Special court cannot function with staff hired on ad hoc basis: HC

04/01/2020, SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT,BENGALURU

The High Court of Karnataka on Friday observed that the special court for land-grabbing cases cannot, prima facie, function effectively and smoothly when some staff are appointed on ad hoc basis from amongst retired government employees and some are working on outsource basis.

The court also found that the State government had not found time to frame rules for appointing staff for the special court as per Section 12 and 18 of the Karnataka Land Grabbing Prohibition Act, 2011, which came into force with effect from October 9, 2014, and even after the special court was constituted in August 2015.

A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice Hemanth Chandangoudar made the observations while hearing a PIL petition filed by M.N. Venugopal and others in 2018.

The petitioners questioned the legality of appointing 18 retired government servants for the special court contrary to the government’s 2016 circular prohibiting appointment of retired government officers to various vacant posts on ad-hoc or contract basis. The petitioners also pointed out that 19 of the staff members were working on outsource basis.

As the government counsel said that rules had not been framed for laying down the method of recruitment of staff for the special court, the Bench said that due to failure of the State government to do so, prima facie there was no effective implementation of the Act while pointing out that the purpose of enacting the law itself was gets defeated when it was not implemented substantially.

The court adjourned hearing till January 24, while directing the government to spell out the outer-time limit within which rules should be framed.

President accepts Allahabad University V-C’s resignation

Rattan Lal Hangloo faced allegations of misconduct

04/01/2020, PRESS TRUST OF INDIA,NEW DELHI

President Ram Nath Kovind accepted the resignation of Allahabad University Vice-Chancellor Rattan Lal Hangloo and ordered an enquiry into allegations of financial, academic and administrative irregularities against him, said officials of Ministry of Human Resource Development on Friday.

Mr. Hangloo had resigned on Wednesday.

“The President has directed to conduct an enquiry into the allegations of financial, academic and administrative irregularities, including the recommendations contained in the interim report of the National Commission for Women regarding alleged misconduct against Mr. Hangloo,” an HRD Ministry official said.

Mr. Hangloo has been under the scanner since 2016 for alleged financial and academic irregularities. He was also summoned by the National Commission for Women last week over allegations of improper handling of sexual harassment complaints and lack of grievance redress mechanism for women students.

“I resigned because baseless enquiries were initiated against me. On several occasions it was proved that there was no substance in the complaints,” Mr. Hangloo said in a statement.

He had earlier served as Vice-Chancellor of Kalyani University in West Bengal.

However, Mr. Hangloo quit the post following a series of spats with the State government and university employees.

Passport office asks police to check if ‘Nepali-looking’ sisters are Indians

Santosh, Heena have been issued passports ‘provisionally’

04/01/2020, PRESS TRUST OF INDIA,CHANDIGARH

The Regional Passport Office here on Friday said it has asked the Ambala police to check if the two sisters from Haryana, who were allegedly denied passports for their “Nepalese appearance”, are Indian citizens.

Santosh and Heena have been issued passports “provisionally” on the request of the Ambala Deputy Commissioner, Chandigarh Regional Passport Officer Sibash Kabiraj said.

The sisters, who had applied for passports, were allegedly refused the same and it was written on their documents that “applicant seems to be Nepali”.

‘Standard comment’

However, Mr. Kabiraj, an IPS officer, clarified that the passports were not denied to them, but were kept on hold, and said officers have been asked to write “Citizenship Questionable” as a standard comment on official documents rather than about the “appearance” of an applicant .

The sisters’ citizenship is still “questionable”, he said, adding, “we have ordered an inquiry to the Ambala SSP (to find out) whether these girls are Indian citizens or not”.

Don’t punish a child for marrying a female adult: SC

‘Child Marriage Act is meant for punishing male adult’

04/01/2020, LEGAL CORRESPONDENT,NEW DELHI

The anti-child marriage law does not intend to punish a male aged between 18 and 21 years for marrying a “female adult,” the Supreme Court held in a recent judgment.

A Bench led by Justice Mohan M. Shantanagoudar was interpreting Section 9 of the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006, which says: “whoever, being a male adult above 18 years of age, contracts a child marriage shall be punishable with rigorous imprisonment which may extend to two years or with fine which may extend to one lakh rupees or with both.”

The court said neither does the provision punish a child for marrying a woman nor a woman for marrying a male child. Its sole objective is to punish a man for marrying a minor girl.

The case at hand concerned a boy who married a 21-year-old woman when he was 17 years old. The Punjab and Haryana High Court had set aside its own order providing protection to the couple, and initiated prosecution against the boy for contracting a child marriage. The Supreme Court set aside the HC order, saying the law was not to punish a child for contracting a child marriage.

3 yrs in jail if state govts’ staff decline Census work
Refusing NPR Duty To Invite Up To ₹1K Fine

Bharti.Jain@timesgroup.com

New Delhi:05.01.2020

State government and local bodies’ staff tasked with aiding the Census Commissioner and Registrar General of Citizen Registration, in conduct of Census and NPR exercise respectively are bound by the Census of India Act and Citizenship Rules to serve accordingly, government sources said on Friday.

An officer underlined that it is mandatory for government staff drafted under the Census of India Act and Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and Issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003, which provides for preparation of a National Population Register (NPR), to carry out their assigned duties of collecting the database for census and NPR exercises. This is applicable both to enumerators tasked with houselisting phase, who will simultaneously capture NPR data, as well as census officers.

As per Census of India rules, the state governments and UT administrations, for carrying out census within their jurisdiction, must appoint officers that include principal census officer (district magistrates/collectors), district and sub-district census officer, charge officer, supervisor and enumerator.

Section 11of theCensusof India Act lays down penalties — imprisonment up to three years and/or fine — for government or any other staff declining to aid in conduct of census. Similarly any refusal to perform NPR duty may invite up to Rs 1,000 fine under Rule 17 of Citizenship Rules, 2003. The errant staff may also face disciplinary action, said an officer.

Given that NPR is to be carried out alongside houselisting phase of Census 2021 from April to September this year, the teachers and other staff drafted as enumerators have to make themselves available for collecting data for both the exercises. This will be the case in West Bengal as well, even though the state administration claims to have put the NPR process there on hold.

Section 4(2) of the Census of India Act, 1948 states that “the state government may appoint persons as census officers to take, aid in, or supervise the taking of the census within any specified local area and such persons, when so appointed, shall be bound to serve accordingly”.

Prez accepts UP univ VC’s resignation; HRD sets up panel for probe
TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi:05.01.2020

President Ram Nath Kovind accepted the resignation of Allahabad University vice chancellor Rattan Lal Hangloo on Friday, even as he ordered an inquiry into allegations of financial, academic and administrative irregularities against him.

Following the order, ministry of human resource development set up a threemember committee under the chairmanship of UGC chairman D P Singh to probe the allegations. The other members include Prakash Mani Tripathi, VC, Indira Gandhi National Tribal University, Amarkantak and Rama Shankar Dubey, VC, Gujarat Central University.

Hangloo submitted his resignation on December 31, 2019 after he was summoned by the National Commission for Women (NCW) over alleged misconduct. Earlier, the commission’s chief Rekha Sharma said NCW will continue with its inquiry into the matter.

In his order for the probe, the President directed inclusion of the recommendations contained in the interim report of the NCW which point at serious irregularities in the university including inappropriate handling of complaints of sexual harassment against Hangloo.

Hangloo was under the scanner since 2016 over alleged irregularities. He was also summoned by the NCW last week over allegations of improper handling of sexual harassment complaints and lack of grievance redressal mechanism for female students.

“I resigned because baseless enquiries were initiated against me. On several occasions it was proved that there was no substance in the complaints. I resigned because I was totally fed up,” Hangloo had said in the statement announcing his resignation. He was appointed as VC in 2015. He had earlier served as VC of the Kalyani University in West Bengal.

Earlier, Sharma told TOI that the commission received a complaint against the VC and decided to conduct an inquiry since the allegations being levelled were grave.

PhD students to mandatorily learn about research and publication ethics

TNN | Dec 30, 2019, 04.04 PM IST

 

UGC has made a two-credit course compulsory at the PhD level looking at the increasing cases of plagiarism and publication misconducts

With an increase in researches, maintaining quality remains a concern for Indian universities. To introduce students to the basics of research, the University Grants Commission (UGC) has approved a two-credit course on research ethics and publication misconducts.

All the PhD students will have to mandatorily pursue the 30-hour course from the academic session 2020-21. The course is divided into six units focussing on the basics of philosophy of science and ethics, research integrity, publication ethics and hands-on sessions to identify research misconducts and predatory publications.

"In the last 15 years, the number of cases related to unethical practices such as plagiarism, pay and publish have increased. The course follows the management principle known as Corrective and Prevention Actions (CAPA), which will help students identify and stay away from the predatory publishers and dubious journals," says Bhushan Patwardhan, vice chairman, UGC.

Earlier in 2009, the UGC had mandated a 12 credit course on research methodology with a few chapters on research ethics. But, the two-credit course is a more focussed approach to make students aware about the research ethics and the consequences of meddling with the rules, says Raja Shekhar Bellamkonda, director, Internal Quality Assurance Cell (IQAC), University of Hyderabad.

Students pursuing MPhil study about the research methodology as part of the coursework but those who pursue PhD after masters do not get similar exposure. "It will be a bridge for the students who are directly opting for research after pursuing postgraduate courses. Students will also get to learn about the tools to check plagiarism and importance of citations, which will pave the path for authentic research," he adds.