Pairokar

There are three inanimate and most revered ingredients of Hinduism and they are the Gai (Cow), the Ganga, and Gayatri. The importance of all three has been described in the Hindu scriptures. While the Gai and Ganga are worshipped in the mundane form and Gayatri mantra serves as the means of spiritual exaltation. Hinduism is a pantheistic religion but these three are kept at the highest pedestal. Two advocates: K.M. Shukla and the Senior S. Balakrishnan, who mainly practice in the Supreme Court, have jointly written a remarkable book titled ‘Cow a Celestial Being’, which takes one’s a breath away by their knowledge and research soaked with sincerity and devotion. In their well-informed book, the writers have championed the cause of ban on the cow slaughter in the most spirited manner. They demonstrated with their sound logic that the Cow is not an animal but it is a ‘being’, which has virtually been brought on the surface of the earth from heaven to bestow worldly as well as a divin

By Parmanand Pandey Sri Lanka is an island which is surrounded by the Arabian Sea in the west, Way of Bengal in the east, the Indian Ocean in the south and the Palk Strait in the north was once the part of the Indian subcontinent. It is separated by a narrow and a very shallow sea of just 37 km in length at the narrowest point of India’s Dhanushkoti in Tamilnadu and Mannar district of Northern Province of Sri Lanka. It is so shallow that only boats, not ships, can be operated through this strait. It is said that two engineers- Nal and Neel- of Lord Rama’s army had built a bridge to cross over to Sri Lanka. That is why it is called Ram Setu. It is really strange that instead of calling it Ram Setu strait, it is known as the Palk Strait after the name of Robert Palk, who was the governor of Tamilnadu sometimes in the 18 th  century. Northern and Eastern part of Sri Lanka consists mostly of Tamilians, who outnumber Sinhalese but in Central, Southern and Western parts of Sri Lank

The new book of Fali S. Nariman ‘God Save the Hon’ble Supreme Court’, is full of lively anecdotes and tit-bits that make it a good reading but those who expect to get any philosophy, jurisprudence and guidance ‘what ought to be in the field of law’ would be highly disappointed. F.S. Nariman has seven decades of standing in the legal profession and for more than five decades he has been practising only in the Supreme Court. He has been on the zenith of the profession for many decades and is held in high esteem by the bench and bar alike. Whatever he says inside or even outside the court is heard with rapt attention. The title of the book suggests that he is not satisfied with the goings-on in the Supreme Court and therefore he prays to save the Hon’ble Supreme Court but one fails to understand why a person of Nariman’s stature has not taken any firm stand or cudgels to remove Augean stable, which has set in the Court of late? The first chapter deals with mainly the internal rivalry,

Freedom of speech and expression is a sacrosanct fundamental right of every India, and it cannot be compromised under any circumstances. It can, however, be restricted only in the cases as enumerated in the Constitution of India. This has again been reaffirmed by the recent Supreme Court judgement in ‘ Yashwant Sinha and others vs Central Bureau of Investigation ’, wherein all three judges have said in unison that the ‘freedom of the press has always been a cherished right in all democratic countries’. Here it is necessary to know the backdrop of the case. When the Rafale case was decided by the Supreme Court in December last year saying that no irregularities have been committed by the government in finalising the deal of the combat aircraft, which is so necessary for the defence of India. Most of the opposition parties were crying foul over the judgement by saying that the judgement of the Supreme Court has been procured by concealing many vital facts from it. Thereafter a news

 The horrific terrorist attacks in many Hotels and Churches of the small but beautiful island country of Sri Lanka have left almost every Indian dazed and shell-shocked. Our country has seen innumerable serial blasts in temples, educational institutions, bazars and other public places. Not long ago, every Indian used to avoid going even to Railway, Bus stations or other crowded places, unless it was very necessary, for fear of bomb blasts. Thanks to the present Central Government of Modi that terrorists have largely been cornered. One can find the watchful eyes of the security forces that deter the terrorists from hitting their targets. The public has now become more awakened, the use of modern technology like CCTV cameras has also helped in tackling terrorism. But as they say, no amount of security, howsoever and vigilant and strict, can prevent the determined terrorist attacks. And that is what has exactly happened in Sri Lanka, where one terrorist in a hotel was found to be a suic

The pension of the private sector employees will shoot up under the Employees’ Pension Scheme (EPS), thanks to a Supreme Court ruling which has dismissed a Special Leave Petition filed by Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) against the judgement of the Kerala High Court. The High Court had asked the retirement fund body to give pension to all retiring employees on the basis of their full salary, rather than capping the figure on which contribution is calculated at a maximum of Rs 15,000 per month. All employees in the organised sector currently contribute 12% of their salary (basic salary dearness allowance) to the EPF. The employer makes a matching contribution, of which 8.33% goes to the EPS.       Back in March 1996, the EPS Act was amended to allow members to raise the EPS contribution to 8.33% of their full salary (basic + DA) provided the employee and employer had no objection, thereby doing away with the cap on salary. This raised the pension amount exponentially. But

The amount of work that Narendra Modi has done in the last five years is mind-boggling and unimaginable for any government to do in country and population of this size. It will take years for the researchers to properly comprehend and evaluate it. Almost every household in the country has now got toilet facilities, which was unthinkable only a few years back. When he declared from the ramparts of Lal Quila that every house will soon have 'izzatghar', he was being pooh-poohed by the prophets of doom, but they all proved wrong. Go to any village in the country, there is hardly any family, which does not have a pucca house with modern facilities of kitchen, electricity and toilet. Every house has LPG and the subsidy goes directly to the consumer, which was earlier gobbled up and pocketed by the agents, middlemen/women and brokers. There is one briefless Advocate, who sits in the Supreme Court, who during his service, was caught by the CBI red-handed taking bribes, although

Who listens to Lachhaman Singh?        I read a heart-rending story of a father of martyred Jawan of Indian Army, in the ‘Indian People’s Congress’ being edited and managed by the Supreme Court Advocate Shreepal Singh and written by Wing Comdr Venky Aiyer. He says that I informed Lachhaman Singh Rathore “Deeply regret to inform that your son Flying Officer Vikram Singh lost his life in a flying accident early this morning. Death was instantaneous.”       He was brought by a helicopter and we all received the frail old man of nearly 80 years. He was in immaculate Dhoti. We helped him alight and then he asked me after getting down from the helicopter, “are you Venky?”  I said yes sir, The distraught father took me to some paces away and told me that 'you have lost your friend but I have lost my son, you tell me what do I have to do? My only desire is to meet his friends and spend the whole night in the room where he was sleeping and the next morning I will go to my place'

Those who have been advocating that ‘capital punishment’ should be completely taken off the statute must be disappointed by the judgement of the Supreme Court in ‘Khushwinder Singh vs. State of Punjab’ case. The Court reiterated that the death sentence will continue to remain valid in the ‘rarest of rare’ cases.   In the previous piece of the Judicial Panorama, it was discussed how the six innocent persons, who were waiting to be hanged were acquitted because they were falsely implicated by the Police. In this case, the court has said that anything less than the death sentence will be an injustice. The case of the prosecution is that one Jasmeen Kaur who was married to Rupinder Singh in the year 2005. They had two children from their marriage. However, the atmosphere in the family of Jasmeen’s in-laws was not good. So, she started living along with her husband and children at her natal place. Her brother was a drunkard. Jasmeen was approached by Manjit Kaur, wife of the