Pairokar

  For the last nearly a fortnight, the Central Government’s new Prevention of Cruelty to the Animals Rules have led to heated debates and agitations in many states particularly by those, who wish to fish in the troubled waters as they have their own axes to grind. Rules do not say anything about beef eating or not eating but effectively prohibit the sales of cows and buffaloes for slaughter at animal markets. While the Kerala High Court out-rightly dismissed the Petition filed against the implementation of Rules, the Madras High Court has given four weeks’ time to the Central government to clarify the doubts raised by the Petitioners. Thus, apart from political turmoil, legal and constitutional fault lines have also been opened.          Cow slaughter has always been an emotive issue. The matter was discussed and debated at great length in the Constituent Assembly. Many freedom fighters had promised that the first goal of the Swadeshi gove...

                                                       It is estimated that in India more than seventy thousand young women die every year undergoing an unsafe abortion. It is mainly because they cannot avail the facilities of the legal termination of their pregnancy for various reasons. It must be fresh in the memory of the most of the people of India that way back in 2012, a young 31-year-old Indian Dentist Savita Halappnawar died at the Galway Hospital in Ireland due to the complication of a septic miscarriage as she was denied an abortion. The untimely death of the young woman because of the insane and mindless laws of the Ireland, guided by the Catholic belief, led to worldwide agitation. Savita was seventeen weeks pregnant. Despite knowing the fact that she was carrying a ‘still’ child in her womb, the Hospital did not allow the abortion. ...

EQUAL PAY FOR EQUAL WORK IS TO APPLY FOR ALL EMPLOYEES By: Parmanand Pandey   ‘Equal pay for equal work’ is the underlying principle of the constitution of India as enshrined in Articles 14 and 39(d). Although our constitution came into force some 66 years ago yet the equality is elusive and the discrimination continues in many fields. In certain areas women are still paid less than their male counterparts. The example of temporary employees is even more glaring because they are paid less than regular employees even in the government sectors, not to say of the private sectors. This inequality is continuing despite catena of decisions of the Supreme Court that there can be no discrimination between two sets similarly placed employees and doing same work regardless of being temporary or permanent.  Recent judgment of the Supreme Court in  ‘State of Punjab vs Jagjit Singh’  has further reinforced this principle of ‘equal pay for equal work’.  The benc...

  Adultery law treats women as chattel and lowers their dignity     Parmanand Pandey                   Section 497 of the IPC deals with adultery and it is considered to be a cruelty by the husband on the wife but not the vice versa. Thus, it is not based on gender equality. However, Supreme Court and other High Courts are now crystallising the adultery cases by pronouncing that to have the extra marital cannot termed to cruelty. Let us first see what section 497 says,  "Whoever has sexual intercourse with a person who is and whom he knows or has reason to believe to be the wife of another man, without the consent or connivance of that man, such sexual intercourse not amounting to the offence of rape, is guilty of the offence of adultery, and shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to five years or with fine or with both. In such case the wife shall not be punish...

EQUAL PAY FOR EQUAL WORK IS TO APPLY FOR ALL EMPLOYEES By: Parmanand Pandey   ‘Equal pay for equal work’ is the underlying principle of the constitution of India as enshrined in Articles 14 and 39(d). Although our constitution came into force some 66 years ago yet the equality is elusive and the discrimination continues in many fields. In certain areas women are still paid less than their male counterparts. The example of temporary employees is even more glaring because they are paid less than regular employees even in the government sectors, not to say of the private sectors. This inequality is continuing despite catena of decisions of the Supreme Court that there can be no discrimination between two sets similarly placed employees and doing same work regardless of being temporary or permanent. Recent judgment of the Supreme Court in  ‘State of Punjab vs Jagjit Singh’  has further reinforced this principle of ‘equal pay for equal work’.  The bench of J...

Anybody, who has seen Justice Katju on the Supreme Court bench and has been following his writings in newspapers and blogs after his retirement would hardly have any doubt that he often goes berserk, unreasonable and facetious. The recent example is his offer to Pakistan of giving Kashmir along with Bihar. Very recently he made the most scandalous statement about the IQ and scholarship of all Supreme Court Judges except the two. Therefore, the contempt notice issued against him is well deserved and Justice Gogoi needs to be complemented for this bold decision. It is true that one can severely criticise the judgments and there will be no contempt of the court but once motives are attributed to the judges, it becomes the contempt of the court. And who should know better than Justice Katju? But regrettably, more often than not, he ends up criticising the judges rather than their judgements. I was also present in the Courtroom no.6 yesterday from 2 P.M to 4.15 P.M till the Court rose a...

Azamgarh is the Lok Sabha constituency of the Samajwadi Supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav. His son Akhilesh Yadav is the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. There are many ministers in the cabinet of Shri Akhilesh Yadav who hail from the district. However, if you go to Azamgarh, you will not find anything that gives you the feel of any VIP constituency. Go to the District Hospital and witness the horrible condition of the patients. There are many class-1 dispensaries in the district with reasonably good buildings sans doctors and other medical equipment. Private doctors are literally rolling in money. People are being fleeced by the private doctors and the owners of the shanty Hospitals day in and day out because there is no choice left for them. The government finds itself thoroughly incapable of having any control over its own hospitals. I was in Azamgarh last week for three days and had to go to the many offices for a small personal work. In normal course, I should not have been ha...