Pairokar

What should have been done long back is being done now by the Supreme Court of India. Anyway, it is better late than never. Filibustering by the lawyers at the time of the arguments, mostly in high profile and media’s attention-catching cases has become almost a norm. I have been watching many top-notch lawyers arguing their cases for days together, sometimes making the judges sleepy and drowsy. Some of the advocates start reading page after page from books and the decided judgments to buttress their points. Judges also give them the indulgence to hear for hours. They make millions for the presentation of their cases even if it is witless and without any sparks. Many centuries ago, Shakespeare had said ‘Brevity is the soul of wit’ but in our courts, that is hardly followed either by advocates or by the judges. The judgments are padded by hundreds of pages to make them unnecessarily bulky. However, a ray of hope was seen yesterday when the Supreme Court directed the lawyers to adopt th...

  It is really painful to see the monumental ignorance of some journalists, who have been orchestrating that the IT raids on the offices and residences of the owners of DB Corps are attacks on the ‘freedom of speech and expression’. It is an open secret that most of the big media houses in India are corrupt to the core and they are the past masters of exploitation of their employees. There is hardly any exception; be it the BennetColeman and Company, HT Media Ltd., Indian Express Newspapers Group, the Hindu, Eenadu, Anand Bazar Patrika, Dainik Jagran, Amar Ujala, Dainik Bhaskar, Deccan Chronicle, Matribhumi, Deccan Herald, Rajasthan Patrika or any other group. Albeit two medium newspapers; The Tribune of Chandigarh and The Assam Tribune of Guwahati can certainly be considered to be exceptions. Dainik Bhaskar is one of the worst exploiters and it has ruined the lives of hundreds of employees, most of them happen to be journalists. I do not say on the basis of any hearsay but on pers...

My good friend Asok Pande, a practising Advocate, mainly at the High Court of Lucknow, has raised a very pertinent point in a PIL before the High Court that the dress code of judges and advocates as prescribed by the Bar Council should be scrapped as it is totally unsuitable to the clime and culture of India. The High Court has issued notice to the BCI after getting prima facie convinced with the petitioner. As a matter of fact, an Advocate actually appears like a buffoon, and a madari after wearing a black coat, a gown and a band (which the petitioner says symbolises a Christian preacher). No Advocate, a Judge or even the Bar council office-bearer would be able to give any justification or convincing reply to this highly irksome and irritating dress code. The Advocate Act was enacted in 1961 and the Bar Council of India (Bharat) also came into existence along with it, but the latter derives its strength from the former. The Advocates Act removed many anomalies and brought about ...

                                                                          Parmanand Pandey Cases of religious conversions have increased across the country. Until a few years ago ‘conversion’ was thought to be switching over of the religious beliefs mostly of Hindus to Christianity. It was a common scene in Uttar Pradesh that any Christian missionaries would come to the remote villages and open a school in the name of any ‘Father’ or ‘Saint’. They start imparting education to children and glorify Christianity in the classrooms. Not much attention is paid to the boys and girls belonging to upper castes because it is difficult to convert them, but they focus on the children belonging to scheduled castes and tribes. Many of them get attracted to the inducements of these ‘Christian Fathers’ and embrace C...