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Showing posts from February, 2023

Names of Places are not changed by PILs but by Governments

  By Parmanand Pandey  Supreme Court of India may be final in certain respects, but it is definitely not infallible. It has dismissed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL), which prayed for the constitution of a Renaming Commission for suggesting the change of names of those cities and places which were named after invaders by trampling upon their historical, cultural and religious identities so as to restore their old glory. How it will create a schism among different communities,  as the Supreme Court has said while dismissing the PILs, is difficult to understand. There is hardly any bigotry in changing the names. How can we shut our eyes from the fact that the country and its people had been pillaged and mauled by the invaders? There is no doubt that history cannot be eroded or wiped out but we can certainly remove those wrongs of the past, which continue to scrape the wounds and rub salts on them. Names of countries, cities and roads have been changed all over the world. Not far away

India Needs to be Protected from Snakes in the Ganga

By Parmanand Pandey ‘Snakes in the Ganga- breaking India 2.0’ by Rajeev Malhotra and Vijaya Viswanathan is a highly revealing and eye-opening book. It is a mine of information and it exposes the forces with convincing evidence that have been active in dismantling India, its traditions and cultures etc. These forces are active inside as well as outside India but the main role is played by some of the western universities. The book is a tome of nearly 800 pages containing some 22 chapters but the subject matter and the style is very engrossing. The book explains with copious evidence how these forces have been working to brainwash, manipulate and evangelise the rural poor with the end goal of destroying the civilisation fabric of India. It is very shocking that the premier educational centre of the world, Harvard University is playing the lead role in building a troubling alliance between a few leading Black Americans and ambitious young Dalits encouraging them to map India’s caste syste

Advocates should not be Apologetic About Virtual Court Hearings

   Virtual hearings in the courts are no less than a boon for the advocates and litigants and the need is to make them more user-friendly and flawless. But as they say, old habits die hard, and therefore some of the advocates still find it difficult to adopt them. It is very strange that some of the advocates become apologetic while appearing before the courts. They apologise to courts for not having appeared physically-this attitude of theirs is hard to explain. This speaks of their unscientific temper and anti-technology bent of mind at a time when Artificial Intelligence (AI) is going to make big headway in court functioning. Later or sooner, AI is bound to play a very important role in judicial work throughout the world. It will revolutionise the system as it will go a long way in eliminating the banes of corruption and delay in the judiciary.   As a matter of fact, the concept of virtual courts is aimed at considerably reducing the presence of litigants and lawyers in the cour

Opponents of Gowri’s Elevation Forgot Justices VR Krishna Ayer, K S Hegde and Baharul Islam

The Supreme Court has done a great service to the country by dismissing the petition filed by some advocates with vested interests against the elevation of Advocate LC Victoria Gowri (now)the judge of the Madras High Court. They have been so overactive to stop her swearing-in that they first mentioned the case on Monday morning but when it was to be listed on Friday, they became jittery and again mentioned on Tuesday morning to stop her swearing, which was slated at 10.35 am on the same day. As is normally seen that in such matters a group rather than a gang of lawyers, journalist and so-called intellectuals take up the cudgel to ensure that a plan that goes against their interests are frustrated. The lawyers of the Madras High Court who filed their petition in the Supreme Court against LC Victoria Gowri and those who were ready to lap it up have actually shown disrespect to the decision of the Supreme Court collegium, utter disregard to the constitution, which provides for the li

Same-sex Marriages and Their Acceptability in Society

    My Odia Advocate friend Shri Purshottam Misra has requested the Supreme Court Collegium to recommend the name of a gay advocate Saurabh Kripal for the appointment as the judge in the SC itself instead of recommending his (for want of any better pronoun I have to use) name for the appointment as the judge of the Delhi High Court. This will send a strong message across the world that Indian Supreme Court is a great respecter of human beings irrespective of their sexual orientations. It must be mentioned here that Saurabh is a self-proclaimed same-sex married person to a Swiss gay, where same-sex marriages are valid. The aims of marriage in our culture are Dharma (Duty), Santanotpatti (Procreation), and Rati (Pleasure). All are intertwined, but in same-sex marriages, only the pleasure is the summum bonum. Among the Hindus, marriage is regarded as a socio-cultural duty. Marriage is solemnised not so much for sex or progeny as for obtaining a partner for the fulfilment of