REGION DIGEST

9.9.19

Cancer survivor poisons kids to death, ends life

A 27-year-old woman with cancer poisoned her two children, aged 2 and 4, to death before committing suicide in a village near Mayiladuthurai town in Nagapattinam district. The incident came to light on Monday after relatives broke open the house and found the bodies of the woman and her two children. Police said Nilofer Parveen had been dejected since her cancer diagnosis. Her husband is working in Dubai. She might have decided to end their lives fearing there would be none to look after her children, police said.

Jipmer issues notice to student over fake nativity certificate: 

Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (Jipmer) in Puducherry has issued showcause notices to a student and her father questioning them why her admission cannot be cancelled for furnishing a fake certificate. The action by the institute came after the revenue department found that K Krithika, daughter of K Kumar, had obtained a Puducherry nativity certificate by furnishing false information. The department has initiated proceedings to cancel the certificate issued to her.

Lankan who reached TN illegally arrested: 

The Qbranch police from Ramanathapuram district arrested a Sri Lankan national who arrived on an illegal ferry at Arichalmunai near Dhanushkodi on Monday for questioning. He was identified as M Arunraj, 24, from Chettikulam in Vavuniya in the Island nation. Arunraj reached Arichalmunai on a fiber boat with the help of agents. Local fishermen who spotted Arunraj moving around suspiciously alerted Q-branch police.

Man attacked with log by son dies: 

A week after he was attacked by his son, a 65-yearold resident of Saravanampatti, Coimbatore, passed away at the Coimbatore Medical College and Hospital (CMCH) on Monday. Police said Krishnan’s son K Kumaravel, 31, had attacked him with a wooden log after he refused to give him money to buy liquor on September 3. Krishnan suffered severe head injuries and was in CMCH’s intensive care unit,” a police officer said. Police arrested Kumaravel and remanded in judicial custody.

‘Fishermen on capsized boat could have been saved’: 

If the fishermen from Rameswaram had carried along basic communication sets when they went to Cuddalore to purchase the new boat that capsized on September 3, many of the ten could have been saved, says the Indian Coast Guard. Four fishermen had died as the boat capsized on returning to Rameswaram in Palk Bay. On receipt of information about the capsize, Indian Coast Guard had immediately initiated search and rescue operation. Six survivors were rescued after 32 hours of extensive sea-air coordinated search while four bodies were recovered. Had they carried communication equipment with them, all of them could have been saved, the ICG said.

Compulsory retirement of accused MKU prof stayed

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Madurai:9.9.2019

The Madras high court has granted interim stay on the compulsory retirement order issued to a professor of Madurai Kamaraj University after hewas accusedof sexualharassment by a research scholar.

K Karnamaharajan, professor and head of Centre for Film and Electronic Media Studies at MKU, said a girl joined the department for full-time research programme under his supervision. On November 2, 2018, he found out that she had signed the attendance register on anterior days for the forthcoming days as post-datedwithoutcoming tothe centre. When hesought an explanation, she filed a sexual harassment complaint against him on December 6, 2018, he said.

He said the members of internal complaints committee (ICC), which inquired the complaint, are heading their respective departments, which is against the rules. The registrar had issued a compulsory retirement withimmediateeffecton August 22, after whichthe petitioner movedthecourt. When thecasewas heardon Monday,justiceVMVelumani granted the interim stay.

AU student throws acid on former girlfriend

9.9.2019

A 19-year-old woman sustained injuries to the eyes and tongue when her ex-boyfriend threw acid on her in Cuddalore on Monday. Police said S Suchithra and Muthamizhan, 23, both from Nagappattinam, had known each other for the past few years. They joined a course in Annamalai University a few years ago.

Recently, the woman began avoiding Muthamizhan and turned down his pleas for reconciliation. On Monday, he tried to convince her but was snubbed. Irked, he followed Suchithra when she was going to her hostel, carrying a bottle containing acid used to clean toilets. When she avoided him, he threw acid on her. As Suchithra screamed for help, passersby and other students came to her rescue. They caught and assaulted Muthamizhan.

Suchithra and Muthamizhan were admitted to Rajah Muthiah Medical College and Hospital in Chidambaram. Annamalai Nagar police registered a case and are investigating. TNN

Madras HC: Minority institutions can directly recruit non-teaching staff
TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:9.9.2019

The Madras high court on Monday made it clear that minority educational institutions need not follow general procedures like obtaining prior approval of the college committee or advertising notification for recruitment of non-teaching staff as they can directly fill the posts.

Justice V Parthiban passed the order while allowing the plea moved by Coimbatore-based Nirmala College for Women challenging the order of the joint director of collegiate education, Coimbatore region, on August 20, 2018, rejecting approval for appointment of seven non-teaching staff. “As far as the minority institutions are concerned, the college committee is not required to be constituted under Section 11 of the Minority Institutions Act unlike nonminority institutions. In the absence of such regulation, this court is unable to countenance the action of the authorities in refusing to approve appointments of the seven staff in the petitioner institution,” the court said.

The refusal to grant approval cannot stand the test of judicial scrutiny and the same is liable to be interfered with. The insistence on requirement of advertisement for appointment of non-teaching staff in the minority institution is without the authority of law, the judge said.

The petitioner institution comes under the protective cover, being a minority institution, under Article 30 of the Constitution, such protective cover cannot be sought to be uncovered by the insistence on a statutory requirement, which first of all cannot be made applicable for the nonteaching staff and secondly such requirement cannot be enforced in the teeth of the Constitutional protection guaranteed to the minority institutions, the court asserted.

HC junks probe plea into missing Malaysian aircraft
TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:9.9.19

The Madras high court on Monday dismissed a PIL seeking to conduct a ‘scientific investigation’ to trace Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 that disappeared on March 8, 2014 while flying from Kuala Lumpur International Airport to Beijing Capital International Airport.

The Boeing 777-200ER aircraft had 227 passengers and 12 crew members onboard. Communication between the air traffic control and the aircraft was lost around 38 minutes after takeoff when the flight was over the South China Sea.

Four years later in May 2018, the search for the missing flight was called off by the Malaysian authorities.

While so, claiming that he witnessed a plane crashing into the sea while he was visiting St Antony’s churn in Trivandrum on March 8, 2014, the petitioner Biju Kumar has approached the court seeking direction to the authorities to order carry out a scientific investigation to trace the aircraft.

When the plea came up for hearing, a division bench of Justices M Sathyanarayanan and N Seshasayee wondered how the petitioner could move this high court when the incident happened in the territory within the jurisdiction of the Kerala high court.

To this, the petitioner submitted that since the Malaysian consulate is only in Chennai he had approached the Madras high court.

Refusing to accept his contentions, the bench dismissed the plea. Though the bench warned of imposing cost on the petitioner for wasting judicial time, the court refrained from doing so.

Claiming that he saw a plane crashing into the sea while he was in Trivandrum on March 8, 2014, the petitioner approached the court seeking a scientific investigation to trace the aircraft

High court passes interim stay on TRB examination results

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:9.9.19

The Madras high court on Monday passed an interim stay against the Teachers Recruitment Board (TRB) from declaring the results of the examinations held for the posts of computer instructors (Grade-I) 2019.

Justice M Dandapani passed the order on a petition by D Dhayana and five others challenging the exams conducted on June 23 and 27. According to the petitioners, a notification was issued to conduct an online computer based examination consisting of a single paper of three hours duration with 150 questions. Each question carried one mark.

The petitioners further submitted that they understood that the examination would be conducted in Tamil as the vacancies also included those from Tamil medium schools. But to their “shock and surprise, the exams were conducted only in English”.

Claiming that they believed that the exams would also be conducted in Tamil as the notification did not specifically mention that it would be conducted only in English, the petitioners submitted that they believed there was reservation for students studying in Tamil medium. The petitioners further alleged that the TRB authorities informed them that the exam would be conducted only in English just a week before the scheduled dates.

“Being students from the Tamil medium, we are entitled to write the exams in Tamil and denying such opportunity to us would amount to discrimination,” they said in the petition. The petitioners have appealed that the court call for the records of the notification and declare it as “null and void”.

Justice M Dandapani passed the order on a petition challenging the exams conducted only in English on June 23 and 27

MTC buses will no longer use Porur flyover

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:9.9.19

Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) buses plying through Guindy and Tambaram via Porur will no longer use the flyover at Porur. Instead, they will travel on the service roads along the flyover.

The move comes days after AAP-SVS transport union complained about MTC losing out on passengers to share autorickshaws along the stretch. On an average, MTC buses make more than 500 trips along the stretch. Buses of all categories on routes 54 (Poonamallee to Madras High Court), 597 (T Nagar to Tiruvallur) and 154 (Sunguvarchatram to T Nagar) use the flyover.

Hundreds of passengers, waiting at the bus stop under the bridge, were left in the lurch because of this. They had to walk 200-300 metres on either side of the traffic signal to board an MTC bus. Share autorickshaws were making the most of it. MTC did a study and found that more than 300 share autorickshaws transported passengers to and from the bus stop everyday. Realising the potential, ordinary buses were told to use the service road. As patronage increased, all types of buses have been asked skip the flyover.

MTC drivers, however, aren’t happy with the move as they have to move along narrow service lanes instead of taking the bridge which would cut travel time and fuel cost.

The move comes days after AAP-SVS transport union complained about MTC losing out on passengers to share autorickshaws along the stretch