Temple board joins govt, backs entry of women to Sabarimala

SC Reserves Order On Plea Seeking Review

AmitAnand.Choudhary@timesgroup.com

New Delhi:07.02.2019

The Travancore Devasom Board (TDB), which manages Sabarimala temple, sprung a surprise by changing its stand and supporting entry of women in the “mensurating age” before the Supreme Court, which on Wednesday reserved orders on pleas seeking review of its ruling in favour of unrestricted entry of women.

The Kerala government said social harmony had been disturbed but this could not be a ground to allow an unconstitutional practice. Parties seeking a review argued the court should not intervene in a specific religious practice and that public opinion in the state had opposed the order on a significant scale.

The TDB told the court that it accepted the verdict that paved the way for all women to enter the temple.

In three and half hours of proceedings before a constitution bench of Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi, Justice A M Khanwilkar, Justice R F Nariman, Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justice Indu Malhotra, senior lawyers presented arguments in support and against 56 review petitions. The Devasom Board’s U-turn immediately held attention as it told the court that it would accept the verdict by which the gender barrier at Sabarimala temple was dismantled.

‘Lord Ayyappa, as a perpetual bachelor, has legal rights that must be respected’

Those opposing unrestricted entry of women have argued that the practice is specific to the Sabarimala shrine and enjoys the sanction of tradition while it does not apply to the deity’s other shrines. They said Lord Ayyappa, as a “perpetual bachelor”, has legal rights that must be respected in the case of Sabarimala.

The Board had led from the front when the apex court examined the constitutional validity of the practice by which women in the age group 10-50 years were barred. It had then submitted this is an essential part religious belief and justified ban on entry for female devotees of menstruating age to maintain purity of temple.

When senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, appearing for the Board, told the bench that the SC verdict was to ensure equal entitlement to men and women, it took everyone by surprise and Justice Indu Malhotra asked whether the Board has changed its stand. Dwivedi replied in affirmative and said the Board had already filed an application in this regard.

Opposing the review plea, Dwivedi said it was time for inclusion and women could not be denied rights to worship and society has to evolve to ensure they are treated equally as men in all walks of life including at religious places. He said that the people opposing the SC verdict should accept the judgment gracefully and allow entry of all women inside the temple.

Pressing for re-examination of the apex court’s September, 2018 verdict, senior advocates K Parasaran, V Giri, A M Singhvi and Shekhar Naphade said the court should have refrained from examining validity of a practice based on religious faith and belief. They said the entry of women in the age group of 10-50 was prohibited due to nature of deity and it was an internal matter of a community.

Naphade said it was not the jurisdiction of a court to decide what essential part of a religion is and it has to be decided by the community. Referring to protests in Kerala leading to law and order problem, he told the bench that social peace and harmony was disturbed in the aftermath of SC verdict. “The community has not accepted the verdict. Can court force its view on them? It is beyond the jurisdiction of the court,” he said.

Appearing for the state, senior advocate Jaideep Gupta said no case is made out for court to review its verdict. He admitted social harmony got disturbed but said it cannot be a ground to allow an unconstitutional practice of keeping women away.

For full report, www.toi.in

Meerut doctor is first in US to do robot-assisted lung reduction op

Ishita.Bhatia@timesgroup.com

Meerut:07.02.2019

A surgeon born and brought up in Meerut has achieved the feat of becoming the first in the US to perform a robot-assisted lung surgical procedure. Dr Ankit Bharat, 39, surgical director of the lung transplant programme at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, had successfully performed a robot-assisted lung volume reduction surgery in December 2018. The procedure removed diseased tissue within the lungs for the treatment of severe emphysema, which involves damage to the air sacs in the lungs due to which the body does not get the oxygen it needs.

Bharat studied till Class X in St Mary’s Academy here and completed his Class XII from Delhi Public School, RK Puram. He then studied medicine from Christian Medical College, Vellore, and went for further studies to the US in 2003. He completed his residency in general surgery and fellowship in thoracic surgery from Washington University. He has been working in the US ever since he completed his education.

The robotic procedure allows the surgeon to precisely remove the diseased portions of the lungs, which may reduce pain and scarring, lower the risk of infection and shorten recovery time compared to traditional robotic lung volume reduction surgery.

For full report, www.toi.in

PAN, Aadhaar linking mandatory for I-T returns: SC

New Delhi:07.02.2019

Putting to rest all doubt, the Supreme Court has said that linking PAN with Aadhaar is mandatory for filing of income tax returns.

A bench comprising Justices A K Sikri and S Abdul Nazeer said the top court has decided the matter and upheld Section 139AA of the Income Tax Act. The court’s order came on an appeal filed by the Centre against a Delhi high court ruling allowing Shreya Sen and Jayshree Satpute to file income tax returns for assessment year 2018-19 (financial year 2017-18), without linking their Aadhaar and PAN. There were some other individuals too who had been given relief last year.

“The aforesaid order was passed by the high court having regard to the fact that the matter was pending consideration in this court. Thereafter, this court has decided the matter and upheld the vires of section 139AA of the Income Tax Act. In view thereof, linkage of PAN with Aadhaar is mandatory,” the bench said. Sen and Satpute had filed their returns following the court order and the assessment has also been completed. The SC made it clear that for the current assessment year, returns have to be filed after linking PAN and the unique ID.

The order flows from the September 26 verdict, which declared Aadhaar legally valid and allowed its use getting subsidies as well as linking of PAN. While several taxpayers wanted to opt out of Aadhaar and did not want to link their PAN, the government has maintained that it is critical to ensure that individuals don’t evade taxes by holding multiple PANs. A majority of the PANs have already been linked to Aadhaar, government sources said. TNN

Video piracy: HC denies bail to five accused

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:07.02.2019

Asserting that video piracy is affecting the film industry globally and is spreading like a wildfire hitting collection of new movies, the Madras high court has refused to grant anticipatory bail to five accused, including two theatre owners, who allegedly pirated Tamil movie 'Raja Ranguski'.

"When a film is released, the first two weeks are crucial period for collection. If the movie's pirated video is uploaded on internet, immediately the box office collection would be spoiled and no one will visit theatres to watch the film," Justice G K Ilanthirayan said.

The issue pertains to a complaint filed by producer of the film M K S Vasanth on September 21, 2018 alleging that P Subramanian and S Geetha owners of Kavithalaya theatre in Karur in collusion with S Baskar, V Sivaraman, M Maheswaran illegally videographed the entire movie which was released in the theatre and uploaded it online through piracy websites including 'Tamilrockers'.

Based in the complaint, the intellectual property enforcement cell of Tamil Nadu police registered an FIR against the five for offences under sections 379, 380, 406, and 409 of IPC read with sections 63, 63B and 65 of the Copyright Act, and section 66B of the Information Technology Act.

Apprehending arrest in connection with the case the accused had approached the high court seeking to enlarge them in the event of arrest.

HC allows ICICI to recover ₹4k cr from Subhiksha

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:07.02.2019

The Madras high court has upheld the order of the Debts Recovery Appellate Tribunal (DRAT) permitting ICICI Bank Limited to recover defaulted loan dues of ₹4,066.93 crore from the nowdefunct retail chain — Subhiksha Trading Services Limited.

The first bench of Chief Justice V K Tahilramani and Justice M Duraiswamy passed the order while dismissing an appeal moved by Subhiksha managing director R Subramanian.

Subramanian argued the case as party-in-person after getting special permission from the court as he is currently lodged in Puzhal Central Prison in connection with a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. During every hearing, Subramanian was produced by the prison authorities before the court enabling him to argue the case.

The issue pertains to an application moved by ICICI to recover defaulted loan dues from Subhiksha before the debts recovery tribunal (DRT). As the bank failed to produce certificate along with the computer generated bank statement, the DRT dismissed its plea.

ICICI moved the DRAT challenging the dismissal. On February 19, 2018 the appellate tribunal passed an order setting aside the dismissal and allowed the bank to proceed with recovering the dues.

Aggrieved, Subramanian moved the present appeal before the high court. He contended that the statement of accounts, produced by the bank without the certificate could not be taken on record as valid evidence. Therefore, the DRAT should not have interfered with the order. He further submitted that in the absence of the statement of accounts, the claim made by the bank is liable to be rejected.

Rejecting the arguments, the bench said: “In the case on hand, the petitioner has not raised any objection at the time of marking the document. Even, the entries made in the statement of accounts were also not disputed by the petitioner in any manner whatsoever.... Therefore, the petitioner cannot raise objections with regard to marking of the document at a later stage.”

It is needless to say that the bank is dealing with the public money and such a huge amount cannot be allowed to go unrecovered from the defaulting borrowers, the court added and dismissed the plea.

‘PUBLIC MONEY CAN’T GO UNRECOVERED’

Retaining faculty’s docus: Court stays Anna Univ circular

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:07.02.2019

An Anna University letter, asking colleges to return certificates to faculty members after verification, has been stayed by the Madras high court.

The university sent a letter on December 4, 2018, advising colleges not to retain testimonials of faculty members, but return them immediately after verification. The advisory was issued after a lecturer of a self financing engineering college killed himself saying his certificates were not returned by the management, thwarting him from taking up regular vacancy in a government college.

Assailing the circular, All India Private Educational Institutions Association moved the court saying retaining certificates was necessary as there have been instances of staff leaving the institutions without prior notice, that too in the middle of academic session.

Such sudden departures would cause serious hardship not only to the management but also students, the association said. Under the circumstances, it became necessary for management of educational institutions to retain the original academic certificates of their teaching and non-teaching staff during their tenure at the institution.

Justice Pushpa Sathyanarayana, before whom the petition filed by association came up for hearing, granted interim stay on Wednesday and directed the registrar of Anna University to file a counter-affidavit by February 20.

The petitioner-association submitted that they held nothing personal against their faculty or other staff, adding that all educational institutions affiliated to the university were duty-bound to maintain the teaching staff declared by them to the university.

Migration of faculty members to institutions outside the university, or the state, made things difficult for the institutions, as they would be beyond the control of both the university and the management of colleges, the association said.

The university sent a letter on December 4, 2018, advising colleges not to retain testimonials of faculty members, but return them immediately after verification

2nd chance to regularize unapproved plots in state

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:07.02.2019

Owners of unapproved plots, who have not registered under the amnesty scheme for regularization, now have a fresh opportunity.

The government has said unapproved plots which are part of the approved layout framework could be regularized even if owners have not applied for the scheme. The move follows datat showing only five lakh of the 22 lakh unapproved plots across the state have been regularized, after the amnesty scheme ended on November 3, 2018.

“This opportunity is only available for individual owners, whose plots or survey number are part of the unapproved layout framework that was approved by the planning authorities through the (regularization) scheme,” an official said.

Regularization charges for municipal corporations with regard to applications filed between November 4, 2018 and May 3, 2019 would be ₹110 per sqm, which is ₹66 for municipal areas and ₹33 in town panchayats and village panchayats.