2 Ayurveda doctors held for causing death by negligence

They tried to treat malaria with allopathic medicines in 2013

02/08/2019, RAINA ASSAINAR,NAVI MUMBAI

Two Ayurveda doctors, who practise in Panvel taluka, were arrested on Wednesday for causing the death of a 23-year-old girl by negligence, six years ago. Ashish Bhagat (38) and Vijay Bhagat (55) were produced before court on Thursday, and released on bail.

Madhukar Bhalerao, a retired assistant commissioner of the State’s sales tax department, had approached the Panvel City police 2014, with a complaint against the doctors alleging negligence, which led to the death of his daughter Geetanjali on September 8, 2013.

Report confirms it

Assistant police inspector Rahul Sonawane, Panvel City police station, said after the complaint was received, the relevant documents, health reports, and medical treatment history to the Raigad civil surgeon. “We received the civil surgeon’s report last month, which confirmed negligence on the part of the doctors. The report said the victim had died of malaria and the doctors, who had completed Bachelor of Ayurvedic Medicine and Surgery, attempted to treat the victim with allopathic medicines.”

Specialist doctor

He also said the doctors, after learning about her illness, should have immediately referred to a specialist doctor instead of treating themselves. The police registered a case on July 28. As per the complaint, Mr. Bhalerao’s wife had taken their daughter to Dr. Ashish in New Panvel on August 26, 2013, as she was suffering from fever.

Dr. Ashish told her that the girl had symptoms of malaria and prescribed her medicines, and also asked to get her blood tested.

“Even after two days, there was no improvement in her condition and hence Mr. Bhalerao met Dr. Vijay in Panvel with the blood reports. He changed the medicines and told him that there was nothing to worry. After a few days, her health deteriorated, and he visited Dr. Vijay again on August 3, 2013, who told him to admit the girl at Patel Hospital in Panvel,” Mr. Sonawane said.

Doctors at Patel Hospital said the girl needed to be admitted to ICU. Since the hospital did not have the facility, they asked the father to go either to MGM Hospital at Kalamboli or Paramount Hospital at Panvel. At MGM, there was no vacant bed at ICU and hence the complainant took his daughter to Paramount Hospital where she was admitted to ICU, and during the course of treatment, she died on September 8, 2013.

“The negligence in treatment happened between August 26 and September 3, 2013, when the victim was under the treatment of both BAMS graduates,” Mr. Sonawane said.

HC allows bike-sharing app Rapido to continue operations in State

Judges also stayed operation of cyber crime police’s letter to Google, Apple

02/08/2019, LEGAL CORRESPONDENT,CHENNAI

Rapido submitted that all necessary safety measures were being followed by the firm.

A Division Bench of the Madras High Court on Thursday stayed the operation of an order passed by a single judge of the court on July 18 restraining Hyderabad-based Roppen Transportation Services from operating their mobile app Rapido, which facilitates sharing of pillion seats in motorcycles, in Tamil Nadu until the State government frames regulations for services such as car pooling, bike taxi and call taxi.

Justices Vineet Kothari and C.V. Karthikeyan also stayed the operation of a letter written by an Assistant Commissioner of Police, Cyber Crime Cell, Central Crime Branch here to Google LLC and Apple India Private Limited on July 6 requesting them to remove Rapido from their app stores. The letter had led to Apple removing the app from its platform and making it impossible for Rapido to operate in other States too.

The interim orders were passed after Rapido explained to the judges the procedure of booking bikes through the app and submitted that all safety measures such as insistence on the riders wearing helmets and possessing valid insurance were being followed by the appellant firm.

Since Advocate General Vijay Narayan could not appear, the procedures were explained in the presence of Special Government Pleader A.N. Thambidurai.

Two weeks’ time

Pointing out that the government had not filed any counter affidavit either before the single judge or before them, the Division Bench granted two weeks’ time for filing the counter affidavit.

“Respondent State may also disclose in its counter affidavit as to when it is likely to frame specific regulations for bike sharing app operators as has been done by other States such as Telangana, Rajasthan and Chandigarh,” the judges ordered.

The interim stay by the Bench would now allow Rapido and similar bike sharing applications to operate in the State until further orders to be passed by the court.

Sexual harassment: HC strikes down ‘inadequate punishment’

Court sends back case for re-fixing quantum of punishment for policeman

02/08/2019, STAFF REPORTER ,MADURAI

Expressing shock over how a police constable was simply given a punishment of postponement of his increment for three years on a charge of sexual harassment of a girl, the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Wednesday remitted the case back to disciplinary inquiry, to re-fix the quantum of punishment.

A Division Bench of Justices K. Ravichandrabaabu and Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy observed that the punishment imposed on the constable was totally inadequate and disproportionate to the grave misconduct committed by him. The matter should be considered afresh for determining the quantum of punishment.

The court said that under Rule 6 of the Tamil Nadu Police Subordinate Service (Disciplinary and Appeal) Rules, 1955, the appellate authority is empowered to confirm, enhance, reduce or set aside the penalty.

Even though the constable had agreed with the findings of the inquiry officer, a minor punishment was imposed on him, the court observed.

The court was hearing an appeal preferred by the State against the order of a single bench that had set aside the punishment.

It was said that the constable, P. Karuppusamy, had abducted a girl and abused her in 2012. Following the incident, a criminal case was registered against him in Theni district. The single bench had taken into account the reliance of the inquiry officer on preliminary inquiry statements alone and disposed of the case at the admission stage itself.

The HC Bench observed that the single bench had erred on this account, set aside the order and allowed the appeal preferred by the State.

High Court allows life convict to remain in Madurai prison

02/08/2019, B. TILAK CHANDAR,MADURAI

Bringing relief to a life convict, an author of a book of poems, with proven good conduct, the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Thursday directed the Additional Director General of Police/Inspector General of Prisonto issue proceedings permitting his retention in Madurai Central Prison so that his 92-year-old mother could visit him as often as possible.

Justice G. R. Swaminathan passed the direction after hearing the plea of V. Radhakrishnan from Madurai, the life convict.

Following the acceptance of his clemency petition, his death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment with a condition to remain in prison for the rest of his life.

He was originally placed at Tiruchi Central Prison. After his mother filed a plea before the HC, he was transferred to the Madurai prison.

However, the prison authorities filed an appeal, which was allowed by a Division Bench on the grounds that there was no provision under the prison rules to consider a relative’s request for prisoner’s transfer.

He was allowed to prefer a fresh application seeking transfer. He filed a fresh application to the prison authorities.

With no response, he filed the petition seeking a direction to retain him at the Madurai prison.

It was submitted that only the IG of Prisons could take a final decision in this regard. The court observed that a bare reading of the provisions of the Tamil Nadu Prison Rules gave an impression that the prison authority could decide where the prisoner would reside. But, then, no textual reading could remain constant. The jurisprudential ground beneath had shifted, the court said.

“Incarceration or conviction does not reduce a prisoner into a non-person. While there may be a sharp and drastic shrinkage of fundamental rights, there is still some residue left. It is the obligation of the prison authorities to protect the human rights of prisoners,” the court said.

The HC Bench took cognisance of the Model Prison Manual prepared by the Ministry of Home Affairs, which says prisoners may be transferred from one prison to another so that they can be nearer to their home district.

Therefore, subject to considerations of security, prison discipline and public interest, the competent authority is obliged to respect the choice of the convict prisoner.

If circumstances warranted, the authorities were always at liberty to pass appropriate orders transferring the petitioner to some other prison, the court said.

02/08/2019

 EXCHANGE RATES

Indicative direct rates in rupees a unit except yen at 4 p.m. on August 01 CURRENCY

TT BUY

TT SELL

US Dollar.

.68.86

.69.18

Euro.

.76.01

.76.36

British Pound.

.83.42

.83.82

Japanese Yen (100).

.63.22

.63.52

Chinese Yuan.

.9.98

.10.02

Swiss Franc.

.69.20

.69.53

Singapore Dollar.

.50.07

.50.31

Canadian Dollar.

.52.08

.52.32

Malaysian Ringitt.

.16.61

.16.70

Source:Indian Bank

SC transfers Unnao cases to Delhi court
02/08/2019

Sunday’s ‘accident’ killed two of her aunts accompanying her in the car and left her and her lawyer critically injured. The victim is on ventilator support at King George’s Medical College and Hospital in Lucknow. The CBI is investigating suspicions of foul play.

The court ordered the CBI to complete its probe into the ‘accident’ case in the next seven days. As an exception, it said, the CBI could take another week. But under no circumstance should the probe extend beyond a fortnight.

The agency, represented by Solicitor-General Tushar Mehta, initially sought a month’s time to complete the probe. “A month? You have seven days… you do what you have to do within that time,” CJI Gogoi said.

The court also ordered protection for the girl and her family by personnel from the Central Reserve Police Force at the urging of its amicus curiae V. Giri.

Mr. Giri said the girl was in the hospital with just her mother to attend to her. The family was not financially well off. The State should pay her an “exemplary” compensation, he said.

But the Uttar Pradesh government protested that it would pay a compensation only “as per statute”.

“What is happening in this country? You want the Supreme Court to follow statutes to order compensation?” the CJI said.

The court finally fixed ₹25 lakh as the interim compensation and ordered the U.P. government to pay the amount on August 2.

The court insisted on getting a complete low-down on the Unnao cases and the status of the CBI probe.

Further, the court directed Mr. Mehta to have a team of doctors check the medical condition of the victim and her lawyer to see if they could be airlifted to Delhi for advanced treatment.

At 2 p.m., Mr. Mehta informed the court that both were medically fit to be shifted. The court said it would pass the necessary orders whenever their families gave their consent to shifting both to Delhi.

In a separate order, the CJI Bench directed Sanjeev Sudhakar Kalgaonkar, Secretary General of the court, to conduct an enquiry within seven days into whether any lapse or negligence on the part of Registry officials caused the Unnao victim’s letter to reach the CJI late.

Thursday’s first hearing began with the CJI asking Mr. Mehta to have a responsible officer of the CBI present in the court by noon with the entire case detail. The CJI was not swayed when Mr. Mehta asked the court to reschedule the case for Friday. “Tomorrow is another day, Mr. Solicitor. We want this to happen today,” he responded.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

02/08/2019

A wake-up call?

The death of billionaire entrepreneur and the founder of Café Coffee Day, V.G. Siddhartha, is extremely saddening. The market capitalisation of the company has taken a nosedive in the last few days, which would force the creditors to take a serious haircut. Had he been part of the U.S. system, there is a very high chance that he would have found a way to deal with the creditors and, most importantly, he would have been alive. His death just shows how nascent the corporate debt markets are in India, and how private equity firms operate in the country. Access to capital markets is key for entrepreneurship and for businesses to thrive and grow. Hence, this should be a wake-up call for the government to see that capital is made available to the firms with good growth prospects, if it is serious about making India’s GDP reach $5 trillion and beyond ( Front page, “Siddhartha cremated in family estate,” August 1).

Varad Seshadri,

Sunnyvale, California, U.S.

Criminalising talaq

Marriage is a civil contract and criminalising what is obviously a civil issue is a step in the wrong direction. The Centre’s logic that the Triple Talaq Bill will act as deterrent to the abhorrent practice of instant talaq is hard to digest. However, the fact that Muslims take recourse to this detested form of divorce, even after the 2017 Supreme Court verdict, is a worrying development and one cannot but share the government’s concerns over this. Religion should not be a factor when it comes to the irresponsible desertion of spouses and children. Herein lies the need for a common divorce law, which the Bill fails to address (Editorial, “Beyond talaq,” August 1).

Abdul Assis P.A.,

Thrissur, Kerala

Rather than addressing a social issue, the passage of the Triple Talaq Bill through both the Houses of Parliament gives rise to questions. The government’s reasoning that it was giving effect to the Supreme Court verdict declaring it unconstitutional is absurd, considering that the Bharatiya Janata Party was opposed to the same court’s verdict when it came to allowing entry to women in the Sabarimala shrine. The Centre’s claim that it is a step towards gender justice also sounds false. The Act may not be of much benefit as it expects the victim or someone from her family, in most cases women who come from the poorest sections of the society, to take up the issue against her husband with the concerned authority.

A.G. Rajmohan,

Anantapur

Unnao case

The Unnao case appears to be a tragedy from the medieval ages — a poor girl is raped by the local strongman, the state machinery doesn’t help and even the judiciary fails to protect her family. (Front page, “SC takes note of complaint by rape survivor’s family,” August 1). Instead, her alleged tormentors keep openly threatening her and get her family members and witnesses in the case eliminated. This is a fit occasion for the Supreme Court to step in. A thorough inquiry must be held under its aegis, all culprits arrested immediately and the trial conducted on a day-to-day basis. The victim and her family must be provided strong security. Let people like her tormentors know that rule of law does prevail. In this regard, the fact that the CBI has taken over investigation in the case surely comes as a welcome development.

Harjas Bains,

Bassi Pathana, Punjab