, a string instrument played in the film by Naamdhari Ragi Baljit Singh, the flute, the sarod, the Pakhawaj and at places the tabla also," Mr Singh said.

For instance, if the film shows a gurdwara located in the hilly Himalayan region, Raag Pahari blown across the flute played in the background to the accompaniment of traditional percussion instruments sets the right mood, he said.

"The choice of Raags has also been made in accordance with Gurmat Sangeet and the location of Gurdwaras," he said.

The Singh Bandhu and a Maharashtrian singer have performed playback singing set to musical genres practised by Sikh Gurus and carried forward by Raagis till the first half of the 20th century.

But drastic changes occurred in Sikh religious singing in its latter half, which made the community’s traditional style of music nearly a thing of the past. (UNI)

CPI(M) will launch massive agitation in AP from May

VIJAYAWADA, Apr 11: CPI(M) Andhra Pradesh secretary B V Raghavulu today said the party would launch a massive state-wide agitation during the "Mahila Janmabhoomi programme" from May one to protest against the TDP Government’s alleged move to turn women self helpgroups into sales agents of leading multinational companies for their consumer products.

Addressing a press conference here, he alleged that a leading is company had entered into an agreement with a women group of the Development of Women and Children in Rural Areas (DWACRA) in Karimnagar for marketing its consumer goods at the instance of the TDP Government.

Talks were on with other leading multinational firms dealing in consumer goods and the State Government for firming up agreements with other DWACRA groups in the state, he claimed.

It was atrocious to propose that the DWACRA groups hand over their hard earned savings to MNCs as deposits for stocking their products, he said an pointed out that the savings of the groups should be channelised only for development activities and to make them self-reliant.

Mr Raghavulu, opposing the Government’s policy of downsizing staff strength by 1.9 per cent every year for five years and privatising works hitherto done by Government employees, on contract basis, extended his party’s support to a series of agitations announced by the National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM), in the next three months.

Expressing concern over increasing incidence of suicides among weavers, he urged the State Government to immediately release Rs 200 crores to rescue the distressed weavers, besides starting food for work programme and providing free rice to them.

He blamed the lifting of quantitative restrictions as per WTO dictates, dismantling of the reservation system favouring the handloom sector and cancellation of subsidies for handloom products by the centre for the problems in handloom sector, the second largest provider of employment after agriculture.

The State Government had added to their woes by not releasing necessary funds to the state cooperatives, he charged. (UNI)

Orders reserved on Jaya’s petition

CHENNAI, Apr 10: The Madras High Court today reserved orders on the petition filed by former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalitha seeking a stay of her conviction in TANSI land deal cases to enable her to contest the May 10 elections to the State Assembly.

Justice Malai Subramaniam reserved his orders after hearing arguments from counsel for Jayalalitha and the Tamil Nadu police on the petition.

Jayalalitha’s October nine conviction by Special Judge P Anbazhagan and sentence of prison terms of two years and three years respectively, involving the purchase of lands belonging to the state-owned Tamil Nadu Small Industries Corporation (TANSI), effectively bars her from contesting the poll under the Representation of the People Act. (PTI)

Amending tardy ways that ‘deny’ justice

NEW DELHI, Apr 10: Endless adjournments and other sluggish ways notorious for contributing to judicial delays and case backlogs will become history if amendments being sought go through, according to Government and Parliament officials and sources.

Under amendments contemplated in the 93-year-old code of civil procedures, judges may allow a party to a suit a maximum of three adjournments, each with costs. Hitherto, neither such limits apply nor effective costs.

Adjournment amounts to postponing adjudication. Justice activists call it a bane of Indian courts’ functioning.

Hundreds of new courts— 1,734— are opening up across the country to put on fast track millions of long-pending sessions and other criminal cases involving undertrials in jails. The exercise is to cost more than Rs 500 crore over the next four years. However, judicial ways that result in delays are yet to be rectified.

Amending the CPC to "provide relief to the public" has been on the cards for some years. The CPC Amendment Act 1999 passed by both Houses of Parliament was about to be notified last year, but the process was interrupted at the eleventh hour because of a nationwide protest by lawyers against some of the proposals. The CPC Amendment Bill 2000 was introduced in Parliament four months ago and has been referred to the standing committee on home affairs chaired by senior Congress MP Pranab Mukherjee.

Tapan Chatterjee, a Director in the Rajya Sabha Secretariat assigned to the committee, told UNI that the amendment bill was under consideration and a detailed background note has been requested.

Besides setting limits on adjournments, the revised proposals will fix deadlines for serving summons, allow use of fax and e-mail in court communications, set deadlines for parties to reply, limit the duration of oral arguments, encourage timely delivery of judgements, allow fewer options for appeals, and promote arbitration, Lok Adalat and other decisive, less expensive alternatives.

Law Ministry officials say the overriding objective of the amendments is to shorten the period of trial and reduce the burden on the parties to suits.

Critics say India’s judicial system is in a mess, with cases going on and on for years, giving little respite to the wronged and plenty of leeway to wrong doers. The issue has often figured in parliament.

Subordinate courts across the country have more than 20 million civil and ten million criminal cases pending before them. The 18 High Courts— not counting the Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Uttaranchal High Courts set up a few months ago— have more than 3.4 million cases pending. Even the land’s highest, Supreme Court, has more than 21,900 cases pending.

The figures do not even begin to tell the impact on millions of lives at the receiving end of such a dispensation.

Forty-eight years after a complainant approached a High Court in Madhya Pradesh for justice, the verdict as yet to be delivered. Three years ago, the Bihar High Court had a case pending for 47 years, the Calcutta High Court, for 43 years, and the Rajasthan High Court, for 42 years.

Government data collected a year ago show that the number of cases pending before High Courts longer than a decade exceeded half a million, constituting a perilous trend. The Allahabad High Court had more than 201,000 such cases, followed by the calcutta high court with 146,000 cases. The Punjab and Haryana High Court and the Delhi High Court had about 33,700 each. Such cases were the fewest in Himachal Pradesh High Court and the Sikkim High Court— 37 and two respectively.

Sometimes judgement does not immediately follow the hearing, adding to the delays. A year ago, the Madras High Court had judgement pending in 566 cases, 229 of them even six months after the hearing. The Calcutta High Court had judgement pending in 28 cases for one to six months and the Karnataka High Court, in 12 cases for one to four months. The Supreme Court had judgement pending in 82 cases, 17 of them for longer than six months. As India’s Chief Justice A S Anand once put it, "the consumer of justice wants unpolluted, expeditious and inexpensive justice. In the absence of it, instead of taking recourse to law, he may be tempted to take the law in his own hands."

Experts cite mainly two factors— shortage of judges and courts and inefficacious laws and procedures governing courts.

Considering population, India is estimated to have among the lowest number of judges in the world. The country’s senior and subordinate judiciaries between them have less than 13,000 officers dispensing justice at district, state and national levels. They include munsifs, sub-judges, civil judges, Judicial Magistrates and District Magistrates, Session Judges and High Court and Supreme Court Justices and the Chief Justice of India.

The judges to population ratio in India was placed by the Law Commission in 1987 at 10.5 per million people as against 50.9 in Britain, 57.7 in Australia, 75.2 in Canada, and 107 in the United States.

Observing that India was persisting in a pattern of conscious judicial understaffing followed by the British rulers in keeping with their colonial interests, the Commission had recommended a nearly five fold increase, raising the judiciary strength to 50 per million people.

When no action ensued even after eleven years, an advocate, S N Bhardwaj, petitioned the Supreme Court to order the Government to act. That plea is pending.

Aggravating the situation are lingering court vacancies. As of mid-2000, there were 12,205 district level judiciary positions, of which about 1500 were vacant, 647 High Court judges’ positions, of which about 180 were vacant, and 25 Supreme Court justices, of which two were vacant.

The effect is pronounced. Allahabad High Court has a sanctioned strength of 95 judges, but appears never to have attained it in its history. At a recent count it had 47 judges. According to one account, a criminal appeal before the Allahabad High Court against life sentence sometimes takes 15 years to be heard, making the outcome well nigh pointless.

When this is coupled with myriad socio-econonic problems of a nation still emerging from feudalism, still battling malnutrition, unemployment and overpopulation, crime, illiteracy, communal strife, disease, housing, power and water, to name a few, the potential for discord and disputes is ample and evident but delivery of justice, albeit paramount, far from assured, especially going by the sound old yardstick that justice delayed is justice denied.

Addressing state ombudsmen a few weeks ago, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee pointedly remarked : "The inability of our judicial system to deliver speedy justice has itself become the source of much injustice. It has also eroded the credibility of our judiciary in the eyes of the public.

Even lawyers opposing the CPC changes almost exactly a year ago took their battle to the streets rather than take their chances by challenging the amendments before the court.

India’s main operative laws are more than a hundred years old. The Indian Penal Code, the basic law for trial of cases of crime, was passed in 1860. The Indian Evidence Act, the basis of all procedures of giving evidence in courts, was passed in 1874. The civil procedures code was introduced in 1908. Amendments have mostly been marginal.

If some of the changes now contemplated in the CPC go through:

— in addition to courts’ process servers, plaintiffs will be given a copy of summons to be transmitted to defendants through court-approved private courier agencies, registered post, speed post, fax or e-mail.

— Where a court sees scope of settlement, it would be empowered to refer the case for arbitration, mediation, conciliation, judicial settlement or Lok Adalat. If such reference fails to arrive at a settlement, the case would be immediately referred back and proceedings launched in court within a stipulated period.

— Defendants would have to submit a written statement within 30 days of service of summons, extendible by the court up to ninety days for reasons to be recorded in writing.

— Judges would be empowered to set limits on oral arguments which sometimes drag beyond reasonable proportion.

— Commissioners drawn from an approved panel will record evidence such as cross examination and re-examination to lighten courts’ burden.

— Every plaint would have to be accompanied by a duplicate so that the copy can be served without delay on the other party.

— Judgement would have to be pronounced at once upon conclusion of the hearing, but where not practicable, the endeavour should be to pronounce it within thirty days. Only in "exceptional and extraordinary" circumstances, "the court shall fix a day for the pronouncement of judgement which shall not ordinarily be beyond sixty days from the date on which the case was heard."

— There shall be no second appeal in money suits for under Rs 25,000. (UNI)